Something remarkably interesting is happening with college football this year. There is no doubt that NIL and especially the transfer portal have changed college football in significant ways in the last 5 years. From year-to-year teams can have almost complete changeovers in personnel. Development of young players has become diminished. Instead of spending a few years on the bench and learning the system, players now transfer to another school with the first signs of not getting the chance to play. Good players from Group Of 5 schools get snatched up by Power 5 schools, while bench players on Power 5 squads transfer to become starters at Group Of 5 schools. College football as we know it has become a quite different thing from what it was.
There are 3 programs that are not impacted by all of this. Those would be the service academies: Air Force, Army, and Navy. Players don’t transfer in or out and are not impacted by NIL. The result? Both Army and Navy are undefeated 7 weeks into the season and are both ranked in the top 25 for the first time in years. Army is 7-0, Navy is 6-0. They have been able to do this by having old school continuity, still developing younger players from within, and only losing players to graduation. It basically goes against the current model most schools are using, but says something about the state of college football today. The service academies are doing things old school and having more success than they have had in years. I think it is kind of cool.
Curious of anyone else thoughts on this topic?
I agree. But I also think it's a fluke.
The days of the service academies being top contenders ended decades ago once the nation's top high school players realized their chance of making it to the NFL was much better if they got a scholarship from a school that's on TV a lot.
“The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."
Duke(6-2)@Miami(8-0)
Should be pretty competitive today. Duke has had our number for a few years. Could be our first loss of the year. Fingers crossed.
Holy shit balls, ya think?Should be pretty competitive today.
Going to the WMU vs NIU ESPN MACtion game tonight here in Kalamazoo. The conferences best offense against the best defense. Should be entertaining and looks like the weather will be decent with no rain and not too cold.
“The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."
Anyone see the first CFP ranking?
These are the teams that would make the playoffs currently:
If you want to see 13-25, go here: https://collegefootballplayoff.com/n...gs-241105.aspx
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12Oregon
Ohio State
Georgia
Miami
Texas
Penn State
Tennessee
Indiana
BYU
Notre Dame
Alabama
Boise State9-0
7-1
7-1
9-0
7-1
7-1
7-1
9-0
8-0
7-1
6-2
7-1
And just to remind everyone, here's how the playoffs will go, according to the CFP:
The 12 playoff participants consist of the five highest-ranked conference champions, plus the next seven highest-ranked teams. The four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded one through four and receive a first-round bye. The schools seeded five through eight will host those seeded nine through 12 in first-round games.
Just to be clear, and now that the Pac12 is virtually defunct, this will most likely result in the Power Four conference champions being seeded 1-4?
So, theoretically, as it stands now, #9 ranked BYU wins the Big 12 and is seeded in the top 4 while higher ranked B1G or SEC teams play in the quarterfinals?
Or, what if a one of the Power 4 conference champions and all of the Group of 5 conference champions are ranked 13th or lower? For example, and however unlikely this is, could we see #25 Army, as the AAC champion, be seeded in the top 4, thereby getting a bye in the first week of playoffs?
I don't know. Something may need to be tweaked.
“The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."
WMU have one of the best offenses in the MAC, but their QB was way off his game last night throwing 3 interceptions which is very unusual for him. NIU has the top rated defense in the MAC and it showed last night. WMU had the lead in the 3rd quarter, but then NIU blew it open. WMU’s defense is not good.
I think they should go to a straight statistical formula like they do in college hockey. NCAA hockey uses the Pairwise statistical rating system. I don’t know all the details specifically, but it works really well for hockey tournament seeding. Everything is black and white and there are no objective opinions. The top 16 teams, regardless of conference make the NCAA tournament based on the statistical formula so everything is black and white and everyone knows the rules and expectations.
Hurricanes have a chance to go 10-0 today at Georgia Tech. I'd say we're "for real." We aren't blowing teams out, and we've squeaked out some wins. I'll take it. Beats watching that shit-show called the Dolphins ....
Was watching Maryland/Oregon last night while listening to a band at a bar. Not super impressed with Oregon. Maryland kept it close in the first half despite the pitiful officiating. Maryland made a few crucial mistakes in the second half and the officiating continued to be pitiful. I can't see Oregon going deep in the playoffs.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
Only 4 undefeated teams left in FBS. Army and Indiana are both great stories. Indiana gets OSU next, so that will be a true test as to how good they really are. Oregon keeps rolling in the Big and BYU is quietly putting together a stellar season.
Still not impressed with Oregon.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
If Alabama loses Georgia better be ranked above them.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
Boy, was I wrong. Prior to the game, I was watching the pre-game show on Fox and they all picked OSU to win, with margins of ~7 pts or less (iirc).
I figured one of two outcomes: Indiana 30-27 or OSU would run away with it. A wild swing in my thinking, yes, but either Indiana was as good as everyone thought (and CB Igbinosin would cost OSU 2 or 3 pass interference calls) or they weren't and OSU would dominate in the "Shoe". I was glad to see my second thought was closer to the truth. In fact, that 38-15 score should have been 41 (at least) - 15, because when OSU lined up at the 1 on 4th & 1, anyone could see what they were going to do: run it up the gut. And Indiana stopped them.
QB Will Howard missed a couple of key plays, too, when he threw to one receiver while another was even more open and the yards after catch would have been greater. He lucked out, I suppose, because his first choice didn't really hurt them. Still, when they get into tough games (B1G championship, playoffs), his decision making better improve or he's going to hurt them.
Something I hadn't noticed until today is that Oregon only beat Wisconsin by 3 pts.
Something else I noticed is that OSU and OR both played MSU and Purdue. OSU has the better record over OR, beating MSU 38-7 at MSU (vs 31-10 for OR at home) and beating Purdue 45-0 at home (vs 35-0 for OR at Purdue).
OSU has UofM next week and if they beat them by a greater margin than OR did (38-17), there's an argument that could be made for OSU being #1. Because even though they lost to OR, it was at OR and they only lost by 1 pt. But OSU also beat the same two teams OR did – MSU & Purdue – by a margin of 83-7, vs 66-10 for OR, and they beat #4 Penn St and #5 Indiana. OR supposedly has a greater SoS but they've only played two ranked teams: OSU and #24 Illinois.
“The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."
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