College Football, 2021-22

[grumbler]

Man. Arizona had the best recruiting class it has seen in a couple decades.

And now they are just landing a shitload of talent from the transfer portal.

WSU's "freshman" QB who was second in the conference last year in passing yards.

A 4* LB from USC.

A 4* DL from UCLA.

It's just nuts. I am sure it has a lot to do with just how weird the recruiting world is right now, but Fisch has really stepped up Arizona's ability to attract higher end talent. Which is kind of incredible for a team that only one a single game this year....

They only one won game this year?

[Valmy]

Only won game? That is all they one?

[Berkut]

"That is some voodoo shit right there!"

[grumbler]

Here's an interesting story from MGoBlog which proposes to do away with (at least in the Big Ten) the conference championship game and instead have a conference showcase on that Saturday which has all the teams playing, but in matchups designed to create the most compelling games.

The highlights

The weekend after Thanksgiving, each team would play one of the four Big Ten opponents they missed during the 9-game regular season, assigned by record. Sometimes—often I suspect—the top game would remain a winner-take-all championship bout. But it would do away with rematches, could do away with the need for divisions, virtually ensure all the championship contenders got a chance to play each other, and finish the season with relatively evenly matched Big Ten games we would have otherwise missed.
...
The Plan
I. Big Ten Championship weekend will be replaced by Showcase games across the conference.

At the end of the regular season (IE the week after Thanksgiving) the Big Ten will host three to seven (preferably seven) games between Big Ten teams that have not yet played each other. These can be hosted on campus, or (sigh) at one or more neutral sites.

We'll have to get approved for a 13th game, but I can't see why they would allow 2 teams to do this and not the rest. If a de facto tenth conference game is an issue with the NCAA, the showcase can be chopped down to just the three best games not played, but that's less fun. More Big Ten football: good for everybody.

II. Best teams that haven't played each other play each other, and on down.

Choosing the games is actually really simple once the data (records and which games haven't been played yet) are in front of you. Let's take the 2021 season:

Seed   School                 Rk  Div   Haven't Yet Played   Showcase Opponent
1   Michigan (8-1)        #1a East   Iowa, Minn, PU, IL   vs. Iowa (Game 1)
2   Ohio State (8-1)     #1b East   Iowa, Wis, IL, NW   vs. Wisconsin (Game 2)
3   Michigan State (7-2)  #3 East   Iowa, Minn, Wis, IL   vs. Minnesota (Game 3)
4   Iowa (7-2)         #1 West   UM, OSU, MSU, RU   @ Michigan (Game 1)
5   Minnesota (6-3)        #2a West   UM, MSU, PSU, RU   @ Michigan State (Game 3)
6   Wisconsin (6-3)        #2b West   OSU, MSU, UMD, IU   @ Ohio State (Game 2)
7   Purdue (6-3)        #2c West   UM, PSU, UMD, RU   @ Penn State (Game 4)
8   Illinois (4-5)         #5 West   UM, OSU, MSU, IU   @ Indiana (Game 5)
9   Penn State (4-5)      #4 East   Minn, PU, Neb, NW   vs. Purdue (Game 4)
10   Maryland (3-6)         #5 East   Wis, PU, Neb, NW   vs. Northwestern (Game 6)
11   Rutgers (2-7)         #6 East   Iowa, Minn, PU, Neb   vs. Nebraska (Game 7)
12   Nebraska (1-8)         #6a West   PSU, UMD, RU, IU   @ Rutgers (Game 7)
13   Northwestern (1-8)    #6b West   OSU, PSU, UMD, IU   @ Maryland (Game 6)
14   Indiana (0-9)         #7 East   Wis, IL, Neb, NW   vs. Illinois (Game 5)

The best opponent Michigan hasn't played is Iowa; there's your Game 1. Ohio State already played Minnesota so they get Wisconsin, and MSU gets Minnesota. The rest fall into place with very little room for decisions (read: controversy).

In cases where there are multiple ways to organize the matchups, go with whatever makes for the best games, based on rivalries and knowledge of the specific teams in the context of that season. The Big Ten can have broad power to build the matchups that work best, so long as the results of the top game(s) will produce an undisputed champion, and there are no rematches.

The NCAA would have to expand the pool of teams eligible to play a thirteenth game, but that's just expanding on what already exists.

Avoiding rematches is key because playing rematches cannot increase our knowledge of which teams are better.  If Team A beats Team B, then Team A has proven itself the better team.  If there is a rematch, then thereare only two possible outcomes:
1.  Team A wins again, which tells us nothing because we already knew Team A was better, or
2. Team B wins, in which case our knowledge from the first game is erased with nothing to replace it (wa can't say that Team B is better, because it already lost to Team A).

This would also mean that every Big Ten team would have five conference home game (not possible now because they play none conference games, so half the teams have five home games and the other half have four).  That opens up a lot of potential home-and-away nonconference matchups because schools won't have to schedule around the years in which they have only four home conference games.

This makes so much sense that it won't ever happen, but it does show that it is very possible to do scheduling designed to produce good matchups, if only the people in charge wanted to.

[alfred russel]

It is a terrible idea. It is simply about adding meaningless games to the schedule to increase TV revenue.

When I was a kid the argument against playoffs was that teams play too many games for student athletes. There were `11 games in the regular season; 12 with a bowl game. An 8 team playoff would mean 2 teams would play 14 games, which were just too many.

Now we've got a 12 game regular season, we added a championship game which i guess is cool because it is just two teams competing for a championship? and an 8 team playoff. That is 16 games for a couple teams most of the time.

There isn't a clamor for more meaningless games. Ohio State couldn't sell its Rose Bowl ticket allotment last year as the game has been demoted to consolation game status with the playoffs, and players are now opting out of playing in it.

[grumbler]

All college football games are meaningless games designed to attract TV revenue.  The showcase idea just means that we get some games that didn't occur in the regular season.  While it means an extra game for some additional athletes, that extra game already exists for some, so that's not a credible complaint.

The fact that OSU fans were pouty last season doesn't change the fact that this means more football.  Some of the games even quite good games, while others will give teams that finished poorly a chance to redeem themselves a bit.  They are on-campus games, so attendance won't be ore of an issue that for any other home game.

The fact that the matchups are determined after the end of the regular season means that they will be more evenly matched than 90% of the regular-season games.

[alfred russel]

All college football games are meaningless games designed to attract TV revenue.

I don't think that is true. We had college football games scheduled before TV was invented. If it never was I still think we'd be playing college football.

The showcase idea just means that we get some games that didn't occur in the regular season.  While it means an extra game for some additional athletes, that extra game already exists for some, so that's not a credible complaint.

Step 1: Lets introduce a championship game. Yeah it is an extra game but that is just two schools and for those schools the experience of a championship game is going to be worth the drain of their already limited time.
Step 2: We have a championship game so two schools already play a longer season, so if you can't credibly argue that the season would be too long if we extend that to everyone.

The fact that OSU fans were pouty last season doesn't change the fact that this means more football.  Some of the games even quite good games, while others will give teams that finished poorly a chance to redeem themselves a bit.  They are on-campus games, so attendance won't be ore of an issue that for any other home game.

The fact that the matchups are determined after the end of the regular season means that they will be more evenly matched than 90% of the regular-season games.

Who really wants to see the #5 Big 10 team play the #6 Big 10 team, even if that is evenly matched? Attendance has been an issue in college football for a while for on campus games too, not just bowl games.

[Barrister]

Congrats Valmy - apparently Arch Manning (nephew of Peyton and Eli) committed to Texas today.

[Valmy]

Congrats Valmy - apparently Arch Manning (nephew of Peyton and Eli) committed to Texas today.

This is the second coming of Chris Sims (son of Phil Sims). When he committed a ton of great players came with him and powered Texas from 2001-2005. When they all left you could really feel the decrease in talent in the program and the slow decline of Texas Longhorn Football (and then a very fast decline in 2010). And lots of great players seem to committing along with Archibald, just like last time.

Hopefully the rest will also resemble last time.

[Berkut]

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/34173688/source-usc-ucla-considering-move-pac-12-big-ten

Wow. That would just destroy the Pac-12 obviously. Talk about a resulting Super Conference though!

[grumbler]

I wonder how realignment is going to shake out with this.  I can see the Big 12 making a play for Utah, Colorado, and the Arizona schools.  Berkeley, Cal, Washington, and Oregon are all AAU members and the Big ten might want to reach out for some or all of them.  I don't know where Wash St or Oregon State would go.

[alfred russel]

This is really dumb.

[Berkut]

This is really dumb.

$$$

[Valmy]

I wonder how realignment is going to shake out with this.  I can see the Big 12 making a play for Utah, Colorado, and the Arizona schools.  Berkeley, Cal, Washington, and Oregon are all AAU members and the Big ten might want to reach out for some or all of them.  I don't know where Wash St or Oregon State would go.

The Big 12 has nothing to offer the Pac 12 remnant that they cannot easily do for themselves thanks to UT and OU leaving. The whole situation is a disaster IMO. I feel like College Football is turning itself from a nationwide obsession to a regional NFL-lite.

[alfred russel]

This is really dumb.

$$$

These are universities, that are nonprofits dedicated to education and instilling life skills for its students. I don't think they would make major institutional decisions just for the $$$.