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sports podcast testing: talking all things college football top 25 realignment and all games for week 0
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sports podcast testing: talking all things college football top 25 realignment and all games for week 0
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sports podcast testing: talking all things college football top 25 realignment and all games for week 0
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The speaker discusses the preseason polls and rankings in college football, expressing disagreement with their accuracy. They mention upcoming Week 0 games and express frustration with conference realignment. They also express concerns about the future of college football due to talks of super leagues and the potential impact on smaller schools. The speaker suggests that the focus on money and branding is taking away from the essence of college football, including the excitement of upsets and regional fandom. They question the benefits of conference realignment for smaller schools and express concerns about the impact on other sports. The speaker also discusses their own fandom and expresses a preference for the underdog aspect of college football. They conclude by expressing concerns about the potential loss of opportunities for athletes and the prioritization of athletics over academics. Hello, and welcome to Offseason Sports Podcast, Episode 2, Week 0, and welcome to the show. We're going to start off the show with talking about the preseason polls and rankings, and if you agree or disagree. I personally disagree with the polls, especially in the preseason. In the last five years, none of the polls have predicted or, I guess you could say, got their preseason rankings correct. I believe Brett McMurphy said it best, that if you don't like the preseason polls, just wait. They're going to change. There have been, in the last five years, there have been zero correct preseason rankings and so forth. That's what brings the football season to us and the excitement of college football, that is. Now, I can tell you this. I am sick and tired of hearing about conference realignment, and that's why I'm ready for Week 0 games to start. The slate for Week 0 is actually kind of pretty ... It is exciting in a sense. You got Navy and Notre Dame taking off at 2.30. You have UTEP and Jacksonville State at 5.30 on CBS Sports Network. Then you have the night cap on ESPN, which is UMass and New Mexico State. Then you have Ohio and San Diego State playing today, as well as Hawaii and Vanderbilt. If you've seen Vanderbilt Stadium, it's a mess. It should make for fun and exciting TV. That's on the SEC network, if you get it. Then the first of the dreadful Pac-12 game, it's San Jose State against USC. If you are lucky enough to have the Pac-12 network, that's where you can watch that. Then you have Florida International at Louisiana Tech tonight at 9 p.m. to finish off Week 0. Let's get into the polls. The preseason AP poll and coaches poll are exactly ... At least the top 10 are exactly the same. Do the coaches know something? Does the media know something more than what we know? I don't know. I guess that's why we have to watch and play the games. We'll see what happens. I'm not a fan of preseason polls. I'd rather see the teams be unranked going into preseason and wait until the first week after the first week. Let's see who the media is shining over and what the coaches think after Week 1, my personal opinion. It's all part of the hype and dollars that go around with it. They make for great preseason headlines. I'm very excited to see Florida State and the LSU game. That's going to be an exciting Week 1 matchup. That's where I am on the polls, in my opinion. In the last five years, there hasn't been a correct preseason number one poll. They've all switched, flipped, flopped, however you want to look at it. That's my personal opinion on polls. I'd love to hear what your thoughts are and share your thoughts and opinions on that. The next is the state of college football. I am kind of worried going forward for college football in general with all these talks of super leagues and realignment. I was super excited to see UCF finally get into a group of five, excuse me, a power five league. With all this expansion, is it going to be a fair league? By fair, I mean we're having 16 teams. Someone's going to have to finish last. With donors and all of that and pay to play, I don't think UCF, there's obviously an opportunity for them to finish last. But then I worry about the other schools, the group of five schools, are they going to have a fair shot at the new CFP program? I wish, and it's going to take a while for the NCAA to figure out what's going to happen and what they're going to have to do because there's Title IX and all of that, but I wish the NCAA would regulate the FBS college level Division I playoff. They have the FCS tournament where conference winners get a shot. I hate that they throw out the, oh, that's going to be too many games. Well, in the pros, there's a 17-game schedule plus preseason plus playoffs. I don't want to hear that it's too strenuous on the college body. I get it, these are kids, but they're also making money and they're also going to school and they get special privileges. Where I stand is football is football across the board, that's why we play the game. But every conference championship champion get into the playoff and then you have your at-large bids. However that's going to look like down the line, I have no idea. Again, with conference realignment, it is scary to think that the SEC is going to grow to a possible 32-league and then split off. Well, if we look at the SEC, if we take out Alabama and Georgia, who's left? Tennessee, you have Vanderbilt who hasn't won anything in the past decade and they're still living large in the SEC. You could say the same with the ACC. If you take out Florida State and you take out FSU, who's really left in that league? North Carolina, Duke, Miami. I live in the state of Florida, so the past five years I should say, oh, Miami's back. No, they're not, they haven't been back for a while now. You could say the same with the Big Ten. If you take out Michigan and Ohio State, who is really left to compete in the Big Ten? It'd be a toss-up. Same thing with the Big 12. If you took out Oklahoma and Texas, again, it would be a shootout for the Big 12 title. These big brands, quote-unquote brands, that make all the money for the conference, you could say the same thing for the American. If you took out Cincinnati and UCF, who is there to compete? You have Memphis. Tulane is right now the hot spot for them. The Pac-12, if you took out USC and UCLA, the conference winners, I mean, you had Utah. They're competing, so if you take out the two major competitors in each conference, who is really there to compete? It'd be a shootout. It'd be a toss-up. The state of college football is all about dollar bills right now and who's gonna capitalize. Right now, as it stands, it looks like, just my personal opinion, it looks like the Big 12 is capitalizing on dollars, on revenue, on teams, on everything across the board. They look like they are excited to expand and see where it goes. The SEC is probably gonna expand and they're probably gonna let FSU and Clemson in in the coming years. I believe the next college football playoff realignment is in 28, 2028, where they have to go back and see how they're gonna utilize either the same programs or they might go back to the BCS era. Who knows? Who knows what happens down the line, but as it stands right now, it's all about money. I think we're gonna lose out on what college football was meant to be. A, you have your schools that you root hard for and I, me personally, I root for the underdog. I love seeing Appalachian State go in and upset Michigan. I remember that game. I remember watching that game and thinking, oh my God, they're gonna pull it off. You look back last year, A&M got upset by Appalachian State. Those are the type of games that I live for. At one point or another, your team was an underdog, whether you liked it or not. So that, to me, is what college football is all about. You got your diehards that root for your college team or your team and then you have the upsets and that's, to me, what college football is about. You don't see many upsets in the NFL. Why? Because these are the top athletes in their sport to compete. There's not many upsets in the National Football League. It's usually a touchdown or a field goal score and it's more spread out. I live in the state of Florida, Orlando, I told you where my fandom is, I'm a UCF alum, graduated there. However, I'm a Vikings fan, a Minnesota Vikings fan. Now you might be saying, how or why? Well, Dante Culpepper went to UCF, I followed him to Minnesota, that's where my fandom lies. So it's a little bit more spread out, whereas college football was or is still a regional fandom, if you will, but with conference realignment, you're gonna have teams traveling all the way to the West Coast and vice versa. They're gonna have West Coast teams playing on the East Coast. So I understand it, I get it, it's dollars, it's money, it's opportunities for these schools, I get that part, but I also think we're losing the part of college football that we, or as I love it, where you have these smaller schools like Boise going to these big powerhouses and upsetting these schools. That is what I think we're gonna lose, and I understand the talking heads, oh, it's changed, it's gonna be great for the sport, it's gonna grow it. I personally don't see how this is gonna benefit the smaller schools, and by smaller, I mean the group of fives. I think there's gonna be a lot of left out schools, a lot of, woe is me, if you look at the Pac-12 and their schools, they're not gonna be able to find a home. What about those other athletes, you got soccer, men's and women's soccer, you have volleyball, you have all of the other sports, softball, baseball, where are all those athletes gonna be able to participate and play if these schools are being left out? Now, I don't feel bad for the Pac-12, I think they tried to do their own thing, they tried to be a trendsetter and say that they're better, but in my opinion, you're no better than schools from the Big Ten. I hate the term brand, if we want to look at brands, let's go back to Tulane. They were playing with the big boys of LSU and the SEC. At some point in time, their president or AD, I have to go back and research it, but they left the SEC because they were choosing, they were finding that the athletics were taking over the academics, and I feel like that's where we're heading. I kind of like the idea that he went independent and left the SEC to choose academics over sports, however, it hurt Tulane. But let's not forget, they were in the SEC, they did play in the SEC, they have SEC championships. Granted, it's really old, they are old, but back in the day, they were a brand name. I don't know how or why they got lost in this whole branding. We look at, I just watched Swamp Kings last night, they've been playing football forever and they won their first national championship in the 2000s, the late 2000s, 2009, 2006, somewhere in that era, and yet you're going to tell me that because they play in the SEC, their brand means more? I mean, I just don't get it. That's why I like the upsets, because you have ESPN, Fox, CBS, NBC, they're all trying to tell us the narrative of these big brands, that they're big, that they're tough. Well you got Appalachian State, who can constantly go into hostile territory and you never know what's going to happen, you never know, you just don't know. They're going to go in there, they're either going to put on a show and upset people, or they're going to fall. But that's what I love about college football, I love seeing underdogs pull out upsets. So if down the line in 2028 or 2029 we see these leagues fall apart, I don't know. I don't know where it's going to go, I hate to see it. And I think, with the NIL, I firmly believe the NCAA should step in and set a cap. We have Caleb Williams making more money than some of the rookies in the NFL right now. Great, good for him, capitalize when you can, because you never know when your career could be cut short or medically retire. But I firmly believe the NCAA needs to step in. As much as I hate the NCAA, they're all wish-washy and the whole Johnny Manziel can't do this, can't do that, when they make billions off of these players. But there has to be some type of governing body to regulate college football. How that's going to look, I have no idea. We'll all be in the thick of it together. So we'll see what happens. As far as the rankings, I'm excited to see what happens this year. I haven't really deep-dived into schedules. As far as I'm concerned, strength of schedule, it looks like Georgia has that straight path to get to the SEC Championship and run the table this year. They are my favorite to win the National Championship this year, barring any injuries. We can even take a deep-dive into their schedule. Let me pull them up real quick. I can't even find them. Who do they play? Bear with me. Bear with me trying to find them. Oh, I just realized that Clemson is playing Duke on Monday. That's going to be a hell of a game. I also don't see Clemson at number nine. They're up there, scratching my head, how did they get up so in the top ten this year? They had a horrible year last year in terms of where they should have been. Why can't I find them? Who is playing Georgia? Where do they open up? Georgia opens up with UT Martin. Then they play Ball State. Then their first real test will be South Carolina. They get two preseason, if you will, warm-up games before they enter conference play. Then they play UAB, Auburn, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Florida, Missouri, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Georgia Tech. They're my preseason favorite to go at least to the SEC championship game, barring any injuries. That's where we are in college football. The week zero games, the game I'm most excited for is Notre Dame and Navy. They're playing in Dublin, Ireland. It's going to be a hell of an atmosphere there. You've got Navy losing their long-time coach and coming back with a new offense. I still think they're going to run the triple option, but I think they're going to spread it out more. Then you have Notre Dame. They have a new offensive coordinator and a new quarterback. It's going to be interesting. It's going to be real interesting to see this game. Sam, what's his name? What is his name, the quarterback? Sam Hartman. It's going to be interesting to see. He ran that mesh offense in Wake Forest. I don't know. I don't know what to expect out of him. I'm hoping good things for Notre Dame this year. I think they're going to be a top contender for the CFP. I don't know. We can look at their schedule. They open up with Navy. Then they play Tennessee State. Then NC State, Central Michigan. They have a huge game against Ohio State. Then they play Duke. Then Louisville. Then they play USC, Pittsburgh, Clemson, Wake Forest. That's interesting. Sam Hartman going back to Wake Forest. Excuse me, Wake Forest coming to visit them. Then Stanford. I don't know. This is what I love about college football. You can break down a schedule, but you won't know until you're on the field. A lot of these Week Zero games, they have an advantage in some sort to see what their team is made of, what they can work on, what they need to work on. That's the other thing. If you look at college versus pros, in college there is no such thing as preseason. Yeah, you have some of these teams that they're paying to play them, but you don't know what you have until you start hitting. These Week Zero games, if by the grace of God Notre Dame loses, they have plenty of opportunity to make it up. After this week, one, two, three, four weeks, they play Ohio State, which in the preseason they're ranked three. Then they play USC and Clemson. They have plenty of opportunity down the road if they lose to make up for it. Week Zero, in my opinion, is great if you're ranked. If you're not ranked or if you have college football playoff aspirations, this is a great way to kick off your year. You get to see what your team is made of and go from there. Now, if you have to wait a week, USC doesn't play this week, so I'm sure they're all going to be watching. They're on the schedule. Ohio State is probably going to be watching. It's a great scouting tool as well. Yeah, that's where we are in college football. I'm just ready for the realignment talks to end, to be honest. It's old right now. It's stale. It's probably the only college football headline right now that's taken over the big media. We'll see what happens. I am excited to see what Week Zero brings us. I hope it's exciting and everything that we all want. That's going to wrap up this week's podcast. Please follow along at offseason underscore podcast on Instagram. I'd love to get your feedback and interact with there. Hopefully, we will be able to go live. I had some bugs, so I'm working out that. We'll see you back next week. Have a good one.
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