Jon Joseph

Spot on. I posted these rankings today and noted that Kiry is closing the gap on Saint Nick. Win 3 in a row and Kirby should be tied with Saban.

For this to happen it means that the Pac-12 Network would be getting a new owner/ operator. One of the reasons I think the media deal is taking so long. For Apple or Amazon, the network facilities would provide a streaming outlet. The Network would not be stuck with a pathetic 13M subscribers; the broadcasts could be viewed worldwide. Man, it would be so nice for the Pac-12 schools to receive even a break-even amount from the network investment. This would offset at least a portion of what the conference owes Comcast. (if the conference does not counter-claim against the 2 fired network executives who have filed a wrongful termination suit against the conference and cross-claim against Larry I will be ticked off.)

Great point. But closing down the ACC Network would free up some ESPN cash and I don't see any ACC school joining the SEC, even Clemson and FSU, getting a full slice of the $70M a year media pie. $40M a year would be a step up from what ACC teams, $20M, are receiving today. Fox? I think that whether the B1G goes west, Oregon, and UW or east, UVA, UNC, Duke, and Georgia Tech, none of these schools would receive a $70M per season B1G share. But if the ACC collapses I can see the B1G coming with a full share for Notre Dame.

According to this Saturday Out West writer the state of Oregon is not looking good. Bronny James is a big difference-making for SC. Right? Gold: Pac-12 basketball transfer portal winners and losers SATURDAYOUTWEST.COM Some Pac-12 programs have beefed up through the transfer portal while others are wondering how relationships could sour so quickly. Who is leading the Pac?

Will the massive roster turnover work? Prime makes his Pac-12 audition in Eugene. Hopefully, he wins one of two games against TCU in Fort Worth and against Nebraska and Matt Ruhle in Boulder and takes care of Colorado State before tripping to Autzen Stadium. Hayes: What happens if Coach Prime’s historic and controversial roster makeover actually works? SATURDAYOUTWEST.COM Colorado's roster is almost 90% different from last season's. Is that good for college football?

These are composite rankings from the CBS folk covering CFB. Author Tom Fornelli questions many of these rankings, and I think you will do likewise. Below are a few rankings that I don't get. 25. Dave Doeren - NC State - What has a coach who has never won an ACC title or advanced to the CFB playoff done to deserve this? 24, Mack Brown - UNC - Yes, he won one national championship at Texas and played for another but what has he done lately? 21, Bret Bielema - ILLINOIS - See Dave Doeren. 19. Mike Norvell - FSU - 1 winning season in 3 seasons at FSU gets you this? 16. Josh Heupel - Tennessee - An OK (pun intended) record at UCF and one good season in Knoxville does not IMO warrant this ranking. 14. Lane Kiffin - Ole Miss - In the words of Tom Fornelli - "This is a ranking I do not understand at all." Spot on, Tom. 13. Chip Kelly - UCLA - Seriously? 7. Kyle Whittingham - Utah - Coming in one spot ahead of Ohio State's Ryan Day (8) is nice but is it warranted considering that Day won the Rose Bowl shoot-out? And Day has taken Ohio State to the CFB playoff. 4. Lincoln Riley - USC - Riley with a big roster advantage dominated the B12 but went o-4 in the CFB playoff. Riley was last seen getting blown out by Utah in the conference title game and allowing G5 Tulane to come back for a Cotton Bowl win. 1, Nick Saban - Alabama, and 2. Kirby Smith - Georgia. I don't believe you can argue with this but Kirby is closing the gap. Ranking the top 25 Power Five college football coaches entering the 2023 season - CBSSports.com WWW.CBSSPORTS.COM The CBS Sports experts have ranked every Power Five coach from 1-65 as this upcoming season approaches

Greg McElroy makes bold prediction about future of ACC’s Magnificent 7 SATURDAYROAD.COM Greg McElroy weighed in on the ACC discussions. A former Tide QB weighs in. As to adding say, Clemson, FSU, and Miami being dilutive, these schools would gladly come in for a lesser share of the revenue. And although ESPN is having financial difficulty, closing down the ACC Network could make the money available. As Not noted yesterday, Louisville is the 8th team to question the current media deal. That makes 8. 8 teams decide to leave and the ACC will not have the right to charge an exit fee. I can't help but think that more realignment and consolidation of the big boy programs, is coming before the close of the new B1G and SEC media deals. You'll never hear this publicly but I imagine that the B1G would love to see the ACC collapse so it could add Notre Dame and perhaps, one or more of the ACC, AAU-member schools, Duke, Georgia Tech, UNC, Pitt, and UVA.

The men's team played in Bath, Michigan (I almost typed Maine) and did not take a bath. (Sorry.) Bath, Michigan, and I had to look this up has a full-time population of @2,000. Perhaps next year the NCAA can hold a regional in Barrow, Alaska? Oregon Golf: Ducks finish 3rd to secure spot in 2023 NCAA Championship DUCKSWIRE.USATODAY.COM Oregon will be making its 32nd all-time appearance at the NCAA Championships, and its first back-to-back appearance since a run of five straight from 2014-18.

Future odds are out for the 2023 College Football Playoff title winner. No surprise that the east coast Dawgs are #1. Georgia +220 - 1 (USA Today Ranking) 63 (USA Today Strength of Schedule (SOS.) Georgia, due to the SEC calling off the game at Oklahoma, has a cupcake OOC schedule with Georgia Tech being the only Power 5 opponent. Below are the odds for Oregon and for the teams that Oregon plays in 2023. Utah - +6000 - 14 - 20 Playing Florida in SLC, at Baylor, vs Oregon, at UW, and at USC lifts the Utes SOS. Washington - +3000 - 12 - 15 - UW's SOS? UW plays Utah and Oregon in Seattle. Should trips to E. Lansing to play Sparty and to LA to play Troy (The Iliad Daily Double?) lift the SOS this much? USC - +1600 - 4 - 39 - This is a lofty ranking for a team that plays Utah and UW and road games at Notre Dame and Oregon OREGON - +3000 - 15 - 59 - The Ducks are preseason ranked behind UW and Utah but Vegas has Oregon matching up with Troy in the Pac-12 title game, in Vegas. 59 SOS? With 4 games against ranked teams and a game at Texas Tech that is ranked in many preseason polls? Oregon Football: Where Ducks stand in post-spring championship odds DUCKSWIRE.USATODAY.COM The Ducks have good chances to make it to and win the Pac-12 title this year. What are their odds to win the national championship?

Thanks for posting this Charles. Notalot deserves the credit for the initial posting that he was good enough to send to me. The best, most detailed, and most objective take on the issue of possible future expansion that I have read.

I think this is a realistic outlook. But CU will be improved at almost every position and the OC Deion brought in, who was the HC at Kent State, is a wizard on O with a capable QB in Deion's son. Folsom Field will be sold out and rocking for every Buffs home game. I think this will be good for at least 1 upset win.

FYI, UGA's recruiting budget is $4.5M a year!

It's been reported that there was a shouting match or two going on among a couple of ADs. I knew that there were 7 disgruntled teams. Louisville could be the straw that breaks the ACC's back. As you noted Not, 8 schools have the power to make the conference disappear with no exit payment required. AAU ACC member schools of interest to the B1G - Duke, UNC, UVA, Georgia Tech. Pitt is an AAU member school but I don't think Penn State would want Pitt in the conference. The ACC breaking up would likely force Notre Dame into a conference, most likely the B1G. So in addition to Fox, NBC might come up with some of the needed expansion money. Does Fox have the money to add more teams to the B1G at a dollar amount that would encourage the teams to leave? If the B1G wanted to add ACC teams Fox could pick them up a discount compared to what it is paying to bring on the LA schools and the existing B1G members, @70M a year. Clemson, FSU, UNC and if UNC was added, NC State, would be attractive additions to the SEC. Maybe Miami but Miami is a small private school and would be a third school in Florida if FSU was to join the SEC. Same question as where the money would come from, this time directed at ESPN. But ESPN would save money by shutting down the ACC Network. Florida and South Carolina might beef over the addition of FSU and Clemson but like A+M's protestations against joining the conference were ignored I think these two schools' objections would be ignored. I am curious as to why Louisville would join the chorus. I do not see Louisville as an attractive addition to the B1G or the SEC. The SEC already has the major market share in Kentucky with Kentucky CFB and CBB. I could see both Miami and Louisville and Va Tech, in the B12, joining W VA and UCF in the Eastern time zone. But again, that would mean that ESPN/Fox would have to come up with @$30M for each new B12 member. Man, I hope the Pac-10 stays together. If not, Oregon and UW could be left behind or forced to join the B12. Gulp! Round and round it goes. Where it stops nobody knows.

Colorado is replacing scrubs with higher-ranked players. The vast majority of the CU players who have left were not highly-ranked recruits. This is not the case with the 32 Oregon players that have portaled out. Oregon has a solid portal ranking but the ranking IMO does not adequately reflect DL filing positions of need. BTW, yesterday Coach Prime signed the #1 ranked RB out-of-portal as well as another quality transfer. CU's schedule is brutal in 2023 but if the roster gels Prime could take CU to a bowl game. I love that Prime's conference audition will be in Autzen Stadium. Add USC and Oregon State to the home games and Oregon has a very good home schedule in 2023. Both the CU and USC games will be on Primetime TV. And if they hold serve, I expect Game Day will be in Eugene for the SC game.

I agree Not. What might have been perfect would have been to hire now consultant Jim Delaney as an interim commissioner. At least until a new media deal was concluded. And Jim likely would have gotten a heads up on SC and UCLA heading to the B1G and may have been able to cut the move off at the pass. Hiring media-oriented folk as your commissioner, see the B1G and B12, seems to be the trend today but I am not certain that it is a viable strategy. Why the B1G with a huge media deal in place needed a guy with no college football experience I have no idea. Former B12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, a football guy including having served as the AD at Kansas and Stanford, saved the B12 (although USC president Carol Folt probably did more to save the B12) by astutely adding BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF. And the new B12 commissioner appears to have made a solid move starting the B12's new media negotiations ahead of the always seemingly at least one step behind Pac-12/10. But I think the new guy's mouth is writing checks the conference can't cash. One wonders if any Pac-10 commissioner can succeed considering the folks he is reporting to. Many of them have no idea that they are running a big business and not the Ivy League.

Here are the rankings for Pac-12 coaches ranked in the top 69. I have redacted the entire article as it is lengthy. I expect the top 25 coaches will come out next week and will include SC's Riley and Utah's Whittingham. 69. Troy Taylor - Stanford - This is low based on his FCS record at Sac State but in today's CFB world does Stanford have a shot at competing at the highest level? 65. - Ken Dillingham - ASU -Dilly would be high on the list of OCs but this ranking with no HC experience makes sense. 61. Jedd Fisch - Arizona - From 1-16 two seasons before to 5-7. IMO this ranking is too low. 58. Justin Wilcox - CAL - Battling tough academic standards and administrative malaise is hard to overcome. 57. Jake Dickert - WA State - 7-6 in 2022 up from 5-7 in 2022 moved Dickert up from 63 to 57. Will he defeat Wisconsin back-to-back? 55. Deion Sanders - CU - One of the best coaches in FCS. Will he be able to turn Ralphie around? 36. Dan Lanning - OREGON - I expect DL to rise way up in these rankings after the 2023 season.[BTW - Mario Cristobal comes in at 39. Lots of $ for this ranking.] 32. Jonathan Smith - Oregon State - Considering the resources JS has this is probably too low. 31. Kalen DeBoer - Washington - Well, he did defeat both J Smith and DL in 2022. But by the skin of his teeth on both occasions. Good recruiter but nowhere near the recruiting chops evidenced by Dan Lanning.

And was she playing footsie with Fox and the B1G at the time? If so, that would be a breach of fiduciary duty and would also violate a number of California anti-fraud statutes. This is where a strong commissioner, Jim Delaney or Greg Sankey, would have forced the issue and the conference would have expanded. A Power 5 conference bites the dust. A competitor for media income goes away. How did the Pac powers-that-be not see this? Not accretive? These schools, KS, K St, Iowa St, OK St, Baylor, TX Tech, TCU, and Houston could have been picked up on the cheap and both ESPN and Fox would have been at the table bidding for Pac-20 media rights. In other words, other people's money would have paid for the expansion. The acquirer's 'stock' would not be diluted. The folks who opine that this would not have made financial sense are clueless when it comes to the valuation of an M+A deal. Moving into the Central time zone and especially into Texas could have saved the financially insolvent Pac-12 Network. And unequal revenue distributions may have kept SC in the conference. If USC doesn't move UCLA is going nowhere. And rejecting this opportunity came with an arrogant excuse that the teams to be added were not academically worthy. HUBRIS! Hubris has turned around to haunt The Conference of Champions. In the real world, litigation over SC and UCLA's move would have been filed against these 2 schools, Fox, Kevin Warren, and the B1G. But this is the Ivory Tower world of academia so it's not happening. Man, I hope the Pac-10 survives but what goes around comes around. Sorry for a repetitive post on this matter but the decision not to expand should be taught at Harvard and other highly acclaimed Business Schools as an example of an all-time vapid business decision. The vote against expansion was 9-3. I'd love to know how Oregon voted. How the Oregon president now at Northwestern voted.

Good Gosh grant you and your husband a healing blessing Pa Duck. COVID is still out there haunting and hunting all of us. Thank you so much Charles for this post.

'Facts are a stubborn thing.' John Adams Do I wish that the SEC was not CFB's lead sled dog by a mile? Yes. But by every meaningful metric, other than for academics, the SEC leads the league.

AMEN! Rugby on steroids.

Book it Danno! Franklin is ranked by USA Today (Ducks Wire) as the 4th best receiver in the Pac, behind Singer at SC and 2 UW WRs, and Johnson and Bryant are also ranked in the top 25. Lanning keeps on keeping on. Right up there with Scotty.

Great take but I believe that it is Ohio State and not LSU that is WRU. https://duckswire.usatoday.com/lists/who-has-the-most-talented-wide-receiver-room-in-the-pac-12/

Gold: 5 toughest Pac-12 nonconference schedules SATURDAYOUTWEST.COM Sorry Coach Prime, there will be no easy entry into the 2023 season for the Buffs. Colorado is one of many Pac-12 teams with a daunting nonconference slate. Oregon should be here over ASU. Playing at texas Tech is more difficult than playing OK State at home.

Gold: The 5 easiest Pac-12 nonconference schedules of 2023 SATURDAYOUTWEST.COM Forget a gauntlet. Some Pac-12 teams have front-loaded their schedules with cakewalks. Which conference squads are in store for the softest Septembers?

Great take but for the SEC to lose the moniker of the best conference it has to start falling behind in recruiting (I see grabbing quality players from CA as a big plus and not a minus) the number of players matriculating to the NFL, out-of-conference win and loss totals and the SEC is picking up its OOC scheduling and has to stop winning titles. Bowl games are a dicey determination of conference strength. Especially these days when many quality players sit out bowls. Nevertheless, in 2022 Georgia defeated Ohio State and smashed TCU in the champ game. Alabama easily disposed of B12 champ K St in the Sugar Bowl. LSU destroyed B1G West champ Purdue. Tennessee easily defeated ACC champ, Clemson. Ole Miss did drop its bowl game but to a B12 team, Texas Tech, and not a B1G team. South Carolina lost to Notre Dame. I cannot recall a bowl game or a regular season game in 2022 where a B1G team defeated an SEC team. Please correct me if I am wrong (and I am often wrong.) More importantly, the B1G is not close top to bottom with the SEC in recruiting rankings so I do not see how the B1G will close the gap with the SEC. Will USC light up the B1G? Not unless it fixes a porous D. The D talent has improved but Grinch is still the coach and I see no major improvement so long as Grinch is at Troy. The Trojans were punched in the mouth by Utah in the conference champ game and couldn't hang on versus Tulane in the Cotton Bowl. IMO SC comes into the B1G as perhaps, depending on the play of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin under Finkel, Minnesota, and Nebraska under Ruhle, the 4th best or lower team in the B1G. And this season before SC joins the B1G is Williams's last go-round. Riley is a QB whisperer, no doubt, but Williams looks to be a generational talent. If healthy, the heavily favored 2024 #1 draft pick. I love these debates and I love your fervor for the B1G but by any and every measure the B1G is behind the SEC, not financially but on the football field.