Victor Welch

Hey, people are wrong about there being big problems in college football. We are living in a golden age of college football. Remember, sports scholarships weren't even recognized of regulated until about 1956. The first Golden age of college football was from through the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. There was no enforcement mechanism prohibiting paying players. It was in this era that Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy unapologetically pur hard nosed, well paid players on the field made an athletic dynasty. Heck, in 1935 SMU was facing a $90k balloon payment for their new stadium that the school simply could not pay. Facing bankruptcy SMU bought the best team it could with hopes of getting to the Rose Bowl -- as the $90k payout from the Rose Bowl was the only way to save the school. As luck would have it, the season came down to and undefeated SMU facing a Sammy Baugh led undefeated TCU at Amon Carter stadium in Fort Worth -- with the guaranteed an invite to the Rose Bowl. SMU prevailed in a stunning back and forth game -- saving the school! A mile okay train was chartered to take the team and fans to Pasadena. SMU lost 7-0 to Stanford and no one cared. By the 1960s the asinine NCAA had taken complete control of college football -- and had severe restrictions on how many games could be broadcast on TV, and how often a team could appear. Thus, big annual contests like Texas/OU were more often than not unavailable on TV. In turn, the major football conferences became like retail malls: one or two tent pole anchor stores (Michigan and OSU in the Big 10; Oklahoma and Nebraska in the Big 8; USC and UCLA in the Pac 10; Alabama in the SEC; Texas in SWC), with everyone else just small fry operations happy for their cut. Even competition was tightly controlled. The Rose Bowl had their lucrative Big10/Pac 10 tie-in, the Orange had the Big8 winner, the Sugar Bowl went to the SEC, and the Cotton to the SWC. Thus, conference winners rarely met other conference winners, No.1 almost never squared off against No.2; and Bowl opponents were decided in back room deals in mid October! It wasn't until 1984 that the U of Oklahoma was able to take NCAA to court and get US Sct to hold that the NCAA's stranglehold on college football games was in violation of the Sherman Anti-trust act -- thereby returning ownership of college games to the individual colleges themselves. Thus, the NCAA simply became a labor cost containment and enforcement arm of big time college athletics as revenue soared -- and coaches and administrators salaries and personal skyrocketed. There was aldo a facilities arms race -- since you couldn't pay players but you could build a field house for each member of your team if you wanted too! Now, with NIL, any school who wants too can get good players and compete... Good games are plentiful and I can watch them on my phone... I want to see 8 years of eligibility... with players getting their Phd's...

I tried to watch the Iowa/Michigan game, but to be honest -- the Big10 is just woeful. Iowa has one of the least talented, inept, uncompetitive offenses I've ever seen. Who could thet compete with in the SEC? Vanderbilt, Missouri and South Carolina maybe? I doubt they could beat Sout Carolina. Good luck to Michigan and all in the CFP; and kudos for a great win over Ohio State -- but I think at this point the whole league is suspect.

Dude, I don't know if there should be two teams from the SEC in the CFP or not. My preference would be the four highest ranked conference champions. (Sorry Notre Dame, join a conference or stay home). But when you say: "Look, the SEC is, at best, a good very conference which is dominated by 1-2 teams."; I have to gently suggest the data indicates otherwise... Consider: 1. Since 2000, the SEC has won the National Championship 11 times by four different teams: Alabama (2009,2011,2012,2015,2017,2020) LSU (2003,2019) Florida (2006,2008) Auburn (2010) The other power five conferences: ACC -- Four times by 3 teams: Clemson (2016,2018) Florida State (2013) Miami (2001) Though in 2001, Miami was still an independent BIG 10 - Twice by one team: Ohio State (2002,2014) BIG 12 -- Twice by 2 different teams: Texas (2005) Oklahoma (2000) Note: both teams are moving to the SEC by 2025; PAC 10 - Once by one team: USC (2004) Though the championship was invalidated by the NCAA for infractions regarding Reggie Bush's payments recieved from an agent -- thus making Auburn the de facto champion for 2004. 2. Since 2019, the only Power 5 Conference with a winning record in bowls is the SEC... SEC: 60.75% winning percentage Pac12: 48.68% winning percentage Big12: 48.61% winning percentage ACC: 46.46% winning percentage Big10: 46.07% winning percentage 3. Ranking Power 5 Conferences with most acrive NFL players. SEC: 335 Big10: 266 ACC: 208 Pac12: 159 Big12: 138 So, by every metric the SEC is by far and away rhe best college footbalk conference from top to bottom. Remember, in the Big10 there is Ohio State and 13 lesser programs. Of those lesser programs there are 12 coaches who need never fear for their jobs should they never beat Ohio State... While, in the SEC -- other than at Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt; every coach is hired and evaluated on their ability to build a program that csn beat Alabama...

It's still not a penalty to tackle below the waist. Deion Sanders was a very effective run stopper because he was a lotw tackler -- normally taking a running back's legs out from under them from shoe top level. Compare that to Miami's Don McNeal who tried to tackle John Riggins by the shoulder pads on 4th and 1 in the 1982 Superbowl. The result was a Riggins touchdown. Or how about in 2019 when Alabama's Trevon Diggs tried to tackle LSU's Clyde Edwards-Hellaire by the shoulder pads at the five yard line. The result: rather than a stop, Edwards-Helaire ran through the high tackle attempt to score LSU's game clinching touchdown.

When I was in H.S. (graduated in '74), I would have done the same thing -- and would not have been penalized for it! We were taught to knock down any opposing player who was standing (whether we were on offense or defense -- albeit no clipping, hitting from behind, always get your head in front, etc). If you fell for a fake, you leveled the the guy you fell for. If some opposing guy was trotting around without looking -- you leveled them. Your job was to knock opposing players down. You were supposed to knock them down often enough and hard enough that they started to getting back up slower and slower. Further, there was no penalty for "blind side" blocking. If an opposing player didn't see you because they weren't aware of the parameters and milieu of the current play, or if they fell for a mis-direction -- all the better! Also, there was no problem with "targeting" -- as "high tackling" was considered the worst of the "eight deadly sins" (much worse than vanity, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath or sloth!). Thus, there was no penalty for helmet-to-helmet contact because anyone who did that would be guilty of "high tackling" and would get chewed out by his own coach. And, of course, back then quarterbacks were still considered football players and faced the same hazards of contact and getting knocked down that everyone else on the field faced. In short, there was NOTHING thug-ish about the player or the hit! The quarterback had no expectation of protection after the handoff. The quarterback wasn't in a vulnerable position after throwing a ball -- he was an opposing player capable of throwing a block or taking any other action. In fact, the quarterback had intentionally mis-directed the opposing player to focus on the quarterback rather than pursuing the actual ball carrier. As such, the quarterback should have had every expectation of being pursued, knocked down, tackled, etc.

That was a great defensive show by Georgia, but their offense was horrid. J.T.Daniels seemed rattled from the start. There was no offensive rhythm or consistency. Unfortunately, these seems like every other Kirby Smart team at Georgia. That is, everything is top rate except the development of the quarterback and the passing game.

In Texas, everyone knows that if you want to be an instant celebrity and hit the party circuit hard -- you go to UT Austin. If you want to be a football player, go elsewhere. Changing that environment is Sark's biggest problem.

Many legitimate accolades and superlatives rightly accrue to Sarah Fuller. However, being Vandy's best available kicker last Saturday is not one of them.