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!
Hat's off to Iowa State. Previous best moment in ISU football history:
That's a solid football history, but the fact they immediately gave up a td after the backup started the 2nd half so I could load up on +7.5 and +315 was something I'll never forget whereas I already know redheads are bloodthirsty monsters always wanting more, more, MOOOOAAAARRR.
I like gambling it up on 4th down as much as the next guy but NC State going for it on 4th and 2 there on their end is bad.
EDIT. Doesn’t matter now that they just intercepted the ball back.
I like gambling it up on 4th down as much as the next guy but NC State going for it on 4th and 2 there on their end is bad.
EDIT. Doesn’t matter now that they just intercepted the ball back.
Lack of balls has been that guy's mo forever. Any sign of life is a good sign.
Meanwhile announcers losing their mind about an obviously correct "his forward progress was stopped 3 yards ago" call.
Tell me if I've got the chant right:
"Army Army Army Army Army Army Army!"
Hmm...I was expecting Deion to tell Shadeur/Travis at halftime to make a "business decision" but apparently he told Colorado to do that and take out huge disability policies for them.
Well, Team Prime has 4 yards rushing and 15 yards passing to guys not named Travis Hunter. So that's something.
Imagine being subprime and bragging about taking that stupid ass policy to play against byu and this is what your kid does
Imagine being subprime and bragging about taking that stupid ass policy to play against byu and this is what your kid does
A) I don’t know if he was bragging about it so much as the commentators were stating it and it threatened all my under bets and B) Compared to Cam Ward opting out at halftime of a legit good game, or most bowl games boiling down to who’s less decimated by opt outs? This was much better and dude may have just saved bowl season (gee, maybe if we protect the star players from financial catastrophe for no reason they’ll “risk” it and play)? Only problem is the bowl should pay for it.
Also, from the small sample size I’ve watched Hunter, if you must choose I’d say CB. Just so many of his jaw dropping WR plays come on busts you don’t get in the nfl (like Bryce Young).
From Mgoblog:
Well, we've been insulated from the steady degradation of what a bowl game means by virtue of being in the playoff the last three years. The last time Michigan played in a non-playoff bowl game was the 2020 Citrus Bowl, also against Alabama. This was a million years ago. Michigan's leading rusher was Zach Charbonnet.
Since then, the playoff went to twelve teams and opt-outs went from relatively controversial to expected. The bowl selection process already saddled this game with what looked like an obvious mismatch even before opt-outs yanked four first-round picks off Michigan's roster and left Jalen Milroe still standing for Alabama. The full accounting of Michigan opt outs who saw significant playing time during the season:
RBs Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards
WR Tyler Morris
TE Colston Loveland
OL Dom Giudice, Andrew Gentry, and Myles Hinton
Edge Josiah Stewart
DT Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant
CB Will Johnson
S Makari Paige
By contrast, Alabama's lost a handful of rotation players in the portal—two of them to Michigan—but is largely intact. There is no way this game is a reflection of anything except the increasing absurdity of bowl games.
So! Instead of doing a regular preview, we're going to approach this like it's a glorified spring game.
This is gonna be Georgia vs FSU all over again. Bama is gonna win by 4 TDs minimum. Haven't been this tempted to put $10K on a game in many years.
Do it!
There’s stupid Twitter rumors of Milroe to ND that I ascribe zero credence to, but mannnn that would be sick.
as much as i want to belive this fairy tale
one of BSU or UO is gunna let you down
if proven wrong meaning Jeanty rushes for over one-seventy five with three tuddies and Gabriel blows the touch down horn in the fourth quarter three times
I think Boise is gonna get wrecked tonight. It's so clear that nobody actually watched them this year outside of the Oregon game and Jeanty highlights
Their last 7 games of the season against:
UNLV x2
SDSU
Nevada
Wyoming
Oregon State
They outgained their opponents 424 ypg to 339 ypg at 6.0 ypp to 6.1ypp
That's not horrible, but it's not good either. Imagine what Penn State would've done to that slate? Boise beat UNLV by 5, Wyoming by 4 and Nevada by 7.
I feel bad, because I think some of the Boise teams of the aughts were legitimately among the 3 or 4 best teams in the country and would've had a good shot to title if given the opportunity, but this isn't one of Boise's 5 best teams of the last 20 years.
I really, really hope I am wrong, I will be rooting for them. The argument to the contrary is that in their toughest games (Oregon, UNLV x2, Wazzu) they played their best, so maybe it's a case of playing down to the level of their opponents, but for their super bowl maybe they will elevate their game and give Penn State a battle.
Penn State struggled with Bowling Green and Minnesota, so who knows! Goofy **** can happen in CFB. Seems like in the opening round games, all the goofy **** went in favor of the teams that were already better, turning those games into blowouts. But could just as easily go the other way
I think Boise is gonna get wrecked tonight. It's so clear that nobody actually watched them this year outside of the Oregon game and Jeanty highlights
Their last 7 games of the season against:
UNLV x2
SDSU
Nevada
Wyoming
Oregon State
They outgained their opponents 424 ypg to 339 ypg at 6.0 ypp to 6.1ypp
That's not horrible, but it's not good either. Imagine what Penn State would've done to that slate? Boise beat UNLV by 5, Wyoming by 4 and Nevada by 7.
I feel bad, because I think some of the Boise teams
Would love Boise to win, because if ND can win its coinflip vs UGA, that’s a very favorable path to the title game.
He has trouble with the snap!!
Great, now god's against us
This game is a total shitshow. Looks like they're gonna need life preservers by the end
Michigan +700 was a wild price considering the tsunami
This is Michigan?
This is hilarious
this is absolutely incredible
Eagerly awaiting Finebaum’s next call in show
