Get up! It's Gameday (almost).
Here are a few headlines that caught my attention since January:
Here are a few headlines that caught my attention since January:
- There is a new poll in town: the Grantland Rice Super 16. I'll view it only out of curiosity. I'm a Coaches Poll fan since it is made up of people who live college football day in and day out.
- The new College Football Playoff (CFP) committee. I like to think this group will help build the foundation for what we all know will become a bigger and better playoff. Only three questions:
- Who was the selection committee for the selection committee?
- Were these folks on a ballot, vying for a spot or were they approached?
- How did Condoleeza Rice get on this gig? The others have some association with the sport but she never played. (She did oversee sports at Stanford and hired Tyrone Willingham. But does she watch enough to make playoff level decisions?)
- There were two 8th grade commits to LSU. One is a nephew of Koy and Ty Detmer. LSU has a serious long-term vision and they are putting it in place.
- And, of course, the lawsuit.
- I read both sides. I do think the NCAAF (BCS) was a big scam (read "The Six Billion Dollar Scam"). But both arguments have some merit and I think this is a good, baby-step move in the right direction. Highly paid players may take away from the sports passion. But this is just enough to be more fair, not be highly paid or remove passion.
- Click HERE for a summary on the Northwestern "players as employees" case.
- Click HERE for a summary of the O'Bannon ("pay for play") trial.
- And you gotta love Jon Stewart's take on all this: click HERE.
- Florida State will not repeat. Their soft schedule will take them far but they'll be schooled in the end.
- Alabama will have "down" (re-building) year for the first time in years.
- The PAC-12 highly touted and loaded offenses will beat up on one another...but a playoff team will emerge. I'm guessing UCLA.
- Defense will reign once again in the SEC now that Manziel, Mettenburger, Moore and McCarron are playing on Sundays.
- The Big 10 won't be part of the playoff...neither will Alabama.
Though I'm a big fan of UGA and BYU I will have my eye on a few other teams this year. (Oddly enough, four are from the PAC-12):
- Utah: I'm curious how Whittingham will handle his hot seat year, especially in a loaded PAC-12 conference.
- Washington: I want to see if Peterson can duplicate what he did at Boise State.
- USC: I just like Sarkisian's style of coaching and want to see how he transfers that back to USC.
- UCLA: I just want to watch Brett Hundley (my pre-season Heisman favorite).
- Texas: I really like Charlie Strong, his background and his commitment to success and I want to see if he can bring that program back.
END-ZONE
Autonomy given to the Power 5? I'm not sure that is such a good idea. I like the limitations they put in place but too much power in too few hands usually spells trouble. Can't we all just get along?