College Football 2022

[unclevlad]

It might seem early to start this thread, but national signing day is looming, actually.

 

Plus, there was this.  Jim Harbaugh is getting flown to Minnesota to interview with the Vikes.

On national signing day.

 

Uh.  Huh.  

Instead of being, hopefully, a day to sign a bumper crop of new sacrificial lambs because you just won your conference and made the CFP...your coach is bailing.  How does that look to a kid?

 

Now of course, it's Harebrain.  He might just say he didn't think of the optics...and I'd believe him, most likely, since it wouldn't be the first time by ANY means.

[unclevlad]

So....Grambling hired Art Briles to be OC last week.

 

I'd half forgotten this...but...he was fired from Baylor.  Why?  How about that a lawsuit filed alleges over 50 rapes happened by 30 football players over a 4 year period under Briles.  And that the staff actively ignored some complaints.

 

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/33369874/the-real-facts-grambling-state-indefensible-art-briles-hire

 

"Indefensible" seems mild.

 

Yeah, well, he resigned today.  I'm questioning whether the AD and/or head coach need to follow suit.  

[Michael Hopcroft]

To think this is the school of Eddie Robinson.

[Pariah]

I'm with you, Michael. Grambling State has always had a noteworthy reputation in college football. That reputation is now stained, and it's going to take a lot of years for that stain to get scrubbed off.

 

As for the coaching question, maybe he was hoping that by staying out of the spotlight for a couple years he'd get a chance to rebuild his reputation. Clearly he didn't wait long enough. Try again in a decade or two, Briles.

[Pariah]

The disintegration of Conference USA is proceeding ahead of schedule, with Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Mississippi moving to the Sun Belt at the end of the current academic year.

 

Conference USA allows three schools to leave after this spring season

 

Terms of the agreement weren't disclosed, but I imagine there was a hefty exit fee involved. 

 

This gives the Sun Belt 14 teams for the 2022 season, including James Madison, who just made the jump from FCS.

[Iuz the Evil]

 

Here we go. Can’t wait.

[archer]

4 hours ago, Pariah said:

The disintegration of Conference USA is proceeding ahead of schedule, with Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Mississippi moving to the Sun Belt at the end of the current academic year.

 

Conference USA allows three schools to leave after this spring season

 

Terms of the agreement weren't disclosed, but I imagine there was a hefty exit fee involved. 

 

This gives the Sun Belt 14 teams for the 2022 season, including James Madison, who just made the jump from FCS.

 

If all the teams but one leave Conference USA, doesn't that one team automatically win the conference?

 

Asking for a school which prefers to remain anonymous at this point in time....

[unclevlad]

4 hours ago, archer said:

 

If all the teams but one leave Conference USA, doesn't that one team automatically win the conference?

 

Asking for a school which prefers to remain anonymous at this point in time....

 

Yes, but they'd still need to win half their games to be eligible to go to a bowl.  I surmise this might be a problem....

[Grailknight]

Well I guess the 2022-23  season is going to be a testy one.

 

It started with this:

 

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/33942494/alabama-football-coach-nick-saban-says-texas-bought-every-player-questions-whether-current-nil-model-sustainable

 

But that escalated quickly:

 

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/33945548/texas-football-coach-jimbo-fisher-rips-alabama-coach-nick-saban-nil-accusations-some-people-think-god

 

As an Aggie living in my original home state of Alabama, I'd say things are about to get interesting.

 

Saban isn't wrong here but he's using deceptive language. TAMU did partner with a collective to facilitate NIL deals. Saban is just angry because Alabama state law prevented Alabama from doing the same for this year(The law was changed last month.). So Texas schools had a one year advantage over him, thus TAMU ended up #1 despite an 8- 4 record and Texas got to #5 with a losing 5-7 record. Next year will be a truer test of the system.

 

Note that Saban says that he has no problem with players making NIL money( Kinda hard to object when by your own admission your QB earned more than $1 million in NIL money last year.). He "objects" to money being offered before the players are on campus(But not actually performing, Bryce Young got that money by playing mop up time for Mac Jones, he had 22 career passes coming into this year.).

 

What Saban is more worried about is how rich these NIL deals could become. As currently structured, money for UIL cannot come from the school itself but must come from donations. Alabama got $1.96 billion last year, A&M however got 9x that at $18.0 billion. Texas at $42.1 Billion and Stanford at $37.8 billion lead the traditional football schools. If NIL donations remain proportional to general donations then Bama's days at the top are numbered. It's impossible to compete when there are more in just Houston Metro than the entire state of Alabama. And while they have seemingly no interest in football, the Ivy League schools could easily become basketball powers especially since it definitely a more profitable venture than football.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment

 

[Pariah]

High school team bringing QR codes to their jerseys

 

Each QR code leads to that player's recruiting information.

[Grailknight]

2 hours ago, Pariah said:

High school team bringing QR codes to their jerseys

 

Each QR code leads to that player's recruiting information.

 

NIL deals for high schoolers are a legal thing.  Not necessarily a good thing but legal.

[unclevlad]

There's no doubt in my mind that NIL is going to be exploited in ways that recruiting violations of old never dreamed of.  

 

The Saban-Fischer spat is just typical cat fighting.  Lots of hissing and posturing.  I think Saban may have a point, to a degree;  NIL was never intended to be institutionalized, and I agree that'll be a Very Bad Thing.  But the loophole's huge.  

 

NIL is going to be extremely disruptive in both football and basketball, there's no doubt in my mind about that.  But FBS has been the AAA level for the NFL for decades, and the players have been the only ones left out.  In basketball...not so much.  Simply because only 20-30 college players move into the NBA each year.  So...it's more like AA.  But anyone who believes these guys are anything but pros...at least at the higher levels/bigger schools...is dreaming.

 

I think college football in particular is going to be subject to a dramatic restructuring.

[unclevlad]

Dates for the New Years Six bowl games have been set.

 

Dec 31 (Sat):  Sugar Bowl (early start!), Fiesta and Peach Bowls that are semifinal games.  

 

Jan 2nd (Mon):  Tampa Bay Bowl and Cotton Bowl early, then Rose Bowl in the afternoon.  They have to get through them, cuz there's a MNF game that night....

 

The Tampa Bay Bowl used to be the Outback Bowl...but the sponsorship ended.  A couple years ahead of schedule, I might add, but it could easily have been a cost saving move.

 

Also note, no competition with the NFL, again.  Jan 1st is week 17.  

 

Championship game is Jan. 9th...a Monday night.  Probably playing on keeping the pattern going, as much as anything.  Week 18 is all on Sunday this year.  I *think* I saw this was getting changed next season.

[Pariah]

Outback Bowl was always a stupid name, I thought. Although not the dumbest that I've heard. Anybody else remember the infamous CarQuest Bowl?

 

Tampa Bay Bowl is accurate, but not interesting. How about something to take advantage of the setting? Like maybe the Privateer Bowl? They've got that big freakin' old pirate ship in one end zone.

[Cancer]

Me, I'm waiting for the Ty-D-Bol Bowl.

[Pariah]

That already exists ... or existed, anyway. Back in the days of the old Big 8, "The Ty-D Bowl" what the locals called the annual season-ending game between Colorado and Kansas State, the game that would almost always determine who finished dead last in the conference.

[unclevlad]

2 hours ago, Pariah said:

Outback Bowl was always a stupid name, I thought. Although not the dumbest that I've heard. Anybody else remember the infamous CarQuest Bowl?

 

Tampa Bay Bowl is accurate, but not interesting. How about something to take advantage of the setting? Like maybe the Privateer Bowl? They've got that big freakin' old pirate ship in one end zone.

 

The names are stupid, but they're the names of the corporate sponsor....who sinks hundreds of thousands to millions into the bowl, and another chunk to ESPN because they promise to buy extensive ads for the game.

 

So the Tampa Bay Bowl is a major revenue drop.  It won't stay that way, if it can possibly be helped.

 

Take a look at the sponsors of the other New Years Six.  Rose Bowl's presenting sponsor is Honda...it's been changing year to year.  Fiesta Bowl is PlayStation.  Peach is Chick-fil-A.  Sugar is Allstate.  Cotton is Goodyear.  Megacorps, one and all, and 2 of em (Chick-fil-A and Allstate) advertise *massively* throughout the season.  They're behind, I suspect, only Capital One and Dr. Pepper.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

This may be big news for others here. 

 

USC, UCLA in conversations to leave Pac-12 for Big Ten in 2024

[Pariah]

Wow, that's pretty remarkable. It would completely throw away any illusion of athletic conferences based on geography as if recent moves by the Big XII didn't already do that). The B1G would be a true coast to coast athletics conference. And although UCLA and USC don't really fit the geographic profile, they certainly fit the profile in terms of academics and historical success, especially in football and men's basketball.

 

The natural question that follows, then, is this: who does the PAC bring in to replace them? In terms of athletics, I think the obvious answers are San Diego State and Boise State. Might the PAC try to go for more? 14, or 16? If so, then what other teams from the Mountain West are going to get poached? (Although if we're going to throw a geography, the PAC could really try for pretty much anyone. The American has some nice programs these days.) 

 

Here we go again...

[unclevlad]

Yeah, just saw this too.  Ridiculous to obscene, IMO.  Insulting as heck.  USC and UCLA are largely suggesting the rest of the conference is minor league, is my read...regional, not national.  Not Our Kind Of Programs.

 

I'm also thinking that the Big 10 is looking at some teams leaving, perhaps.  Rutgers and Nebraska would be a guess, altho where Nebraska would go is up in the air.  Maybe Maryland instead?  None of those 3 have ever felt like good fits to me.

 

If they do go to 16, much of this will be to position themselves directly opposite the SEC as the real 'premier' conferences, and put as much pressure as possible on the Big XII and ACC, while sharply damaging the Pac by stripping teams from the biggest market.  This also may be the deathknell for the Pac 12 network, which, AFAIK, has never been handled well.

 

It's gonna be another summer of cannibalization, looks like.

 

It would be.....interesting...if USC or UCLA gets into the Rose Bowl...as the Big 10 rep...wonder how the crowd would react.  Granted, switching conferences isn't like changing cities, but they've been in the Pac for a LONG time, and that history is meaningful to many.

 

Huh.  Esoteric thought.  Once everything is in place, the SEC and Big 10 will have, I think, many/most of the classic football powers between them.  Wonder about collusion between them to break away, together, into a separate football division....

 

Comment from ESPN types...

 

Quote

What's next for the Pac-12?

Kyle Bonagura: The Pac-12 as a conference and the other member schools were completely caught off-guard by this move. It's going to take some time to have any real sense of what happens for the conference because schools such as Oregon and Washington have clear incentive to leave as a form of self-preservation. Do other schools recognize this and also seek preservation options? Do Utah and Colorado look to the Big 12? If the Pac-12 seeks replacement options, schools such as San Diego State or Boise State do very little to make up for the loss of USC and UCLA. This has the potential to serve as essentially a death blow for the Pac-12. It can still exist but the idea that it can compete in the national landscape without the Los Angeles schools is absurd.

 

EDIT:  last side thought.

 

Walton's reaction to this could be most entertaining..............

[Michael Hopcroft]

22 hours ago, Pariah said:

Wow, that's pretty remarkable. It would completely throw away any illusion of athletic conferences based on geography as if recent moves by the Big XII didn't already do that). The B1G would be a true coast to coast athletics conference. And although UCLA and USC don't really fit the geographic profile, they certainly fit the profile in terms of academics and historical success, especially in football and men's basketball.

 

The natural question that follows, then, is this: who does the PAC bring in to replace them? In terms of athletics, I think the obvious answers are San Diego State and Boise State. Might the PAC try to go for more? 14, or 16? If so, then what other teams from the Mountain West are going to get poached? (Although if we're going to throw a geography, the PAC could really try for pretty much anyone. The American has some nice programs these days.) 

 

Here we go again...

The PAC-10 as a Power Five conference has ceased to exist. The only remaining marquee programs, at least in football, are Oregon and Washington, and Washington doesn't sem to be as good as they were in prior seasons. And of course it is a slap to the face of Oregon in particular, who now become the biggest fish in a shrinking pond.

[Pariah]

Oh, and it could get even worse:

 

Big 12 Considering Expansion Amid Pac-12 Fallout?

 

Reports are both necessarily preliminary and often conflicting, but there appears to be a desire for the Big 12 to add Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and Arizona State.

 

We'll see.

[Cancer]

So would that make either conference change their name to "Big- ehh, we can't do math. F*** it."

 

The one with Ohio State could make sure to change their name to "THE Big- ehh, we can't do math. F*** it."

[unclevlad]

Colorado running back to the Big 12 would be moderately amusing.  Those 4 would make the Big Southwest geographically huge too.

 

These reports tie in with other comments...that Oregon and Washington will have to look for landing spots ASAP.

 

Maybe some of these moves won't get done...but ya gotta figure some of them will.  So, yes, I think the Conference of Champions is on emergency life support at this point.

 

And I think there's absolutely a squeeze play going on.  The Pac X is, we all think, basically dead.  The ACC probably will survive, but they'll have to consider expanding, I suspect.  Reports are that the Big Midwest may consider further expanding.  Got to think the goals here are:

 

a)  establish strong conference networks to boost TV revenues

b)  dominate the national broadcast schedules in both football and basketball (Fox, ESPN, CBS), pushing for major rights deals

c)  overwhelmingly dominate the entire bowl season, and particularly the playoffs, where the mega-bucks are.  

 

There may not be active collusion among the conferences...each is probably going to try to get the best deal they can, but that will still lead to the same endgame.

[Grailknight]

Well, the bar is now set. If this is what it's going to take for the 2nd and 3rd tier programs to compete, then I can see some schools dropping divisions.

 

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34264551/texas-tech-red-raiders-football-players-receive-1-year-25k-nil-contracts-matador-club