Outside of Orlando, where the University of Central Florida anointed itself the 2017 national champion, college football hasn’t built much momentum toward allowing a team that isn’t in a Power Five conference a chance to compete for a title. In six years of the College Football Playoff, the lower-profile Group of Five conferences have been […]
In the weeks leading up to this strange, limited-capacity season of college football, oddsmakers salivated over the prospect of something akin to a control study for home-field advantage. What role does geography play if crowds are reduced by 75 percent, or if there are no crowds at all? “I think home-field advantage for everyone may […]
At the highest levels of college football, only the slimmest of margins separate the best teams. That’s never been more clear than in the tiny space between Alabama and Georgia. Entering the 2019 season, Alabama had the highest-rated roster in the country, at 99.3 percent in Bill Connelly’s weighted four-year recruiting rankings. Georgia, meanwhile, was […]
The Red River Showdown traditionally has been a midmorning buffet of resentment and braggadocio, of “those sorry bastards” and Horns Down hysterics. It’s also an annual litmus test for the Big 12 Conference. The rivalry game in Dallas often denotes the moment pragmatism makes its way into the postseason-expectation conversation. And for tentpole institutions like […]
The earliest introduction to the pass-first ways of the future for college football’s premier conference came in 1997. Downtrodden Kentucky, fresh off seven seasons without a winning record, hired head coach Hal Mumme and offensive coordinator Mike Leach to install the high-flying pass attack they developed at Iowa Wesleyan and Valdosta State. In each of […]