2020 College Football Discussion and Pick 'Em Thread

[100% pro-life no matter what]

App State for tonight

Saturday, December 5th

#5 Texas A&M @ #22 Auburn Noon EST ESPN

West Virginia @ #13 Iowa State TBD

#17 Texas @ Kansas State TBD

#23 Oklahoma State @ TCU TBD

Ball State @ Central Michigan TBD

Fresno State @ Nevada TBD

Penn State @ Rutgers TBD

Boston College @ Virginia TBD

Miami (FL) @ Duke TBD

South Carolina @ Kentucky TBD

Arkansas @ Missouri TBD

#4 Ohio State @ Michigan State Noon EST ABC

Memphis @ Tulane Noon EST ESPN+

Nebraska @ Purdue Noon EST BTN

Bowling Green @ Akron 2 PM EST ESPN3

Eastern Michigan @ Western Michigan 2 PM EST ESPN+

#12 Indiana @ #16 Wisconsin 3:30 PM EST ABC

Buffalo @ Ohio 3:30 PM EST CBSSN

Florida Atlantic @ Georgia Southern 6 PM EST ESPN3

Sunday, December 6th

Washington State @ #18 USC 9:00 PM EST FS1

[DINGO Joe]

I started at TCU in the Fall of 1986 and worked as a student worker in the athletic department for 2 years.  I had an "in" as my dad was a college athletic administrator.  My dad had rotated to a slightly different type job in college athletics in part because he saw the rising trouble of "compliance" that came with the money sloshing around in athletics in those days (not that it didn't before or after but it was really bad at this point) and he sought out a safe harbor--of course, that job, as many do,  had miseries of it's own that he probably didn't foresee.

So, anyway, I was there right after TCU got put on probation and when SMU got the death penalty (ah Schadenfreude) and the AD and SID who were both of the same generation as my dad were both probably a little more open with me of the minefields involved in college athletics in the day.  I don't think they were truly blindsided by the breakdown of the SWC though they never said to me that they expected it to go down that way.  The privates (except maybe SMU) knew what they were up against. 

While I prefer to maintain my anonymity as much as possible (and thus that of my father), a little story.  I would go to the NCAA DIV I football summer conventions in Dallas with my father in this era (in fact visited SMU and TCU when college hunting one year) and we were sitting at a table in the hotel bar and there was a discussion about how furious the Univ of Illinois was at the Big 10 and specifically the commissioner, Mr Wayne Duke, for what they basically felt was throwing them under the bus in an NCAA sanctions case.  Anyway, there were vague threats of Illinois jumping from the Big 10 to the Big 8 and the 17-18 year old me voiced the most prominent question in my head "Well, which conference would get to be called the Big 9?"  The table found this to be hilarious and in fact one of them called over to Mr. Duke's table "Hey Wayne, Dingojoe wants to know ...."  and Mr.  Duke who was a long time friend of my father (in fact hired him for his first major job in college athletics) just did a little straight man tug of the tie and squooshed his mouth in neither a smile or frown and didn't answer as everybody laughed.  I felt embarrassed, of course, but within a decade everything would be blown up (though the Big 10 is still the Big 10 no matter how many teams it has).

[Terry the Fat Shark]

lol

[Santander]

Wow and wtf @ Rice beating Marshall 20-0? I thought the spread on that game was a bit ridiculous, but I didn't see Rice winning, let alone getting a shutout.

[Terry the Fat Shark]

TCU is going to have a winning season most likely as they beat Oklahoma State today and play Louisiana Tech next week

[GeorgiaModerate]

Missouri with a FG at the end to beat Arkansas 50-48 in a wild one.  Arkansas led 33-23 at the end of three quarters; there were 42 points total scored in the fourth.  

[NewYorkExpress]

Can anyone in the Big Twelve actually play football?

[Santander]

Hoo, hoo, hoo, Hoosiers!

Not a massive win in terms of profit for me, but it was clear to see that was the moneyline value of the week. Now watch them lose to Purdue next week. LOL.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

I've long known Jamey Chadwell as one of the best coaches in the game (what he did at Charleston Southern, a school with significantly fewer resources and recruiting draws than nearly any D1 school, was nothing short of a miracle). But I truly thought the talent disparity between Coastal and BYU would be too much to overcome. Short turnaround and travel considerations aside, Coastal deserves to skyrocket if they finish this off - #12 at least and a New Year's At-Large.

I sure hope he sticks around because I adore the teal and black! One of my favorite FCS schools turned into an actually likable national sensation (unlike, say, Boise State). They have the resources to do it.

The Sun Belt was once the laughing stock of the FBS and now has four pretty ferocious programs. Plus Georgia State with its plenty of resources and Arkansas State usually doing ok. Can you believe James Madison turned them down!

[7,052,770]

If BYU loses, they should fall out of the top 25. There's nothing about their resume that makes me think they would even be .500 in the SEC.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Terrific finish to BYU-Coastal!  A BYU receiver was stopped just short of the goal line on the final play, and Coastal won 22-17.

[Dereich]

COASTAL STOPS BYU ON THE 1 TO WIN IT. Great game!

If BYU loses, they should fall out of the top 25. There's nothing about their resume that makes me think they would even be .500 in the SEC.

That’s absolute garbage. I’d take this BYU team over 2/3rds of the SEC this year.

[7,052,770]

If BYU loses, they should fall out of the top 25. There's nothing about their resume that makes me think they would even be .500 in the SEC.

That’s absolute garbage. I’d take this BYU team over 2/3rds of the SEC this year.

Then you would lose a lot of money. BYU is a program that averages <1 NFL draftees a year, which is well below what any SEC team does. If they had played their original schedule with 6 P5 opponents, they would have 4 or more losses right now.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

What a game! What a life! To live in this moment of human history! Of underdog excellence - How lucky are we! The chanticleer will not be waking us up tomorrow, even the rooster will need to sleep in after the night we are about to have. Cock-a-doodle-doo! Wake up, December the Fifth, Two Thousand and Twenty is just getting started.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

If BYU loses, they should fall out of the top 25. There's nothing about their resume that makes me think they would even be .500 in the SEC.

Honestly, the problem with a year like this is that rankings are close to impossible without much crossover between the conferences.  I suspect that a SEC team that goes 5-5 is actually a Top 25 team, but I have no way to prove that, as the SEC is existing in an insular universe this year.

The same issue happened in the MLB this year.  They made East, Central, and West pods that had no overlap.  The top 2 from each division go in automatically (fair), and then there were 2 wild cards in each league.  The Central pod happened to have the most parity of all the pods (plus a few absolutely terrible teams), so the Central divisions claimed 3 of the 4 wild cards.  So, the Central got 7 teams in, the East got 4, and the West got 5.  The Central teams went on to go 0-7 in the first round of the playoffs.  If I were a team in the East or West who just missed the playoffs, I would be pointing out that fact (the counterpoint is that they expanded the playoffs, so those same teams would have missed in a normal year).

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

If BYU loses, they should fall out of the top 25. There's nothing about their resume that makes me think they would even be .500 in the SEC.

Honestly, the problem with a year like this is that rankings are close to impossible without much crossover between the conferences.  I suspect that a SEC team that goes 5-5 is actually a Top 25 team, but I have no way to prove that, as the SEC is existing in an insular universe this year.

The same issue happened in the MLB this year.  They made East, Central, and West pods that had no overlap.  The top 2 from each division go in automatically (fair), and then there were 2 wild cards in each league.  The Central pod happened to have the most parity of all the pods (plus a few absolutely terrible teams), so the Central divisions claimed 3 of the 4 wild cards.  So, the Central got 7 teams in, the East got 4, and the West got 5.  The Central teams went on to go 0-7 in the first round of the playoffs.  If I were a team in the East or West who just missed the playoffs, I would be pointing out that fact (the counterpoint is that they expanded the playoffs, so those same teams would have missed in a normal year).

A) I've always said that the non-conference games could never go away for this very reason. Big fanbases aren't going to put up with losing seasons where they can't even be hopeful of getting to .500 (which usually means only needing 2-6 or 3-5 in conference).

B) This is an excuse. The SEC in 2020 is pretty weak. You have blind homer goggles on. I love taking pride in the SEC being the best conference, and it still is (though I think the Big Ten is way deeper, there is just more parity), but it is way down from its peak. Georgia's resume is not particularly impressive in any way either. A&M and UGA are both getting overrated this year just by being members of the conference.

Missouri is not top 25 for good reason. Because Kentucky, Vandy and South Carolina are three free wins.

[Santander]

Disappointed at not betting on Stanford or Cal, as I saw potential. (I had a tiny piece of Cal, but Kentucky is playing too well for it to pay) Still think there's a bit of value left tonight. Have Fresno State +5.5, ASU moneyline, Oregon State moneyline and +14.5, and a bet that I really hate but made anyway, Wyoming ATS for the parlays.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

There is no serious Heisman contender that we can look back upon for this season. Trask is the only choice among the media annointed candidates. I'd probably offer a vote to Devonta Smith if it weren't such a close race amongst mediocrity.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

There is no serious Heisman contender that we can look back upon for this season. Trask is the only choice among the media annointed candidates. I'd probably offer a vote to Devonta Smith if it weren't such a close race amongst mediocrity.

Justin Fields is the best player in college football. He's getting screwed by tOSUs scheduling woes.

[GeorgiaModerate]

There is no serious Heisman contender that we can look back upon for this season. Trask is the only choice among the media annointed candidates. I'd probably offer a vote to Devonta Smith if it weren't such a close race amongst mediocrity.

Justin Fields is the best player in college football. He's getting screwed by tOSUs scheduling woes.

Sometimes I think about where Georgia would be if he'd stayed with them.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Disappointed at not betting on Stanford or Cal, as I saw potential. (I had a tiny piece of Cal, but Kentucky is playing too well for it to pay) Still think there's a bit of value left tonight. Have Fresno State +5.5, ASU moneyline, Oregon State moneyline and +14.5, and a bet that I really hate but made anyway, Wyoming ATS for the parlays.

Well, at least Oregon State only lost by 6.

[NewYorkExpress]

There is no serious Heisman contender that we can look back upon for this season. Trask is the only choice among the media annointed candidates. I'd probably offer a vote to Devonta Smith if it weren't such a close race amongst mediocrity.

My Heisman vote would probably either go to Mac Jones (Alabama) or Trevor Lawrence (Clemson).

But you're right in that this season, there just hasn't been a Heisman moment, or really strong candidacy.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

There is no serious Heisman contender that we can look back upon for this season. Trask is the only choice among the media annointed candidates. I'd probably offer a vote to Devonta Smith if it weren't such a close race amongst mediocrity.

Justin Fields is the best player in college football. He's getting screwed by tOSUs scheduling woes.

1000 percent agree. He's an iconic talent. There's only been a few mistakes this year, certainly significantly less than Lawrence. He might be the first offensive player on OSU that I've ever liked.

[Donerail]

Zaven Collins has been transformational — Montgomery was on track to get fired this season, and they certainly weren't supposed to break the top 25. 96-yard game-winning pick-six in double overtime is about as Heisman a moment as you can ask for. He'd be my vote. Unfortunately for him, he plays the wrong position for the wrong school in the wrong conference and most of his games have been on ESPN+.

[NewYorkExpress]

Apparently South Carolina is hiring Oklahoma Assistant Head Coach/Tight Ends Coach Shane Beamer to fill their Head Coaching vacancy.