2024 college football offseason thread

They should still get games with Notre Dame through the ACC tie-in, right? Or is that no longer a thing?

 

That was part of it, I believe. I also know a series with BYU was canceled when the Cougars went to the Big XII.

 

I don't think it hit me until I saw it like this, but here's the cleveland.com preseason football poll for the country's most overstuffed conference.

1. Ohio State Buckeyes
2. Oregon Ducks
3. Penn State Nittany Lions
4. Michigan Wolverines
5. Iowa Hawkeyes
6. USC Trojans
7. Wisconsin Badgers
8. Nebraska Cornhuskers
9. Rutgers Scarlet Knights
10. Washington Huskies
11. Maryland Terrapins
12. Minnesota Golden Gophers
13. Illinois Fighting Illini
14. Northwestern Wildcats
15. UCLA Bruins
16. Michigan State Spartans
17. Indiana Hoosiers
18. Purdue Boilermakers

 

You could go to one of these schools as a freshman, attend every home game, and probably graduate as a senior without seeing every other team in the damn conference. This is all going to end up like the collapse of the conglomerates of the '70s and '80s.

 

Georgia still hasn't played at Texas A&M since the Aggies joined the SEC in 2012. A&M has been to Athens once.

 

You can look at that list and see the 10-12 schools that'll survive any squeeze in profits and the others that will be, as they used to say, "spun off."

 

over the course of four years, each team will play the others at least twice I think. Some teams will play each other all four years of course

 

Twelve is the optimal number for a conference with split divisions and a championship game. You can squint and make 14 work as the SEC did. But 18? No way Jose.

 

I remember the 16 team WAC spread across three or four time zones.

 

There is a way to make 16 work -- and in my opinion work well -- but it'd be outside the box.

 

Quads?

 

A freshman at Michigan will see a home game against everyone except Nebraska and Maryland