But there may be a crack developing in that window.
For example, the early signing period opened this week and Jackson State with Deion Sanders as their coach grabbed either the #1 or #2 recruit in the country, Travis Hunter. Hailed as a potential “game changer.”
With NIL and the newer transfer portal rules, the paradigm of college sports could change. Also, Cincinnati is the 1st Group of 5 team in the CFP. And Michigan finally beat OSU after 8 losses, IIRC.
For the record, ND just signed the #7 class in the country and had the #9 class last year, so they’re recruiting has been much better too. And I was never a big fan of the coach, Brian Kelly, who had been there 12 years. The new coach is young and an up and comer.
As they say, if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. So yes, at some point the window of who realistically has a shot at winning titles will change. If that time is now remains to be seen.
Jackson State flip of Travis Hunter did draw attention. Impact it will have? Lets see. He was flipped from Florida State which hasn’t been relevant in terms of national titles since winning the last BCS title in 2013 and getting blown out by 40 by Oregon who then lost by 3 TDs to Ohio State in the first playoff. So Travis isn’t looking to win titles. Will other kids follow suit? We shall see. Though no doubt a game changer for Jackson State. They just don’t see that level of talent every day. More of an impact in basketball with smaller teams though. But again, we shall see.
Cincy is in the playoff. Lets see how they do.
And yes after 6 consecutive graduating classes without a win against Ohio State, Michigan has its first graduating class with one (and they will get at least 3 more by definition). Whether that is any change in paradigm remains to be seen.
Domers had top 10 recruiting classes in 2017 and 2018. And top 5 in 2013. So not totally clear they are recruiting much better now (maybe in the context of this site I suppose that the #7 ranked school is significantly better than the #10 school – LOL). Maybe this year’s class will make the difference. We shall see.
A few years ago the Wisconsin coach left (he’d been there about two years) because he wanted to recruit a lot of junior college players who just didn’t have the academics for Wisconsin. When admissions said no, he left.
I’m not going to argue that the academic admissions standards aren’t lower for football players, but there are a lot of really smart players too. At most of the big Power 5 schools, the football team is 150 students out of 30-40 thousand. Who cares if there are 100 communications majors? (well, apparently Wisconsin does). There are Rhodes scholars who play football. Colorado had a Rhodes scholar in the early 1990’s, when they won the national championship. This year at Colorado School of Mines (div 2; went to the Div 2 semifinals so football level is pretty good), there were 6 linemen who were 6th year ‘seniors’ (most were grad students) and all engineers. One guy they profiled had a BS, an MS, a certificate in something (they said he was running out of classes to take), and a job waiting for him when he graduates this week.
J-State only signed two players and the other one was unrated. Seven transfers who are solidly rated. Prime needs to put it all together. They lost their bowl game by a wide margin.
USC/Ohio State
Nebraska/Michigan
Wisconsin/Penn State
Iowa/Michigan State
UCLA/Purdue
Minnesota/Maryland
Northwestern/Indiana
Illinois/Rutgers
This would bring the East and West much closer in terms of historical and current strength in football. Though despite all the talk of the East being so much stronger, they only won a few more games head-to-head vs. the West last year.
Who knows…the way things are changing, maybe the Big 10 now has enough money for ND (and maybe Stanford?) to move as well?
I appreciate this works for Football, but the idea that the Rutgers field hockey or baseball team is going to play regular-season away games in LA seems a bit silly.
Pete Thamel of ESPN is saying the USC/UCLA deal is as good as done. Expect announcement within 24 hours per Pete.
Since Big10 went to East/East divisions in 2014, the East has won each Big10 Championship game. Outscored the West 283-123 over that time. Top of the East is stronger than the top of the West.
Some do want to do away with divisions. But to me, the point of having say 4 16-team super conferences is you have 8 in a division, they each play each other and the winners of the 2 divisions face off. And conference champs feed into the playoff. Without divisions, Ohio State and Michigan meet in the Big10 Championship game last year. Dilutes the importance of the regular season matchup (though without a defense, Ohio State loses in the title game rematch last season). And without playing the same schedule, you get into strength of schedule determining who has the best record.
And we may be heading towards 2 super conferences. SEC and Big10. We shall see.
The rumor is that the B1G hasn’t finalized their new TV deal, because of this latest development. Could mean $100,000,000 per school payout for UCLA and USC, compared to something about $20,000,000 last year.
Divisions, pods, who knows. The SEC hasn’t finalized their 16-team format yet, unless I missed it.
I kinda feel sorry for Cal (Berkeley). UCLA and Cal always seemed to be joined at the hip, but they may not be anymore. I’d guess they could schedule a non-conference game against each other.
Some have floated SDSU and Fresno State as possible Pac-12 replacements. Maybe Colorado State? SDSU plays a Pac-12 men’s soccer schedule already, but another mystery to be solved.
Maybe this type of payout finally gets ND to commit.
Boise State too. Although maybe a remaining pac 12 and big 12 merger could make sense. If Pac12 doesn’t do something they could lose Oregon and Washington too.
UCLA and USC didn’t extend their “grant of rights.” So their deal with the PAC-12 expiries after the 2023-2024 season. That’s probably why they’ll be joining the B1G for the 2024-2025 season.
Wow. I’m local to Cal and Stanford and their sports will be even more unwatchable. Why couldn’t the B1G grab Cal and Stanford. Yes, I know why. But then I could have watched Michigan, when they came to town.
Multiple sources now saying Oregon and Washington have applied for admission to the Big 10 as well, and others sources saying that there could be even more movement from the PAC 12 to the Big 10…
Last year the Big 12 asked the Pac 12 to merge. Pac 12 scoffed at the idea. What will the Pac 12 do to stop the bleeding now? Stanford? Cal? Oregon? Washington? Arizona? Colorado?
In addition to the 5+ decade banter of Notre Dame joining the B1G as ND moved closer to the ACC, it will be interesting to see who moves next,
a) Pac 12 merges with the Big 12 or ACC?
b) SEC adds schools?
c) B1G adds schools?
Supposedly the ACC locked in all ACC universities with its new tv contract. Any ACC school who departs must pay the ACC Conference ALL the tv revenues said school receives from its new conference through 2036! It will be interesting to see if there is a legal way out or a way to buy it out.
