2014 NCAA Football Thread

Or the CFC CFB thread ! ! !

And I say again, zero chance of two SEC teams in the CFB playoff. Zero . . .

get your towel ready, hope you like eggs.

Texas -- doing everything they can to get a Big XII team in the playoffs . . .

Thanksgiving fun fact ! ! !

Alabama is the only FBS team to have held all of their opponents to twenty-three points or less. I had to get that one in quick before we play Auburn on Saturday . . .

There was a lot going on today. Like a Saturday even . . .

In addition to VaTech getting bowl eligible, Arizona, ASU, UCLA and Stanford conspired to give Oregon a rematch of their only loss next Saturday . . .

Navy beat USA to get bowl eligible . . .

My poor little CSU squad went down vs. Air Force. They needed Utah State to beat Boise before they could advance to the conference title game anyway. So now Utah State has a little more motivation there . . .

Mizzou gets it done vs. Arkansas and advances to the SEC Title game. You could argue that they came into the conference at exactly the right time, but there is no denying that they've won the East twice now, which is once more than SCAR has managed . . .

I'd also like to say that if we can get past Auburn, I think we've got a much better chance vs. Mizzou than we would have vs. UGA. For the first time this season I'm comfortable saying I think we can win the national title. So, speaking historically, this is where the wheels should start coming off . . .

EDIT: Oh, and A&M fired their DC. Because it's his fault they scored twenty-eight or fewer points in five conference games this year . . .

ummmm........ said:

Mizzou gets it done vs. Arkansas and advances to the SEC Title game. You could argue that they came into the conference at exactly the right time, but there is no denying that they've won the East twice now, which is once more than SCAR has managed . . .

Click to expand...

That's actually more than six other SEC teams, all told. But that's counting team like Vandy and Kentucky, and Miss State could pull into a tie if they win and Alabama loses later today . . .

Ah, rivalry games. They never go as expected . . .

I won't be seeing you again until after the game is over, so roll tide and let's hope we get out healthy enough for the stretch run . . .

Wow...J.T. Barrett carted off. I didn't get to see the actual play but how bad was it? Sometimes the cart can be a lesser injury but whenever I hear the cart I always fear it's an ACL tear/broken leg :/

EDIT: Just saw the video and ouch that looked awful. Hope he's okay but that looked really bad.

a-c-c a-c-c a-c-c

making a 53 yard field goal to tie game at the end but cant get an extra point

#acc

dm;sw

how bout them dawgs

Roll Tide, my friends, Roll Tide

I of course would have preferred more of a defensive struggle, but that was helluva game. Three interceptions from Sims, I lost hope after the first two drives of the second half, because I didn't think we'd be able to stop them enough to ever catch up. But I'll admit I was pretty curious about what the committee would do with a two-loss SEC champ, especially if Oregon, FSU or Ohio State lost in their title games . . .

Speaking of, really tough break for Ohio State. It will be interesting to see whether they can beat Wisconsin with their 3rd string QB, and what the committee will do with that if they do . . .

And yay for my Blazers, bowl eligible for the first time in ten years. 6-6 probably isn't enough to actually get them into a bowl out of C-USA though

Baylor didn't do much to help themselves. Looks like it's probably TCU vs. Ohio State for that fourth spot if everyone wins out . . .

EDITS: FUN FACTS ! ! !

That's the most games Steve Spurrier has ever lost as a college coach . . .

If we can avoid letdown vs. Mizzou, I like our chances vs. pretty much anybody with three and a half weeks to get our guys healthy again . . .

It's Sunday!!! And we still beat Auburn

Bo Pellini out at Nebraska, so if you're a big time program that just fired your DC, do you take him or Muschamp? Also, who does Nebraska get? Will it be a step up . . ?

Ellis Johnson is out at Auburn. I wonder if there are any qualified DC candidates out there on the market. Hmm . . .

Kentucky's OC is the next HC at Troy . . .

UAB football likely done, perhaps immediately . . .

Alabama is the unanimous #1 for the first time this season. We also pulled to even with FSU in first place votes in the coaches poll. FSU still has the most first place votes in the AP . . .

The Alabama/Auburn game gave ESPN a 7.2 overnight rating, tying the network's CFB record set in '09 by Ohio State/USC . . .

It also garnered a 51.8 share in Birmingham -- an ESPN CFB record for the market -- for those of you that think ALL of us watch football

Baylor currently has better betting odds to win the national title than FSU or Ohio State, despite the fact that the latter two are far more likely to get a playoff berth . . .

Speaking of, the first four in both the AP and the coaches' is the same -- Alabama, FSU, Oregon and TCU. Miss State down to tenth in both polls, Michigan State the highest two-loss team in both polls at seventh. Both polls are identical for #1-12 . . .

Alabama opened this morning as a ten-point favorite. Now up to twelve and a half . . .

Wisconsin is favored by three over Ohio State . . .

That situation at UAB is shameful. Tragic that a few stupid grudges are going to ruin an entire athletic program. They're going to get kicked out of CUSA now.

Meh. There are a lot of basketball-only conferences in the world that do just fine, and UAB has always been more of a basketball school. I'll be sad personally to see UAB football go, but OTOH I've never really supported them in any practical, financial way . . .

And while I believe that there are some vendettas at work here, that doesn't mean shuttering football is a bad financial decision for UAB. We'll never know what UAB football could have been with more institutional and civic support, but even under the best circumstances it would have been a tough sell and that's even more true now with the recent emergence of USA. Bad motives don't equal bad actions. You can do the right thing for selfish reasons . . .

In other news, McElwain is apparently emerging as an early name in Florida's coaching search. Four and a half million dollar buyout, from what I understand, so CSU would do just fine in the deal . . .

EDIT: Bad motives can have good results, too. There has long been a push in the state legislature to separate UAB and to a lesser degree UAH from the UA system, but it has never been able to get much traction. UAB killing football -- especially if it is perceived to be for personal reasons by some members of the UA system board of trustees -- might generate a little more support for those bills . . .

EDIT EDIT: A guy in a UA jacket gets booed on the streets of Birmingham, Alabama the Monday after Alabama beats Auburn. Ah, UAB . . .

EDIT EDIT EDIT: Longtime Birmingham political reporter John Archibald did a piece on UAB football's financial viability. He found what you would expect -- UAB loses money on athletics just like pretty much everybody else. From the support side, he found that subsidies for UAB athletics from student fees and the state legislature have doubled in the past ten years, and that the city of Birmingham pumps about a quarter of a million dollars directly into the UAB athletic department for every home game.

Basically, UAB is a 'normal' FBS athletic department, meaning it can't justify its existence based on purely financial terms . . .

And that's it. No mas for UAB football. A sad day for me, probably a good day for UAB . . .

In other news only Birmingham cares about, Pat Sullivan is out at Samford . . .

And with the final numbers in, Alabama/Auburn has become the most viewed regular season CFB game in ESPN history, with just under fourteen million viewers . . .

EDIT: Oh, Freeze and Ole Miss agree to an extension, so he's off the carousel. For now. Probably . . .

EDIT EDIT: UAB marks the thirteenth college or professional football team that has failed in Birmingham . . .

EDIT EDIT EDIT: The mood in Birmingham has now moved from concern for UAB's football program to concern for the fate of Legion Field . . .

Why is this a good day for UAB?

Like most lower tier FBS programs, UAB's athletic department is a bit of a money pit without much intangible benefit to show for it . . .

Does McElwain to Florida blow anyone's skirt up . . ?