PDB26

I’m just not sure what the solution to the problem was, or is. It’s clear almost any rule that restricts an athlete’s earning potential is going to be held an impermissible restriction on free trade. Even if the NCAA could convince membership to accept an arrangement where athletes become employees, there’s no guarantee that college football players would unionize, therefore no collectively bargained rules.

It appears so. With the exception of football, Fall and Spring sports get two windows. It looks like one window coincides with the end of each sport’s competitive season. Then, collectively, the fall sports and spring sports have a window that coincides with the end the non-competition semester. The winter sports have a single window which opens at the end of each sport’s season.

Utterly meaningless.

I never had a problem with the field, but, for me, but Oklahoma benefitted the most from this effect.

Look, if you think home field advantage was worth 10 points, in a game that was 27-3 late in the fourth quarter, then so be it. Cignetti is obviously among the best, if not the best right now, but who is the best team IU has played at home, 8-5 Michigan last year? I don’t think switching venues would change the fact that the ND defense was a tough matchup for IU’s offense last year and that IU had no answers on offense. 2025 IU is a much different story. Elite on both sides of the ball.

I’ve actually been anticipating ND getting jumped by BYU—possibly Texas, too—since they have added another win, whether bowl games matter or not. Oklahoma should fall behind ND, but I could easily see A&M staying ahead of ND because of the head to head win.

ND beats IU in 2024 regardless of where it’s played, but the inverse is true for 2025.

I saw reports that LSU is paying the bonuses as a part of its contract with Kiffin.

Thing is, the score was 48-13 with three minutes left in the third and Oregon in the red zone. Moore threw a terrible interception and JMU ended up with the ball on Oregon’s 21 after a fifteen yard penalty. JMU had two long scoring drives—nearly 200 yards—in the fourth quarter. Credit to JMU for fighting to the end, but they struggled to do much of anything other than being smashed on Oregon’s windshield for most of the game. Tech was probably more like the 5th or 6th seed, but what’s the committee going to do, put another Big Ten or SEC team in the top four even though they didn’t play on championship Saturday? The conference championship games, not conference championships, are the bugaboo for the playoff system.

Yeah, but JMU’s defense looked like Penn against Warren in 2003.

If only there was a way to settle things on the field. Maybe that would have kept one of those SEC teams that out of the playoff.

Eh, this phenomenon predates ESPN’s involvement with the SEC. If there were more Big Ten programs like Iowa, then that would probably knock a few of those SEC pretenders out earlier in the year.

Too much equity built up in the SEC over the last twenty years. Throw in the fumbling around in the ACC and Big 12 and you get a situation where it’s easy for voters to overvalue middle of the road SEC teams—for now at least.

Not an IU fan in the slightest, but there is not a chance in hell.

The SEC and Big Ten conference championship games were always going to be safe zones once the leagues expanded to the point where they did away with divisions, especially with a twelve-team field.

If there was a deal for two week 0 games on campus, then there is plenty of reason to be disappointed. If there was a deal for a week 0 neutral site game, then there is still reason to be disappointed. The Navy rivalry is nice and should be played, but the SC rivalry matters. As I said before, week 0 with SC, week 12 with BYU, and find a way out of Rice or Stanford.

Yeah, that one has been on life-support for a couple years now. I don’t think it’s hard to explain a contingency plan one way or the other. Maybe SC wanted or needed to move both years to week 0 and ND needed 2026 to be week 12 because they couldn’t make the rest of the schedule work. Or maybe ND looked at SC’s schedule and saw a three or four loss team in a year where the schedule is already so so bad. Either way, I’m disappointed and really expected ND’s AD to get this one done.

Tough look for ND. I wonder how the 2026 game being in week 12 factored into the decision. Still, you can’t say anytime, anywhere and then expect that to not be thrown in your face. Ideally, ND would have taken SC in week 0 and BYU on a two year deal to fill the rotating spot vacated by SC, and then dropped Rice or found a way out of the Stanford game.

Agreed, total nonsense. I think the closest you get is a Big Ten connection with Dantonio on the committee.

I understand who has purchased the rights to the various broadcasts. What I’m asking for is a non-tinfoil explanation of how ESPN influences a committee of 13 who are nominated by the P4, G6, and ND—the owners of the CFP—to select a 10-3 Alabama with a win over Georgia instead of 10-2 Notre Dame with wins, as you’ve been keen to point out, over nobody?

Don’t get me wrong, I believe the SEC has significant influence over the CFP entity that is owned by all ten conferences and Notre Dame, but that influence comes from the perception of the SEC and the fear that Greg Sankey can burn the system down. So, I’m trying to understand the assertion regarding ESPN. The CFP committee members are bought and paid for by ESPN? Or, because ESPN bought the rights to broadcast, including the weekly rankings shows, then they get to influence the committee members some other way? Or the committee members—all except the chairman without direct ties to the SEC—are on the take for the SEC?

The easiest counterfactual is Mendoza gets strip sacked on the play before the Sarratt touchdown against Iowa and Penn State’s defense hangs on. I think IU would still be in. Maybe the big drama is a weird Texas vs. IU debate for the final at large. I don’t think either ND or Vandy go ahead of IU.

Except that isn't true for every sport or league, and it’s not even true for the CFP considering there are five conference champions that don’t automatically qualify. From a philosophical standpoint, you play the games for the sake of competition and the opportunity to win. Practically, now, we have a college football season for people to make money and be entertained and to select a field of teams for a twelve-team playoff. My position on automatic qualifiers would be the same if Notre Dame was in a conference. I don’t care for this qualifier that ND has secured, although I can understand why the agreement was made between the CFP stakeholders, and I’d be fine with ND not having one while others do. It’s a shame to think IU’s first conference championship since before Americans walked on the moon would be rendered pointless if it didn’t come with an automatic qualifier to the college football playoff attached.

Well, infinitesimal progress has been made on retroactively awarding ND a spot in the 2025 playoff and vacating Michigan’s 2023 national championship. Same here. I was far more disappointed in the program’s decision to skip the bowl game.