How about this: sell naming rights to Southwest Airlines. Rebrand as the Southwest Conference. Extend invites to Arkansas, Texas, A&M, and SMU…

In seriousness, while this is a lame idea it’s not as concerning as painting corporate sponsor logos on the fields, which seems like it’s going to happen soon.

The more I think about it, it’s not as bad a deal for the conference as it would be for the PE firm because you’re probably right about the conference’s limited assets. Money from TV deals, CFP, and the NCAA tourney is pretty much all they own, which by itself doesn’t generate more revenue. Unless the trademarks of a conference whose name is an oxymoron and real estate in Irving or something are super attractive to this European company, lol. The real value belongs to the members themselves who could leave at any time or call the whole thing off.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this falls apart, especially since it sounds like it was a side pursuit of Yormark and a few Big XII schools rather than the whole league.

And yeah, until user tags get implemented I also have to figure out some hack for flair. On my to-do list after looking into a real game day bot.

This is such a misstep of they go forward with it. Firstly, because it actually gives up equity, rather than the “private capital” discussions floated lately (which is still gross but not as bad). Secondly, it makes no sense for the Big XII specifically. Unless they expect Utah to become a perennial title contender or something, why do they feel the need to try to match the level of funding of the super 2?

It doesn’t exactly surprise me though, coming from Yormark. His creative thinking and aggressive expansion probably saved his conference. But I heard an interview (I think on Joel Klatt’s podcast) where he came off as a such a pretentious ass. Hyper business focused and does not care at all about the history and tradition of the sport. I have a hunch he is trying to kneecap the ACC, but why would he? The new playoff system with the 4 first round byes is actually fantastic for those 2 conferences.

Also, the article quoted Gerry Cardinale, and although Redbird might not be involved in this deal no one should trust him. He mismanaged the XFL last year.

Hate to say it but Ohio State is in a league of their own with how they handled the portal. Honorable mention would probably be Nebraska.

After that, Oregon, Texas, Miami, Ole Miss, and Syracuse stand out to me, but who knows if their portal splashes will translate to on-field success. Then there’s the Georgia and Alabama tier of teams that I expected to lose talent but were able to keep some key guys (Michigan probably belongs here, but lost too many coaches for my comfort).

As for coaching changes, I think New Mexico, Texas A&M (blegh), Houston, Michigan State, and Indiana all had clear upgrades, although it will take a couple years to see the results. And signing classes are still crucial for sustained success, but in this era they’re less relevant to winning this season than ever.

I used to do that when I lived in Austin if the broadcast crew wasn’t great. They didn’t always sync up though.

My pipe dream is someday we’ll have something like F1TV: a good FBS-wide dedicated streaming platform where you can choose what camera to watch (A22 please!) and different commentary options. Would be cool to switch between both local calls for a neutral game. Although I imagine getting the licenses for all of those things would cost extraordinary amounts of money, and probably is not possible in the current media landscape. But with the way things are heading, that might be one good thing that could come out of superconferences. And I would pay top dollar for it. I wonder if the NFL is already doing something like that.

I don’t think my engagement has changed per se, but probably for a couple reasons.

• I’ve never bet on a game, and have no interest in doing so. I like making predictions, although I imagine betting on my hobby would be like when I play poker: I tend to beat my poker friends but find it more stressful than when there’s no money on the line.
• I didn’t follow cfb until I actually went to college so I think I missed the period cfb fans have the most nostalgia for. I have a hunch that if I had grown up with the SWC, I would be longing for that era. So the fan experience is probably degrading (probably moreso from other changes besides gaming), but its still good enough to keep me engaged.

What I have always hated is the spread. Why does it matter if a team reaches some fabricated number? You either win the game or you don’t. The ugly side is when degenerate gamblers harrass players that allowed the other team to “backdoor cover.”

Also, the XFL was egregious in its commentary last year, and I suspect eventually cfb broadcasts will openly talk about lines incessantly. When it gets to that point, I’ll mute the TV and find the local radio call instead.

Texas @ Michigan. Going to try my darndest to make it to that game. Even though Michigan is my 2nd favorite team, I can’t root against my alma mater, and I quite like Texas’s chances.

So basically what this boils down to is the question: is Tennessee athletics “Too Big To Fail”? (The answer is going to be yes, so not sure why the NCAA is getting testy.) Because the reason this particular investigation is a bigger deal than usual is the Vols are in “Repeat Violator” territory which means the “Death Penalty” would on the table.

This is going to backfire spectacularly for the NCAA though. The Virginia AG has joined this suit (for reasons unclear, but he clearly has a bone to pick with them after how they handled JMU). If you count other active suits against the NCAA, that’s like 10 attorneys general now. One of these cases will probably be heard before the Supreme Court where the anti-trust exemption is going to be blown to smithereens, now that we’re in the NIL era, and the NCAA (as we know it) will cease to exist.

Also, good to see posts federating properly again. With all the Lemmy upgrade issues in January, it looked like some posts and comments were getting lost in the void so I kept away for a bit waiting for a more stable release.

hoping they try to end playoff games before midnight in future years

Amen to that. My own team was playing in the Sugar Bowl and I had to go to bed in the 4th quarter because I had work early in the morning. Total farce.

As for FSU, I think they got screwed (a little). They had almost no starters playing in the bowl game so we can’t really use that result to justify or criticize the committee’s decision. I do think we got a better playoff, though, which is what they were tasked with. At the end of the day, I’m just glad the 4-team playoff era is over.

My final ballot. Computer poll. Who’s got it better than Michigan? Evidently absolutely nooooobody. But it’s pretty standard that my poll puts the CFP winner ahead by a wide margin (a notable exception being when it declared an OSU as the national champion in 2017).

I know it’s weird that Oregon finished ahead of Washington, although it’s really close. Keep in mind this is essentially a power rating – put those 2 teams on a neutral site tomorrow and I’m sure Vegas would still favor Oregon despite the H2H. For the record, I personally don’t but I tried to eliminate as much bias as possible from the algorithm.

Also, pretty happy with Texas at number 5. It was a good season.

Bonus musing: Since I’ve ran the last 9 CFB seasons through the same algorithm, I was curious how this Michigan team compares to other top teams. Turns out the 2023 Wolverines rank number 4 out of 1,106 FBS teams¹, trailing only 2022 Georgia, 2019 LSU, and 2021 Georgia (in that order). Also, if any sickos are wondering who the worst team was, it’s likely 2020 UMass (or 2019 UMass if you want to exclude the COVID year).

¹Apparently half my data for the 2018 season got wiped somehow, but fortunately it kept the top 70 teams. I’ll have to crunch that season’s numbers again at some point, but at least it won’t have any bearing on the comparison of elite teams. Also, in 2020 I only ranked 127 teams since 3 opted out, and that season in general had a slightly adjusted formula for obvious reasons.

Hail to the victors! GG, Washington

Hail Sainristil!!! Super clutch INT!

Hail yes, Edwards is the man!!

They used 2 TOs on the opening drive, only to settle for 3? Uhhh, okay

Beautiful opening drive!

Oh no, ACC refs?!

Ah, but that’s canceled out by me (and a whole lotta folks) thinking Washington is going to lose. All season the doubting has resulted in a Huskies win. Something’s gotta give!

I’m going Michigan 31-28

It is crazy he will still be playing college ball in 2024. I once ran into him on campus and I think was still in undergrad (although it might have been grad school) which feels like an eternity ago. Granted, the pandemic really broke my perception of time.

Well, that FG was probably the game. I have to work in the morning so GG, Huskies