College Football Thread

[I-10east]

These college game have been horrendous. Blowouts in all of them. Hopefully atleast the Taxslayer Bowl, and most importantly the CLEM vs BAMA championship will be competitive games.

[JeffreyS]

The state of Florida has certainly been embarrassing.

[CCMjax]

These college game have been horrendous. Blowouts in all of them. Hopefully atleast the Taxslayer Bowl, and most importantly the CLEM vs BAMA championship will be competitive games.

No kidding.  I kind of saw the UF-UM result coming before it happened.  Inept offense (Post-Grier) vs great defense = very few points by UF.  I was really surprised by the Bama-MSU and OK-Clemson results.  Thought those games would be a lot closer, but Bama is playing angry and focused after last year and exposed MSU's weak and inexperienced secondary all night long.  But even with a better secondary I don't think anyone could have beaten them Thursday night or even come close with how well there defense was clicking.  It will be interesting to see if they carry that over to the championship game.  Clemson is also playing at a very high level and deserves to be there.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

I was really surprised by the Bama-MSU and OK-Clemson results.  Thought those games would be a lot closer, but Bama is playing angry and focused after last year and exposed MSU's weak and inexperienced secondary all night long. 

I only half-tuned into either of these games, so had to rely on the box scores to refresh my memory, but they could have each gone the other way based on the 1st half performances.

OK & Clemson were playing basketball on grass in the first half, trading scores, and it wasn't until the mid-3rd quarter when some injuries on the OK side allowed Clemson to do what they do best - force you to play catchup and then unleash the rush.

Bama was only up 10-0 in the first half and it could have easily been 10-7, 10-3.  I didn't watch after the half, so ti seems like the adjustments were made based on the final score.

Either way, I don't think they were that bad, but I don't really like watching college football in the first place.

[spuwho]

These college game have been horrendous. Blowouts in all of them. Hopefully atleast the Taxslayer Bowl, and most importantly the CLEM vs BAMA championship will be competitive games.

No kidding.  I kind of saw the UF-UM result coming before it happened.  Inept offense (Post-Grier) vs great defense = very few points by UF.  I was really surprised by the Bama-MSU and OK-Clemson results.  Thought those games would be a lot closer, but Bama is playing angry and focused after last year and exposed MSU's weak and inexperienced secondary all night long.  But even with a better secondary I don't think anyone could have beaten them Thursday night or even come close with how well there defense was clicking.  It will be interesting to see if they carry that over to the championship game.  Clemson is also playing at a very high level and deserves to be there.

Just my 2 cents. The Gators clearly gave up after Harris threw the interception on the goal line.  Michigan started rolling shortly after. After that I knew UM was going to win and stopped watching.

I never expected MSU to match up with Alabama. I think Ohio State would have matched better because they have a better OL. But Urban has recruited a bunch of self centered nut heads and you reap what you sow.

Iowa had a mild schedule in a down year for the Big Ten, the Stanford score was not a surprise.

[I-10east]

The word is that the playoff TV ratings for both games have been way down. Down 36 percent from last year.

http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/ratings-espn-college-football-playoff-games-tumble-1201670563/

[tufsu1]

^ 2 very simple reasons for that

1. New Year's Eve...people have lots of other things to do
2. Scores....pretty much every New Year's Six game (except arguablly FSU-Houston) was a blowout.

[copperfiend]

^ 2 very simple reasons for that

1. New Year's Eve...people have lots of other things to do
2. Scores....pretty much every New Year's Six game (except arguablly FSU-Houston) was a blowout.

I read in the NYT that ESPN wanted the playoff games on today (Saturday) but were rebuffed.

[I-10east]

^ 2 very simple reasons for that

1. New Year's Eve...people have lots of other things to do
2. Scores....pretty much every New Year's Six game (except arguablly FSU-Houston) was a blowout.

That FSU game pretty much was a lop-sided affair as well, with HOU winning by 14 points. UGA-Penn St here in Jax, and TCU-ORE both were close though.

[thelakelander]

The state of Florida has certainly been embarrassing.

At least the UM game was competitive. It took UM urinating all over itself (call back touchdowns, red zone fumbles & interceptions, etc.) to keep the game close, to the point they actually lost by 6 points. Hopefully, Richt will at least make them play more disciplined football. Based they're talent, not shooting themselves in the foot will put them in position to win a few more games than in previous years.

[I-10east]

^^^I agree, esp in that snowy weather up in the Northwest.

[MusicMan]

The Gators playing a bowl game in Orlando? That might as well be a home game for them, and they crapped the bed. They finished the season on a 3 game losing streak and were outscored 97-24.  Coach Mac has his work cut out for himself. You can't blame it all on Treon Harris.

[CCMjax]

The Gators playing a bowl game in Orlando? That might as well be a home game for them, and they crapped the bed. They finished the season on a 3 game losing streak and were outscored 97-24.  Coach Mac has his work cut out for himself. You can't blame it all on Treon Harris.

Umm, every half-way meaningful bowl is played in the south or southern California every year.  Sometimes you see the advantage for the southern schools in the crowd but sometimes you don't with other fan bases that travel well or have a good local presence.  The Michigan fan base travels well and also has a lot of transplants in the area so I'm not sure how much of an advantage that would have been for Florida in that game.  I wasn't there and didn't pay attention so I don't know which fan base had more.

[FlaBoy]

Bowl games are meaningless except for conference bragging rights. Some teams are excited to play (Houston) and others are not (FSU), while some come off a disappointing loss which makes it hard to get back up for a bowl game (Florida). Coach Mac definitely got outcoached in the Citrus Bowl but the defense looked like they just didn't have it in them to grind it out again and the offense tanked of course after Grier went out.

The future definitely is bright for Florida and FSU, and Mark Richt will build a solid program at Miami.

[Tacachale]

Bowl games are meaningless except for conference bragging rights.

You could say that *all* games are meaningless except for bragging rights.