2020 NCAA Football Thread

[Isgrimnur]

He already has a gig.

[Jaymann]

Bama is favored by 7.5 vs Ohio State on January 11. I have a feeling it will either be a blow out by Bama, or a squeaker win by OSU.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Carolina is in its first major bowl in over 70 years. Unfortunately, our top two RBs and top WR (all who had over 1000 yards) and top defender are sitting out. So we’ll be playing a lot of freshmen against Texas A&M today. It might get ugly.

[Skinypupy]

Sark in at Texas, ESPN just confirmed.

Just hoping he can manage it.

[Pyperkub]

Sark in at Texas, ESPN just confirmed.

Just hoping he can manage it.

Really surprised they didn't get Urban. I figured he'd only come back for USC or Texas.

[Scuzz]

Sark in at Texas, ESPN just confirmed.

Just hoping he can manage it.

Really surprised they didn't get Urban. I figured he'd only come back for USC or Texas.

I saw today that Meyer is rumored for the NFL's Jacksonville job. He would probably start with Clemson's QB as a #1 draft choice.

[ImLawBoy]

Harbaugh and Michigan have apparently agreed on a 5 year extension. No official details, but rumors were that it would for $4M/year with incentives that could reach $8M. That's a huge cut (50%) in base salary if true. It also has a low buy out, which makes it easy for either one to get out of it.

I'm surprised, as I figured this was the end of the road.

[Skinypupy]

35-17 with 2 minutes to go in the first half.

A stellar defensive showing tonight.

[Isgrimnur]

Did Alabama think they had to score for the five OSU opponents that didn't get played?

[Lassr]

Well, that turned out to be a more stress free game than I was expecting. Roll Tide!

[msduncan]

Coach Saban with his 7th national title. More than any other coach on college football history. He pulls even with Paul Bryant for most at Alabama with 6.

[Pyperkub]

Coach Saban with his 7th national title. More than any other coach on college football history. He pulls even with Paul Bryant for most at Alabama with 6.

Congrats! I only watched a few minutes, but just wasn't in the mood. A measure of how crazy things are that I can't even take enjoyment in college football. I hope you are doing well, and that this brought you some joy this year!

[msduncan]

Coach Saban with his 7th national title. More than any other coach on college football history. He pulls even with Paul Bryant for most at Alabama with 6.

Congrats! I only watched a few minutes, but just wasn't in the mood. A measure of how crazy things are that I can't even take enjoyment in college football. I hope you are doing well, and that this brought you some joy this year!

Much needed normalcy. College football was a welcome escape this year even with the weird empty stadiums.

[LawBeefaroni]

It's no secret that I don't like Saban and I was ready to write off this win as an asterisk year. Teams were playing at 80%, 70%, even less. Schedules were completely blown up and even more unbalanced than usual. I am not recording this season in my memory.

But the more I think about it honestly, this year shows that while Saban can win with all the advantages of a #1 program that bends the rules in a bend the rules conference. But this year has shown that he can also win when things are far less than perfect. It would have been easy, and forgivable, for Alabama to let up, to get distracted for one game or one half, and have a built in excuse. "It was 2020!" But they didn't. Saban managed to guide them through where most others failed. When everything is fucked up, that's when leadership is most important. So while I still dislike him, I'll give him this one for sure. Well done.

[Skinypupy]

Most-Watched BCS/CFP/NC Cable TV Games

2015—Oregon-Ohio St, ESPN, 33.4M
2018—Alabama-Georgia, ESPN, 28.4M
2015—Alabama-Ohio St, ESPN, 28.3M
2015—Oregon-FSU, ESPN, 28.2M
2011—Oregon-Auburn, ESPN, 27.3M
2018—Georgia-Oklahoma, ESPN, 26.8M
...
*2021—Alabama-Ohio St, ESPN, 18.7M

Granted, it's a weird year, but that's...not good.

I'd be interested to see the rest of the list to see how far down this year actually was.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

It's being compared to the top 5 games of all time, so hard to know how different this year is from a normal year. Would be more helpful to see what the ratings were the last two years.

[ImLawBoy]

In getting what they've been asking for (playoffs), college football fans kind of laid bare one of the big issues with the sport these days - competitive imbalance. Now, this is nothing new. Occasionally the teams at the top change out, but I think that having them spread out at the end of the year during bowl time allowed people to pretend that things weren't as bad as they were. In the seven years of the playoff, four teams have taken 20 of the 28 playoff spots (Alabama, Clemson, OSU, and OU). While that's great for the fans of those teams, it's not as good for the sport as a whole. I'd be all in if lightening struck and Michigan made the playoffs, but sadly I live in the real world. As it is, I seem to be less and less interested in the playoffs each year.

I don't know that there's an easy solution, either. Competitive imbalance is kind of baked into the system. If I were a top level athlete, I'd probably want to go to one of the big winning teams that puts people into the NFL, too. Pro sports leagues at least have some kind of way to try to stop the rich from getting richer with things like salary caps or luxury taxes, drafts, etc. That's just not applicable to the NCAA. The best they could do is probably reduce scholarships somewhat, but the 5-stars are still going to flock to Bama, Clemson, and OSU. I've seen some arguments that allowing players to profit off of their names and likenesses will help, because someone might choose to go to a less winning school in the hope of being the big fish instead of just another face in the crowd, but I'm skeptical.

[Isgrimnur]

Just make it so they can't recruit every third year.

[pr0ner]

It's being compared to the top 5 games of all time, so hard to know how different this year is from a normal year. Would be more helpful to see what the ratings were the last two years.

The previous low CFP championship game total was 25.28M for 2019's Clemson blowout of Alabama.

Last year was 25.46M, so it's a 7M drop from 2020's Clemson/LSU game.

Also, the ratings for the final this year were DOWN from the ratings of the semifinals on New Year's Day.

[Xmann]

Yay!