College Football

Notre Dame Should Kill College Football, and the Conferences, in Their Current Form

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Absolutely everything is wrong with college football. No, I get it, you like going to games, and you should, but that doesn’t change what I said. From mega conferences to the ESPN rankings show every week, college football is simply a slave to big network money, whether it’s Disney/ESPN, Comcast, or FOX. Great old rivalries like Penn State-Pitt, Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, Pitt-West Virginia, Notre Dame-Michigan, or whatever one you miss, all ended because of conferences, television money, and greed. Let’s be honest, did a single person in the world really want to see the Washington-Purdue game, or the Mizzou-Vanderbilt game, or the Stanford-Wake Forest game? Of course not. The four major conferences now have zero geographical sense, and more teams than can possibly play each other in a year. “Conference championships” literally decided by obscure tiebreakers and computers. The SEC literally had one (maybe two, if you think Michigan or Georgia Tech is actually good) good out of conference win as a collection of 16 schools, and yet they got five teams into the playoffs (at the expense of the one good team they beat), basically because their network runs the process. The conference hasn’t won a national title since the NIL took over the game, and I think the reasons are abundantly obvious for that (by the way, Ed O is a national treasure). It’s a paper tiger, but one that has to be held up because ESPN has so much at stake in them. The only teams down there with a chance to do anything now are teams who have large NIL potential, basically the Texas teams (include Oklahoma, because oil) and Georgia. It’s a joke.

Conferences no longer have anything to do with old rivalries, or geography, or anything sane. They have to do with television markets. The more big markets you are in, the more money you are worth, the better your conference becomes. This basically sucks for the game. I just got done ripping the SEC, but let me give them some credit here for a second, they are the only major conference that truly makes any geographic sense at this point, but it only works because they’re the only part of the country that is more obsessed with college football than the NFL. The ACC has decided to go north and west, and makes zero sense now. The Big 12 is literally a collection of whoever is left out of the other three. The Big Ten? It’s the worst offender, now literally holding court in almost all of the top ten markets in the country. I mean sure, we all wanted Rutgers-UCLA, right?

How you spend your money says everything about what matters to you. ESPN has the SEC. It also has the ACC, and it added quite a few dollars onto that TV deal to insure that it essentially had Notre Dame’s road games in the deal with the ACC (Usually three or four a year). Notre Dame gets about $17-22.1 million a year from the ACC according to Google AI (though the ACC claims that’s not football related), on top of their $50 million plus from NBC. The new revenue model adds about $10 million per school for the top teams, who now will play Notre Dame more often (for instance, Clemson will now play them for 12 years, starting in 2027). At the time of the deal, ESPN added $3 million per school (approximately $50 million) to the payout. That number has only grown. Finebaum and the other talking heads can claim Notre Dame isn’t the ratings giant it claims, but both Disney and Comcast pay out money that says otherwise. Clemson and Florida State are still unhappy with their media payouts, but they would almost certainly leave if the $10 million or so boost they got was suddenly gone. It’s basic math. Unless you think both Comcast/NBC and Disney/ESPN are morons, Notre Dame is clearly making everyone a lot of money. Does Notre Dame get to pocket a lot more money than the ACC teams? Yes, sure. It’s obviously worth it to them too though.

What everyone wants from Notre Dame is to strip them of their independent TV deal with NBC. It would make less than zero sense for Notre Dame to give that up voluntarily though. The ACC isn’t going to stop scheduling games with them if they add $50 million plus annually to their TV deal. Two Big Ten teams this year, and three next year, line up to play them. A pair of SEC teams seem to show up every year. All told, Notre Dame gets ten Power 4 games easily, and they don’t have to split money with teams who add little value. It pisses off fans from other teams, but let’s be honest, if Alabama could add this kind of value, they wouldn’t be sharing with Kentucky and Mississippi State. Same for Michigan and USC. Again, how you spend your money says what’s important to you.

The ACC promoting Miami’s case for the CFB Playoff is not on it’s face offensive. Miami is a member school, and splits the payout with the other member schools. Miami campaigning for Miami is also not an issue, of course they would. In fact, Miami getting in over Notre Dame isn’t really a problem, while I think Notre Dame is better and Miami isn’t a contender, Miami won the game. Miami wasn’t the issue. The issue was the efforts to which ESPN, the ACC and SEC’s TV partner, went to campaign for Alabama at the expense of Notre Dame, and the degree to which the ACC took part. Both Miami and Notre Dame were better teams than Alabama this year. Again, winning SEC games is not some special achievement anymore. The ACC putting the Miami-Notre Dame game on a loop on their ESPN administered network the week of the selection, not to mention direct attacks on social media, was harmful. If the ACC isn’t an ally, why is Notre Dame participating with them? Do we not think one of the other conferences would enter into a deal with Notre Dame that *adds* money to their TV payouts for every member school? Of course they would. The only reasons they are in conferences is money. Don’t kid yourself.

Notre Dame should leave the ACC. It would kill the ACC, yes, and maybe that’s not great, but it’s probably necessary to do any real damage to ESPN. Skipping the Bowl Game did directly hurt the bottom line, and did damage to the value of the bowl brand, which hurt ESPN too, but that’s not the big hit. Killing one of their conferences would send the message that ESPN and the conferences are not really in charge here. It’s time for the NCAA to re-assert control, and Notre Dame could speed up that process in football right now. Break an entire conference and set off a domino effect the other three can’t quite handle. Or better yet, form a true “scheduling consortium” with a few other powerhouse teams where everyone can have their own TV deals and show how useless these conferences are. The point is, once one school shows they can devalue an entire conference, the whole game is over. Someone will have to step in, and the only possible entity is the NCAA.

I know this isn’t popular, because Notre Dame is not as popular as it once was. In the 1900’s, the overwhelming majority of Americans didn’t go to college, so they chose their team allegiances based on other factors. Notre Dame being forced to go independent and travel the country, as well as their ties to the Catholic Church, built in millions of fans. Today, a lot more people go to college, and most of them don’t go to Notre Dame. They don’t like Notre Dame being unique, because people hate unique things, and their schools are not unique. They’re going to kick and scream about Notre Dame delivering a shock to the system. If Notre Dame has the courage to soldier through it though, everyone will be better off when the conferences die, for football (to be clear, they’re not as problematic in other sports). They’re out of control and need to be reigned back in.

The NCAA needs to separate “power four” football into it’s own division. The “group of 5” conferences are playing a different sport where there are smaller budgets, little TV money, and tiny bits of NIL. The 18 Big Ten teams, 16 SEC teams, 17 ACC teams, 16 Big 12 teams, Notre Dame, Oregon State, Washington State, UCONN, and between 1 and 9 more teams should be put into a separate division altogether. This would form a division of 72 to 80 teams, which should them be split into 8 regional divisions of 9 or 10 teams (based on which number you pick). You would play 8 or 9 division/conference games, against EVERYONE in the conference/division. The eight champions should make the playoff, period. You can schedule anyone you want with your 3 or 4 other games. This is the only sensible way forward, the only way for college football to act like a serious sport. Consolidate the “Group of 5” schools into four conferences and create a playoff for that division too. From pure budget perspectives, this would be fair.

Notre Dame can do what needs to be done here. Live by the values that made the program great- independence. It was forced on Notre Dame. Notre Dame is big enough to force it on the sport. Tear down this house of cards and do everyone a favor. Neuter the overrated SEC.

Who Belongs in the CFB Playoffs?

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Well, now that we know who won the conferences, it’s time to debate who belongs in the College Football Playoffs. I’ll start by saying I think this is the dumbest system possible, and too many teams get in. Yes, you read me right. I do not think putting more and more teams in to have more and more games is fun. The point of a playoff is to crown the best champion. Generally if I had my way, we wouldn’t be having arguments about the eleventh and twelfth teams. Teams that far from first really shouldn’t get a shot. In fact, if I really had my way, it would be more simple than that. Conference champions and teams that lost zero or one games would be in. Everybody else enjoy the Pop-Tart Bowl.

So, by my standard, Indiana, Georgia, Texas Tech, Duke (LOL), Ohio State, Oregon, Texas A&M, and Ole Miss are in the conversation. With all due respect to JMU and Tulane, and Group of 5 team really should have went undefeated to get in. My system is not the system though. The top 5 conference champions get bids. So Indiana, Georgia, Texas Tech, Tulane, and JMU get bids. Ok, fine, whatever. Other than winning a ridiculous conference title (more on that later), there is no human logic that can make an argument for Duke being in the playoffs. So after those five, Ohio State, Oregon, Texas A&M, and Ole Miss are locks to me. That leaves three spots that frankly will go to teams I don’t believe deserve a shot.

Everyone seems ready to give Oklahoma a bid, and given that they beat Alabama in like the last month, they should get one over the Crimson Tide. I’m sorry that your conference has a ridiculous tie breaking system (still beats the ACC and Mountain West), Alabama is not better than maybe the fifth best team in the SEC. That leaves us with two spots for Miami, Notre Dame, Alabama, Texas, BYU, and Vanderbilt to argue over. For me, first things first, all the three loss teams are no’s. These teams are very good, but the season as a whole should mean something. That takes us from 4 to 2. BYU is out because the Big 12 is basically just the island of misfit toys right now, lacking a signature brand name team, let alone a group of them. Do we really think the conference is good? I don’t. Texas Tech might be, and they murdered BYU. Vanderbilt is a nice story and had a nice season. They’re wildly overrated. They’re probably the 7th best team in their conference, and 7th best teams don’t belong in. Yes, they beat everyone they should. That’s nice. Maybe the Gator Bowl this year? This leaves us with Notre Dame and Miami. I would put both of them in.

There’s going to be a lot of whining by SEC fans and media to give them like seven slots. Let’s talk about the SEC for a moment, and what they really did this year. Since getting sent home without their lunch money by Notre Dame last year, Georgia went 8-1 vs. the SEC, and 4-0 vs. Marshall, Austin Peay, Charlotte, and Georgia Tech. Since losing last year’s Las Vegas Bowl to USC, Texas A&M went 7-1 vs. the SEC, and 4-0 against UTSA, Utah State, Notre Dame (probably the conference’s best non-conference win), and Samford. Ole Miss lost their coach to a dysfunctional conference rival, but went 7-1 in the SEC, and 4-0 against Georgia State, Tulane (not bad, but G5), Washington State, and Citadel. Since losing last year’s Armed Forces Bowl to Navy, Oklahoma went 6-2 in the SEC, and 4-0 against Illinois State, Michigan (good win), Kent State, and Temple. Alabama came up a little short in last year’s Reliaquest Bowl to Michigan, but since they’ve gone 7-2 in the SEC, and 3-1 against Florida State (awful loss), Louisiana-Monroe, Wisconsin, and Eastern Illinois. Texas wants you to credit their brutal schedule, but they went 6-2 in the SEC including a disgusting loss to Florida and a blowout to Georgia, and 3-1 against Ohio State (spoiler, they lost), San Jose State, UTEP, and Sam Houston. Then there’s Vanderbilt, who went 6-2 in the SEC, and then piled up 4 wins against powerhouses Charleston Southern, Virginia Tech, Georgia State, and Utah State. Among the seven “powerhouses” in the SEC three won remotely relevant non-conference games. This conference is good because the bottom half of the conference stinks and these seven teams beat the hell out of teams no better than the bottom half of any other conference. The only reason you think the SEC is good is because you always think the SEC is good. It’s not. At most, it should get four bids. Nothing this conference did this year suggests that it was really that much stronger than any other conference.

So no, I wouldn’t even consider Alabama, Texas, or Vanderbilt for the playoffs. The committee will probably put Alabama in though, because of ESPN and cash. My guess is they will put Notre Dame in over Miami, for basically similar reasons. Notre Dame should get in first out of the three, because they’re the best team. Their wins over USC (who beat Oklahoma’s best win, Michigan), Pitt (Miami’s best win after opening night), Boise State (Mountain West Champions), and Navy (the team right behind Tulane and North Texas in the AAC) are basically better than the entire “good” group of SEC teams non-conference wins, other than A&M’s win over themselves (And A&M is in, period). Alabama had two really bad losses in their three, and while you can try to excuse one of them as an extra game with Georgia, it’s a game the conference plays for no reason (they don’t have divisions anymore, and they should) just to make cash. Sorry, that’s the truth. Miami is only in this conversation because of an opening night win over Notre Dame, which to me is more of a negative for Notre Dame than a positive for Miami. We watched Miami all season, we can see what they are. They lost a mid-October game to a very mediocre Louisville team and an early November game to a similarly mediocre SMU team. It was a bit late in the season to be losing to mid teams like them. They couldn’t even make their conference’s hilarious title game, won by an 8-5 Duke team. They did win ten games though, like Alabama, and they beat Notre Dame (Like A&M) and Florida (who Texas somehow lost to). Miami got worse as the season went on, but I would still put them in as the tenth best team in the country, with the two group of five teams getting to play a game as the 11 and 12 teams.

If I actually could pick the full 12 team field, it would be Indiana, Georgia, Texas Tech, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Oregon, Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Miami, BYU, and Alabama. Since we have to put the G5 teams in, I’d make it Indiana, Georgia, Texas Tech, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Oregon, Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Miami, Tulane, and JMU. Since I’m being realistic and this is probably already bought and paid for, I’ll say Indiana, Georgia, Texas Tech, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Oregon, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Alabama, Notre Dame, Tulane, and JMU. This is no way to pick a champion, but I don’t think that’s what’s driving this conversation anyway.

The NCAA Expanded Their Football Playoffs and Created a New Monster

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Imagine creating conferences for college football that are so big that you can’t play everyone, then not creating divisions to instill some sort of order and understand to what we’re watching all year, then still trying to crown a regular season champion using a title game- what could go wrong? Then imagine creating a playoff bracket so big that you can have three to five SEC and B1G Ten Teams make it. You’d have a total mess, right? Like imagine a world where the ACC Champion doesn’t make a twelve team field?

Well, the NCAA delivered you a real mess to enjoy. I’ll start by saying I’d have a playoff system with just a couple of conference champions, because how can you be the National Champion and finish like fourth in your own league? I get it though, no one cares about finding the best team, you all just want to have fun and have your schools get even more money. Hey, that’s understood. This is what you get then.

The ACC is an utter embarrassment. How in the blue hell does 7-5 Duke *win* the tiebreaker with 10-2 Miami (I know, both went 6-2 in conference, but what kind of stupid tiebreakers did you set up?) to finish second in the conference regular season and get a chance to go beat 10-2/7-1 Virginia for the conference title? This is batshit. Why do you have a conference of 17 teams with no divisions to begin with? Then you have the six game deal with Notre Dame where you pay them $20 million for three or four games where they play on the road against your teams, basically because it adds about $10 million to your TV deal for all 17 teams (each). Look, should it be a good thing to have your conference play more nationally televised games on both Notre Dame’s and the ACC’s networks, where you play better competition? Sure. That is until Miami predictably wins against them in week 1, only to be a complete disappointment losing to sub-standard teams during the season, while Notre Dame stacks up five blow out wins against your teams and clearly passes the underwhelming Hurricanes. Everything about this conference is just madness, right down to SMU blowing an easy shot at the title game in the late hours of a Saturday night at Atlantic Coast Conference rival, California.

Then you have the SEC and Texas, who lost their third game weeks ago and now wants us to forget all of that and give them credit for beating a couple of conference foes during the year. Of course, they leave out that they got killed by Georgia and lost to an awful Florida team when they tell the story. Alabama has two losses, but even if they lose a third on Saturday, the playoff committee conveniently moved them up a spot or two to justify putting them in as a three loss team. Sure. Best of all is Ole Miss though. You go 11-1 and don’t make the conference title game (which we could also say about Texas A&M), then your coach is like “fuck it, I’m out” and leaves you ahead of a potential home playoff game, only go to a conference school in the state next year that can best be described as dysfunctional.

Notre Dame? You mean the team that lost their first two games by 4 points and kind of found new ways to lose each? Sure, they played 10 power 4 games, and sure Boise State, Navy, Arkansas, and USC end up as their “good” wins, but really who did most of their detractors win over? You can’t tell me Navy or Boise might not beat SMU. Both played Notre Dame reasonably similar or better than Pitt, who almost won the ACC. Look, I agree, Notre Dame did not beat a real murder’s row, but they probably did as much as all the other contenders, and well, they lost to two pretty good teams. Not Florida State. Not Florida. Not Louisville. They are not clearing a high bar, and frankly losing to Miami is only arguably a good loss. But yeah, they are clearing the bar we have.

Are my going to write about the Big 12? No, I’m not. I’m still amazed that a relatively good coach wanted to stay at BYU over Penn State. In a world with justice, he’d now lead his team to a win over Texas Tech, and then we can just put both in as participation trophies to lose in week 1. But we’d all feel good about it.

The B1G really was only decent this year. Go ahead, get mad. Three teams belong in. Another three are pretty decent, but not playoff teams. After that, slop. But I want to talk about Penn State for a moment. Wtf? Have we really reached the point that literally no one wants their money and their job? I get it, it’s hard to play Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Oregon, and Washington. You have an astronomical budget though and they’ll pay you out the ass. But you’d rather stay at Louisville, or go to South Florida, or even go to UCLA (Ok, for the beaches, yes). If their season isn’t bad enough, this humiliation is awful. Seriously, just hire Chip Kelly at this point, I dare you. #TrustInChip

I’m not even going beyond this. I’m actually cheering for Duke to make a complete circus spectacle out of this. Let’s figure out how to get like six unqualified shmuck teams in. What could be more fun?