Tank McNamara by Bill Hinds for September 02, 2023

Now that Stanford and Cal (and SMU) appear headed to the ACC, they’re the 2Pac.

I’ll show myself out.

Dumbest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Just shows how money corrupts even something as terrific as college football.

Wondering how long it will take the athletes in the minor sports to get tired of cross country travel and decide that they would rather attend a school in a smaller regional conference.

All of the things that have been happening in college football—the conference realignments, NIL, CFP expansion etc.—are happening because the Power Four want to keep Boise State from EVER having any legitimate chance at the national title. The big boy schools like Alabama and Georgia know that Boise State would beat them in a legitimately played playoff system. What really needs to happen is to get rid of all the bowl games and institute a 16 team, four-round playoff tournament to be held the four Saturdays after the Army-Navy Game with the teams to be determined by the average of the rankings from the final AP and USA Today polls of the regular season. If this was in place last season Boise State would have qualified and even had won the national title

Now the ACC is getting into the invite schools bit…

I really wish the college presidents had shown some backbone and decided to not jump to conferences on the other side of the country. If there was any doubt that the schools are in this for the money and not for the welfare of their students, it is all removed. Those kids will be flying across country for several weekends to play their new “rivals”. What a waste.

Can’t wait for that Cal-Lousiville rivalry to heat up, or the Stanford-VA Tech rumble, or the Oregon-Rutgers bad blood to boil over. Good grief….

Then again, what’s sports without a little corruption?

I went to Ohio State, but my interest in its football program has declined a little every year since I graduated. What’s happened has guaranteed that this will be the last season that I will follow the Bucks, along with the rest of big college football.

I might – and I stress “might” – continue to follow the MAC because I also graduated from Ohio University.

They’re leaving money on the table. It should be possible to set up conferences with, e.g., relegation between two or three levels like they do in English soccer, to give the Powers preference while still leaving hope for Hawaii, Boise State et al.

The goal, which MLB has figured out, is to pluck the chickens in the small markets. To do that well, you have to leave a tiny possibility that the Boise States (Colorado Rockies) of the world have a chance even though they really don’t.

Set it up (as baseball did for a while) so that it’s obvious there’s no chance and the small market fans start staying home.

It’s the PAC-2 now.

Over 100 years as a conference, the PAC-# is deader than dead. Killed by greed and complete incompetence by the previous commissioner for not getting the Pac-12 Network on anything but Dish Network. Unless the Mountain West Conference wants to buy the brand, we’ll be without a major conference west of the Rockies for the first time in anyone’s lifetime.

Personally, I miss the Southwest Conference and Pacific Coast Conference — back when college football was more of a sport than a business.

So what, if college football as we knew it is destroyed?

We’ve got The Playoffs!!!!

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What are the odds for Bama?