This is why Universities need to get out of the professional sports biz. Rent out the stadiums for revenue and put some money back into live academics. If any of you have children in school now ask about what is happening with Canvas and Instructure and AI…we need every live professor teaching every live class we can pay for. We do not need a bunch of pseudo pros pulling down millions getting supplemental support from student fees. We do need cancer research. We do not need another crap bowl trophy. Just my two cents as someone who cancelled their CC membership and season tickets to divert my money back into academic scholarship donations.
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Arizona getting taken to the woodshed by a 4-loss SMU. 21-0 in the 2nd.
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I like what I saw when the kid was touring Northwestern and their new stadium plans that wasn’t just about football:
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I can see this becoming the new home of the Blackhawks outdoor hockey game.
Northwestern definitely coined out for this. I hate to think what the price of a ticket is going to be.
The days of the “average fan” attending games is coming to a close…and quickly.
People who go to Northwestern tend to have that kind of coin.
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Today’s snip from the Athletic:
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti may spend three straight hours stone-faced on the sideline, but he usually turns the dry humor back on for his postgame interviews after yet another dominating victory. When ESPN’s Kris Budden asked him after Thursday’s Rose Bowl why “the moment (wasn’t) too big” for the Hoosiers, he replied nonchalantly, “Well, why should it be too big? Because our name is Indiana?”
No. 1 Indiana humiliating mighty Alabama 38-3 in a CFP quarterfinal was not particularly surprising to anyone who watched the two teams this season, but it was simultaneously incomprehensible to anyone who ever watched college football before 2024. The now 14-0 Hoosiers did much the same thing to Alabama that Alabama used to do to the likes of Notre Dame, Michigan State, Washington and other postseason foes under Nick Saban.
It was college football’s ultimate “changing of the guard” moment.
- And then four hours later, Ole Miss knocked off Georgia.
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The Big 12 not looking great in the bowl season.
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Long winter night Thursday, so I watched Ole Miss vs Miami in the CFP semis. Great game, actually, especially in the 4th, and if Mario Cristobal has gotten over being humiliated by the Utes twice in 2022, then good for him, I suppose.
I was pulling for the Rebs because their entire situation is so screwed up, and in a perverse way emblematic of the damaged state of all of CFB. Lean into the absurdity, right?
Anyway, Pete Golding, the old Ole Miss DC - who got appointed the substitute teacher during the playoff run after Kiffin was run out of town - is a likeable anti-hero… beside the fact he’s going with Kiffin to LSU.
Dressed like a slob, not really HC material, in a previous game interviewed going into the half he kind of mumbled out some technical defensive thoughts and said “I need to go try to motivate these guys now”.
He reminds me of this Beavis and Butthead commentary on a Sabrina Carpenter video that starts out with her singing / mumbling to herself.
Beavis and Butt-Head - Do ‘Sabrina Carpenter - Skinny Dipping’
Beavis: “Does she know the video started yet?”
Butthead: “She can’t decide if she’s talking or singing or rapping… or just not trying very hard”
(Sorry for blending topics here, the parallels were too strong to ignore.)
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Great writing, but Pete Golding is the new HC and NOT going to LSU unlike most of the other coaches. He was able to retain Chambliss (QB, if he gets a medical redshirt from way back), Lacy (RB), and their great kicker, all whom Kiffin had hoped to poach and I’m delighted got spurned. Haven’t like Cristobal since Oregon nor UM’s mercenary Beck (who was kind of pushed out by UGA, another disliked team), so I was routing for Eli’s old team, but just came up short.
Between the last team in (Miami, from the lowly ACC) making it to the finals (and last year was #7 v #8), no SEC team in the finals (again), 7/8 top 4 seeds that got a bye losing over the last two years, and 9/10 conference champions losing over the last two years, one would have to assume that additional changes are coming, at least going to 16 teams and perhaps playing these games right after the season instead of a month later in some cases.
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This is news (to me, from last week) and great to hear!
I really like Pete Golding. Glad he’s staying at Oxford.
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Yeah, Ole Miss won that immediate battle. Kiffin thought everyone would follow him, including Pete and they named him HC the same day. So, in an anti-Kiffin way, I’m a fan of Golding now. The players really seem to like him (and the stars have committed to staying) and he seems like a nice guy - feel of an interim, but made permanent.
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I was a little torn watching that game. I wanted Miami to get the SEC out but I also wanted Ole Miss because the players were screwed by Kiffin and buying into what the remaining coaches have done, those players deserved to win.
It made me think about what I would do if I were a player or coach today. I think the programs that are at the top have two things going for them. First, they have money to pay the best kids to stay or to transfer in. Second, they have the ability to sell the realistic possibility of getting to and winning in the CFP. Although we have been very, very successful over the past 20 years. I am not sure the football or basketball coaches can realistically sell that to recruits and transfers. As a result, we see guys like JJ, Snowden Tao, etc leave for more money and that chance of performing on the biggest stage. Some of them will get the money and be mere spectators on the sidelines, but some will get both the money and the chance at at ring. I wish they would stay because I believe Utah has a chance to compete at the highest levels if we can retain the quality starters from year-to-year. If I were in their shoes and believed I could play at Michigan or Oregon, I would take the money and believe in myself. It will take a herculean effort for out coaches to be able to keep the quality starters.
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I’m kinda rooting for Indiana, but I feel like I owe Oregon something. Anyone else feel this way?
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I’m rooting for whoever is more likely to beat Miami, which I assume is Indiana.
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I’m a slight lean for Oregon, but I think Indiana is the better team.
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Oregon gives up a pick-6 on the opening play….
That’s a shame.
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I’ll be cheering against Oregon, forever more, along with the other teams that left the PAC12 for the BIG10.
I don’t really care about Indiana otherwise, except that they are more likely to defeat the Fake U
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I have nothing against Indiana, and I have always hated Oregon. Hoosiers all the way today. And so far, it’s not a contest. Makes me laugh more and more that BYU and its goofball fans cried about being left out of the playoffs. BYU got drilled twice by TT, which couldn’t even score on Oregon. Now, Oregon is down three touchdowns late in the first half to Oregon. BYU would have been embarrassed in the playoffs.
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The rout is on.
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Michigan plays OU, Indiana, Iowa, Penn St, Oregon and Ohio State next year. But they do have 8 home games.
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