The Rest of College Football

[Mike]

31-13 OSU as they pull away late.

[iam416]

Texas, Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon and Penn State open as betting favorites for next season. Of course, that's still with much portal'ing to come. Texas visits Columbus to open the 2025 season. Julian Sayin better get his ass ready to go.

Texas	+450
Ohio State	+500
Georgia	+600
Oregon	+750
Penn State	+750

[WM Wolverine]

That Penn State number does not account for James Franklin being their head coach

[iam416]

Nor does it account for Drew Allar being their QB.

[iam416]

JFC, Penn State's OoC is horrific. But, Oregon goes to HV and Penn State visits Columbus. Plus a tricky visit to the Genius of Ferentz!!!! And a super tricky visit to Lansing....LMMFAO....

[iam416]

Ohio State's west coast trip is Washington. But the back-to-back at Madison and Champaign is gonna be annoyingly tricky.

[iam416]

And I guess I'll put this here, but I think it's pretty obvious that the new CFP format is going to considerably soften rivalries. There will always be the residual fanbase that lived through the Rose Bowl era, then the BCS era, then the 4-team CFP era -- where one loss was very likely the season. And they'll always have a special hate (and that's all of us). Now, it's just not like that. My son will watch football largely with a giant CFP safety net.

That's what made 2016, 2018, 2021, 2023 (amongst others) so hard -- the entire season was on the line. But with 12 teams, 2016 is a painful loss and M goes to the CFP as probably the 5-seed. Ohio State goes to the CFP last year as a 6-seed (Georgia woulda been 5 -- and that woulda been bad news for a lot of teams).

For me, it still matters immensely. But, again, I think it's going to soften going forward. And, since I started watching OSU-M in 1979, I've seen Ohio State win 23 times (lose 19, tie 1 and not get to play 1). But, I've only seen 3 national titles. And lots of extremely painful losses in that regard along the way.

Anyway, I think that's the reality of CFB going forward for better or worse.

Finally, congrats to CRD. A national title in his 6th year. HARBAUGH!!!!! had zero wins against Ohio State, zero B10 titles and zero playoff appearances in his first 6 seasons. Hopefully CRD can finally turn the corner and get his program really humming in year 7.

[Mike]

Not bad for the Big Ten's fourth place team, that's for sure!

[iam416]

I know! It sort of love that Ohio State finished behind Indiana (and Penn State). It highlights the absurdity of an 18-team conference and a 9-game conference schedule.

[lineygoblue]

The Big Ten is going to have to split into divisions. I don't see any way around it.

[WM Wolverine]

... only when they add team 19+

[froot loops]

I just think the expanded CFP is a better way to determine a champ. It's less of a beauty pageant than it was before. The politicking is still going to be there, but I'd rather the team ranked 11th complaining than the 5th ranked team complaining. For the most part these games were fun, even the lopsided ones in the first round. We got to see the OSU band play at the horseshoe for at least 15 minutes before the Buckeyes made mincemeat out of the Volunteers.

[Mike]

Once the Big Ten adds two teams (for example, let's say ND and FSU), I propose these divisions:

Division A:

Michigan
Ohio State
Iowa
Indiana
Purdue
Michigan St.
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Northwestern
Illinois

Division B:

Penn St.
Oregon
Nebraska
ND
FSU
Washington
UCLA
USC
Maryland
Rutgers

[Dr. Strangelove]

Ok I see what you did there but I legit would rather play Penn State as often as possible than most of Group A

[iam416]

Yeah, I'm less convinced it even matters. The name of the game is going to be the CFP. It'll expand to 16 which will create 4 spots for B10 teams (not necessarily autobids, but effectively). I don't think they're going to care how they sort out the CCG -- it's sort of like the B10 basketball tournament. It's a nice event that's a prelude to the real event. I think that's the way it's going.

They'll get the seeding sorted out. It'll go to 16. It'll be good.

The other alternative -- which is less palatable, IMO -- is for the B10 and SEC to essentially form conferences and play a "Super Bowl" or something. In that case you could see something like 5 divisions of 4 + 3 wildcards or something for each conference.