College Football

From the article:

The 10-year agreement will see FIU Stadium rebranded as Pitbull Stadium, making it the world's first-ever athletics venue with an artist possessing the naming rights.

Didn't see it in the press release but my understanding is that Pitbull basically will get to use the stadium as his own concern venue as much as he likes.

This is separate from the Stalions sign-stealing scheme and instead centers on inappropriate recruit contact during the pandemic.

Michigan really putting the future of Missouri's program at-risk with these violations...

1. Georgia (46)
2. Ohio State (7)
3. Oregon
4. Texas (1)
5. Alabama
6. Ole Miss
7. Notre Dame
8. Michigan
9. Penn State
10. Florida State
11. Missouri
12. LSU
13. Utah
14. Clemson
15. Tennessee
16. Oklahoma
17. Kansas State
18. Oklahoma State
19. Miami (FL)
20. Texas A&M
21. Arizona
22. NC State
23. USC
24. Kansas
25. Iowa

Others receiving votes: Washington (123); Louisville (95); Virginia Tech (64); SMU (47); Memphis (44); Boise State (30); Auburn (25); West Virginia (22); Wisconsin (17); Liberty (15); Iowa State (15); Kentucky (12); Florida (11); South Carolina (10); North Carolina (6); UNLV (5); Maryland (5); UCF (4); Texas Tech (4); UTSA (3); Tulane (2); Texas State (2); Nebraska (2); Colorado (2); Appalachian State (2); Troy (1); Syracuse (1); Miami (OH) (1); James Madison (1); Air Force (1)

Never really was a debate, we were a school before they were a state and they wouldn't even be a state without us...

Aggie, OU, and UTA shade, Florida ranked above UTK and Georgia...

I like this. No, I need this. 🤣

SEC shorts is back, that means it's almost time!!!

I didn't even realize there was a limit, because no way in hell have there been only 11 coaches on a sideline for years now

Discuss

This "good or bad" question will absolutely depend on the specifics of the deal, but the story certainly highlights what a weird place we're in these days.

Somewhat delayed reaction to this, because I don't obsessively listen to Pate. I think he says a lot to say a little, but that's podcasts for you. I do at the very least appreciate his traditionalist approach to the sport. And this is one of those instances where I really do agree with what he's saying.

tl;dr 7 conferences (plus indies) of no more than 10 teams

• SEC
• Big 10
• Big East
• SWC
• Big 8
• Pac 10
• ACC

SEC:

• alabama
• Auburn
• florida
• Georgia
• kentucky
• LSU
• Mississippi State
• Ole Miss
• South Carolina
• Tennessee

Big 10:

• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Michigan
• Michigan State
• Minnesota
• Ohio State
• Penn State
• Purdue
• Wisconsin

Big East:

• Boston College
• Cincinnati
• Louisville
• Maryland
• Pittsburgh
• Rutgers
• Syracuse
• UCF
• USF
• West Virginia

SWC:

• Arkansas
• Baylor
• Houston
• Oklahoma
• Rice
• SMU
• Texas
• Texas A&M
• Texas Tech
• TCU

Big 8:

• Colorado
• Iowa State
• Kansas
• Kansas State
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• Oklahoma State
• Utah

Pac 10:

• Arizona
• Arizona State
• California
• Oregon
• Oregon State
• Stanford
• UCLA
• USC
• Washington
• Washington State

ACC:

• Clemson
• Duke
• Florida State
• Georgia Tech
• Miami
• NC State
• UNC
• Virginia
• Virginia Tech
• Wake Forest

Independent:

• BYU
• Northwestern
• Notre Dame
• UConn
• vanderbilt

Like I said I honestly like this. I would maybe keep vandy in the SEC as they were a founding member and push SCar to ACC or something. And if we're changing some names then I refuse to allow the big 10 and 8 to exist. Somebody has to change that name. But like Josh says, with this system I would almost be okay with an 8-12 team playoff. Thoughts?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16228461

Texas A&M bonfire will not return to campus

After a monthslong review, Texas A&M University decided not to bring back the student bonfire tradition it discontinued 25 years ago after a deadly accident, President Mark Welsh III said Tuesday.

For decades, students built a 60-foot bonfire every year ahead of football matches between A&M and the University of Texas at Austin. The tradition was suspended after tragedy struck in 1999, when a stack of logs collapsed in the middle of the night, killing 12 people and injuring dozens, some severely.

Welsh said reviving the tradition would not be in the best interest of the university.

“After careful consideration, I decided that Bonfire, both a wonderful and tragic part of Aggie history, should remain in our treasured past,” Welsh said.

I mean I'm pretty sure Thomas Jefferson said students should stay in college until they feel like they've learned all they need to...

Video demoing the new game

Get in here sickos

Cover features Quinn Ewers, Travis Hunter, and Donovan Edwards (similar to last week's reveal of the deluxe edition cover).

Anyone going to pick up the game? I hate EA as much as the next guy and I haven't really played anything in about a decade, but I love college football enough that I'm tempted.

We’re inching closer to the start of the 2024-2025 college football season.

At this point we’ve had signing day and a bunch of transfers. Who’s your offseason champ?

I’ll make my very biased case for the Miami Hurricanes.

Solid recruit class, and great transfer portal pick ups in Cam Ward, Sam Brown, and Damien Martinez, among others. We’ve also lost a few good ones in the portal, though.

All that said, I’ve dubbed the Canes “Offseason Champs” several times before, and it has not quite translated to anything on the field.

Please just figure out a way to pay kids for 3-5 year contracts. The portal, way more than NIL, is sucking all the joy out of this sport, but I can acknowledge that my interests as a fan only coincidentally and partially align with those of the players trading their services and health for my entertainment.

The University of Houston has informed the NFL that it will proceed with plans to add an alternate blue uniform. The about-face comes six months after the NFL’s merchandising and licensing division sent a cease-and-desist letter to UH, threatening legal action if the school did not halt what was described as UH’s “blatant copying” of the Houston Oilers-themed uniforms.

Good. Fuck Bud Adams. If spectator sports have any value beyond mere economic activity, it's down to communities and their fans.

You absolutely hate to see it. There's no proof and it's likely unhelpful to speculate, but based on the article I suspect suicide. Y'all look out for each other out there.

Reggie Bush has his 2005 Heisman Trophy back, as the Heisman Trust announced Wednesday the formal "reinstatement" of the trophy to Bush amid what it calls "enormous changes in the college football landscape."

The Heisman Trust's decision comes after Bush forfeited his Heisman Trophy in 2010 in the wake of significant NCAA sanctions for USC, which included Bush receiving improper benefits during a Trojans career that spanned from 2003 to 2005.

Because this was so last second, you've been awarded a single action item that will be accomplished immediately without litigation or bureaucratic red tape. What do you do to "save" the sport?

TL;DR: Football only, 7 permanent conferences of 10, one more with pro/rel, 16-team playoff with objective criteria, centralized media negotiation, NOT fully equal revenue among schools, private equity definitely involved, ESPN/FOX very much not on board for now, SEC/B1G also wary.

Basically, it looks like the "power" schools outside the Super-2 trying to shift the narrative, and providing a fallback plan for if the existing financial structure gets nuked from judicial orbit.

Before you get too excited, maybe check the calendar (and this is the Daily Mail)... but the rendering has me too hyped so I'm going to pretend this is happening

Was lurking a bit at the old place, and there was a thread asking who had never bet on CFB*, but the discussion went more into how legalized sports betting has affected fans' engagement with college football. I am in a weird place, as I can't come up with a lot of good reasons to specifically ban it when so many other forms of gambling are legal. It can also of course be done to a healthy degree, and even if someone is enthusiastic and engages with the sport in a gambling-centered way, who am I to say that's "wrong"?

That said, I do fucking hate it at a personal level when people care more about the lines and the spreads or how their fantasy roster is doing in contrast to the rivalries and the stories and the analysis as a competition. I feel like these people, and particularly the media catering to them, are nudging team sports closer to the liminal space currently occupied by boxing and horse racing, where there is a hardcore base dedicated to the sports themselves, but the broad appeal is for gamblers and the occasional looky-loo spectacle. I can't argue for any particular measure to stop it, but I sure don't have to like it.

So, for those of us still hanging around in the very stupid offseason we now have with no real transfer restrictions and plenty of NIL to push players to leverage that fact, how has the explosion of sports betting affected your relationship with CFB?

(* - One $10 bet, well before 2022, on TCU to win the natty while in Vegas for other reasons, and one very boring season of buy-in fantasy football, though now that I type it, I guess that was betting on the NFL)