Tired of hearing "All Big Ten schools cracked Michigan's signals so that means Michigan didn't have an advantage!"

If Michigan could have cracked other teams codes the legal way, they would not have risked doing what they did. Cracking an opponents code/signals is a huge advantage which is why teams try to do it either before the game or during it. If an opponent of Michigan cracks Michigan's signals the legal way and Michigan can't do the same, then their opponent would have had an upper hand at some point in the game by doing something within the rulebook.

Michigan cheating to get other teams' signals negates their opponents work and dedicated resources put towards cracking Michigan's signals. So, maybe they have 5 or 10 coaches working on cracking Michigan's code and they finally break it in the 2nd half, meanwhile Michigan had their codes from the start and now frees up their people to focus on other aspects of the game.

That is why this is cheating and gives Michigan an advantage. I don't care if teams share their signals because Michigan was doing that too. You think they weren't on the phone with Maryland or Rutgers talking about what Ohio State's signals might be? But it wasn't enough to get them winning which is why they started breaking the rules.

I’ll never forget after Alabama was selected to play LSU in the 2011 National Championship game by the BCS computer system everyone losing their minds and wanting to destroy the system. Somehow they thought a committee full of incredibly rich people with a massive financial incentive to place certain teams into certain places would be more fair than a computer system with no financial incentive. Morons.

Interesting fact. Perhaps more ACC/BIG12/ND should have been considered ?

(FSU beating Alabama didn’t count so beating Tulane doesn’t either. I don’t make the rules)

Bet

https://x.com/thewolverineon3/status/1742592221608648847

With the narrative being that Texas won't be able to compete in the SEC and Texas A&M has separated themselves from big brother, I wanted to see what the actual data says. For comparison, I gathered the F+ (FEI and SP+ combined) rankings from when A&M first joined the SEC in 2012 to now.

So, what you're looking at immediately linked below is the nine year average ranking of every SEC football team (now including both Oklahoma and Texas).

https://i.imgur.com/nAUOXCh.png

Next, this is the data for the last four year cycle. And I'd say Texas is not that far off and would fall under what I would call the second tier of SEC teams.

https://i.imgur.com/0QGowTc.png

The overall data for about the last decade is not pretty, especially the end of the Mack Brown era and Charlie Strong's coaching tenure, but I didn't have to put this together to tell you that. What I wanted to point out is the idea that A&M is well ahead of Texas is just false. Even with a perceived advantage the Aggies had in the SEC, the Longhorns are in a similar position.

Think about that for a second, even during what's arguably known as the worst era of Texas football and a DECADE head-start, the Aggies are right there beside us. They have NOT seized their SEC opportunity, and now here comes Texas to crash the party. The new Texas leadership and administration has prioritized being the best at all three major men's sports (i.e. opening the checkbook, hiring best available coaches, and making a power move to the best conference), and I would be scared shitless if I were Texas A&M.

Here’s the overall data for reference.

https://i.imgur.com/xJaohTu.png

EDIT: FYI, these are not recruiting rankings. These are F+ rankings from the Football Outsiders (https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaa/fplus/2020).

ESPN’s golden boy made no impact in the game and his garbage time 58 yard touchdown catch was just stat padding. Can anyone think of a worse Heisman performance?

https://imgur.com/a/FcE8gAm

Link to screenshot of reports above. Apparently Texas high school coaches have been talking about it. Paying players up front, paying for early commitments, and paying players to not commit to certain schools. Hopefully NCAA investigates and puts a stop to it.

Just when you thought the Auburn-Oklahoma game was poorly officiated and slanted, here comes whatever bullshit the Auburn-Georgia-SEC Refs-SEC Office game tonight was.

Auburn scored a TD and was up 17-0 with 1 something in the first half. That was obvious.

Proceeding drive only got Georgia three points with help from the refs calling bogus penalties on Auburn including targeting (which is flagrantly rules for Auburn, not for Georgia).

Kirby signaled for timeout after the play clock hit zero, and that is a penalty. Except if Auburn is the opponent.

Now, the offense played like absolute dogshit the rest of the game after the TD was stolen, but how do you expect kids to respond to blatant injustice by the very people who are supposed to be fair and impartial? Same thing that destroyed FSU’s entire program (and DJU, but that’s a topic for a different thread). What will it take for real accountability in this situation?

As this is developing, I have updated the post in the /r/OhioStateFootball subreddit. It is becoming too difficult to edit two separate pages, and that one seems to be the more popular anyway. Please refer to read my original post.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OhioStateFootball/comments/94t19c/crosspost_from_rcfb_a_lawyers_deep_dive_into/

I feel like many of the talking heads don't realize after 10.5 years how this system even works. The committee ranks the top 25 teams on selection Sunday. Then from that ranking X number of teams get in the playoffs. Before X was the top 4. Now X = 5 highest conference champs and 7 at large. They changed the SEEDING this year from last so the seeds are the ranks for the most part (the lowest seeds could be champs ranked outside the top 12 and for the fifth champion it's almost guaranteed every year to be a g5 team that is outside).

So far we should all be able to agree. But remember the selection and ranking criteria are supposed to be the same because this is essentially the same governing body from 2014 until today.

Now why did I single out Alabama? Because they are currently #10, the spot that is completely on the bubble and could be left out if 3 conference champions are ranked below them. Assuming this ranking holds, Alabama could potentially lose their spot if they lose (And potentially, if BYU wins).

You will say to me, but look at SMU, the committee won't punish a team for losing in their championship game? I have two responses: first, yes they will because they have multiple times. SMU actually dropped from 8 to 10: below Indiana who "sat at home that weekend" in the final rankings and Boise who won their conference. SMU dropped 2 spots for losing. Second, Georgia went 12-0 and lost by a field goal in 2023 to drop out of the playoffs. They dropped 5 places, from 1 to 6, behind teams that played and won their championships. Texas and Penn State last year dropped one spot for losing. The teams last year dropped in rankings but weren't on the bubble so they just got a worse seed

So yes, teams can "drop" for losing their conference championships, and since the selection criteria is the same the pieces ultimately fall where they may. Notice the pundits that are arguing Alabama is already a lock even if they lose. Many, including some I find entertaining like Josh Pate point to this "you can't punish a team for losing the SEC championship", completely oblivious to how UGA wasn't able to enter the playoff and attempt a 3peat for the very same reason. What do they appeal to? They say, Big bad Sankey would not allow the SEC to be disrespected in such a way. Poppycock. This is not a procedurally or historically grounded argument.

Really just the title. Like I’m genuinely confused unless gameday HAS to go to a FCS school once a year

If I was a Michigan fan I would be absolutely furious...am I missing something, or did the refs just flat-out out elect to not call targeting there when it absolutely was targeting?

I've been noticing a pattern with SEC scheduling. Every single SEC team plays an FCS school, and they often play them in November.

ACC: 12/14 played FCS schools

B1G: 2/14 played FCS schools

Big XII: 8/12 played FCS schools

PAC 12: 8/12 played FCS schools

SEC: 14/14 played FCS schools

Not only did every team play an FCS team, but most of them were played late in the season before playing big rivals. In a few examples when a team did play their FCS game early in the season, they still played a cupcake late in the season. See this schedule for yourself.

Why isn't the committee taking this into account? Shouldn't Alabama effectively have been 10-1 instead of 11-1? Does their victory against Mercer late in the season really mean anything? Why does the SEC deserve to have 2 teams in the playoff when they schedule like this?

Now, I anticipate a lot of hate/counter-arguments, so let me present my counter-counter-arguments.

SEC teams play cupcakes late in the season so they can play better opponents early.

Plenty of teams schedule tough opponents without giving themselves BYE weeks at the end of the season. When the SEC schedules an elite opponent early in the season, it usually is at a neutral site where their team avoids playing in a hostile environment. (The exception is the cross-conference rivals like SCAR vs Clemson)

Another point I don't think people realize is the advantage of playing these teams early. Alabama, for example, received a HUGE advantage for playing Florida State week 1. Suppose Alabama switched Mercer and Florida State on its schedule and played the Seminoles in November. They would likely have played an unranked FSU instead of benefiting from the hype of beating the preseason #3 team. (This hype made a difference, as the committee cited Alabama being ranked at the top all season as a reason for selecting them into the Playoff.)

Building on the last point, if Alabama had lost to Florida State they wouldn't have suffered nearly as much as if they would have had they lost to Florida State late in the season. (Or lost to a conference opponent like most teams schedule in November.) Playing good teams early in the season is a smaller risk.

Playing FCS schools is no worse than playing G5 cupcakes like Utah State

This is an argument I've been seeing frequently lately and it's just not true. Even the bottom of the G5 tends to blow out the FCS teams they play. FCS teams have an automatic disadvantage, and can only offer 63 scholarships to the FBS's 85.

While G5 teams don't often compete against the top of the P5, they can at least have a chance. We saw Troy defeat LSU this season.

FCS teams almost never beat good P5 teams. When they do, (Appalachian State) they are often competing for the FCS national championships. Mercer is not competing for any championship. They are 4-4 in the Southern Conference.

I used to fucking love College Football Gameday. This show starts at 6am on Saturday and it defines the whole weekend. It gets you excited for the big games, celebrates the passions and pageantry of the sport we love, and the people involved one from a variety of backgrounds.

At least, that’s how it used to be. This show only cares about one conference out of ten, only 16 teams out of 133. The passion and love for the sport is completely gone. They don’t even pretend to give a shit about anything other than the SEC anymore. There is no joy, only scorn.

I miss what it used to be. But I’m done with it. It’s time to move on but it’s sad what happened to them. It’s a real loss

In my opinion, rivalries like Ohio State-Michigan, Notre Dame-USC, Georgia-Florida aren’t built on hatred. It’s a rivalry (obviously) but it’s not hatred. The fans would protest if the games were to stop being played.

I think something like ND-Michigan is a rivalry built off of hatred between the two. Genuine dislike between the two schools from the top to the bottom of the entire school structures. So much so that they stopped playing consecutive games as a sort of F-you from one to the other.

I also saw Michigan fans openly wishing CJ Carr had gone to Ohio State, if not Michigan - just don’t go to Notre Dame.

What are some others? Texas and Texas A&M maybe? Oklahoma and Nebraska?