2021 College Football Thread

[Pariah]

Didn't he also say, "We can't win at home, and we can't win on the road. As a coach, I can't figure out where else to play."?

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Almost. He said, “We can’t win at home and we can’t win on the road. What we need is a neutral site.”

 

Pat Williams said, "We can't win at home and we can't win on the road. My problem as general manager is I can't think of another place to play."

 

 

[Cancer]

McKay deserved everything that happened to him, especially his great legendary status of being head coach of the Ofers.  As in Oh-fer-everything.

 

Sorry, I feel about McKay the same way Iuz feels about Texas.  That's when I'm feeling charitable.

[Pariah]

Okay, how's this for a realignment?

 

Regionalization concept that would realign teams in AAC, Conference USA, Sun Belt to be presented Monday

 

To be clear: The American isn't interested. Their Commissioner still harbors P6 aspirations (or delusions). The Sun Belt isn't interested at present either. C-USA seems to be driving this bus.

 

So probably this will go nowhere. But what if it did?

 

I looked at all of the members of the AAC that aren't going to the Big XII (8), members of C-USA (14), and members of the Sun Belt (10); I also looked at all the FBS Independents not named Notre Dame or BYU (5). That's a total of 37 teams, to be divided into two regional conferences of 12 members each and one of 13. Here's how I sketched it out:

 

Southwest:

Louisiana-Lafayette

Louisiana-Monroe

Louisiana Tech

New Mexico State

North Texas

Rice

Southern Methodist

Texas-El Paso

Texas-San Antonio

Texas State

Tulane

Tulsa

 

Gulf Coast:

Alabama-Birmingham

Arkansas State

Coastal Carolina

Florida Atlantic

Florida International

Georgia Southern

Georgia State

Memphis

South Alabama

South Florida

Southern Miss

Troy

 

Mid-Atlantic:

Appalachian State

Army

Charlotte

Connecticut

East Carolina

Liberty

Marshall

Massachusetts

Middle Tennessee

Navy

Old Dominion

Temple

Western Kentucky

 

(The Mountain West and Mid-American Conferences were not included in this analysis because 1) They are not part of the proposal and 2) They are already pretty effectively regionalized.) 

 

Under this arrangement, the longest distance between conference schools is from New Mexico State to Tulane and from Arkansas State to Florida International, each about 1130 miles. From Middle Tennessee to UMass is just under 1050 miles. From  In the present configurations, there are distances of 2000 miles in C-USA (UTEP to Old Dominion), 1500 miles in The American (SMU to Temple), and 1300 miles (Texas State to Coastal Carolina). The schools are also clumped more closely together under the new proposal, so there will be many fewer long trips. This should help with travel expenses.

 

But, as previously stated, this is strictly an academic exercise. I do not for the briefest fraction of a second expect that this (or anything like this) will ever actually happen.

[Cancer]

3 minutes ago, Pariah said:

But, as previously stated, this is strictly an academic exercise.

 

It is not an academic exercise.  It is about football, which has utterly no intersection with academics.  I think "masturbatory" is a more appropriate adjective than "academic" in your sentence.

[Grailknight]

We have slain the evil empire. Gig Em, Aggies!

[unclevlad]

My.

My.

My.

 

Could it be?

 

Could Alabama NOT be the playoffs???

 

Unfortunately, everyone else in the SEC West has a conference loss already, and A&M has 2.  So Alabama's still in the driver's seat for the SEC championship game, and winning that would lock them in.  But now, LOSING it...they're now a 2-loss team.  That said, this could be the year where a 2-loss team makes it.  

 

And I suspect Ed Orgeron's days are sharply numbered now.  Lose to Kentucky???  In football?  Well, OK, they're a shock this year...they're 6-0.  But they're perpetual cellar-dwellers.  And LSU's now 3-3 and 1-2 in conference, with their next 4 games being Florida (#20 at the start of the week, and won), Ole Miss (#17 and won), Alabama, and Arkansas (#13...lost to Ole Miss, they'll not slip that much probably).  So this season is just about to go into free-fall.  I'll predict a) they lose at least 3 of those, and b) Orgeron doesn't last the season.

 

Had my hopes for more amusements, but Michigan and ND escaped the upset.  Bummer.

[Starlord]

YES!  This can only help Cincinnati.

 

 

 

 

 

 

...and Ohio State

[Starlord]

IMO currently 4 playoff teams are:

 

1. Georgia

2. Iowa

3. Cincinnati

4. Oklahoma

[unclevlad]

1 hour ago, Starlord said:

IMO currently 4 playoff teams are:

 

1. Georgia

2. Iowa

3. Cincinnati

4. Oklahoma

 

Georgia and Iowa can't be argued.  Everyone else can.  Cincy's got the one good win but the rest of em?  Oklahoma is undefeated but also unimpressive.  OSU might be coming together;  Michigan is making noise.  Alabama is still Alabama, altho this doesn't look like a typical Tide.  And if Iowa's 2, then Penn State can't be out of the picture either.

 

So...probably reasonable for now but there's still a LONG way to go.

[unclevlad]

The SEC is continuing to show total chaos.  Auburn beats Arkansas in Fayetteville;  LSU takes down Florida, keeping the heat off Orgeron for a week.

 

Definitely a Year of the Upset.  And right now, Purdue's up 10, late 3rd, on Iowa...but just fumbled at the Iowa 1, so we'll see if that sparks a comeback.  EDIT:  doesn't look like it.  24-7 Purdue, and they just stopped Iowa on 4th and 1 at the Purdue 11.  11 minutes left but Iowa's offense has been stagnant.

[Pariah]

BYU got a taste of what Big XII football is going to look like today, losing to Baylor in Waco. Baylor probably replaces BYU and next week's top 25.

 

BYU gets the Cougars in red next week, playing Washington State in Pullman. BYU should be favored in that game; Wazoo has lost to both Utah State and Utah, and BYU has beaten both of those teams. But you never know.

[unclevlad]

Tweet of the year in sports, from Purdue:

 

We just beat the #2 out of Iowa.

[Iuz the Evil]

Oh my. Oklahoma found a quarterback.

 

This could be interesting, he’s still very young. Going to make mental mistakes. But they look a lot better with Williams. 
 

TCU have a decent defense. 3 starters out in the OU secondary, so lack of depth there was not good. Made their QB kind of all conference against the second team defense, and injuries are part of the game. No bueno.

 

 Still I’m pretty happy with the outcome. 7-0 lounge is pretty nice. Been a minute since I visited.

[unclevlad]

C'mon, Iuz, we know you moved your reliquary in there...

 

Especially since Sporting News' projected rankings....Georgia, Oklahoma, Cincinnati, Bama, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, Iowa.  Iowa gets dinged, I think, because their overall strength of schedule is pretty poor.

 

Mildly surprising that Ed Orgeron announced he was stepping down at the end of the season...after beating Florida.  Not his departure...but that a)  it happened after a win, and b)  that he's being left as a lame duck for the rest of the season.  I'd have expected an outright termination.  Then again, contract language might come into play.  LSU can start the coaching search now;  the assistants can start brushing up resumes.  

[Iuz the Evil]

Lane Kiffen is an absolutely terrible human being… but he is so entertaining!!

 

 

That was honestly a total boss move. The visor toss at the end was icing on the cake (edit: the catch is at 0:17 and is beautiful)

 

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32419481/behind-scenes-lane-kiffin-wild-return-tennessee

 

Lots of taking the high road all around in that game. Hahahahaha! 
 

Edit: wow, that was an expensive tantrum! https://www.secsports.com/article/32424523/tennessee-penalized-football-game-interruption
 

$250k fine, threaten to revoke alcohol sales if identified steps aren’t executed on.

 

“It just means… more” 🤣

[Pariah]

Washington State fires football coach Nick Rolovich, 4 assistants for refusing state-mandated COVID-19 vaccine

[Cancer]

As a resident of Washington, and former faculty of Washington State U ... all I can say is that it must come as a shock that a f'ball coaching staff actually was held to rules from their employer.   Don't let the door hit your butt on your way out.

 

So y'all can move about ten miles east and you'll be in Idaho, where they've been sacrificing infants episodically for a long time because it's popular for idiots there not to have their newborns get the DPT vaccination.  Don't come back.

[Pariah]

The next domino is poised to fall:

 

Sources: The AAC is close to massive 6-school expansion to reshape conference

 

tl;dr version: Conference USA stands to lose six of its fourteen schools to The American: Florida Atlantic, Charlotte, North Texas, UT-San Antonio, Rice and University of Alabama Birmingham.

 

Assuming this actually happens, this puts AAC schools in the Miami, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston, and Birmingham metro areas. It also effectively prevents the Mountain West from expanding into Texas, should they have been considering doing so. 

 

Does this make up for losing Cincinnati, Houston, and Central Florida? No, not really. Does it make them the strongest G5 conference? Maybe, though the MWC still has Boise State, San Diego State, and Air Force. 

 

This would leave Conference USA with eight schools: Florida International, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Middle Tennessee State, Old Dominion, Southern Mississippi, UT-El Paso, and Western Kentucky. Not exactly household names or major media markets. 

 

Does C-USA now raid the Sun Belt? Do they reach out to Liberty, or UConn, or UMass, or Army, or maybe New Mexico State, who are all currently Independents? Or do they stand pat with the eight teams they've got? (This seems unlikely to me.)

 

Stay tuned.

[unclevlad]

12 hours ago, Cancer said:

As a resident of Washington, and former faculty of Washington State U ... all I can say is that it must come as a shock that a f'ball coaching staff actually was held to rules from their employer.   Don't let the door hit your butt on your way out.

 

So y'all can move about ten miles east and you'll be in Idaho, where they've been sacrificing infants episodically for a long time because it's popular for idiots there not to have their newborns get the DPT vaccination.  Don't come back.

 

If I have to sacrifice a season, it's worth it, because not firing him would be all kinds of wrong.  The mandate itself would be called into question.

 

It's also easier to do it because this is a firing for cause...which means the rest of the contract is voided.  Even if the coach had guaranteed money or a buyout, *POOF*.

 

On the conference merry-go-round...I think one conference is likely to simply collapse and leave some schools scrambling.  Might not be C-USA...some of those are decent programs, altho I agree not big names.  But one (or more) conferences is getting gutted, with little hope of being truly significant.  There's only so many good football programs out there.

[Cancer]

Me, I'll just wave my "Abolish Division I Athletics" banner more and get denounced as an obviously diseased baby-murdering reptile-molesting communist.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

I never used the word 'communist.'

[Cancer]

I include it, because I remember when a U of Texas fan described Barry Switzer as a communist back in the late 1970s (while he was at Oklahoma, before he was with the Cowboys).

[Pariah]

Communism is just a red herring.

 

And as far as DI athletics goes ... I'm okay with it, as long as we're willing to call it what it is: a de facto minor league for the NFL, NBA, and WNBA. With recent NIL rules/legislation, the laughable illusion of the amateur student-athlete is rapidly diminishing. It would be nice if the colleges actually required them to go to meaningful classes, though (looking at you, North Carolina). 

[Iuz the Evil]

NIL is going to be a thing, but it’s still a learning curve for sponsors. You think that car dealership wants their vehicles back from Spencer Rattler? 
 

Does he have to give them to Caleb Williams now? I know Caleb likes mustard on his (insert local brand of hotdog)… that was the first commercial I  heard about from the new QB.

 

 It’s a very weird time.