Football 2024

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Any time I see a collegiate show boat "The Heisman Pose"....   I automatically root against.

same here.

I long for real sports heroes  like Barry Sanders and Earl Campbell, the best 2 running backs ever in college football IMHO.

Both had the team, not themselves, the center of attention.

Their prowess on the field spoke sufficiently for them.

Fans love humble athletes who excel.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

The college game has been ruined with these super conferences.  With the Big-10 turning into the Big-18, Indiana makes it into the playoffs with only a single Top-25 team on their schedule, a game they lost.  SMU in ACC faced only two opponents in the Top-25 - 17th ranked BYU and 16th ranked Clemson.  Their 9-team conference schedule included four of the worst five teams in their 17-team conference.  Compare that with Alabama who had four of the top five SEC teams on its conference schedule.  Arizona State gets a first round bye after scheduling six of the bottom seven Big-12 teams on its conference schedule.

as I understand conference matchups, isn't it the conference, not the school, which decides who plays who and when?

If so, how can a team overcome a conference schedule they had little decision to making?

My point remains that all 4 big conferences had newcomers playing in championships, and 2 won them.

[jmyrlefuller]

Nope. Mid player. Dillon Gabriel deserved it more than Hunter behind Jeanty.

The only thing Dillon "Van Wilder" Gabriel deserved was to have his eligibility, scholarship and NIL money revoked for playing six years of college football.

I can see why Jeanty might be a good choice... 2500 rushing yards in a season, on a team that went 12-1, is as strong of a case as you can make for a running back. But I still say Hunter is a more rounded player. Someone who plays both sides of the ball is an exceptionally rare show of endurance.

Dillon Gabriel... like putting a college player up against high schoolers and saying he should be MVP. 

[IsailedawayfromFR]

This new college playoff system appears completely out of wack.

Right now, the top four teams who received a first week bye are all underdogs to the teams they will play next week.

How did this selection committee miss things so badly?  Was it the insane system that is in place on conference champions or ?

So far, am deeply disappointed in what is happening.

[DCPatriot]

[mountaineer]

Every single Chiefs game...

[DCPatriot]

Every single Chiefs game...

    

[jmyrlefuller]

This new college playoff system appears completely out of wack.

Right now, the top four teams who received a first week bye are all underdogs to the teams they will play next week.

How did this selection committee miss things so badly?  Was it the insane system that is in place on conference champions or ?

So far, am deeply disappointed in what is happening.

If you're going to keep holding the conference championships—and the money they bring in—they have to mean something, especially if they are going to exist ON TOP of a four-round playoff tournament.

[jmyrlefuller]

Speaking of college football, what a wild and crazy series of bowl games it has been this week.

I swear, all but one of the games I've watched this week have come down to the final possession and/or have been decided by less than a touchdown. Say what you will about the complaints about it being all 7-5 teams from mid-major conferences but it was fun football.

Why would anyone take this away from us, one, and two, if I'm an NFL scout I'm taking long, hard reconsiderations of any of these primadonna players who are sitting out their bowls to protect themselves. I get no one wants to be the next Willis McGahee, but I saw Miami of Florida's quarterback today sit on the bench after the first half, watched his team's lead collapse, and still had a chance to win it—but he refused to go back in, even though his backup was nowhere near ready to play.

[mountaineer]

Not a great display of character on the part of the Miami QB.

[jmyrlefuller]

Not a great display of character on the part of the Miami QB.

East Carolina-North Carolina State had him beat. That game very nearly ended in a brawl.

Come on, guys, you're lucky to be even PLAYING in a bowl.

[Hoodat]

Come on, guys, you're lucky to be even PLAYING in a bowl.

The American Athletic Conference is 5-1 in bowls so far.  Any ACC team is lucky to be playing in a bowl (1-9 so far).

[jmyrlefuller]

And as I wrote that... Coach Prime is getting trounced by the storming Mormons.

[mountaineer]

And as I wrote that... Coach Prime is getting trounced by the storming Mormons.

That was a reality check for the overrated Buffalos.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

If you're going to keep holding the conference championships—and the money they bring in—they have to mean something, especially if they are going to exist ON TOP of a four-round playoff tournament.

All that may be true, but so far I have watched three teams that had byes lose, and maybe a fourth tomorrow if @Hoodat 's New Year's wish comes true.

[Sighlass]

I get so tired of all the "celebration".... Score a touchdown, do a stupid dance, make a big play for some yardage, do some sorta silly show for the cameras, get a first down, emulate a ref sign for first down. Like we are too stupid to see where the ball is and determine without their help where the first down line is. Play the game and stop all the "look-at-me" crapola.

I would honestly take a humble Joe-blow and become a fan even of my rival state team over some "me me me" idiot on my own team.

Does it sell T-shirts to behave like unsportsmanlike jerks? There is a time and place for everything, if it was the game ending touchdown with 0 on the clock, sure give a high-five around to team mates, but this circus show of acting out scenes in movies is just ruining the game for me... That and other reasons too numerous to go into.

[jmyrlefuller]

All that may be true, but so far I have watched three teams that had byes lose, and maybe a fourth tomorrow if @Hoodat 's New Year's wish comes true.

Part of that, I think, has to do with the wait times we're dealing with here. A four-week bye is going to lead to rust.  The first eight teams are all playing another team with roughly the same amount of lead time, the automatic bids are playing teams fresh off a victory a week and a half ago.

Seeing it in action, I don't like it. Especially when you have the rematch turning out so far differently from the regular season game.

But... you're not going to pry that TV money from their cold, dead hands, so contracting to eight, which would've been the likely ideal, won't ever happen. And 16 would be too much, and just an excuse to give Alabama a permanent seed.

[mountaineer]

I get so tired of all the "celebration".... Score a touchdown, do a stupid dance, make a big play for some yardage, do some sorta silly show for the cameras, get a first down, emulate a ref sign for first down. Like we are too stupid to see where the ball is and determine without their help where the first down line is. Play the game and stop all the "look-at-me" crapola.

I agree. It's particularly annoying when a team is down 28 points with two minutes left in the fourth quarter, and its defense finally prevents a third down conversion. Such celebration ensues! You'd think they'd just won the Super Bowl. As they say, act like you've been there before.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Part of that, I think, has to do with the wait times we're dealing with here. A four-week bye is going to lead to rust.  The first eight teams are all playing another team with roughly the same amount of lead time, the automatic bids are playing teams fresh off a victory a week and a half ago.

All four teams that had byes were underdogs going into their game and all four lost.

The playoff system now in existence is a very poor way to decide who is the best football team.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

I agree. It's particularly annoying when a team is down 28 points with two minutes left in the fourth quarter, and its defense finally prevents a third down conversion. Such celebration ensues! You'd think they'd just won the Super Bowl. As they say, act like you've been there before.

Or like the great Barry Sanders and Earl Campbell, hand the football to the ref, then go back and thank the team who blocked for your TD.

[DCPatriot]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Tl7BPtxBUxI

Commanders' kicker Zane Gonzales' OCD or preening for the cameras??

[DCPatriot]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnFHddAp3A4

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EUvcWzd0ITI

NFL referee apologizing to Josh Allen for missing the end zone defensive holding call??

[mountaineer]

Commanders' kicker Zane Gonzales' OCD or preening for the cameras??

I was about to jump through the TV screen and jam that helmet on his head. Enough, already.

[DCPatriot]

I was about to jump through the TV screen and jam that helmet on his head. Enough, already.

My son laughed...he said that they also showed him taking off his shoe on the bench B4 the kick...he adjust his sock several times because the lining on the sock between the toes wasn't perfectly straight.

Definitely NOT vanity. 

[mountaineer]

So much OCD. Well, at least he made the kick - barely - after all that.