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!
FSU is now 0-5 in games in which DJU was a starting QB.
So not only are we 0-3 with the piece of crap, we also somehow lost twice to him.
It looks like Norvell sucks ass. It should be impossible to have a team outside the top 50 w/the talent FSU gets, but here we are. OL is the most experienced in the nation and looks like ****, DL was supposed to be elite, looks like ****.
I always wondered if NIL deals come with guarantees of playing time? There's 0 reason to keep playing DJU. He'll never be good, and he's leaving after this year anyway. There are 2 green, but talented QBs waiting in the wings, let them take their lumps so they're at least not terrible next year. Do the NIL bigwigs get pissed if they buy a guy like DJU for you and then he doesn't play? Seems like it, otherwise why keep playing him when the season's over?
I think we just don't have the money to compete anymore, at least not with this shitty ACC TV contract. FSU was never a huge money school, and now the gap is even wider. Their big advantage was always being in a great spot for recruiting, in the center of all the FL, GA, AL guys, but in the NIL era, that advantage is way less important.
Where USCe really got screwed was on the phantom OPI penalty that took a TD off the board a couple of series earlier.
i just watched the College Gameday highlights but they didn't show/mention this call. do you know approx when it happened so i can search for it?
A lot of time could be saved with HC interviews by opening with, "Do you trust a defense?" If the candidate says yes, then thank him for coming and offer to buy him lunch.
no truer words
Lots of parellels to Jimbo at FSU who had a 27-1 2-year run when the talent lined up perfectly and he had a Heisman level QB. Although it didn't come crashing down for Jimbo quite as fast. He was 10-3 the next 2 seasons, then 7-6 in the 3rd season before being fired and leaving nothing for poor Willie Taggart.
FSU this year is somehow worse at every single position group than anticipated and the majority of that has to fall on the head coach. Maybe if 1-2 groups were underwhelming then you can fix it by replacing a coach or 2, but this thing needs an entire overhaul.
i just watched the College Gameday highlights but they didn't show/mention this call. do you know approx when it happened so i can search for it?
I couldn't find a video from a quick search, but I did find a reference to it happening with about 9 minutes left in the game which sounds about right to me. It was about two plays prior to USCe turning the ball over in the RZ.
The OPI call was away from the ball and marginal at best.
i just watched the College Gameday highlights but they didn't show/mention this call. do you know approx when it happened so i can search for it?
I couldn't find a video from a quick search, but I did find a reference to it happening with about 9 minutes left in the game which sounds about right to me. It was about two plays prior to USCe turning the ball over in the RZ.
The OPI call was away from the ball and marginal at best.
They showed the replay a few times with different receivers because they couldn't believe the # the refs called was correct. If it was on the # they called I'd struggle to say it was marginal at best. I don't think it was even close to OPI.
I couldn't find a video from a quick search, but I did find a reference to it happening with about 9 minutes left in the game which sounds about right to me. It was about two plays prior to USCe turning the ball over in the RZ.
The OPI call was away from the ball and marginal at best.
They showed the replay a few times with different receivers because they couldn't believe the # the refs called was correct. If it was on the # they called I'd struggle to say it was marginal at best. I don't think it was even close to OPI.
👍
Wow UK can't risk a TD pass attempt at the end of the first half with plenty of time, and can't risk a 4th down with 4 minutes to go in UGA territory and lose by 1 to #1.
Has anybody ever won 19 straight followed by losing 19 straight?
Probably been covered but the last three games against this Georgia dynasty in Lexington, UGA has scored 13, 16 and 14 and won all 3. Amazing that UK's defense can do that to them while not moving the ball themselves.
UNLV ranked!
Probably been covered but the last three games against this Georgia dynasty in Lexington, UGA has scored 13, 16 and 14 and won all 3. Amazing that UK's defense can do that to them while not moving the ball themselves.
similar to growing turf long to thwart speedy feet
setting the gravity field to eleven punishes slower teams first
It would be an impressive accomplishment to go from an undefeated regular season directly into the trash and fired after the next season. It would be beyond elite if the firing was during the season. There's a chance.
George O'Leary's resume included, inter alia, UCF's best season going 12-1 with wins over Penn St, and Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl. He was later fired before he could make it to 0-12.
My numbers are basically spot-on with Vegas at this point, and I have Wazzu at 9% to win out, but they're only 25-1 to playoff
I feel like they've gotta make it at undefeated? The pressure will be pretty intense
They'd have wins:
@ Washington
@ Boise
@ Fresno
vs Texas Tech
vs Oregon State
That's a pretty decent slate?
Too lazy to run all the calcs since we're only 3 weeks in, but here is my guess of resume rankings:
1 Northern Illinois (@ Notre Dame)
2 Georgia (n Clemson, @ Kentucky)
3 USC (n LSU, v Utah State)
4 Texas (@ Michigan, v UTSA, v Colorado State)
5 Cal! (@ Auburn, v SDSU)
6 UCF (@ TCU, v SHSU)
7 Iowa State (@ iowa, v North Dakota)
8 Miami (@ Florida)
9 Oklahoma State (v Arkansas, v SDSU, @ Tulsa)
10 UNLV (@ Kansas, @ Houston)
11 Memphis (@ FSU, v Troy)
12 Wazzu (n Washington, v Texas Tech)
And here's what I have for power:
1 Georgia
2 Ohio State
3 Texas
4 Alabama
5 Tennessee
6 Ole Miss
7 Oregon
8 Miami
9 Mizzou
10 USC
11 Penn State
12 Notre Dame (!)
So my combined rankings would be something like:
1 Georgia
2 Texas
3 USC
4 Miami
5 Alabama
6 Tennessee
7 Oregon
8 Penn State
9 Oklahoma State
10 Mizzou
11 UCF
12 Iowa State
If you place any weight at all on resume, can't have Ohio State or Ole Miss in any ranking until they play at least a top-80 team or something
Mid Major watch:
MWC is the strongest mid major conference:
UNLV has wins @ Houston and @ Kansas with games against Syracuse and Oregon State on deck
Fresno lost competitively @ Michigan and has another game @ UCLA that they could definitely win and also plays Wazzu
Boise barely lost @ Oregon and has games against Wazzu and Oregon State
In the MAC:
NIU and Toledo are 2-0 and 3-0 with wins @ Notre Dame and an absolute dump trucking @ Mississippi State
Unfortunately Miami OH (who was the preseason favorite) lost both P4 games to Northwestern and Cincinnati
Sun Belt:
Lots of close calls but no cigars
JMU is 2-0 with UNC still on the schedule
Coastal is 3-0 with UVA at home
Georgia State is 2-1 but did beat Vanderbilt
App State is 2-1 and got absolutely annihilated by Clemson, but just eked out a win over AAC ECU and plays Liberty at home
Hard for me to see the Sun Belt getting the bid at this point, would need absolute chaos in the MWC
American:
Tulane got really close, could easily have beaten Kansas State and/or Oklahoma but lost both
Memphis won @ FSU, but the rest of the league is not helping them. UTSA was supposed to be a quality win but is now getting the punching bag treatment
UAB and USF had some close calls, but again, no cigars
CUSA:
It's the worst conference by far, Liberty is their only shot who is a huge favorite in every game except @ App St, but even at 13-0 I think they will be behind 1 loss Memphis or MAC champ, and probably behind a 2 loss MWC champ
We are definitely losing to JMU this week, but unfortunately for them, it will not be a high profile win.
NIU gets in if unbeaten so long as ND goes 10-2 or better. MWC might be a stronger conference but needed Boise St to beat Oregon not just play close as none of the other games are against top teams with the possible exception of WSU if they go 11-1.
My numbers are basically spot-on with Vegas at this point, and I have Wazzu at 9% to win out, but they're only 25-1 to playoff
I feel like they've gotta make it at undefeated? The pressure will be pretty intense
They'd have wins:
@ Washington
@ Boise
@ Fresno
vs Texas Tech
vs Oregon State
That's a pretty decent slate?
and three common opponents with oregon to bolster transitive b1g comparison
Has anybody had a losing record the season after winning a national title? Asking for a friend.
Looks like not in the modern era. I'm surprised. Several went exactly .500. Looks like Michigan has done it twice, losing record following titling, in antiquity (1919 and 1934), and a few others including Ohio State way back.
Looks like not in the modern era. I'm surprised. Several went exactly .500. Looks like Michigan has done it twice, losing record following titling, in antiquity (1919 and 1934), and a few others including Ohio State way back.
Good stuff thx. I'm not saying it's gonna happen but a losing season is definitely drawing live here given how broken the offense is. Also USC by anything less than a TD is as free as it gets. Think they'll have that game wrapped up by half time.
That 1934 team won one game and the starting center was Gerald Ford. Born loser.
...BTW, is this where I come to brag about taking USC +8.5 over the summer?
