2017-18 NCAA Football Thread

There were some odd years where Iowa did have an out of conference game at some random point in the season. I never really liked it, unless it would be against a big team.
 
Based on what the committee has listed, looks like the 4 teams will be:

  • Notre Dame - unless they lose again
  • SEC Champion - winner of Alabama & Georgia
  • Big Ten Champion - winner of Wisconsin & Ohio St (or Penn St. if Ohio St. loses to Michigan)
  • ACC Champion - winner of Clempson & Miami, unless the winner of that game stumbled earlier. If Miami goes undefeated, they will leapfrog all of the Big 12 teams.

  • Big 12 needs a little help. They need one of those teams that gets it's conference championship stumbles elsewhere. If so, then it'll be the winner of the championship game, either Oklahoma, TCU, or Oklahoma St. Right now that conference is wide open.
  • Pac 12 looks to be shut out, unless two of those teams that gets it's conference championship stumbles elsewhere. Even then, only Washington is the only one with that chance, others need not apply.
This assumes the committee learned it's lesson from last year about letting a team in over it's conference champion only to get humiliated in the first game of the playoff.
 
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One thing about college football, is that over the next few weeks things do play out and today's top four most likely will not be the final four at the end of the season
 
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And Bama plays all those games in their home ... they never would play an Oklahoma on the road .... it's too far out of their comfort zone of the South East.

When Bama starts scheduling games that are not more than an hour away let me know .... (I know, they played a game in Dallas awhile back)
I also know this was a home game for them, but the Buckeyes went to Norman last year and won. Fwiw, both these teams have won on the road in this series.
Alabama came into Norman for an early season game about 15 years ago. That was a big event. We were all impressed at how well the Alabama fans travelled
 
Alabama came into Norman for an early season game about 15 years ago. That was a big event. We were all impressed at how well the Alabama fans travelled
I would think all the Big Boys fans travel well.
Bowl games tend to be in the south, so its not much traveling involved for Bama and thier fans.
 
Bama has done plenty of road games well away from home in the recent past (recent relatively speaking). The home and home with Penn State is probably the most recent in 2011.
And they have had several in Dallas, and not a while back. They had USC there just last season. Wisconsin the year before. Michigan in 2012.
Louisville next season is in Orlando.

Even the Atlanta games are against teams that are almost as close to Atlanta as Bama.


It has nothing to do with a comfort zone. It has to do with how much money they are being paid to play in those neutral site contests. The same reason Michigan and Wisconsin made the trips to Dallas.
Have Bamma come to The Shoe. We played USC home and home. Same with Texas. Gene Smith said Ohio State does home and home to reward the fans. We have home and homes with Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame coming up.

I'm not saying teams can't come to The Shoe and win. It's just a whole different game when it's a home and home series.
 
I'm not sure their reasoning for it. I myself prefer to play all the out of conference games first. I think of it more as a preseason in a way to get ready for conference play. I do not want to watch my team play a preseason game at the end of the season. College basketball is the same way in the Big Ten, not sure if it is for other conferences as well.

Why don't they use that late season out of conference game to play one of those big games, that would be more like it.
Because those teams will not travel north when it's cold. Ohio State has tried to schedule them.

Hell Bamma had a home and home with Michigan State not long ago. It was in October. They backed out.
 
Because those teams will not travel north when it's cold. Ohio State has tried to schedule them.

Hell Bamma had a home and home with Michigan State not long ago. It was in October. They backed out.

When it's cold? Those games are generally scheduled at the first of the season. At that time it's not particularly cold in Ohio.

Bama did cancel the series, which as a fan I hated to see gone.

But from a financial standpoint it made sense. They made more money from both games rather than making big bucks on one home game and not on the away. If I recall they tried to make them both neutral, but not surprisingly MSU did not agree. So instead we ended up playing USC and FSU in their place.

It certainly didn't have anything to do with weather.
 
When it's cold? Those games are generally scheduled at the first of the season. At that time it's not particularly cold in Ohio.

Bama did cancel the series, which as a fan I hated to see gone.

But from a financial standpoint it made sense. They made more money from both games rather than making big bucks on one home game and not on the away. If I recall they tried to make them both neutral, but not surprisingly MSU did not agree. So instead we ended up playing USC and FSU in their place.

It certainly didn't have anything to do with weather.
Ohio State wanted those games in late October. No big team would do that.

Yea financial gain for Bama. They wanted to play at their house then move the game from East Lansing to a neutral site.
 
Ohio State wanted those games in late October. No big team would do that.

Yea financial gain for Bama. They wanted to play at their house then move the game from East Lansing to a neutral site.


Of course no big team, at least from the SEC would do that. October is strictly conference play, with the schedule and date set by the conference. Not much they can do to change that.

Even then, the average highs for the state in October is in the 60s with average lows in the 40s. Hardly a factor in deciding not to play there even if the conference schedule allowed it.

And yes, financial gain for Bama. If it were two neutral site games it would have been a financial gain for the Spartans as well. Strictly a business move, as before these games became the cash cows they are, Bama did fairly regular home and homes with other big schools.

Now they take a payday. Looking at the revenue they bring in, it is a good move to make from that standpoint.


Edit: Money was the main factor I would guess, but at the time Bama backed out of the series the conference was also looking into going to an extra conference game. That also played a role in the decision, although a smaller one.
 
I would think all the Big Boys fans travel well.
Bowl games tend to be in the south, so its not much traveling involved for Bama and thier fans.
Tuscaloosa is over an 8 hour drive from the Cotton Bowl, where Alabama has no problems traveling to.
Gainesville is also no where near Phoenix, where Florida had their way with Ohio St in the BCS Championship game.
Texas is a heck of a lot closer to the Rose Bowl during a BCS Championship than Alabama, and Alabama still won there.
Auburn beat Oregon at the Feista Bowl during it's BCS Championshp, even though Oregon is closer than Alabama.

Considering what Oklahoma did to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl (not to mention Alabama beating Clempson in far away Phoenix and losing the next year to them in Florida), it's probably better for Alabama to travel a further distance for it's bowl games.

Your next excuse?
 
Tuscaloosa is over an 8 hour drive from the Cotton Bowl, where Alabama has no problems traveling to.
Gainesville is also no where near Phoenix, where Florida had their way with Ohio St in the BCS Championship game.
Texas is a heck of a lot closer to the Rose Bowl during a BCS Championship than Alabama, and Alabama still won there.
Auburn beat Oregon at the Feista Bowl during it's BCS Championshp, even though Oregon is closer than Alabama.

Considering what Oklahoma did to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, it's probably better for Alabama to travel a further distance for it's bowl games.

Your next excuse?


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Even then, the average highs for the state in October is in the 60s with average lows in the 40s. Hardly a factor in deciding not to play there even if the conference schedule allowed it.
Personally I think playing in the 90's during September in the South is far worse than the 60's during October in the North.

It doesn't really get cold up north until late November or early December.
 
Ohio State wanted those games in late October. No big team would do that.
Then why did Ohio St. cancel the home/home series with Georgia?

Ohio St. nixes Georgia home-and-home series
Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity told reporters Thursday at the SEC spring meetings that Ohio State backed out of an agreement to play the Bulldogs in 2020 and 2021.
Didn't they use the excuse that they had to play a Pac 12 team those years?
Why not cancel a game with the Sisters of the Blind A&M? Nope, Ohio St. backed out of the Georgia series instead. I guess Ohio St. isn't able to play more than one P5 team, even though Georgia (who plays an ACC team every year) had no problem doing that.
 
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Personally I think playing in the 90's during September in the South is far worse than the 60's during October in the North.

It doesn't really get cold up north until late November or early December.

I have been to 3 games this year in Sept and Oct, the heat has been a suck fest.
 
I have been to 3 games this year in Sept and Oct, the heat has been a suck fest.
Yeah we did that last year (and used to do it yearly), and it finally broke me from going to early season games. High 90s and high humidity in a concrete stadium makes for some VERY uncomfortable conditions. And that's for me as a fan in shorts. It's much worse on the players in pads.
 
Yeah we did that last year (and used to do it yearly), and it finally broke me from going to early season games. High 90s and high humidity in a concrete stadium makes for some VERY uncomfortable conditions. And that's for me as a fan in shorts. It's much worse on the players in pads.

What saves me is I moved into club seats last season. I'm on an open air terrace, so its still hot but they added misters and have fans, and I get free food (good stuff) and adult beverages the whole time. So it eases the pain lol.
 
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Yeah we did that last year (and used to do it yearly), and it finally broke me from going to early season games. High 90s and high humidity in a concrete stadium makes for some VERY uncomfortable conditions. And that's for me as a fan in shorts. It's much worse on the players in pads.
That's why I carefully chose my season ticket seats to be under the Upper East stands towards the South endzone, in order to avoid the sun. But yeah, those early Sept. games are ugly if they have a 3pm kickoff.
 

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