Caleb Williams gets the Heisman nod
Coach Leach (Miss State) suffered a massive heart attack today. Outlook does not look good for him.
Swing your sword.
RIP Coach.
Things that make you feel old.
Coach Prime and Colorado are heading back to the Big XII, which will now have 15 teams.
And the conference of champions is a wasteland losing the two LA teams this year. Oregon and Washington will now follow. Itāll end up being two super conferences. College football is ruined by money.
I donāt think it will because Fox essentially control the B1G (although NBC and CBS have just picked up rights to share with them, Fox co-own the B1G Network and Sat in on negotiations). Counteracting that, ESPN essentially control the SEC so if you went down to two super conferences then ESPN loses influence and control given they have a large chunk of every other college football rights.
Right now they have the ACC signed up until the middle of the next decade exclusively. If they pushed for a Superconference of the SEC they could move the likes of Clemson and FSU to there but that would likely mean the likes of Miami and Duke (more academic schools) head to the B1G. ESPN then lose out on those schools and moreover, likely lose Notre Dame. Notre Dame are tied to the ACC although are still Independent (with home broadcast rights with NBC and a lot of the away games on ESPN).
This is like ESPN pushing for Texas and Oklahoma to leave the Big XII (where ESPN had a share of the rights already) to the SEC two years ago only to see USC and UCLA bolt from the PAC the next year (where ESPN had a share of the rights) to the B1G (where they donāt) the next year in response. They basically traded some improved match ups for Texas/Oklahoma who they steadily showed for losing out on USC/UCLA completely.
Thereās an argument there to create more big game match ups mid season but there is also a loss of certain teams when you do it. Furthermore, you have the fact that the Big XII is a popular conference. It might not be the biggest but it is heartland stuff and states like West Virginia, Arizona and Colorado (hell even somewhere like Boston College in the Northeast) who might be deemed too small for a superconference still have support and it would be a waste to throw them aside. They also have a really big basketball conference that is worth something. In fact the broadcast schedules of both Fox Sports and particularly ESPN are littered with non football college sports. This is worth a lot and it is not worth the full destruction of college sports to achieve.
To my mind- the Superconference thing is good for everyone but ESPN who have the biggest card to play here in terms of their defacto stranglehold of the ACC. I think for them ideally they end up managing to keep 4 Conferences there along with Notre Dame independent and perhaps Cal/Stanford joining them as Independents . The Big XII and ACC will definitely be below the perceived quality of the other two but they will still have schools like Notre Dame (Independent but playing a lot of ACC schools), FSU, Clemson, Stanford, Miami, Duke, Colorado, FSU, Virginia Tech, Arizona, Standord and probably a few others playing regularly and who could potentially compete with B1G/SEC schools (on occasion at least).
I think the smart play for ESPN would be to lob a few quid more the way of ACC schools to appease them.
The school to blame for all of this is Texas.
What does the PAC 12 do? They have arguably 5 of the ranked schools this year. Colorado werent expected to be anyway competitive anyway but losing USC and UCLA leaves two northern powerhouses in the ducks and dawgs, Utah and the rest floundering. Where does WSU and OSU go, a full step back to mountain west? And what about Stanford and Cal? Not powerhouse schools but have been, and competitive at lots of non football sports
IMO they need to all fold into the Big XII/ACC, with the exception of Stanford/Cal who I canāt see doing it.
Either that or the likes of WSU and OSU look to a smaller conference.
Confirmed
Colorado >>> Big XII
USC/UCLA >>> B1G
What I could see;
Stanford/Cal >>> Independent (schedule tie ins with Notre Dame and ACC schools)
Utah >>> Big XII (although the B1G was suggested)
Arizona/Arizona State >>> Big XII
Oregon/Washington >>> B1G
WSU/OSU >>> Drop down to Mountain West
You could see āpeaceā in this scenario as Oregon/Washington would open up a regular late night west coast game for the B1G that could be sold to ESPN (there were rumours of that). In this scenario I think everyone is pretty happy with the exception of the ACC who are just stuck where they are at.
The only option for the PAC would be to expand, something that Stanford etc would hate.
Canāt see the conference lasting.
Tough on WSU and my beloved beavers who are far better than mountain west. The conference toyed with San Diego state and are still talking to SMU and have been floating rumours of a new bumper media deal which now seems pure fantasy. It looks done.
The writing is on the wall I think and always was once USC left. Thereās too much to do on the West coast vs. Big XII country that can at least attempt to absorb the loss of Texas/Oklahoma.
What about the wrestling and water polo teams and everyone else who will now have to fly cross country from LA for example for events.
NIL has destroyed football and bowl games. Football should almost be treated as a standalone, a triple A NFL almost. The only hope the PAC 12 has is access to coveted playoff spots in the new format. That might keep Washington and Oregon.
NIL is awful alright. Those coveting turning college football into the under 23s NFL are thick too.
A warning for those who want the GGA to go pro.
That ship sailed/sank a long time ago. College football is too important to large parts of the US as you said. Lawmakers will have to step in to restrict NIL as is its total unrestricted free agency.
Sad to see the PAC getting stripped for parts like this.
Going to Notre Dame - Navy?
I wonāt be in the country sadly.
I feel bad for the OSUs, WSUs of this worldā¦where to?