College football week 9 thread

Over the next decade, Ohio State has upcoming home & homes with:

14 & 15- Va. Tech (& Cincy)
16 & 17- Oklahoma (& UNC)
18 & 19- TCU & UNC (& Cincy)
20 &21- Oregon
22 & 23 - Texas

They're not hiding out.

 

Isn't the stat that Florida hadn't traveled north of Lexington since 1991 until having to play at Missouri last week?

 

Correct. Stanford is favored here. Opened at 6.5. Down to 4.

 

1991 at Syracuse was the Gators' last non-conference game outside the state of Florida

 

Thank you, that's the stat I was thinking of.

 

Well if the latest rumor is true that will change in 2017 because there is talk of playing Michigan at a neutral site believed to be Cowboys Stadium.

 

Not much of a reason to, either. They have eight conference games in what some consider the toughest conference. Then they have Florida State (usually a ranked team) either at home or on the road. So that leaves three spots. They probably need at least two "revenue" home games against smaller FBS schools. So that leaves possibly one more date, maybe at home, depending if FSU is a home or road game in any given year. This year that other game was at Miami. And, guess what, they lost. Probably aren't going to be repeating that any time soon.

Overall, the SEC teams don't play killer non-conference schedules. No reason for them to. Most of them sell out their home stadiums at 80,000 or more, meaning a nice revenue day. And the conference schedule is such that they know they'll get tested plenty there. Nothing more to prove. Look at Missouri. Non-conference schedule of Murray State, Toledo, Indiana and Arkansas State. Impressed? Well, they've gone from unranked to as high as No. 5 in some polls because they beat Georgia and Florida (both of which were hurting) in consecutive weeks.

Thus my point about SEC teams and their scheduling.

 

I'm not criticizing Florida's scheduling, just answering the question.

 

Returning to the Week 8 discussion about the gap between academics among athletes and other students ... Cal, my pick for #1, has the lowest graduation rate of the 72 BCS schools.

http://www.mercurynews.com/sports/ci_24383075/cal-football-team-struggling-classroom-too

So the players are terrible, but at least they're stupid too.

 

Tweet of the night: "Remember when Mississippi State worried whether it would be able to keep Dan Mullen?"

And the best piece of fiction I've read all day was in the MSU-UK summary, where it said the attendance was 55,102. Only if about half of them showed up dressed for Halloween as empty bleachers.

Pups go to 4-3 and unless they spring some kind of f'en miracle at the Egg Bowl, they're not making it to a bowl. Fact is, the team I saw tonight might lose out, and that would include losing to Arkie at LR.

 

It is my belief that the playoff system will have an impact on nonconference scheduling. Teams that load up on creampuffs and FCS paydays will be penalized by the selection committee all other things being equal, and just as important, ESPN/ABC, which is now the sport's de facto TV partner, will encourage "bracket buster" and "playoff preview" games. It's not going to be drastic, but I think you'll see teams in the SEC with one nonconference toughie out of three, like Alabama tries to, drop a weak sister in favor of a middling opponent.

 

Mullen will land nicely as the OC at Ohio State next season, after Tom Herman gets scooped up in the offseason....