Why would they have to pay back money if they completed their fall courses? The scholarship is used to pay for school. If some guys leave, those scholarships are freed up and can be rewarded to the non-scholarship players that are on the roster. Not like the school is continuing to pay for a guy who is no longer enrolled in school.

Football scholarships are renewed on a yr by yr basis. Everyone gets mad when the player leaves without using all of their eligibility but what about when players are dismissed or red/blue/gray shirted to make room for upperclassmen or incoming freshman. Ppl like to complain about players holding up their end but do not expect the same from the coaches or athletic depts.

How would you enforce that rule? The bowls are played during the semester break in most cases. Players that have graduated in Dec but still have eligibility do not have to come back to school. Players who plan on giving up eligibility to go pro without graduating have no reason to enroll for class in Jan. Threatening to withhold a scholarship of a player who already has the degree or who does not want the degree is not going to force the players to play in bowls or return to school for the spring semester

Quality wins or strength of schedule do not matter once you are in the playoffs.

Whether you like them or not they have played a major role in the SEC and NC picture

"Beating Alabama is now the measure of if a team is successful?" Pretty much. No SEC East team has beaten them since 2010. Since 2008 there has not been an SEC West champion that lost to the Tide in the regular season nor has there been an East champion that has lost to them in the regular season. The SEC East has been basically decided by teams not having Bama on the regular season schedule. 11 of the 12 last national champs has been Alabama or a team that had to beat Alabama somewhere along the way (exception being 2013 FSU, who beat Aub....who beat #1 Alabama to get there). Weather you like them or not

PTheRicker is right. More HS talent in SC than TN. Gamecocks just can't beat out Clemson or UGA for those recruits. Reason why TN football fell off is bc they stopped getting those top players from the Carolinas once Spurrier & Dabo started to lock down the Carolinas

Truth

Exactly. Lost several recruiting battles from their usual recruiting grounds. The downfall started during Fulmer's term. Ppl want to blame coaching. U mean to tell me that Phil all of a sudden forgot how to coach after yrs of success? No, he was not getting the players. Which led to losing, which led to missing out on more players. Which led to more losing & then bad decisions in firing/hiring coaches

Lattimore, Todd Gurley & Marshall, Alshon Jeffrey, Gilmore, Jonathon Allen are some examples of players from Carolinas/VA area that TN used to get. Yeah coaching is a part of the downfall but there was a big change in talent from early 90s-mid 2000s vs what they were signing late 2000s-mid 2010s. Talent went dry for nearly a decade. There were years where TN did not even have a single player drafted. Lack of talent until recently

The setback of the Tennessee program over the past 10-12 yrs is caused by the rise of Alabama, then S Carolina, then Clemson. Vols were already battling UF & UGA to stay in the east race. Eventually they started losing the regional recruiting to the 3 schools mentioned earlier plus UGA. TN used to get talent from Memphis and the the stretch from North Alabama, thru North Ga East TN and the Carolinas. Vols started losing the kids from that geographic region to those schools then started losing games on the field. TN is getting their recruiting back up over the past 3-4 yrs but they are still behind AL, GA & Clemson

SEC Snob there were many times where Auburn & S Carolina players were arguing, taunting & getting physical after the play was over. I think it kinda fueled the Gamecocks to play harder. Tigers were supposed to be the better team but they let petty stuff get to them & take their focus away.

Last time these teams met in the desert Clemson dominated 31-0. National semifinal game during Clemson's 1st CFP championship season

Shows how Butch Jones failed to develop players. The 2019 & 2020 draft will likely produce similar results. Pruitt’s recruits won’t be eligible until 2021 draft so u should see a change in TN draft numbers then.

See the cut block on #49 from Alabama during the iron bowl........

Agree with you. Not all conferences are as challenging. Some conferences have totally unbalanced divisions - the ACC division opposite Clemson/FSU these past 6 yrs, PAC 12 South, Big 10 West these past 5 years............... those divisions are garbage & send frauds to play for their CCG by default . Having Northwestern & Pitt being division winners is pathetic.

Both teams have lots of skilled pass catchers that can burn a defense. All it takes is for a capable QB to get the ball to them. Not like these guys are playing QB at Vandy, Michigan St, or Wisconsin etc where the skill positions are lacking.

This is tough to call for either QB. I feel like if you put any QB that has a good arm, can read a defense and has some mobility on Oklahoma's OR Alabama's rosters you would get the same results.

Most definitely wasting practice reps and risking injury by trying to defend this 1 week before the SEC CG. GA does not have the depth that AL has so let’s hope the front 7 does not get banged up against GT

“Pretty interesting that every team from the East has at least one win over a West team and four of the seven West teams are winless vs the East.” Agree with BT. 1st sentence is incorrect as written bc Mizz is currently 0-1. And u guys try to clown Bama fans for not understanding English

And the West’s 5 wins came from those 3 teams. Not a coincidence that the East is 1-5 against those 3 teams

Agree but it appears that the mid pack & bottom teams in the West have gotten worse. I do believe that AL, LSU or A&M could beat GA in the SEC CG while you would be hard pressed to find a team in the East not named Georgia that could stay within 17 pts of AL.

Auburn & Miss St worse than expected. TN, Vandy, Kentucky better than expected. Georgia 1-1, Alabama 2-0, A&M 2-0, Arkansas 0-2 all unchanged from last season’s cross div. It was assumed that OM and ARK would be bad this yr and that FL would be improved this yr. S Carolina & LSU avg teams as expected. Cross div results appear to be result of 2 West teams underachieving and 3 east teams overachieving.

Those who care about this game: The fans of the 2 teams and teams who need help getting into top 4 (Ohio St, OK, Wash St, UCF). Outside of that, majority of CFB fans could care less