The Rest of College Football

[hack]

Tis the season ..... Feldman can afford to go out on a limb with this claim. Its bound to be 51% accurate.

I hate these guys and I hate twitter about as much.

I got to following some of it during the week before Harbaugh was announced.

Huge waste of time with what I suspect were some well placed diversionary tweets.

The interesting thing about that week on twitter was that the guy who went down in flames (@thosewhostay7) had accurate information. He was attacked for lying about how he got it. The guys who were obviously wrong were easily ignored.

I personally found twitter extremely useful, and Brian's searchbits posts a very good companion to it. That was an ideal combination of information and context. Overall, ignore twitter at your own risk. You take the bad with the good in life, and at this moment there's no better way to stay informed than to follow a few of the right people your areas of focus.

[WM Wolverine]

Twitter is only as worthwhile, entertaining and/or reliable as those you follow.

[iam416]

Scheduled returning starters (by number) for all Power 5 teams: http://www.philsteele.com/Blogs/2015/JAN15/DBJan02.html

Couple things...Notre Dame has 19 starters scheduled to return. If Zaire can give them solid QB play, they might actually be good next season.

Michigan and Purdue have the most starters returning in the B10 (16). One of them will be good and one of them will continue to improve under Coach Hazell.

Baylor and Ole Miss both return 17 starters, but both lose their QB. For one team, that will work well and for the other not so much.

TCU brings back 9 on offense including Boykin. Woof.

Mississippi State has 7 starters scheduled to return. Mullin really needed to cash out this season. Next season they could easily finish last in the SEC West -- and, in fact, may be predicted to do so.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Word that Jim Mora was on the list of candidates for various NFL HC positions, more specifically the NYJ, was all over the internet late yesterday.

The most balanced article I saw on this rumor was from NBC sports (linked below). While he might have been on a list of candidates for the NYJ HC position, the front runner is reportedly Doug Marrone with the Jets just doing their due diligence by assembling a "list."

Nobody I'm reading thinks Mora will land in either SF or Oakland either, including this article. More than likely, Mora will stay at UCLA. So, you can ignore all the ridiculous tweets over the next few days about any number of UCLA recruits coming to M.

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/05/report-jim-mora-to-interview-for-new-york-jets-job/

[iam416]

Mora strikes me as an NFL guy. He's doing a nice job at UCLA and bring in some good players, but at the end of the day his program is going to struggle to be even with USC and certainly Oregon.

He'll leave UCLA in the relatively near future, and UCLA will be in far better shape than when he got there. He should have a pretty good team next year if he can replace Hundley. And, TBH, Hundley was meh this season -- easily on the short list for most underperforming player of the year.

[entropy]

@SoonerFootball: #Sooners offensive coordinator Josh Heupel let go | http://t.co/KMMzCE4ZLg http://t.co/M4RRqcrKrc

[entropy]

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/college-football-coaching-carousel-new-hire-rankings/

ranking coaching hires

[froot loops]

I'll be interested to see how Lance Leipold does at Buffalo. We have a good friend who started for two of the Wisconsin-Whitewater national championship teams. He's now a coach at Wayne State.

[entropy]

http://footballscoop.com/news/scott-frost-explains-makes-oregons-walk-sessions-best-history-football/

Scott Frost interview

[Cody_Russell]

The thing that will hold Purdue back is recruiting.
58th, 60 something, & 60 something ranked recruiting class during Hazell's time.

It's not just the ranking, but the fact that Eastern Michigan or Toledo (teams like that) are the only schools that offer scholarships for most of Purdue's commits. That's a good indicator that tells you what talent is being brought in... Not good.

Outside of that, yes Purdue is young & has potential to go 5-7. If they hit on a QB, 7-5.

[iam416]

Purdue's big advantage is playing in the West. In theory, they could take a bunch of mediocre talent, coach it up and have a shot at the title. I mean, the Goofers were in contention for the West.

If they were in the East, they would have zero chance of winning the division ever. Indiana will never win a division title so long as the current alignment remains in place.

If Hazell can start winning, his recruiting should improve. I really think he needs to hammer Ohio. It irks me that UK is in there dominating the 11-25 range when those are the kids other B10 schools should be all over.

[Hannibal]

Been catching up on games, clearing out my DVR.

1. Goddamn, I am as convinced as ever that if Harbaugh hadn't come to Michigan then Bielema would have made a wonderful plan B. I'm not looking forward to playing those fuckers in three years. At all.

2. LOL SEC defenses. What was the average ypg and ppg allowed by SEC West teams this year? Two teams gave up over 400 rushing yards.

3. Did we underrate Michigan's schedule this year? Bowl opponents went 5-2 without any easy matchups. ND looked really good against LSU and Utah absolutely slaughtered Colorado State.

4. LOL RichRod. Back to reality. Watching him repeatedly get that hybrid cry/grimace face while blowing his top and screaming at his players brought back memories.

[iam416]

Don't anyone tell Hanni who won the Sugar Bowl!

[iam416]

Also agree re Arkansas. That's a hard team. And they have a mediocre-at-best QB and their best downfield option is a TE. They're going to be a tough out next season.

M's bowl opponents were actually 6-2. Utah proved to be much better than realized. Notre Dame was about the same. Ohio State and Michigan State may have been better than folks gave them credit for.

[entropy]

There is a reason why the NFL doesn't travel for semi final games... it is expensive to travel to two "bowl" games each year..

==================

Fans may not care about crowning "the first real number 1" as all the media bs blitz thought:

By BRANDON FORMBY bformby@dallasnews.com

Staff Writer
Published: 06 January 2015 10:56 PM
Updated: 07 January 2015 12:39 AM

Hosting the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship is another feather in AT&T Stadium’s $1.2 billion cap. But the novelty of the NCAA’s first playoff bracket doesn’t seem to be driving up ticket prices on the secondary market.

“I’m surprised we are not seeing more of an impact of that because it is the first of its kind,” said Ashley Kubiszyn, a spokeswoman for Austin-based TicketCity.com “It is a new era in college football.”

In fact, the average cost to get into the historic matchup between Oregon and Ohio State seems to be dropping by the day. And by kickoff Monday, the average cost on the secondary market could be the lowest for a college championship in five years.

Of course, whether the cost to attend is cheap is relative. The lowest price on ticket aggregator TiqIQ.com was $483 on Tuesday afternoon. The highest was more than $5,600. The average price for all tickets sold so far was $1,129, according to TiqIQ.

That average is far less than the $5,087 fans paid to watch Oregon take on Auburn in 2011. But it’s slightly higher than last year’s average $907 for a ticket to catch Auburn and Florida State.

Long-distance travel

Industry insiders say a number of factors — from geography to stadium size to fan base — affect ticket costs. One thing that may be influencing prices is North Texas’ distance from the teams’ campuses.

“Both are far away,” said Chris Matcovich, vice president of data and communications for TiqIQ.

Still, Ohio State’s fans have a reputation for traveling the country to support their team. That may be keeping prices up.

“Ohio State just has such a massive alumni and fan base,” said Kubiszyn.

Then again, championship games are nothing new for Buckeyes fans. This will be Ohio State’s fourth appearance in a national title game since 2003. The Ducks were unsuccessful in their lone national title appearance in 2011.

The average price for Monday’s game has dropped consistently since Friday, the day after the Ducks and Buckeyes won their semifinals. The average price was $1,560 on Thursday, rose to $1,622 the day after and has fallen every day since. On Tuesday, it was $929 and falling.

“We generally see prices drop as we get closer to the event,” said Cameron Papp, a spokesman for StubHub.com.

That includes concerts and other entertainment events. Kubizsyn said sellers lower their asking prices so they’re not stuck holding the tickets.

“Otherwise, they’re out all the money,” she said.

But 2011 was an anomaly, hence that $5,087 average. Oregon and Auburn each entered the game after undefeated seasons, stoking fan fervor on both sides. Oregon had never won a national championship; Auburn had its first shot at an undisputed title in decades. Prices skyrocketed.

“So the people who actually had the tickets were able to make money hand over fist,” Matcovich said.

In-state interest

Through Tuesday, one-fourth of StubHub.com’s sales were coming from within Texas, hinting that proximity and a chance to see the first playoff bracket championship are at play. About 15 percent had come from Ohio. About 10 percent came from Oregon.

While the prices could fall below previous championship averages, they’re still more than double the average cost for last week’s bowl games.

The average ticket price to Ohio State’s successful appearance in last week’s Sugar Bowl was $353, according to TicketCity.com. That compares with an average of $243 for tickets to Oregon’s successful appearance in the Rose Bowl. The average price for next week’s championship was $793 on Tuesday.

Kubizsyn said many college football fans — confident their teams will make it to the championships — sat out the semifinals to save their money for the big game. She said that’s also a major factor in where ticket prices now sit in comparison to last week’s bowl games.

“The events are just less than two weeks apart,” she said. “That’s a lot of traveling and expense for an average fan to take on to see their teams.”
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