Success of conference newcomers

[CondorCat]

"Welcome to the Big Bad SEC and Big Ten, you newcomers! You'll be lucky to finish in the middle of the pack."

Results:
Oregon wins regular season Big Ten, Texas outright wins the SEC, SMU wins the regular season ACC, and Arizona State, BYU, and Colorado are co-champions of the Big 12 along with Iowa State.

So much for traditional powers this year...

 

[ganner918]

Texas IS a traditional power, Oregon won 8 PAC titles since 2000 and has become a modern power, the Big 12 doesn't HAVE any traditional powers, and the ACC's traditional powers have sucked for a while.

 

[truebluewildcat]

Don’t forget Missouri and Aggies have had decent success in this conference. Sumlin was crushing it there for a bit.

Kif and Sark are PAC outcasts. Drink came from Boise St. Deboer PAC

Lots of good football and coaching west of the Mississippi and up in the Mountain areas of the PNW…

Heck Urban Meyer and Dan Mullen came from Utah and did work. Leach B12 and PAC “finesse” was on pace to rack it up before he passed.

 

[R.O.T.Muckinfush]

SEC was always the best because of access to the most speedy African American athletes. Demographics have changed and there are loads of good fb players everywhere. Also science and training has improved across the board. SEC is still the best but by a small margin that is getting smaller most years. Why not go out west or up north instead of playing in some 3rd rate college town in the south. Especially with the NIL in play, kids will go anywhere they get the opportunity to play and get paid. This country ain't that big, you can fly anywhere in 3 or 4 hours mostly.

 

[CRZ4UK]

"Welcome to the Big Bad SEC and Big Ten, you newcomers! You'll be lucky to finish in the middle of the pack."

Results:
Oregon wins regular season Big Ten, Texas outright wins the SEC, SMU wins the regular season ACC, and Arizona State, BYU, and Colorado are co-champions of the Big 12 along with Iowa State.

So much for traditional powers this year...

I have a theory on this. lol. Just listen.
NIL has not made college football more even.
NIL has made the good teams much worse.
Alabama losing to Vandy? That’s not an Alabama team.
Georgia committed 5 TOs in a game this year. That ain’t a Georgia team.
Money has caused the great teams to take a step back. Players there are to busy counting their cash to put in extra work.
Army wins their division with zero NIL.
Texas, SMU, Oregon found something to play for. A new conference and a chance to prove you belong. That’s a big difference. Pride. Motivation.
Alabama players, Georgia, Buckeyes have no motivation with full pockets. Once the motivation to prove they belong disappears they will fall back in line. Just my opinion.
If you don’t believe motivation is a factor just look at our team. They absolutely quit the last four games of the season. We allowed 3 career running back days in 4 weeks. Motivation to win is everything.

 

[truebluewildcat]

I have a theory on this. lol. Just listen.
NIL has not made college football more even.
NIL has made the good teams much worse.
Alabama losing to Vandy? That’s not an Alabama team.
Georgia committed 5 TOs in a game this year. That ain’t a Georgia team.
Money has caused the great teams to take a step back. Players there are to busy counting their cash to put in extra work.
Army wins their division with zero NIL.
Texas, SMU, Oregon found something to play for. A new conference and a chance to prove you belong. That’s a big difference. Pride. Motivation.
Alabama players, Georgia, Buckeyes have no motivation with full pockets. Once the motivation to prove they belong disappears they will fall back in line. Just my opinion.

We’re watching the playing field even in real time.

Top tier programs can no longer just hoard talent.

Dynasties and multi year dominant runs by a handful of programs are done.

Undefeated teams will become less common.

Other middle - lower teams will very likely have IU, SMU, Army, SC, ASU, type season next year and regularly going forward.

Oregon, OSU, Texas, Vols could very easily have USC, Oklahoma, LSU “let down” seasons next year…

Other side of that coin is Auburn, Florida, USC, Sooners could very easily be in the mix…

 

[Chad Rock]

I have a theory on this. lol. Just listen.
NIL has not made college football more even.
NIL has made the good teams much worse.
Alabama losing to Vandy? That’s not an Alabama team.
Georgia committed 5 TOs in a game this year. That ain’t a Georgia team.
Money has caused the great teams to take a step back. Players there are to busy counting their cash to put in extra work.
Army wins their division with zero NIL.
Texas, SMU, Oregon found something to play for. A new conference and a chance to prove you belong. That’s a big difference. Pride. Motivation.
Alabama players, Georgia, Buckeyes have no motivation with full pockets. Once the motivation to prove they belong disappears they will fall back in line. Just my opinion.
If you don’t believe motivation is a factor just look at our team. They absolutely quit the last four games of the season. We allowed 3 career running back days in 4 weeks. Motivation to win is everything.

Agree mostly except that this UK team quit in game 2.

 

[NoDef]

I have a theory on this. lol. Just listen.
NIL has not made college football more even.
NIL has made the good teams much worse.
Alabama losing to Vandy? That’s not an Alabama team.
Georgia committed 5 TOs in a game this year. That ain’t a Georgia team.
Money has caused the great teams to take a step back. Players there are to busy counting their cash to put in extra work.
Army wins their division with zero NIL.
Texas, SMU, Oregon found something to play for. A new conference and a chance to prove you belong. That’s a big difference. Pride. Motivation.
Alabama players, Georgia, Buckeyes have no motivation with full pockets. Once the motivation to prove they belong disappears they will fall back in line. Just my opinion.
If you don’t believe motivation is a factor just look at our team. They absolutely quit the last four games of the season. We allowed 3 career running back days in 4 weeks. Motivation to win is everything.

You make some good points, but you also have to factor in depth. Before the NIL and immediate eligibility after transfer, the powerhouse teams kept more talent. Now those second and third string players just follow the money and playing time instead of standing on the sidelines. Teams are getting "Georgia and Alabama" talent when they leave. Saban alluded to the fact that you couldn't stack depth like you did in the past. Back years ago teams would have 100 player rosters and half the team was recruited to keep them from playing against you.

 

[TucsonCat]

Eh. Nebraska, Usc, Miami, Missouri, Oklahoma, Washington, Arizona,

Water finds its level.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

SEC was always the best because of access to the most speedy African American athletes. Demographics have changed and there are loads of good fb players everywhere. Also science and training has improved across the board. SEC is still the best but by a small margin that is getting smaller most years. Why not go out west or up north instead of playing in some 3rd rate college town in the south. Especially with the NIL in play, kids will go anywhere they get the opportunity to play and get paid. This country ain't that big, you can fly anywhere in 3 or 4 hours moswasn't.

Texas killed the old SW conference, all but killed the Big12 and within 3 years will ruin the SEC. They gave a DL a 7m NIL deal yesterday.

 

[FirewithFire]

The schools in those conferences have been playing against each other for decades. Could just be that the natives haven't learned the tendencies of the immigrants yet. Once the do things will even up quickly.

 

[Ugoff]

Has everyone forgotten that UGA doubled the score on UT in Austin on Oct. 19th?

 

[hmt5000]

Texas killed the old SW conference, all but killed the Big12 and within 3 years will ruin the SEC. They gave a DL a 7m NIL deal yesterday.

I feel like something will change soon due to some of these outliers. For one thing some of these guys are getting millions and then not panning out. Then they get kicked... lawsuits will start up soon and you'll see some reasonable rules start to emerge to stay out of court.

 

[Ugoff]

 

[MrHotDice]

I have a theory on this. lol. Just listen.
NIL has not made college football more even.
NIL has made the good teams much worse.
Alabama losing to Vandy? That’s not an Alabama team.
Georgia committed 5 TOs in a game this year. That ain’t a Georgia team.
Money has caused the great teams to take a step back. Players there are to busy counting their cash to put in extra work.
Army wins their division with zero NIL.
Texas, SMU, Oregon found something to play for. A new conference and a chance to prove you belong. That’s a big difference. Pride. Motivation.
Alabama players, Georgia, Buckeyes have no motivation with full pockets. Once the motivation to prove they belong disappears they will fall back in line. Just my opinion.
If you don’t believe motivation is a factor just look at our team. They absolutely quit the last four games of the season. We allowed 3 career running back days in 4 weeks. Motivation to win is everything.

Is pride in your school.a thing of the past and are players motivated now only by their own character. I don't see money as a replacement for pride or motivation anymore.

 

[maysvilleky]

I feel like something will change soon due to some of these outliers. For one thing some of these guys are getting millions and then not panning out. Then they get kicked... lawsuits will start up soon and you'll see some reasonable rules start to emerge to stay out of court.

I don’t see that happening unless they make players employees of the school and set wage structures. I just don’t see that happening.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

Texas got a cupcake (by sec schedule standards) schedule it's first two years in conference.

They lost to UGA twice, once with a backup QB. Other than at a and m, didn't do much to impress.

 

[3632]

Again, this is really probably not any more complicated than both are schools with top shelf resources that hired sec experienced coaches that know how to build sec level rosters in a day and age where the rosters can be changed quickly. That and add in there a favorable Texas schedule. Venables went to battle with a big 12 type roster and plan this season and largely suffered

 

[UKWildcats1987]

Smu already down 7 to 0. If they lose to Clemson and byu, who did they actually beat to earn a playoff bid?

I look at the schedule and doesn't look like any impressive wins.

 

[CrimsonCats]

Texas got a cupcake (by sec schedule standards) schedule it's first two years in conference.

They lost to UGA twice, once with a backup QB. Other than at a and m, didn't do much to impress.

I haven’t seen it discussed much, possibly because Sark has such a good history as an offensive mind/playcaller, but Texas struggles to score against good defenses this year. I think that will be what trips them up in the playoff.

 

[CRZ4UK]

You make some good points, but you also have to factor in depth. Before the NIL and immediate eligibility after transfer, the powerhouse teams kept more talent. Now those second and third string players just follow the money and playing time instead of standing on the sidelines. Teams are getting "Georgia and Alabama" talent when they leave. Saban alluded to the fact that you couldn't stack depth like you did in the past. Back years ago teams would have 100 player rosters and half the team was recruited to keep them from playing against you.

I thought about that. Depth for injury is a great thing. Usually you only go 2 deep on game day though. The mistakes I’m talking about are happening with the first string guys. Alabama and Georgia look unorganized at times. The first string used to be machines.