NCAA Football 2013-2014 discussion

MyBrainHz wrote:

Tsips committing mass seppuku here in Austin.

But they've got rings!
IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BJSt5ZACYAApuSa.jpg)

Grumpicus wrote:
MyBrainHz wrote:

Tsips committing mass seppuku here in Austin.

But they've got rings!

Ho.
Lee.
$hit.

Can't wait to buy one of those on ebay!

The ring thing is a non story in my book, many of the bowls give out rings as was the case here; Brown was just to enthusiastic about giving them out.

To me that's evidence of how ridiculous the bowl system is. Winning your conference I can see. But one of the dozens of bowl games that practically every team over 0.500 qualifies for?

DSGamer wrote:

To me that's evidence of how ridiculous the bowl system is. Winning your conference I can see. But one of the dozens of bowl games that practically every team over 0.500 qualifies for?

Preach.

Texas still has nothing on Mizzou:
http://www.sbnation.com/2012/10/29/3...
IMAGE(http://cdn3.sbnation.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/2285673/3701022-z.0_standard_730.0.jpeg)

Missouri beat Kentucky in a football game on Saturday. It was the Tigers' first win as a member of the SEC, and even though the loss dropped the Wildcats to 1-8 on the season, it was apparently time to commemorate the occasion.

Yes, Mizzou has gone and printed shirts for the win.

I honestly think the rings are far worse, on many levels:

1) Rings are for championships. This is pretty universal. Winning a mid-tier bowl after a season your school considers disappointing is definitely not a championship.

2) T-shirts are commonly used to commemorate notable games. I've owned plenty of shirts memorializing Cotton Bowls or just our erstwhile yearly game against the longhorns. Before we brilliantly banned student organizations from making them, there were some awesome t-shirts like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part VI" from the 80s, when we won the game 6 or 7 times in a row. It featured our mascot with the chainsaw, theirs on the receiving end. There was also "Nightmare on Kyle Field".

Apparently, it is very common in the SEC to commemorate notable victories with a t-shirt after the fact. Heck, I'd buy the one showing our victory over Bama, but they sold out.

That said, that was a colossal victory. Beating Kentucky, not so much. Still, a t-shirt is just fans telling other fans that it was a nice win. A ring is a coach telling you you're a champion. This is essentially a participation award being given out by a team that won a natty just 10 years ago. And I'm loving that they've gone from there to here.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I honestly think the rings are far worse, on many levels:

1) Rings are for championships. This is pretty universal. Winning a mid-tier bowl after a season your school considers disappointing is definitely not a championship.

2) T-shirts are commonly used to commemorate notable games. I've owned plenty of shirts memorializing Cotton Bowls or just our erstwhile yearly game against the longhorns. Before we brilliantly banned student organizations from making them, there were some awesome t-shirts like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part VI" from the 80s, when we won the game 6 or 7 times in a row. It featured our mascot with the chainsaw, theirs on the receiving end. There was also "Nightmare on Kyle Field".

Apparently, it is very common in the SEC to commemorate notable victories with a t-shirt after the fact. Heck, I'd buy the one showing our victory over Bama, but they sold out.

That said, that was a colossal victory. Beating Kentucky, not so much. Still, a t-shirt is just fans telling other fans that it was a nice win. A ring is a coach telling you you're a champion. This is essentially a participation award being given out by a team that won a natty just 10 years ago. And I'm loving that they've gone from there to here. :lol:

Rings and t-shirts are lame. As Vince Lombardi said "Act like you been there before"

WARNING: Anti-SEC folks should skip this post.

I am seriously excited for the SEC network, and for the kinds of non-game programming that I imagine will come: coaches' shows, etc. They are saying there will be 3 football games per week, which makes it an absolute must. U-Verse, my provider, is the first carrier on board, but I assume they all will be. Launches August 2014.

I'm also thrilled to be in May, with August only a few months away. In my mind, January - April are mostly boring. May kicks off a more tolerable stretch and signals that fall is only a few months away. Then August brings the return of football and starts the six best months of the year.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

WARNING: Anti-SEC folks should skip this post.

I am seriously excited for the SEC network, and for the kinds of non-game programming that I imagine will come: coaches' shows, etc. They are saying there will be 3 football games per week, which makes it an absolute must. U-Verse, my provider, is the first carrier on board, but I assume they all will be. Launches August 2014.

I'm also thrilled to be in May, with August only a few months away. In my mind, January - April are mostly boring. May kicks off a more tolerable stretch and signals that fall is only a few months away. Then August brings the return of football and starts the six best months of the year.

This movie is dead to me as it was 25 seconds in before I saw even a hint of LSU.

edit: Tiger Stadium at 6 seconds. This video now has my support...

I think this is great. I can't wait to be amused when the SEC finds out that no one is actually that interested in the Kentucky/Tennessee football game or Auburn/LSU basketball game that fails to make it on national TV now, let alone the rest of the sports that no one cares about. This is going to make the Longhorn Network flop look tiny in comparison.

Should be fun.

Except that this is paying each of the schools approximately 3x what the longhorns are getting for their sh*tty station.

But look, I didn't post this as an SEC/Big 12 thing. I'm excited about the channel, and excited about football returning in a few months.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Except that this is paying each of the schools approximately 3x what the longhorns are getting for their sh*tty station.

But look, I didn't post this as an SEC/Big 12 thing. I'm excited about the channel, and excited about football returning in a few months.

Excited for football, for sure. But I can't believe the networks are generating that much revenue. None of the Big 10 football I watched was on the the BTN. I watch some PAC 12 football, and DirecTV doesn't even carry their network. It will be interesting to see how letting ESPN own the Network will work for the SEC, as opposed to the BTN owned by the conference itself.

My guess is that reality will set in that as a national network, it's going to be showing a lot of games no one actually cares about, and really won't be generating the kind of ad revenue they hope. CBS still gets their pick of games, although the SEC can counter program to it. But that seems like it would just lead to diminishing returns. since the SEC is splitting revenue with ESPN, I have a hard time believing that the numbers, that have not been revealed yet, are going to come close to the BTN.

In St. Louis, I'm mostly ready to start hearing Mizzou fans complain that their schedule and starting times are being messed with to accommodate the big dogs. A&M is in a pretty sweet situation in that I think the SEC will cater to them quite a bit. Texas is a good market that the SEC wants exposure in. But Mizzou is going to get kicked in the nads early and often.

The reason I didn't care so much about the LHN was that it seemed so pointless. If they can get people to watch third tier games and sports no one cares about, more power to them. Big 12 teams are pulling in more revenue today than the SEC despite the LHN.

I'm sure the SEC will see a huge bump, but I think some of the numbers thrown about are not going to materialize. And I don't think it is going to be the must have network nationally. We'll see.

The meta-issue of the SEC (and the Big 10 and a lot of other special-interest networks) Network:

What in the hell do you do when there's no football on?

I'm interested in the SEC on Saturdays from noon to midnight from September to early December and on random days in late December and early January.

Oh, sure, there's basketball (largely sorry except for two notable exceptions). There's baseball (yawn). And there's soccer and track and swimming and zzzzzz.

Sorry. Fell asleep there.

I guess the template is the NFL Network, which manages to have a full-fledged network despite having large chunks of the year without any actual football (like now, for instance).

Seriously, though: Who's watching these channels in mid-April and late July? And how is any conference going to make any money is ratings are sub 1.0?

Jayhawker wrote:

Big 12 teams are pulling in more revenue today than the SEC despite the LHN.

Link?

Forbes: Big Ten tops revenue list but Big 12 richest league per school

The revenue generated by network television contracts, bowl games and the NCAA tournaments — income from deals struck by the conference — will amount to about $310 million.

The Pac-12 is second at $303 million, the ACC third at $293 million, followed by the SEC ($270 million) and Big 12 ($262 million).

Conference-generated income is shared among members. Because the Big 12 only has 10 teams, each school’s share is $26.2 million, which is the most per school in the major conferences.

Because the Big 12 only has 10 teams,

Could have told you that's the reason, without any source.

See, all this conference expansion is stupid... getting less money per school. :p

Also:

The Big 12 figure also doesn’t include third-tier television rights, which are controlled by the schools. Texas’ ESPN-based Longhorn Network is worth $300 million over 20 years. The Jayhawk Network added some $6.5 million to Kansas’ coffers in 2012, according to federal papers filed by the university.

I see!

By the way, on the subject of ad revenue -
I read today that ESPN makes more money on subscriber fees than ad revenue. Almost twice as much. Ad revenue is still important, of course.

Regarding the comparison of the SEC Network to the longhorn network, and the primacy of football games: The SEC Network will show 45 live football games per year; the LHN shows 2.

I have the Pac-12 network, and even though I agree its mainly for football, as a Cal fan if there's nothing else on and Cal women's field hockey is on the Pac-12 network, I'll probably at least tune in for a few minutes. I watched a few womens hoops games during our run this year as well. Rick Neu-weasel is one of the main football guys and even though I despise him, he makes for good TV. The cost ultimately is minimal since it gets packaged in with other sports channels. Its no different than ESPNU or the 2 or 3 CBS College Sports channels I get. Honestly I watch the same amount of Cal men's waterpolo as I watch Alabama-LSU football, so its a win for me. Also, Pac-12 Network did a full replay of the 1982 Big Game which now sits permanently on my DVR... priceless.

Classic games will be a feature, yeah. I'm hoping for the 80's Texas A&M - Auburn Cotton Bowl, featuring Bo Jackson fresh from winning his Heisman.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/col...

I like this early top 25 better than the last one.

Was this already posted? I never watched it, if so:

Let's catch up with our old friend, Kliff Kingsbury:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-...

I would support this.

Nick Saban: 'I'm for five conferences'

Could the future of college football consist of major programs playing nobody but major programs?

It's an idea that Alabama coach Nick Saban seems to be behind given his answer to a question about the Big Ten, saying it's no longer going to schedule FCS opponents. Saban not only likes the idea, but he'd take it a step further.

"I'm for five conferences -- everybody playing everybody in those five conferences," Saban told AL.com. "That's what I'm for, so it might be 70 teams, and everybody's got to play 'em."

Saban also went on to say that he's in favor of the SEC adding a ninth conference game for the fans.

"Don't they want to see good games and all that?"

It would pretty much kick every other conference in the junk. But it would make for some great football.

If they stuck with five conferences, though, I slide back to eight games, which would then give you the opportunity to play one game in each of the other conferences.

It could end up killing off the Big 12, though, and finish up the drive to four 16-team conferences. Then you could have nine games again, with seven in your division, two in the other division, and then one in each of the other conferences. That also creates a nice playoff situation that would completely ignore all polls.

Never happen, and it murders the Boise States of the world. At least now teams can change conferences, move up, make a BCS bowl...

You think you've seen everything Johnny Manziel can do? How about using The Force to complete a perfect pass while blindfolded?

http://vine.co/v/bE6ibXH5Y6u

That's right. Dude has gone full Daredevil.

He's working with George Whitfield, his QB trainer, right now. The other day he had Johnny standing in the surf throwing the ball. He's like the Mister Miyagi of football coaches.

So Notre Dame, about that QB...

Stunner: Irish QB Everett Golson no longer enrolled in school

Um, wow.

Just two months after the player Notre Dame recruited to be its quarterback of the future left the football program, the Irish’s quarterback of the recent past, present and presumably foreseeable future has apparently responded in kind.

According to multiple media outlets, and subsequently confirmed by the school, starting QB Everett Golson is no longer enrolled at Notre Dame. No reason was given for the non-enrollment, and there was no immediate word on what if any future Golson has with the Irish football program.

Rumor I heard on a message board; he got canned for plagiarism. But there is no official reason being given for why.

I've heard similar.

Also, their backup recently transferred to a different school, presumably for playing time. Whoops.

I'm sure firesloth knows more. How does this affect you outlook on this fall (thankfully drawing closer), sloth?