Notre Dame announces fan capacity for their 2020 home games

Schools around the country–primarily in the SEC–have announced upwards of 25 percent fan capacity at home games this football season…

Schools around the country–primarily in the SEC–have announced upwards of 25 percent fan capacity at home games this football season while, as everybody knows at this point, two of the Power Five conferences will not be playing (as things stand today).

For those SEC schools the numbers stand as follows:

25 percent capacity: Texas A&M, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Ole Miss, Mississippi State

20-25 percent: Georgia

21-23 percent: Arkansas

20 percent: Alabama, Auburn

No plan yet: Vanderbilt, LSU, Kentucky, Florida

 

So, news came out that Notre Dame–a member of the ACC this season–will plan for upwards of 20 percent capacity at home games this season.

Yes, Notre Dame is in the same state as Big Ten schools Purdue and Indiana.

Notice the disconnect in the sport yet?

Even Iowa State from the Big 12, obviously in the same state as Iowa, is planning for 25,000 fans.

25,000 vs not playing. Conferences and schools can’t be so separated on such an important issue.

I talked about it on the 3rdAndRun Podcast last week. Long story short: the conferences need to somehow get on the same page or the future of the sport will not be a bright one.

The cross-conference disconnect is expected given how the sport is structured–a problem I gave a solution two a few weeks ago. But now it’s even within states.

Leadership and unity matter during a time like this, and I can only hope for the future of the sport to trend in a good direction after a season occurs with two conferences siting at home while three play with thousands of fans in the stands.

Don’t Feel Sorry for the Big Ten or Pac-12 Now

college football never left, only certain conferences and teams did

Let me preface this by saying that I feel awful for the student-athletes that lose a football season, some the last they were ever supposed to play, with almost half of college football calling off the 2020 season and I feel bad for the coaches who don’t get to spend the fall game-planning as well.

But I don’t feel sorry for the Big Ten, specifically those in the most power of the conference.

Ari Wasserman does a great job covering college football for The Athletic.  So great in fact that he just received a well-deserved promotion in becoming their national college football recruiting reporter.

But.

There’s always a but.

His suggestion that those who didn’t prematurely cancel college football for 2020 couldn’t possibly be a worse thought.

 

Wasserman is certainly right that it would be better if all teams and conferences were included, certainly.

But it’d also be better if the world was empty of hate, if everyday was 75 degrees and sunny with a very slight breeze and if your childhood pet lived forever.

Unfortunately that isn’t the case for any of those.

Let’s start by recognizing that if something doesn’t ever leave then it is impossible for it to come back.

If I never leave my house to go to the office then I can’t possibly come back home from being at the office. Simple enough, right?

College football, for 76 of 130 FBS programs, was never canceled.  Perhaps delayed a couple of weeks but it was never called off.  In other words – college football never left, only certain conferences and teams did.

The Big Ten felt the need to try and force the hands of the other Power Five conferences to join them in calling football season off.  God forbid the others think on their own (save the Pac-12) and figure out a way to salvage the season.

If I decide on my own that I’m going to show up for work late on Monday and not be present for my first meeting, do I just get to tell my boss to hold up and wait for me until I’m ready for it to get started?

If my best friend is getting married and I decide to leave my house late to get to the chapel, when I walk in after his bride has already walked down the aisle do I get to push open the doors and demand the restart the entire service?

The Big Ten presidents and Kevin Warren were the ones that rushed to a decision while business owners in college towns nationwide wondered to even a greater extent how they’ll survive this fall.

The Big Ten presidents and Kevin Warren felt the need to be first to cancel out of conference games, which forced the MAC’s hand and then first to call off the entire 2020 season.

The Big Ten presidents and Kevin Warren made those decisions almost a month before the season was scheduled to kickoff and thought because they’re the Big Ten, that everyone else would just follow their lead.

Again, this flat out sucks for the student athletes it effects, especially those who won’t have a senior season as a result.  The best thing I can say to them is that it’s not their fault and hope their respective conferences can get their acts together sooner rather than later.

The Big Ten, Pac-12, MAC and Mountain West all made theses beds.

Sure, it was the University presidents and not those in the athletic departments making those calls in several cases, but these decisions were made unnecessarily early.

Just over a week ago Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren doubled down on the conference’s decision, saying their postponement of fall sports “will not be revisited”.

Nobody told the Big Ten University presidents that a decision had to be made on August 11.

Nobody told the Pac-12 that they had to follow suit just hours after the Big Ten made their announcement.

The Big Ten presidents and Kevin Warren made their bed.

As did those in the Pac-12.

Now it’s not the ACC, Big 12, SEC, AAC, Conference USA or Sun Belt’s responsibility to have to sleep in it.

Sports Illustrated names Tua Tagovailoa as Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate

Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr predicts Tua Tagovailoa may be a potential candidate to be named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year.
If Tagovailoa wants to add another award to his lengthy resumé, it would likely have to be the 2020 Offensive Rookie of the year.
Orr includes Tagovailoa’s name alongside Joe Burrow, Jonathan Taylor, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire

Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr predicts Tua Tagovailoa may be a potential candidate to be named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year.
If Tagovailoa wants to add another award to his lengthy resumé, it would likely have to be the 2020 Offensive Rookie of the year.
Orr includes Tagovailoa’s name alongside Joe Burrow, Jonathan Taylor, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire

Sports Illustrated names Tua Tagovailoa as Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate

Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr predicts Tua Tagovailoa may be a potential candidate to be named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year.
If Tagovailoa wants to add another award to his lengthy resumé, it would likely have to be the 2020 Offensive Rookie of the year.
Orr includes Tagovailoa’s name alongside Joe Burrow, Jonathan Taylor, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire

Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr predicts Tua Tagovailoa may be a potential candidate to be named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year.
If Tagovailoa wants to add another award to his lengthy resumé, it would likely have to be the 2020 Offensive Rookie of the year.
Orr includes Tagovailoa’s name alongside Joe Burrow, Jonathan Taylor, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire

CBS Sports predicts Alabama’s 2020 bowl game

CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm predicted the 2020 bowl game selections for Alabama and other programs across the country.
Palm predicts that Alabama will face Oklahoma at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
Palm mentions Alabama and Georgia are his picks to win the SEC West and SEC East

CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm predicted the 2020 bowl game selections for Alabama and other programs across the country.
Palm predicts that Alabama will face Oklahoma at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
Palm mentions Alabama and Georgia are his picks to win the SEC West and SEC East

Notre Dame Preseason Top 5? One Analyst Says Yes

With the strange feel around college football entering 2020, one preseason ranking now has Notre Dame in the top 5. Find out who, here.

Preseason polls have been out for sometime now as the both the AP Top 25 and Amway Coaches Poll powered by USA TODAY were released earlier this month amid the confusion of ranking teams even though they’re not playing football this fall.

Paul Myerberg of USA TODAY went ahead and ranked the 76 teams that will be playing FBS college football this season and he gave Notre Dame as much respect as any I’ve seen from any national outlet ahead of the 2020 campaign, as he ranked the Irish fifth.

Myerberg’s top ten went the following:

  1.  Clemson
  2. Alabama
  3. Georgia
  4. Oklahoma
  5. Notre Dame
  6. Florida
  7. LSU
  8. Texas
  9. UCF
  10. North Carolina

Myerberg ranked Notre Dame’s 11 opponents for the 2020 season as follows:

1.  Clemson
10.  North Carolina
24.  Pitt
25.  Louisville
28.  Florida State
41.  Duke
44.  Wake Forest
52.  Boston College
60.  South Florida
64.  Syracuse
68.  Georgia Tech

A battle of potential top ten teams the day after Thanksgiving in Chapel Hill?  North Carolina is improved but even in this strange fall to come that seems a bit strong to me.

For Myerberg’s entire rankings, 1-76, click here.

Florida Gators football ranked 5th in Sports Illustrated’s preseason poll

The Gators rank fifth on these new rankings, behind SEC foes Alabama and Georgia, who are ranked No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

[jwplayer Hm8sG9WN]

In response to the release of the AP Top 25, which notoriously featured teams from leagues that have canceled the fall football season (nine in total), Sports Illustrated narrowed its initial top 25 to a “Still Standing 16.”

The Gators rank fifth on these new rankings, behind SEC foes Alabama and Georgia, who are ranked No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

Sport’s Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger wrote that while the Gators should be successful offensively with the return of redshirt senior quarterback Kyle Trask, their defense has to replace a multitude of starters.

Here’s what Dellenger said about UF heading into the third season of coach Dan Mullen’s tenure.

Dan Mullen and the Gators can’t get over the hump called Georgia. For three seasons the SEC East rival has stood in their way of the conference championship game, but for how much longer? Mullen became the first Florida coach to open his tenure with back-to-back double-digit-win seasons

It feels as if the Gators are this close to greatness—and achieving it will depend on a QB many believe is the SEC’s best. Senior Kyle Trask is good enough to send incumbent Feleipe Franks packing to Arkansas. Trask threw for 300 yards in three of his last four games and finished with 25 TDs and seven INTs, but many of his top targets are gone, including Freddie Swain and Van Jefferson. Trask’s sophomore backup, Emory Jones, is a powerful runner whom Mullen uses as he did Dak Prescott early in his career at Mississippi State.

Under coordinator Todd Grantham, Florida’s defense has been one of the best in the nation the last two years, carrying a sometimes sluggish offense to ugly victories. But 2020 presents problems … such as the departure of much of the front seven. At least senior safety Shawn Davis is back to anchor the secondary. —R.D.

Player to Watch: Miami transfer Lorenzo Lingard, a 6-foot, 200-pound sophomore, might be one of the best running backs no one has heard of. A former No. 2–ranked recruit at the position, he suffered a left knee injury in October 2018 that derailed his tenure as a Hurricane. Florida has other RB options, but Lingard intrigues.

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Watch now – Hilarious video ahead of 2020 college football season

SEC Shorts has put together a video that nearly perfectly gets you ready for college football in 2020. Watch it here!

Happy hump day.

Did you wake up today needing a laugh?

Unless you’re a Chicago White Sox fan and were up late celebrating Lucas Giolito’s no-hitter, you could probably use something to start your day right.

We have news this morning that the Big Ten would not have voted to cancel their football season had the vote been held today.  That only makes the following video that much better as we near college football season.

The following is courtesy of SEC Shorts and is done nearly perfectly.

SEC Shorts – Dramatic 2020 season road trip has a hard time getting started

The Big Ten not listening to anyone else, the smack-talk between the SEC and ACC and the masterful appearances from both the Big 12 and AAC.  All it’s missing is the Pac-12 doing whatever the Big Ten girl says and it would have been a perfect 10!

ESPN names Alabama ‘Running Back U’ & ‘Offensive line U’

The Crimson Tide topped two lists, the running back, and offensive line positions.
Nick Saban arrived at Alabama and turned the tailback position into the cornerstone of the Tide’s success, David Hale.
Eight Alabama linemen have been selected within the first 50 picks of the draft, and seven earned All-America honors during the past decade, David Hale

The Crimson Tide topped two lists, the running back, and offensive line positions.
Nick Saban arrived at Alabama and turned the tailback position into the cornerstone of the Tide’s success, David Hale.
Eight Alabama linemen have been selected within the first 50 picks of the draft, and seven earned All-America honors during the past decade, David Hale

ESPN names Alabama ‘Running Back U’ & ‘Offensive line U’

The Crimson Tide topped two lists, the running back, and offensive line positions.
Nick Saban arrived at Alabama and turned the tailback position into the cornerstone of the Tide’s success, David Hale.
Eight Alabama linemen have been selected within the first 50 picks of the draft, and seven earned All-America honors during the past decade, David Hale

The Crimson Tide topped two lists, the running back, and offensive line positions.
Nick Saban arrived at Alabama and turned the tailback position into the cornerstone of the Tide’s success, David Hale.
Eight Alabama linemen have been selected within the first 50 picks of the draft, and seven earned All-America honors during the past decade, David Hale