college football under quarantine

interesting implications of a possible new normal:

https://www.theringer.com/2020/8/3/21349611/season-schedule-power-five-conferences-college-football-playoff

But college football is a lot of things, and a season exclusively for the Power Five is few of them. It’s clear that the Power Five teams have needs and goals that differ from everybody else’s. By playing games solely against each other, they will maximize both fan interest and profit. Maybe the Power Five schools will realize this arrangement is financially beneficial even in non-pandemic circumstances. But a few dozen teams with similar needs and goals making decisions that benefit each other isn’t college football. It’s a professional sports league. And professional sports leagues have to pay and provide fair treatment to their players. This feels like a lasting split, and the more bonds the College Football programs sever with the college football programs, the harder it will be for them to pretend they still have anything in common with the distant relatives they’re leaving behind.

None of this is a secret. The fact that NCAA Division I football is essentially a semi-pro league feeding the NFL and that everyone is profiting from it but the players has been evident for decades. It is rarely acknowledged by the sports media because it is so ugly and they profit from it as much as anyone else. The players seldom complain because they are so vulnerable to reprisals. Most of them are seen as easily replaceable parts and 'troublemakers' swiftly get the boot.

The players do profit if they are on scholarship (and manage to stay on scholarship) and D1 football and basketball "student athletes" also enjoy elite status and other fringe benefits compared to other students.

But the system is absolutely semi-pro at best and at worst, big school college athletics operates (via the NCAA and the major conferences) as a monopoly with ruthless corporate vision. Everyone in the system gets a career out of it except the players, where something like less than 1% get drafted to the NFL and an even smaller number will play more than three years in the pros.

That said, I suspect that the vast majority of athletes at all levels love their experience in college sports even though they realize they are but actors in a circus. They know that they aren't getting their fair share but they are kept just happy enough by the experience that they still participate.

The idea that a scholarship athlete necessarily benefits from their time in a university is spotty at best. Scholarship athletes are chosen for their athletic prowess, not their academic ability, which may be minimal or even wholly inadequate. Graduation rates have been notoriously very poor among scholarship athletes in the two big money-making sports at "power five" universities, where scholarship athletes are routinely expected to prioritize their sport over all other activities and those who struggle academically are tutored just enough to maintain the lowest standard of required achievement to keep them playing. The NCAA pretends to address this, but their first priority remains keeping athletes playing; learning still takes a back seat, despite gestures designed to quiet criticism.

I will say that scholarship athletes are generally well fed at the training table free of charge, so there's one real benefit they can count on, even if they never earn their degree.

What is a notoriously poor rate to you, Aimless? Just curious.

http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/graduation-rates
or this
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1731218-college-football-schools-with-the-best-and-worst-graduation-rates

Mens' college basketball also makes a lot of money but the number of scholarship athletes is way lower. But the grad rates are very good at the elite programs.

Also, as you probably know, it's hard to use graduation rates as a measuring stick given the percentage of students at, say, LSU who graduate. Hint: at LSU (and most schools), the official graduation rate for students overall is lower than the football teams. But that's partially because the non-students have a higher attrition rate.

I would also add that an enormous benefit for scholarship "student athletes" and "student athletes" in general is that their entrance requirements are, as you note, at much lower academic standards. So, a person can go to, say, the University of North Carolina on a football scholarship and have much lower admissions standards. Assuming that they graduate, which 75%+ of UNC football players due, that's pretty awesome. And as you note, they get really nice living facilities, their own dining hall, have amazing tutoring options, and get to travel the country.

There is a large number of student athletes who honestly cannot afford to go to college even if they have a "full ride". These kids don't have time for jobs during the off season, and there really is no off season. These kids often live far from home and literally have no way to get to and from college. They don't have idle spending money. There are many issues that are worthy of withering criticism and you and I agree (!) that the NCAA doesn't address this with much honesty.

Supporting college athletics even as a fan seems morally dubious I guess.

no return of the mac(k)

big 10 cancels season

holy shit

trump's fucked

the ACC is saying they'll go ahead no matter what

pac 12 is canceling, big 12 is on the fence

at least we still have idaho high school football

I told my wife as fall prepares to start “if I die of COVID (and I doubt I will) at least my sons will know I stood up for doing what is right and going to work & educating and molding young people rather than hiding” she responded “agreed “ ❗️❗️💪💪💪

— Coach Hargitt (@coachhargitt) August 10, 2020

sad about my problematic fave getting canceled :(

BREAKING: The Big Ten presidents have voted to postpone the 2020 college football season with hopes of playing in the spring, per sources.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) August 11, 2020

more like the small zero

smoll

sm0ll

if this swings Michigan and Wisconsin for Biden then it'll be the best thing the Big Ten has produced since Charles Woodson.

what a win for the democrats(?)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EfJo3OrXgAIICG2?format=jpg&name=small

college football coaches are the worst people in america (#34985859340293849494 in a series)

Lou Holtz tells Fox News that college football needs to play amid coronavirus pandemic this fall: "Let's move on with our life! When they stormed Normandy, they knew there were going to be casualties -- there were going to be risks." pic.twitter.com/zZZ5qrFRFb

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 11, 2020

tbf this is the kind of shit that got him fired.

There's going to be a lot of unmolded young men out there!

lou is freaking deranged lol

Georgia State QB announces he has a heart condition from COVID 19 and won’t play this year https://t.co/aH4CawZdsi

— trey wingo (@wingoz) August 20, 2020

BREAKING: #PennState's director of athletic medicine, Wayne Sebastianelli, says that cardiac MRI scans revealed that roughly 30-35 percent of Big Ten athletes who tested positive for COVID-19 appeared to have myocarditis. https://t.co/md4p1IoaLh

— Parth Upadhyaya (@pupadhyaya_) September 3, 2020

oh

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EiDe5zeXkAQPJ01?format=jpg&name=small

cool they can also check for CTE posthumously, this sounds super humane

Guys. GUYS. I found the Michael Scott of college football. pic.twitter.com/NdEvpYFlkg

— Laura Albanese (@AlbaneseLaura) September 16, 2020

i don't *really* care about college football, but i definitely appreciate Oklahoma and LSU being beaten at home

hate this guy

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney: 'On board' with Black Lives Matter messages, but not politics

^ A man torn between his need to recruit Black players and his need to soothe the multi-millionaire alumni who bankroll his program.

"i mean i'm okay with black people scoring touchdowns, that's gotta count for something"

xp apparently this all started because a 'law enforcement officer' called into dabo's radio show and asked him if he supported 'these people'

anyway he's old school, grew up in alabama, can't be expected to let the coloreds mess up the uniforms or make money or be 'political'

totally understandable racist behavior, who could blame him except everyone

SABAN HAS THE RONA

:-0

hope he's ok, but the SEC's covid attitude has been sickening, and the league deserves a dose of reality

LSU/Florida has been postponed until Dec. 12

hopefully Alabama's AD recruited another, younger 5-star coach that is ready to take saban's place, and saban will never get another opportunity as he watches his dream slip away, hobbled on the sideline.

cold but fair

UK won at Tennessee for the first time since like 1986 and biggest win by points since like 1932 today.

Kentucky has some more O-linemen that will be playing in the NFL soon.

Alabama will definitely not let Saban transfer without setting out a year.

Saban's test was apparently a false positive. He's had three negative tests since and we be on the sideline tonight. Cool.

He released a statement, "Don't be afraid of covid."

everyone who goes into remission should blab to the world “don’t be afraid of cancer!”

aaaaand trevor lawrence has covid

btw wtf nebraska

'we're not allowed to catch covid from wisconsin, so please let us catch it from chattanooga'

Indiana whupped the Wolverines today. Michigan looked slow. Harbaugh might be joining you know who in looking for a new job in January.

Good day all around.

Indiana's Michael Penix Jr. should start getting some talk as a big QB to watch and like many lefty QBs he's kind of fun to watch. Big thing with him is just not getting hurt again.

https://wgntv.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/11/GettyImages-1284436894.jpg?w=1280&h=720&crop=1

they shouldn't be playing, but at least it's resulted in michigan and penn state getting fucking smoked

They got Michigan State now too...knock wood they can complete the set by beating the Buckeyes next week.

It would figure that IU would have their season of the century in the middle of a plague.

lol they "underachieved" when TCU beat them. They have a better shot this year because of the teams in it with them.

they did underachieve both times—they were #2 and the #2 team is expected to make the title

tho who am i to question a notre dame fan on the question of underachieving

exactly!

we are the same, you and I. *curls bony fingers into grotesque shape*

anyway, my only argument here is that Michigan and FSU deserve to be in it.

the committee might’ve just nuked the acc

this, really. if you can run the table in a power conference and not make the top four, are you really a power conference?

the only ranked teams FSU beat were LSU, duke (lol), and louisville

god help the ACC if FSU gets crushed by georgia, which they probably should unless the latter has completely checked out

yeah, they will likely be crushed. Doesn't mean they couldn't have beaten any of the 4 in the playoffs, though.

The idea that it'd be a shocking underachievement for Michigan to lose the CFB playoffs is insanity. They can definitely lose either game. They will likely lose the first one.

the ACC question doesn't really matter because the pac-12 is done and the playoff expansion

I agree that FSU was hurt by their road win over the OC that beat Michigan in the CFB playoff last year not coubting more.

obviously i am Old but having conferences where everyone doesn't play each other every year in football + home and away in basketball -- and then pretending that a conference championship means something -- is fucking stupid

honestly football ruins everything

they are fast forwarding to the professional model, it sucks very hard

well, except for the “players getting paid” part

yeah, that part is good. The transfer portal is madness, though. It is evem less restrictive than the professional model, I think?

Kyle McCord missing the Cotton Bowl to enter the portal after Day would not confirm him as next year's starter in an interview.

i don’t think michigan’s offense is good enough to win two playoff games — likely not even one. they skated thru the entire season w/o having to pass the ball & they really don’t have much talent at the skill positions aside from corum. bama is gonna dare their passing game to beat their secondary & i wish michigan luck in that endeavor

the thing w/ ACC is that it’s been a dead conference walking since at least this summer, literally the only thing holding together is a very shortsighted, very long term TV contract the schools signed. FSU, clemson, miami etc would all still be bolting at the first available opportunity regardless of what happened w/ this playoff

and anyway i don’t buy the logic that this reflects on the conference, it’s simply about the QB. nobody is making the argument that texas > FSU bcuz of the big 12. i think the committee sees SEC & big 10 on one level and everyone else on another. they ultimately made a decision that the potential entertainment value of future games is more important than the results of previous ones, and i think that will have real long term implications for the sport. but it all feels irrespective of conference to me

I agree on UM. They need turnovers and/or special teams to score against good defense. The Big 10 offenses they faced were bad, so it's also hard to know how good their defense is. Nobody in the Big 10 scored on them last year, and then they gave up 51 to TCU.

of course, Conor Stalions also didn't buy any TCU tickets last year.

gotta wonder if he still had bama on the list after the texas loss…

the tempo free, opponent adjusted stats are right there. michigan has the #10 offense in college football. other notable skill players: donovan edwards (misused so far this year, but still a five-star talent), massive tight end colston loveland, speedster wide receiver roman wilson.

they didn't put up massive numbers against the #2, #3 and #4 defenses in college football. but they still scored 24, 30, and 26 points in each of those games. that should be enough to win if their defense plays well.

i like to look at the tempo free stats because there is so much stylistic difference in college football. different conferences play basically different sports. michigan, yes, is optimally suited to big ten play, but alabama, who have won with their running game, defense, and timely milroe bombs, are basically a big ten team this year.

whatever, it is very easy to hate from outside the club

how will michigan throw the ball i wonder

Quarterback Play (ESPN QBR & EPA/play)
Power 5, through week 13

(i tweeted out the week 12 chart yesterday. my bad. not a whole lot of movement though!) pic.twitter.com/FURQClhWAw

— yahia hassan (@yhassan00) November 28, 2023

Nobody in the Big 10 scored on them last year, and then they gave up 51 to TCU.

― Natural Wine • Danny Devito • Virginia (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, December 4, 2023 12:37 PM (fifty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is also a tempo thing. michigan scored 44 in this game, if you recall, and should've had more.

tcu's total also aided by 14 defensive points

i know the advanced numbers have loved michigan all season. that being said mccarthy has thrown for under 150 yards in their last 4 wins. that's a wonderful formula to win big 10 football and you can tell me that bama is basically a big 10 team, but i doubt nick saban has ever lost a game to a QB throwing for less than 150 yards. so the formula that has worked for them is not applicable to this game, imo. it's not to say that michigan can't win but they're going to have to show a much more advanced version of their team. mccarthy hasn't thrown for a completion longer than 35 yards in over a month. the history of beating bama tells you that you need big plays from the QB and WRs because the number of teams who show up and run the ball down alabama's throats is basically nonexistent. and michigan's best OL is out.

the thing w/ football stats is you're already dealing w/ a borderline meaningless sample size and then w/ high level college teams you're reducing the sample size even further because 75% of the games are over before they start. so mccarthy's plotting on an efficiency graph is great because he can show up vs nebraska and go 12-16 for 156 yards 2 TDs 0 INT and win 45-7. but not a single thing that happened on that field is relevant to facing alabama

i don't really doubt that michigan is capable of uncorking a few big plays–the exact same group of guys last year combined for a truckload of explosive plays. for whatever reason this year–pass pro issues, head coach's, uh, absences–they have changed their approach. harbaugh and co. are terminally risk-averse in games they're confident they're gonna win, which is something i've always criticized. you need reps against the rutgers of the world to confidently execute against the bamas.

my hope is that with a month to prepare, they'll open things up, and with zinter out, they'll realize that they can't just run the ball down people's throats anymore. (every time they move away from this tendency with a counter or end around, they gain 20+ yards on teams selling out to stop the inside run. maybe run more counter? playaction maybe??)

i think michigan's defense is legit and there isn't much first round talent on bama's offense either, frankly. i don't think it's going to be a repeat of the georgia-michigan semifinal from two years ago but i think michigan has a real uphill battle to get those 24, 30, 26 points. if you wipe out the 87 yard punt return does michigan even hit 20 this weekend...

also if we find out that michigan's defense is not actually as good as we thought and in reality in their three biggest games they faced kyle mccord (already transferring), drew allar (stinks) and iowa's back up, that wouldn't be a shock either. milroe is very raw but it seems obvious that from both a talent and production standpoint he's the best QB michigan has seen this year by several orders of magnitude

maybe mccarthy's alleged first round talent shines in the one game where they actually need that from him -- but typically actually talented, NFL bound QBs don't ever put up the kinda statlines that he has been able to get away w/ repeatedly this season. it should be a fascinating game

here's jalen milroe's statline from the win against georgia: 13/23 for 192 yards and 2 tds, with 29 rushing yards.

that's a mccarthy-esque statline.

except mccarthy probably would've completed more passes

alabama and michigan are very similar this year. people ding michigan for close (not that close) wins against penn state and iowa, but don't ding bama for close wins vs auburn, tcu, arkansas, etc. no doubt they'll be better prepared than against those teams after a month off, but this is not a normal alabama team.

his dad would certainly complete more passes at his girlfriend in the stands

*usf, not tcu

i just think milroe is way more dynamic, personally. he’s got a better arm and better legs. mccarthy’s in his third year of starting his stats shouldn’t be comparable to that of a freshman. but milroe being a freshman may turn out to be relevant, too

michigan has the much better RB which is weird for a bama team but i don’t think any of bama’s RBs are gonna get drafted

it's mccarthy's second year as a starter, and yeah they should air it out more, and will have to in order to win the championship

opponent caveats taken, of course, but he's been able to air it out when he's had to this year (source here):

McCarthy has been particularly effective on third down, completing 42-of-57 pass attempts (73.5 percent) for 615 yards with a 193.26 passer rating. In situations of 3rd-and-7 yards or more, McCarthy is 27-of-35 (75.8 percent) for 447 yards with 24 first downs or touchdowns (five).

the thing w/ ACC is that it’s been a dead conference walking since at least this summer, literally the only thing holding together is a very shortsighted, very long term TV contract the schools signed. FSU, clemson, miami etc would all still be bolting at the first available opportunity regardless of what happened w/ this playoff

Is that true even with Cal, Stanford and SMU joining next year?

those additions matter less than the teams leaving the pac and big 12s next year. If it's SEC/B10 then everyone else this year, it will at least be SEC/B10, ACC, then everyone else next year.

the ACC will be very strong in non-football sports. The big football schools don't want to deal with playing Stanford and Cal in other sports, but it's inevitable.

they brought cal, stanford and SMU in mostly out of desperation and it wasn’t with any consensus. i think it was FSU, clemson & UNC that voted against the additions. if at any point those schools + miami and prob the virginia schools, NC schools, GT etc get a chance to join the big 10 or SEC they will 100% go

I agree that teams want out, but it's not clear they can break the contract for awhile. I suppose it could make sense to pay the pre-2036 penalty to leave if TV revenue continues to rise elsewhere.

At some point it becomes meaningless, doesn't it? When I was in college, my school (Colorado) was in the Big Eight, which later became the Big Twelve. We had meaningful rivalries, at least they were meaningful to us, although given the way things usually went we were no more than a speed bump to the better teams. Then we moved to the PAC-12, which made zero sense, at least in terms of geography and level of play. Now we're going back to the Big Twelve? Who cares?

lol @ ron desantis threatening to sue because FSU got snubbed

already know about chris christie's dad suingfor . . . baseball stardom i guess?, but i'd like to hear more

lol yeah the DeSantis thing is so desperate because he realizes everybody hates him.

He could be one of the Trump children.