I wouldn’t be surprised to see them bring someone else in, especially if they lose Stanley, Mitchell or Curry. But I think WR remains the top portal need on offense.
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That seems to be something we do quite well.
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Excerpt from The Athletic:
MIAMI — This was a debacle, and Kirby Smart knew it. He was the one who benefitted from it. His Georgia team got to finish its season feeling very good about itself, sending the message that if its one bad game had been forgiven, it very likely would have won a third consecutive national championship.
But that wasn’t the point. That wasn’t the main takeaway from this game, a 63-3 Georgia rout of a decimated Florida State that was an embarrassment for college football.
“People need to see what happened tonight and they need to fix this. It needs to be fixed,” Smart said.
Smart doesn’t often get on a soapbox and usually tries to avoid making headlines. This was uncharacteristic. But it was clear that as happy as he was about how his team played, he also felt pity for what Florida State coach Mike Norvell and his remaining players had to endure. The Seminoles were down more than two dozen players who finished the season with the team, including six starters who opted out to prepare for the 2024 NFL Draft.
Georgia, meanwhile, was not down any non-injured players. Much of the difference can be attributed to Georgia coming off of a loss. Much of it is a credit to Georgia’s team culture.
Some of it will be fixed next year by the expansion of the College Football Playoff. Florida State would have been a much better team if this were a Playoff game. But because this wasn’t, it ended up becoming a joke of a game, two teams that no longer belonged on the same field.
“It’s very unfortunate that they, who have a good football team and a good football program, are in the position they’re in,” Smart said. “Everybody can say it’s their fault and it’s not our problem. They can say we had our guys and they didn’t have their guys. I can listen to all that. But college football has to decide what they want.
“I know things are changing, and some things are going to change next year. You know what, there’s going to still be bowl games outside of those. People have gotta decide what they want and what they want to get out of it. Because it’s really unfortunate for those kids on that sideline that had to play in that game that didn’t have their full arsenal. And it affected the game, 100 percent.”
It affected the game in ways that shouldn’t happen in a storied bowl game. But that’s where the sport is now…
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ESPN’s report on Kirby Smart’s statements:
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Again this and the other absurd results this season show its senseless to attack our coaches for not magically producing equal talent replacements. The one area of criticism that should stand is the deceptive way they played up potential returns…that is a big deal.
But a team with half its starters gone losing to a team that is fully staffed is the expected outcome and a few weeks of practice for backups won’t change it.
College football and the powers that be deserve to lose billions unless they fix this mess fast. Colleges need to either hire the student athletes and work out a sensible contract system or divest themselves from this new overtly professional sports system where everyone is an unconstrained free agent.
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Money might drive reforms to this Rube Goldberg system that has been set up. I hope ESPN and the other sports broadcasting titans will start to see the drop in TV revenues, the partially empty stadiums, and so forth. Maybe they’ll will start to see a drop in TV revenues, the bowls will notice the low bowl game attendance, and so forth. I hope so.
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Partially? You’re too generous.
The Orange Bowl was a disaster, vast open spaces in the sideline stands in the 3rd quarter. Seminole and Bulldog fans support their teams in epic proportions, but watching that game had all the entertainment value of going to a meat processing plant.
When the victorious coach laments the erosion of transfers in the opponent that resulted in a spectacle less watch-worthy than reruns of Gilligan’s Island… yeah, ESPN (and Fox) have a very strong incentive to exert the same level of influence they put into building the ratings cartels (superconferences) to help fix this mess.
Any disappointment in the Utes’ 2023 season will get lost in the massive issues dominating the national discussion.
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Another thought: With a 12-team CFP coming, won’t everybody else in D1 football now be competing for the rankings from 13 to 25? The top 12 will be selected before the CFP games even begin.
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As I have said numerous times this year, if your team isn’t in the cue to play for all the marbles you are better off to stay home and not play a meaningless post season game. Given the exodus of players we saw - beyond the injuries - we fielded a team of backups with little to no experience - even in practice - against a loaded team. It was pretty amazing we didn’t get our doors blown off ala FSU.
Honestly this Bowl Season has been a disaster. A three-ringed dog and pony show with a dumpster fire taking up the center ring.
I hope FOX, ESPN, and CBS are losing their shirts on it, it would be just desserts.
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Not sure what this means. Maybe I’m the only one that’s confused, but can you elaborate?
Edit to add: For example, competing for rankings 13 to 25? And, of course the top 12 will be selected before the CFP games begin, otherwise how would we know which teams are playing?
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Danny Kannel had an innovative idea: instead of doing the bowl season after the regular season, why not schedule those matchups as part of Week 0 of the following season?
I’m not sure this idea will work out, but since the system seems near collapse it’s something to think about. If you don’t get into the CFP, what is there to play for? Historically, bowl games. But with all the opt outs and everyone being worn out and distracted by the holidays, just shift all those matchups to late August?
(Easier said than done, but something to consider. One problem: many warm weather bowl destinations will be crappy places in August.)
Kannel’s idea might get some traction, but in the meantime somebody - anybody - needs to help stabilize CFB. ESPN laid off a ton of folks in the last year, so their financial situation might mean most bowls just cease operation.
(Maybe ESPN needs to revive and cultivate a new generation of roller derby fans. That kept my attention back in the 70s on Saturdays, but we only had 5 channels.)
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Aussie Rules Football was my guilty pleasure back then, in no small part because it was hard to figure out if there were actually any rules.
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My favorite part is the officials with their white hats, signaling whatever happens at the goal line, with the poles, or whatever.
Stylish!
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I think we undervalue the additional 14 practices the young guys receive on player development. Sure, the bowls will become less interesting than they are now. I didn’t go to Vegas primarily due to the timing of driving home on Christmas Eve, but some of it had to do with the exodus of players.
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College football is like addressing homelessness and the southern border. A lot of opinions, but no real solutions.
I don’t think you want to add an additional game to the regular season. Does it count against your record and thereby impact your ability to get toe the CFP? How many away games are fans going to attend?
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Create a round of 8 bowls for the top 16 teams and have them play. That will support 15 total bowl games and end the rest. Or allow the rest to be practice/scrimmages or flag football I don’t much care.
Remove the practice restrictions so all schools can still develop their young talent. Give them all an extra 14 days.
Close the transfer portal from Aug 15-Jan 15
End NIL by making all college players contract employees for the university.
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It makes too much sense. For that reason alone, your scenario won’t happen. Although I do like your idea.
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once Digital TV went live in 2007 or so [remember back in the oldendays of no sub channels for OTA?], I found MHzWorldview, which carried 2 weekly things from Aust F.L.: One full match, and then a weekly run down of highlights… I absolutelt lvoed it… I’ve not been able to find anything on the web of the same nature, and I think that network is gone. Sigh.
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Summer of 2008, I had an internship and stayed with my BIL. We got Setanta channel for the Rugby World Cup and ‘discovered’ Aussie Rules. It’s bonkers and the most fun to watch of amy sport IMO. What a glorious summer.
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Even though I agree with in a larger sense, the example of Kansas St comes to mind this bowl season. They had to play a true freshman at quarterback who rarely played, and he ended up the player of the game.
We will never know if Rose could have done something similar.
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