NCAA College Football 2019-20: Official Thread

Sports fans, Ego Man. They're utterly vicious creatures with zero loyalty. If you aren't performing at 110%, you're a loser and can drop off the face of the earth to 'em. It doesn't matter if you were performing at 220% the previous weeks. You mess up once, you're done. At least that's Bears "fans," it seems.

Horns drop to the Tigers. Kinda what I figured would happen, but I was really hoping they'd pull off that win. They got close. If Johnson hold on to thelat onside kick they might have had a chance in OT. Defense looked gassed though. DBU my ass.

So if Tennessee loses to Chattanooga next week, UTC gets to drop the C and Tennessee becomes UTK, right?

GO BEARS!!!

After a 2.5 hour weather delay, game resumes after 6 minutes of play at 10:30pm pacific. Cal beats #14 Washington in Seattle 20-19!!!!!

Of course I stayed up to watch it!

1-0 in conference, top of the Pac-12 North.

THE KING IN THE NORTH!
THE KING IN THE NORTH!

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/RSSMdHP.png)

I just finished watching the second series of Last Chance U and I'm so confused about the college system in America. I've always been a bit curious as to how the system matches up to the UK.

East Mississippi seem to have a really good team, but aren't playing against the top teams (division 1 is referenced a lot). Why is that? Is there no chance that they can ever get to play one of these top teams like (I'll go out on a limb here, guessing this is a D1 team) Texas Tech? And why is their national league seemingly picked from a committee rather than some sort of national play off system? What division are EM in exactly considering they mention division 1 and division 2 as places they get offers?

Take the quarterback in season 2, DeAndre Johnson. He got kicked out of Florida State. So presumably, he's come in on a new scholarship to East Mississippi. However, a lot of the show seems to revolve around these guys getting letters for offers at the end of the year. Is it just their hope that they spend one year of their education at EM due to their philosophy, then transfer to a bigger college to continue the next year of their education to play for a bigger team? Or is it that East Mississippi is what we'd consider college in the UK (normall done ages 16-18, where you end up with qualifications called A levels) and are then moving on to what we'd consider university in the UK (where you spend, usually, 3 years to get a degree, such as bachelor of science)?

Also, I find it crazy so many people turn up to watch these college teams!

There are two factors in play in your question and both will probably seem very strange to an outsider.

There are four year universities and colleges that award complete college degrees upon completion. Among these four year schools, you can still have a tremendous variety of type and size, from large state universities like Georgia and Michigan which have tens of thousands of undergraduate students to tiny private colleges with just a few hundred students. Some of these schools choose to have athletic departments and compete in sports, while some don't or only offer "club" sports, or truly amateur sports with no financial backing from the school. The vast size differences that can exist between the schools results in the classifications into the Divisions for sports.

For four year schools there are Division I, II and III, which follows along mostly with the size of the school, though some smaller private schools with lots of financial resources choose to participate in a division that would otherwise be of higher level than their enrollment would indicate. These divisions also relate to how much financial support the schools give their athletic programs. In Division I, most sports award full scholarships (cost of taking classes and room and board) to the athletes. In Division II and III, athletes either get partial scholarships or no scholarships.

Based on this, depending upon the sport, games typical take place between schools of the same division, so as to avoid a large or rich school with all of their players receiving scholarships (and the best equipment, training, nutrition, etc) from playing against a tiny school with none of their players on scholarship. Another consideration here is travel. America is a big freaking place, and it is very costly for a tiny little private school in New England to send their students to the South or California to compete. So, again really only in Division I, do you see the big and rich schools playing each other across the country.

Football is further subdivided within Division I itself, because football teams are so big. The top part of Division I (FBS) has 130 teams and those schools can give 85 full scholarships for a team. The smaller Division 1 schools (FCS) can give 63 scholarships. The two types of Division I schools do play each other, but in a limited fashion and its generally considered not that sporting or competitive, though the best FCS schools do sometimes beat a bigger FBS school.

Wheeeh, that's a lot and I'm not even touching on the nebulous mess of what exactly "amateur" athletics are here.

Nor did I not touch on East Mississippi here. In addition to the system that I described for four year colleges and universities, we also have a system of two year community (or junior) colleges in America. These schools are quite numerous and function as both trade schools and as a cheaper avenue to eventually transfer to a four year school while still living with parents or in your hometown. For example, one of the community colleges near me has a great brewery program that places workers into one of the many craft brew companies around here, of for those students that want to pursue a full undergraduate degree, they can attend the community college for two years and then automatically transfer into of their state's four year schools.

The vast majority of community colleges do not compete in athletics at all, but in a few states, a few schools do and literally serve as a second chance for athletes that were kicked out of bigger four year schools, or who didn't have the grades or maybe just the perceived athletic ability to get into a four year program. After looking it up, there are 65 community colleges that play football out of a total of 1,132 total community colleges.

Finally, there are so few junior colleges that play sports/football primarily because it doesn't make financial sense. Of course, for many Division I schools they aren't a sound investment either.

*Edit*
An even better explanation that I just found on Reddit.

Pac-12 had 3 upsets against top 25 teams yesterday (today if count when Cal's game ended).

Colorado vs. #25 Nebraska
USC vs. #24 stanfurd
CAL vs #14 Washington

Pac-12 is bad right? I get the SEC has had a number of top 25 wins.. Auburn-Oregon, LSU-Texas.. but SEC team was favored in both of those.

I mean 2 of those were against other pac 12 teams. The P12 isn’t going to get any cred until they start winning the big out of conference games.

Understandable but someone has to lose when LSU, A&M and Alabama play against each other and no one will complain that it’s in conference. In fact if it’s not a blowout the losing team probably moves up.

pizzaddict wrote:

I mean 2 of those were against other pac 12 teams. The P12 isn’t going to get any cred until they start winning the big out of conference games.

Yes. Carl is being ridiculous at the moment. But Carl, congrats on the big win, sincerely, I'm very happy for you!

Clusks wrote:

I just finished watching the second series of Last Chance U and I'm so confused about the college system in America. I've always been a bit curious as to how the system matches up to the UK.

Is there no chance that they can ever get to play one of these top teams like (I'll go out on a limb here, guessing this is a D1 team) Texas Tech?

Tech as a top team! That's like saying Stoke is a top team.

To be fair, Tech is a D1 team (of which there are 120 IIRC) and are in a Power 5 conference (which probably have about 60 teams total).

Power 5 teams play 8 or 9 of their 12 regular season games against their conference mates and are "free" to schedule games against basically any other teams they want, although for "bowl game" qualification reasons they generally schedule no more than one game against a D2 team.

Teams do occasionally change conferences and move from, say, non-Power 5 conferences ("Group of 5") to power conferences; TCU recently made that move up to the Big 12 (which has ten teams at the moment). Within Power 5 conferences, my school moved up about seven years ago from the Big 12 (either the worst or second-worst Power conference) to the SEC (clearly the best).

People in the US feel very close ties to their university, and in general big college football teams have larger stadiums than pro teams. My college's stadium seats over 100,000 (biggest stadium in Texas) whereas my NFL team (in Houston, the fourth largest city in the US) seats about 72,000. My college is at least an hour and a half from all major cities, FWIW.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

[ Big 12 (either the worst or second-worst Power conference) to the SEC (clearly the best).

This is why Carl has to talk sh*t to keep your alternate reality from being presented as fact. 2 of the last 3 champs are ACC, not SEC. And 2 of those 3 years the ACC had more wins and/or a better winning percentage in all bowl games.

The ACC is on top right now.

Stele wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

[ Big 12 (either the worst or second-worst Power conference) to the SEC (clearly the best).

This is why Carl has to talk sh*t to keep your alternate reality from being presented as fact. 2 of the last 3 champs are ACC, not SEC. And 2 of those 3 years the ACC had more wins and/or a better winning percentage in all bowl games.

The ACC is on top right now.

Literally no one but ACC homers think this way. The ACC is one team deep, and that team's hardest games are against SEC opponents.

Edit: For Clusks's benefit, and anyone else who isn't a total homer: The SEC currently has half the teams in the top ten. The ACC has one - yes, the top spot, congratulations. The best win that team (Clemson) will have all year is against Texas A&M, an SEC team that isn't among the top ten.

And before y'all go crying about ranking inflation, those are the results on the field. A&M has played Clemson more closely than any ACC team in recent years.

Bowl games are not a great measure for how good a conference is. Star players don’t play, coaches leave, some teams get disappointed at the bowl they got placed in and aren’t as excited to play as the other. As Feday said, the ACC has 1 really good team and then a bunch of mediocrity.

Well there is no great measure of how good a conference is. Auburn beating Oregon does not make the SEC better than the Pac-12.... In the last 4 seasons (2015-2018) Cal has beaten Texas, UNC and Ole Miss. Both Texas and UNC were home and home, so Cal is 5-0 against the SEC, ACC and Big-12*, including 2 away wins (not neutral field), and in 2 weeks we go to play @ Ole Miss. Our Pac-12 conference record during that same 4 year period? 11-25 with 2 lower tier bowl games (1-1 record).

So if a bottom feeder in the Pac-12 beats the bottom feeders of those 3 conferences doesn't that mean the Pac-12 is actually a better top-to-bottom conference? Do I actually believe the Pac-12 is better than the SEC? of course not.. but as we've said plenty of times.. because Alabama is good does not automatically make the rest of the SEC good.

*(we're actually 5-1 since we lost in the amazing Cheez it bowl to TCU last year)

Regardless of what happens now, this is just further proof that pre-season and early season rankings are a joke.
The SEC currently has half the teams in the top ten.
karmajay wrote:
Regardless of what happens now, this is just further proof that pre-season and early season rankings are a joke.
The SEC currently has half the teams in the top ten.

Boom, headshot! Now THAT is a takedown, kids.

Here's an actual positive story about Tennessee; maybe we can lure Gumbie back somehow.

https://people.com/human-interest/bo...

Carlbear95 wrote:

GO BEARS!!!

After a 2.5 hour weather delay, game resumes after 6 minutes of play at 10:30pm pacific. Cal beats #14 Washington in Seattle 20-19!!!!!

Of course I stayed up to watch it!

1-0 in conference, top of the Pac-12 North.

THE KING IN THE NORTH!
THE KING IN THE NORTH!

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/RSSMdHP.png)

Still better than the ending we got for GoT.

Clusks wrote:

Also, I find it crazy so many people turn up to watch these college teams!

I write about higher education for a living and Badferret's primer is as good as any. The US higher ed system is based in large part on the European model, at least among schools founded during the Colonial era, but it has spun off into so many different directions.

As for the turnout, that's a combination of regional and tribal loyalty among alums and wannabes and a lot of damn hype. If you watch ESPN for a second this time of year, you'll feel the urge to buy body paint and a hip flask.

Historically, college football has been popular longer than the NFL has been around. (The modern NFL really dates back only to 1966; this 100 Years of NFL campaign is mostly fictional.) And in a lot of places -- I'm looking at you, SEC -- there weren't pro teams nearby, so Big State U filled the bill.

And while some of these college stadiums are ginormous, there are plenty of colleges that get next to no turnout at their games. Once you get down to the Division III level (usually small liberal arts colleges), turnout is usually counted in the hundreds, if that, because football is a nice way to spend a Saturday in the fall.

Edit: There's no accounting for the MY CONFERENCE IS BETTER argument that has broken out above. Everyone knows the correct answer is the ACC because Clemson is the reigning and defending national champion. All other takes are simply wrong.

Enix wrote:

Everyone knows the correct answer is the ACC because Clemson is the reigning and defending national champion. All other takes are simply wrong. :D

I love seeing people saying this after years of accusing SEC fans of riding Bama's coattails.

Since we've documented how scientifically accurate the polls are, I'll point out that the ACC has one team ranked in the Coaches' Poll, and two in the AP poll (just barely, with Virginia coming in 25th). I'm sure that's all just ridiculous SEC bias, though.

Speaking of explaining college football to European soccer fans, here's the video Bayern Munich made about my school's football culture:

Fedaykin98 wrote:
Enix wrote:

Everyone knows the correct answer is the ACC because Clemson is the reigning and defending national champion. All other takes are simply wrong. :D

I love seeing people saying this after years of accusing SEC fans of riding Bama's coattails.

Since we've documented how scientifically accurate the polls are, I'll point out that the ACC has one team ranked in the Coaches' Poll, and two in the AP poll (just barely, with Virginia coming in 25th). I'm sure that's all just ridiculous SEC bias, though.

The Coaches' Poll is a damn joke because some moron gave Nebraska a vote. AP voters noped them right out of both the top 25 and the "others receiving votes" category. Ha!

And to be perfectly clear about my earlier post, I was joking. The which-conference-is-better debate is the worst argument in college football, especially now that it has been settled by Clemson and the ACC.*

* also a joke

Yeah, you might have been joking, but Stele wasn't!

Although I'm an App St. grad and bleed Black & Gold (i.e. a framed photo of the moment the field goal was blocked by Corey Lynch that sealed the 34-32 win over Michigan greets those walking into our house), I'm really excited about what Will Healy is doing to finally get something going for the Charlotte 49ers football program.

If you don't know his background, he played backup QB at Richmond (losing to App State in '08, beating them in '09 to prevent ASU's 4th FCS championship in a row before they moved up), and started out coaching/recruiting at ETSU.

He got hired as head coach at Austin Peay a few years back who was in the middle of going 1-46 and the next season took them 8-1 in FCS and 7-1 in his conference. One of the biggest turnarounds in college football history.

The 49ers hired him last year after inaugural coach Brad Lambert took them 22-48 in 6 seasons. Schools like Charlotte, App St., ECU, etc. have a really, really tough time competing for talent among ACC and SEC schools but this guy is 34 years young, gets how to recruit, is a natural at firing players up...it'll be fun to see what he can pull off for Charlotte.

I actually think this is a fairly good conference ranking.

https://247sports.com/LongFormArticl...

Enix wrote:

Edit: There's no accounting for the MY CONFERENCE IS BETTER argument that has broken out above.

Thought exercise: come up with an argument for why each conference is the best in college football.

*Legion* wrote:
Enix wrote:

Edit: There's no accounting for the MY CONFERENCE IS BETTER argument that has broken out above.

Thought exercise: come up with an argument for why each conference is the best in college football.

#1 Consideration: How many quality losses can you get out of your conference?

*Legion* wrote:
Enix wrote:

Edit: There's no accounting for the MY CONFERENCE IS BETTER argument that has broken out above.

Thought exercise: come up with an argument for why each conference is the best in college football.

Didn't the conditions of your parole confine you to the NFL thread?!

WizardM0de wrote:

Although I'm an App St. grad ...

/highfive, fellow App Fan! (My daughter started there in the fall; my tuition payments include passes to ride the App State Bandwagon.)

I tuned into Saturday's game fully expecting App State to spank Charlotte all the way back to the Queen City. But Charlotte came out prepared. The QB wasn't too bad. The main RB (LeMay) was really good. And the 49ers looked pretty well coached for the most part. Beating App State in Boone was a tall order, but App's new coach is still trying to figure things out, and Charlotte almost caught the 'Neers at the right time.

I didn't know that Healy was a U of R guy. I hate complimenting Richmond on anything, but credit where credit is due.

pizzaddict wrote:

I actually think this is a fairly good conference ranking.

https://247sports.com/LongFormArticl...

This article confirms my pre-existing beliefs, therefore it is correct.

Enix wrote:

/highfive, fellow App Fan! (My daughter started there in the fall; my tuition payments include passes to ride the App State Bandwagon.)

I tuned into Saturday's game fully expecting App State to spank Charlotte all the way back to the Queen City. But Charlotte came out prepared. The QB wasn't too bad. The main RB (LeMay) was really good. And the 49ers looked pretty well coached for the most part. Beating App State in Boone was a tall order, but App's new coach is still trying to figure things out, and Charlotte almost caught the 'Neers at the right time.

I didn't know that Healy was a U of R guy. I hate complimenting Richmond on anything, but credit where credit is due.

Yeah, he's got Charlotte playing with fire in their bellies for sure. They have UMass next weekend then go to Death Valley (gulp). Will be interesting to see where they go this year.

On the App side I've been real nervous going into this season with the all-new coaching staff...Drink seems solid and the offense seems to be doing some decent things, but man I'm not sure bringing in Ted Roof to screw up an already very, very solid defense (#15 in the country last year) was a great idea.

Awesome that your daughter's going there! My wife and I met up there, we love Boone, and our kids enjoy getting up the mountain nowadays too. Campus is so different now from even when we were there in the early 2000s, but it still has great character/charm. In a parallel universe I went on to get my doctorate and relocated our family up there to teach full-time and be at every football game, concert in Broyhill, etc. Enjoy the time up there!

https://twitter.com/BKubena/status/1...

The visitors' locker room in Austin doesn't have AC. Typical longhorns. Should be a rule mandating equal conditions, like there is with communications equipment.