Tag: conferences

Notre Dame all-time vs. each ACC football team

Do you consider any ACC team to be an actual rival of Notre Dame’s?

For 2020 Notre Dame joined the ACC for football and went unbeaten in the regular season before falling to Clemson in the conference championship game.

It was Notre Dame’s first and hopefully last year in conference play in my lifetime, regardless of what Paul Finebaum and countless others nationally hope for.

How has Notre Dame fared not just in recent years, but all-time against the ACC’s current member schools?

Here are the updated numbers through the 2022 season – one that Notre Dame continued their unbeaten streak in regular season games against the ACC.

Notre Dame all-time results versus:

Big Ten

Big 12

Pac-12

SEC

Marcus Freeman making media rounds but not seeking excuses

Excuses? Unlike Notre Dame’s previous head coach, Marcus Freeman isn’t making any.

I’ve been open about my lack of care for conference media days as a whole. The only things I really enjoy about them are the fact that they mean college football season is getting close to kicking off, and I’ve certainly been thankful for that the last two weeks.

[autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] doesn’t have to participate in these media days for the time being and the good Lord willing, will not have to anytime soon. However, he made the media rounds right after Notre Dame’s epic Shamrock Series jersey reveal video went viral.

What did Freeman have to say as he made stops at both ESPN’s “Get Up” (at least it wasn’t “First Take”) and on Rich Eisen’s radio show? You can catch interviews in full at the links above, but here were the main takeaways, specifically from his time on “Get Up.”

And be sure to check it all out as you may enjoy his not-so-subtle jab at [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] in regards to the position Notre Dame is in to win a national championship today.

Predicting the new CFB landscape: 4 conferences, 20 teams apiece

Predicting what the future of college athletics will look like. How would you feel about this?

Wow, the dust has begun to settle after one of the craziest days we’ve had in college football since USC fired Lane Kiffin on the airport tarmac. Seemingly out of thin air, the University of Southern California and the University of California Los Angeles will leave the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten in 2024.

Everything we know about the college football landscape has quickly eroded in the past few years, beginning with Colorado and Nebraska departing from the Big 12 in 2010 to the end of the BCS era and the start of the College Football Playoff in 2015.

Power five programs Texas, Oklahoma USC and UCLA plus group of five programs BYU, Houston UCF and Cincinnati have all left their conferences in roughly the past year. It is safe to say that quite a few more drastic changes are on the horizon.

There is a widespread belief that we could be facing two mega-conferences with 20 members a piece building around the current SEC and Big Ten.

However, consolidating everything down to two major conferences would be difficult. Four conferences at 20 teams apiece sounds more realistic.

So, what is this ultimately going to look like?

The numbers in bold indicate the number of programs in the conference if the schools listed preceding them join that respective conference. 

Thank you, Baylor – now enjoy the Fiesta Bowl

Thanks Baylor! Enjoy your trip to the Fiesta Bowl now!

Notre Dame fans are delighted this afternoon as the Baylor Bears knocked off Oklahoma State in the Big 12 championship and the Cowboys out of College Football Playoff contention.  The win helps Notre Dame in that the Irish are now seemingly the fifth-rated team with No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 Alabama set to play this afternoon and No. 2 Michigan and No. Cincinnati both also in action later today.

ESPN has started pushing this narrative on the broadcast and Five Thirty Eight, who we’ve followed the work of a lot this season, still aren’t buying into Notre Dame’s chances.

Five Thirty Eight has updated their College Football Playoff odds after the Big 12 championship game’s conclusion and now give Baylor a 58% chance to make the tournament while only giving Notre Dame a 23% shot.

Uhh, what?

Baylor has a great win over Oklahoma State.  They also lost to Oklahoma State earlier in the year.  Does that simply get erased because they beat them when given a second chance?

More importantly, their 30-28 loss at TCU (who finished 5-7) still occurred.

Here’s also a kind reminder that Baylor’s win over BYU was nice but in scheduling Texas Southern and Texas State out of conference they removed themselves from being able to claim their “13th data point” of the Big 12 championship carrying significant weight versus a Notre Dame team that played 12 games.

And who didn’t play Texas Southern.

I know they have more top-25 wins than Notre Dame as the Irish have none but are you seriously going to say that the TCU loss just gets erased?  Notre Dame had some ugly wins along the way but do you realize what they did in all of those cases?

They won aside from a loss to Cincinnati, who very possibly will be a CFP team.

If wins and losses don’t matter then what are we really doing here?

If you’re a Notre Dame fan one of the two biggest dominoes that needed to fall Saturday has fallen.  Now get rooting for Georgia to knock out Alabama and the Irish should be in business.

Assuming the cards weren’t already determined to be stacked against Notre Dame, anyway.

Related:

College Gameday staff picks for conference championship games

 

Gators News: August 11, 2020

College football’s elite conferences are scrambling to figure out whether or not to play a fall season in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

[jwplayer cDwcQGuN]

Man alive, the sports world a swirling maelstrom of chaos currently, with college football’s elite conferences scrambling to figure out whether or not to play a fall season in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

This morning, Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star opined on the Big 10’s swing and miss yesterday, dealing a potentially brand-damaging blow to the conference, leaving the league looking “dumb and weak”.

As of Tuesday, this appears to be where the Power Five conferences stand.

In corroboration with the above tweet, the following was offered on the latest sentiment from the Southeastern Conference.

At this point, who really knows what is going to happen?

Anyways, here’s Wonderwall the rest of the news from Gators Wire.

Around the Swamp

It’s great to be a Florida Gator!

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Enough about football, what about the college basketball season?

Lost in these conversations over what could have been in regards to football is a nagging question—what will happen with college basketball?

In recent weeks, the spotlight in the college sports world has been on the management (or lack thereof) of the college football season in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NCAA and major conferences wasted the bulk of the summer by not coming up with a suitable return plan for college athletes, and now, with two of the Power Five conferences already moving to conference-only schedules and the rest likely to follow, the entire idea of having a college football season in the fall seems to be hanging by a thread.

It seems a near certainty that the season will be at the very least delayed until late fall/early winter, the implications of which would be devastating for the sport at large.

But lost in these conversations over what could have been in regards to football is a nagging question — what will happen with college basketball?

Surely, the NCAA will do whatever is possible to avoid making any substantive changes to the season considering the entire postseason was canceled last season. Allowing the virus to significantly affect two seasons in a row is a worst-case scenario.

But if the college football season — along with other fall sports — are canceled or postponed, where would that leave college basketball?

In making these plans, many of the limitations and stipulations that affect college football’s return also apply. Players are still unpaid, and forcing them into a position of risk is a bit different from when the NBA does it to its millionaire athletes. You still have to deal with the fact that it’s inconceivable to try and replicate a bubble-type environment; travel and the freedom of movement for student-athletes (who will still be taking classes as students, and at least at UF, could be taking them in-person) will be necessities.

But there are also a number of reasons why basketball doesn’t have to suffer the same fate football inevitably will. Smaller rosters mean you only have to worry about keeping conditions safe for 12-15 people (plus support staff), as opposed to the 100+ required for football. The schedule would be easier to adjust if necessary since nonconference basketball games aren’t tied with seven-figure contracts like in football, and playing games without fans wouldn’t be as financially catastrophic as it would be for football, where schools in conferences that don’t have lucrative TV deals often need revenue from ticket sales to subsidize their entire athletics departments.

Not to mention the fact that the season isn’t set to start until November, putting several more months between the current state of the pandemic in the United States and the season’s commencement.

But there are no guarantees. The Ivy and Patriot Leagues have already canceled sports through the fall, meaning that if the basketball season were to happen in those Division I conferences, it would at the very least be delayed. It’s very possible the beginning of the season is pushed until December or January and nonconference games are eliminated entirely or severely reduced. There’s also the conflicts basketball season could have with a potential spring football season to keep in mind.

There is reason to be more optimistic that the college basketball season will happen on time than the college football season, to be sure. But if that’s going to happen, the NCAA can’t waste the next three months and repeat the mistake it made with football.

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SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey’s concern for the season is ‘high to very high’

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said he is concerned about the prospect of playing football in the fall during an interview on ESPN Radio.

In light of rising COVID-19 cases across the south and decisions made by the Big 10 and PAC 12 over the last several days to move to conference-only football schedules this fall, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said he is concerned about the prospect of playing football in the fall during an interview on the ESPN Radio show Marty & McGee on Saturday morning.

“We put a medical advisory group together in early April with the question, ‘What do we have to do to get back to activity?’ and they’ve been a big part of the conversation,” Sankey said. “But the direct reality is not good and the notion that we’ve politicized medical guidance of distancing, and breathing masks, and hand sanitization, ventilation of being outside, being careful where you are in buildings. There’s some very clear advice about — you can’t mitigate and eliminate every risk, but how do you minimize the risk? … We are running out of time to correct and get things right, and as a society we owe it to each other to be as healthy as we can be.”

Sankey pointed out that since what one league does affects every other league, the decisions made by two of the Power Five conferences will impact the SEC’s decision-making. But he also said the league will cater to the individual needs of its member institutions above all else.

“That literally is playing out in front of us every day,” Sankey said. “That’s why I don’t feel any pressure because of somebody else’s decisions. We’re trying to make the right decisions for us, for the Southeastern Conference. It does have an impact because I’ve said publicly we’re all linked nationally, so when other people make decisions, yup, there’s an impact, but also we’re going to look at our situation and make a decision that’s appropriate for the Southeastern Conference and most importantly for the health of our student-athletes.”

“What I’ve tried to do is both keep a focus on what’s ahead but provide reality, which has been I’m going to focus on preparing to play the season as scheduled but acknowledge the circumstances around coronavirus are going to guide us in that decision-making,” Sankey said. “And the reality right now is the trends in our region, in our nation, are not in the positive direction for being able to have normal experiences.”

In the interview, Sankey confirmed that the late July deadline for final decisions regarding the season hasn’t changed and that he believes it beneficial to wait as long as possible before making an informed decision. The other two Power Five conferences, the ACC and Big 12, have both also said that they will wait until the end of the month to make decisions about scheduling.

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