2016 NCAA pre season football discussion thread

[lakebum431]

I think you are correct that TN wins the east. I also think you are correct that TN and Bama play twice. However, I think that Bama wins the first one for sure.

University of TN 2016 schedule

• Sept. 3 vs. APPALACHIAN STATE - UT playing on a Thursday night for this first time since 1938 when TN played UK on Thanksgiving - Easy win
• Sept. 10 vs. Virginia Tech (Battle at Bristol) - Win in the most attended football game in history - 150k+ people
• Sept. 17 vs. OHIO - Easy Win
• Sept. 24 vs. FLORIDA* - Should be a win, but it has been a long time since TN beat UF. Being at home should help. I'd say this is a true 50/50 game right now only because of the mental aspect of the game. All other reasons say that TN should win.
• Oct. 1 at Georgia* - A lot depends on what happened the week before with UF. If there was a loss the week before the wheels could come off, but I think it will still be a win. Somehow, even while TN has been terrible we seem to get the upper hand on GA. That said, there is a lot of talent on this team and a very good defensive coach - Win
• Oct. 8 at Texas A&M* - This is the least talked about hard game of the year. Playing at A&M is tough. If the wheels came off at Florida and GA who knows, but UT should win with the crazy A&M QB situation.
• Oct. 15 vs. ALABAMA* - I think this is going to be a loss - too much talent. Only way TN wins this game is if we have already lost to FL and GA and Bama overlooks the game (not likely with Kiffen there)
• Oct. 29 at South Carolina* - MusCHUMP is a joke. This will be an easy win
• Nov. 5 vs. TENNESSEE TECH - Easy win
• Nov. 12 vs. KENTUCKY* - Easy win
• Nov. 19 vs. MISSOURI* - Missouri had there fun the first couple of years in the league now they are done - win
• Nov. 26 at Vanderbilt* - I wonder if Mason will still be employed at this point - essentially a home game as it always is when TN goes to Vandy - win

So that results in somewhere between 9-3 (worst case I see) and 11-1 with a trip to ATL for the SEC Championship.

 

[Derwin0]

Ga Tech schedule.

Never mind, we'll probably loose to Ga Southern, and many others. Lucky to get 3 wins

 

[Ronnie-]

An interesting idea for SEC football scheduling, Do away with divisions. Three permanent teams to protect rivalries, and the others rotate so that everyone gets everyone else within every two year period. Two best teams go to the SEC champ game.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-foo...-schedule-format-divisions-rivalries-rotation

While talking about how dumb the Big 12's idea to have five-team divisions is, last week's Podcast Ain't Played Nobody proposed doing away with divisions entirely, for every conference.

The more we've thought about it, the more we've realized it's pretty much a perfect idea. We should get rid of divisions, and we should replace them with small groups of annual rivals.


Let's use the SEC as an example, since it has the most complicated issues at the moment. (We'll look at a couple other conferences later this week as well.)

 

[Ramy]

So what are your thoughts on your teams upcoming season?
I will look at Bama.

Date Opponent / Event Location Time / Result
09/03/16 vs. USC

Arlington, Texas 7:00 p.m. CT
09/10/16 vs. Western Kentucky

Tuscaloosa 2:30 p.m. CT
09/17/16 at Ole Miss *

Oxford, Miss. 2:30 p.m. CT
09/24/16 vs. Kent State Tuscaloosa TBA
10/01/16 vs. Kentucky * Tuscaloosa TBA
10/08/16 at Arkansas * Fayetteville, Ark. TBA
10/15/16 at Tennessee * Knoxville, Tenn. TBA
10/22/16 vs. Texas A&M * Tuscaloosa TBA
11/05/16 at LSU * Baton Rouge, La. TBA
11/12/16 vs. Mississippi State * Tuscaloosa TBA
11/19/16 vs. Chattanooga Tuscaloosa TBA
11/26/16 vs. Auburn * Tuscaloosa TBA

Kent state and Kentucky are next, and go down easily (sorry Ramy).

No problem. They are not great.

 

[Jimbo]

An interesting idea for SEC football scheduling, Do away with divisions. Three permanent teams to protect rivalries, and the others rotate so that everyone gets everyone else within every two year period. Two best teams go to the SEC champ game.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-foo...-schedule-format-divisions-rivalries-rotation

Isn't that the way it was years ago ?
I think as a kid I don't remember the Big Ten having divisions, it was all one and the top 2 teams played for the Conference championship.
Then the winner went to the Rose ....
In a strange rule they also had, if you won 2 years in a row, the OTHER team went to the Rose ...... never understood that, but it is what it is (was).

 

[Ramy]

An interesting idea for SEC football scheduling, Do away with divisions. Three permanent teams to protect rivalries, and the others rotate so that everyone gets everyone else within every two year period. Two best teams go to the SEC champ game.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-foo...-schedule-format-divisions-rivalries-rotation

I like the divisions but it could work.

 

[Ramy]

• Nov. 12 vs. KENTUCKY* - Easy win

Easy? I don't think it will be easy. Tennessee is not that great the last few years.

 

[Jimbo]

Easy? I don't think it will be easy. Tennessee is not that great the last few years.

Tennessee has not been Great for Many years.
Are they better, yes, but far from a power house.

 

[Ronnie-]

Easy? I don't think it will be easy. Tennessee is not that great the last few years.

I will agree until last year. But last season they seemed to turn the corner. They spanked Kentucky 52-21.

In their losses the lost in double overtime to Oklahoma 31-24 and could have just as easily won it. People forget Oklahoma tied it up with 43 seconds left in the game.
They lost to sec east winner Florida by 1. Tennessee led until around 4 minutes left in the game when Florida pulled ahead and hung on.
They lost to Arkansas by 4, and at that point Arkansas was beginning to play as well as any team in the country. This game was tied at half, arkansas jumped out in the second half, and the Vols ran out of steam on a comeback attempt.
And they lost to the National Champs by 5 on the road. Bama only managed a tie at half as well, and tennessee had a 14-13 lead with 6 minutes left in the game until Henry started doing what Henry did and scored late.

They also demolished a 10-2 Northwestern team in their bowl game 45-6.

 

[Ronnie-]

Dont get me wrong, it would not bother my if the Viles did not win a single game, but I think they will be a top 10 team this season.

 

[Derwin0]

An interesting idea for SEC football scheduling, Do away with divisions. Three permanent teams to protect rivalries, and the others rotate so that everyone gets everyone else within every two year period. Two best teams go to the SEC champ game.

Kinda like how it was back when it was 10 teams. You had several permanent teams, and rotated the rest. Only difference was there was no championship game then.

 

[Ronnie-]

Kinda like how it was back when it was 10 teams. You had several permanent teams, and rotated the rest. Only difference was there was no championship game then.

Yeah, similar. I think they probably need to tweak it somehow as the conferences are so big that some teams dont play at some places for years.

 

[Derwin0]

What they should do, is go to a 4 pod division, where you play your pod every year (ie, perm. opponents), and then your pod is teamed with one of the other 3 pods each year.
With the top team of each pod pair playing for the championship. The WAC did this when they had 16 teams.

The ACC looked at a plan like that a couple years ago, but many of the northern schools objected, because the traditional football teams (GT, Clempson, and FSU) were put together and the northern schools didn't get any of those as an annual opponent.
http://accfootballrx.blogspot.com/2012/07/what-acc-can-do-pods-now.html

The way to do a clean plan with 16 teams is as follows (minor modification of the scheme the WAC used):
4 pods of 4 teams.

Year 1:
Division 1 = Pod 1 + Pod 2
Division 2 = Pod 3 + Pod 4,
Every team plays everyone in it's division
Every team in a pod plays half the teams in the pod that it's never paired with

Year 2:
Division 1 = Pod 1 + Pod 3
Division 2 = Pod 2 + Pod 4,
Every team plays everyone in it's division
Every team in a pod plays half the teams in the pod that it's never paired with

Repeat.
End result is you play your 3 pod mates every year, and every other team every other year. It also gives you 9 conference games.

 

[lakebum431]

Easy? I don't think it will be easy. Tennessee is not that great the last few years.

It will be easy. TN is much better and KY is, well, KY. KY has won this game once since 1985. Since the tie in 1960 KY has won 7 times and the game has been played every year. That means TN is 48-7 against UK over those 55 years. The last two years TN has outscored KY 102-37 [50-16 and 52-21]. It will be easy.

 

[Jimbo]

Yeah, similar. I think they probably need to tweak it somehow as the conferences are so big that some teams dont play at some places for years.

Sadly the Conference have pushed them selves to become larger and larger ....Money, money money.

 

[Jimbo]

Kinda like how it was back when it was 10 teams. You had several permanent teams, and rotated the rest. Only difference was there was no championship game then.

I think the Conferences are growing so they CAN have the Conference Championship games, I think being able to have that game was a big reason for Conferences to go to divisions.

Remember, it's all about the money.

 

[lakebum431]

I think I heard that the NCAA got rid of the requirement to have at least 12 teams to have a championship game, but I could be wrong. Either way, I think every conference should be required to have one. At the end of the day I think that for football we are going to end up with 4 16-18 team "power conferences" but it is going to be sad when that happens.

 

[osu1991]

I think I heard that the NCAA got rid of the requirement to have at least 12 teams to have a championship game, but I could be wrong. Either way, I think every conference should be required to have one. At the end of the day I think that for football we are going to end up with 4 16-18 team "power conferences" but it is going to be sad when that happens.

They did. Big 12 will again have championship game with only 10 in 2017


Sent from my iPhone

 

[Jimbo]

They did. Big 12 will again have championship game with only 10 in 2017


Sent from my iPhone

As they should.

 

[Jimbo]

I think I heard that the NCAA got rid of the requirement to have at least 12 teams to have a championship game, but I could be wrong. Either way, I think every conference should be required to have one. At the end of the day I think that for football we are going to end up with 4 16-18 team "power conferences" but it is going to be sad when that happens.

The NCAA should have NEVER stepped in and made you have to have 12 teams in order to have a Championship game ... 10 teams is fine, for that matter an 8 team would work fine too, just a smaller sample size.