What the fuck, people, Does his choice require penetrating analysis today?
No worries, Jim. There is no penetration with any of that âanalysisâ.
When does Archâs NIL deal get announced?
2 Likes
Very funny. Not worthy of a response from me.
1 Like
I think he clearly inherited the family talent. I want to see if he inherited his uncleâs forehead.
Darren Rovell weighed in with his prediction last yearâŚ
Isnât Archie Manning really old?
Doesnât look that way
Bombshell:
Itâs good for the Big Ten, itâs good for USC and UCLA, itâs bad for college football. I hate this realignment stuff at my core. Texas, A&M, Oklahoma and Mizzou do not belong in the SEC. USC, UCLA, Rutgers, Maryland, and Nebraska do not belong in the Big Ten. I can at least buy Colorado and Utah in the Pac 12. West Virginia and the other east coast schools should not be in the same confrence as Kansas schools. I just hate it.
I do think we are driving towards an NFL model in college football and I just really donât like it. Even with my school guaranteed to be a part of it.
I blame the weak leadership of the Big 12 in the leadup to A&M, Mizzou, Nebraska and Colorado leaving. Iâm not sure how much, if any, of this happens without the Big 12 starting to bleed back then. Then again, itâs not like this hasnât been a long term trend in college football for for nearly 40 years now
2 Likes
Yeah, itâs a lot bigger than anything a Big 12 Commish did or didnât do.
Yep â It was about the money then (when UT did not want to give up Longhorn Channel) and it is about the money now. Two Super Conferences, each with four six-team ârivalryâ divisions. Winners join an 8-team playoff. Bowls highlight inter-conference match-ups. A typical 14-game schedule would be the five teams in your division every year and half the remaining teams in the conference every other year. And if the 49th team goes undefeated and calls âfoulâ on the national championship, we just ban them from Twitter.
Same guy that broke the news of USC and UCLA
What percentage of this is rooted in nostalgia (and, by extension, decades-old arbitrary geographical constraints)? Most of those school/conference alignments you listed are pretty defensible unless one simply wants things to remain the way theyâve always been.
I have no doubt that each individual school made the absolute correct decision for themselves. Hell, I might, probably would have, made the same decision if I was calling the shots for the school in question.
Iâm not a fan of all the best anything coalescing into a small ultra elite group because my favorite thing about college football is the variety. Which granted weâve had the same few schools at the top for a decade now. I wouldnât mind if it was consolidated into say, 3 or 4 major confrences, not 2. I donât want major college football to become NFL junior anymore than it already is.
What we are headed for right now is the midwest/pacific confrence under the Big Tens name, add in Oregon, Washington, Notre Dame and pick your 4th school, or go up to 24 even and pick off more of the PAC12.
On the other side you have south, SEC where the SEC adds the 2 other Florida schools and Clemson and like Houston or Oklahoma State or Virginia Tech, more again if you do 24.
And thatâs it, thatâs division 1 college football, 40 or 48 schools under 2 governing bodies. We could even call one the Fox confrence(Big Ten) and the other the ESPN confrence(SEC).
I just think itâs bad for the sport as a whole in the long run. Iâve been wrong before though and Iâm sure Iâll be wrong a bunch more in my life and this may be one of the things.
I will say I have a shit ton of fun making up confrences and divisions and schedules when these things happen. So maybe Iâm just one big contradiction screaming into the void where my sanity is supposed to be.
Thinking about this more carefully, I wonder if it is time to consider some sort of relegation system like they have in European football leagues. The top level (Premier League, Bundesliga, etc.) are full-on pro, while the payments tend to decrease (and the amateur aspect of the sport increase) as it moves down the levels to the regional and local leagues. This seems like it would give the real âstudent athletesâ a more amateur experience (while still providing a competitive experience) and at the same time acknowledge the big-time money component of major college sports (along with their role as developmental leagues for the pros). As in Europe, a team/college that wanted to âplay upâ could invest in facilities, recruiting (including NIL deal pools), and coaching and move up by winning at their local level. Some teams (think Liverpool or Bayern MĂźnchen) would not only be near locks to stay in the top league, but would be perennial favorites to make the âfinal fourâ. Others would have exciting good years and nail-biting experiences trying to avoid relegation. All good fun. And it would acknowledge the monetary motivation much better than retaining anachronistic conference forms.
Iâm glad you said this. Iâm currently working a structure for just this set up.
Why, pray tell?
Iâm intrigued by the idea but donât see how it ever works with so much State money involved.