2024-2025 NCAA Football Thread

[dfergie]

Wow, OT...

 

[meStevo]

lol, was watching the news since the Texas game didn't seem competitive. I'd posted this in Discord mentioning how I liked all the options on YTTV... it was 17-3.

A friend told me to turn it back on as they made the 2 point conversion.

Now a doink and headed into OT. Wild.

 

[meStevo]

Wild game.

 

[Yespage]

B10 makes both semi's. OSU isn't a big surprise, but Oregon's collapse was something. PSU is a surprise to me. They had little in the way of quality wins. But they punched their ticket and will face the winner today between Georgia and Notre Dame. I'd be stunned if Notre Dame keeps it close, forget comes away with a victory.

Thanks to ASU's resolve, the playoff appears to be justifying its existence and the rankings are being justified as well, and little in the way of modifications are needed. Though I hate the Overtime stuff. Can't they just play one full quarter, then go to the gimmick offensive drive stuff?

 

[Jimbo]

Arizona State is Outplaying Texas in the 4th quarter

B10 makes both semi's. OSU isn't a big surprise, but Oregon's collapse was something. PSU is a surprise to me. They had little in the way of quality wins. But they punched their ticket and will face the winner today between Georgia and Notre Dame. I'd be stunned if Notre Dame keeps it close, forget comes away with a victory.

Thanks to ASU's resolve, the playoff appears to be justifying its existence and the rankings are being justified as well, and little in the way of modifications are needed. Though I hate the Overtime stuff. Can't they just play one full quarter, then go to the gimmick offensive drive stuff?

My Opinion, I think the ND/Georgia game will be closer than many might expect, even Win.
I'm kinda surprised with PSU still being in it, but they were in the easier (supposed) side of the bracket.

Usually when rankings for a playoff is done, the y have an idea of who should make it and sort the teams out so they would make it if they continue to win ... They screwed up with Ohio State and Oregon playing in the 2nd round ...
Personally I think Oregon can beat any of the teams that are left.

As for OT, that is a Joke.

IF they wanted to improve it, getting rid of the 2 point thing being mandatory.

Now, if they want to leave the actual game of Football in the OT (provided they are against playing another quarter, how they use to do it)
Have teams start at the 40 or 50 yard line ... this way, your not already in FG range to start ...
Punting MAY even play a part in the OT ... right now they take too much of the game out of it.

Thats where I would Start.

 

[Foxbat]

Well, Well, Well… 3 out of 4 Teams from north of the 40th parallel. And ND the odd man out as not being in a conference nor named for the state their college is based.

Marcus Freeman finally gets his win over Georgia.

All the Bye teams went bye-bye…

Go Irish!

 

[Jimbo]

Some exhales of relief from the polling folks. B10 is justifying their rankings at the moment. Alabama justified not being in the playoff. Still possible to have an all "SEC" final though.

Now its quite possible to have an All Big Ten final.

ND vs PSU will be an interesting game, low scoring, I think I heard them say ND was a 1 point favorite.

ND vs Geo just had no flow from either side really.
PSU isn't much better ... but they have more that those two ... I'm thinking PSU pulls this one out.

Texas vs OSU should be a much better game, I think.

 

[Yespage]

And that is why I don't gamble in sports.

 

[Foxbat]

And that is why I don't gamble in sports.

Nope! Foxbat, Sr., was able to figure the odds and enjoyed risking money, but those “smarts” skipped a generation or two.

 

[madmadworld]

Where MMW was Right ----- Where MMW was Wrong

No matter the sport no more than 8 teams are needed.

4 teams were enough.

 

[Yespage]

Where MMW was Right ----- Where MMW was Wrong

No matter the sport no more than 8 teams are needed.

4 teams were enough.

Were they? The bye teams are all gone. Two of them were low in the rankings, two were at the top. Again, the trouble with measuring the ability of a team in a 12 game season with 3 or fewer competitive games is near impossible. Of the Final Four, only two (OSU, Texas) aren't a surprise. I don't think any neutral person thought Notre Dame would be in the semis. PSU is the biggest surprise, but the bracket smiled at them. Maybe re-seed each round next time? This provides the team allegedly tops to be rewarded as such.

 

[AZ.]

Were they? The bye teams are all gone. Two of them were low in the rankings, two were at the top. Again, the trouble with measuring the ability of a team in a 12 game season with 3 or fewer competitive games is near impossible. Of the Final Four, only two (OSU, Texas) aren't a surprise. I don't think any neutral person thought Notre Dame would be in the semis. PSU is the biggest surprise, but the bracket smiled at them. Maybe re-seed each round next time? This provides the team allegedly tops to be rewarded as such.

I have really enjoyed the 12 teams, and some very entertaining games. The ASU game might of been the best for me, big comeback to fall short in OT.
Anyone hear how the viewership has been?

 

[madmadworld]

Were they? The bye teams are all gone.

I had thought 4 teams the past what 10 years or so was enough. a year here and there a 5th teams seemed worthy, but that's about it. like you said those top 4 are gone.

Again, the trouble with measuring the ability of a team in a 12 game season with 3 or fewer competitive games is near impossible.

That sure sounds right this year.

 

[lakebum431]

WHERE does this thinking come from ???

First, I haven't been on the site over the holidays so haven't responded. OSU is looking very strong and is finally playing like a real team. I expect them to win it all now. Looks like it was money well spent!

As far as the FIFO comment it is very real. Even more real now that I have been there in person. The game is what it was and TN was dominated, that's totally fine. But I have to share my experience at the game.

I have been to a LOT of "away" games. Now, most of them have been at SEC schools because that is who we have played the most, but to name a few of those trips I've been to: FL 3 times, GA 5 times, LSU 1 time, Bama 2 times, Auburn 3 times, SC 1 time, TX A&M 1 time, KY and Vandy once each (not sure those count), and non-SEC schools - Cal, Oklahoma (when they weren't in the SEC), Oregon and I'm sure a few that I'm forgetting right now. I've also been to multiple bowl and neutral site games around the country. The trip to OSU was by far the worst experience of all of those and the stadium was also the worst (with Cal's stadium being only slightly better, but those two stadiums being complete outliers at the bottom from the rest).

Let me first talk about the good. We stayed in Easton (very nice area) and on Friday evening had a nice dinner and drinks there. On Saturday morning we went to the Short North area and stayed for the afternoon. We had a great time with good food and good drinks. Excellent service and a nice area. That's where all the good ended.

We got dropped off at the stadium with lots of time before the game and went in pretty early to be able to experience all of the pregame festivities. The entering of the stadium was a general cluster, but I feel like that is the case at most large stadiums. That said, I had my first indication that this was going to be different as I saw Ohio State fans trying to start fights on multiple occasions including spitting on a guy in orange who was just standing there minding his own business not saying a word. (More on the fans later). Once we made it in and went to our seats I realized how junky the stadium was. It looks like it hasn't been updated, well, ever. We were sitting in the end zone at the "open end" of the horseshoe and for some unexplainable reason there is an enormous flag pole behind the uprights that blocks some portion of the field the entire game. Stupid design. But in a true "hold my beer and watch this" moment I learned that was no where near the worst of the obstructed view problems. The crappy way that the stadium was constructed results in fully obstructed seats (that they sell for full price) directly behind pillars to hold up the upper deck all around the horseshoe. Now we didn't have one of those, but I would be livid if I did. What a terrible fan experience.

Next they started talking and playing music on the sound system. I'm not joking or exaggerating when I say that they have speakers in one place in the stadium (the closed end of the horseshoe) and quality is on par with a large high school stadium. The music was garbled and it sounded like it was playing from a blown speaker. The PA announcer was mostly unintelligible because of the speaker except when it was totally quiet during commercials or half time (more on this later).

I was super excited to see the "dotting of the i" as this is supposed to be one of college football's great traditions (and one of the main reasons I wanted to be sure to be in my seat early). What a disappointment. I will say it looks a little better on TV (I rewatched the game when I got home), but it is very underwhelming and not on par with any of the big traditions that I've seen around the country. Additionally, I'm not sure if some of the band was out on holiday break, but the band both before the game and during half time was pathetic. It was difficult to even hear them and the half time show was on par with a high school presentation (they were trying to tell a story about pirates for some unexplainable reason). [I just looked it up and it looks like there are 195 members of the OSU band for halftime as compared to 415 for TN's which is more the standard for the large SEC schools].

The next set of major problems resulted when people needed to use the facilities. An older gentleman that sat in front of me had to wait over 1 hour to use the bathroom and he was not an outlier. That's right, 1 hour... Not to mention the fact that they have port-a-potties brought inside the stadium because they obviously know there is a problem, but that didn't help enough. This resulted in groups of OSU fans literally just pissing in the corners of the stadium. The corridors smelled like urine and were disgusting. Major changes needed here to make this a reasonable setup. The only other place I've seen the port-a-potty setup was at Cal, but it only holds like 60k so even though it was a terrible setup and you essentially had to walk outside the stadium (inside a gate system so you weren't leaving) it was only about a 10 min wait.

During the breaks in the game there was a guy on a microphone who interacted with the crowd in what I can only explain as "basketball type crowd games". They felt the need to continually do something instead of just letting people experience the game atmosphere. An example of this was at one point they had a guy in an inflatable hotdog costume come out with the guy and they announced their "famous hot dog throw" which consisted of them tossing about three hotdogs into the crowd. I go to a lot of basketball games and this is the type of thing I see at those, but never see them at football. It isn't a big deal, but seemed kinda "Busch league".

Now on to the biggest problem of all - the fans. These were by far the trashiest fans I've ever seen in my life (again, I've been to GA and seen grown men bark at people, I've been to FL and seen their nonsense, I've been to LSU and listened to the French/English creole crazy language where I couldn't even understand what they were saying), but this was totally different. I mentioned the spitting earlier. That was the first of multiple spitting incidents that I witnessed. After the first OSU score, a group of fans (these were adults not students) came across the aisle to a man who appeared to be in his late 70's or 80's and got in his face screaming that he sucked. I was worried that it was actually going to turn physical. It should be noted that this man had done nothing to enflame them or even interact with them before this. These types of interactions continued throughout the game as well as after the game on the way out of the stadium. Not sure why spitting is so highly used by OSU fans, but it was a common occurrence. All of the other "away" experiences that I've had resulted in good natured ribbing of the away fans, but these people seemed to be angry and generally nasty people. If it was an isolated incident it would be one thing, but it was not. It happened over and over with different groups of non-student fans. Again, the only way that I can describe it is trashy.

I can say with 100% certainty that I would never go back to Columbus for a game and it 100% makes me detest FIFOs even more. Except I've now determined that they should be called FAFOs as they aren't just idiots, but also A@@holes.

 

[Howard Simmons]

First, I haven't been on the site over the holidays so haven't responded. OSU is looking very strong and is finally playing like a real team. I expect them to win it all now. Looks like it was money well spent!

As far as the FIFO comment it is very real. Even more real now that I have been there in person. The game is what it was and TN was dominated, that's totally fine. But I have to share my experience at the game.

I have been to a LOT of "away" games. Now, most of them have been at SEC schools because that is who we have played the most, but to name a few of those trips I've been to: FL 3 times, GA 5 times, LSU 1 time, Bama 2 times, Auburn 3 times, SC 1 time, TX A&M 1 time, KY and Vandy once each (not sure those count), and non-SEC schools - Cal, Oklahoma (when they weren't in the SEC), Oregon and I'm sure a few that I'm forgetting right now. I've also been to multiple bowl and neutral site games around the country. The trip to OSU was by far the worst experience of all of those and the stadium was also the worst (with Cal's stadium being only slightly better, but those two stadiums being complete outliers at the bottom from the rest).

Let me first talk about the good. We stayed in Easton (very nice area) and on Friday evening had a nice dinner and drinks there. On Saturday morning we went to the Short North area and stayed for the afternoon. We had a great time with good food and good drinks. Excellent service and a nice area. That's where all the good ended.

We got dropped off at the stadium with lots of time before the game and went in pretty early to be able to experience all of the pregame festivities. The entering of the stadium was a general cluster, but I feel like that is the case at most large stadiums. That said, I had my first indication that this was going to be different as I saw Ohio State fans trying to start fights on multiple occasions including spitting on a guy in orange who was just standing there minding his own business not saying a word. (More on the fans later). Once we made it in and went to our seats I realized how junky the stadium was. It looks like it hasn't been updated, well, ever. We were sitting in the end zone at the "open end" of the horseshoe and for some unexplainable reason there is an enormous flag pole behind the uprights that blocks some portion of the field the entire game. Stupid design. But in a true "hold my beer and watch this" moment I learned that was no where near the worst of the obstructed view problems. The crappy way that the stadium was constructed results in fully obstructed seats (that they sell for full price) directly behind pillars to hold up the upper deck all around the horseshoe. Now we didn't have one of those, but I would be livid if I did. What a terrible fan experience.

Next they started talking and playing music on the sound system. I'm not joking or exaggerating when I say that they have speakers in one place in the stadium (the closed end of the horseshoe) and quality is on par with a large high school stadium. The music was garbled and it sounded like it was playing from a blown speaker. The PA announcer was mostly unintelligible because of the speaker except when it was totally quiet during commercials or half time (more on this later).

I was super excited to see the "dotting of the i" as this is supposed to be one of college football's great traditions (and one of the main reasons I wanted to be sure to be in my seat early). What a disappointment. I will say it looks a little better on TV (I rewatched the game when I got home), but it is very underwhelming and not on par with any of the big traditions that I've seen around the country. Additionally, I'm not sure if some of the band was out on holiday break, but the band both before the game and during half time was pathetic. It was difficult to even hear them and the half time show was on par with a high school presentation (they were trying to tell a story about pirates for some unexplainable reason). [I just looked it up and it looks like there are 195 members of the OSU band for halftime as compared to 415 for TN's which is more the standard for the large SEC schools].

The next set of major problems resulted when people needed to use the facilities. An older gentleman that sat in front of me had to wait over 1 hour to use the bathroom and he was not an outlier. That's right, 1 hour... Not to mention the fact that they have port-a-potties brought inside the stadium because they obviously know there is a problem, but that didn't help enough. This resulted in groups of OSU fans literally just pissing in the corners of the stadium. The corridors smelled like urine and were disgusting. Major changes needed here to make this a reasonable setup. The only other place I've seen the port-a-potty setup was at Cal, but it only holds like 60k so even though it was a terrible setup and you essentially had to walk outside the stadium (inside a gate system so you weren't leaving) it was only about a 10 min wait.

During the breaks in the game there was a guy on a microphone who interacted with the crowd in what I can only explain as "basketball type crowd games". They felt the need to continually do something instead of just letting people experience the game atmosphere. An example of this was at one point they had a guy in an inflatable hotdog costume come out with the guy and they announced their "famous hot dog throw" which consisted of them tossing about three hotdogs into the crowd. I go to a lot of basketball games and this is the type of thing I see at those, but never see them at football. It isn't a big deal, but seemed kinda "Busch league".

Now on to the biggest problem of all - the fans. These were by far the trashiest fans I've ever seen in my life (again, I've been to GA and seen grown men bark at people, I've been to FL and seen their nonsense, I've been to LSU and listened to the French/English creole crazy language where I couldn't even understand what they were saying), but this was totally different. I mentioned the spitting earlier. That was the first of multiple spitting incidents that I witnessed. After the first OSU score, a group of fans (these were adults not students) came across the aisle to a man who appeared to be in his late 70's or 80's and got in his face screaming that he sucked. I was worried that it was actually going to turn physical. It should be noted that this man had done nothing to enflame them or even interact with them before this. These types of interactions continued throughout the game as well as after the game on the way out of the stadium. Not sure why spitting is so highly used by OSU fans, but it was a common occurrence. All of the other "away" experiences that I've had resulted in good natured ribbing of the away fans, but these people seemed to be angry and generally nasty people. If it was an isolated incident it would be one thing, but it was not. It happened over and over with different groups of non-student fans. Again, the only way that I can describe it is trashy.

I can say with 100% certainty that I would never go back to Columbus for a game and it 100% makes me detest FIFOs even more. Except I've now determined that they should be called FAFOs as they aren't just idiots, but also A@@holes.

Sorry you had to go through that.