Week 1 College Football Thread: Seven Years of College Station Down the Drain

I really enjoyed the BTN feature on conference legend Ann Meyers Drysdale. Eagerly awaiting the feature on OJ, Charles White, Marcus Allen, Sam Cunningham and other USC TBs who dominated the league in their heyday. Wait, they did dominate the Big Ten, only Jan. 1.

 

You can add network/provider disputes to hurricane monitoring as a sure sign Sept. 1 is around the corner.

Except the network/provider disputes have become much more reliable.

 

The G5 team I root for had 12 players who started signed away by P5 programs. At this point they need to stop trying to compete in the same level. Indiana— INDIANA — paid for the starting quarterback and wide receiver. Indiana.


Become a third type of football between FBS and FCS in the same way the Ivy League is. The MAC already plays in a separate part of the week for half the season. Just play midweek all season and brand yourself as your own brand of midweek college football that only plays in-conference games.

 

Some tasty tidbits this weekend.

There’s something just wrong about the South Dakota State-Okie Lite number. Only 9.5. Something about Okie Lite playing schools early at home with South in their name (see 2023 South Alabama) that they should win then poop their pretty orange bloomers. Take the Bunnies.

Temple getting 42.5 at OU. Yes please. I think the rest of the SEC is salivating over having OU in. That defense is a cheese grater. Just holes everywhere.

The BC-FSU game looks good because you’re thinking that FSU can’t possibly start off 0-2, so let’s inflate this number. BC getting 16.5 seems high. That’s why I’m taking BC. I think Burt U still wins but it gets covered.

 

Some of the matchups this weekend are so bad, I have a hard time figuring out who paid whom for the game.

 

M-I-Z!

 

Z-O-U!

 

Saban still working out the kinks on adjusting to retirement.

 

I think the G5 leagues could survive quite well playing exclusively on Saturday, maybe an occasional Friday night game. Every game can be streamed, so finding a linear broadcast window isn't as important. College football as it once was.

I absolutely LOVE the kickoff times for OSU games this season, now that they are not locked into being jammed into an ESPN/FOX/Pac-12 box. Saturday home games are great for the local economy. They're great for spectators, most of whom live within a 3-4-hour drive. Campus is alive, downtown is packed on Friday nights.

I know the MAC loves MACtion, but IMHO it just kills the fan base and the local communities to play on a Tuesday or Wednesday night as opposed to Saturdays.

 

G5 schools are starting to get some decent run on linear networks between more channels getting in on coverage and the Mouse needing to fill programing holes without the Big 10. For this Saturday only I count four games where a G5 team hosts a game on national TV, and six the following Saturday. (For this purpose I excluded Wazzu, Oregon State and the service academy games on CBSSSN.)

I’m not so sure those opportunities are still there if those schools drop down to create a tweener subdivision.

 

According to the latest USA today chart the 12 MAC schools subsidized college athletics to the tune of more than 250 million dollars last year. Given the number of people who actually care about MAC sports I find this expenditure to be one of the largest taxpayer funded boondoggles in our country.

https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances

 

For the six MAC teams in Ohio, and I'm guessing the three in Michigan, literally nobody in those states is watching (or attending) MAC games on Saturdays when the Big MAC is playing.