Solar

The most overlooked improvement that occurred with bring in Dan Lanning, was him convincing the program and boosters for $ and going and getting Marshall Malchow from A&M when they were putting together the top recruiting classes in the country. What a coup that was. This top 3 class is no anomaly with Malchow as chief of staff.

This is a pretty big deal. It would be everything if CBS and NBC (peacock) were included. We'll see if this has enough of a monopoly of viewership for CBS and NBC to feel obligated to come along after a year or so, or maybe just drop sports programming entirely. It's a huge deal for determining what the market is willing to bear for streamed sports, and advertising content and related revenue.

I'm sure G5 would also approve 6-6 if PAC2 is not recognized as a conference by the CFP. HaHa.

It is tough to get the stars right. Sometimes the tape is really telling, sometimes the camp is really telling and sometimes the production is really telling. Bair has the measurables and performance numbers at 10 out of 10. He produced well in high school, and has performed well in the camp settings against equal talent. I feel confident he will be very good. I don't care too much for Rivals at times, as the camps can be way too small of a sample size, and camps aren't football games when real ballers can show up. I think the most underrated recruit of this cycle is Jericho Johnson. Watch his tape and look at his measurables. His tape reminds me of Brandon Dolorus, but he's waay bigger and possibly even faster. He's gonna be the best tackle in the country at some point in his Oregon career.

Interesting points. Basketball has 3rd party media multiple conferences and still has an NCAA championship. Does that mean it breaks the Sherman act, and nobody challenges it court because the status quo is fine to the schools, media and basketball players don't lose sleep over one unpaid season before going pro? MAYBE THE SIMPLEST SOLUTION IS TO HAVE THE NFL STOP REQUIRING 3 YEARS IN COLLEGE FIRST...haha. I will note there is no mathematical requirement in your hypothetical scenario for a conference to have 10 teams. Teams per conference is another variable we have to work with. It doesn't have to be 10, 20, 40, 80... The simplest is to just round preference to the nearest base 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128. Then you could put the entire division into a bracket and knock yourself out any which way. Relegation is too complicated for Americans to latch onto, which makes it hard to draw a line on any number of teams though. Using money as the threshold is tough too. A school may have the money one year and not the next when recession hits and funding gets cut. This is a situation where the benevolent dictator wins because there is no obvious situation that makes everyone happy, but a dictator runs afoul of the Sherman act. And how long before the SEC and B1G run afoul of anti-collusion laws that could be seen as anticompetitive to players opportunities? Around and around we go for eternity. There is no destination, just a journey, so we best all enjoy the ride.

I wonder if the NFL has collectives to help draw in free agents? If not, then why not?

Something simple that everyone can learn about contracts, is every reasonable contract has a remedy for being broken. (Never sign one that doesn't!) Meaning both parties not only pre-agree to the conditions of the new partnership, they also pre-agree to the consequences of breaking the partnership. That is why there is no moral or ethical issue with breaking any contract. Whether walking away from a mortgage or discharging a mountain of credit card debt in bankruptcy. Both sides agree to the outcomes of those choices in advance. It may be a statement to make in jest, but it is 100% correct to say that "Contracts are made to be broken." Now those morons that signed iron clad grants of rights are a different story...

I thought Alabama was a destination job? Har har. Also I noticed Kliff Klingsburry won't be on the USC sidelines this next year, he'll be OC for the Raiders.

It's a tough job for the NCAA whose reason for existence is to be by definition a trust, when it has been ruled in the Supreme Court they aren't allowed to be. They've been petitioning Congress for an anti-trust exemption, but nothing is in the pipeline, so it ain't happening. People want the NCAA to enforce NIL restrictions, but they really can't. Any restrictions possibly affecting athletes ability to make money is going to land them in hot water.

The highest ranked playoff team was Washington at 13, averaging 8 points less per game than us. NIce to see we have #4's QB. Georgia at 5 with their QB returning.

If we are at an inflection point in media earnings due to streaming, then it is better to have a longer contract. We'll have to wait and see. I think we will resolve pay for play and conference realignment by 2030 though, which means both of those media contracts will be overcome by events and have to be redone.

In automotive racing, they say there are two kinds of racers. Cheaters and losers.

I've been thinking the same thing. It is also possible that Riley is young enough to teach himself a new trick by putting equal emphasis on O and D, after being read the riot act by the AD. Time will tell.

Woohoo, Bair, who just got his 5th star, to the Ducks coming right up! (He has said he was waiting for Harbaugh to make his decision before he made his, which tells you everything you need to know). I don't think this will be anything like Saban leaving Bama though. Harbaugh is great, but not a dirty like Saban. UM is set up pretty good as an organization and their coach will be an internal hire (Sherrod Moore), who was successful in place of Harbaugh coaching games. So, I expect most of the talent to stay. Still, I'm concerned about tOSU pillaging even more top shelf talent.

Yeah, Boise State and UW do not belong in any most important games lists.

With a 4 team playoff the conference championships often played a role as a playoff eliminator, effectively being a quarterfinal round, in many years and conferences. However with the 12 team format (which I'm really excited for) the B1G and SEC are expecting that their top 3 teams will likely make the playoffs. So what are the implications of that? Compared to the 3rd best team in the conference: 1. If you win, you just played an extra game to get a bye week in the playoffs (+1-1=0), yea! 2. If lose, you played an extra game to potentially get seeded worse than what was the 3rd best team in the conference that didn't have to play, and more importantly, potentially lose a home field seeding, maybe even against the 3rd best team in the conference! Idiocy! I think the only people happy conference game week will be Fox/ESPN and conference money grubbers, oh yeah, and the 3rd best team in the conference happy to get a bye. And because of the former, it's going to be nearly impossible to get rid of the conference championship. The only likely way is to expend the playoffs to replace conference championships with real playoff elimination games. I think the long term answer is to get rid of conference championship, and take the 12 team format and double it. It will only add one week to the playoffs, which will simply replace the conference championship week. And best of all, 24 almost equals 25, so basically the top 25 that everyone pays attention to gets to battle it out on the field.

Arizona donor Humberto Lopez sends message to Jedd Fisch on transfer portal - On3 WWW.ON3.COM One prominent donor of the University of Arizona had some strong words for Jedd Fisch after he left the Wildcats for... This is huge. As we've discussed, one of the likely reasons UW picked up Fisch was he had a roster he could bring with him. That ain't happening. UW is in a world of hurt now. And you can bet Lanning will use the broken trust against any recruits picking between us and them.

I've never seen a writer do such a good job of driving with their rear view mirror.

Real question: how do we win a Natty next year playing Ohio State 3 times? We play them at home early in the year, if as predicted we are the two best teams in the B1G, then we will play them in the Conference Championship, and if we are both as good as predicted nationally there is a strong chance we play them in the playoffs. The conference championships need to go, and instead move to a 24 team playoff bracket, we everything's is as it is now, just x 2.

He DID have a problem, and to his credit turned himself around and got sober, which is why he is now capable of coaching at the level he is doing at Texas.

Pate is highly respected for his takes, and there was little disagreement in the comments on YouTube.

I prefer the term "Destroyer of QB's" rather than the Grim reaper, but if I'm being honest, they both work.

Uh, I'll keep my mouth shut about the weather in San Diego right now, but I hope everyone stays in stays safe and makes it through the weather okay; the freezing rain is no joke.

Moore would be an excellent choice. He managed the game extremely well in Harbaughs absence. And those awesome players we got with Taggart came because they wanted to play for the first African American coach to win a Natty. Moore would be in the best position by far to do it, so I think he would be able to improve recruiting. If not Moore, maybe Drinkwitz a little bit south, who is doing amazing things at Missouri.

I just read that Arizona's DC Nansen won't be coming with Fisch to UW, because he went to Texas. Arizona went from 120th something defensively in 2021 to 20th something in 2023 with him, and certainly their defense and Fifita were the 2 primary reasons for Arizona's success this year.