CFB offseason thread 2025

[Neutral Corner]

Try being a have not. I'm seeing a lot of G5 teams come close to not even bothering to recruit out of high school, taking just a few. Why bother? You recruit a kid, he takes up a slot. You train him in the weight room, feed him up with good nutrition, coach him up, let him get a few game reps, and two years later (one of them a redshirt) if he's worth a darn he's gone. If he's been on the field enough to have some good film a team further up the food chain plucks him away. If he's not then it's likely that he markets himself and transfers up if he's good enough. All such coaches have to sell is playing time/good coaching, team culture, and "family". Most barely have enough money to retain their better players, to keep them from transferring out.

It's gotten to the point that coaches are taking a higher percentage of JUCO's and P5 transfers who are not getting the playing time they want instead of fooling with high school grads.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

The separation between the good 20 teams, the awful 40 teams and the other 70 just playing out the string is so defined by November. It isn't a college basketball type of situation where a mid-level team might take a magical run in the second half of conference play, roll into the conference tournament on fire and be a completely different team than they were in the first 12-14 games.

Plus the upsets are happening at lesser pace and with all the movement and the further separation between the haves and have nots, it feels like those upsets are going to continue to become more rare. And then the tournament was kind of a flop. First round there was nothing. Arizona State-Texas was fun. Notre Dame-Penn State was a really good game. But if all the seedings change around you might not get an Arizona State-Texas type of situation again.

CFB coaches want to blame everything from the stability of the game to the price of eggs on NIL and the transfer portal, but the structure of the game isn't good and two conferences deciding that they want to completely deck every deck in their favor doesn't bode well for the future.

I seem to remember Notre Dame losing to Northern Illinois last season, and Vanderbilt beating Alabama. So upsets haven't vanished, and in any case, by definition they are rare.

 

[Batman]

The separation between the good 20 teams, the awful 40 teams and the other 70 just playing out the string is so defined by November. It isn't a college basketball type of situation where a mid-level team might take a magical run in the second half of conference play, roll into the conference tournament on fire and be a completely different team than they were in the first 12-14 games.

Plus the upsets are happening at lesser pace and with all the movement and the further separation between the haves and have nots, it feels like those upsets are going to continue to become more rare. And then the tournament was kind of a flop. First round there was nothing. Arizona State-Texas was fun. Notre Dame-Penn State was a really good game. But if all the seedings change around you might not get an Arizona State-Texas type of situation again.

CFB coaches want to blame everything from the stability of the game to the price of eggs on NIL and the transfer portal, but the structure of the game isn't good and two conferences deciding that they want to completely deck every deck in their favor doesn't bode well for the future.

Hasn't that been the case forever? Pre-playoff, one loss in September pretty much sank your season and two almost certainly did. The also-rans achieved that status by Halloween.
This past season was one of the more intriguing ones in a while because of the second-tier teams with one or two losses who were trying desperately to play their way in. Three playoff teams had to win their conference championship games just to get in.

 

[Batman]

The separation between the good 20 teams, the awful 40 teams and the other 70 just playing out the string is so defined by November. It isn't a college basketball type of situation where a mid-level team might take a magical run in the second half of conference play, roll into the conference tournament on fire and be a completely different team than they were in the first 12-14 games.

Plus the upsets are happening at lesser pace and with all the movement and the further separation between the haves and have nots, it feels like those upsets are going to continue to become more rare. And then the tournament was kind of a flop. First round there was nothing. Arizona State-Texas was fun. Notre Dame-Penn State was a really good game. But if all the seedings change around you might not get an Arizona State-Texas type of situation again.

CFB coaches want to blame everything from the stability of the game to the price of eggs on NIL and the transfer portal, but the structure of the game isn't good and two conferences deciding that they want to completely deck every deck in their favor doesn't bode well for the future.

Hasn't that been the case forever? Pre-playoff, one loss in September pretty much sank your season and two almost certainly did. The also-rans achieved that status by Halloween.
This past season was one of the more intriguing ones in a while because of the second-tier teams with one or two losses who were trying desperately to play their way in. Three playoff teams had to win their conference championship games just to get in.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Notre Dame, USC Trojans Rivalry Ending? USC Athletic Director Uncertain Answer

So USC, which destroyed the Pac-12, is now at least thinking about destroying one of CFB's most storied rivalries?

 

[HappyCurmudgeon]

I seem to remember Notre Dame losing to Northern Illinois last season, and Vanderbilt beating Alabama. So upsets haven't vanished, and in any case, by definition they are rare.

Not talking beginning of the season stuff, talking 10 weeks in when teams have pretty much established what they are about.

And I never said they vanished. A shitty Michigan team that couldn't throw a forward pash rope-a-doped Ohio State at home this year.

Point is November isn't the kind of the fun month it used to be in CFB many many years ago. Some of the is the fault of the system where players will just leave a program whenever.

But I don't blame the players. Since the BCS took form and you could probably go back to the Bowl coalition, CFB has been a cash grab. The bowl directions, the conference commissioners, the coaches, etc. all just cash grabbing. And it supposedly wasn't an issue until the players got into the mix.

 

[HappyCurmudgeon]

Hasn't that been the case forever? Pre-playoff, one loss in September pretty much sank your season and two almost certainly did. The also-rans achieved that status by Halloween.
This past season was one of the more intriguing ones in a while because of the second-tier teams with one or two losses who were trying desperately to play their way in. Three playoff teams had to win their conference championship games just to get in.

It wasn't that interesting. At the end of the day the only question was would Alabama get in the playoff over SMU. That was the question. And the Tide was rightfully left out, so then we get to hear days of Indiana being shamed by the talking heads because they had the nerve to put together a good season.

And whatever interest that drew is on the chopping block because the SEC/B10 want four spots each guaranteed. And probably first access at the "at large" spot. Say they expand to 14 first...65% of the spots in the playoff are already earmarked for two conferences. That's a ridiculous advantage in a sport that thrives off of an unbalanced way to accumulate talent.

 

[dixiehack]

The leagues are just too big for the sense of scale the sport historically relies on, like putting the wrong gage track on a model railroad. It would have taken a little judicious surgery, but growing up it would not have been hard to picture 34 teams being enough to populate four leagues. Now the B1G and SEC take up that many by themselves.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

The leagues are just too big for the sense of scale the sport historically relies on, like putting the wrong gage track on a model railroad. It would have taken a little judicious surgery, but growing up it would not have been hard to picture 34 teams being enough to populate four leagues. Now the B1G and SEC take up that many by themselves.

Your first sentence says what I have felt but struggled to find the words for. The two megaconferences are too unwieldy to hold my interest.

 

[Slacker]

Hasn't that been the case forever? Pre-playoff, one loss in September pretty much sank your season and two almost certainly did. The also-rans achieved that status by Halloween.
This past season was one of the more intriguing ones in a while because of the second-tier teams with one or two losses who were trying desperately to play their way in. Three playoff teams had to win their conference championship games just to get in.

Hall of Fame d_b right there. Not only did you
d_b yourself, but you did it back-to-back. Yahtzee!

 

[Batman]

Hall of Fame d_b right there. Not only did you
d_b yourself, but you did it back-to-back. Yahtzee!

I'm not sure if I'm a first-ballot SJ hall of famer, but stuff like that ought to strengthen my case.

For the record, I posted that from my phone and I think the connection hung up or something so I hit the "post reply" button twice. Then it did "post reply" twice.
Or maybe I just thought that take was so awesome it needed to be restated for emphasis. Either way.

 

[Flip Wilson]

Former Baylor quarterback and radio play-by-play analyst J.J. Joe died Tuesday. He was only 54. It's a suspected heart attack.

There's not much in this story, but it's all I can find right now.

https://www.kwtx.com/2025/02/26/baylor-football-legend-jj-joe-confirmed-dead-54/