Why did Alabama and USC play in Texas?
Nebraska took a delay of game penalty on their first punting play to honor their punter, who died in the off season.
…and then things went horribly wrong…
Beats me why they’re in Texas. Neutral ground maybe?
These neutral site “kickoff games” have become common in the last several years. Alabama has played in 7 of these games since 2008. Four in Atlanta and 3 in Dallas.
2008 Alabama 34 Clemson 0 (Atlanta)
2009 Alabama 34 Virginia Tech 24 (Atlanta)
2012 Alabama 41 Michigan 14 (Dallas)
2013 Alabama 35 Virginia Tech 10 (Atlanta)
2014 Alabama 33 West Virginia 23 (Atlanta)
2015 Alabama 35 Wisconsin 17 (Dallas)
2016 Alabama 52 USC 6 (Dallas)
In 2017 Alabama will open with Florida State in Atlanta.
Roll Tide!
Best Neutral-Site Games for 2016 College Football Season
Rather surprising first week, particularly how some of the big guns barely handled much lesser schools. My Spartans were spectacularly unimpressive against Furman, Tennessee squeaked by Appalachian State, TCU had all they could handle against SD State, and UMass stayed with Florida for much of the game. Great weekend for us SEC haters- particularly unranked Wisconsin beating LSU. Not to worry, they’ll get those rating spots back by courageously beating Jacksonville State next week.
Understatement of the week! :smack: That was awful. Wonder if old “Crotch Stomper” will get booted from the team? That was simply awful. Reflects poorly on the school.
I had to turn it off in the second half. First time I’ve ever done that.
Yeah, a Suh type isn’t somebody you want as your poster-boy. That was just about the point that the D started to unravel, too.
Cal and Hawaii played in Sydney last week, and Notre Dame and Texas are playing in Dublin today. I don’t know how neutral an Irish setting is for the Fighting Irish, though. 
Man, Oklahoma got crunched by Houston. All of the news reports are calling it Houston’s audition to join the Big 12.
And Houston’s coach gets $5million if they do!
The Notre Dame vs. Texas game is in Austin, TX. The Boston College vs. Georgia Tech game was in Dublin.
Notre Dame just made my day.
Hm. Thanks.
Pfft Kiffin couldn’t cut it as a head coach, in college or the pros.
Kiffen is a LOSER no matter how many championships he manages to ride to on the coattails of real coaches.
He will never Un-get-fired at the airport.
I keep hearing that “Texas is back” with their win over ND. Yes their offense looked significantly better than last year…but ND didn’t look that impressive, at least not top 10 impressive.
Speaking of Texas’ offense…they looked like a combination of Baylor and Oklahoma from the past few years. 18 wheeler package vs. Bell-dozer.
My top 10 after the 1st week:
- Bama
- Clemson
- FSU
- OSU
- Stanford
- Michigan
- Houston
- Louisville
- Michigan State
- OU
FWIW, I would not include OU in my top 10. A team that loses its first game will not be in my top 10.
TAMU or Wisconsin would get a spot in Week 1 Top 10.
I haven’t seen anything this weekend that has put me off my 49 year-old rule: No matter the hype, don’t buy-in to teams from Oregon or Mississippi.
So…how dull is your pain? 
Rosen may be very gifted, but his “desperate to avoid the sack so I’ll just fling this ball away blindly and into the grateful arms of a defender” may have been the stupidest move I’ve seen a QB make in a long time.
At the conference level, I don’t think we can draw many conclusions. Alabama is extremely good. The State of Texas went undefeated, I believe. Did the B1G lose a game?