The issue is TV contracts are already set before a season starts. There’s no way of predicting which “key players” on which teams will opt out. Tickets are sold before a season happens, donors give based on the team and not whether or not a player opts out. Sure, there will be financial impacts but I think the playoff is becoming more of a super bowl, March madness, etc money maker for college football so really you’re kind of shifting funds more than drawing them out. People want to blame the athletes instead of blaming the system. If they got paid instead of the NCAA and their contracts were based on playing in games, this would be a non-issue. Additionally, what about the programs these athletes are opting out of? Are they toxic? I think it boils down to this: the modern athlete views the system as a business, fans and analysts view it as an amateur sport. I think the athletes are right to view it as a business and the fans and analysts are living in a dream world.

Not sure what you’re saying here. Covid theoretically won’t be a concern in future years so it’ll be some players with NFL dreams that don’t finish the seasons. I’m sure the NCAA isn’t crying about what March madness does for college basketball. I don’t think the money will all of the sudden go poof if teams who are struggling start having a few players leave mid season. If players got paid and their pay was dependent on them playing, that would probably solve some things but apparently that just tarnishes everything that is pure in the world.

Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates. Left college to pursue their future. People leave their jobs to go get better ones. These kids are making business decisions. Playing football comes with risk. Giving kids scholarships comes with risk of them not sticking around your program. Everyone has to decide if the risk is worth it. Fans and analysts want to keep treating the sport like it is an amateur sport when there’s billions of dollars in the sport - name an amateur league that generates that kind of revenue. It’s semi-pro, so sure maybe not the greatest look to opt out from teams they’d work for but they get to make a decision if the optics are worth leaving.

Bama having no troubles backfilling positions

To be fair, that was the first good defense Tua had faced that year and looked pretty pedestrian before he got hurt.

Right? I thought this was part of a “Things I’m overreacting to” article. Great offensive coordinator and mind? Yes. 1 week filling in at HC with no difficult decisions to make and not building/maintaining a whole program doesn’t count toward anything that you’d actually consider in a HC. Not saying he wouldn’t be a decent HC, but I don’t expect him to be Saban-like or really elite as a HC.

They are known to be an invasive species so it’s all but inevitable

I say we just arbitrarily pick a top 64 and do a March madness bubble and not worry about the season. We deserve at least that part of the season. NCAA makes their money, everyone’s happy.

Haha, I do think a qualifier would have to be actually starts/plays.

I would like a 6 team playoff. Top 2 teams get byes, theoretically you could have the winners of the P5 conferences and a wild card. If a conference was having a down year, I don’t see why you couldn’t just go off a top 6 ranking. Looking back at top 8’s, it’s hard for me to justify a 7/8 team getting a chance at the championship. They’d have a tough road, but I’d rather reward the top 2 teams with byes.

If you decide to do a Bottom 10, you can go ahead and put Justin Shaffer in that.

Yeah totally agree DarthA, not saying he didn’t deserve it. The stat line is impressive against a (at least perceived) good defense. I’m just saying career achievements shouldn’t factor into a weekly award.

Hey please don’t post this, it goes against my anti-Kirby/uga narrative and I don’t want to see any other sides than my own. In all seriousness, many questioned why someone like JT would go to UGA when Newman was there. This was actually the reasoning I gave. A QB coming off a knee injury doesn’t need to be rushed, and UGA has its fair share of helping players recover and move on to play in the NFL - Sony, Chubb, Gurley. Then of course there was the press surrounding the handling of the Dwan situation and saving his life. I’m proud of how this situation was handled. Many have pointed out that UGA wouldn’t have even won Bama/UF with JT (and for good reason) which I think just goes to show the right decision was made. Why risk a players health (ever) but especially in a covid season? And for what? Slim chance at a title? These coaches manage the roster for more than one season (ideally).

I never said as much, just trying to put into perspective why a career achievement does not necessitate a weekly award crowning. I’m sorry Bama can’t outright win everything. It must be tough not getting the recognition they deserve.

Thank you for actually acknowledging MSU’s defensive scheme. Feels like people were blown away that UGA couldn’t run the ball, but their defense was basically pray the QB UGA plays is abysmal. And UGA’s defensive scheme was basically our offense can outscore yours so take 5 yards at a time.

Were the records a career achievement or a single game performance? He actually had a worse week than the Freshman of the week so kind of sounds like he was thrown a bone.

Yeah pretty good point, I definitely thinks it’s a combo of Dabo, Saban, the CFP, and to a lesser extent Urban Meyer and Bob Stoops that have given way to the insane expectations. It used to be more realistic to win one everyone once in awhile a la LSU this past year. But that’s been the exception not the rule of late. If you don’t have Dabo or Saban you have to give really good coaches a little bit of time or else you’ll be paying for multiple coaching contracts and never get the opportunity to really develop something as a program.

It’s crazy how writers seem to know exactly what a fan base is feeing even when the majority opinion of the fan base is the exact opposite of what’s being reported. 1. This year UGA fans generally only had hopes for a national title in the same way all fan bases ranked in the preseason top 25 have hopes. Never thought it was realistic but would’ve been fun. 2. Generally, UGA fans are happy JT’s health was considered top priority when we’ve already seen the knee bug strike twice (with multiple players on the current roster). 3. The past games have nothing to do with being happy about JT’s performance. I’m glad he balled out, we needed that. The potential is there, I’m not ready to call him Trevor Lawrence/Mac Jones/ Kyle Trask and I would think most fans would agree. 4. Most UGA fans would agree you starting a true freshman over a qb that went to the national title game is suspect. See Fields’ game against Indiana for what happens when he gets under pressure and that is the seasoned top 10 draft prospect version of Fields. Obviously better than Fromm but hard to fault the decision except maybe the LSU game that season. 5. Players with concussions say they’re ready to play, should we go ahead and listen to players and put them in the game despite medical reasoning saying leave them out? 6. Coley was a bad call and promoting him to full time OC after Chaneys departure was bad. I think the AD probably earns some partial blame as the program tends to go for “value” more than quality with assistant coaches. Probably something Kirby could push more for but I’m sure he was a little more worried about recruiting and having some control of the offense. Early signs are pointing to him learning a lesson by hiring Monken though.

4. JT Daniels

Sure, can’t be applied to all situations. I wasn’t meaning to say it in that way. Basically, the point I’m trying to make is these coaches aren’t idiots which is what it seems some people try to turn this JT decision into these coaches being incompetent.

We all owe Sydney an apology, called 350 pass yds for JT and we all (me included laughed).

Don’t rush kids back from injuries, look what happened to Dom and Zeus. Knee injuries are serious business. The coaching staff isn’t dumb. We aren’t in practice. Is it frustrating? Sure. But you have to give the benefit of the doubt to people who get paid millions of dollars for these decisions.

This year: Bama v Ole Miss, Clemson v BC, ND v Louisville, A&M v Vandy, BYU v UTSA, OSU today. Difficult to be perfect every week

A reasonable stat line for JT Daniels. I don’t think it will be any better than that certainly. Three great tv shows, if I were choosing from those shows I would go: 1 Darryl 2 Jake (Gina would be my third if I were doing multiple from a show) 3 Nick

I respect the hard veer from traditional thanksgiving food. I would much prefer that to Turkey and ham.

Whoops. Mizzou 31 - 21 South Carolina Mizzou pulls away in the second half, South Carolina plays with a lot of excitement early on because they ran Muschamp out of town only to get punished by Larry Rountree one too many times.

Georgia 28-7 MSU Georgia scores 3 TD’s in one quarter and doesn’t look interested in the other 3 quarters, game tied at 7 early on causing overreactions everywhere. Florida 52 - 10 Vandy Florida has pity on Vandy and goes for a field goal on a drive instead of scoring a TD so their kicker can have some in game practice to prep for Bama. LSU 27 - 35 Ark LSU wants Joe back, but would also settle for having Myles Brennan back. Kentucky 10 - 42 Bama Bama puts the walk-ons in early to stay healthy. Tenn 10 - 31 Auburn Auburn defense looks more like an Auburn defense and Bo plays well enough to put some points on the board.

David Pollack believes there’s only one head coaching candidate South Carolina should pursue

Same issue Georgia’s “5 star”/“Great Wall” OL’s have had: lack of quickness and moving in space. You can only do so much leaning, a good OL has to communicate and be able to move their feet. Every year a broadcast drills the point of UGA having the biggest OL (by weight) in all of football, they have underperformed.

Curious, do you believe this about Clemson too? The offense is relatively unchanged in quality. When you lose Chase Young, your quality will drop on that side of the ball. But it’s not like Ohio State is South Carolina trying to compensate for Clowney leaving. They recruit at a high level, and as we’ve seen offense is more important anyway.