2020 College Football Discussion and Pick 'Em Thread

[Terry the Fat Shark]

Who knows what'll happen, for now we play.

Rules of the Pick 'Em portion:

- There will generally be 25 games each week for contestants to pick
- Of the 25 games, 2 of the games will be FCS (2 fcs part isn't set in stone might just be 25 fbs depending)
- Each game equals 1 point, so if you are perfect in a week you will get a total of 25 points
- We will pick the bowl games and the college football playoff as well

I will try to post all of the games on Sunday, make sure to pick each game before the kickoff of said game!

For the benefit of any new players, here’s how it works:

Anytime after dfwlibertylover posts the week’s games, make your picks by replying in this thread one or more times.  Don’t send them by PM to either him or me.  You can either copy the list of games and bold your predicted winners, or just post your list of winners. 

If bolding your winners, games with zero or both teams bolded will not be counted.  If listing your winners, slight errors in team names will be counted if the intent is unambiguous.  For example, in the Georgia Tech vs Florida State game, writing “Florida” would be counted as a pick of Florida State, but “Georgia State” would not be counted.  I (or anyone) may point out such errors so you have a chance to correct them, but this is not guaranteed to happen – ultimately, you’re responsible for getting your picks posted correctly.

Your pick for a game must be posted before the official start time for that game.  This is a hard cutoff.  You can change any of your picks by making a subsequent post, as long as it's before the game start time.  Please don’t edit your original post, as this is easy for me to miss and could also raise timestamp questions. 

You don’t have to post your whole list at once.  For example, in a week with Friday and Saturday games, you could optionally post only the Friday game picks by Friday, and then follow up with the Saturday games on Saturday morning.  Or if you forget and miss the Friday games, you can still post picks for Saturday's games.

Each correct pick is worth one point.  After all of the week’s games are complete (usually on Sunday morning) I’ll post the results for that week and the year-to-date standings.

Feel free to post news regarding possible schedule changes, covid impacts (outside of schedule chances), and any other miscellaneous news. I will keep everyone updated on possible changes to the format based on covid impacts (or if we have to cancel if CFB schedule doesn't happen after all...)

[NewYorkExpress]

Assuming there is a season, I'm game to play.

Let me know when week one is up.

[7,052,770]

Really, really excited about this season! It's a whole new era in Starkville.

[NewYorkExpress]

Really, really excited about this season! It's a whole new era in Starkville.

Given Mississippi State has to go on the road to both Alabama and LSU...I see some problems with winning the SEC West in their future.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Anchor Down

[RINO Tom]

I'd of course do it again.  And GOD, I hope we have a season, even if there are no fans ... just going to a bar to watch games on Saturdays is good enough for me.

[Illiniwek]

I'm not ready to get my hopes up. Clemson just had 23 players test positive for COVID. I can't imagine this isn't going to end with the season being cancelled, or effectively cancelled when enough schools and conferences pull the plug. I am going to be devastated if there is no football this year. But I am beginning to prepare myself for that to be the case.

[GeorgiaModerate]

I'm in too, and I'm willing to keep score again unless someone else really wants to do it.

[NewYorkExpress]

I'm not ready to get my hopes up. Clemson just had 23 players test positive for COVID. I can't imagine this isn't going to end with the season being cancelled, or effectively cancelled when enough schools and conferences pull the plug. I am going to be devastated if there is no football this year. But I am beginning to prepare myself for that to be the case.

I think that is the most likely scenario too, but I suspect it's a scenario we won't see truly take place until the NCAA steps in.

There will be enough conferences/schools willing to play otherwise that the NCAA kind of has to step in and say "this is a bad idea".

[Donerail]

Prepared for no football -- disappointing now that I finally have a personal affiliation with a school above D3

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/29349067/patriot-league-restricts-travel-short-season

The Patriot League announced Monday new guidelines for the return of sports in the fall, including restrictions on air travel.

In its statement, the seven-member FCS league said: Student-athletes will return to campus at the same time as the student body; the conference schedule will begin at the end of September and finish before Thanksgiving; and no Patriot League teams will fly to games, and with rare exceptions, regular-season overnight travel will be prohibited.

Several Patriot League teams have games against FBS competition that would most likely have to be rescheduled or canceled. That includes Colgate at Western Michigan on Sept. 4, Fordham at Hawaii on Sept. 12, and Georgetown at San Diego on Nov. 21.

I'm assuming none of the above three games would have made it into the pick'em anyways (though Fordham at Hawaii or Colgate at Western Michigan could have been interesting), but all of those games are almost certain to be canceled this season.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29383844/ex-iowa-rb-akrum-wadley-says-playing-hawkeyes-was-living-nightmare

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29273365/former-iowa-players-speak-program-culture

Ongoing story involving accusations by multiple African-American athletes against coaches at the University of Iowa, including Head Coach Kirk Ferentz.

Given the nature of the allegations, and the timing, which coincides with the Black Lives Matter movement...is there a possibility that Ferentz is fired?

If Ferentz is fired, who would be the most likely person to replace him as Head Coach at Iowa, especially with the season so close?

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29385354/ivy-league-pondering-conference-only-spring-football-season

The Ivy League is considering two possibilities for an altered football season due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, including forgoing the entire fall in favor of a seven-game, conference-only spring season that would begin in April and conclude in mid-May, according to a sourced report from TMG Sports.

According to the report, the Ivy League is also considering opening the 2020 season in late September with a seven-game schedule against only conference opponents. The Ivy League normally plays a 10-game schedule that tentatively begins this season on Sept. 19.

I think it's becoming steadily obvious that there won't be Football this year.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

I agree with Boomer Esiason. Clemson and the SEC are intentionally infecting players in order to play this fall. My beloved Ivy League will be cancelled. The horror.

[Terry the Fat Shark]

The SEC (and also the ACC, Big Ten, and Big 12, but let so) care too much about money to cancel the season, it'll likely be played in some capacity.

[Dereich]

College sports are unique in how weak the NCAA is in comparison to the conferences. I don't think the NCAA has the authority to step in and order that sports not be played. We could very well see a football season that consists of a few conferences playing in conference games in the fall, a few skipping everything, and a few playing in the spring. It'll be an absolute chaotic nightmare, just as College Football is supposed to be.

I'm in for the pick 'em game, assuming that there are games to pick.

[NewYorkExpress]

College sports are unique in how weak the NCAA is in comparison to the conferences. I don't think the NCAA has the authority to step in and order that sports not be played. We could very well see a football season that consists of a few conferences playing in conference games in the fall, a few skipping everything, and a few playing in the spring. It'll be an absolute chaotic nightmare, just as College Football is supposed to be.

I'm in for the pick 'em game, assuming that there are games to pick.

I can easily see quite a few state governments mandating that games not be played (the only exceptions to that rule would be private institutions, and they'll cancel their games once they have no one to play anyways.)

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/29430262/ivy-league-rules-playing-all-sports-fall-due-coronavirus-pandemic

The Ivy League announced Wednesday that it has ruled out playing all sports this fall, becoming the first Division I conference to say it will not hold sports this upcoming semester because of the coronavirus pandemic.

No decision has been made about winter or spring Ivy sports or whether fall sports could be played in the spring of 2021.

"The campus policies make it impractical for competition to occur, at least through the end of the fall semester," executive director Robin Harris told ESPN. "That's why today we're announcing. Eight campuses have announced their policies for the fall over the past two weeks. When we realized and the presidents realized based on these campus policies that we couldn't have competition, we wanted to make sure the student-athletes were aware of the outcome.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1281303990546948096

I don't think there's going to be any college football this fall.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

tweet

I don't think there's going to be any college football this fall.

I really hope there won't be. No football is infinitely preferable to big schools following the major league baseball model of telling small schools (i.e. small town MiLB teams) to screw off and thinking that they can survive without pay games for P5 and FCS schools. Sure, they can survive alone (if 2020 serves as a fruitful example). But the sport won't be as interesting without a coaching development pipeline and the little guys pulling miracles. I'd probably just tune into the SEC and select other games but with nowhere near the same enthusiasm. We're already stuck enough with the same five teams every year.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

I am getting a kick out of all these athletes not being paid scholarships or getting endorsement money from jerseys or shoes due to Covid 19.

I see very little people walking around with jerseys Lt jackets or nike shoes

[Orwell]

https://twitter.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1281303990546948096

I don't think there's going to be any college football this fall.

Michigan will not lose to washington this year!

[Terry the Fat Shark]

No Ohio State - Oregon

[Terry the Fat Shark]

Pac 12 also moving to conference only for the Fall

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

No Ohio State - Oregon

I'm much sadder about no North Dakota State - Oregon. NDSU has the potential #1 pick at QB, and I've simply been looking forward to the game for years. (I think Ohio State would probably have won easily.)