The Rest of College Football

[iam416]

That 1981 Clemson team beat NU in the Orange Bowl, costing us a potential national championship.

Meh. When Marino beat Georgia on 4th down, any hope of MNC for a 2-loss UNL team was out the window. And, had Georgia won, they would have likely been next up.

[Wild Hoss]

Also, to the point raised earlier (and fairly often) -- oversigning. Alabama signed 30 more players than Ohio State over the past 5 years. 30. With that sort of "leeway", Ohio State could have pushed for (and gotten) the likes of Jerel Worthy, Johnny Adams, Whitney Mercilius and more. And if they didn't work out, eh, see you later.

It's such a massive advantage to have that many additional cracks at finding kids who can play. And it's the one advantage the NCAA can actually do something about. The NCAA isn't going to stop huge cash transactions, but they can actually enforce the 85 on signing day. If players leave the program afterward, so be it -- it helps you for next year's class.

That is the main issue...its a screening process. Everybody on Alabama's 2-deep (And hell, probably three-deep) roster is a proven player. They have no weak spots on their depth chart because anybody who hasn't proven their worth by their third year gets the boot, and is replaced by some 5-star recruit and his briefcase full of cash. Rinse and repeat.

That and the fact they have little trouble getting said 5-star player qualified because anybody who can spell "Cat" gets in.

[Wild Hoss]

Meh. When Marino beat Georgia on 4th down, any hope of MNC for a 2-loss UNL team was out the window. And, had Georgia won, they would have likely been next up.

I said "potential". The point is, on a level playing field, we win and its at least at issue.

Or Clemson wouldn't have been there at all.

[Wild Hoss]

As a follow-up, over the past two seasons, Alabama has had 21 players leave the program after NSD and before the magical 85 date. 21! It's part of their annual "March to 85!" Over the last 2 years, Penn State had 2 players leave after NSD.

That's an entire recruiting class.

[iam416]

Yep. Culling the herd. Welcome to the SEC West....

[Wild Hoss]

Like I said before, its just going to continue until, IMO, the Big Ten takes the lead in doing something. I don't know how much more people need to see...maybe an Alabama-Ohio State national title game that winds up 72-10, or having SEC teams finish 1-10 in the final AP poll. IDK.

[hack]

Sean what I was trying to say is that the SEC needs the rest of the country to play along, and that it is unlikely to keep doing so. At that point, ratings fall no matter the degree to which rules and morality are irrelevant in the SEC region.

[iam416]

maybe an Alabama-Ohio State national title game that winds up 72-10

No. Please no. Just stop.

I think most of the country was pretty turned off by the whole UAT-LSU matchup. I think we're into backlash territory and it will only grow, in part b/c ESPN is now into full-on shameful shill mode for the SEC.

[Wild Hoss]

No. Please no. Just stop.

Heh. Sorry, but tOSU was just the best example to come mind.

Agree that we've finally started to see some backlash, but its just a start. Anybody know what share that farce received last night?

[iam416]

Worst rated BCS title game of all-time.

[Wild Hoss]

I see that it knocked 2002 Miami-Nebraska off the lowest-rated perch. That's the best thing to come out of this!

[Hannibal]

I think that we will see a progressively larger push against oversigning. There has been a push towards parity in all sports and getting everyone to at least compete by the same rules seems like a no-brainer. The NCAA will never do anything about the other stuff, so as I said before, we should just adopt their methods.

[Hannibal]

Funny that '02 game was the only other one that I didn't watch.

Do these ratings take into account whether people watch the entire game or just whether they turn on the TV at some point even if it's only for a few minutes?

[Wild Hoss]

There has to be some set criteria, else every show on TV would get rated as people channel-surfed right? They probably do a couple "snapshots" early in the broadcast would be my guess.

[Jamie H]

Wasn't '02 the year Nebraska lost by 247 points to Colorado in their last game, yet went to the BcS title game anyway? Or was that the year that FSU was playing their 3rd string QB in the title game?