2025 College Football Season

[hotdogPi]

Conferences should not exist. Just go by number of wins with an adjustment for opponents' average win percentage (i.e. strength of schedule) across all of Division I.

[JayhawkCO]

Conferences should not exist. Just go by number of wins with an adjustment for opponents' average win percentage (i.e. strength of schedule) across all of Division I.

If you eliminate conferences altogether, then you eliminate rivalries. You need to play some of the same schools regularly to keep a rivalry going. When Mizzou went to the SEC, it killed (in my opinion) the best rivalry west of the Mississippi.

[NWI_Irish96]

Conferences should not exist. Just go by number of wins with an adjustment for opponents' average win percentage (i.e. strength of schedule) across all of Division I.

If you eliminate conferences altogether, then you eliminate rivalries. You need to play some of the same schools regularly to keep a rivalry going. When Mizzou went to the SEC, it killed (in my opinion) the best rivalry west of the Mississippi.

Yet conference realignment has already killed a lot of rivalries. Nebraska-Oklahoma, Kansas-Missouri, Washington-Washington St, Oregon-Oregon St, all now have to be non-conference games to exist. Texas-Texas A&M was on that list but now has come off.

Even some conference rivalries are no longer annual because conferences have gotten so big you can barely play half the teams in your conference. Michigan St-Penn St was played every year since PSU joined the Big 10 but that's gone.

Unfortunately, there's no way to stop TV money from dictating scheduling.

The worst part of it is all the stupid travel teams in sports other than football have to do. The football travel is no big deal because it's all on weekends and only 5-7 times per season. Soccer and volleyball teams are now flying cross country nearly weekly and sometimes in the middle of the week.

[1995hoo]

Regarding BYU, I regard the religious issue as essentially a political issue. For this sort of thing I basically equate the two. There was no way a far left-wing university like Berkeley was willing to have anything to do with a conservative school run by the Mormon church.

More generally, I can't help but wonder when the heavyweights in the SEC and the Big Ten might decide they want to expel some of the less-competitive schools (the obvious examples that come to mind are Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and Rutgers). While no doubt they like having an easier opponent to beat up, I'm sure at some point when the TV networks say they'll pay more if those schools are replaced, the money will eventually speak loudly enough.

[gonealookin]

...I can't help but wonder when the heavyweights in the SEC and the Big Ten might decide they want to expel some of the less-competitive schools (the obvious examples that come to mind are Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and Rutgers). While no doubt they like having an easier opponent to beat up, I'm sure at some point when the TV networks say they'll pay more if those schools are replaced, the money will eventually speak loudly enough.

Sure, this is the obvious endgame in college sports.  The mega-name football schools will consolidate into a single SuperConference.  Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, USC...you can name anywhere from about 16 to 24 that ESPN, Fox etc. will pay top dollar to show every week.  Cal and all the rest will re-form into more sensible regional conferences, but with much much lower television revenue.  Cal's athletic department supports something like 30, 32, somewhere in there sports programs and we'll have to downsize that pretty drastically due to the decreased revenue, with Title IX requirements also in mind.

The whole thing is driven by television revenue for football, and one might think, why not separate football from all the rest of the sports and have everybody including Alabama and Ohio State play their other sports in something other than SuperConference.  The reason that couldn't happen is that television revenue flowing into the schools' athletic departments would be so drastically different that even a traditional basketball powerhouse such as let's say Arizona couldn't stay competitive with USC's basketball team and its football money.

[NWI_Irish96]

More generally, I can't help but wonder when the heavyweights in the SEC and the Big Ten might decide they want to expel some of the less-competitive schools (the obvious examples that come to mind are Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and Rutgers). While no doubt they like having an easier opponent to beat up, I'm sure at some point when the TV networks say they'll pay more if those schools are replaced, the money will eventually speak loudly enough.

I don't think there's a mechanism by which either conference can expel members short of a university losing accreditation.

Aside from that, the also-rans in those conferences will remain anyway, because teams don't want to play 12 highly ranked teams every year. They want those games against the also-rans. Northwestern and Vanderbilt are safe.

[gonealookin]

More generally, I can't help but wonder when the heavyweights in the SEC and the Big Ten might decide they want to expel some of the less-competitive schools (the obvious examples that come to mind are Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and Rutgers). While no doubt they like having an easier opponent to beat up, I'm sure at some point when the TV networks say they'll pay more if those schools are replaced, the money will eventually speak loudly enough.

I don't think there's a mechanism by which either conference can expel members short of a university losing accreditation.

Aside from that, the also-rans in those conferences will remain anyway, because teams don't want to play 12 highly ranked teams every year. They want those games against the also-rans. Northwestern and Vanderbilt are safe.

The mechanism is not expelling members but rather Michigan and Ohio State withdrawing from the Big Ten, and Alabama, Georgia and LSU withdrawing from the SEC.  Florida State and Clemson have already initiated legal action of this type with regard to their ongoing, or not, membership in the ACC.

Also, I sidetracked the general season discussion with a rant at Reply #360 and request that a moderator split out the comments starting with that one into a "2024 conference realignment thread" or some such.

[JayhawkCO]

Even some conference rivalries are no longer annual because conferences have gotten so big you can barely play half the teams in your conference. Michigan St-Penn St was played every year since PSU joined the Big 10 but that's gone.

I saw it floated around that the Big "12" was going to expand to 24 and not play any non-conference football games. You'd have one "rival" that you'd play every year and then half of the remaining teams. I didn't hate the idea.

[NWI_Irish96]

More generally, I can't help but wonder when the heavyweights in the SEC and the Big Ten might decide they want to expel some of the less-competitive schools (the obvious examples that come to mind are Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and Rutgers). While no doubt they like having an easier opponent to beat up, I'm sure at some point when the TV networks say they'll pay more if those schools are replaced, the money will eventually speak loudly enough.

I don't think there's a mechanism by which either conference can expel members short of a university losing accreditation.

Aside from that, the also-rans in those conferences will remain anyway, because teams don't want to play 12 highly ranked teams every year. They want those games against the also-rans. Northwestern and Vanderbilt are safe.

The mechanism is not expelling members but rather Michigan and Ohio State withdrawing from the Big Ten, and Alabama, Georgia and LSU withdrawing from the SEC.  Florida State and Clemson have already initiated legal action of this type with regard to their ongoing, or not, membership in the ACC.

FSU and Clemson are suing their way out of the ACC because the conference signed a horrible TV deal. The Big Ten and SEC have pretty sweet TV deals even with the bottom-feeders there. I don't think they want to give up those easy games to form one superconference.

[1995hoo]

Recall the forum NFL game a few years ago about "Football Team" being a booby prize that got passed around—a team with that name would take the name of its beaten opponent and that opponent would become the "Football Team."

In that vein, I saw the following far more complicated game posted on another forum. The rules are in small print at the bottom right (note the first provision, which explains why UNC has such a large area up north—those counties are the ones closest to Minnesota's stadium). I assume the idea is that a team that has already lost all its land can still take an opponent's land even though it already lost all of its own—so, for example, if 0–2 Florida State beats Memphis this weekend, presumably FSU gets that small area shown in blue on the map near the Memphis area.

[Max Rockatansky]

Esmeralda County, Nevada is normally considered Fresno State's market?  How?

[NWI_Irish96]

Esmeralda County, Nevada is normally considered Fresno State's market?  How?

It's not market in terms of fandom or TV coverage, it's based purely on distance, and apparently, that county is closer to Fresno than Vegas or Reno.

[1995hoo]

Esmeralda County, Nevada is normally considered Fresno State's market?  How?

Presumably, the distance as the crow flies is shorter to Fresno State's stadium than to either Nevada's or UNLV's. I'm not interested enough to try measuring such things out to confirm the map's accuracy in that respect, but looking at Google Maps I can see how it might be the case.

[Max Rockatansky]

I guess, that's some hellacious terrain taking the most direct overland routing from Fresno State to Esmeralda County. 

[JayhawkCO]

Yeah, these aren't media markets in any way. It's just "which FBS stadium is closest to this county".

[1995hoo]

I guess, that's some hellacious terrain taking the most direct overland routing from Fresno State to Esmeralda County. 

I assume it's as the crow flies.

The one I find interesting is the Miami area. There are two Division I-A programs with stadiums in Miami-Dade County (the University of Miami and FIU). It looks like the guy who made the map gave that county to FIU and I assume it's because Miami's stadium (Hard Rock, the home of the Dolphins) is in far northern Miami-Dade such that more of that county is closer to FIU's stadium, which is located near the Homestead Extension's interchange with US-41.

OK, edited to add: I found the Week 0 map and it clarifies with a few more rules. The distance is based off the center of each county. That explains the Miami situation I just noted. In subsequent weeks, he's doing separate I-A and I-AA maps, which explains why UNC covers that big area despite Colorado beating North Dakota State.

[JayhawkCO]

More interesting to me is that, on the week 1 map, counties that border Canada have Laramie, WY as the closest FBS stadium.

[NWI_Irish96]

More interesting to me is that, on the week 1 map, counties that border Canada have Laramie, WY as the closest FBS stadium.

There are no FBS schools in Montana or either of the Dakotas.

[JayhawkCO]

More interesting to me is that, on the week 1 map, counties that border Canada have Laramie, WY as the closest FBS stadium.

There are no FBS schools in Montana or either of the Dakotas.

Still though, Laramie is about as far south in Wyoming as possible. Still surprising to me for whatever reason. I guess I would have thought the Minnesota and Washington State would have extended up that way.

[gonealookin]

My alma mater, Cal, is part of this season's realignment...(blah blah blah)...Anyway, when I look at the weekend's upcoming schedule for a game or two I might want to watch in addition to Cal getting thumped at Auburn...(blah blah blah)...

Well guess what did not happen down at Auburn today.  Kind of an ugly game to watch for both offenses, but especially Auburn's, whose QB had a dreadful day.  It was Cal's best nonconference road win in some years, since Jared Goff led the Bears to a win in Austin in 2015.

[epzik8]

My alma mater, Cal, is part of this season's realignment...although we certainly got the shorter end of the stick.  The Atlantic Coast Conference when we can see the Pacific Ocean from our stadium?  Good grief.

It's a joke, and I say that from experience as a fan (and son of alumni) of former ACC school Maryland.

[CtrlAltDel]

Notre Dame loses to Northern Illinois. Here at Texas A&M, people are sad.

[ET21]

WE'RE NORTHERN ILLINOIS

YOU AIN'T

I was in South Bend and that was the greatest football game I've ever been to

[Great Lakes Roads]

Notre Dame (ND) went on to do a lot of damage to Purdue, beating them with a score of 66-7... 

I was at that game, and we left at halftime with ND leading at 42-0! (At least IU got a win, so...)

[Ted$8roadFan]

As someone who is not a fan of 56-7 blowouts, it was gratifying to see some competitive gm\ames, especially  USC and UCLA being competitive in a new division and in unfamiliar environments.