NCAAF - The College Football Thread for 2018

The Game Room
1

Because someone has to do it. Mods, if it’s better to combine this into the inevitable 2018 “Football” (College and Pros) thread, feel free.

So week one is now in the books except for an odd game or two.

Winners include Ohio State, Auburn, Alabama, LSU, Oregon, Clemson, Georgia, Maryland, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, and West Virginia to name a few. Penn State won, but just barely avoided a massive upset. Granted, some of these ‘wins’ were layups, but still…

Losers include Michigan, UCLA, Miami, Washington, and Texas.

Biggest disappointments so far are UCLA and Texas, both of whom were supposed to kick it up a notch this season but looked pretty wimpy this weekend. Still a long season, though.

I’m impressed by Notre Dame, which won a game of tough guy football. The game wasn’t really as close as the final score indicated IMO.

Still trying to figure out if LSU’s defensive line is really good or if Miami’s offensive line and point of attack are really bad.

Auburn looked good until they get into the red zone, where Washington stuffed them repeatedly. Still, it was good enough for the W.

2

Both Nebraska (vs Akron) and Iowa State (vs South Dakota State) had their games cancelled. There are worries that this could affect either or both teams should they finish 5-6. I am trying to remember what happened the last time there was the possibility of a team ending up 5-6 after a cancellation; I think the NCAA said that they wouldn’t give them waivers to make them bowl eligible, but they would be put at the front of the 5-6 list (which is normally in APR order) if it came down to including 5-win teams.

The suggested solutions I have seen so far involve having Nebraska play Iowa State on 12/1, either in Kansas City (the Chiefs are in Oakland that weekend) or Lincoln (with the proceeds split 50-50), assuming neither is in its conference’s championship game.

One small problem: who does Akron play? Playing South Dakota State - or any other FCS school - does them no good, as they already play Morgan State, and you can’t count two FCS wins toward bowl eligibility.

3

I think a 5-6 team can still go to the 25 or so worthless ESPN bowls nobody cares about with a 2/3 empty stadium. A lot of teams actually lose money on those games but go anyway.

4

I thought I saw that Nebraska was willing to play Akron in conference championship week provided it was needed by one of the teams?

Enjoyed the ESPN film room on the FSU/VT game. It had a bunch of currently unemployed coaches, instead of the lineups they get in the playoffs of coaches who worked against one or both teams recently enough to have relevant knowledge of film. That made it slightly worse, but it was still good to watch.

5

I know it’s only been one game, but I am very unimpressed with Willie Taggart. The offense was completely impotent the entire game, and Francois has regressed big time.

What made it worse was the post-game where Taggart was like “I don’t know what happened, they practiced great this week!”

6

Two FIU players shot in a drive by shooting today. The victims usually aren’t random, so it’ll be interesting to see if there’s more to the story.
NBC Sports - CollegeFootballTalk: Two FIU football players shot in drive-by attack, both in stable conditionhttps://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/09/06/two-fiu-football-players-shot-in-drive-by-attack-both-in-stable-condition/

7

My Nebraska Cornhuskers had to wait a week to see Scott Frost’s debut. Severe thunderstorms cancelled the Akron game, so now we’ll open with old Big Eight rival Colorado.

We should improve on last year’s 4-8… because how can we not? Then again, the Big Ten schedule is almost comically grueling:

AT Ohio State
AT Michigan
AT Wisconsin
AT Iowa

I dare Saban’s Alabama to make it 4-0 through that.

Still, much excitement abounds with new coach Scott Frost.

8

I heard a lot of people say UW took a huge risk going up against Auburn this year. I don’t see it that way. If you’re undefeated but only against weak schools you’re not going to be ranked well. Even a loss against a good team can help if you make it a good game. We’ll see what that game means for the Huskies later this year.

9

How about Notre Dame’s big opening win against Michigan? A great start against a top twenty team. :slight_smile:

10

Texas really needs to stop scheduling Maryland for their opening game. Hey, Coach Herman, you’re supposed to win tune-up games, convincingly even.

11

ESPN announcers were annoying in the run-up to Auburn v Washington. They put Washington over like they’re uncrowned National Champions, and then made excuses for the loss.
They’ll say anything to diss the SEC. LSU was seriously underrated going in to the Miami game, and likewise, Miami was way overrated. Loved that one. Shout out to Nicholls State for the
OT win over Kansas. Mississippi State romped over Stephen F. Austin, as expected. Was pleased with the Ole Miss win over Texas Tech. Rebels fans better enjoy it, because that defense is
bad. Really, epic badness. Bama may run for a mile against them. Speaking of Bama, they’re really good. Again. ROLL TIDE!

12

ND’s defense looked great. Offense might be a struggle, but supposedly Michigan has an awesome defense. Only three more currently ranked teams on the schedule, so not as rigorous as in years past.

13

That’s ridiculous, UW was pretty good a couple of years ago and made it to the semifinals but last year had a major drop-off. There’s no justification for expecting them to be championship contenders before the season even begins.

14

It’s worse than you thought, it was actually just Nicholls (not the better known Nicholls State).

15

No, it was Nicholls State, in Thibodaux, LA.

16

That’s bizarre! I was listening to some XM College Nation dude who specifically said it was Nichols (and not Nicholls State) and when I looked at the ESPN scores, it said Nicholls (with two Ls) so I just assumed the experts knew what they were talking about. :smack:

17

If you go to the Nicholls State website and click on Athletics, apparently the sports teams are called just “Nicholls.” Also, Nichols College is a Division III school; I doubt any FBS program would schedule a football game against one of them (basketball, maybe, as each school is allowed two games against non-Division I teams that can be played (a) without counting against the regular season limit and (b) before the “official” start of regular season play, which is now the Tuesday after the first Friday in November), especially as it could not be counted as a win for bowl eligibility purposes.

18

Well…I sorta cheated. I have personal knowledge of that school, friends that teach there, and years ago had an intern (now a practicing lawyer in my building) that played football there. He was pretty excited about the win.

19

WOW! I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard a fan say that SEC-SPN was biased against the SEC. :wink:

I kid, I kid, Oakminster

When my Nebraska was in the Big Eight, we KNEW the media hated quiet Osborne and influenced the refs to give folksy Bowden the 1994 Orange Bowl.

When Nebraska was in the Big XII, we used to say that ESPN was biased against us in favor of the Big Ten (1997 split national title as a case in point, with Michigan in ABC/ESPN’s Rose Bowl).

Now that we’re in the Big Ten, ESPN is obviously out to shut down the conference. (that’s why 2 SEC teams got in ESPN’s playoffs and zero Big Ten).

I believe everyone thinks the media is biased against their favorite team. When I was a youth, I’d like to troll chat rooms by asking “Does [your team] get enough respect?” EVERY fan shouted “NO!”, even if they were the odds-on favorite.

Heck, I bet you’ll find some Bama fans that will say the same thing.

20

Add West Virginia - NC State and North Carolina - UCF to the list; they have been cancelled because of Hurricane Florence.