Regarding the Big XII, there are some decent programs, with at least a bit of historical success, that could help fill the void left by the Horns and Sooners:
BYU
SMU
Houston
BYU has been a pretty decent program for a long time, and have been known for putting QBs into the NFL.
SMU had the Pony Express years
Houston had some good teams back in the Andre Ware days (and his successor, whose name evades me, was also a high-stat QB. David Something.). They also beat FSU in a big bowl game a few years back.
TCU, Kansas State, Baylor, and Iowa State have all fielded good teams recently. Heck, not too long ago Kansas State was a major player under Snyder.
Something tells me that Texas and Oklahoma aren’t going to be too happy in the SEC. OU especially – will the Sooner faithful stand for losing 3-4 games per year and maybe only making the playoff every 5-10 years or so? They are headed to a league with Alabama, LSU, Georgia, and Florida – four programs on at least equal footing with OU – and others like Auburn and Tennessee and the Mississippi schools, who could also beat the Sooners at least now and then.
So if the Big XII can at least weather the storm, maybe the question should be: how long until success-starved OU and UT return?
I agree that the University of Texas may regret joining the SEC. How will Texas fans react to never ending losing seasons, no bowl appearances,and to losses to schools like Vanderbilt & Kentucky ?
In addition to BYU, Houston, & SMU, UCF & Cincinnati offer strong football programs. Breaking into Florida recruiting territory through UCF would be a plus for the Big 12 Conference.
You sound like one of my friends that hates Notre Dame which underscores one point of why so many teams will always want to play, and beat them. ND will always remain relevant as long as it can attract great players, many of whom also wish to obtain a college degree. Graduating from a top 20 college is a huge draw considering that the vast majority of D1 football players, regardless of conference will NOT be playing in the NFL. ND attracts students and has multiple alumni clubs in all 50 states and many foreign countries. Millions of Irish faithful share a common bond that can’t be broken, and that includes loyalty to Notre Dame Football. It also ensures a massive TV audience, and for that reason alone there will always be top teams that want to play them. Money is surely important but you can’t discount loyalty, talent and tradition.
Ecstatic college football is back! and with fans!
My weekend sports agenda is:
Today #10 UNC @ Virginia Tech
Sat #17 Indiana @ #18 Iowa
Sun #9 Notre Dame @ Florida State
Cannot wait for the Entrance to Lane Stadium tonight to kickoff my season!
Don’t worry, the highlight of the weekend may very well be over by 6:15pm tonight after the Enter Sandman entrance if all 3 of my teams are steamrolled and put me in a sour mood for an entire week. Ha! But there is always a tiny ray of hope beforehand.
Anxious & excited about UNC & Indiana. Curious to see whether or not all the pre-season hype has merit. Iowa State is another team to watch.
Coastal Carolina is for real (I hope).
Northwestern University needs a running back as the projected starter is out due to injury & the prior starter (Bowser) was a hit on TV last night as the new star RB for UCF.
Speculation that Duke is going to have a rough season.
Thanks to the PAC12 network (sucks!), I didn’t get to see the new (baby!) Ralphie run into the stadium tonight. She’s very cute but small at only 500 pounds.
I had chills hearing Enter Sandman and seeing a packed stadium of people jumping up and down! And then, seeing the team running out of the tunnel, touching the Hokie stone on the way out. A great start to a big college football weekend ( and a great win by Virginia Tech)!
Cincy, Houston and UCF have athletic budgets in the aggregate are lower than the budget of Texas. Didn’t see BYU, maybe they would put the 4 schools over the top.
If you limit the SEC to only 2 playoff spots you are likely eliminating some of the top teams in the country every year. Look how many times in recent years that a highly ranked team has played a 2 or 3 loss SEC team and gotten pounded. It isn’t very exciting to watch a game like that, plus it seems like it goes against the goal of determining the best football team in the nation. Like it or not the SEC is probably the toughest conference in the country and have had some of the top talent in recent years, and I don’t see that changing as long as they are winning games. It might not be exciting, but we thoroughly enjoy watching Alabama win, the bigger the margin the better. Nick Saban has done something that many people thought couldn’t be done for a long time, he has stepped out of the shadow of Bear Bryant and become loved as much or more than the “Bear”, quite a feat.
I think that the any college football conference–including the SEC–should be limited to two or three teams in a 12 team playoff system. The SEC has their own conference championship system. The two finalists for the SEC championship plus one other team from the SEC is enough.
Your own words seem a bit self-contradictory in the respect that you dislike lopsided college football games unless Alabama is doing the lopsiding.
This weekend I enjoyed watching the LSU v. UCLA game because it was competitive. I rarely watch Alabama because many of Alabama’s games are blowouts. And many articles have been published in recent years complaning that Alabama’s dominance is bad for college football (the articles use much stronger language). I would prefer to see Alabama play the Chicago Bears rather than Mercer in the season opener.
I agree that I don’t think it makes sense to have more than 2 teams from a conference in a playoff. As my wife says, a problem with college football is there are too many teams and they don’t play each other so you don’t know who is any good. Conference teams do play each other and with conference championships you do know which team is better (at least on that given day/field).
Alabama played Miami for its opener. Miami was ranke in top 25 at end of 2020 and was ranked in top 15 preseason this year. Mercer is this week. Ohio State’s early season schedule flipped somewhat this year: Start with Minnesota on the road, Oregon at home and then Tulsa (gave Oklahoma a scare on Saturday) and Akron at home.
Cursed by a