Tag: Florida State Seminoles

5 takeaways from the first USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll

Five takeaways from the first USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll that was released on Monday.

Football is near. We are less than three weeks from the start of the season. Oklahoma’s final season in the Big 12 is on the horizon, and anticipation is building for the Sooners to take the field. Everyone wants to wipe the bad taste left by last season’s 6-7 performance.

With football back, it means the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll returns. Oklahoma came in at No. 19 to start the season.

With the poll out, we took the liberty of sharing five takeaways from the first iteration of the poll and what it could mean for this 2023 season.

James Franklin on Big Ten’s latest expansion: It’s very different

James Franklin on Big Ten adding Oregon and Washington: It’s very different than the college football that we all grew up with

The Big Ten will be welcoming Oregon and Washignton in addition to USC and UCLA as conference members in 2024, bringing the total membership up to 18 members. The news of the latest expansion move by the Big Ten has received plenty of attention and reaction in the days since the news dropped from the conference, and Penn State head coach [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] shared his thoughts on the move at his Penn State football media day press conference on Sunday.

While Franklin continues to keep his focus on what is directly in front of his team, stating he is only worried about the upcoming season for now and the season opener at home against West Virginia, he did share some thoughts about the state of the game with conference realignment going haywire.

“I do think, obviously, with what you see that’s going on in college football right now, it’s not shocking that these things are kind of happening,” Franklin said. “It’s somewhat sad in some ways, not that these people are being added to our conference because I think obviously there’s a lot of strategy that goes into that.”

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“But you know, I do think there’s some challenges that come along with it and it’s just very different for most of the people in this room, it’s very different than the college football that we all grew up with,” Franklin went on to say. “[Not] really college football, college athletics, where at least for most of the year it was pretty regional.”

The Big Ten is still a mostly midwestern conference even after adding Maryland and Rutgers in its most recent expansion move prior to the upcoming changes in 2024. The additions of USC and UCLA took the Big Ten to the west coast, with a massive geographic gap between the Los Angeles-based schools and the next closest Big Ten member, Nebraska. If nothing else, at least Franklin feels the additions of Oregon and Washington will be good for those two schools.

“I do think it’s a huge win for USC and UCLA from a travel perspective,” Franklin said. “I think it’s a huge win for them.”

The door for additional Big Ten expansion is not necessarily closed either. Cal and Stanford are two of the four remaining Pac-12 members left stranded without a conference home, and the Big Ten would be considered a logical landing spot if the Big Ten was interested in additional California schools. Florida State is kicking up some dust on a potential exit from the ACC and could consider making a push for a spot in the Big Ten with the conference potentially in a spot to add two more schools to get to 20 members.

If Florida State does work its way out of the conference and the Big Ten is not the destination, a weakened ACC could have potential Big Ten targets in North Carolina and Virginia. And, of course, the obligatory mention of Notre Dame has to be included as well. While the Irish may show no signs of being ready to abandon its football independence, we could be getting closer to a potential breaking point that causes the school’s leadership to reevaluate its stance on football independence. And if the ACC cracks, the Irish could work a way out of its contractual requirement to join the conference in football if it does step away from its independence. A Big Ten with all of Notre Dame’s traditional rivals would potentially be attractive, as would the Big Ten revenue shares.

But we’ll see what this week brings in conference realignment news, if anything, after a turbulent week last week.

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Ohio State football misses out on KJ Bolden to somewhat surprising school

Coffee is for closers and the Ohio State coaches are thirsty on Saturday night #GoBucks

It has been a reoccurring theme with [autotag]Ohio State[/autotag] and high-end prospects over the last two cycles, where the Buckeyes miss out on their guy.

It happened once again on Saturday night, as 2024 Georgia 5-star safety [autotag]KJ Bolden[/autotag] opted to stay in the South and commit to the Florida State Seminoles. This recruitment stings for multiple reasons, one of them being the fact that the safety’s uncle, [autotag]Perry Eliano[/autotag], is Ohio State’s coach at that position.

If family ties aren’t enough to pull the 6-foot, 1-inch, 185-pound star, then it really wasn’t meant to be. Bolden, who is viewed as the No. 1 safety and 7th overall player in the 247Sports Composite Rankings, has been a priority recruit for Ohio State.

The current 2024 Buckeye class has just two other safety commits, Garrett Stover and Jaylen McClain, but the former could end up playing linebacker as well.

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Four Sooners in College Sports Wire’s preseason top 25 players in the Big 12

College Sports Wire included four Sooners in their preseason Top 25 list.

Oklahoma’s final season in the Big 12 is expected to be memorable as the Sooners look to leave on top ahead of the move to the SEC. Coming off of one of their worst season in 20 years, Oklahoma is looking to remind return to conference title contention.

To do that, The Sooners hope their returning players take another step in their development. They return five starters on offense and six on defense from a year ago.

A few of those starters are considered some of the best players in the conference. Patrick Conn of College Sports Wire believes they fit comfortably among the top 25 players the Big 12.

Oklahoma makes top 10 for elite 2025 cornerback

The Oklahoma Sooners got more good recruiting news but as history tells us, this won’t be a battle that ends anytime soon.

It is never too early to start preparing for the [autotag]2025 recruiting class[/autotag]. We’ve already seen the Oklahoma Sooners land several commitments and could be landing more in the coming weeks.

Some more good news came out on Thursday as five-star cornerback and top 10 player in the nation [autotag]Devin Sanchez[/autotag] released his top 10. The Sooners made his top 10 list and seem to be in a pretty good spot in his recruitment.

The Sooners are joined in his top by the Michigan Wolverines], Alabama Crimson Tide, LSU Tigers, Texas A&M Aggies, Texas Longhorns, USC Trojans, Florida State Seminoles, Oregon Ducks, and the Ohio State Buckeyes. There is still a lot of ways to go, and they’ll have to fight off some elite programs but [autotag]Jay Valai[/autotag] hopes to be able to build that relationship and get the job done.

The Houston, Tx native is obviously a highly touted player. He would be an elite addition to a secondary that already has five-star [autotag]Peyton Bowen[/autotag] at safety. There’s no doubt a good season could go a long way in helping land Sanchez when it’s all said and done.

Devin Sanchez’s Recruiting Profile

Projections

  • 100% Texas on Rivals
  • 30% Alabama on On3

Film

Hudl

Don’t look now, but Florida State isn’t happy in the ACC

Florida State leaders made it known they aren’t happy with the ACC. Should the Big Ten be keeping an eye on the Noles?

Not that the Big Ten has been linked to having any motives to plant the conference flag in the southeast, but it may be worth watching the continuing developments in the ACC. Florida State has made it clear it is not happy in the ACC, as has been suspected for many years during the last decade-plus of conference realignment. And if ever there was a time for Florida State to make a move elsewhere, now would likely be the time.

But can we really anticipate future conference matchups between Penn State and Florida State? In short, you never know! But no, probably not.

What we know is Florida State’s leadership views the university being in what it refers to as an “existential crisis” as the school sees itself and the rest of the ACC membership in danger of falling farther behind the Big Ten and SEC in conference revenue shares.

To put it simply, Florida State would prefer to remain in the ACC, but it is hoping the conference can improve its revenue sharing and revenue plan moving forward to help keep the school and others in the ACC on par with the perceived competition in the Big Ten and SEC.

Rumors of Florida State’s desire to leave the ACC have gone on for years, but the most recent meeting of the board of trustees shed some more light on the potential to pack up and leave than ever seen before. The problem is Florida State has no exit strategy in place and is approaching a deadline to inform the ACC of any intent to leave.

So, what if Florida State does say they are ready to leave the ACC? Would the Big Ten be an option?

Florida State would likely love nothing more than to be in the SEC, but we certainly should not rule out the mere possibility of the Seminoles being an actual candidate for the Big Ten. Geography means nothing, and the Big Ten already has a tent pole on the east coast, a firm grip on the Midwest, and is expanding to the west coast with at least two new members beginning in 2024. Adding a school in the state of Florida may seem weird, but the Big Ten is about to call Los Angeles home, so how weird is it, really?

If the Big Ten was to add Florida State, hypothetically speaking, shouldn’t someone else come with them? The odds are, yes. But who? Feel free to throw around the North Carolina name if you wish. Some Penn State fans probably wouldn’t be opposed to Pittsburgh or Syracuse, and others probably threw up a little bit in their mouths just thinking about it.

Of course, Notre Dame and Florida State would be a nice pairing, but now we may just be a little too greedy. But then again, isn’t greed what drives conference realignment from all angles?

We probably shouldn’t count on seeing Florida State replacing its ACC flag with a Big Ten one in the coming years, but if I have learned nothing from years of covering and observing conference realignment it is that nothing should ever be considered completely off the table for discussion.

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Preseason top 25 players in the ACC

These 25 players will likely decide the outcome of who represents the ACC in the postseason.

We recently unveiled our All-ACC preseason selections and now it is time to look at the best players of the conference in our top 25 rankings.

Most of the selections are based on production from last season and some will have to factor in projections for the upcoming season. Players such as Cade Klubnik, who goes in 2023 as the starting quarterback with a whole new offensive scheme. Garrett Riley comes over from TCU to give this offense a shot in the arm after underperforming in 2022.

It won’t only be the offensive players that we feature as Jared Verse of Florida State and Jeremiah Trotter Jr of Clemson are expected to be major forces once again.

College Sports Wire breaks down the top 25 players, a list we will be sure to revisit following the season to see where we got it right and where we got it wrong.

A look at the College Wire’s preseason All-ACC team

Breaking down the College Wire’s All-ACC preseason team.

The countdown to the 2023 college football season is on. We are less than a month away from the start of a new campaign.

In the ACC there are plenty of storylines to follow including the return of Jeff Brohm to his alma mater as well as a new young gun calling the shots for the Clemson offense. Can Garrett Riley help get Clemson back to the College Football Playoff?

The surprise team of the 2022 season was the Florida State Seminoles, who won 10 games for the first time since Jimbo Fisher led them to the Orange Bowl in 2016. As expected, the Noles should have plenty of players are our preseason All-ACC team.

But we begin in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where a young gun is looking to take the Heisman away from the defending trophy winner.

Top 10 Big Ten expansion candidates following Colorado’s Big 12 exodus

After the Colorado and Prime Time acquisition, the Big 12 has declared war. Here’s 10 programs the Big Ten should pursue in response.

The Big 12 has declared war.

A formal resolution to arms may not have been drafted by the conference, but make no mistake about it. The Big 12 sees what’s happening across college football. It has seen the moves the SEC and Big Ten have made over the past year. The Big 12 will not idly sit by and wither away to a slow death while college football becomes a two-conference system.

Before anyone else had any ideas, the Big 12 hit the Pac-12’s newest rising star, Colorado. While the Buffs haven’t made any real noise in recent years on the field, they told everybody that they mean business by hiring head coach Deion Sanders. One of the most recognizable names in all of football, “Coach Prime” is exactly the type of figure who can bring Colorado back to its glory days.

Now, the Buffaloes are going back to the Big 12, a conference in which they experienced a lot of success in the early 2000s. It’s a power move by the Big 12 to grab Coach Prime before one of the other big conferences could, and it still has one move to make. It’s a bit of a risky maneuver, considering Colorado is going to have to reverse a mediocre tenure in the Pac-12, but it is a potential sleeping giant.

The Big 12 has taken its shot, now it’s time to aim for the head. Any self-respecting Big Ten fan knows now is the time to strike back for conference superiority. While the Big 12 congratulates itself on the coup, it’s time to show them how the big boys play. It starts by showing one of these schools the light and benefits that the premier athletics conference in the NCAA has to offer.

These are the top 10 expansion candidates for the Big Ten!

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Could realignment winds blow the SEC’s way? 5 teams that might make sense

As the Big 12 looks at further expansion with the addition of Colorado, would the SEC explore expansion? Here are 5 teams that make sense.

After Oklahoma and Texas opted to move to the SEC and USC and UCLA decided to relocate to the Big Ten, there was a belief conference realignment was over for the short term. Even though the dust has barely settled, the pieces are moving on the board gain.

The Big 12’s move into Pac-12 territory to take Colorado kept the conference realignment game going. Like a game of Settlers of Catan, Brett Yormark is working for the “longest road” as he ventures out west to bring Colorado back into the fold. He hasn’t been shy about trying to collect as many resources as he can to strengthen the Big 12’s status in the conference realignment game.

Because realignment never ends, there’s always a chance the Oklahoma Sooners’ future home in the SEC could opt for expansion to strengthen its inventory for the future.

Let’s take a look at five teams that could make sense for the SEC.