NCAA Football 2023 Season Megathread
Figured I would get this thing started since a mod still hasn’t changed the title of the 2022 thread. Let’s just start o
I like the characterization that Saban was the glue that kept the Tide program together and rolling. Not just the coach/recruiter/motivator ... but the glue. The uber energized program wants to come flying apart like an atomic bomb unless there is that outer layer imploding it in. Deboer not gonna work, imo. I wouldn't bet as much on that as I would for a lot of other hires, but it's still odd's on to fly apart.
Whatever win% Bama had from Gene Stallings to Mike Shula, that's what they'll approximately revert back to. A good, sometimes great team, with mediocre to bad years sprinkled in. No more dynastic runs.
Nick Saban was a mediocre coach who was the goat at rigging things in his favor. Problem now is "cheating" ie buying players, is effectively being legalized. Nil + portal = way more level playing field and nobody can have have super loaded 2 deep rosters. Iow the very way Nick Saban won is no longer viable. There is no monopoly on "cheating" anymore. Others--many others--can and will now join the fray.
Frankly Alabama came close to ruining college football but now they'll come back to reality winning around 70% of their games. Deboer will never survive this inevitable regression. He will be scapegoated and then they'll end up hiring someone worse.
Some programs are at such an elite level that it takes time to come apart.
Just look at Miami. They eventually came apart under Larry Coker, but even that was a slow process b/c the team was stacked (I think in the running for most players drafted or something).
Coker finished 1st, 2nd, and 5th in the nation before it started falling apart. He then went 11th, 18th, and unranked and then was canned.
Schnellenberger put the Canes on the map with the 1983 natty and over the next 24 seasons were ranked top 20 in all but 1 year with 5 natties.
Since Coker destroyed the program, it's been 5 coaches, 18 years and their best ranking is 11th. They had 3 other seasons ranked in the bottom third of the top 25 and 14 unranked seasons out of 18. That would seem almost impossible in 2001 when they were so loaded.
The difference is that I think a dynasty can unravel much quicker in the Portal era. Bama lost a ton of talent already and 1 or 2 mediocre seasons could send the rest of the talent out the door.
We'll see, but with so many other programs chomping at the bit, it's a monumentally tough ask for DeBoer to keep this going.
It kinda got masked because they ran really good in key spots to make the playoffs but Bama was already clearly on the decline this year, they were underdogs against a B1G school in the playoffs and finished 6th in FPI making them easily the worst Bama team in the past 15 years. Saban saw the writing on the wall that the dynasty was over. The best case scenario for DeBoer is that they become the next Ohio St where they compete for a title once every 3-4 years but the median outcome is much, much worse than that.
It's been a month and Michigan is still National Champions
Michigan has a legit chance to break Georgia's 2022 nfl draft record too (15 players). Already achieving the rare 15-0 mark, this team will go down in history as one of the greatest teams ever.
just like counting the number of times you can fold in half a notebook sized piece of paper
heard the guinness book is itching for clicks
And the irony of Chip landing with your inferior rival.
Dumb question but what happens to all the other sports in the Pac-12? Is the women's handball team expected to travel to Rutgers on a regular basis?
This is happening as we watch basektball
Didn't even know handball was a collegiate sport. Googled for it and West Point won 60 out of 84 national titles and 15 mens titles in a row.
FWIW, handball is the #2 team sports in most European countries.
i will forever mourn the end of the pac12
agnostic about the acc
I never even noticed those other two positions on a car ignition switch. I guess they drew more power than the ACC setting???
I would hope so, anyway. ACC barely powered the radio.
two minute warning coming to college football - because there weren't enough commercials already
Starting to get gross. This is glorified semi pro.
Plenty of gambling.
Speaking of can you point shave if you have no skin in the game just to be chaotic neutral.
The vast majority of students at SEC schools don't even know what Hamas is. Anyone who can even spell the word might be overqualified to attend Mississippi State or Alabama.
except Oregon is all about those protests
https://www.opb.org/article/2024/04/29/u...
