LSU vs Bama! KABOOM!

[DrunkCajun]

It's all about the hardware, just like the national title.  LSU was certainly capable of beating Alabama, they already did it once.   

The system is fucked.

[JohnnyJoe]

Alabama proved you can win the national title without having to play anybody.  This should open the door for Boise State.  Congrats for winning being voted into another title!

[DarthYoda]

The system is fucked.

I have a feeling there will be +1 system this time next year. 

[Todd]

Yesterday's beat down left zero doubt about which team is the best.

The best out of what?  Surely not the nation....  I'm not dumb enough to say any other team IS the best, but there is absolutely no resolution or certainty with the way this season ended.

[Jack]

I heard SEC commissioner Slive on the radio on Friday before the game. He was cagey, but I suspect he will (again) propose a +1. Maybe it'll get some traction this year. According to Slive, there are at least three sticky issues to be sorted: the season cannot be extended further into the spring semester, the bowl venues and sponsors are leery of dissolving long-standing ties to the AQ conferences, and in no way must post-season play dilute the competition and excitement of the regular season.

They do this rigmarole every year and nothing happens. I'd like to think momentum is building for change, but there's an awful lot of inertia in the system to resist it. I don't know for sure, but I suspect this year was an abysmal year for television ratings. There were no upsets until late in the season - blowouts were the rule. Both CBS and ESPN had crap game after crap game on in prime time. Capping it all off was a shutout championship game that non-SEC fans don't really care about. Perhaps a lackluster season followed by boring bowl games is enough to convince the muckety-mucks to try something new. Compared to the previous system, I love the BCS, but fans and players deserve better.

[JohnnyJoe]

Regular season is a joke.  The pillowfight of the century meant nothing to the season.  Bama's best win this year was a loss to LSU.

[Jack]

Bama's best win this year was a loss to LSU.

Ontologically confusing!

[DrunkCajun]

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7442352/bowl-championship-series-officials-discuss-possible-format-changes

[Jack]

Hopefully, it'll happen. I think a +1 helps strong conferences more than weak ones. Saban certainly seemed pumped about the prospect. Still, I think it has to be unanimous. The Big 12 is being squeezed from both sides by the SEC and the PAC-12 and is rotting from the inside because of Texas's shenanigans. I'm not sure they would be on board. I also don't think the Big Ten would be excited about any proposal that does away with their AQ status.

We'll see. Fingers crossed. Slive said before the game that they wouldn't be announcing anything until their annual meeting, which is in the spring I believe.

[Jack]

Yeesh. I went back and plugged in a +1 system for the last five years of the BCS. There would have been five repeats in ten semifinal games:

2010: OU/Stanford would have repeated
2008: OU/TX and FL/AL would have repeated (I'd love to have had a second shot at Tebow that year)
2006: Ohio State/Michigan and FL/LSU would both have repeated

This year, however, would have been a good one for the +1.

EDit: Doh! Obviously I meant Oregon/Stanford not OU.

[AeroJonesy]

How is a +1 difficult? Lose the separate national championship game and have top tier bowl victors face off in the new national championship game. The two play-in bowls can rotate.

[Jack]

I don't think there's anything inherently difficult or complicated about a +1. The difficulty is in getting everyone to agree. I'm sure there is some entrepreneurial rule of thumb stating that the more parties to a contract, the more difficult it is to conclude. There are a lot of institutions involved in this decision: schools, cable channels, conferences, broadcasters, venues and corporate sponsors. It'll be a miracle if they can agree on anything, including the weather.

[DarthYoda]

From what I have heard it sounds like most of the major conferences are serious about using a +1 system.  The conferences might finally be getting tired of having a team worthy of playing in a title game but not in the title game (except the SEC).

It's the networks that may play the spoiler here (and Notre Dame).. But what it comes down to is they really can't create a system that works 100% of the time.  With the terrible bowl season this year, the heat from the public might be there.

I found it funny that we had Kansas State and Arkansas playing a NON BCS bowl but both teams were ranked higher than 4 teams in two of the BCS games. 

I also found it funny that everyone says Boise State plays nobody yet they get a mid week minor bowl game playing against a .500 team.   

The system is fucked.

[Jack]

The SEC benefits the most from a +1. We're pretty confident we can put a team in the top four every year, and take two of those spots every few years. I also believe a playoff system rewards insular conference play, which is SEC bread and butter: why schedule difficult out of conference opponents when we can play our rivals in the other division and get championship bids? I think a +1 increases the SEC's chances of making it to the championship game.

[AeroJonesy]

My prediction is a steady decline over the next 4 year for the SEC. The NCAA is cracking down on oversigning. SEC teams will be signing about 10 less kids a year...hopefully.

[DrunkCajun]

Explain the oversigning thing to a rather casual college football fan that has been getting steadily more interested over the last few years.

[Todd]

Explain the oversigning thing to a rather casual college football fan that has been getting steadily more interested over the last few years.

In layman's terms (AJ can come correct me), these schools bring kids in, or "signs", than they have room for.  They then have to cut these kids.  And by cut I mean ruin their future, because these kids could have signed with another school had they known there was no room for them.


http://collegefootball.about.com/od/rulesofthegame/a/Oversigning-College-Footballs-Hidden-Problem.htm

[DarthYoda]

Explain the oversigning thing to a rather casual college football fan that has been getting steadily more interested over the last few years.

You have a limit of scholarships you can give per year (I think it's 25) and no more than 85 total per team.  The SEC has for years done what they call "over signing" (and some other major college programs).  Many SEC teams will sign close to 30 players a year.  They can get away with this because many of the players will transfer or leave school early.  Basically many SEC teams ignore the 25 per season and they do the 85 - graduates - players who leave early -  transfers = scholarships we're going to use.  This is a big advantage for teams like Alabama, LSU, etc who have many players who transfer and leave early.  When it comes to the transfers, it's almost like they have a "tryout" , take a look at a player for a year and if he doesn't cut it, they recruit someone else for the position.. then that player will end up leaving for another school.

The SEC commish has said this last year that they tend to start cracking down on this practice.

Currently Alabama has 27 verbal commits for 2012.

In 2011 South Carolina and Arkansas both had 32 signings.

While many major football teams over sign, the SEC as a whole seems to be the worse of them all.

**  What Todd said also ** I forgot to hit post but I had it typed up already.

[Jack]

The really scummy part is when upperclassmen are "encouraged" to leave the team in order to free up a scholarship for a recruit. Teams like Alabama and LSU have talented walk-ons at every position, so when a scholarship player isn't performing, he might be unofficially nudged toward quitting for real or imagined medical reasons.

[AeroJonesy]

Some players are told that they can keep their scholarship, but only if they go on permanent injury leave, which requires them to quit college football forever. Athletic departments are permitted to give ex-players scholarships without it counting against their total, on the condition the player has a career ending injury.

[DarthYoda]

I really respect programs like Va Tech, Boise State, Wisconsin, etc.. these schools are usually pretty competitive.  If you watch their recruiting at all, these teams are never bring in big time recruiting classes but they have the art of picking players to fit the system down to a science. 

It's funny to watch kids pick a school.  The 5 star kid takes a visit to a bunch of schools while the 4 start kid waits his decision.  After the 5 star kid picks, then the domino effect goes into action, next kid pick, then the next kid, etc.   Now the school  got the 5 star kid, then any 3 star or 4 star kid that has already committed to the team, will open up his recruiting and/or decommit and look elsewhere.

Then you have the teams that go on a 3-5 year run (Florida, USC) where they become so good that nobody wants to go there because there's too much competition.  you see this in Florida a lot, Florida becomes awesome then the kids start going to Florida State and then they become good, then they start going to Miami, etc.

Some players are told that they can keep their scholarship, but only if they go on permanent injury leave, which requires them to quit college football forever. Athletic departments are permitted to give ex-players scholarships without it counting against their total, on the condition the player has a career ending injury.

My guess is a majority of these kids would rather transfer and play elsewhere over giving up football forever.  I would think a third string OT at Alabama would be a starter at Miami (OH).  But, I do see where some kids would say fuck it and take the free ride for the degree.  Either way, the oversigning needs to be addressed.  After looking at Alabamas recruiting, I would agree that they use the medical hardship a lot... but I can't believe that they are the majority of college programs, if so.. wow.  They do have a hell of a lot of transfers also.

Possible SEC games being played?
http://collegefootball.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=collegefootball&cdn=sports&tm=39&f=20&su=p284.12.336.ip_p504.3.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&st=10&zu=http%3A//oversigning.com/testing/

I noticed a kid name Darius McKeller that has a medical hardship.  He was a 3 star O lineman from Georgia in 2009.  I find it very interesting that the only schools that offered him a scholarship was Alabama and Mississippi state and neither Georgia or Georgia Tech offered him a scholarship.  It could be that they knew at a young age that he wanted to go to Alabama but he doesn't fit the typical recruit mold for Alabama.  Again, he wasn't a highly recruited 3 star player and why Alabama offered him a scholarship in the first place baffles me.

[AeroJonesy]

The SEC is not the majority of college programs. They are the worst oversigners by far. They are kicking out about 8-10 kids per year in order to clear space for the new ones that were promised scholarships.

Or they will lock a kid up with his signature, and then send him off to a junior college for 2 years with the promise of a scholarship after the kid has developed some. The kid can't go anywhere else because they are locked in based on their signature.

[DarthYoda]

Great article:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/andy_staples/01/17/taylor-alabama/index.html?sct=cf_bf3_a4