College Football 2023 - RIP Pac-12

[tomalak301]

The College Football season starts this week which means the final season of the Pac-12 as we know it. It feels like a really sad end of an era, and as someone who was a casual CF fan who lives in Pac-12 country, it is kind of depressing that this year will be the last. Also, on a personal note and as a long time member of the board, I keep reading stories about the Pac-12 basically disbanding and remember the good times when Mallory (RIP) was still with us and we talked about Oregon, USC, and Stanford a lot. Those were good times and good memories.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Yeah, I really don't know how they're going to continue with the Apple Cup after this.
That was a Thanksgiving/holiday tradition to go to my grandparents house and watch the Huskies and Cougars square off.

 

[BillJ]

Like everything else in the modern world, screw everything there's a dollar to be made!

 

[1001001]

The travel is going to be hell, but I’d rather play Michigan and Ohio State than Arizona and Cal.

 

[tomalak301]

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/38304694/sources-acc-votes-invite-stanford-cal-smu

Cal, Stanford, and SMU have been invited to join the ACC. Have fun with that travel schedule and having to play North Carolina and Duke in Basketball every year. That's going to be weird and I don't know when it will not be weird.

 

[Thestral]

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/38304694/sources-acc-votes-invite-stanford-cal-smu

Cal, Stanford, and SMU have been invited to join the ACC. Have fun with that travel schedule and having to play North Carolina and Duke in Basketball every year. That's going to be weird and I don't know when it will not be weird.

10 years from now:

"The B1G SEC, which replaced the NCAA 5 years ago, has announced today that in order to cut down on debilitating travel expenses for their universities and strain on their athletes, and to create more opportunities for fan presence, the various universities will be divided into 'pods' that correspond to regions of the country. For example, a 'pod' consisting of Washington, Oregon, Stanford, Cal, Southern Cal, UCLA, Arizona, and Utah, tentatively called the '8-PAC' after the Pacific Ocean. The National Commissioner of the B1G SEC stated "With this bold new vision of our sport, we continue to innovate for the future and are excited for what this means.""

 

[tomalak301]

Colorado just beat TCU. This just increases my hatred for the Pac-12 "administration". We could have had a good quality conference for years to go and they squandered it. Pac-12's loss is Big-12's gain.

 

[1001001]

@jenji120 your Vols started slow today, but came through with a nice overall performance.

Now watching Boise State and U-Dub.

Couldn’t watch the Colorado game due to a contract dispute between DirecTV and the carrier.

 

[jenji120]

@jenji120 your Vols started slow today, but came through with a nice overall performance.

Now watching Boise State and U-Dub.

Couldn’t watch the Colorado game due to a contract dispute between DirecTV and the carrier.

I don't have ESPN right now because of Spectrum fighting with ESPN/Disney. ESPN got the SEC contract this year - I'm livid. Fortunately, our game was on ESPN3/ABC so I could still watch our own game but I missed everyone but NC vs SC. I did get to watch Utah beat the hell out of Florida though and found a stream for my parents. THAT was so glorious! But I missed a LOT of games the past few days.

And yeah, I'm not really surprised we started slow. We're missing our center and OL got reshuffled since he's been out plus breaking in new WRs and new starting QB. I was happy as hell to see our defense playing better than last year and to see our run game going better than ever. Small and Wright were both hurt/dinged up a lot of last year and I had forgotten how good they both were at full speed. I was hoping we'd get our WRs more catches but the upcoming game against Austin Peay will be good for that. I hate doing that to Peay (they're an in-state little guy) but they're getting a good payday for it.

Right now, I'm pretty pleased. Barring injuries offense should stay elite to very good regardless of whether or not Milton struggles (everyone thinks we rely on passing because Heupel does love to call bombs but we're actually a run heavy offense and were last year as well). and defense looks better than last year (not a high bar mind you). Florida and South Carolina are our first 2 SEC games and Florida looked awful against Utah while SC's oline may well be one of the worst in all of cfb. Our schedule is looking a lot less daunting than it did a few days ago.

Oh and Nico! Holy hell, I knew he was gonna be good but even though I'd seen highlights and camp stuff, I didn't expect the lightning fast release and insane athleticism he showed. He's not ready yet and I wish our fans hadn't chanted his name when he came in to relieve Milton but the level of talent he showed was insane.

And judging by the score your Trojans are gonna be hard to handle this year!

 

[1001001]

And judging by the score your Trojans are gonna be hard to handle this year!

To be fair, it was Nevada.

We'll see if our defense has really improved next week when we host Stanford. My wife and I are heading down for the game.

The offense is just fine.

 

[Aragorn]

Duke 28, Clemson 7.

 

[tomalak301]

Duke 28, Clemson 7.

There were a few upsets this last weekend. Colorado, Wyoming, Duke. Nice start to the College Football season.

 

[jenji120]

Duke 28, Clemson 7.

I think we broke Clemson in the bowl game. I can understand them losing (Duke's Coach Cutcliffe is a great coach and one of our most beloved former coaches) but Clemson's offense looked like actual poo. And Klubnik might've actually regressed since we played him. I don't know who all they lost over the past several months but it was shocking to see how bad they looked in comparison. They were overrated but a goodish team last year but I'm not sure they're much of anything this year.

 

[Spider]

U of H won its first game, sporting some spiffy Oiler lookalike uniforms. It was really cool.

 

[1001001]

My wife and I are headed to Los Angeles this morning, going to the USC/Stanford game tomorrow.

 

[Starbreaker]

Jax State plays Coastal Carolina today. Country Chickens vs Beach Chickens. This will be a good year or where we are as a program.

 

[BillJ]

Matt Rhule has to already be in trouble at Nebraska. The players don’t look remotely interested on the field.

 

[jenji120]

Well we played like poo today and still won. Hat's off to Peay for showing up and giving us hell. Our passing game still hasn't gelled and that is all kinds of nerve wracking heading into Florida. If we play a more talented team with that same lack of motivation we'll lose, especially against a team like Florida that on paper is more talented than we are. The only comfort is that teams playing off games against lesser opponents was pretty common this week and maybe the poor performance we had this week will motivate them going into next week.

And this Texas vs. Alabama game is a good watch. Two good teams trading TDs but I think BAMA is probably closer to 6 through 10 than top 3. But they're BAMA so last season and the questions going in to this one don't matter. Until they lost twice they're better than everyone else. And even if you beat them head to head and finish with a better season the AP will still rank them higher than you.

 

[tomalak301]

Alabama losing makes it a great Saturday.

 

[AliciaD496]

Yeah, I really don't know how they're going to continue with the Apple Cup after this.
That was a Thanksgiving/holiday tradition to go to my grandparents house and watch the Huskies and Cougars square off.

Same…I hope they figure out a way for the Apple Cup to continue. I’m a WSU alumna and a current UW employee and grad student, with a dad and uncle who are WSU alumni I always enjoyed that Saturday after Thanksgiving tradition.