College Football

Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby issued an apology after ex-Baylor coach Art Briles, Lebby's father-in-law, was spotted walking alongside him following the Sooners' Sept. 9 home win against SMU. Lebby, in a prepared statement during his Monday press conference, called Briles' appearance a "distraction" and vowed that the situation "will not come up again" after speaking with Sooners coach Brent Venables and athletic director Joe Castiglione.

"One, [I] just want everyone to understand, my father-in-law, his presence on the field after the game is something that created a distraction and I apologize for that," Lebby said. "That was not the intent at all. The intent was just to celebrate with my family. I do want to correct some reports that said that he had a sideline pass, he did not have a sideline pass given out. He was only on the field when other families were down there and were present. Joe Castiglione, Coach [Brent] Venables have both expressed concerns with me, talked to me about it to make sure that everyone understands that this is something that will not come up again."

The sight of Briles wearing OU-branded gear on the field sparked backlash among Sooners fans aware of his embattled past. Briles has not coached at the major collegiate level since he was fired from Baylor in May 2016 amid a sexual assault scandal that rattled the Bears football program.

Is this maybe also the space to ruminate on what the BCS and then the playoff have done to the culture of college football? I'm (just) old enough to really remember what the pre-BCS days were like (and let's be clear... the BCS was a two-team playoff and nothing more or less). There were pluses and minuses, but it was not really some top-down thing forced on the fans. As national media coverage proliferated, the fans wanted something less chaotic than bowls'n'polls. "The good old days" were often deeply unsatisfying.

I think the repercussions really only come in hindsight. You have hypercompetitive participants and bragging-rights obsessed fans, so clarity also comes with the inevitable devaluation of anything outside the path to an increasingly less mythical national championship. If there was a benefit to the BCS, it's that 1v2 is such rarefied air that there's little point in stressing if you have no shot, but just enough big teams had a shot that missing out was increasingly viewed as a failed season.

Cue the 4-team playoff, possibly the worst of all worlds. Now you have enough access that it's truly depressing if a promising season doesn't result in a playoff bid, but not enough slots for any particular number of teams to come into the postseason with hope or excitement. The rest of the bowls seem like empty consolations for what you missed rather than celebrations for what you did. I think we could see that even before NIL and portal went nuts, with more and more opt-outs.

So, IMHO bring on 12 or 16. Pushing the bubble farther down the rankings makes it damn near a statistical impossibility that the "best" and/or "most deserving" teams (whatever the hell those terms actually mean) will be left out. 12 or more teams will have officially sanctioned hope, more conferences will see a visible path to the title, even if it's blocked by a goonie-ass redneck Cerberus fresh from a KISS concert. Even teams that don't make the playoff will have relevant games deeper into their seasons, and spoilers can get more chances to ruin seasons like cockroaches pooping in your cookie jar.

Sure, almost every good team's season will end in a loss, but if the players and coaches want a chance to test themselves, then I think they'll be more happy (or at least less unhappy, LOL) with that, which is good for the sport. No mid-major basketball school turns down a 16-seed for an NIT berth, and no G5 is going to complain about playing USC in a first-round CFP game.

The bowls will probably become even more irrelevant, but that barn door was unlatched decades ago and thrown open not long after that. Nobody who still cares about them in their current state will stop now. Fun trip, extra practices, nice SWAG bag, it's all still there, and hell, the teams in those bowls now will be the ones with less insane NIL and be more likely to appreciate the experience. The area where I see potential unintended consequences is with OOC scheduling, but realignment is jerking that around already, and maybe there's something to be said for emphasizing your conference performance.

TL;DR: More playoffs = as good as we can hope for. Change my view.

Given current character limits on Lemmy sidebars, this post will serve as the official Master List of College Football Communities on fanaticus.social.

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American Athletic Conference
Charlotte 49ers	SMU Mustangs
East Carolina Pirates	South Florida Bulls
Florida Atlantic Owls	Temple Owls
Memphis Tigers	Tulane Green Wave
Navy Midshipmen	Tulsa Golden Hurricane
North Texas Mean Green	UAB Blazers
Rice Owls	UTSA Roadrunners

Atlantic Coast Conference
Boston College Eagles	NC State Wolfpack
Clemson Tigers	North Carolina Tarheels
Duke Blue Devils	Pittsburgh Panthers
Florida State Seminoles	Syracuse Orange
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	Virginia Cavaliers
Louisville Cardinals	Virginia Tech Hokies
Miami Hurricanes	Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Big 12 Conference
BYU Cougars	Oklahoma Sooners
Baylor Bears	Oklahoma State Cowboys
Cincinnati Bearcats	TCU Horned Frogs
Houston Cougars	Texas Longhorns
Iowa State Cyclones	Texas Tech Red Raiders
Kansas Jayhawks	UCF Knights
Kansas State Wildcats	West Virginia Mountaineers

Big Ten Conference
Illinois Fighting Illini	Nebraska Cornhuskers
Indiana Hoosiers	Northwestern Wildcats
Iowa Hawkeyes	Ohio State Buckeyes
Maryland Terrapins	Penn State Nittany Lions
Michigan State Spartans	Purdue Boilermakers
Michigan Wolverines	Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Minnesota Golden Gophers	Wisconsin Badgers

Conference USA
Florida International Panthers	New Mexico State Aggies
Jacksonville State Gamecocks	Sam Houston Bearkats
Liberty Flames	UTEP Miners
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs	Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders

Independents
Army Black Knights	UConn Huskies
Notre Dame Fighting Irish	UMass Minutemen

Mid-American Conference
Akron Zips	Kent State Golden Flashes
Ball State Cardinals	Miami (OH) RedHawks
Bowling Green Falcons	Northern Illinois Huskies
Buffalo Bulls	Ohio Bobcats
Central Michigan Chippewas	Toledo Rockets
Eastern Michigan Eagles	Western Michigan Broncos

Mountain West Conference
Air Force Falcons	New Mexico Lobos
Boise State Broncos	San Diego State Aztecs
Colorado State Rams	San Jose State Spartans
Fresno State Bulldogs	UNLV Rebels
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors	Utah State Aggies
Nevada Wolf Pack	Wyoming Cowboys

Pac-12 Conference
Arizona State Sun Devils	Stanford Cardinal
Arizona Wildcats	UCLA Bruins
California Golden Bears	USC Trojans
Colorado Buffaloes	Utah Utes
Oregon Ducks	Washington Huskies
Oregon State Beavers	Washington State Cougars

Southeastern Conference
Alabama Crimson Tide	Mississippi State Bulldogs
Arkansas Razorbacks	Missouri Tigers
Auburn Tigers	Ole Miss Rebels
Florida Gators	South Carolina Gamecocks
Georgia Bulldogs	Tennessee Volunteers
Kentucky Wildcats	Texas A&M Aggies
LSU Tigers	Vanderbilt Commodores

Sun Belt Conference
Appalachian State Mountaineers	Marshall Herd
Arkansas State Red Wolves	Old Dominion Monarchs
Coastal Carolina Chanticleers	South Alabama Jaguars
Georgia Southern Eagles	Southern Miss Golden Eagles
Georgia State Panthers	Texas State Bobcats
James Madison Dukes	Troy Trojans
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns	UL Monroe Warhawks

1. Georgia (2-0)
2. Michigan (2-0)
3. Florida State (2-0)
4. Texas (2-0)
5. USC (3-0)
6. Ohio State (2-0)
7. Penn State (2-0)
8. Washington (2-0)
9. Notre Dame (3-0)
10. Alabama (1-1)
11. Tennessee (2-0)
12. Utah (2-0)
13. Oregon (2-0)
14. LSU (1-1)
15. Kansas State (2-0)
16. Oregon State (2-0)
17. Ole Miss (2-0)
18. Colorado (2-0)
19. Oklahoma (2-0)
20. North Carolina (2-0)
21. Duke (2-0)
22. Miami (FL) (2-0)
23. Washington State (2-0)
24. UCLA (2-0)
25. Iowa (2-0)

Others receiving votes: Clemson, Arkansas, TCU, Kansas, Tulane, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Fresno State, Wyoming, Oklahoma State, Maryland, James Madison

The article details sexual harassment allegations and a Title IX investigation into MSU's head coach Mel Tucker.

Feel free to discuss/speculate on what this means for Tucker and Michigan State in this thread, but please refrain from making light of the situation due to the serious nature of the allegations.

I've been considering (Razorback) season tickets, but from what I can tell all it gets you is a price hike, "donation" requirements, parking access, and the seats that don't move.

To be clear, their website advertises season tickets are about $250 per game for upper level and $450 for lower level. But lower level, 50 yard-line tickets are $250 for the best games and under $100 for the cheap games. And that's not even taking into consideration the donation requirements. Am I missing something?

It's time to grade the College Football Playoff contenders that shined and struggled in Week 2

Things are starting to get interesting. Let's see how things got shook up this week

Battle for the Bayou Bucket!