NCAA Football, 2014-2015

[Berkut]

If I was in charge, I would have an eight team playoff. Conference champs plus 3 at large, and I would eliminate the conference championship games altogether. The regular season decides that, no some single game.

Plus, if you leave it in, you know the SEC would (in a situation like they had this year) just have their Alabama throw the game to Missouri to get them both in.

[derspiess]

Why have eight when you can have... 16.

[Eddie Teach]

Plus, if you leave it in, you know the SEC would (in a situation like they had this year) just have their Alabama throw the game to Missouri to get them both in.

[Berkut]

Why have eight when you can have... 16.

Because I don't think the 16th best team has any claim to being a potential "best" team overall. I think the eighth might.

[derspiess]

Well I say keep it at 4.  Or just go back to the pre-Bowl Alliance system 

[sbr]

Damn, Wisconsin coach Gary Anderson has left to take the Oregon State job.

[Berkut]

That seems like, at very best, a lateral move. Really, something of a step down (hard for me to say as a Pac-12 guy).

[MadBurgerMaker]

If I was in charge, I would have an eight team playoff. Conference champs plus 3 at large, and I would eliminate the conference championship games altogether. The regular season decides that, no some single game.

Plus, if you leave it in, you know the SEC would (in a situation like they had this year) just have their Alabama throw the game to Missouri to get them both in.

How would you determine the conference champions if you eliminated the CCGs for the conferences with more than 10 teams?  A round robin like the old Pac10 or current Big12 would require several more games to get everyone to play each other.  Shenanigans would certainly be possible with them, but how do you get rid of them and keep the five current "power" conferences?

E:  As far as the move from Wisky to Oregon State....Wisconsin also lost Bret Beliema, or however you spell his name, to Arkansas.  Maybe their athletic department is weirdly dysfunctional?  Maybe they can't pay as much as Arky and Oregon State (I find that hard to believe)?  Both seem like strange moves, considering where the programs were/are at the time.  Arkansas was only a year or so removed from the relative success of Petrino's teams, but they were still kinda screwed up.  He took Wisconsin to three consecutive Rose Bowls, then left..

[sbr]

The rumor is that Barry Alvarez is a VERY difficult person to work for, especially as a head football coach.

[katmai]

It has to be something like that or 3x the money to move from Wisconsin to Oregon State.

[CountDeMoney]

Strikes me as going from a high-pressure gig to a low-pressure gig.  I'm sure there are expectations, but this is Oregon State we're talking about.

[Ed Anger]

JT Barrett supposedly had a domestic incident with his girlfriend.

[sbr]

It has to be something like that or 3x the money to move from Wisconsin to Oregon State.

I haven't seen numbers for Anderson's contract, but there is no way.  He may end up making less to start at Oregon State.

Anderson was making about $2 million at Wisconsin.  Riley was making $1.5 million at OSU.

[sbr]

Strikes me as going from a high-pressure gig to a low-pressure gig.  I'm sure there are expectations, but this is Oregon State we're talking about.

There is something to that.  Anderson is from Utah and coached in Utah, so I think it is also about getting back out west.

You would be surprised about the expectations at OSU though.  The Ducks' success has a lot of Beaver fans thinking that they should be playing for conference championships every year, which given their commitment to football is laughable.  There are probably a lot of Texas high school teams that would be embarrassed to play at Reeser stadium.  Riley was only making $1.5 million. 

When the new Pac-12 Network money came in most of the other schools immediately reinvested it into the football program (or athletic department in general) with new better paid coaches and facility upgrades.  Oregon State decided to play down existing debt first.  That is a legitimate idea but it has left them behind the rest of the conference.  They did announce a $40 facilities upgrade this week, the actual announcement was just about an hour before the Anderson news broke, but the upgrade news had been known since shortly after Riley left.

The hiring of Anderson is huge, imo.  As Berkut said, or didn't want to say, in terms of programs or 'jobs' Anderson didn't make a lateral move he made a backwards move.  He went from a perennial Big-10 contender to a team that is pretty hard to recruit to, has bad facilities, a questionable commitment to football and a below average donor base. 

The original though was that the OSU job was going to turn into a stepping stone program, which would be kind of embarrassing for a Pac-12 school.  Bring in the new young hotshot from the Mountain West or whatever, and have him bolt for a better job and more money at the first sign of success.  But there is a chance that Anderson may have taken this job because he wants to be there, which would be a good thing for the Beavs.

This is all very much speculation because I haven't even seen a written interview with the guy yet, so who knows.  But why else would you leave Madison for Corvallis?

[MadBurgerMaker]

They did announce a $40 facilities upgrade this week

That probably won't get them as far as they imagine.