Tag: college football

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Sports: College Football Semifinals

We are down to a final 4 in college football, Penn St. Ohio St. Notre Dame and Texas. To me the most surprising game was the way Ohio St. handled Oregon. In fact, Ohio St. was the only winner to have a statistical edge. Let’s face it Buckeye fans, which I am a proud member, this football team looked like it was doing it with mirrors all season. They habitually got off to slow starts and trailed such teams as Northwestern, Akron, Indiana, only scoring 7 first half points against Iowa, almost losing to Nebraska at home, and finally ending the season with that abysmal performance against Michigan. That loss to Michigan must have woken up the entire team and coaching staff because this looks like an entirely different team in the playoffs. The key to their success is they have used the passing game to set up the running game rather than the usual reverse. They have started both games on fire, leading Tennessee by 21-0 and Oregon by a whopping 34-0 before the first half ended. I wasn’t a believer after the Tennessee game because Tennessee had many key injuries, but after this game Ohio St. is the odds-on favorite to go all the way. My second biggest surprise was the way Georgia shut down the Notre Dame running game. Neither offense shined but Georgia outgained Notre Dame 296 to 240. The two turnovers for Georgia and the opening half kickoff return for a touchdown by Notre Dame to take a 20-3 lead were the keys to victory. Although no surprise to me but I think this was lost on the media, was the way Arizona St. totally dominated Texas, but lost because of ineptitude in Texas territory and one of the worst non targeting calls in the history of college football. Arizona St had drives that reached the Texas 25, 34, 19, and 2 yard lines and walked away with no points. The drive that ended on the 2 did eventually give ASU a safety, but at a minimum they left 16 points on the field which would have won the ball game easily. ASU out gained Texas 510 to 375, made 29 first downs to 17 for Texas and controlled the ball for almost 38 minutes of the game. Arizona St. was clearly the better team, but the inconsistent Texas offense came up with enough big plays and returned a punt for a touchdown to pull out the win. Boise St. put up a game fight against Penn St. even outgaining them 412 to 387. Four turnovers and a critical hands to the face penalty nullifying a 20 yard pass and run touchdown which would have made the score 24-21 with 30 seconds remaining in the 3rd quarter were the things that sealed the victory for Penn St. Both of these controversial 3rd and 4th seeded teams put up competitive games, but we may still see a new way to seed teams’ next season. On to the semifinals.

The first game will pit Notre Dame against the Penn St. Nittany Lions and their disgusting incompetent coach James Franklin. Notre Dame should win this game on that fact alone. Despite not being able to run the ball in their normal fashion Notre Dame played about as complete of a game as possible. They played great defense, scored a special teams’ touchdown and quickly scored when Georgia turned the ball over deep in their own territory. Georgia never really threatened to make a game of it thanks to the Notre Dame defense. Many people felt that Penn St. had the easiest road to the semifinals because of the way the committee seeded the teams. I disagree. SMU for whatever reason just could not get out of the gate in their last 2 games of the season. Whether it was the pressure who knows. Boise St. played a good game and could have beaten Penn St. The Nittany lion defense has played well the whole playoffs. This game is going to come down to who can run the ball better. I think Notre Dame has two other advantages. They have the better coach by far and Notre Dame’s quarterback, Riley Leonard seems to be able to improvise better than his Penn St. counterpart. It should be a good game but I think Notre Dame prevails.

The second game will see the red hot Ohio State Buckeyes go up against the Texas Longhorns. The Texas offense will be the key to this game. I do not think they can go 42 minutes without scoring against Ohio State and win this game. When the Texas offense is on, they are explosive and pretty much unstoppable. The two overtime periods showed how this offense is so inconsistent. In the first overtime it took a 4th and 15 30 yard touchdown pass to save the day for Texas. In the 2nd overtime they scored on one play. Their defense will have their hands full with the Ohio St. offense. The Texas offense needs to control the clock and score points in the process. Texas has had offensive inconsistencies all year. It is unlikely that they are going to find that consistency one game down the road. If OSU gets out of the gate fast for the third straight game, Texas is going to be victim no. 3.

We should see Ohio St. and Notre Dame in the championship game. I called the Penn St and Notre Dame game correct in the quarter finals but missed with the Buckeyes. I should have had the big upset pick, but Arizona St. couldn’t turn total domination into a win. The pressure will really be amping up and it will be fun to see how each team responds. Even though it has had its ups and downs it has been a great playoff season so far for College Football. The only question remains is what took you so long to do this NCAA College Football. It is a shame that this has not been going on for 50 years. See you after the semi finals.

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Sports: College Football Quarterfinals

The first round of the College Football Playoffs (CFP) was not good for the ACC and the playoff committee. The two controversial picks by the committee got smoked as well as the ACC conference champion Clemson Tigers. The first round did not have any real surprises except that SMU had the big game chitters again and Ohio St. blew away Tennessee. There were no upsets and the top 8 seeds are in the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals should be more competitive with the committee’s automatic seeding process under close scrutiny during this round. The committee needs both Boise St. and Arizona St. to put in good performances against Penn St. and Texas or there will probably be a different way to seed the teams next year. I like the honoring of conference champions with a 1st round bye, so I am hoping that both of these games will be competitive. Let’s take a look at the quarterfinals in chronological order.

The Fiesta Bowl: Penn St. vs Boise St. Penn St. is once again a solid favorite, but I find it hard to believe that if the game is close, James Franklin will not blow it. The question will be if Boise St. can keep it close. I won’t be shocked if Penn St. loses this game, but I think they will wind up beating Boise St., but it will be a close one. If Boise St. can somehow run the ball and control the clock, then Penn St. may be in for a long day.

The Peach Bowl: Texas vs Arizona St. Texas is an even bigger favorite to beat Arizona St. Texas is coming off their most impressive win of the year. Arizona St. seems to have a lot of momentum as they finished the season strong. Texas’s offense has had its ups and downs this year. I think Arizona St. wins this game with the surprise of the playoffs so far.

The Rose Bowl: Ohio State vs Oregon. Even though Oregon is in the Big Ten now this has the feel of a good old fashion Rose Bowl. The Buckeyes are around 3 point favorites and I will be pulling for them, but Oregon I still feel is the cream of the crop, with Ryan Day getting back into his big game mode. Oregon wins and it might not be that close of a game.

The Sugar Bowl. Notre Dame vs. Georgia. You could say this is the marquee game of the quarter finals. With Georgia’s problems at quarterback and Notre Dame’s stout running game I like Notre Dame to win this game solidly.

I think this round will have much better games as the pressure will ramp up on all 8 teams. The great thing is to have all these meaningful games on New Years Eve and Day. I feel the final 4 will be Penn State (grudgingly) Arizona St. Oregon and Notre Dame. We will see how right or wrong I am. See you before the semis.

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Sports: Random Thoughts

Since baseball’s regular season has not started and even though I am golfing on a semi-regular basis, during this new thing called “winter”, I thought this would be a good time to just have some random thoughts on various topics. Nothing earthshattering, but these things have been rattling around in my brain for a while now. In no particular order let us begin.

Pro Football: You would think that pro football would be able to find 32 people in the world that could punt a football at least 70 yards. I think punting is the worst performed specialized job in America. Seven days a week these guys only have one thing to do. Take 2 steps and kick the crap out of a football, that’s it. Some have the added duty of holding on field goals but how long does that take out of the day. Just think about it for one moment. Two steps, boom, two steps, boom, two steps boom. There are nearly 8 billion people in the world, and you have to find 32 that can punt. You would think that there would be tall lanky guys that could really do this. If a punter could boom punts 70 to 80 yards every single time, he would never have to have contact. After he punted, he would simply run off the field. Yet, what would seem like an easy thing to find, seems to be almost impossible. Every week during the pro football season, you see one guy on the team, the punter, who does his job at best, mediocrely. Almost every game you see a punter shank one 15 yards, punt the ball on such a low trajectory that it is returned for big yardage, or simply punt the ball straight up in the air for 25 net yards. Pro football doesn’t seem to care about this, even though it is one of the most important parts of the game. All I can say is, if you are a young individual I would immediately start practicing.

College football now is allowing players to be able to make money on their names and go from college to college to play the game. There are certain rules concerning the so-called transfer portal but like most things there are ways of getting around them. In the not-too-distant future I expect to see this story. Today, quarterback Joe Blackburn, who quarterbacked for LSU, TCU, SMU, Utah, BYU, UCLA, and Nebraska, announced his retirement from football today, at age 36. Blackburn, who majored in Economics, and got his masters and PhD, while playing football, said that he has invested the money he made playing college football well, and no longer needs to work and risk any further injury, especially to his brain. Not as farfetched as it sounds the way things are going.

March Madness is about to start, with the conference tournaments set to begin. College basketball is the only sport where every team has a chance to win the National Championship no matter how bad they played during the year. It would be a shocker, if some team that only won 1 or 2 conference games during the regular season, went on to win the conference tournament and continued to a NCAA Championship. No matter, it is something that is possible in college basketball. Despite all the hype and the upsets in the NCAA tournament, the highest seeded team ever to win the championship is Villanova at no. 8. A nice argument for making the field 32. It so happens that there are 32 conferences eligible for the tournament. Isn’t that nice. If I was the Czar of the NCAA tournament this is how the field would be set. In order to play in the conference tournament, you would have to finish 8th in the conference. Who ever won the conference tournament would still get an automatic bid to the tournament. Depending on how many of the conference champs were also the regular season champs, then this would open up the remaining spots. This would be the new at large berths. Now on the rare occasion, when all the conference champs were not the regular season champs, then there would be no at large births available. This would do two things. It would make the regular season more meaningful, by making only the top 8 in each conference eligible for the conference tournament. It would give the regular season champ more incentive to win the tournament on the off chance there would be no spots left. As it stands now, the regular season champ, in the major conferences, always gets in, no matter what they do in the tournament. It makes the conference tournament more of an extension of the NCAA tournament. It would make everything in college basketball more meaningful and exciting.

I haven’t said all that much about the LIV golf tour, which has taken players away from the PGA Tour, paying them much more money, to essentially play in exhibition events, where there are only 48 players, playing 3 rounds with no cuts, for a lot more money. I have never been into the economics of sports and could care less about salary caps, strikes, and player contract disputes. The players that joined the LIV did it strictly for the money. I have no problem with that, other than the fact that they tried to hide behind the statement that this is going to help the game of golf. Frankly, I am surprised that even more players have not joined. It is quite a difference in purses. The thing that is going to interest me the most, however, is how are the LIV players going to do in the majors. This will be a back to reality check for these players. Besides the pressure of the major, there will be a rather new pressure for these players of having to make a cut again. There are players on the LIV tour that have won majors, and are elite players, but to play one way for weeks at a time, then to have this new experience at a major. Will they be able to adapt? Just another reason to watch the Masters on Thursday and Friday.

Last but certainly not least is the new changes in baseball. I think the pitch clock and the larger bases are going to have a big impact on the game. The “banning” of the shift, I am not too sure. First of all, with left hand hitting pull hitters, the shortstop will still be able to play close to the second base bag and there goes the hits up the middle. Then I can see one of the more progressive teams, like Tampa Bay, deciding to move their right fielder down to where the second baseman played out in the outfield, leaving the other outfielders to cover the ground, with the centerfielder shaded well toward right field and the left fielder well toward center. I don’t know if this would happen with every line up, but if a line up is loaded with left handers, I can see it happening. Maybe this won’t happen, depending on the data that is out there. If it does happen, then baseball will have to make another decision on whether they want to limit what the outfielders can do. Banning shifts may open up a whole new can of worms, rather than solving the problem of helping incompetent left hand hitting batters.

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Sports: College Football, Meaningless Championship Weekend.

This is conference championship weekend, with the 5 major conferences having their championship games Friday and Saturday. Instead of this being an exciting weekend, and a first step to a possible National Championship, there are only 2 teams, that the games have any kind of significant meaning. Southern California and Texas Christian must win, or they most likely will fall out of the final four. If Michigan or Georgia would lose this weekend, they most likely would stay in the top 4. Georgia for sure and Michigan most likely, unless unexpectedly they would really embarrass themselves. There are five teams, even if they win, will have no chance of getting into the playoffs. Those are Purdue, North Carolina, LSU, Kansas St. and Utah. Then you have the strange case of Clemson. The committee decided to make them the worst ranked 2 loss team. Even if they beat North Carolina decisively, it would be shocking to see them jump 6 places to get into the playoffs. Because college football puts no value on winning a conference championship, there are only 2 out of 10 teams that have a chance of making the playoffs. The playoffs are going to expand, but even that is up in the air on exactly when. Somehow, they came up with the number 12. They are going to “allow in” the top 6 ranked conference champions. There are 10 Division 1-A college football conferences. To use this year as an example, it would still be very unlikely for Utah, Purdue or North Caroline to get in if they somehow pull off the upset. All the 12-team format does is give more power to the committee. If a team is playing in a conference championship game and becomes team 5 through 12, it would mean they would play 17 games to become National Champion. So much for college football players playing too many games. Welcome to the NFL.

I have always advocated an 8-team format. To me it is simple, the 5 conference champions are in, and then the committee picks 3 at large births. Now that the powers to be have said that they want 12 teams, it would be quite easy to go to 16 teams without any extra games. In fact, the most any team would have to play is 16. To use this year as an example, we would have the 5 conference Championship games. Now take the next 6 highest ranked teams that are not in conference finals. In this case, you have Ohio State, Alabama, Tennessee, Penn St., Washington, and Florida St. They could play this week or the next week, with Ohio St. playing Florida St., Alabama playing Washington, and Tennessee playing Penn St. You would have 16 teams with the chance at the National Title. After those games you have 8 teams left and the playoffs could go on right on schedule and the committee would have been done this past weekend. In order to get better teams in the conference championship games, conferences could be much more liberal in changing the division make up every one or two years. You could also have more conference regular season games by eliminating the sisters of the poor games. You know those games, Ohio St vs Akron, or Alabama vs. Chattanooga. I always felt that championships should be settled on the field. This is an easy way to do this, and there would be more continuity to the college football season. I know this will never happen, but it does not keep me from wishing it would. It is time for a Division 1-A football conference championship to mean something.

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Sports: The College Football Final 4, Unfortunately not 8

We have a final 4 for the College Football Playoffs. The teams, in order of their ranking, are Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, and Cincinnati. The other 4 teams, that should have a chance at the National Title, are Pittsburgh, the ACC Champ, Baylor, The Big 12 Champ, Utah, the Pac 12 Champ, and Notre Dame. In my view, Notre Dame should be in the final 4. How a team can lose a championship game by 17 points, and it wasn’t even that close, can still have a shot at a National Title, is beyond me. I do not care what you did previously. Getting your face stomp into the ground, should just eliminate you. Georgia is even in the third spot. This is the way I would have ranked the 8 teams, to meet each other, the weekend of Dec 17 and 18. Michigan, Alabama, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, Georgia, Baylor, Pittsburgh, and Utah. Notre Dame and Georgia would have played on Friday night. The noon game on Saturday would be Michigan and Utah, followed by Alabama and Pittsburgh at 4. The finale on Saturday night would be Cincinnati and Baylor. I have it all figured out, except for one thing, the NCAA stupidity. It is a shame that such a great product, does not really have a legitimate playoff system, that can determine a true National Champion.

You would think having an 8-team playoff system could be the main cause of global warming, the way the NCAA talks about it. Come to think of it, if it was the main cause of global warming, then we probably would have 8 teams. With the way the conferences are set up and then having 3 at large berths, this 8-team playoff would just seem to jump right out at you. What a great weekend, of meaningful games, that would be played. Do I think that Pitt, Baylor, and Utah have a legitimate shot of being National Champion? No, I do not, but it would be nice to find out. This playoff formula would make winning a conference title very significant, which now is pretty much meaningless. It would also give a team that has found itself toward the end of season, like Utah, a shot at real glory. The NCAA is only interested in showing that they are a powerful brainless organization, that cares little about the health of the programs they oversee, or the athletes that they rule over. This organization is well known, for punishing student athletes for crimes that were committed by coaches and alumni, when they were not even attending the university. The biggest reason that the 8-game playoff has been nixed in the past, is the too many games argument. This can be easily solved by eliminating the massacre game. Alabama does not have to play Mercer. Michigan does not have to play Western Michigan or Northern Illinois. Cincinnati does not have to play Murray St. Georgia does not have to play Charleston Southern. The big excuse for these games is that the small schools get to share in the big gates that these large stadiums hold. Forget the fact that many of their players could be seriously injured. There is an easy solution. Just give them the money that would have been made on those four mythical games, if 8 teams are in the playoffs. There is also the lure of the big upset, that does happen once in a while. But really, is that enough, not to have a real playoff system.

Despite my disappointment in a sport, I love to watch, I will be watching when the 4-team playoff starts. I won’t be watching much of the other almost 40 meaningless games that are bowl games. There are a few interesting match ups but are any of them worth a career ending injury. ESPN and the NCAA certainly think so. Remember, player protection is their number one priority, besides ratings, money, and forming moronic committees and broadcast teams. Boy, do I feel better.

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Sports: Devaluing Conference Champions

This week is Championship Week in college football.  There are the 5 power conference championship games, this weekend, that will have little or no significance on the College Football Playoff rankings.  This week more than any other shows the fallacy of the playoff system in college football.  The best thing you can say about it is, it’s better than nothing and better than picking just two teams.   You will hear on Sunday night such terms as meeting the eye test, most deserving and total body of work, on the self serving ESPN network.  This is a perfect example of a sport, and a sports network  thinking that their fan base is just plain stupid.  There is no other sport that picks their champion by such obscure phrases.  All other championships are decided on the field, not by some closed door committee. Granted, there are some at large bids for the NCAA tournaments, but the majority of the teams are in the tournament by winning their conference championship games, and there are 64 teams in the tournament.  Let’s look at what will probably happen this weekend, but also, what could  happen this weekend, which will have little bearing on the final four.

The biggest game of the five is LSU vs. Georgia, for the SEC Championship. This game will dictate what the weekend will be like.   LSU is about a touchdown favorite to win the game and a victory would eliminate Georgia from the top 4, unless a lot of other things happen. This puts Georgia under more pressure to win the game.   If Georgia pulls off the upset, then LSU would most likely stay in the top 4, and compete for the National Championship. For Georgia, it is a win or most likely go home scenario, which doesn’t seem quite fair.  The same thing can be said of the Ohio St. vs Wisconsin game.  If Wisconsin  pulls off the big upset, that probably won’t get them in the top 4, but it is unlikely to knock  Ohio St. out of the top four.  Wisconsin, would probably have to win by 14 or more points, to put Ohio St. out.   If  OSU, LSU, and Clemson, all win, and Clemson is almost a 30 point favorite to beat Virginia,  then it all boils down to the two winners of the Big 12, and Pac 12 Championship games. Then the committee would have to choose one and those phrases will be rolling off everybody’s tongue, come Sunday night. No matter what happens, one conference champion will not get in the playoffs, and if one or more upsets occur, as many as 3 conference champions will not have a crack at the National Championship.  Talk about making conference championships insignificant, the NCAA does it again. Of course, there is an easy solution to the unfairness of the whole mess.

The winners of the five conference championship games make the playoffs.  These are the five power conferences, and if you win your championship game you should move on. This is what sports are all about. What happens when Notre Dame has a great year. Just join the ACC Notre Dame, they need you really bad, and with this system, now you need them.  The end of the season games are more significant, and a conference championship game should be a playoff game. So how would the playoffs go from that point on.  The two lowest ranked teams that won would play the next week, and the winner would occupy the fourth spot. The schedule would then proceed as it is now.  Let’s look at those three disgusting phrases that are now used to pick the 4 teams. This team meets the eye test.  In other words, they look like the best team when you watch them play, and in many stats categories.   How many teams in other sports look great to the observer, but still lose the big game.  Try, too many to count.   The most deserving team, due to a tougher schedule, some  heartbreaking losses or who knows what.  Some times you don’t always get what you deserve.  Welcome to the real world.  The total body of work.  Three teams,  Ohio State, LSU, and Clemson, are going into these Championship games undefeated and untied.  Many people are of the belief, if these teams lose, they are one loss teams that DESERVE to go on, because of their total body of work.  Should they have made the New York Giants defeat the New England Patriots twice, because the Patriots were 18-0 going into that Super Bowl. That was a nice body of work, until the Super Bowl.  How can any team have a chance at a National Championship in football, and lose their conference championship game. The committee and ESPN will try and convince you, if that happens.  There is only one way to determine a champion and that is on the field.  Playoff football is different.  When is college football ever going to realize this.

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Sports: College Football Saturday Two Games Four Teams 8-0

Today there are two big games in college football, with four teams having the same record of 8 wins and 0 losses.  The games have completely different significance when deciding the final four in the College Football Playoffs. The first game will see Penn St. playing the University of Minnesota, one of the surprise teams of the year.   The second game will see perennial powers LSU and Alabama facing off in Tuscaloosa. All four teams are undefeated and untied at 8-0.  Of the two games, the Penn State vs. Minnesota game is the much more significant.  The team that loses, will be virtually eliminated from the football playoffs, whether they like it or not. If Penn St. loses today, but wins the rest of the their games and beats Minnesota in the Big Ten Championship Game,  they would still need some losses from other teams to get into the final four.  The same thing can be said for Minnesota.   On the other hand the only way the Alabama-LSU game becomes this significant is if the game happens to be a blow out.  As long as the game is reasonably close and the losing team runs the table they will get into the four team playoff.  The loser of this game may have  a better chance of getting into the playoffs, because they do not have to worry about losing the SEC championship game.   Such is the goofiness of college football, that everyone seems to accept. It is fine to decide which 4 teams make the  play offs, based on subjective decisions, made by people behind close doors.

The BCS system was a far superior system to pick teams to make a playoff. It had to be tweaked once, and the BCS system had only one flaw.  It was  allowed to pick only two teams. When the NCAA finally decided on a four team playoff , they fouled it all up by going to a committee to pick the four teams.   The committee usually gets praise for their selections, but the No 1 team has never won in 5 tries.   The number 4 team has won twice.   Seven of the ten semi final games have not been all that close with 4 being real blow outs.  Let’s face it, most of time the committee has not picked the right 4 teams, and have not ranked them very well. The committee doesn’t need tweaked, it needs to be dissolved.  We should go back to the BCS system to pick the teams.  What would even be better would be to go to an 8 team playoff.  People feel that this is too many games for college players to play, and I agree completely.  The simple solution is to take away one regular season game.  Every one of these football powers plays at least one game against a very small school, that they blow away.  The excuse is that these schools reap the benefits of the gate receipts, at these large sold out stadiums.  Let them share in the much greater revenue of the quarter final games of a college football playoff,  and avoid the pounding they take playing one of these games.  Have the five conference champions and the top 3 teams in a BCS ranking system that are not conference champions be the 8 teams in the play offs.  A system that would make two games, where all four teams are 8-0, equally significant.

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Sports: College Football, Super Teams Not Conferences

The college football season is in full swing, and the game never seemed better.  The college game is exciting, and the 4 team play off system seems to be working out ok. When the play off system was about to supplant the BCS system, the powers to be in college football tried to create  4 super conferences, with the math being fairly simple.  If the conferences were super then the 4 conference champions would most likely make the college football playoffs and make it fairly easy for the selection committee, who would now determine which teams would make the playoffs.  But the big 12 would have nothing to do with it and even though they suffered some big losses with teams leaving the conference, they weathered the storm, adding some teams and the conference seems to be pretty healthy for the moment.  However, it sets up this problem of 5 Major conferences. and 4 playoff spots.  So far the scenario of 5 undefeated conference champions. with one missing the play offs has not happened, but there has been plenty of controversy when selecting the 4 playoff teams. While the super conferences did not materialize, it seems that super teams in college football have.  There are over 100 college football teams that are eligible for the playoffs.  There is however, a very distinct line between these teams.  You can divide college football into four groups.   The Super Teams, The Use to Be’s, The Up and Comers, and the Have Nots.

First, the Super Teams.   Alabama has been in all 5 playoffs and looks like it is headed for a 6th.  Clemson has been in 4 and again looks like it is headed for a 5th.  The other contenders this year are Ohio State, LSU, Oklahoma, Georgia, Penn State, Oregon and Utah.  I would put Utah in the Up and Comers group for now.  Other Super Teams with only a slight chances of making the playoffs are Notre Dame, Michigan, and  Auburn. The list is not a big one.   I define a Super Team as a team that year after year has a legitimate chance of making the playoffs.   Since the BCS started only Michigan and Penn State have not been in the playoffs or a BCS final.  The list has only 11 teams.  Let’s move on to the Use to Be teams, which is the group that at one time would have been considered super teams, but now the programs are on hard times, with no light at the end of the tunnel. This list includes, Florida St., Miami, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Stanford, Arkansas, Michigan St, TCU, Texas, Oklahoma St., UCLA and USC.  These are programs that during the late nineties and the first 10 to 15 years of this century had some really good runs, of 3 to 5years  losing only 3 to 5 games during the span.   Tennessee was a BCS champion. Michigan St. and Florida St. made the playoffs and Florida St.  was a BCS Champion and runner-up  Miami won and lost a BCS championship game.   In the last 2.5 seasons all of these teams have lost at least 12 games. Arkansas, Tennessee, and UCLA have lost over 20 games.  There have been stretches where it took these teams 4 to 5 years to lose 20 or more games. There does not seem to any resurgence happening anytime soon. This leads us to the Up and Comers, and this list is the smallest.  They are Washington, Utah, Wisconsin and Florida. Washington was in the 2017 play offs and was in contention the last 2 years, but having an off year this year.   Florida at one time looked like it might make the list of the Use to Be’s but they seemed to on the way up.   They were a big time power under Urban Myer, then fell on some hard times but unlike the other Use to Be’s they seem to be having a resurgence.  The other two teams would have been considered the Have Nots but in recent years have made it to championship games and could be on the verge of making the playoffs. That leaves the Have Nots which make up the rest of college football.  These are teams that have not smelled the playoffs and probably never will.

What does all this mean?   The NCAA wanted to develop these so called power conferences and was hoping to keep the number to 4.  It did not work but what developed instead is the super teams.   Even when you throw in some teams that have potential to develop into super powers,  the list only contains  15 teams.   With two thirds of  the college football season completed there are only about 6 teams with a real shot at making the playoffs.  There is still a lot football to be played and upsets do happen, but it looks like  Alabama, LSU, Clemson, Ohio State, Penn State, and Oklahoma, have the inside edge with Oregon ready to step in, if chaos happens.  There are 12 teams in the Use to Be group and I think their problems are tied to the Super Team outbreak.   If you want a chance to be on a National Championship team then you had better go to one of the 15 teams.  Playing pro football may not even be the no. 1 consideration  for recruits, considering what the pro game can do to your brain.  Even playing in the playoffs however, I think enhances  a player’s draft status.  How he performs in the playoff environment does not go unnoticed.  In the long run, on the national scene, I think this will help college football to even greater heights and appeal.   As a general rule dynasties have made a sport more popular.  This also makes the surprise team an even bigger surprise and story.  It will be interesting to see if any of the Use to BE  programs can make a comeback. In my view they won’t.  So if you like the teams that are winning big in college football right now, you should be happy for a long time, because change is not on the horizon.