college football under quarantine

interesting implications of a possible new normal:

https://www.theringer.com/2020/8/3/21349611/season-schedule-power-five-conferences-college-football-playoff

But college football is a lot of things, and a season exclusively for the Power Five is few of them. It’s clear that the Power Five teams have needs and goals that differ from everybody else’s. By playing games solely against each other, they will maximize both fan interest and profit. Maybe the Power Five schools will realize this arrangement is financially beneficial even in non-pandemic circumstances. But a few dozen teams with similar needs and goals making decisions that benefit each other isn’t college football. It’s a professional sports league. And professional sports leagues have to pay and provide fair treatment to their players. This feels like a lasting split, and the more bonds the College Football programs sever with the college football programs, the harder it will be for them to pretend they still have anything in common with the distant relatives they’re leaving behind.

None of this is a secret. The fact that NCAA Division I football is essentially a semi-pro league feeding the NFL and that everyone is profiting from it but the players has been evident for decades. It is rarely acknowledged by the sports media because it is so ugly and they profit from it as much as anyone else. The players seldom complain because they are so vulnerable to reprisals. Most of them are seen as easily replaceable parts and 'troublemakers' swiftly get the boot.

The players do profit if they are on scholarship (and manage to stay on scholarship) and D1 football and basketball "student athletes" also enjoy elite status and other fringe benefits compared to other students.

But the system is absolutely semi-pro at best and at worst, big school college athletics operates (via the NCAA and the major conferences) as a monopoly with ruthless corporate vision. Everyone in the system gets a career out of it except the players, where something like less than 1% get drafted to the NFL and an even smaller number will play more than three years in the pros.

That said, I suspect that the vast majority of athletes at all levels love their experience in college sports even though they realize they are but actors in a circus. They know that they aren't getting their fair share but they are kept just happy enough by the experience that they still participate.

The idea that a scholarship athlete necessarily benefits from their time in a university is spotty at best. Scholarship athletes are chosen for their athletic prowess, not their academic ability, which may be minimal or even wholly inadequate. Graduation rates have been notoriously very poor among scholarship athletes in the two big money-making sports at "power five" universities, where scholarship athletes are routinely expected to prioritize their sport over all other activities and those who struggle academically are tutored just enough to maintain the lowest standard of required achievement to keep them playing. The NCAA pretends to address this, but their first priority remains keeping athletes playing; learning still takes a back seat, despite gestures designed to quiet criticism.

I will say that scholarship athletes are generally well fed at the training table free of charge, so there's one real benefit they can count on, even if they never earn their degree.

What is a notoriously poor rate to you, Aimless? Just curious.

http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/graduation-rates
or this
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1731218-college-football-schools-with-the-best-and-worst-graduation-rates

Mens' college basketball also makes a lot of money but the number of scholarship athletes is way lower. But the grad rates are very good at the elite programs.

Also, as you probably know, it's hard to use graduation rates as a measuring stick given the percentage of students at, say, LSU who graduate. Hint: at LSU (and most schools), the official graduation rate for students overall is lower than the football teams. But that's partially because the non-students have a higher attrition rate.

I would also add that an enormous benefit for scholarship "student athletes" and "student athletes" in general is that their entrance requirements are, as you note, at much lower academic standards. So, a person can go to, say, the University of North Carolina on a football scholarship and have much lower admissions standards. Assuming that they graduate, which 75%+ of UNC football players due, that's pretty awesome. And as you note, they get really nice living facilities, their own dining hall, have amazing tutoring options, and get to travel the country.

There is a large number of student athletes who honestly cannot afford to go to college even if they have a "full ride". These kids don't have time for jobs during the off season, and there really is no off season. These kids often live far from home and literally have no way to get to and from college. They don't have idle spending money. There are many issues that are worthy of withering criticism and you and I agree (!) that the NCAA doesn't address this with much honesty.

Supporting college athletics even as a fan seems morally dubious I guess.

no return of the mac(k)

big 10 cancels season

holy shit

trump's fucked

the ACC is saying they'll go ahead no matter what

pac 12 is canceling, big 12 is on the fence

at least we still have idaho high school football

I told my wife as fall prepares to start “if I die of COVID (and I doubt I will) at least my sons will know I stood up for doing what is right and going to work & educating and molding young people rather than hiding” she responded “agreed “ ❗️❗️💪💪💪

— Coach Hargitt (@coachhargitt) August 10, 2020

sad about my problematic fave getting canceled :(

BREAKING: The Big Ten presidents have voted to postpone the 2020 college football season with hopes of playing in the spring, per sources.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) August 11, 2020

more like the small zero

smoll

sm0ll

if this swings Michigan and Wisconsin for Biden then it'll be the best thing the Big Ten has produced since Charles Woodson.

what a win for the democrats(?)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EfJo3OrXgAIICG2?format=jpg&name=small

college football coaches are the worst people in america (#34985859340293849494 in a series)

Lou Holtz tells Fox News that college football needs to play amid coronavirus pandemic this fall: "Let's move on with our life! When they stormed Normandy, they knew there were going to be casualties -- there were going to be risks." pic.twitter.com/zZZ5qrFRFb

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 11, 2020

tbf this is the kind of shit that got him fired.

There's going to be a lot of unmolded young men out there!

lou is freaking deranged lol

Georgia State QB announces he has a heart condition from COVID 19 and won’t play this year https://t.co/aH4CawZdsi

— trey wingo (@wingoz) August 20, 2020

BREAKING: #PennState's director of athletic medicine, Wayne Sebastianelli, says that cardiac MRI scans revealed that roughly 30-35 percent of Big Ten athletes who tested positive for COVID-19 appeared to have myocarditis. https://t.co/md4p1IoaLh

— Parth Upadhyaya (@pupadhyaya_) September 3, 2020

oh

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EiDe5zeXkAQPJ01?format=jpg&name=small

cool they can also check for CTE posthumously, this sounds super humane

Guys. GUYS. I found the Michael Scott of college football. pic.twitter.com/NdEvpYFlkg

— Laura Albanese (@AlbaneseLaura) September 16, 2020

i don't *really* care about college football, but i definitely appreciate Oklahoma and LSU being beaten at home

hate this guy

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney: 'On board' with Black Lives Matter messages, but not politics

^ A man torn between his need to recruit Black players and his need to soothe the multi-millionaire alumni who bankroll his program.

"i mean i'm okay with black people scoring touchdowns, that's gotta count for something"

xp apparently this all started because a 'law enforcement officer' called into dabo's radio show and asked him if he supported 'these people'

anyway he's old school, grew up in alabama, can't be expected to let the coloreds mess up the uniforms or make money or be 'political'

totally understandable racist behavior, who could blame him except everyone

SABAN HAS THE RONA

:-0

hope he's ok, but the SEC's covid attitude has been sickening, and the league deserves a dose of reality

LSU/Florida has been postponed until Dec. 12

hopefully Alabama's AD recruited another, younger 5-star coach that is ready to take saban's place, and saban will never get another opportunity as he watches his dream slip away, hobbled on the sideline.

cold but fair

UK won at Tennessee for the first time since like 1986 and biggest win by points since like 1932 today.

Kentucky has some more O-linemen that will be playing in the NFL soon.

Alabama will definitely not let Saban transfer without setting out a year.

Saban's test was apparently a false positive. He's had three negative tests since and we be on the sideline tonight. Cool.

He released a statement, "Don't be afraid of covid."

everyone who goes into remission should blab to the world “don’t be afraid of cancer!”

aaaaand trevor lawrence has covid

btw wtf nebraska

'we're not allowed to catch covid from wisconsin, so please let us catch it from chattanooga'

Indiana whupped the Wolverines today. Michigan looked slow. Harbaugh might be joining you know who in looking for a new job in January.

Good day all around.

Indiana's Michael Penix Jr. should start getting some talk as a big QB to watch and like many lefty QBs he's kind of fun to watch. Big thing with him is just not getting hurt again.

https://wgntv.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/11/GettyImages-1284436894.jpg?w=1280&h=720&crop=1

they shouldn't be playing, but at least it's resulted in michigan and penn state getting fucking smoked

They got Michigan State now too...knock wood they can complete the set by beating the Buckeyes next week.

It would figure that IU would have their season of the century in the middle of a plague.

Just the usual, OSU's d-line and o-line are just ridiculously good. They got backups better than some of IU's starters and they crush them with depth.

That said, IU's got some d-backs that are going to play in the pros. They got some linebackers with speed too. IU's speed in the back really held up pretty good and made some plays against Fields.

IU could not run AT ALL against Ohio State on offense.

Made it game and covered the spread.

IU being good is fun. Wish they could have pulled off the comeback.

Penix Jr. should be getting some press. Lefty QBs that like to throw deep are always fun. I don't know how to read QBs to see if they are doing things right or not, so I am curious to hear one of those former NFL backup QBs tear apart his mechanics on TV or radio.

Dude threw for 491 and 5 Tds with only 1 pick in the Big House against the Buckeyes. That's a heck of a day.

IU can't let down against Maryland next week looking ahead to Wisconsin, plague notwithstanding. Weird times...

lol fuck michigan

:(

The continuing humiliation of Harbaugh is a thing of beauty. The continuing monopoly that Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State have on recruiting the lion's share of five-star players out of high school will ultimately destroy big time college football. Which could be a very good thing.

That is why we need that scrappy underdog ND to take them down this year.

SOURCE: Michigan-OhioState is getting canceled.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 8, 2020

too bad; guess we'll never know if ohio state could have covered the 30-point spread

Ohio State needs to schedule someone to be eligible for the big 10 championship game.

ffs

Sources: Big Ten expected to change rule requiring football teams to play 6 games to make conference title game

northwestern vs indiana would have been genuinely interesting, too

Hopefully Northwestern just wins

If Ryan Day ends up like John Cooper or Earle Bruce, that is exactly what will happen.

I hated Ohio State football/basketball fans, they were such total d1cks. Despised working in restaurant/bars weekends when they played in Bloomington in college.

can attest to OSU fans

at least brian kelly won't have to boycott the rose bowl u_u

oh hell yeah

A massive brawl broke out at the end of the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl between Tulsa and Mississippi State. pic.twitter.com/zfaq912SWU

— ESPN (@espn) December 31, 2020

oh hell yeah

🐦[A massive brawl broke out at the end of the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl between Tulsa and Mississippi State. pic.twitter.com/zfaq912SWU🕸
— ESPN (@espn) December 31, 2020🕸]🐦

http://i.imgur.com/SGYxjQ7.jpg

Some of these guys on bama are just amazing. Have never seen someone do the hurdle and stay on their feet.

We are clearly very weak on the outside

Will need 3 more of those long TD drives to have a chance

(we have no chance)

classic 17 pt loss. Clemson or Ohio State will lose by 18, but we will still ask ourselves if ND belongs.

backdoor 17 points, come on

Or we will label the points as different kinds of points

boring game tho i do agree bama prob beats osu or clem by more so good on you nd ~

If we had one guy like Claypool tgis year, maybe Book could have done more. Obviously, if we can get someone special at QB, as good as Book has been at times, we could possibly steal one from the elite programs some year. The LSU model.

LSU certainly got exposed this year, agreed.

lol eat shit Dabo

skalski is a real shitbird, but they will miss him out there.

Dabo is correct. It is crazy that osu gets to be here with 6 games under its belt.

he's becoming less correct by the minute

anyway fuck him for being such an utter asshole that i have to tacitly root for a major big ten program

It's less about talent than advantage. Injuries, depth, and winning that midseason away game against a random team peaking that week, etc.

I do hate Dabo, though.

But ND would have had their outstanding 5-star center for the playoffs if they played a 6 game season, for example.

pic.twitter.com/pHHYgGYh9h

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) January 2, 2021

excellent

Clemson scores a TD with 10:42 left in the 4th quarter. OSU's win probability instantly drops from 99.9% to 99.8%. lol

didn’t think that alabama could ever be the most likable team in a four-team playoff but here we are

lebron’s buckeye fandom is by far the worst thing about him, really puts a dent in his otherwise unassailable greatness

didn’t think that alabama could ever be the most likable team in a four-team playoff but here we are

lol otm

I hope bama smokes em

I’m surprised at what my thread has become.

Clemson lost by more points to a worse team, so they get 4th imo.

I’m surprised at what my thread has become.

fair

but we're here now and still full of hate

Dabo: No regrets about ranking Ohio State 11th
Kelly irked by questions, 'narrative' after ND loss

lol fuck you forever

DaVonta Smith and Najee Harris are just amazing athletes. Its kinda hard to know how good Mac Jones actually is because those two guys are freaking Plastic Man after they get the ball.

OSU is pretty good too, but I don't think anyone has Alabama's depth.

ND played pretty well yesterday and really played a bit better than the scorching they took in the media in the ACC championship game than the score indicated.

Cincinnatti was literally a play away from beating Georgia yesterday. Georgia's defense is punishing and Alabama dropped 40 on them.

Being a homebody this year with everything going on, I have watched a few games this year.

Texas canned Herman, Steve Sarkesian reportedly the top candidate.

Saban produces as many new (or rehabbed) head coaches as he does star players.

Tommy Tuberville gets sworn in and the Capitol’s defense immediately falls apart.

— Bunkie Perkins (@BunkiePerkins) January 6, 2021

bunkie otm

lol

Harbaugh's new contract will pay him a base salary of $4 million in 2021, which will increase to $4.426 million in 2025. He can earn a maximum bonus of $3.475 million in each year of the contract, including $1 million bonuses for winning the Big Ten championship and the College Football Playoff National Championship, and $500,000 bonuses for winning the Big Ten East Division and reaching the CFP.

otoh

Harbaugh had one year left on his initial contract at Michigan, which paid the coach slightly over $8 million in 2020.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E1IsCGpUcAIbnrh?format=jpg&name=small

I realize there's a desire to put a local spin on non-local stories, but this seems crass.

Texas and OU leaving the Big 12 and hoping to join the SEC??????

I got to wonder at what point the SEC/Big10/ACC & PAC12 say f-it and just break off and become a 'super league' for football.

i wonder when conferences are gonna start kicking schools out. why share football money with vandy et al

Vandy's a charter member, so there's probably some bylaw that makes them untouchable. But I get what you mean.

Ole Miss Rebels coach Lane Kiffin preaching accountability to team after losing 30 pounds in offseason

#leadership #america #bocaratonbowl

clemson rushing vs. georgia: 23 attempts, 2 net yards

should be an exciting mercer vs alabama game today

mercer beat (checks notes) 'point university' 69-0 last week, so i'm sure they'll give the tide all they can handle

they will divide the SEC into 8 divisions so the good teams don't play until the 4 championship games

Nice win for the Ducks over the Buckeyes, but it was very strange and a bit unnerving to see more than 100,000 people packed together, screaming non-stop, and not a mask in sight. Remember when choir practice was considered a huge super-spreader risk?

looks like ND will pull off the upset

kind of alabama to let mercer score twice (seriously)

nice win for oregon

lol irishes

fuck texas amirite pp

Yeah. Good luck in the SEC when you cannot beat the middle of the pack over there.

Sophomore QB Connor Bazelak was pretty impressive last night against UK. He pretty much kept them in the game by himself. He plays really smart and has some accuracy, pulling off some really impressive passes on 3rd down keeping drives going. I would not be surprised if down the line Bazelak will follow fellow Tigers Blaine Gabbert and Chase Daniels into a long fruitful career as a Sunday afternoon clip board holder.

Missouri sophomore...

pic.twitter.com/zZEgdPrVSb

— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) October 2, 2021

i don't mean to support the alternative, but: lol texas

aggies are kinda gigging alabama right now

Watched quite a bit on Saturday.

Penn State is better than Iowa, not by much but some but after their starting QB Sean Clifford went out so did their passing game.

Ironically a grad transfer from Penn St. Will Levis had the game of his life for UK against LSU last night. Levis can run really well for his size.

I had no doubt Texas would blow that lead yesterday as no lead is safe in the Big 12 as apparently defense has been outlawed in that conference.

UK probably has their biggest game since Bear Bryant was coaching next week at Georgia. It would be worth the LOLs if they won to completely turn over the SEC apple cart as it would guarantee Kentucky will lose to Vanderbilt or Tennessee in a couple of weeks. That said, UK does have some talent that will be playing on Sunday on this club especially on the O-line and defense. They got a couple skills guys that could also end up in the big leagues too.

a&m’s qb impressed me late in that bama game

Georgia's defensive front is top notch. I've seen pretty much all the good college teams once this year, no one is going to push those dudes around. I think the only team that beats them is going to have to get turnovers from G's offense or be able to throw the ball really well.

lol penn state

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FCaQyQ3X0AE6QeQ?format=jpg&name=small

cursed image

that was easily one of the stupidest sporting events i’ve ever watched

Met dr4ke l0nd0n's parents fying out of lax. So nice i want usc to win now.

wow, blasphemy

Iowa State and OK state was a good game. Did not mind Gundy getting beat there as that dude seems like a serious douchenozzle.

Iowa State's QB is a pretty good college QB, perhaps a future coach or clipboard holder as he plays really smart. They got a WR and a TE that look like they maybe got the skills to play in the pros too.

Playing QB for the Indiana Hoosiers should come with some hazard pay. For the second time this year they pretty much got their QB killed making an awesome throw. Poor Mike Penix I don't think is going to survive playing for Indiana and that dude has a really good arm and some skills. Jack Tuttle got smashed by about 600 pounds of Buckeye roid rage earlier tonight.

Ryan Day with the beard even looks more like a jerk. I hate the f'n Buckeyes and hope (but doubt) that the Wolverines kick their ass.

That Zach Harrison is a f'n beast, dude is like 6-7 and runs crazy well for his size. Hard to believe that dude is only 21.

Iowa St unsportsmanlike conduct pen was nuts

I think that last spot on the first down might have been a bit of even up.

Yes, and same player caught the TD pass. Just an insane call over the mildest celebration.

Football officiating was always flawed but I think they make shit up all the time.

Last night in that Niners/Colts game there was a punt and the guy from SF kicked it into the end zone, if the Colts fell on it was a free ball but they said when the guy got ahold of it and they tackled him in the end zone it was a touchback and not a safety.

That seemed just wrong from anything I have ever known as once the receiving team touches it is a live ball as far as I have heard since I was a kid.

Once he touched it in play, it's a live ball and he picked it up and got tackled in the endzone.

I still just don't get that one, but the ref talking head said it was so. What do I know...I've only ref'ed intermural flag football in college. :)

Yeah I saw that. So if a guy fields a punt on say his own 5 and runs back into his own end zone it comes back out to the 20?

Usually that would be a safety. I think the issue was possession, but why is it a freeball with the touch and yet when he was tackled in the endzone (not downed) was it not a safety. If he kicked the ball through the endzone it is a safety and I would think it would have been a TD.

We are not the only fans that noticed this odd ass ruling.

Well the ruling on the field stands. And I'm charging all of you a timeout.

https://dknation.draftkings.com/nfl/2021/10/25/22744923/49ers-non-safety-muffed-punt-video-brandon-aiyuk-vs-colts-week-7-sunday-night-football

https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/49ers/49ers-catch-break-brandon-aiyuk-muffed-punt-odd-nfl-rule

If this is the case, then why is it a live ball if it hits off the players shoulder or helmet without the player attempting possession?

This is fct.

miami/pitt has been a wild game

sparty!

lol michigan

I live near a large midwestern college football stadium with a successful football team and there are police helicopters circling overhead, sirens everywhere and numerous couches on fire right now.

police helicopters circling overhead, sirens everywhere and numerous couches on fire

sounds like the great state of michigan!

Cincy should be in top 4

770,000 americans dead of covid and nick rolovich thinks the state of washington's public-employee vaccination mandate was created specifically to screw him, the coach of a college football team that has won its conference twice in the last 90 years

really takes effort to stand out in the crowd of pretentious assholes that are college football coaches, but he's managed it

If only ND were good enough to lose to Purdue

wow texas

sparty getting throttled

absurd

This should count as a quality loss like purdue though

first-half stats in that game are remarkable

OSU 29-for-31 passing for 393 yards, 500 total yards, 26 first downs

Can’t remember the last time I saw a 49 point lead between two top ten teams

Worst losses by AP top 10 teams pic.twitter.com/83vMX3hOws

— Matt Brown (@MattBrownCFB) November 20, 2021

after a performance like that, michigan state really has no choice but to offer its coach a $95m contract

We were joking that Mel tucker spent halftime signing the contract before they substantially lowered the offer.

Oregon getting humiliated in similar fashion right now

Britain Covey returned a punt for a TD as a freshman in 2015.

He is eligible to return for his *senior* season in 2022.

— Kyle Bonagura (@BonaguraESPN) November 21, 2021

“seven years of college down the drain!”

hail to the victors valiant

go bluuuuuuuuue

OSU def out of the Big 10 championship game and out of the CFB playoffs. (Nelson laugh)

fuck alabama for not going for two (even though it was obviously the smart move)

college football never fails to astonish me

oklahoma coach goes to USC, oklahoma's incoming freshmen split and call it god's will

Gods Plan… pic.twitter.com/KyYllmP0f7

— ✨Malachi Nelson✨ (@MalachiNelson9) November 29, 2021

i mean i don't blame that dude but also college football should absolutely be banned

Other southern caifornia WR committed to ND has also likely been talking to Lincoln about this. OU might be a mess in the SEC.

🤔

LSU is expected to hire Notre Dame's Brian Kelly as the school’s next head football coach, per @PeteThamel 🚨

An announcement could come as early as tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/8MOnShxeoL

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) November 30, 2021

It is real. Will be fun to see if he can put together a team to compete there. Probably a decent time to move on. Seems he blindsided his assistants, though. I'll be happy if Freeman gets promoted.

Obviously, I hope he still doesn't get over the hump.

never thought of LSU as being a step up from notre dame but i guess the SEC rules all

He is getting more money than Saban.

but South Bend is also very cold and hot

poor excuse for an irish catholic

he is also running away from an Ohio State opener next season that might lower hos market value

Will be nuts if cards fall in a way that would have put ND in the playoff

V happy with how this turned out

When the heck did Brian Kelly get a southern accent?? 😂 https://t.co/ln2lzZX0Yr

— Mike Singer (@MikeTSinger) December 3, 2021

it's the u of u for u

good drama in big 12 champ game, baylor prob shouldve won several times over & ultimately, but barely, did

looking like georgia might actually crush bama

jameson williams is so nasty

well bryce young looks like a no 1 pick

georgia apparently didn’t realize that young has wheels

or jameson williams

I haven't seen a Georgia game this year, but that Bowers kid seems pretty special.

"looking like georgia might actually crush bama"

Some predators like to toy with it's prey before the kill.

Bryce Young in his last 5 quarters plus the OTs in the Auburn game is playing Techmo bowl. He plays like that and they are not going lose the title.

Baylor keeping OSU out of the endzone twice with 1st and goal within the 5 yard line was pretty tough. That big DT for Baylor is to take a term from Madden "a road grater". Cowboys could not get anything up the middle in the run game at all and that last tackle on the sweep that guy for Baylor will be asked about for the rest of his life. Good game.

Michigan looked good, but I can't think they can hang with Georgia or Alabama, especially if either team gets up more than a single score. But hey weird things happen and Michigan does seem to be really good on defense and special teams. I can't see them scoring anywhere near enough to hang with Techmo bowl or Georgia, whose offense really did not play all that bad today and has scored a boodle of points this year too.

probably the best two teams in the country but this seems like a clear suggestion that only one of them belongs in the playoff

that said, whatever it takes to assure the crushing of jim harbaugh is okay with me (sorry voodoo)

it’s nice that michigan football is no longer a factory of sadness but a factory of success

Kedon Slovis and Bo Nix are in a portal, but George Lucas didn't write it

the jimmy kimmel bowl

so Clemson and Bama tonight huh

College Football Playoff champion can be crowned via COVID-related forfeit, new policy states

go bearcats

really appreciate how wrenched up nc state is about its inability to find a healthy opponent for the entirely meaningless san diego county credit union holiday bowl. at least they can go home and stroke themselves while thinking about this

Holiday Bowl officials came into the NC State team meeting on Wednesday morning and presented them with the bowl trophy. Doeren said NC State will count this as a victory in their record books, no matter how the NCAA views the game.

should count it but as a millenial bowl victory!

i guess pitt did pretty well for relying on its third-string QB. defense pooped out in the fourth tho

RGIII isn't bad at all for a rookie color guy -- he's a little over-corny for my taste but he has a good voice

this is gonna be like 45-10 huh

Almost every CFP game is

At 27-6 the point difference for Bama v Cincinnati was pretty close to the point difference in the SEC championship game of Bama v Georgia. Seems respectable enough for a mid-major team, even if it wasn't close.

Point difference of one game means almost nothing. But whatever this is means Michigan sucks.

The Dawgs were the undisputed best team in the nation for most of the season. This game is a measure of how badly they want a rematch with Bama.

We love a good sports narrative but maybe it also has nothing to do with that

michigan just didn’t have the horses on offense, or anything close to it

good day to be an OSU (not you, beavers)

not thrilled to blow a huge lead to the head coach of OANN, but also not going to worry too much.

LSU has a player named Pig Cage??

idk why i was watching this pregame but…

andrew luck looks skinny

good fan sign reading “tuscaloosas #1 dating site: ancestry.com”

That drop

bama is too hurt

young is just incredible tho

bama is gonna need a big play i think

wow

Young

he’s crazy good

seems so hard to be accurate throwing at that angle

holy shit that was the craziest TD catch

georgia picking on bama’s like 5th corner

5th corner was playing some pretty great D tbf

Taking a shot for Larry Munson

was wild to see Bama with that all too familiar exposed secondary look

Alabama's 5th corner is a 5* recruit

well, he was a 3 star junior college transfer. in any event, it’s still guys who don’t normally play. they got him on the PI where he tackled UGA’s receiver and then got the other guy (also a back up) on a PI on the final TD drive. georgia made plays down the stretch so hats off to them but bama was also grievously injured at CB and WR

Ah, I thought you were referring to McKinstry. Agree bama had very bad luck with injuries in this go, even in the game.

not a bad off year for the crimson tide, all said

HBTFD, y'all

UGA/Bama drama will continue long after I'm gone, but at least I won't have to listen to any more can-Kirby-beat-Bama stories

the best part is that now people in Athens can stop talking about 1980, Vince Dooley, and Herschel fucking Walker

congrats, man. nothing better than your college team winning the football championship...i bet

yes, congrats! I'm happy that a new southern school won this year.

thank you

my sentiments about my alma mater and NCAA football in general are much more ambivalent than they used to be, but today I'm enjoying the shared buzz with a lot of family, friends, and former co-workers

Likewise Brad. I used to be a pretty diehard Dawg fan but I barely followed them this season. I did enjoy the game though

Winning a championship is an amazingly difficult accomplishment and you hafta recognize it as such. But it all happens in a haze of big money, frenzied fans, crafty exploitation of young people's dreams, and a brutal cost in lifelong physical injuries, so your ambivalence is plenty justified, too.

hey, Texas A&M haven't even won their championship yet

love to see dudes named jimbo and dabo hold forth on amateur sports

lol @ UCLA and USC joining the *big ten*

sad that neither was good enough to join the SEC; maybe they can beat up on nebraska in the meantime

at this point we might as well skip ahead to almost all of the SEC (not you, vandy) + some of the larger B1G teams (OSU, PSU, UMich, WIS, do we even care about MSU or Iowa or ILL?) + Clemson and maybe UNC and conceivably Miami and FSU for old time's sake + Nike/Oregon = superleague

let's throw in colorado with the caveat that once a season someone gets five downs in their game

So how long until the Big Ten and the SEC put themselves as "D1" football and take over and do their own championship?

Rutgers and UCLA in the big 10, that's so weird.

Got to wonder how long until North Carolina jumps in one of these super conferences. They are a big Nike school, not really a football power but a college sports power in basketball. Maybe them and Oregon both and I almost think so because of the corporate ties.

The basketball schools are a bit screwed, although I think what works in bball will keep on working with the tournament etc., but the NCAA will own that and the rest of the stuff. It sure looks like the football schools are going to take their ball and turn it into their own business.

seems like the plan is to eventually have two super conferences, one “big ten” and one “sec” (might as well just say north vs south lol)

it’s a professional model, so please pay the players

There has already been some speculation that the right player (say like a Reggie Bush type) that was so popular, 'might' find it more profitable with the NFL rookie cap to go ahead and play another season as the imaging and likeness money could be worth that much.

i don't think a top 5 or 10 pick a la reggie bush would forego the guaranteed ~$30 million they would get over multiple years from the NFL for one year of NIL money. i think you're more likely to see it happen more w/ guys who are great college players -- particularly QBs -- who aren't projected to be first or second round picks bcuz then the money would be more likely to be even, but they'd still need to be at a school that could funnel multiple millions for one year. it's probably a really small group when you think about it... it's not like UGA's NIL donors or whatever were lining up to keep stetson bennett out of the draft. even if a guy like reggie bush could get $10 million for one year of college ball i'm not sure the reward would offset the risk of a severe injury that impacts future income

tim tebow: NIL pioneer

yeah exactly, tho he did get picked in the first round anyway lol. but it might have been enough of a question that he would've taken a crazy bag to play at florida one more year

I wonder if in a collegiate super league players would still only have 4/5 years of eligibility. I could see a middling corner or tight end going on the slow plan just to hang around for 8 years.

But who am I kidding? In a super league, very few middling players will ever see the field.

Rumors are SEC goes to 20 teams adding Florida State, North Carolina, Clemson & the U.

Virginia will go to the big 10. I bet they go after Oregon.

Louisville is a curious one...I kinda think there is $$$ in both leagues to say no way to those guys that and they had all the scandals, but you got to think that old oil money is trying to buy Baylor into the SEC.

UF has been blocking FSU for decades any time the subject comes up. Wonder if they'll relent when all that new money starts floating around.

i don't really care about college football reinventing/wrecking itself -- as ever, the biggest fishes will rule

seeing basketball programs dragged into it -- which they totally deserve, as they're no better, if much less lucrative -- is intriguing tho

big east otm

It seems like this will totally fxck up the rest of collegiate sports, although in some sports teams playing in different conferences. While I am sure it would be a season highlight for say the Maryland volleyball team to do a trip to LA to play USC or UCLA, I got to think for most sports - this would be crazy expensive.

UK plays men's soccer in Conference USA as the rest of the SEC, only South Carolina has a D1 squad. The rest just play it at a club level.

appalachian state scored seven touchdowns in the fourth quarter today but lost, 63-61, when their two-point conversion failed with nine seconds left

yikes oregon

lol The Brians lost their ACC opener. The SEC is tough.

THUNDERING HERD

they herd me good

A&M and Wiscy in here

good news is no more quality win for ohio st

i guess jimbo was right, his recruiting practices aren't unfair

he proved it in the lab!

Nebraska: Frost’s hot seat is hotter than ever. His contract buyout drops from $15 million to $7.5 million on Oct. 1.

he's 16-31 and they're gonna give him $7.5m to go away

ffs they couldn't even wait three weeks! so now they're giving him $15m to go away

frosty out there

So much for Texas A&M challenging Bama - A State got another skull for the trophy case.

ND's loss was pretty sad too.

Got to give UK some credit after the long snapper threw the ball into the endzone for a safety, they pulled it together and Florida could not do a single thing on offense for the rest of the game.

Did not make much news outside here, but Eastern KY and Morehead State played a 7 OT game yesterday. EKU's coach had a heart attack a few weeks ago, I hope he is ok after yesterday.

As for the Cornhuskers - GET OVER IT...IT IS DONE - it's been 20 years at least since anyone thought of Nebraska as a football power.

It's like Indiana in college basketball, it's OVER.

IU basketball has not had the same sharp decline imo. They still get some cruits.

i was shocked to see how far Nebraska had fallen (being only casually familiar with college football). still remember how deadly they were in the 90s.

mega lols that former UCF coach flamed out

gutsy performance by the irishes

Don’t think I’ve ever seen a Hail Mary like this

AS CALLED BY @AdamBWitten AND HEARD ON THE @varsity APP: pic.twitter.com/QztnYi7T8k

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) September 17, 2022

Amazing. Everyone called the app state letdown game but they pulled it out.

Marshall going through its own rn

xp to mookie, I hope we got over the hump with that first Freeman win. We were gifted a strange offsides call on a FG we missed. Felt like we were cursed when that INT got waived by the (correct) targeting call.

this sick bastard can play for me any day pic.twitter.com/67Qo7KaLRh

— Mike Golic Jr (@mikegolicjr) October 16, 2022

That was probably the game of the year at least from what I have seen so far.

Bryce Young is really good. I'm impressed how he is able on the run to square up his shoulders and throw the ball.

this game was insane

I'm not sure what I expected the drive chart of the SMU 77, Houston 63 to look like but it's still stunning to see it pic.twitter.com/Hjj80sUZZf

— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) November 6, 2022

Bryce Young is pretty darn good. That throw to put them back in the game against LSU in the 4th quarter was really amazing. Alabama's defense is nearly Big 12 porous though.

I really wanted to put money on Notre Dame on that Syracuse game. Between that one and the Clemson game some Irish fans made some money on their favorite apps the past couple weeks.

Ole Miss pretty much let Alabama off the hook today. Their running back Judkins is really good. Don't get at all what Kiffen was thinking a couple times having that back especially after he moved them 50 yards down to get into place to win the game calling two QB draws. Same thing earlier in the game they get first and goal running the ball down the Tides throat and then he decides to throw it three times. Kinda dumb but hey Kiffen will probably get some school to pay him more to move on to them (maybe Auburn).

enjoyed seeing UVA's first two plays from scrimmage going for pick-sixes

(never really thought about how to pluralize that; thanks wahoos)

also virginia tech is really scraping bottom now, eh

NC and NC St. was a heck of a game today. I'm not so sure about that Tarheel QB Maye as a big pro prospect but the freshman on NC St. team looks pretty good.

Florida and Florida St. so far has been a track meet. Definitely a few future pros on this team. That big 6-7 WR FSU has named Johnny Wilson probably will get some pro interest. Jon Kitna's son is the Freshman backup QB for the Gators and he got in for a few plays when Richardson got hit pretty hard. Richardson's arm is ridiculous. Travis the FSU Qb is a heck of an athlete himself well worth looking for the highlights as he made a killer play avoiding 5 Gators to make a 20+ yard run out of the pocket to the 1 yard line.

go blue baby!

It was fun watching the Buckeyes get popped in the mouth. I was watching saying 'go ahead, blitz everyone again'. Terrible coaching, you would think after like giving up 3 huge plays on big blitzes you would learn, but Noooooooooo...there D coordinator thinks he is a tactical genius and this time it will work.

Ryan Day looks like the after picture in an ad for Grecian Formula.

love how ohio state is all like 'sure we just got doubled up at home, but we totally deserve to be in the playoff!' (they're ~almost~ correct)

unfortunate that all this entailed jim harbaugh winning tho

if tcu loses, they’re prob still in but osu can still absolutely get in if the trojans blow it

SEC's dominance is built upon a willingness to spend money to win despite sanity (after all what are welfare funds for but building stadiums), but I really think their conference talent is a step above.

I got a feeling OSU (or Michigan) would not be able to run the gauntlet schedule without losing at least 2 or 3 games. I think even this uneven Alabama team is still better and LSU or Tennessee before Hooker got hurt could beat them. Even Ole Miss on a good day probably could beat them.

Georgia could have a bad game or play dumb, but I don't see any of these teams beating them. Michigan might have enough defense if they stay healthy to slow them up a bit and stay in a game.

a willingness to spend money to win despite sanity

agree that the SEC is dominant, but . . . i mean nebraska just signed *matt rhule* to an eight-year deal, having just given scott frost a $16.4 million buyout as a reward for being incredibly awful

the money being thrown around -- by public schools, no less -- is absurd, but at least in the SEC they have some good teams

Even Ole Miss on a good day probably could beat them.

suing for defamation

it might "just mean more" in the sec, which is probably why people perceive lsu (#15 sp+) and ole miss (#14 sp+) to be vastly superior to minnesota (#16 sp+) and illinois (#17 sp+)

it's the U of U for U

Caleb Williams Heisman posed vs a team that lost to Marshall and then took his second L to Utah.

give the heisman to donoblake corumwards

Mike Leach in critical condition, a "personal health issue"...he'd made a lot of sideways comments and dissembling remarks about covid vaccines

it was a heart attack

https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/college/2022/12/12/mike-leach-heart-attack-mississippi-state-football-coach/69720334007/

Mike Leach, Mississippi State football's innovative and influential coach, dies at 61 https://t.co/e81EEL0C84

— Clarion Ledger (@clarionledger) December 13, 2022

fascinating character, obv his politics were terrible but he had a massive impact on football. good thread about it here

Incredibly momentous for football that Mike Leach has passed away. It is no understatement whatsoever to say that Leach fundamentally changed football forever, and I am not sure there was any more influential coach in the last 40 years, when you include high school and college.🧵

— Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) December 13, 2022

I guess he was technically my "coworker" in washington. I'd see him walking to work a lot, and he'd stop for coffee pretty regularly at the place I'd hang out. I never talked to him but shitty politics aside the baristas liked him and by all accounts he was kind of a fascinating weirdo.

he had mixed feelings on coffee lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuRmm4arThQ

v. sad to see dabo lose; i'm sure it was all because his players were distracted by NILs or wokeism or something

i presume this has happened before when january 1 falls on a sunday but it remains weird to me that the orange bowl happened on 12/30 and there are no college bowl games at all on new year's day

I watched a few minutes of Clemson and Tennessee and decided that was way too much orange for an Orange bowl.

Georgia will probably smoke OSU, but I keep having an odd feeling the Buckeyes might upset them too.

I really want to see Michigan win it all myself, but I am not getting my hopes up.

Right now looks like Michigan is going to lay a big dooker on the field. Every big 12 game is like 52-50 and so far the Woolverines not looking too good.

I could not have cared less about Georgia football before I had a child attend that school. Now . . . Go Dawgs. It should be a thumping.

don't normally root for texans or christians, and i <3 voodoo chili, but . . . lol fuck jim harbaugh

weird game, lots of things that shouldn’t have happened did

worst part is that this was a golden opportunity to maybe beat osu in a rematch and win the title. gonna get much harder once the playoff field expands to 12 teams

Both those games were pretty wacky.

Big 10 fails again.

We were worn out after the craziness of TCU/Michigan and were telling each other "Thank goodness our game won't be like that" ... and then it was so much worse. As Kirby Smart said afterwards, OSU deserved to win. Maybe he'll get Georgia coached up better for TCU and spare our nerves a little. Go Dawgs, sic 'em, etc.

former Minnesota Gophers head coach Tim Brewster continues to be just an amazing weird/jackass even for college football

Tim Brewster continues to be a piece of work 😂🤦🏻‍♂️ @jgkfan https://t.co/JCHtJKCMVx

— Alex Micheletti (@AlexMicheletti) January 17, 2023

Smart backs UGA culture after fatal crash, arrests

the culture cannot fail; only be failed

rip 'schemy'

Three days after he was hired at Michigan, Glenn "Shemy" Schembechler, son of longtime Wolverines coach Bo Schembechler, resigned following social media activity that has "caused concern and pain," according to a statement from the school.

On Wednesday, Schembechler announced he had been hired as Michigan's assistant director of football recruiting. He tweeted: "I'm beyond honored to return home to @UMichFootball! #GoBlue always and forever!"

A source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN that Schembechler went through a thorough background check during the hiring process.

His Twitter account, @shemyscout, was deactivated on Saturday. Schembechler had been a longtime NFL scout, most recently with the Las Vegas Raiders until February. He also scouted for Washington, Chicago and Kansas City. Schembechler spent more than a decade working for Washington's organization.

According to the Detroit News, Schembechler's Twitter timeline had a number of posts and "likes" of multiple offensive and insensitive posts, including several suggesting slavery and Jim Crow were a positive to strengthen Black individuals and families.

you’re goddamned right pat fitzgerald ordered the code red

lol

Seems he was at least not doing enough to protect his student athletes in the locker room. I don't think ignorance is a great defence here.

to me the real story is that the defense is "this is just the nature of football culture so why is pat fitzgerald being singled out and punished," and i'm sure that first part is true. i don't get the sense that anything being described is uniquely bad, just that fitzgerald got "caught." even from the outside, frankly, these stories seem pretty benign for what i imagine football locker rooms are like

i used to spend a lot of time around a major D1 baseball program when i was a kid & one time after a game i peeked into the locker room and one of the players was in there on the floor w/ no clothes on wrapped up in athletic tape as some of the other players like pelted stuff at him. to be clear i'm not excusing pat fitzgerald, just that in a larger sense that focusing on him or framing it as some sort of issue w/ northwestern or w/e obscures the real issue of... locker room sports culture in general -- especially, i would imagine, college locker rooms, where the only actual adults in the room are the ones looking the other way

i don't really disagree, but i think what administrators are willing to brush off has changed pretty radically since you were a kid, and fitzgerald is accused of doing a bit more than looking the other way.

Fitzgerald's tenure unwound after a former player, who has since transferred, reported the program's hazing activities to the school in late 2022. The former player, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told ESPN on Sunday that hazing was organized and widespread in Northwestern's program, often led by a group of older players called the "Shrek gang." The group would lead a hazing activity called "running," usually against freshmen or younger players who had made mistakes in practice, he said. According to the former player, older players wearing masks would restrain the victim in a dark locker room and engage in sexualized behavior. The former player said he was "run" as a freshman and also said Fitzgerald signaled for players to be added to "Shrek's list" with a specific clapping motion during practice. He said he saw Fitzgerald make the motion at least five times since the 2020 season.

i think the key there is 'sexualized behavior'. like, you can make kids run extra sprints or whatever, but after sandusky and nassar you cannot do anything along those lines.

nor is northwestern the kind of school where the football program basically owns the administration. fitzgerald was the best coach they ever had, but they went 1-11 last year. lots of people can do that without getting the school sued straight to hell.

Shrek's list

oh i think everything that has happened to fitzgerald since the news started leaking has been entirely predictable & justified. this was only ending one way

but to my point about how focusing on fitzgerald runs the risk of not addressing the larger issue at hand, northwestern has announced that they're retaining all of his assistants. it's not hard to understand from a logistical standpoint why they made this decision (hiring an entire football staff in july is probably next to impossible) and i'm sure all those guys will get cycled out when they hire a new coach, but the implication that fitzgerald was solely responsible for the culture of hazing is of course farcical. i guess we're supposed to believe that the hazing there will now cease because the rest of the coaching staff will have been scared straight or something?

lol at northwestern's entire athletic department -- apart from chris collins! -- being exposed/fired during the handful of summer days when essentially nothing else is going on in the usa

also lol at the corruption that's going on in athletic departments elsewhere that actually have good players

should have thrown their one win of last season to keep suspicions low

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/38156010/georgia-fires-staffer-survived-fatal-crash-sued-bulldogs

It's probably safe for me to ignore college football for the rest of my life

looking forward to 66 big ten schools battling it out with 67 SEC schools to determine -- What we all want, right? -- the Best of the Best

folks, let's see what right honorable justice clarence thomas thinks about today's showdown

fair enough! i don't think nebraska can consistently throw the ball either. who wants to Feed Him Shit via our exclusive deal with fanduel? i'm sure those randy vandy fans have other ideas, if no particular reason to escort a supreme court justice around the country. BOOM

Only took one night of college football for some social media person to get fired pic.twitter.com/H7jsITbCoW

— Zac Jackson (@AkronJackson) September 1, 2023

what a gratuitous joek

coach prime was right

travis hunter is an absolute freak

yeah that was extremely impressive. his INT was crazy

not sure i can handle several months of coach prime hype

also the wolverines' various tributes to jim harbaugh are embarrassing

I watched that documentary on Florida off Netflix this weekend. That movie makes me embarrassed for humanity. Football is so f'd up.

mookie

el KO

i was all like, why is clemson only favored by 12

embarrassed for dabo

One of my favorite things about the impending chaos of the in-state rivalry gang (which isn't of course isn't THE rivalry) is that students always paint bedsheets with messages belitting harbaugh for petty imagined offenses and hang them on the front of their houses - like "harbaugh drives with his mask on" or "harbaugh posts 'how to open pdf' on facebook".

I want to make one this year that says "harbaugh allegedly committed 'Level II: Significant Breach of Conduct' and 'Level I: Severe Breach of Conduct' violations of NCAA rules"

"Harbaugh wants you to carry your pregnancy to term."

"and then Harbaugh will take your baby"

They added the Feinbaum show to the local ESPN radio a few months back. Sports talk radio is filled with clones and crazy takes but those regulars on that show are something else. It makes Rome's show sound like NPR.

Nebraska's offense is about as competent as the Carolina Panther's last year. That QB was having all sorts of problems with the fumbles. Their D held up pretty good for a good part of the game with Colorado until they ran out of gas being on the field all day.

Be interesting to see if Colorado looks past Colorado St to their match-up against the Ducks, which will be a better thermometer of how good they might be. They definitely got a few players that are really talented, but I kinda doubt they are ready for prime time.

good lord the degree to which the Badgers are getting jobbed out of this game

LSU managed to cover the 56.5-point spread at home against grambling, so i assume brian kelly's bayou accent will become more pronounced this week

i would never actually root for texas but that will not prevent me from being all lol bama

i hate to *not* blame matt rhule, but nebraska has been bad for a long time now and they are not the team to beat coach prime in boulder

unfortunate about appy state

ex-Stanford coach David Shaw breaking down the death of the Pac-12 was pretty interesting to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MB_5nuvD8A

They definitely got a few players that are really talented, but I kinda doubt they are ready for prime time.

Coach Prime: "I felt a great disturbance in the Force."

mizzou walks it off with a 61 yard field goal

Watched the last quarter and a half of Colorado and Colorado St. game. It was pretty entertaining. Sanders pretty much put the team on his back and got them a win. Took a nasty hit near the end of the game. I guess the hit on Hunter early on in the game was bad too.

I had not heard that Cal and Stanford were going into the ACC. College sports is so fuct up, that is hilarious.

They should call it pro sports and tax the fuct out of the lot.

xp That hit on Hunter was a total cheap shot. The guy who took it should have been ejected.

Now, Hunter is out for some weeks due to an undisclosed injury. I'm guessing it's a bruised sternum, maybe a broken rib or two? Hopefully nothing more serious.

awful that he'll likely miss oregon and usc

colorado snapping back to reality

Getting hit in the face with it, more like.

This could really end up ugly, college football quite often don't put on the breaks.

I remember back in the old days that Switzer at Oklahoma used to just love absolutely destroying teams, like going for it 4th and short up 50+ points.

seemed pretty obvious something like today would happen

The weaknesses of the Colorado offensive line and secondary were pretty apparent even against weaker opponents. Their run defense has been nonexistent today. It’s as though they forgot how to tackle.

Marvin hurt himself holding too hard

one of the best catches in all of history

OH MY!!!! WHAT A CATCH @S1ickSzn 😳

💻 ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/4zzupSxOfJ

— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) September 23, 2023

Right knee down

almost impossible for me to choose between ND and OSU but sufjan + green unis swayed me towards the papists

sorry man

it's ok. Was our best shot. Glad the game was classic.

and thank you, mookie. Glad we were on the same side in football for a night <3.

I once heard a man scream "it's ohio vs the world!" because they were removing him from a Cici's pizza for trying to fill a backpack with slices.

Ohio State fans are the WORST, a buckeye is a worthless nut.

it's the mookiebowl, baby

Got to like seeing the Gators getting the ball run down their throat by Kentucky. 329 yards rushing to only 69 yards passing beating them 33-14. That would be 3 in a row by UK over Florida (admittedly after the Gators owning the Wildcats for like 30 years.) Still 4 out of 6 since the streak ended is pretty good.

I wish we had a wide receiver

Game perhaps decided on a targeting call where the defensive player hit the qb's leg. So they kicked out the tackler while saying it was really for his protection.

Colorado struggling against Arizona State, they just scored on a drive that included two fourth-down plays.

yikes

That one shouldn't have been that hard. Serious issues with the secondary and with the o-line. Shedeur got sacked five times. That's not sustainable.

miami ending…possibly the worst coaching in the history of the sport!

Wow, yeah, haha. What a boneheaded decision.

amazing

lmao "players of the game" graphic for Wisconsin/Iowa is both punters and Wisconsin's kicker

seeing iowa/wiscy on a screen next to oregon/washington was beautiful

On (its own 35 and punting) Wisconsin

Washington/Oregon was the best game I have seen this year.

Oregon not taking the field goal at the half!

Both Washington and Oregon going out 4th and pretty much on the goal line.

Crazy game.

FG at the end was not a gimme. Dude was chunky for a kicker.

rock
chalk

kinda want to get this bishop sycamore shirt:

https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/24022779-bishop-sycamore-alumni

sorry, hs

it would be too funny if colorado didn’t make a bowl

rock
chalk

Oh my god I hope this is real

https://www.twitter.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1719394984028250360?s=20

there is no way that's him haha, tho some michigan bloggers are pretty convinced it is

the Gene Parmesan of college football

why's he wearing sunglasses at night

lol why am I spending so much time digging into this ridiculousness tonight...

This dude has hair.

Connor Stallions is bald.

Would be hilarious if it was him, but it’s not. pic.twitter.com/sROpHN3YRN

— Mr. Ohio (@MrOH1O) October 31, 2023

followed by people saying "WIG' or "he shaved his head the next day!"

i love this whole thing

I need this to be true

god’s favorite team, the michigan wolverines, have done it again

“i wanna know where mookieproof is right now!”

I hope Brian Ferentz plays complementary football so well that they win the Big10 ship.

hail to the victors valiant

that certainly was an iron bowl that happened

bobby petrino . . . welcome home

cc: pplains

Here's to that guy becoming the John Frusciante of Arkansas football, where the band doesn't suck as much when he's around.

hired for cause

i mean i support players' freedom to lead their own lives/get paid for doing so

but i'm not sold on having guys play for four different schools into their late 20s

possibly the ncaa needs exactly that sort of accelerationism tho

omg please please shut the SEC out of the CFP

otoh *someone* needs to beat michigan

it's a conundrum of hatred

wrong, imo

no one needs to beat michigan, that would be unfair and sad

shouldn’t be a hard decision for committee: three undefeated teams plus the team that beat the sec champ

*someone* needs to beat michigan

i'm sorry but this is the most immediate priority

i could maybe, against all my upbringing and culture, root for michigan in some very specific situations? but not with harbaugh. that guy is an utter prick, even apart from the whole 'laying flowers on bo schembechler's grave' stuff

i'm not even sure i could root for him over dabo! which is, honestly, damn

xp so you are requesting alabama in the semifinal?

penalizing FSU for having a injured starter/backup like some sportswriters have suggested seems dumb, like the body of work should matter

xcept the criteria to select teams into the playoff specifically sez injuries matter iirc

I sooooooooo hope somehow the SEC gets let out of this thing just for the LOLs.

I can't see the TV people letting that happen, but lord it would be hilarious.

Being an IU almnus, I was always more of a Michigan guy as I HATE Ohio State fans from how they used to act when those drunken bozos would come into Bloomington when I was in college working in bar/restaurants. I get not liking Harbaugh but good lord would it blow the f'ning minds of all those southern redneck college football fans if they won it all and somehow their beloved Tide was not even allowed to play.

I'd be cool with Washington winning it all, as that first Oregon/Washington game was probably the most entertaining game I saw in football all year and it sounds like the rematch was a classic too.

Michigan is loaded though and I would really like to see what they can do against Alabama or Georgia as I kinda think they might actually truly could be better than them this particular season.

Listening to Feinbaum's radio show has given me total animus to despise the southern college foootball culture even more than I kinda did before. Football is a horrible terrible thing but even in that those people suck (except maybe some of the Atlanta Georgia people as I liked that town quite a bit when I was there for a couple weeks for work and watched a Dawgs game in a laundromat off Peachtree a few years back).

I got nothing against Austin, but man I don't want any of those redneck Texas fans to enjoy anything while their government is being a$$holes of the nation.

xp so you are requesting alabama in the semifinal?

― mookieproof, Sunday, December 3, 2023 12:59 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

the team that beat the 2023 sec champ (bama) which is texas

sorry bama, you shouldn’t have lost to texas. that game doesn’t mean any less just because it happened in september

who remembers the legendarily fluky iron bowl? no one? it was literally last week

And who did Auburn lost to the week before the Iron Bowl...yes that's right New Mexico State.

Florida State also beat LSU by 3 TDs, so they got a bit of bonifides.

FSU should be in over Texas

Texas win over Alabama was too early in the season.

Texas also had least impressive conference championship opponent

that lost by 42 to UCF a few weeks earlier

why does early in the season matter? bama should’ve beaten texas if they wanted to make the playoffs

the noles got hosed

the committee might’ve just nuked the acc

Early in the season has always mattered for losses because teams get better. That should cut both ways, though.

Problem with college football is there's too much of a human factor in who gets crowned.

March Madness works out perfectly because it's such a big, long tournament and the best don't usually get left out of it.

NCAA Football routinely leaves out the best and we just accept it because meh

It's great for starting arguments tho

even #1 Michigan is questionable. Not clear they are any better than last year. The schedule was weak until they played OSU at home. Not much difference with FSU outside of QB injury.

IMHO, Michigan fans are as insufferable as THE Ohio State fans.

their OC cried the most on television? Maybe that's the difference?

and tbc, I cry all of the time. But for Jim Harbaugh?

michigan is the only team in the tourney with wins over two teams currently in the top 10 *shrug*

also #1 in all the fancy stats

Washington beat Oregon twice. I think Oregon definitely beats Penn State.

With Michigan a clear No. 1 in SP+ and facing a playoff with the No. 6, 7 and 11 teams, here are your national title odds per SP+.

Michigan 49%
Texas 25%
Alabama 17%
Washington 10%

Michigan's gonna need to underachieve (again) for this to be a particularly interesting CFP.

— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) December 4, 2023

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

lol they "underachieved" when TCU beat them. They have a better shot this year because of the teams in it with them.

they did underachieve both times—they were #2 and the #2 team is expected to make the title

tho who am i to question a notre dame fan on the question of underachieving

exactly!

we are the same, you and I. *curls bony fingers into grotesque shape*

anyway, my only argument here is that Michigan and FSU deserve to be in it.

the committee might’ve just nuked the acc

this, really. if you can run the table in a power conference and not make the top four, are you really a power conference?

the only ranked teams FSU beat were LSU, duke (lol), and louisville

god help the ACC if FSU gets crushed by georgia, which they probably should unless the latter has completely checked out

yeah, they will likely be crushed. Doesn't mean they couldn't have beaten any of the 4 in the playoffs, though.

The idea that it'd be a shocking underachievement for Michigan to lose the CFB playoffs is insanity. They can definitely lose either game. They will likely lose the first one.

the ACC question doesn't really matter because the pac-12 is done and the playoff expansion

I agree that FSU was hurt by their road win over the OC that beat Michigan in the CFB playoff last year not coubting more.

obviously i am Old but having conferences where everyone doesn't play each other every year in football + home and away in basketball -- and then pretending that a conference championship means something -- is fucking stupid

honestly football ruins everything

they are fast forwarding to the professional model, it sucks very hard

well, except for the “players getting paid” part

yeah, that part is good. The transfer portal is madness, though. It is evem less restrictive than the professional model, I think?

Kyle McCord missing the Cotton Bowl to enter the portal after Day would not confirm him as next year's starter in an interview.

i don’t think michigan’s offense is good enough to win two playoff games — likely not even one. they skated thru the entire season w/o having to pass the ball & they really don’t have much talent at the skill positions aside from corum. bama is gonna dare their passing game to beat their secondary & i wish michigan luck in that endeavor

the thing w/ ACC is that it’s been a dead conference walking since at least this summer, literally the only thing holding together is a very shortsighted, very long term TV contract the schools signed. FSU, clemson, miami etc would all still be bolting at the first available opportunity regardless of what happened w/ this playoff

and anyway i don’t buy the logic that this reflects on the conference, it’s simply about the QB. nobody is making the argument that texas > FSU bcuz of the big 12. i think the committee sees SEC & big 10 on one level and everyone else on another. they ultimately made a decision that the potential entertainment value of future games is more important than the results of previous ones, and i think that will have real long term implications for the sport. but it all feels irrespective of conference to me

I agree on UM. They need turnovers and/or special teams to score against good defense. The Big 10 offenses they faced were bad, so it's also hard to know how good their defense is. Nobody in the Big 10 scored on them last year, and then they gave up 51 to TCU.

of course, Conor Stalions also didn't buy any TCU tickets last year.

gotta wonder if he still had bama on the list after the texas loss…

the tempo free, opponent adjusted stats are right there. michigan has the #10 offense in college football. other notable skill players: donovan edwards (misused so far this year, but still a five-star talent), massive tight end colston loveland, speedster wide receiver roman wilson.

they didn't put up massive numbers against the #2, #3 and #4 defenses in college football. but they still scored 24, 30, and 26 points in each of those games. that should be enough to win if their defense plays well.

i like to look at the tempo free stats because there is so much stylistic difference in college football. different conferences play basically different sports. michigan, yes, is optimally suited to big ten play, but alabama, who have won with their running game, defense, and timely milroe bombs, are basically a big ten team this year.

whatever, it is very easy to hate from outside the club

how will michigan throw the ball i wonder

Quarterback Play (ESPN QBR & EPA/play)
Power 5, through week 13

(i tweeted out the week 12 chart yesterday. my bad. not a whole lot of movement though!) pic.twitter.com/FURQClhWAw

— yahia hassan (@yhassan00) November 28, 2023

Nobody in the Big 10 scored on them last year, and then they gave up 51 to TCU.

― Natural Wine • Danny Devito • Virginia (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, December 4, 2023 12:37 PM (fifty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is also a tempo thing. michigan scored 44 in this game, if you recall, and should've had more.

tcu's total also aided by 14 defensive points

i know the advanced numbers have loved michigan all season. that being said mccarthy has thrown for under 150 yards in their last 4 wins. that's a wonderful formula to win big 10 football and you can tell me that bama is basically a big 10 team, but i doubt nick saban has ever lost a game to a QB throwing for less than 150 yards. so the formula that has worked for them is not applicable to this game, imo. it's not to say that michigan can't win but they're going to have to show a much more advanced version of their team. mccarthy hasn't thrown for a completion longer than 35 yards in over a month. the history of beating bama tells you that you need big plays from the QB and WRs because the number of teams who show up and run the ball down alabama's throats is basically nonexistent. and michigan's best OL is out.

the thing w/ football stats is you're already dealing w/ a borderline meaningless sample size and then w/ high level college teams you're reducing the sample size even further because 75% of the games are over before they start. so mccarthy's plotting on an efficiency graph is great because he can show up vs nebraska and go 12-16 for 156 yards 2 TDs 0 INT and win 45-7. but not a single thing that happened on that field is relevant to facing alabama

i don't really doubt that michigan is capable of uncorking a few big plays–the exact same group of guys last year combined for a truckload of explosive plays. for whatever reason this year–pass pro issues, head coach's, uh, absences–they have changed their approach. harbaugh and co. are terminally risk-averse in games they're confident they're gonna win, which is something i've always criticized. you need reps against the rutgers of the world to confidently execute against the bamas.

my hope is that with a month to prepare, they'll open things up, and with zinter out, they'll realize that they can't just run the ball down people's throats anymore. (every time they move away from this tendency with a counter or end around, they gain 20+ yards on teams selling out to stop the inside run. maybe run more counter? playaction maybe??)

i think michigan's defense is legit and there isn't much first round talent on bama's offense either, frankly. i don't think it's going to be a repeat of the georgia-michigan semifinal from two years ago but i think michigan has a real uphill battle to get those 24, 30, 26 points. if you wipe out the 87 yard punt return does michigan even hit 20 this weekend...

also if we find out that michigan's defense is not actually as good as we thought and in reality in their three biggest games they faced kyle mccord (already transferring), drew allar (stinks) and iowa's back up, that wouldn't be a shock either. milroe is very raw but it seems obvious that from both a talent and production standpoint he's the best QB michigan has seen this year by several orders of magnitude

maybe mccarthy's alleged first round talent shines in the one game where they actually need that from him -- but typically actually talented, NFL bound QBs don't ever put up the kinda statlines that he has been able to get away w/ repeatedly this season. it should be a fascinating game

here's jalen milroe's statline from the win against georgia: 13/23 for 192 yards and 2 tds, with 29 rushing yards.

that's a mccarthy-esque statline.

except mccarthy probably would've completed more passes

alabama and michigan are very similar this year. people ding michigan for close (not that close) wins against penn state and iowa, but don't ding bama for close wins vs auburn, tcu, arkansas, etc. no doubt they'll be better prepared than against those teams after a month off, but this is not a normal alabama team.

his dad would certainly complete more passes at his girlfriend in the stands

*usf, not tcu

i just think milroe is way more dynamic, personally. he’s got a better arm and better legs. mccarthy’s in his third year of starting his stats shouldn’t be comparable to that of a freshman. but milroe being a freshman may turn out to be relevant, too

michigan has the much better RB which is weird for a bama team but i don’t think any of bama’s RBs are gonna get drafted

it's mccarthy's second year as a starter, and yeah they should air it out more, and will have to in order to win the championship

opponent caveats taken, of course, but he's been able to air it out when he's had to this year (source here):

McCarthy has been particularly effective on third down, completing 42-of-57 pass attempts (73.5 percent) for 615 yards with a 193.26 passer rating. In situations of 3rd-and-7 yards or more, McCarthy is 27-of-35 (75.8 percent) for 447 yards with 24 first downs or touchdowns (five).

the thing w/ ACC is that it’s been a dead conference walking since at least this summer, literally the only thing holding together is a very shortsighted, very long term TV contract the schools signed. FSU, clemson, miami etc would all still be bolting at the first available opportunity regardless of what happened w/ this playoff

Is that true even with Cal, Stanford and SMU joining next year?

those additions matter less than the teams leaving the pac and big 12s next year. If it's SEC/B10 then everyone else this year, it will at least be SEC/B10, ACC, then everyone else next year.

the ACC will be very strong in non-football sports. The big football schools don't want to deal with playing Stanford and Cal in other sports, but it's inevitable.

they brought cal, stanford and SMU in mostly out of desperation and it wasn’t with any consensus. i think it was FSU, clemson & UNC that voted against the additions. if at any point those schools + miami and prob the virginia schools, NC schools, GT etc get a chance to join the big 10 or SEC they will 100% go

I agree that teams want out, but it's not clear they can break the contract for awhile. I suppose it could make sense to pay the pre-2036 penalty to leave if TV revenue continues to rise elsewhere.

At some point it becomes meaningless, doesn't it? When I was in college, my school (Colorado) was in the Big Eight, which later became the Big Twelve. We had meaningful rivalries, at least they were meaningful to us, although given the way things usually went we were no more than a speed bump to the better teams. Then we moved to the PAC-12, which made zero sense, at least in terms of geography and level of play. Now we're going back to the Big Twelve? Who cares?

lol @ ron desantis threatening to sue because FSU got snubbed

already know about chris christie's dad suingfor . . . baseball stardom i guess?, but i'd like to hear more

lol yeah the DeSantis thing is so desperate because he realizes everybody hates him.

He could be one of the Trump children.

with a win in tonight's Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl, in front of a 46% capacity crowd at tampa's raymond james stadium, georgia tech surged to a 7-6 record, leaving central florida eating shameful dust at 6-7

whatever might be said about the yellow jackets, fourth-place finishers in the ACC, no one can ever take away the pride and accomplishment these student-athletes and their fans earned with a Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl Championship

when is the pop tart bowl with the edible mascot? the winning coach gets to eat the pop tart!!

this is duke's prize for winning the 76 Birmingham Bowl

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCDw4r0WwAALy_9?format=jpg&name=small

Firming Hams Bowl morelike

Explain this one to me, Michigan is still a 1.5 favorite against Alabama...even though, I don't think I have seen ANYONE giving the Wolverine's a shot against the Tide in the game. And most of the predictions have Alabama winning quite easily.

Seems like more money is on the Tide, but what the heck does Vegas know? I just don't get this line.

who is everyone? sp+ has michigan by 4

it has michigan by 9, actually - i guess the reason why vegas hasn’t budged is the advanced stats. they sense a massive money-making opportunity with the public opinion diverging so greatly from the numbers.

It's difficult to factor "Jim Harbaugh is a cheating asshole" into a computer model. Humans, however, are quite sensitive to that attribute.

what was that? i thought i heard something coming from the direction of the tony the tiger sun bowl

one of those coaches thinks it’s cheating to line up 11 players on defense

If Michigan loses and we don't embarrass ourselves in the frosted flakes bowl, I'll happily take our situation over Michigan's

perennial playoff contender is a pretty decent situation

unless you’re indulging in some ban hammer ncaa fantasy

I believe the USC fan's recent pain is greatly mitigated by having been more than a perennial playoff contender under Carroll. UM's season right now feels too much like Carroll's last at USC but with less preceding success.

but it will all be worth it if they win it all.

idk about that, we’ll see who returns but 3-4 of the best players on the roster are true sophomores and the offensive line will reload. much tougher schedule next year for sure, but they can prob lose 2 and make the playoff (especially if they beat ohio st again)

I do enjoy the Ohio State losing every year part of all this

Also I am playing a heel the bit here, as is natural. It will only make you feel better if they win. I won't get much joy out of Saban winning w/ our previous OC.

I do not like Jim, though. Any joy I feel will mostly be contained to Jim's losing.

Do worry if he feeds the chickens after losses.

That does seem like some Oceans 11 level of Vegas to somehow rook people betting on Alabama.

I've seen some people say it is a pick em game, but there are boodles of people talking about the game thinking Alabama is going to beat the snot out Michigan. Which considering TCU last year and past peformance...sure.

voodoo kinda alluded to this but vegas odds track almost exactly with publicly available advanced stats models like SP+ these days and those stats have loved michigan all year and were relatively down on alabama w/in the context of alabama, as was most of america until like a month ago

i think the difference is that where people see bama houdini escaping from auburn and are like “oh boy here come the tide!” the advanced stats see them playing about even with a deeply mediocre squad. and they’ve had a number of games like that this year — arkansas, texas a&m etc — whereas michigan has ass consistently from the first snap of the season to the last

so the question is how much you believe in the meaning of those alabama games (as the models do) vs how much you look at alabama as alabama and think “you know they pretty much always win these games and it’s pretty much always a bloodbath.” i’m in the latter camp, as are most people, and i think saban showed in the SEC title game when he apparently scrapped his entire defensive game plan after the first drive and came up with a new one on the fly that he is still bringing a lot to the table in these games

anyway i’m very very excited for this game it could honestly be a classic

it has michigan by 9, actually - i guess the reason why vegas hasn’t budged is the advanced stats. they sense a massive money-making opportunity with the public opinion diverging so greatly from the numbers.

mich and bama are much closer this year in true talent than usual. that means coaching is even more important and yeah, saban is the best there is.

it really comes down to Qb play tho, michigan will have to bother milroe with mixed coverages and consistent pass rush. jj will have to put the offense on his shoulders for once on the other end (i think he can, we will see)

i agree bcuz nobody can ever just line up and run the ball on bama. but i also don’t think bama can just line up and run it on michigan either

the main question i have is whether michigan has the athleticism on defense to hang with milroe’s legs. the QBs on the two best teams they’ve played this year (mccord and allard) are, aside from just not being very good in general, statues in the pocket. i don’t think they’ve seen a QB in the same stratosphere of athleticism as milroe. are we gonna be a quarter way thru the game like “michigan’s LBs and safeties can’t tackle this guy in the open field”? milroe is def raw as a passer but he’s a total freak as a runner. i think bama’s path to victory is thru his legs. their skill talent is not very scary.

also bama’s secondary is really strong this year, my understanding is that they don’t have as many first round picks across the depth chart as normal except at CB and safety where 3 of their 4 guys are studs. so while i agree that a lot rides on JJ i do wonder if michigan’s WRs will be able to consistently get open against these DBs. i don’t think any of michigan’s WRs are considered real NFL prospects?

michigan has roman wilson at wr, whose game is speed (and he can really fly, unofficial 4.3), but their best skill players are running backs and tight ends, which theoretically match up well with bama’s relative weakness of linebackers in coverage over the middle of the field

michigan’s best nfl pass catching prospect is almost definitely colston loveland, the giant tight end who was their leading receiver vs osu.

running back donovan edwards is also a former five star who is an excellent receiver, but their usage of him has been incredibly frustrating this year

Do advanced stats take injuries into account? They must if correlated with betting lines?

i'm sure that advanced stats and injuries etc. affect the *initial* line, but

they need a certain level of balance in wagering and if this line was even like michigan -3 let alone the SP+ spread there would be way too many ppl betting on bama and the odds are somewhat designed to limit exposure on either end

is otm

Do advanced stats take injuries into account? They must if correlated with betting lines?

and correlation is an important word here. not causation! the correlation is because there has been so much work done over the last 10+ years in college football advanced stats, much of it publicly in particular thanks to bill who runs SP+, that there is a parallel synergy between the models vegas is using and the ones we can see online. both the secret vegas number crunchers and the public facing online ones all basically agree on what the important data is (success rate etc) & thus the models more or less spit out the same stuff. and then vegas does its own adjustments based on its needs

Best sports moment of 2023 pic.twitter.com/hbm3PBiN4b

— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) December 29, 2023

I got to say this Michigan/Alabama game has my curiosity probably the most since USC/Texas.

Now THAT was a game. I'd put that on the all time list.

Tony has all of the same tools as the pop-tart man. El Paso simply doesn't know how to use them.

Steve Angeli busting out the Miller Mossy Oak to try and blow Leonard back to Auburn

Kyle McCord is a genius

Will Howard should send him a christmas card

a mixed bag for the sec vs big 10 narratives today

suppose Auburn only showing up for the iron bowl is tradition

Playoff committee probably breathing a sigh of relief at Florida getting absolutely pancaked right now

fsu had something like 14 opt outs, including seven starters on defense. third-string qb started on offense, future nfl draft skill players keon coleman, trey burton, and johnny wilson not playing.

it's not the same team.

lol okay I did not actually know the extent of it, once again a reminder that CFB is mostly a farce

well, bowl games are a farce now yes that is pretty transparent at this point. i’m surprised so many people still watch them

where else will you witness the ritual sacrifice of a giant pop tart

https://x.com/jasonkirk_fyi/status/1741232448816496751?s=46&t=m63acfIIT8JsOyy5v_2nJw

i can only assume that the 'transfer portal' opens in december so student-athletes can enroll at their new centers of learning in january for the spring term? i'm surprised the bowl sponsors/college football powers put up with it tho

deeply appreciate that football has recently created entirely new meanings for the words 'portal' and 'protocol' tbh

College Football is the latest data network

ad hoc teams of multiplexed talent channels

lol the first play roller coaster

Sports books made some $$$$$…

not too sure about that play call

Michigan made some mistakes and survived.

Heck of a game, looking forward to ruining into Feinbaum tomorrow. I’m sure this was a conspiracy.

Alabama on 4th and goal in OT pic.twitter.com/biJPW20L2k

— Sully Engels (@sullyengels) January 2, 2024

just take a knee

Was just thinking about how cool it would be if the College Football Playoff didn't exist and the conferences were still intact and Washington and Michigan were facing off in the motherfucking Rose Bowl.

i was at the game yesterday and yeah, that is the best place in the world to watch a football game. immaculate vibes. everyone talks about the mountains but the trees add a lot, especially when the sun goes down

The call on third down was baffling.

I've only been to a music festival on the nearby golf course. It's a great spot. Congrats to Michigan fans! Both lines looked really good. Hopefully the 'ship is as thrilling as yesterday's games.

if washington had lost because their guy got hurt and stopped the clock . . . that would have been really something

in any case, i'm not sure their defense will be up to the task next week

btw that enormous jadevon clowney hit (against michigan!) was ten years ago yesterday; time really flies

My sister is a UW grad, which is my only, rather tenuous connection to any of the four schools in the playoff. So, I'll pull for them for that reason, also because I'd like to see a west coast team win, and Michigan fans, while maybe not as obnoxious as THE Ohio State fans, are pretty damn close. Their defense will have their hands full, for sure, although they did an adequate job last night.

the broad strokes of this match up -- line domination vs electric skill talent -- usually ends up going in one direction, tho texas' DL is great and washington was generally able to handle them esp at the OT spots. the kinda moves penix was making in the pocket last night to avoid free rushers up the middle are prob not sustainable, michigan is gonna get sacks. can washington offset that w/ big plays? it's possible but it's a tough place to be

michigan is going to try to win with long drives, shortening the game so each time they stop the penix offense will be more meaningful. tho washington has the 121 ranked pass defense - maybe finally michigan will air it out?

i doubt it, but we will see. gonna be a fun game.

the stats really don't favor UW. But it must look a little bit like the TCU matchup? UM, like every college team, can always beat themselves. Penix tends to show up in the big games.

yeah i hope that the more normal preparation time will help michigan focus up and avoid their usual bowl game mistakes. they made a lot of them yesterday and still pulled it out, they probably can't do that twice.

I am all in favor of Michigan making their usual bowl game mistakes.

voodoo are you going?

my personal math: normally root against any of the top big ten schools. but also washington declined my (admittedly utterly half-assed) application to grad school 30 years ago. i've kinda extra hated michigan since the fab five. but also i know people in ann arbor and it's nice. so mostly it comes down to how much i fucking loathe jim harbaugh (and also the wolverines' whole us-against-the-world schtick whenever harbaugh has to sit in the booth or whatever). will he go lay flowers on bo schembechler's grave this week? ffs

i think they'll probably win tho, and anyway seeing the SEC shut down is not without its merits

i went yesterday! logistically i had to choose between the rose bowl and the possible championship, and i always wanted to go to the rose bowl

Now for a less fun nugget for UW fans: The Huskies currently rank 44th in defensive SP+. The last national champion to rank outside the top 30 on D? Oklahoma. In *1950*.

The worst title defense since then: 2010 Auburn was 27th. And it took CAM NEWTON to overcome that.

— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) January 4, 2024

the stats suggest it's a long shot. However, stats suggested Oregon was a long shot.

washington also has 3 legit NFL WRs and uses them heavily, which is not the case for most underdogs. so you can at least envision how washington *could* win. i've also heard that their OL is actually pretty legit. but none of that explains how washington's defense keeps its head above water

The OL seems to be good at pass pro. Alabama OL was supposed to be good too, however.

I’d say Washington’s path to victory is probably no different than TCU last year- Michigan makes a boodle of mistakes and QB/team has game of their lives.

washington settling for a FG from inside the 10 on its first drive feels like a death knell to me

^^^

welp

i thought harbaugh let washington hang around a bit when michigan should have been ending it...

mccarthy has looked shaky to put it mildly

but still every drive feels like an uphill climb for washington

would imagine the number of chances washington has to flip this game are dwindling…

well that woulda possibly done it but noooo

hard to swallow that holding call when every completion replay features a Michigan OL with a handful of jersey

Penix and WRs just didn't do it tonight, though

Washington's punter and right tackle are awful

Can't handle JJ's Gino Torretta smiles

we'll find out how they cheated soon enough

Jim thinks of himself as a storyteller, really

voodoo <3

this is pretty great, not gonna lie

With a hard work ethic Inshallah the U of M will return to its glory days.

— Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (@Ahmadinejad1956) October 16, 2018

imo Michigan has no chance in the next game against "Mr. Dream"

Nick Saban is retiring, according to ESPN

Definite changing of the guard with Carroll stepping down and more than likely Bill B. Leaving at NE.

not sure carroll 'stepped down' so much as he was pushed

anyway good for saban getting out at 72; perhaps he should run for president as the youthful option

Tommy Rees was a plant, sent to annoy Saban into retirement.

just learned that sports illustrated's 2023 sportsperson of the year was . . . deion sanders, coach of a college football team that finished 4-8 overall and last in the pac-12 at 1-8

a publication/brand that deserves to die, because wtaf

the selection was made by AI

this is amazing, and i will think of it whenever anyone uses the phrase 'participation trophy'

Former LSU coach Les Miles is suing the school for vacating wins in response to an NCAA infractions case, a move that dropped Miles below the threshold for College Football Hall of Fame qualification.

Miles, who coached LSU from 2005 to 2016, also named the NCAA and the National Football Foundation, which manages the College Football Hall of Fame, as defendants. The lawsuit states he was deprived of property rights to the vacated wins and his nomination for the Hall of Fame, which must be done by those affiliated with an NCAA member school.

In 2023, LSU vacated 37 wins because of recruiting violations stemming from impermissible benefits paid to the father of former player Vadal Alexander by a former booster. The wins coincided with Alexander's playing career from 2012 to 2015 under Miles, who went 37-14 during the stretch. The vacated football wins were announced alongside other penalties for LSU's football and men's basketball programs by the NCAA's Independent Accountability Resolution Process.

The 37 vacated wins dropped Miles' overall record from 145-73, a winning percentage of .665, to 108-73, a winning percentage of .597. Coaches must have a career winning percentage of .600 in at least 100 games to qualify for selection to the College Football Hall of Fame.

those wins were his property!

could Pete Rose try this

fewer smiles