NCAA FOOTBALL 2024 MEGA THREAD - WELCOME TO THE PLAYOFF ERA
Just 8 days until Florida State plays Georgia Tech!
A lot happened while you were away:
Texas and Oklahoma joined the SEC
The Pac-12 went out in a blaze of glory:
Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA are headed to the B1G
Utah, Arizona, Arizona State and Colorado are headed to the B12
Cal and Stanford along with SMU are somehow headed to the ACC
Poor old Wazzu and Oregon State are now aligned with the MWC in some sort of in-flux relationship
The conferences are huge now, and the schedules are wildly imbalanced. Florida might have the hardest schedule in the history of the sport, while Missouri's playing a sun-belt slate.
FSU and Clemson play each other, but then play ZERO common ACC opponents
Utah/Baylor and Arizona/Kansas State play non-conference games against conference opponents
LSU and USC play in Vegas!
Boise goes to Oregon, a team they've never lost to!
Texas at Michigan!
Alabama at Wisconsin!
Notre Dame at ATM!
Clemson vs Georgia!
And there are some incredibly juicy new conference matchups:
Texas @ ATM is back!
Texas vs Georgia
Oregon vs Ohio State
USC @ Michigan
USC vs Penn State
And then the bizarre:
UCLA @ Rutgers is now a conference game
Syracuse plays home and away against Cal and Stanford for some reason
Half the teams have new coaches, transferred quarterbacks, or both!
Let's get it on!
The biggest story here is obviously the Ohio State superteam which features something like 7 potential first round NFL draft picks and another 10 guys behind them who will probably get drafted. At QB is Skylar Howard who (a) was awesome at K-State, and somehow also (b) probably wasn't going to win the starting job this year at K-State?
So ... Will Howard but fast?
Anyway, I don't think Indiana will be the worst team in the B1G, Penn State will find a way to blow a favorable schedule in the most hilarious way possible, Iowa will somehow manage to be even worse on offense after firing Brian Ferentz, Rutgers will post a great record and then get skull****ed in a bowl because it was all based on a Mizzou-esque schedule, LOL Sparty will LOL Sparty, and Bert will eat an entire roasted pig during halftime of the Illinois-Northwestern game.
Good preview GoldenBears. We are almost there!
Yea that guy's legit. Would sell my soul for Michigan to have him. I think Michigan fans hoping Ohio State isn't gonna be that great cuz they got a guy who was gonna lose his job at Kansas State are in for a rude awakening. Losing your job to THAT GUY doesn't mean you suck.
Still think Will Howard is good enough to lead Ohio State to a national championship and that's my prediction. Ohio State 16-0 for all the marbles. They're not a Big12 offense anymore. They've basically copied the Mich
Quinshon Judkins getting to come in and out fast everyone after the o line and Treyveon Henderson batters and wears down defenses is unfair. Doesn't even speak to the talented wr core either. If Third Base can't win a title with this roster, he needs to go.
https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...
Draft guy ranked the top 151 players for anyone interested.
2PAC greatest conference name ever
So ... Will Howard but fast?
Anyway, I don't think Indiana will be the worst team in the B1G, Penn State will find a way to blow a favorable schedule in the most hilarious way possible, Iowa will somehow manage to be even worse on offense after firing Brian Ferentz, Rutgers will post a great record and then get skull****ed in a bowl because it was all based on a Mizzou-esque schedule, LOL Sparty will LOL Sparty, and Bert will eat an entire roasted pig during halftime of the Illinois-Northwestern
oops
you know them mountaineers are never far from my mind
In the B12 preview, I reversed the titles of the Conf and Playoff columns
Obviously for any P4 team, the odds of making the playoffs are higher than the odds of winning the conference
Interesting theory, but I took UCF +1100 to playoff instead of +800 to win the B12 at the same book.
Part of me thinks I’m taking advantage but another part just suspects there’s some elimination round I don’t know about yet.
B12 looks pretty wide open but their schedule’s favorable and I’ve always feared KJ Jefferson when he isn’t being told to be a pocket passer. Plus if they beat Florida they might be one of 3 teams who could even make it without the title ( WVU if they beat Penn State, or Houston if they *snicker* beat Oklahoma ).
Does Prime just pray they get to 6-6 or better then bolt?
The entire team is just his sons and Hunter. All of whom will be gone.
He's active in the Portal, but loses almost as many key players as he brings in.
SEC PREVIEW
Team Rating Playoff Conf
Georgia 33.4 83% 33%
Texas 28.2 68% 22%
Alabama 26.3 45% 12%
OleMiss 23.1 57% 11%
LSU 22.1 44% 9%
Missouri 20.2 33% 4%
Oklahoma 20.8 17% 3%
TexasA&M 19.3 29% 7%
Tennessee 19.2 33% 5%
Auburn 14.6 11% 1%
Florida 12.2 4%
Kentucky 10.8 6%
Arkansas 10.6 2%
USCe 9.5 4%
MissSt 1.1
Vanderbilt -7.3
And here's the death star. Projecting for something like 4 playoff spots, featuring some of the most wildly disparate schedules in history (see OP re: Florida and Mizzou), a cluster**** of a race to get to the title game, and somehow, someway, Vanderbilt is still involved.
Featuring by far the highest number of absolute cupcake games, as they insist on still playing 8 conference games with 16 teams, but also the most amount of absolute deathmatches, it should be a wild ride
Key storylines are KD taking over for Saban at Bama, UGA looking for revenge after getting left out of the playoff, Texas and OU joining the conference, Lane doing LANE things, BK looking to break through at LSU, Mizzou looking to really cement themselves as a contender, and so much more.
OOC games:
Four against the B1G:
Bama @ Wisconsin
LSU n USC
LSU v UCLA
Texas @ Michigan
Four against the B12:
Arkansas @ Ok State
Florida v UCF
Miss St @ Arizona State
Oklahoma v Houston
Against the ACC:
Auburn v Cal
Florida v Miami
Florida @ FSU
UGA n Clemson
UGA v Georgia Tech
Kentucky v Louisville
Ole Miss @ Wake
Mizzou v BC
Tennessee n NC State
Vandy v Va Tech
USCe v Clemson
(ATM v ND)
Games against mid majors with a pulse, none of which are losable, but kudos for playing them anyway:
Bama v WKU and USF
Miss State v Toledo
Oklahoma v Tulane
Texas v UTSA
classic SEC lulz:
Bama v Mercer
Arkansas v UAPB
Arkansas v UAB
Arkansas v La tech
Auburn vs Bama A&M
Auburn v New Mexico
Auburn v ULM
Florida v Samford (though we'll forgive this one)
UGA v Tenn Tech
UGA v UMass
Kentucky v USM
Kentucky v Ohio
Kentucky v Murray State
LSU v Nicholls
LSU v South Alabama
Ole Miss v Furman
Ole miss v MTSU
Ole Miss v Ga Southern
Miss St v EKU
Miss St v UMass
Mizzou v Murray State
Mizzou v Buffalo
Mizzou @ Umass
Oklahoma v Temple
Oklahoma v Maine
USCe v ODU
USCe v Akron
USCe v Wofford
Tennessee v Chattanooga
Tennessee v UTEP
Tennessee v Kent St
Texas v Colorado State
Texas v ULM
ATM v McNeese
ATM v BGSU
ATM v NM St
Vandy v Alcorn
Vandy @ Ga St
Vandy v Ball St
[QUOTE=GoldenBears;58685596]SEC PREVIEW
Team Rating Playoff
Kentucky 10.8 6%
You guys play Southern Miss, Ohio, Vanderbilt and Murray State at home, so that's 4-0 right there
South Carolina, Louisville, Auburn at home are all close, but not crazy to scoop those and be 7-0
Then there are five tough games:
v UGA
@ Ole Miss
@ Florida
@ Tennessee
@ Texas
2-3 in those games might be enough to get it done, especially if one of the wins is over UGA and/or you win @ Texas @ Tennessee and finish on a 5 game win streak with huge wins against two other contenders down the stretch
28 hours until kickoff
WEEK 0
noon
#10 FSU (-10) @ GEORGIA TECH
FSU will be breaking in a ton of new highly regarded transfer starters, including DJU playing QB at his third stop, after rehabilitating his image last year at Oregon State. Haynes King returns at QB for GT along with (I think) a lot of the o-line. Last year's top two WRs Singleton and Rutherford both return and should improve from the FR/SO seasons. GT's defense was pretty suspect last year, but the offense should be decent.
4pm
MONTANA STATE (-13.5) @ NEW MEXICO
Montana State was like the 6 seed last year in FCS and is somehow favored by 13.5 on the road? I know nothing about New Mexico other than they were 4-8 last year and somehow beat Fresno.
8PM
SMU (-26) @ NEVADA
Three road teams are favored by double digits? Weird week zero, usually it's home teams that are playing the creampuffs. Nevada was bad last year and should be bad this year. SMU returns Preston Stone at QB (he got hurt at the end of last year) and a lot of talent. I think they're an ACC/Playoff dark horse.
MIDNIGHT
DELAWARE STATE @ HAWAII (-40)
Delaware State missed their flight on Tuesday
The second TIMMY CHANG era got off to a slow start at Hawaii, going 5-17 in their first 22 games. But they closed last season on a 3-1 streak to provide some optimism coming in to 2024.
So who we betting tomorrow boys
I’m on Tech and the over. Their OC Faulkner is the next big thing and that offense should be really good.
FSU and the under. Talent gap is still there and massive even if it's half transfers. FSU's OC is suspended for the game so I'm thinking "they can't stop the run" will be the dominant theme.
razorbacker; are you pulling for a Petrino coup?
The "magic" of week 0...
In any other week I wouldn't watch any of these games. But week 0, let's have this on in the background.
We’re baaaaaaaaaaacccccckkkkkkkk
obv no surprise, but my FSU bud in Dublin said the ratio of Noles fans to Ramblin wreck fans is 10:1
FSU and the under. Talent gap is still there and massive even if it's half transfers. FSU's OC is suspended for the game so I'm thinking "they can't stop the run" will be the dominant theme.
razorbacker; are you pulling for a Petrino coup?
I have my eyes on GJ Kinne at Texas St, but if not I’m good with Petrino. Every time he speaks we are reminded at how good of a coach he is. Him plus NIL could be a good 5 year solution. My fear is we will hire Odom from UNLV. Traylor at UTSA would be another option.
Happy Holidays to all those that celebrate.
Is Saban really the new regular on College Gameday?
People don't want hard-hitting analysis on these types of shows, they want personalities like Barkley and Shaq and Saban is a charisma black hole.
That was ez
