2025 NCAA Football Thread

[casimir]

4 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Hope for the players cooler heads will prevail?   

Since when do these programs give a **** about the players?    Cattle. 

Student athletes.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

MSU apparently already had their candidate in mind. They hired Pat Fitzgerald. I thought Fitz was blacklisted from CFB. I guess not.

 

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

22 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

MSU apparently already had their candidate in mind. They hired Pat Fitzgerald. I thought Fitz was blacklisted from CFB. I guess not.

 

I know he won his lawsuit, but still seems odd for a program still in the shadow of the Mel Tucker scandal.  

No clue if this is just internet rumors or whatever.  But there are whispers of a massive donation to MSU athletics, and the donor is a big Fitzgerald fan.  

[buddha]

25 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

I know he won his lawsuit, but still seems odd for a program still in the shadow of the Mel Tucker scandal.  

No clue if this is just internet rumors or whatever.  But there are whispers of a massive donation to MSU athletics, and the donor is a big Fitzgerald fan.  

they settled the lawsuit.

just like they'll settle the lawsuit all those "injured players" brought because they had to do football hazing.  woe is them.  they'll never recover and have to live with ptsd for the rest of their days.  the important part is that their lawyers will get at least 40% plus costs!

anyhoo.  fitzgerald is ok, i guess. he turned down michigan before, so sparty fans will hang their hat on that as somehow indicating msu is a better job.

he's stuck in the 90s with game theory, but his teams were always fundamentally sound.  we'll see if he can develop the "msu mindset" necessary to win there: a single psychotic obsession with michigan.

[4hzglory]

2 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

There should be a freeze on Head Coaching interviews, offers and acceptance until after the bowl games are over.  

Can’t do that when the transfer portal is in December now.

Edited Sunday at 10:51 PM by 4hzglory

[Deleterious]

How do you let yourself get in a position where you owe Mark Stoops $38 million?  In 13 seasons, he won 8+ games only 3 times.  Did they get confused and think it was Bob?

 

[4hzglory]

15 hours ago, 4hzglory said:

Can’t do that when the transfer portal is in December now.

Correction, the only portal is Jan 2-15.  Still during the playoff which makes no sense to me.

[Deleterious]

I also read it has an escalator that if he wins the NC he becomes the highest paid coach in CFB.

 

[MichiganCardinal]

Coaching buyouts and contracts are out of bleeping control.

[Deleterious]

When did LSU become so desperate?

I doubt they win, but he gets $150,000 just for making the playoffs.  

 

[Deleterious]

Good get for UCLA.  What is PSU doing?

 

[Hongbit]

55 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Good get for UCLA.  What is PSU doing?

 

This is so ucla.    I don’t get this one at all.  He’s a young guy that took over the program that Curt Cignetti built from the ground up.    He benefited massively from the foundation and maybe even more so by what Cingetti was able to do at Indiana.  Bruins think they have the next Cignetti and he’s nothing like him.  They’ve never even worked together. Add to it he’s a Northeast guy through and through with absolutely no knowledge of the landscape of West coast recruiting.  

Edited Monday at 07:30 PM by Hongbit

[CMRivdogs]

1 hour ago, Deleterious said:

Good get for UCLA.  What is PSU doing?

 

I was hoping VA Tech would snag him. Surprised he didn't end up at Penn St, being a PA Kid and all. Wish him the best. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

My opinions on coaching hires matters not because I thought Luke Fickell was going to be a great hire for Wisconsin and he has not been. I can't believe, other than they don't want to pay him the buyout owed, that he is getting another season in Madison. Four season in and he's 17-21 with an even worse 10-17 Big Ten record. And this isn't the old era of CFB, this is the new NIL era, where you can flip a team quickly. I would want Fickell fired if I were a Wisconsin fan at this point. I am very surprised at how badly he has failed at Wisconsin. Even after coaching at Ohio State, he has never adapted or recruited to the Big Ten style of play. Nor has he really even brought in good recruits.

[4hzglory]

30 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

My opinions on coaching hires matters not because I thought Luke Fickell was going to be a great hire for Wisconsin and he has not been. I can't believe, other than they don't want to pay him the buyout owed, that he is getting another season in Madison. Four season in and he's 17-21 with an even worse 10-17 Big Ten record. And this isn't the old era of CFB, this is the new NIL era, where you can flip a team quickly. I would want Fickell fired if I were a Wisconsin fan at this point. I am very surprised at how badly he has failed at Wisconsin. Even after coaching at Ohio State, he has never adapted or recruited to the Big Ten style of play. Nor has he really even brought in good recruits.

It sounds like Wisconsin committed to significantly upping their recruiting budget for next season - it sounds like they've been way behind and they believe it has strongly hampered Fickell's ability to recruit.  In the pre-NIL era, they were ok recruiting wise, but not in the new era.

[Stanley70]

Michigan was a little slow to spend on NIL as well, and they are suffering for it now. In the 23 and 24 cycles they got 1 top 100 recruit, Jordan Marshall at #87, Using the On/3 site. They didn't portal very well either. And then having Harbaugh threatening to leave for a few years there didn't help either, ultimately gutting the staff when he did.

They are spending now, they got 3 5 stars in 25 and have two of the top 10 overall 5 stars in the 26 class, which isn't finished. 

It will come down to if Moore can surround himself with the proper coaches and then maybe move a little more into the current century with his game day decisions.

 

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

My opinions on coaching hires matters not because I thought Luke Fickell was going to be a great hire for Wisconsin and he has not been.

Without knowing what a school has been willing to spend on NIL I wouldn't even try to rate a coach over that last few seasons, because coaching hardly matters when there are schools out there buying all the best players. Sure some guys can turn more three stars into 4 stars than others, but that only gets you so far in the era of 8 figure NIL deals and the revolving door portal. Wisconsin is an old line school in a pretty conservative state, I wouldn't be surprised if like UM (prior to Corum and Underwood), they were trying to refuse to play the game as much as they could hoping the worst would blow over, and now that the worst is actually going to be the status quo, the fact that they are publicly announcing an increase in recruiting spending - as disgusting as it is to read that about any university - sort of makes the case.

Edited Monday at 11:26 PM by gehringer_2

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

 

[MichiganCardinal]

35 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

 

The stakes in the game aren't there any more. It feels intuitively like it is worth less to the average fan who does not care who wins. I'm pretty sure I won't watch, even though I will likely watch most of the playoffs. I'm sure millions will, but it doesn't seem as must-watch as it once was.

In 2023, let alone pre-2014, a game between #1 12-0 Ohio State and #2 12-0 Indiana would be massive. One team makes it, the other doesn't(?) Or should they anyway? The stories write themselves.

Now they're just playing for maybe a first round bye. They will very likely both get one regardless. Could you blame Day or Cignetti if they rested some starters in the second half? I don't think they will, an undefeated season and Big Ten Championship are on the line. But what do those mean in the grand scheme of things when just playing in the game is enough to compete for a national championship? And when any rematch would be played at a neutral site anyway?

I don't think NBC sells this game unless they are worried about the money they would make on the game itself.

[Deleterious]

The math doesn't math.

The highest rated Big Ten title game was in 2013 when MSU-OSU played.  It drew 13.9 million viewers.

The Christmas game that Netflix paid $70 million per game for?  It drew just over 30 million viewers last year.

I would be shocked if anyone touched this at $70 million.  NBC is taking a big hit on their regular season games and put this out at a big number hoping to get a bite.  

[Deleterious]

And I just made fun of the Clark Lea extension because he was losing his QB.

 

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]