You’ll never guess who Alabama is projected to play in the 2023 bowl season
When you think of college football bowl season, it’s almost been a guarantee for the past 15 years that the Crimson Tide will be in contention for the national championship. With one loss on their resume through just five weeks, Alabama is certainly on the outside looking in. However, if the Tide can win out and win the SEC Championship their spot will be nearly guaranteed.
This year, it is a wide-open race with no team truly separating themselves from the pack. The PAC-12 has been the best conference so far this season with USC, Oregon, and Washington all ranked inside the top ten. As we get deeper into conference play, we will really begin to separate the pretenders from the contenders and even I am not 100% certain which side the Tide are on in 2023.
Erick Smith of USA TODAY does not believe that the Tide will make the playoffs as he released his 2023 bowl projections from this season. Smith projects that the four teams competing in the College Football Playoffs will be Michigan, Florida State, Georgia and Texas.
Smith has lower expectations for the Tide as he projects them to meet up with Fresno State in the Peach Bowl. A win over the Aggies this weekend on the road this weekend would be a monumental step towards the playoffs.
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College sports will never be the same after all this conference realignment.
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Conference realignment has completely shifted the landscape of college sports everywhere. It’s hard to know exactly who plays where now. That’s especially the case today following the report about the ACC extending invitations out to Cal, Stanford and SMU.
So, in the spirit of trying to keep up, I’ve listed all the teams in the Power Five (Four?) conferences and where they’ll be playing.
Newcomers will have the year they’re officially joining the conference in parenthesis.
Nothing brings out the takes quite like Notre Dame conference talk.
If you want to hear unfortunate opinions and brutal ideas then simply search “Notre Dame” on the app formerly known as Twitter whenever college football realignment conversations come up. Because Notre Dame is in a unique position with its football independence, fans and media members alike can’t keep Notre Dame out of their mouths.
Yesterday we looked at former Florida head coach Dan Mullen’s brutal thought that Notre Dame should have saved the Pac-12. Today we go to the land of Andy Staples for another Notre Dame thought.
Staples claimed on Thursday that Notre Dame wouldn’t ever do it, but it should create a football only conference with Air Force, Army, Cal, Navy and Stanford.
That’s not a joke, he actually did. Below I break down a bit of what Staples had to say before reading some of the social media reaction to his post.
College football is just weeks from kicking off the 2023 season but all the buzz is on conference realignment.
Reports that Notre Dame was pushing hard for Cal and Stanford to join the ACC came out Wednesday and left many wondering why. I was among those, but at the end of the day the answer was pretty simple – and one that will certainly ruffle the feathers of some.
It’s called “doing the right thing.”
Notre Dame athletic director [autotag]Jack Swarbrick[/autotag] told ESPN’s Heather Dinich on Thursday exactly why he was interested in those two joining the ACC. In a college sports world that is run even more by money than ever before, Swarbrick sees a real problem.
“The notion that two of the very best academic institutions in the world who also play DI sports could be abandoned in this latest chapter of realignment is an indictment of college athletics,” Swarbrick told Dinich
I get that Stanford and Cal aren’t Oregon or USC in terms of football, but they aren’t Arizona or Colorado historically, either. We’re only a decade removed from Stanford being a Rose Bowl regular and national championship contender, while Cal under Jeff Tedford went to seven straight bowl games from 2003-2009.
The surprising part of Stanford being left in the dust is it may not be a football or men’s basketball powerhouse right now but when you go across all sports you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more successful athletic program nationally. The university competes for national titles in just about everything besides those two sports. How is that not appealing?
As absurd as the idea of having two of the top institutions in the nation, both of which who call the West Coast home, playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference is, I for one hope it ends up happening.
College athletics and the ACC will be better if it does.
What conferences have the most ranked teams heading into 2023 and how would the rankings look with conference realignment in 2024?
What conferences have most teams ranked in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll? How many teams would each conference have ranked if based on how the conferences will look in 2024?
The college football landscape will change a ton in 2024 with the Big Ten, SEC, and Big 12 all adding multiple teams. The Pac-12 is on life support and may not even exist next season. For now, the ACC is expected to stay at 14 teams.
Georgia (61), Alabama (four) and Ohio State (one) all received first-place votes in the 2023 preseason USA TODAY Sports AFCA football coaches poll, but the Bulldogs check in as the No. 1 team in the nation.
What conferences have the most ranked teams heading into 2023 and how would the rankings look for 2024?
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“Must be the money, that’s turnin’ them on.”
Those simple, yet wise, words come from one Deion Sanders. The song “Must be the Money” is the lone single released on his 1994 album “Prime Time.” The album wasn’t good, of course. Sanders had to be terrible at something as one of the world’s best multi-sport athletes. But… he had a point.
It must be the money. It’s all about the money.
Look no further than the imminent demise of the Pac-12 to prove it. The conference that once called dubbed itself the “Conference of Champions” is on the brink of no longer existing.
The conference is facing an existential crisis after Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Oregon and Washington all applied for membership in other conferences. USC and UCLA were already headed to the Big Ten in 2024. Colorado is going back to the Big-12. The conference is left with just four member schools now: Stanford, California, Oregon State and Washington State. Hardly anything to write home about.
That ostensibly means that we have three super conferences in college football. The SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 are stacked. The ACC is just somewhere floating around on the periphery and the rest of the conferences just don’t matter.
With this new conference realignment, college sports as we know it will never be the same. We’ll have schools traveling clear across the country to play interconference games that no one will really care that much about. Is anyone lining up to watch Maryland play Oregon? No? Didn’t think so.
But that’s where we are now. There’s no familiarity between teams anymore. Just a bunch of teams hopping from state to state to play games and fulfill television agreements. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It should. Because that’s what professional sports looks like.
That’s college athletics now. What was once about regions and rivalries is now all about cash and the spirit that schools are willing to sacrifice to make that cash grow.
Almost 30 years ago, Deion Sanders called it. He reminded us once again on Friday.
Everyone wants that bag, man. And the more money that comes your school’s way in lieu of a new TV deal, the more money cash a coach might have on the back end of an extension.
Yes, it’s about the money. But it always has been. That’s the college sports world’s worst-kept secret.
There are some compelling reasons for Ohio State fans to be excited about the additions of Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten. #GoBucks
By now you’ve heard the news. The Big Ten is seemingly expanding faster than the grand ole universe we live in. After UCLA and USC defected from the Pac-12 just a little over a year ago, we now usher in Bigfoot, rain, Sitka pines, and coffee with the additions of Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten.
Traditionalists are wringing their hands and banging their heads against the wall, but this is the new age of amateurism and college football has had to move right along with the changing landscape.
In fact, there are some exciting things about the additions of the two teams from the Pacific Northwest, and we thought we’d highlight some of them for you just in case this dizzying change has left you with a little bit of psychological whiplash and consternation.
Here are five reasons for Ohio State fans to be excited about the additions of the Ducks and Huskies to the Big Ten.
According to reports, Pac-12 members Oregon and Washington are set to join the Big Ten according to several reports, but with news first making the rounds thanks to Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports, who cited sources close to the situation.
This comes on the heels of reports that the Ducks and Huskies’ foregone conclusion of leaving the Pac-12 had cooled a bit on Thursday night.
At the heart of all of the newest expansion talk seems to be surrounding the implosion of the Pac-12 because of an inability to strike a substantial media rights deal after USC and UCLA left the conference for the Big Ten last season. Add that to Colorado making the decision to join the Big 12, and things aren’t very appealing to other members of the league.
The Big Ten is in the final stages of adding Oregon and Washington as it expands to 18 teams, industry sources tell @RossDellenger and me. Ducks and Huskies have informed other Pac 12 schools they intend to leave. https://t.co/dGDn3ZwwR5
According to Wetzel, Big Ten presidents met to discuss the addition of the two schools and the demands on travel and scheduling adding two more teams out West will cause. It is not expected to hinder the two schools from the Pacific Northwest from joining the conference to make it an expanded 18-team league.
As far as negotiations go, Oregon and Washington will most likely take a cut to the deal the Big Ten made with its new media rights deal — as much as 50% of what the other institutions will receive — but that it will still be more than what was on the table for a media right package for the “conference of champions.”
Things are happening quickly too. Oregon and Washington will begin play in the Big Ten in all sports in 2024, so to say that some housecleaning needs to occur would be an understatement.
This is a developing story and one that we will continue to keep an eye on.
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“Do you remember them winning anything? I don’t remember them winning anything.”
In the weeks leading up to what’s shaping up to be an exciting season on the field in the Pac-12, the conversation has been dominated by existential questions off the field.
One coach in the league doesn’t seem particularly concerned about the future of the league following Colorado’s withdrawal, however. At the team’s media day ahead of fall camp, Oregon coach Dan Lanning didn’t mince words.
“Not a big reaction,” he said with a sly grin. “I’m trying to remember what they won to affect this conference, and I don’t remember. Do you remember them winning anything? I don’t remember them winning anything.”
Full quote from Dan Lanning on his reaction to Colorado leaving the conference:
"Not a big reaction. I'm trying to remember what they won to affect this conference and I don't remember. Do you remember them winning anything? I don't remember them winning anything." https://t.co/Kdtf9xgayopic.twitter.com/XETU03B0Cj
The second-year coach isn’t exactly wrong, though. Excluding the shortened 2020 season, the Buffaloes have finished with a winning record in league play just once since joining the Pac-12 back in 2011. That team won the South Division in 2016 but was obliterated by Washington in the Pac-12 title game, finishing at 10-4.
Then-coach Mike MacIntyre wouldn’t be retained after Colorado finished 5-7 the next two years.
Still, Lanning’s comments are interesting considering his program has also been the subject of some realignment rumors, though nothing substantial has emerged yet.
The Pac-12 approaches what could be a critical 48 hours. The Big 12 likely isn’t done trying to poach teams away, and the league is now reportedly finally set to present a proposed media rights deal to members.
What happens in the coming days could play a crucial role in determining the league’s future following the current bout of realignment.
College sports are in an era of transition, as conference realignment threatens to create a couple super leagues out of the Big Ten and SEC, and other conferences scramble to play catch up.
The first major dominoes fell into place when it was announced that USC and UCLA are bolting the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, and Texas and Oklahoma are leaving the Big 12 for the SEC.
So you can understand why an Instagram post from Ohio State mascot Brutus Buckeye announcing “BIG things coming,” with a picture next to the Oregon Duck might have caused a stir Tuesday. What does it mean?!
There are no shortage of people in the comments predicting an Oregon move to the Big Ten, though it seems unlikely that announcement would come from the social media page of another team’s mascot.
It’s also possible the two teams agreed to a series of games. Whatever it is, we’ll know the answer soon. Thanks for the heads up, Brutus.
