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 assume 8 home games isn't that uncommon for a Power-2 program.
You get either a 5/4 or 4/5 split of conference games and most top programs are playing either 3 home or 2 home and a neutral for their OOC schedule.
More common in conferences that play 9 conference games, sure. In this case IIRC it's also weird side effect of conference realignment -- the Texas series was flipped (was supposed to be @Texas in 2023) as part of their B12 exit and of course the B1G schedule changed completely a few months ago.
More common in conferences that play 9 conference games, sure. In this case IIRC it's also weird side effect of conference realignment -- the Texas series was flipped (was supposed to be @Texas in 2023) as part of their B12 exit and of course the B1G schedule changed completely a few months ago.
Weren't they supposed to play at Texas in 2024 and at Michigan in 26 or 27?
Um no. The best kind've of schedule is what Michigan had in 21,22,23. A bunch of cream puffs in the non-conference so you're damn near guaranteed to go 10-2 and make the playoffs in this new format. We've literally scheduled ourselves out of the playoffs this year. 10-2 was plausible even without a QB if we essentially played nobody else but Oregon and Ohio State. Adding Texas to the slate is just committing program seppuku. I mean ****, even scheduling Fresno State is inexcusable. Fresno State alone is our toughest non-conference game in 5 years!! ND 2019 is the last time we had a noncon game tougher than Fresno st. Fresno st can actually beat us. They're a good team. We have no QB. If we play our B game and they play their A game it can happen. Why schedule even one non-conference game you can lose given how tough the Bigger 10 will be. It's insanity.
Excluding ND, the perfect schedule is whatever gives your team the highest probability of going 10-2+ given conference constraints becuz 10-2 gets you in the playoffs and everybody knows they're just gonna sort by wins and losses like they always have.
I think the correct take is "they are going to move the goal posts however they need moved to ensure they get the teams they want in."
All I know is in a rational world a 9-3 Florida team or Michigan team should get in the playoffs every time given how brutal their schedules are but a 10-2 Missouri team or Penn State team will be prioritized over both.
I assume 8 home games isn't that uncommon for a Power-2 program.
You get either a 5/4 or 4/5 split of conference games and most top programs are playing either 3 home or 2 home and a neutral for their OOC schedule.
It's rare but doable. Also something like Mich 2011 can play road games @NW/UIL @MSU and thus play the entire season in three states. If ND got added to the BUG then it could be two states, @ND/IU/Purdue.
They effectively made the playoffs and got bounced in the first round by a team with a high school offense. Calling them losers is perfectly acceptable.
We lost a nail biter to the same team Michigan beat in a nail biter - what on Earth are you talking about? That 27-3 halftime lead in Miami a couple of years ago mustve dulled your brain. We are still at the top - what are yall gonna do this year?
We lost a nail biter to the same team Michigan beat in a nail biter - what on Earth are you talking about? That 27-3 halftime lead in Miami a couple of years ago mustve dulled your brain. We are still at the top - what are yall gonna do this year?
Michigan played a bad game vs Bama. Made too many mistakes but luckily still won. That's how it often goes. To win a championship a team will often have that one game they played bad but still escaped. The quintessential example being the Miami-Boston College 2001 game or the ND-Boston College 93 game in a parallel universe where BC misses that FG.
Michigan is ****ed this year. We are up against perhaps the toughest schedule in the history of our program and we have no QB.
It's cute that the 23 team was the last team to win it all without illegally paying recruits and probably the first to do it since the 97 Michigan squad. And BTW nobody should be praising Michigan for this fake morality achievement and any Michigan fan that takes pride in the above is an idiot.
But now those chickens come home to roost cuz we now have one of the worst QB rooms out of any serious program precisely because its been true for almost 2 decades that a team is not getting a big time QB recruit without paying him. We have the ultimate "you get what you pay for" QB roster. We might be starting a guy who couldn't make it at Indiana or a guy who's been on campus for 2 years with no evidence he can execute a forward pass in live game action. Revenue sharing cant come fast enough.
As far as my prediction I vacillate between 7-5 and 8-4 depending on my mood. Last night I had a horrible dream that I lost both my legs and was dying of cancer. Then I woke up intact and healthy and got a huge rush. So I'm in a good mood today. 8-4 it is.
BTW 2025 is gonna be even worse. Huge talent drop off. Schedule is still tough (Oklahoma is our noncon gm) and the mediocre recruiting over the last 3 years due to not illegally paying recruits really bites us in the ass. We're losing lots of premium talent to the draft after this year. This might sound crazy but it is plausible that the first RB, TE, DT, CB, and LB taken in the NFL draft are all from Michigan. We are not replacing that premium talent. We're probably going 6-6 in 2025.
As far as Georgia it just gets annoying with the "what if Michigan had to play Georgia" crap. They effectively made the playoffs and lost so who cares. It's like wondering if the Boston Celtics would've beaten Denver this year. Who cares. Denver lost to Minnesota.
As far as 'who cares what ifs' tho nobody talks about what would've happened had Georgia played Michigan in 2022. Obviously Michigan choked hard vs TCU giving Georgia a layup national title game. But that Michigan team was built to win it all that year. Mich vs Georgia 22 would've been epic. I think Georgia wins because Michigan wasn't the same with Blake Corum injured, but id still give Michigan 30% equity. With Blake Corum healthy I'd bet on Michigan. Again tho who cares.
‘Sup ILP? I too am looking at a schedule that’s…gonna’ be an issue for Bama. Maybe we’ll get to meet in a bowl!
But…you are aware that the whole “it’s illegal to pay players” thing turned out to itself be illegal, right?
But…you are aware that the whole “it’s illegal to pay players” thing turned out to itself be illegal, right?
Yes and I'm happy about that. The whole "illegal" part was always a farse. Like only in college football was helping out poor people/paying people for their services a bad thing.
Now I can sit here and say that illegally paying players was the key to Bama winning 6 national titles this century or the key to Georgia's resurgence the last so many years or I can say Ohio State illegally paying players was the key to them mostly dominating the Big Ten during the 21st century.
All those statements are trivially true. And If I were a fan of any of those teams I'd be like "so what". And as a Michigan fan my frustration for most of this century has not been "can't beat the cheaters", it's been WHY THE **** ARE WE NOT ILLEGALLY PAYING PLAYERS TOO. Like why do they care more about football then we do when we have the money/infrastructure to compete at that stratospheric level.
Luckily we got Harbaugh who is probably the greatest coach in football history given what he has accomplished and what he just accomplished without the institutional support Saban and Meyer had. Harbaugh literally broke the physics of college football winning a national championship with a program that had no right winning a national championship. Out of 8ish billion people Harbaugh is probably the only person who could do that. A true unicorn.
And even he needed some luck. JJ's lifelong dream was to play for Ohio State. Michigan basically luckboxed into the greatest QB in the history of their program because Ryan Day spurned him and recruited McCord instead. Think about that for a second. If Ryan Day was juuust smart enough to realize a QB that can run and pass is better than a QB that can only pass Michigan never wins it all. In fact Ohio State probably wins it all in 23 and no way in hell does Michigan beat them in 22 and 23.
As far as my read on Bama this year. I really don't have a clue. Theyre the ultimate question mark team. My take overall for the field is not very original. To me there's really only 4 serious contenders to win it all: Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon, and Texas. That's it. I suppose a couple darkhorse surprise teams would be Mississippi and Penn State. I don't think Bama or Michigan has a shot at being relevant this year but I can't ever truly count out Bama with the talent they seemingly always have on their roster and with a returning QB to boot.
Yes and I'm happy about that. The whole "illegal" part was always a farse. Like only in college football was helping out poor people/paying people for their services a bad thing.
Now I can sit here and say that illegally paying players was the key to Bama winning 6 national titles this century or the key to Georgia's resurgence the last so many years or I can say Ohio State illegally paying players was the key to them mostly dominating the Big Ten during the 21st century.
All those statement
Harbaugh is certainly good, we don't need to micro-analyze if he is great. In the 2023 season he showed the way for a Tier 1-B team to win it. Have a group of 4 stars gain maturity and experience and then they can catch a few breaks and beat the portal mercenary 5 stars who might have half a brain on their next job. One hopes it would silence the portion of everyone's fanbase that says waaah, we don't recruit like Georgia.
If Iowa just has a bad(instead of atrocious) offense this year, they are going to cakewalk to minimum 8 wins again.
not unless they can record one of those off weeks as a win
Vegas always has O/U for Iowa at 7ish wins and the over always comes in. It's one of the few real examples of free money.
Probably about time for the new thread, no? This year should be awesome with the new playoff.
Anyone play the video game? I rarely play video games, but thinking about it if the game is actually really good (it's EA, so probably not).
Anyone play the video game? I rarely play video games, but thinking about it if the game is actually really good (it's EA, so probably not).
It's just another version of Madden. If you like Madden then you'll like this game. If not then forget about it. How do I know this? Cuz I practice for hours and my teenage cousins--never playing the game--come in cold and completely dominate me. Why? Cuz they've been playing madden the last 10 years. It sux being humiliated like this. In NCAA 2004, the first game to go online, I was the #1 player in the world for several weeks. Now I'm just an old man who gets jailsexed by teens. Life comes at you fast man.
Some expert B1G takes before the games begin:
1) If Michigan doesn't win it all this year they probably never will. This is their best roster since 97 with probably the most talented QB in the history of the program. Their schedule is super easy and other legit contenders like Bama and Georgia are breaking in new QBs plus see 2). It doesn't line up better than this.
2) This is actually a rebuilding year for Ohio State. The first one they have had since 2004. They lost the most accurate QB i
Since this thread is about to be shelved I went back and looked at my predictions.
1) Nailed it but it really was TOO EASY.
2) Juuust a bit outside.
3) Correct so far.
4) Correct the hard way.
5) Wrong. It was The Game again.
3/5 not bad.
