Thoughts on College Football

Two huge topics have happened in college football in the last week, and I wanted to weigh in on them and think through the U of M season.

1. USC is found guilty of cheating.

Basically, USC (University of Southern California) was found to have provided compensation to players for playing in their College football program - a huge no-no. NCAA does not allow colleges to do anything of monetary value for their students, ostensibly in order to keep the colleges from paying for students. As a result, USC has to vacate all their wins from 2004 (including a national championship) and loses a bunch of scholarships.

I must admit I like this story, simply because I have never liked USC. They've always seemed cocky and arrogant, and Pete Carroll was the best figurehead of that. I don't like Carroll, and there are a lot of people here in Seattle that don't like him either - for those reasons. I'm interested to see how this catches up with Carroll... My guess is that he is on a a super short leash now with the Seahawks. If some of the bets he made this year don't play out (Charlie Whitehurst?), he's gone. The Seahawks (from what I know) are a classy organization (for real, unlike Pittsburgh which just pretends), and they won't stand for an arrogant cheater - he'll be gone faster than Mora.

The other element I like about this story? One of the largest weasels in college football just got majorly screwed. Lane Kiffin, who has never won much of anything, promised his players he would be in Tennessee. Then he bolted to USC after a year. A very weasel move - and now he's stuck at USC without the ability to play in a bowl game for two years. Good luck recruiting for a team that legally can't win.

2. Big 12 Shakeup

Nebraska leaves the Big 12 for the Big 10, Colorado leaves Big 12 for the Pac 10. Besides the confusion of now severely misnumbered conferences (Big 10 has 12 members, Big 12 has 10, Pac 10 has 11), there leaves the possibility that Texas will leave the Big 12 and the whole thing evaporates.

Here's my dream for College Football: Texas and it's little gang join the Pac 10, creating a Pac 16. Notre Dame and a couple of other sensible teams round out the Big 10 to a Big 16. SEC picks up some leftovers to go to 16. And another conference gets to 16, and then we have four equal conferences, and we can start... a playoff!!!

Why it takes so long to make this happen, I don't know.

3. Michigan Season Preview

I haven't been able to watch a U of M game in a couple of years, but my opinion is that I like what they've been trying to do with Rich Rodriguez. The Big 10 needs to catch up with the 20th century, or we'll keep getting blown out in Bowl Games by teams that are so crazy they dare try to "pass."

And while I like what they attempted to do with Rodriguez, I think he's a weasel, just like Kiffin. He left WVU just like Kiffin left UT.

And with the allegations coming out about how he's tried to make players practice more than they are legally allowed, I think Rodriguez knows that he needs to improve the squad this year, and is desperate. He either needs a decent winning record, and a big bowl win or a big OSU win. I think if he went 1-11 but beat OSU, they might keep him.

Realistically? I think an 8 win season is reachable, maybe even 9 or 10. I think they're going to roll through the start of the season (possible exception: Notre Dame) and have a 5-1 or 6-0 start going into the Iowa game. And then it's going to be a rough season...