genevalonghorn

A couple of unmentioned points: 1. At what point do the NIL funders/athletic donors turn up the heat here? Somebody like Larry Ellison has money to wiz away, but won't like the notion that it is being wizzed away like this. Here, either UMich, in the wake of Harbaugh, conducted a facially insufficient investigation in the spring/summer or was holding on to the key facts here, while continuing to milk the donors. 2. You have to feel for the kids who just signed and the kids who do not have enough credits to graduate and whose football team is about to hit a fire sale - quickly - unless UMich brings in a home run hire, like DeBoer. If these kids want a quality education (and there must be some), they have to hope there is room on the ranch at a Texas, a Notre Dame, etc.

Apples and oranges. The top 4 slots last year were strictly reserved for league champions. So we were “dropped” to make room for the mid major champions.

Alabama came out of the tunnel better than we did. Signed, the CFP

The BYU coach's agent may have just been posturing for money. I haven't seen anything taking DeBoer out of the mix, and if he lands at PSU, that is a great get.

Of course, and I think that perspective had more weight five years ago. In a world where everyone can pay players, what is LSU? They'll hold serve on Louisiana recruiting, but run into pressure on high ranked out of state kids with matching financial offers who are not inclined to live in a dump. On Alabama, this is the same program that may lose a coach to Penn State - yes, a traditional power but one that has not beaten anyone for a period of several years.

This is the problem I had when DeBoer took the job in Tuscaloosa - and it is frankly the problem I have when any HC at a program capable of winning a national championship leaves for another program (cough, Brian Kelly, Lane Kiffin). Was he that desperate to avoid the W/L stain of a post-Penix Washington Huskies program? With Kiffin in particular, how can he now say that winning a national championship is important to him? He had a team this year that is as capable as any this season, a down year for college football.

I have no problem playing tOSU if our league schedule is weak. Slurp would be in the CFP even if they lost to ND - because they didn’t play anyone in the league until they played us. But if you have three rivalry games, UGA on the road, Vanderbilt, etc., it makes less sense.

Ten years ago, and I would agree with that. In today's landscape, Florida has a bigger denominator in the only metric that counts - $$$. LSU faces a different landscape now; all programs can do what they've been doing for years.

He'd be a name in the mix if Rhule leaves Nebraska, I have no doubt.

If you go that route with Ted Williams, you have to go the same route with MJ, given the hiatus for baseball. And what if Tiger Woods didn’t foul up his body and everything else in his life? (He came back and somehow won the 2019 Masters, which adds to his resume in this discussion.) And what if Mike Tyson didn’t have all of his issues? To me, it all comes out in the wash, and you take what the athletes actually did. Then again, Ted Williams might still thaw out one of these days. 🙂

In my mind, you have to value championships in this kind of conversation. That’s what will hold back a Ted Williams, as great as he was, and a Jim Brown. GOATs are made in the high leverage spots, not in garbage time.

If you limit it to pro sports, you have to also talk about MJ, Tom Brady, Tiger, and to a lesser extent, LeBron (not trying to have the MJ/LeBron debate) and Mahomes. If you are pulling in non-pro sports, you have to talk about Michael Phelps. That’s a benchmark that nobody may ever clear.

The breakfast matinees have no juice to them. Too reminiscent of B12 games.

Why not take a timeout there, ahead of the two minute warning?

This reads like Mosley is available.