Is College Football fixable?

[biggunsbob]

I lot of us won?t even watch the finals now. Watching the semifinals it was apparent to me that the other leagues are light years behind the SEC. I guess I knew that but I did think Michigan could keep it close. Glad I don?t bet anymore.
Lol.

The talent level is just so much better in the Sec. Bama and Georgia have 2 deeps that can start at Cincinnati and some at Michigan.

Georgia had a depleted secondary and Michigan could still not exploit it. Georgia looked bigger and faster then Michigan at just about every position. I do think getting more teams in the playoffs in theory should open up kids to other schools outside the sec. Osu Recruits at SEC level but that?s about it outside the Sec. Michigan and Georgia May have similar ranking numbers but when one team has 20 five star Recruits, and the other team has 3 you and I know who is going to win that game 99/10 times.

My question is
How can the sec recruit so much better then the other conferences and how do we fix it ?

Is it Admission standards ?
Money ?
Peds?
Coaching ?
Weather ?
Something I?m over looking

 

[gotime909]

Osu has no problem recruiting top 5 classes yearly. UM has top 10 classes. UM has had 36 players drafted the last 5 years. Talent hasn't been as big an issue as coaching imo. MSU beat UM having 1 legit NFL prospect on their roster. Obviously michigan was the much more talented team.

 

[Mitchrapp]

The SEC can blow. I don't believe they are light years ahead. We can compete just had an off day. The B1G is good. If anything I think the voting system has an SEC bias.

 

[tinselwolverine]

Herbstreit and Fowler were talking about the number of five star recruits between the two and Georgia had more by magnitudes.

That said, winning the Big Ten finally and making to the CFP can only help Michigan in recruiting.

Like go time said, the buckeyes get good classes, a lot of the reason is they have been successful.

I think Mitch Rapp is right in that it was an atypically bad day for Michigan.

Also it was our guys first time on that big stage and maybe they weren?t quite psychologically ready for it.

So just keep on winning Big Ten championships and get to the CFP more often and things should go better as that happens more often.

 

[Michchamp]

You can get the best recruits, but you still have to coach them effectively.

The idea that the SEC is the best conference is bullshit. Only Alabama was really THAT good for a number of years, and only more recently has Georgia emerged as a powerhouse

 

[tinselwolverine]

I haven?t watched an entire CFP finals game since the inception. I?ve probably checked most of them out for a few minutes. Maybe when it got to be late in the fourth quarter I?d flip it on to see who would win sometimes.

 

[biggunsbob]

Remember I am taking about the playoff system and nothing else. Results are contrary to what either of you saying although I agree the voting is tilted toward the sec.

Yeah Msu seems to have Michigan number just like Alabama has Georgia number in recent seasons G. Congrats to you guys.

And btw I mentioned Osu if you read what I wrote and last I checked Osu is the only team outside the south that has won the CFP. I?m hoping expansion will help. It felt like light years last night. Georgia looked bigger and stronger all over the field last nigh to me.

 

[Michchamp]

I haven?t watched an entire CFP finals game since the inception. I?ve probably checked most of them out for a few minutes. Maybe when it got to be late in the fourth quarter I?d flip it on to see who would win sometimes.

I might've watched 5 minutes of live CFP game action total prior to yesterday.

I think the first time I didn't tune in at all to a college football championship game, (or bowl game that involved the #1 team) was the year Alabama beat LSU 21-0 on 7 FGs.

I haven't cared much about CFB in general since then.

 

[gotime909]

I'll watch this year seeing that the obvious 2 best teams made it.

 

[rumseyhouse77]

I'm still in a bit of shock after the drubbing the team took last night. I expected them to at least compete. As Bob mentioned, it seemed like Georgia was bigger and faster at every position. Though it is probably not true, it sure seemed like it. And you can be sure that having loads of 5 star players to develop makes a huge difference. It is like starting a 100 yard dash with a 50 yard lead. Hard to catch up unless the other guy stumbles (with injuries, etc.). Every coach wants to work with that kind of talent, so they get the best coaching staffs too. Academic standards for the SEC are also lower. They aint there to play no school. And why should they, the players, be concerned about education when their goal is to make it to the NFL and get a big pay day? You aint got to be educated to do that, you gots to be coached up and be on a winning team. Probably some dirty money too. It's a combination of things. I don't think it is the weather.

Regarding the game, the rushing game was terrible. Coaches should have seen how strong Georgia was at stopping the rush and game planned to attack the middle of the field with short passes, as BiggunsBob suggested. Bama showed how to beat Georgia, why didn't the coaches pay attention to that? I think that would have been much more successful. More competitive than what the plan was. It seemed like they were just using the same plan that was used vs OSU and Iowa. The Georgia defensive rush was overwhelming. The blocking was bad. I can't believe they didn't block that punt! Did the coaches just miss this? Believed too much in the hype about the Oline? Seems so. The defense also played terrible. I considered the dbs to be a weakness of the defense all season, and Georgia exposed that. Dline put little pressure on a walk on QB. It was a complete team loss.

 

[bphillips4gg]

Michigan obviously does have some disadvantages that some other teams do not, not the least of which is the fact that they hadn't had the level of success that others have in the lifetime of the kids they're recruiting. I think that they are close with talent but the gap exists and in order to compete on that stage with the teams they're likely to play they will need to get more talented and it starts with the lines and QB. There is a huge difference between beating Georgie/LSU/Bama/Clemson in back to back games while also having a virtual CFP first round the Saturday after Thanksgiving every year and winning one game at home with the benefit of having a touchdown taken off the board. Deny it all you want because that's what spartans do, but it is a fact that the Big Ten as well as the CFP selection committee all acknowledged. You can take several 3 stars and turn them into stars but having a roster built on nothing but is a problem. And saying "well michigan sent 35 players to the NFL" is misleading when only 5 of them have been first rounders while Bama, OSU and Georgia have 3-4 first rounders every year.

Michigan is not going to relax their academic standards which is probably their biggest obstacle to acquiring talent. They need to figure out something though because the transfer portal is here to stay and going forward it will be just as important as high school recruiting. They can't burn bridges when a recruit commits elsewhere and they need to have scouts dedicated to both high school and college with the college group monitoring who is in the portal and whether or not they can help.

Michigan has the ability to level the playing field in a few short years if they open up the money bags. Other schools aren't following the rules for NIL and Michigan by all accounts is. Jackson State just landed the number 1 overall recruit by blatantly committing a recruiting violation and not a damn thing is being done about it. Yes, a Michigan degree is a powerful thing to have in life, but trying to sell 16/17/18 year old kids on a degree when OSU, Bama. UGA. Clemson etc are openly setting kids up with millions in NIL and their entire pitch is getting you to the NFL that degree is only going to resonate with a select few kids. I'm not saying that is a bad thing, but michigan still won't allow their student athletes to take online classes whereas OSU and LSU QBs are talking in press conferences about how they've never even set foot on their campus.

 

[wlvrnstlr4life]

It looked to me like the Michigan offense said to themselves, "this is us, try to stop it." And you just can't do that with teams like the one we played. You have to scheme like Bama did weeks ago. Bama went away from what they do normally on offensive, tired Georgia's defense, and then wore them down with their original look offense. Things opened up for them with their deep passing game when UGA was wore the fuck out from chasing Young and the short quick passing plays all game. I thought we would do the same, but it looked like Georgia knew every fucking play we were running. And when a team does that to you, yes, they look bigger, faster, and stronger. No, they were just smarter with their game plan. When the other team is showing up in the plays before the plays get going on consecutive series', it's time to change shit up.

Harbaugh has changed a lot in the past couple years to grow. I think he will learn from this one, too. I hope

Defensively, I figured McDonald would at least shore up our weakness against the screen. That didn't happen and last night was proof you can only get away with that shit for so long, until the lightbulb goes on with an opposing coach.

 

[rumseyhouse77]

Yep, for most of these 5 star players, it is not about getting a degree, it is about getting play time and achievements that get them drafted in the 1st round. That is their entire goal. It is about getting to the pay day. Really, it is the same for everyone. If you could make millions of dollars without a degree wouldn't you take that? Most of us don't have the athletic ability that these players have, so we have to take a different route to earning money to live. For most of us, the goal in attending college was to get a degree to increase our earning potential. For these talented players, and their handlers, it is not about the education they get or the degree from a prestigious university. It is about playing time and showing their skills so they can jump to the next level. Samething in basketball, maybe worse. How many Michigan basketball players have played a couple of years and then jumped to the NBA or the European league. It is a different goal than the rest of us had. Might as well acknowledge it.

 

[Michlady]

I haven?t watched an entire CFP finals game since the inception. I?ve probably checked most of them out for a few minutes. Maybe when it got to be late in the fourth quarter I?d flip it on to see who would win sometimes.

Likewise

 

[thewolverines24]

Expand the playoffs. Giving more teams the chance to win it all is the only way to balance recruiting. The more teams that can sell recruits on having a fighting chance, the better. Have to do something to fight against the gigantic head start SEC bagmen created.

 

[biggunsbob]

There was at least 3 weeks since the big ten title game. Use that time for the playoffs and have teams come up north to play in the weather. One hit in cold weather would stop some of those southern teams.

 

[Mitchrapp]

There was at least 3 weeks since the big ten title game. Use that time for the playoffs and have teams come up north to play in the weather. One hit in cold weather would stop some of those southern teams.

I never liked the bowl season for that reason. Season finishes and weeks go by before teams play their next game. At that point I already lost interest. More teams would make it worse because honestly most of us aren't watching if Michigan isn't involved.

 

[biggunsbob]

I never liked the bowl season for that reason. Season finishes and weeks go by before teams play their next game. At that point I already lost interest. More teams would make it worse because honestly most of us aren't watching if Michigan isn't involved.

I disagree . More teams and keep playing with less breaks like d2

 

[tomdalton22]

I disagree . More teams and keep playing with less breaks like d2

The best scenario would be for the power 5 and group of 5 to each have their own division. No play outside of your division. No more playing Youngstown state, MAC teams, etc. If you want a 16 game playoff it would probably limit the regular season to 10 games if you keep the conference championship games and 11 of you get rid of them.

The group of 5 could do the same...or whatever D2 does. Nobody would watch the group of 5 and a lot of the programs would probably end because they lose their "power 5 paydays" but that's fine.

 

[bphillips4gg]

I disagree on group of 5. There's plenty of examples of better teams at the top of group of 5 than at the middle or bottom of power 5. The American was 2-1 against the SEC in bowls this year for example. But you want to give credit to Georgia and Bama for beating Florida and Auburn and not give credit to Cincinnati for beating UCF and Houston? Michigan gets a pass for barely beating Rutgers at home but Cincinnati "doesn't belong" for struggling with Navy in Annapolis?

FWIW, Cincinnati was more competitive than Michigan in the CFP. Neither were particularly close, but discounting the group of 5 isn't the answer. At the very least you can include the top ranked group of 5 as an AQ in a 12 team playoff since there's generally 1-2 G5 teams that are legitimately top 10-15 teams each year.