NCAAF 2024 - RIVALRY WEEK~

[Dolfan in NYC]

Michigan vs. THE Ohio State, Alabama vs. Auburn, TAMU vs. Texas, Oregon vs. Washington. 

You can keep em... for the first time in my lifetime, the Ivy League Championship belongs to COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK~!

ROAR LION ROAR!

[RIPPA]

And two other teams but whose counting

[RIPPA]

East Carolina is gonna remove the interim tag from Blake Harrell's title

The Pirates are 4-0 since Harrell took over on the interim basis

[Chaos]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

East Carolina is gonna remove the interim tag from Blake Harrell's title

The Pirates are 4-0 since Harrell took over on the interim basis

I feel like this rarely works out well.  I know he's the best example of it, but is Dabo maybe the last good example of it? 

[Brian Fowler]

3 hours ago, Chaos said:

I feel like this rarely works out well.  I know he's the best example of it, but is Dabo maybe the last good example of it? 

Ed Orgeron won a Natty.

And then got fired less than two years later, but still. 

Also seems to be working really well for Spencer Danielson at Boise right now.

Edited November 26, 2024 by Brian Fowler

[Chaos]

12 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

Ed Orgeron won a Natty.

And then got fired less than two years later, but still. 

Also seems to be working really well for Spencer Danielson at Boise right now.

Coach O kind of blanked my mind, which is odd because I was thinking of him in relation to LSU and Bryan Kelly this weekend. 

[RIPPA]

UNC has fired Mack Brown

HOWEVER - Brown will coach them for the regular season finale against NC State

(And apparently he might coach them in the bowl game too)

A the cherry on this awkward sundae is that Brown has just announced he intended to return next season

[Kevin Wilson]

Somehow Alabama is going to get in, I can feel it in my bones.

[Mister TV]

10 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

Somehow Alabama is going to get in, I can feel it in my bones.

Yeah, Indiana who they’d beat by 30 will get in over them. Also, the Big 12 is at risk of getting shut out of the playoff, with Tulane potentially taking their spot. 

[Tabe]

7 hours ago, Mister TV said:

Yeah, Indiana who they’d beat by 30 will get in over them. Also, the Big 12 is at risk of getting shut out of the playoff, with Tulane potentially taking their spot. 

Alabama has 3 losses. They deserve to stay home regardless of who they'd be favored over. 

[The Man Known as Dan]

7 hours ago, Tabe said:

Alabama has 3 losses. They deserve to stay home regardless of who they'd be favored over. 

Alabama doesn't just have 3 losses, 2 of those losses are to Vandy and Oklahoma, and just put up 3 points against one of them. Them not dropping out of the top 15 is pure brand recognition bullshit.

[RIPPA]

UNC has reached out to Steelers OC Arthur Smith to gage his interest in the HC job

[Brian Fowler]

The Big XII can breathe a big sigh of relief. Tulane lost and now it's pretty much inconceivable that two G5 champs finish above their champion.

[EVA]

On 11/26/2024 at 1:31 PM, RIPPA said:

UNC has fired Mack Brown

HOWEVER - Brown will coach them for the regular season finale against NC State

(And apparently he might coach them in the bowl game too)

A the cherry on this awkward sundae is that Brown has just announced he intended to return next season

This seems like a fittingly weird end to a coaching tenure that was never NOT weird. The results were never bad per se (although averaging like 4 losses a season in the ACC with a string of NFL drafts picks at QB was certainly not good), but each successive season arrived with a feeling of “Wait, we’re still doing this?”

And now, to have Mack give an emotional quasi-retirement speech in the locker room early in the season, only to arrive at him ultimately NOT retiring and forcing UNC to fire him at the end of the season…What a strange detour this last 6 years of UNC football has been. Fortunately, nobody at UNC cares that much.

[EVA]

Ok, going into the last week of the regular season, I decided to look back at my preseason projections to see how I did. Some hits and some big time misses here (looking at you, Big 12):

ACC

Champ: Clemson—was looking great on this until that random Louisville beat down; now I’ll need a Syracuse upset to pull it off

Darkhorse: Miami—nailed it; Cam Ward was indeed built to overcome terrible coaching. Although SMU may prove to be the biggest darkhorse in the ACC in the end.

Disappointment: NC State—nailed it

Spoiler: Georgia Tech/Virginia Tech—hell yeah and hell no.

Firing The Coach: Pitt—so the new offense worked out way better than I imagined it would, at first; but they did fall off a cliff in the second half of the season. Still, the Nard Dog is definitely not getting fired.

Big 12

Champ: OK State—lol, they’re last place and could finish winless in the conference. Insane.

Darkhorse: Kansas—kinda pulling it together down the home stretch, but again…lol. They built the whole conference out of darkhorses but not the one I picked.

Disappointment: Arizona—nailed it. That said, there were a LOT more options for Top 25 teams who would finish unranked in the Big 12 than I would’ve imagined in the preseason.

Spoiler: Iowa State—technically this was accurate, but there were way bigger spoilers in spirit. Just a bizarre year in this conference.

Firing The Coach: Baylor—again, everybody who was supposed to be bad was good, and everybody who was supposed to be good was bad. You survive to be mediocre another season, Dave Aranda.

B1G

Champ: Ohio State—still in play, though they have not been looking like the best team money can buy this season.

Darkhorse: Iowa—probably gonna finish with another solid 8-win season, but they got jumped in the darkhorse pecking order by another overachieving team from an I-state.

Disappointment: USC—nailed it.

Spoiler: Nebraska—it was not, in fact, the time to believe in Nebraska. Maybe we will dare again next year.

Firing The Coach: Illinois—yeah, way off here; not only is Bert gonna survive, the Illini are going to finish with a really nice record, maybe even in the top 25. (That said, they were clearly helped a lot by the three key swing teams on their schedule—Kansas, Nebraska, Michigan—being big flops this season; still, Illinois had to win the games, and that’s never a given for them!)

SEC

Champion: Georgia—still in play

Darkhorse: Missouri—despite the pollsters’ steadfast commitment to keeping them ranked, no matter what, Missouri never really looked like one of the better teams in the conference, let alone the country this season.

Disappointment: LSU—hell yeah; if they lose to Oklahoma, they may fire Kelly’s ass.

Spoiler: Auburn—Kinda on the fence about this one. Up until last week, I’d say this was a miss, but they did spoil A&M last week, and I guess beating Bama this weekend would count as an upset, even if Vandy and Oklahoma already beat them to the punch. I feel like South Carolina probably deserves the SEC spoiler crown, though; they might spoil their way into the playoffs.

Firing A Coach: Arkansas—nope, did just well enough to grant Sam Pittman a stay of execution. Although I’m hearing some chatter that Pittman may step down after the season due to “health issues” anyway. 

 

I think my biggest takeaway from reviewing the season so far is that, until these division-less conferences get it fixed, imbalanced schedules are going to have a huge impact on the championship picture. There are so many teams around the top of the stranding and national rankings who are really only playing 1- or 2-game regular season schedules. Lots of opportunity for teams like Indiana, SMU, and Texas to shoot the moon.

[Chaos]

5 minutes ago, EVA said:

I think my biggest takeaway from reviewing the season so far is that, until these division-less conferences get it fixed, imbalanced schedules are going to have a huge impact on the championship picture. There are so many teams around the top of the stranding and national rankings who are really only playing 1- or 2-game regular season schedules. Lots of opportunity for teams like Indiana, SMU, and Texas to shoot the moon.

They're almost going to have to find ways to do the NFL strength of schedule model and release the conference schedule once a season is over. I even question if permanent rivalry games will exist in a couple of years or if they do and cap it at one, some tough choices will be made. 

[Brian Fowler]

5 hours ago, EVA said:

Ok, going into the last week of the regular season, I decided to look back at my preseason projections to see how I did. Some hits and some big time misses here (looking at you, Big 12):

ACC

Champ: Clemson—was looking great on this until that random Louisville beat down; now I’ll need a Syracuse upset to pull it off

Darkhorse: Miami—nailed it; Cam Ward was indeed built to overcome terrible coaching. Although SMU may prove to be the biggest darkhorse in the ACC in the end.

Disappointment: NC State—nailed it

Spoiler: Georgia Tech/Virginia Tech—hell yeah and hell no.

Firing The Coach: Pitt—so the new offense worked out way better than I imagined it would, at first; but they did fall off a cliff in the second half of the season. Still, the Nard Dog is definitely not getting fired.

Big 12

Champ: OK State—lol, they’re last place and could finish winless in the conference. Insane.

Darkhorse: Kansas—kinda pulling it together down the home stretch, but again…lol. They built the whole conference out of darkhorses but not the one I picked.

Disappointment: Arizona—nailed it. That said, there were a LOT more options for Top 25 teams who would finish unranked in the Big 12 than I would’ve imagined in the preseason.

Spoiler: Iowa State—technically this was accurate, but there were way bigger spoilers in spirit. Just a bizarre year in this conference.

Firing The Coach: Baylor—again, everybody who was supposed to be bad was good, and everybody who was supposed to be good was bad. You survive to be mediocre another season, Dave Aranda.

B1G

Champ: Ohio State—still in play, though they have not been looking like the best team money can buy this season.

Darkhorse: Iowa—probably gonna finish with another solid 8-win season, but they got jumped in the darkhorse pecking order by another overachieving team from an I-state.

Disappointment: USC—nailed it.

Spoiler: Nebraska—it was not, in fact, the time to believe in Nebraska. Maybe we will dare again next year.

Firing The Coach: Illinois—yeah, way off here; not only is Bert gonna survive, the Illini are going to finish with a really nice record, maybe even in the top 25. (That said, they were clearly helped a lot by the three key swing teams on their schedule—Kansas, Nebraska, Michigan—being big flops this season; still, Illinois had to win the games, and that’s never a given for them!)

SEC

Champion: Georgia—still in play

Darkhorse: Missouri—despite the pollsters’ steadfast commitment to keeping them ranked, no matter what, Missouri never really looked like one of the better teams in the conference, let alone the country this season.

Disappointment: LSU—hell yeah; if they lose to Oklahoma, they may fire Kelly’s ass.

Spoiler: Auburn—Kinda on the fence about this one. Up until last week, I’d say this was a miss, but they did spoil A&M last week, and I guess beating Bama this weekend would count as an upset, even if Vandy and Oklahoma already beat them to the punch. I feel like South Carolina probably deserves the SEC spoiler crown, though; they might spoil their way into the playoffs.

Firing A Coach: Arkansas—nope, did just well enough to grant Sam Pittman a stay of execution. Although I’m hearing some chatter that Pittman may step down after the season due to “health issues” anyway. 

 

I think my biggest takeaway from reviewing the season so far is that, until these division-less conferences get it fixed, imbalanced schedules are going to have a huge impact on the championship picture. There are so many teams around the top of the stranding and national rankings who are really only playing 1- or 2-game regular season schedules. Lots of opportunity for teams like Indiana, SMU, and Texas to shoot the moon.

Looking at who all Georgia and Ohio State have played in conference and then comparing it to Texas and Indiana really does show just how absurdly unbalanced schedules can be now. 

My radical solution is we divide these super conferences up by geography with 8-10 teams in each and play round robin schedules.

Edited November 29, 2024 by Brian Fowler

[Pete]

The Axe is headed back to Minnesota and Wisconsin will be spending bowl season in Madison for the first time in 22 seasons.

[Brian Fowler]

Way too early to really get excited, but Georgia Tech has come to play. Opened with a field goal, stuffed Georgia on 4th and 1, knocking on the door of the end zone early in the second quarter.

[Brian Fowler]

And they get nothing on the drive and Ga Tech easily could be up 21-0 but instead it's 3-0.

[Brian Fowler]

Okay I think we can officially turn on the Upset Alert warning alarm. 17-0 with seconds before halftime.

[hammerva]

if Georgia Tech keeps this up. the SEC will have to make extra sure Texas is a 1 loss team going into title game

[EVA]

This GT drive is wild.

[EVA]

Of course, this is just what GT does, in general. But a lot of similarities between this game and the Vandy and OU upsets of Bama. Less talented teams using a mobile QB and triple option concepts to put big boy defenses in HELL.

[Brian Fowler]

14 minutes ago, hammerva said:

if Georgia Tech keeps this up. the SEC will have to make extra sure Texas is a 1 loss team going into title game

I disagree. They're better off if TAMU wins. Then Texas almost certainly gets in at 10-2, plus they get the winner of the SEC title game, and maybe a third. 

Texas could knock both Georgia and TAMU out of the running and they might need help to even get two then.