Where I was, Sony’s TD was only slightly louder than Lorenzo’s block of the FG attempt. I blew out my vocal chords on that one and could only stomp and clap for the ensuing TD.

Yeah, but as a guy who grew up watching Nebraska-Oklahoma every year, I sure miss that game. Maybe we raid them from the B1G and get that one going again.

As the current contract stands through 2036, that would be about $536M. Per team, close to $1.1B for the two. That would take an army of lawyers a decade to hash out if the conference took a hard stance. I recall when the ACC expanded and gobbled up the best of the Big East, the hot take was that it would quickly become a super-conference to surpass all others. Miami! FSU! Virginia Tech! Oh, and that other kinda-decent school in South Carolina can’t hurt. How quickly hot takes can go ice cold.

Well, you could begin with Clemson, Oklahoma and Ohio State. Using the Bama/LSU record-setting offenses the past couple of years is not a very accurate yardstick to judge the rest of football by. Those two teams did the same thing to SEC competition that they managed in the playoffs, so there’s no real SEC chest-thumping to be had using that barometer. And it was just a couple of years ago that Clemson destroyed Bama in the NCG. Florida fans will tell you that the Gators were handicapped against Oklahoma, but I’ve yet to see one bold enough to suggest the result would have been reversed if they had been at full-strength. A shoot-out at best, but they still would not have stopped that Sooner offense. Do we have the best accumulation of football programs in the SEC? Without a doubt. But it’s hubris to think no one else can play the game well.

I think I understand what you were trying to say through that garble, but the SEC has a lot of question marks this year. Traditional powers like LSU and Florida are coming off disappointing years, while Auburn, SC, Tennessee and Vandy - also coming off poor seasons - are almost complete unknowns under new HCs. I can’t recall a season when so many teams were breaking in a new QB or HC. We have maybe 3 programs that we know will return the same starting QB and HC they ended the season with last year. Who knows where things will stand come December, but the league does not appear to be very deep this year. And, believe it or not, there is good football played outside of the SEC.

I just browsed through a number of the schedules for a dozen or so “toughest” on the list. My takeaway is that we’ve got a disappointingly weak slate of match-ups this year nationally. When I saw UGA at #11, with just two games on the schedule that would be classified as “tough” at this point, I knew it was going to be a light year in CFB. Of course, this is all pre-season opining - what happens come December could be very different.

This was never in doubt, especially as ESPN was losing it’s shirt on the deal. With a realigned SEC TV deal on the horizon - and likely contingent on the LHN going away - they will gladly buy out the remaining years of the contract and put that puppy to bed. Texas has always been a big fish in a little pond, and for years Oklahoma has followed their lead knowing their fortunes were tied inextricably to Austin. Once in the SEC, the Sooners will finally be free to pursue what’s best for them without having to worry how Texas might react. Once this move is complete, 9 of the 12 most most valuable CFB teams will be in the SEC. The Longhorns will still likely remain the most valuable program in the game, but will be absolutely dwarfed by the combined financial strength of the other 8. Texas is currently valued at $1.1B, but Bama is just behind at $1.0B. Georgia and Oklahoma are around $900M. Once Texas loses the LHN, expect Bama take the #1 spot. Texas knows all this, of course, but has decided the long-term financial gains outweigh the loss of prestige and sway they’re used to. We’ll see now if Austin can play nice when the room is filled with 400-pound gorillas instead of midgets.

Got it. The “you” to start it off misled me.

And in other news, water has been indisputably and scientifically proven to be wet.

Vandy at 105 seems generous. I’m thinking MTSU may actually be the 3rd best team in the state.

Another hit-and-run troll creates an SDS account to post one ridiculous comment.

Thanks. At least she’s much better off this time around, though she’s been without taste or smell since January. She’s hoping for some kind of miraculous feedback-type effect with this bout to restore them.

UGA came in first at LB and in the top ten for 3 others (RB, OL, DB), but the shocker was when I got to Kicker. Dawgs nowhere to be found. That alone makes me question the methodology!

I know you’re not talking to/about me.

Legit concern, but I don’t think we’ll see as many stacked boxes this year. I expect the passing game to revitalize the ground game. We may not see those 300-yard rushing games in ‘21, but I believe the YPC number will get quite a boost.

I can’t possibly see 4 more years of OU/TU competing in the Big 12. The animosity level is too high. The grant-of-rights TV contract will likely be negotiated out before year-end, and everyone will move on.

My wife had full-blown COVID in January, was fully vaccinated in May, and has now been diagnosed with the Delta variant this weekend. Thankfully nowhere near as severe as her first bout, but this trend is concerning. The Pfizer vaccine was initially supposed to be 93% effective against re-infection. The CDC dropped that to 88% not long ago, but the most recent study out of Scotland has that number now at 79%. If cases keep rising and vaccine efficacy numbers keep falling, it may be a totally different CFB picture in another month.

I’ve been on SDS for quite a few years, and have learned to ignore him for the most part. He’s a one-trick pony of demeaning vitriol. Take a few words out of his vocabulary (“cry”, “LMFAO”, “1980”, etc) and he’s got nothing for 90% of his comments. Which is a shame, as he does occasionally post some thoughtful stuff. Unfortunately, seeing that side of him is rare and overshadowed by what seems to be a love of ridicule.

(11) Will the rising Delta variant cases cause any SEC states to quickly re-impose capacity limits, crashing everyone’s hopes for full stadiums this year? It’s a foregone conclusion some states outside the SEC footprint will. Over/under on Missouri?

By “reading the room” I essentially mean a dismissive glance at the ones who pay for the sport, and the expectation that they’ll hear some version of, “Thank you sir - may I have another?”

Quite a few winners and losers listed here, but one is missing to me that sticks out like a sore thumb: the fan. This realignment isn’t happening in a vacuum. Exactly the opposite. In just a few months we’ve experienced several other sea changes to the game that I suggest compounds fan anxiety. Consider: A free agency system and eligibility standards that would make NFL players drool. NIL opening the door to a new Wild West of uncontrollable booster involvement and undoubted tampering. SCOTUS actively urging professional pay-for-play on CFB. Radically expanded playoff consideration when it took decades to go to a BCS game, and another couple to grow it to four. And now another nail in the coffin of the regional appeal and tradition of the sport that makes it unique. All in just a handful of months. And all driven by a profit motive for someone other than the fan. In fact, the fan will ultimately be expected to pay for most of the above. My point is that virtually all of these purely business decisions have been made at lightning speed without making enough effort to reasonably gauge the cumulative effect they will have on the most important stakeholder - the customer. It seems to be assumed that the customer is captive and will be accepting and supportive of the current overhaul of the sport. Many, many enterprises have failed because of this insular oversight. And yes, many have also failed because they’ve been too slow to adapt and change. Time will tell if CFB has read the room rightly, but most of these genies won’t fit back in the lamp.

The “new rivalries” is one of the points I’m concerned about with this expansion, especially if it means potentially abandoning some traditional true rivalries for the senior league schools. Rivalries are typically driven by geographic dynamics, often outside of football. There’s a reason USC-Notre Dame and Cowboys-Redskins are so, so rare in football. Manufactured rivalries usually flop.

Texas hasn’t managed that type of season in the last decade, even in the Big 12. It will only get worse in the SEC unless a combination of Sark and recruiting/NIL change things dramatically. Oklahoma will probably remain a tough out, but their typical 11-1 season is probably history. Despite the fact that the Horns’ and Sooners’ schedule difficulty is about to take a quantum leap, I expect their presence will result in a few more losses for the top conference teams. Alabama, Georgia and LSU have managed to enter the SECCG recently with only 1 loss or less. I doubt that continues to be the norm as the grind gets tougher and conference games expand to 9. In the new SEC, the league champ could conceivably be a two-loss team.

Logical for the status quo, but the SEC probably isn’t done now that expansion fever is building. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see 20 or more teams in the SEC in the near future, and they’ll likely organize the league with that in mind.

“As the national landscape changes, college sports must also quickly adapt to become more responsive to the needs of college athletes and current member schools.” Anyone else notice that the “fan” doesn’t make the cut in this philosophy? And hasn’t in a while.

It’s just an initial sour-grapes reaction and will soon moderate. OU and TU were determined to leave the Big 12 and the other commissioners know that. They’re realists - just a bit miffed that the SEC was their first choice. If Sankey had said TBNT and the two schools had moved on to discuss it with any of the other P5 conferences, the tune would have been totally different. It’s not the first time programs have been damaged by realignment, and it won’t be the last.

A few thoughts on that: (1) Your bias is showing. (2) if it were to stay at 4 as a backlash against the SEC (highly improbably), I’m good with that. Seems to have worked pretty well for us so far. (3) Schools are not going to throw away millions in additional playoff revenue just to spite the SEC. Sadly, money is all CFB is really about nowadays. (4) I don’t really favor this expansion as a CFB traditionalist, but Sankey just put the rest of CFB back on their heels and changed the game’s financial dynamics dramatically. Suggesting that he loses credibility for that is a real stretch. (5) Schools that previously bolted their conference have little room to talk about others doing the same. I get why Nebraska did it, but still - be consistent.

City populations have been irrelevant since the 60’s. It’s the suburbs and exurbs that drive the economic engine for a city, and that is often many multiples of the city population proper. Atlanta is less than half a million within the city limits, but the CMSA is well over 7 million.

Any contract can be negotiated out of, but I suspect the ACC would be extremely diligent on this. If any movement happens with the ACC, I believe it will be driven by the conference and not individual schools because of this 15-year obligation.

But they better call them divisions like the NFL does. “Pod” is just cringy for sports. Well, except maybe soccer.