Week Zero marks the start of the 2024 college football season with four games, but the only Power Five contest is Florida State-Georgia Tech of Ireland. College football has seen drastic developments in the last five years – NIL, transfer portal, expansion, resignations, etc. – so let’s look at the impact of these changes as we approach the season.
On the edge
I miss the GOAT, Nick Saban, who set a standard both on and off the field that no one will match in my lifetime. He ran a clean program, developed players into NFL pros, and recruited more players than the competition (of course, there was no NIL or transfer portal before 2021). He also went on his own terms and left tens of millions of dollars on the table. His facial expressions were legendary. He was a true perfectionist who took Alabama football to the top and brought the university hundreds of millions in free advertising and many more in donations.
More: Ken Schreiber’s 5 takeaways from the preseason as college football prepares to kick off 2024.
∎I will miss Jim Harbaugh, who was born to a coach, played like a coach on the field at Michigan and led the Wolverines to their first national championship since 1997. He was a maverick on and off the field, not only in his coaching style but in his confrontational approach to the media. But his polarizing nature was what incentivized every Michigan player last year to support his coach unconditionally with an “us against the world” mentality. It makes for great theater on any stage. The Wolverines were always must-see TV, even in the early years of Harbaugh’s losing streak, but now without him, they won’t get the same national attention. He was Deion before Deion existed. It says here that Michigan is going to have a very rough year.
∎It has been reported that Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz will be suspended for one game because the Hawkeyes recruited Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara in 2022. Ferentz has coached Iowa since 1999, but even he is apparently not immune to committing a rules violation under the pressure of winning.
∎And that brings us to Coach Sanders. You’ve heard of Cedric the Entertainer? Sanders should patent the phrase “Deion the Entertainer.” Wherever he goes, the media will follow. The only problem is he’s still at low-powered Colorado, where he won four games last season. Even with his talented son Shedeur at quarterback and the most talented two-way player in college football, Travis Hunter (cornerback and wide receiver), the Buffs just don’t have enough talent to make a quantum leap to the national stage. But it will be interesting to watch.
These changes are not for the better
I still can’t believe the Pac-12 is gone. Sure, it exists in name only, but this league was an iconic brand. A little over a decade ago, the Pac-12 flirted with taking over the Big 12 from four universities, including big names Oklahoma and Texas. The Pac-12 couldn’t close the deal, and its fate was in flux and sealed forever. “The conference of champions,” as the late, great Bill Walton used to say in his basketball commentary, is no more. And that’s a tragedy that reflects a failure shared by all who contributed to it.
∎The expansion of the College Football Playoff from four to 12 teams creates a huge increase in excitement. But I will miss the days when every regular-season game counted and was a de facto playoff season. Today, teams can lose one, two, or even three games and still qualify for the CFP. The networks will fool you with hype that the outcome of every monster game is the end of the world. The term “Game of the Century” in the regular season should officially be retired because those games were all-or-nothing contests (i.e. No. 1 vs. No. 2 in the modern era, 1971 Oklahoma-Nebraska, 1991 Miami-Florida State, 1993 Florida State-Notre Dame, 2006 Michigan-Ohio State, 2011 LSU at Alabama, 2019 LSU at Alabama, etc.). I was lucky to be in the final four.
∎What if new recruits stayed at one school for their entire career? Now they’re all free agents every year and the connection between the players and the schools is superficial. I know that’s harsh and shouldn’t be looked at in isolation, but that’s the state of the sport today. While turnover may be key to developing chemistry, talent can now be transferred almost immediately and without hesitation when a player walks out the door to his new team. Loyalty is an anomaly at best and dead at worst.
∎I’ll miss Bedlam, which is Oklahoma playing Oklahoma State every year. Then there’s Pitt-Penn State, Nebraska-Oklahoma, etc. Those teams will face each other again, but rivalries are annual contests that don’t come around every ten years. That’s why Michigan-Ohio State, Alabama-Auburn and Oklahoma-Texas and others are so special. The problem is that the power leagues are so big now that only a select few play each other each year, and the fan is at a disadvantage.
∎I’ll just say it once: The SEC, now a 16-team league that continues to play an eight-game conference schedule, is arguably the biggest farce in college football as the league continues to manipulate the system to advance its interests.
Odds and ends
I know it’s been a while, but I still miss announcer Verne Lundquist’s commentary on SEC football every Saturday and the voice of college football, the late Keith Jackson, whose legendary phrases like “Whoa, look here” and “Whoa, Nelly!” preceded a dramatic game and will never be emulated.
∎ Finally, Nebraska coach Matt Rhule announced that five-star quarterback Dylan Raiola is in the starting lineup for next week’s game against the University of Texas at El Paso. The Big Red may not be back on the national stage, but here they are, winning eight games this season. Not only did you hear that here first — you only heard it here, period.
On the field
Florida State vs. Georgia Tech (+11.5): It’s the coming out party for FSU quarterback DJ Uiagalelei — yes, a transfer from Oregon State. Before that, he was a transfer from Clemson, so you can imagine what I mean. He replaces All-American Jordan Travis. Uiagalelei has all the tools, but is too inconsistent for me. It’s amazing that the Yellow Jackets, who are in the middle of recruiting (Atlanta), can’t put together a competitive team. Take the points, because this early-season game will be full of mistakes on both sides of the ball.
