Jon Joseph

Terrific take. I think and hope that under this staff all 3 QBs have a legit shot at the starting job. However, only 1 guy in the QB room has 3 starts vs Georgia and has played many the game in front of 80,000 plus zealous fans. If Nix is fully recovered from his ankle injury I think it will be difficult for a player with minimal game experience to beat Nix out. Transfer QBs starting for their new team is the way of the portal. 8 or 9 Pac-12 teams will have transfer QBs starting in 2022. Based on the fact that no Pac-12 QB was invited to the NFL Combine for the first time since 2014 this is probably a good thing. Of course you have to recognize the right transfer. After Rising (from Texas) took over for Brewer (from Baylor) last season, Utah converted 56% of its third down attempts. No other team in the nation finished better than 54%. And Rising finished at 6 in ESPN QB rankings. Nix has been inconsistent. But he was the SEC Frosh of the Year under Dillingham, and he has played against more talented Ds than he will see in the Pac-12. Any QB coming out of high school, even a 5* QB, is far from a sure thing at the next level.

Great take. Flowe not being able to go full speed yesterday is worrisome. He had to be severely injured in the Fresno game.

Love the quote by the coach but to me, it comes down to the bottom line. If Oregon can make money out of the NIT, play ball. If not, pass.

From a recent survey of Big 10 fans conducted by The Athletic. 85% + favor playoff expansion; in a similar poll 75%+ of SEC fans favor playoff expansion. 8 teams - 48.9% 12 - 30.5% 4 - 7.4% 6 - 6.6% Should the Big 10 expand? No - 70.9% - Yes - 29.1% Conference games - 9 - 51.6%/ 8 - 37.2%/ 10 - 11.2% By a large margin B1G fans want to eliminate divisions; 2 highest ranked teams play in the champ game.

I don't believe that any D2 team has a network? What works on media = $. Pure (?) and simple. Let's see now NFL-Lite coming soon on FOX does? If this makes it it will be the first to do so. And the players on NFL-Lite will be far better players than one sees in D2. Thank you Sir for raising the topic.

Grumpy. Thanks for the take? How would it bring in more money to the NCAA? The NCAA might get more from a D2 tourney played in the spring but significantly more? We have another one making attempt come this spring but no NFL-Lite conference has made it to date. Maybe an entity would stream these games but i don't think the media would pony up the money to broadcast these games?

In part? Maybe. On the whole? Not without a whole lot of NIL $ being thrown around. And does NIL $ trump NFL $. Most of the guys you noted are from the SE. Most went to a school and to play in a conference that send the most guys, especially the Big Boy guys, to the NFL. A conference with its own very successful network owned and operated by CFB media cartel ESPN. Millions more eyeballs watched UGA play in 2021 than watched Oregon play. Once again in 2021 we watched 2 teams from the southeastern part of the country play for the title. This with Clemson (an SEC school masquerading as an ACC school) missing the playoff for the 1st time in 6 seasons. Georgia's recruiting budget is 3x that of Oregon's recruiting budget. Oregon's recruiting budget is on par with that of Vanderbilt. I think Lanning will bring in many top drawer recruits. But to expect Dan to bring in the same number of 4 and 5* guys UGA brings in is, IMO, unrealistic. Thanks for the post. Not a scintilla of my opinion is directed at you or at the terrific question you ask; the numbers are simply what they are.

A reasonable take, no doubt. What I think many folks miss about the current structure is that it is not just the final 4 participants that make bank. You also have 4 other NY6 bowls involved and with these slots open in addition to the top 4, the SEC routinely sends 3 to 4 teams to the money bowls year after year. A few years back, WAZZU lost 2 games and LSU lost 3 games. What team went to the Fiesta Bowl? The Bayou Bengals. Up to me? I'd prefer a return to the 'good old days' when The Run for the Roses was the be-all, end-all for the Pac-8, 10, 12 and the Big 10. This isn't going to happen. Short of this, I'd prefer a return to the BCS. Isn't going to happen. In the proposed 12 team format the Pac-12, 2020 was aberrational, will, even without an automatic bid, get its champion in the field. But will the champion be seeded 5-8 and play a 1st round home game? And having won a 1st round game how will it do thereafter against a top 4 team that had a bye? This is not like the NFL that has far more roster equality. How much added interest will 1 'west coast' representative add? The extra $ from expanding the field will be nice but IMO it will do next to nothing to balance out recruiting. Look at the roster rankings coming into 2022. 3 of the teams in the top 6 will be in the final 4 and 1 will win the title. Expanding the CFB field is not about parity, it is about $.

How about this? CFB was fine for many the decade when, on occasion, multiple champions were crowned. The BCS and the current BCS x 2 have completely monetized CFB. Coaching salaries are to the moon ridiculous, as is the cost from number of administrative positions that have been created. And I do not believe a player's game ipso facto improves by having a waterfall in the locker room. No matter how you expand the playoff, financially, the B1G and the SEC are in a world of their own. The top teams will be the top teams. Yes, from time to time a Clemson will show up but this is the exception and not the rule. Let's look at NIL pay-for-play. With schools being able to 'bid' for recruits, over 50% of the top recruits in the 2022 cycle still went to 4 schools; A+M, Bama, UGA and Ohio State. And picking from the portal has helped teams like Baylor and Michigan State but the top teams, the teams that consistently send many the player to the NFL, simply fill the small holes in their rosters from the portal. I think that CFB as expressed by ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, is facing an existential crisis. Continue to follow the money and players will form a union, be paid directly, either by their school or a 3rd party associated with their school, be drafted out of high school and CFB will officially be NFL-Lite. Expanding the playoff field will provide access but it will also open more spots for additional SEC/B1G teams to compete. No matter how the playoff expands, the SEC and the B1G will be the biggest beneficiaries. We did get a breath of playoff fresh air in 2021 with Michigan and Cincinnati making the final 4. These two teams were both mugged by SEC opponents. I am an old nostalgic guy who has watched CFB for 7 plus decades. I could advocate for a return to the days when it was all about the Cotton, Orange, Sugar and the Rose Bowl; this will not happen. Money has 'corrupted' the game and there is no going back. I love that Charles brought this topic to the table. But no matter the way, shape or form in which the CFB playoff field is altered, it will not bring 'March Madness' to CFB. You have the 'right' 8 guys in CBB and the 'little guy' can compete. Football roster size and money flowing disproportionately to 2 conferences simply means what has always been the case in any big business; the rich will get richer. Even in the football tournaments managed by the NCAA and with much larger fields than we have in the BCS x 2, the 'usual suspects' for the most part show up and win. There is a way to bring parity to CFB. But the G5/P5 would have to be reduced to 32 to 40 teams with a high school draft being implemented. Until such time, look at the roster rankings coming into the season. You need not go lower than the team ranked No. 8 to pick out the winner of the G5/P5 playoff, no matter the size of the field. I'm sorry but I do not see December/January Madness happening.

$? You would have to figure out how to replace the revenue from a 'lost game?' The 12th game gives many the program a 7th home game. While it may not be the case out west, Alabama and every SEC team not named Vanderbilt, sells the game out no matter how bad the quality of the opponent. Go to 11 and you also are removing one 12th of your media inventory. A playoff expansion will happen come the 2026 season because athletic departments badly need the additional money. More money is one reason the CBB tourney field has grown significantly over the decades. It's a zero sum game trying to make up lost money in additional playoff proceeds while losing the income the 12th game brings in. Calendar wise, you fit the expanded playoff in by everyone starting play in Week Zero and beginning expanded playoff play two weeks after the conference champs games with at least the 1st round played at the home of the higher seeded teams.

Ding, Ding , Ding on both counts. West Point is where he played under the coaching of Bobby Knight. If that isn't a double down on discipline, what is? His teams had many the great player and like Knight's teams, always played in-your-face terrific D. This at a small school; a school with excellent academics. K did OK in the one and done era but never matched the record before the 1 and done. He brought in lots of ballers but he also turned OK guys into terrific BBall players. I think he exits thinking that things were better back when? When you assembled a team of recruits and then coached them up for 3+ years. I don't think Calipari can hold Coach K's nether elastic equipment. I think the Wooden comparison is well warranted. Yes, Wooden had Kareem and Bill Walton but he built teams around the 'lesser studs' he brought to Westwood. Like Coach Wooden, I doubt that we will again see a guy like Coach K.

1 reason Wilson left? He was getting consistently dinged behind a bad Seahawks OL. Does MM at this point in his career have more quicks than does Wilson? I don't think so. I think Pete Carroll is in his nadir in Seattle.

Wilner, though I oft disagree with him does a great job covering the Pac-12.

Some playoff time basketball trivia. 75 year old, I emphasis, Coach K lost his final home game to UNC! Talk about a tough way to go out for a legendary coach. Without asking World Wide Webby for the answer, where did Coach K play his college basketball and who was K's head coach?

And so much promise from the 2020 CBB tourney for Oregon State and the conference seems to have been pelted? THIS is truly 1 game at a time. Never know when a team will get HOT? Go Ducks!

The 'Shooter' did it Hoosiers. But darn right, hard to play ball from a hospital bed. And the S+C guy is the one coach allowed to be on the scene tear round. If you can press a thousands pounds of weight what good does it do if you cannot max out on game day.

Spot ON! And with today's free agency, why be in a hurry?

We have a 4 team field through the 2025 season. First, Oregon needs to make the final 4. To win the 1st title before 2026? That means you have to defeat at least one very good team and one beast. And the delay between the conference champ games and the playoff semifinals only serves to benefit the big boys who have time to get guys healed up. What happens after 2025? The answer to this question has to be resolved in 30 months or so to have a package to sell to the media. As of now there is no consensus on a number of major issues, 8 teams versus 12 for instance, that have to be resolved. And no one including GK is going to put the final stamp of approval on playoff expansion without knowing the dollars involved and the distribution of same come 2026. Today, the P5 gets about 75% of the playoff money. Will the G5 even be in the mix after 2025? Politics says 'Yes' in some manner or another. Will Notre Dame keep its seat at the table? Will the 'new B12' be a P5 conference. Lots of questions that have to be answered but if any conference needs additional PO $ and access, it's the Pac-12. The schedule in 2022 is brutal. Come 2023, with Lanning having a year's experience, at Texas Tech replacing 'at' Georgia, and with 4, not 5 conference road games, the Ducks will have a shot at the final 4.

In today's game, what is no no contact rule other than with the S+C coach, between players and coaches before fall practice? Is contact via the 'internet' allowed during this 'dead period?'

Now that's golfing your ball! Hats off Ladies! BTW, if you can find time to give a lesson, I am a Hacker who is ready, willing, but able? The material you have to work with may not be coachable? But we have a great 19th hole at my club. Keep on swingin' away!

Would be interesting to see if this is the methodology at Georgia?

Great take Joshua, thank you. OK, this is obscure, but I want to see a practice and strength and conditioning philosophy that can help, at least in theory, prevent all of the injuries we saw last season. 'Physicality' was Mario's mantra. I can't help but wonder if Oregon practices and the S+C routines were not too physical under Mario? Physical to the point where guys were unable to play; or, too dinged up on game day to play to their potential? Too dinged up to 'finish' games? Regardless, please football gods, take the injury curse off of Oregon in 2022. Nix vs Thompson will be interesting to watch. Did Thompson get any coaching at all last season in Mario's Prevent Offense scheme. I watched AB play all season long 'with blinders on' and then I watched the 2nd half of the Alamo Bowl where there was 'nothing to lose' and Oregon players were finally allowed to be athletic. Viva la difference. If you play football uptight and afraid to make mistakes you will not play to the best of your ability, and this kind of play also leads to injuries. Thanks again Joshua, please keep the quality articles coming.

I'd like to think this is why I didn't play in the NHL but it was not too much pizza, it was too little talent.

The coach knows. It's all about the Jimmies and the Joes. 3 star guys can be coached up for certain. But to contend today you need a Blue Chip Roster (50% or more 4 + 5* recruits.) Cincinnati last season was a big time outlier with guys who were coached up to be NFL draft picks. But outside of the win at an overrated Notre Dame, the schedule for a final 4 participant was incredibly weak. Came across an interesting factoid. 10 WRs on Ohio State's roster in 2022. All are top 150 recruits.

I was thinking more along the lines of a toga party?