2025 NCAA Football Thread

[Hongbit]

2 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Yes, the coach of the Dolphins.       

Mike MacDonald  would not want it, and Michigan would be absolutely tone deaf to hire anyone who has anything to do with Jim Harbaugh.   Not saying they wouldn't, but it would be a very stupid move.  They need to completely cut ties to Jim Harbaugh - COMPLETELY.    (And I guess, in a strange way, Stephen Ross owns the Dolphins and he basically bankrolled Harbaugh's nonsense, so McDaniel could be out). 

They could end up with Biff for a year.    He's basically the modern take on Steve Fisher. 

 

I do think Michigan is going to go young with the next coach, unless they just can't find anyone

 

Uncertainty with the AD doesn't help.      But they also have an interim president.  What a ****in' mess. 

Why would Stephen Ross fire the coach to the team he owns only to hire him on the other team he owns?   

[gehringer_2]

34 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Jake Butt is really pushing Pogi.  

the devil you already know

[Motor City Sonics]

1 hour ago, Hongbit said:

Why would Stephen Ross fire the coach to the team he owns only to hire him on the other team he owns?   

Not fire him, but just move him to a different situation.     He might be better-suited as a college coach. 

 

Michigan - a Top 5 job in the country?>     I'm not so sure about that anymore.       Michigan wants you to believe that, but there's a lot of things they want you to believe that simply aren't true and haven't been since Lloyd Carr retired.   

 

          

 

[romad1]

8 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Not fire him, but just move him to a different situation.     He might be better-suited as a college coach. 

 

Michigan - a Top 5 job in the country?>     I'm not so sure about that anymore.       Michigan wants you to believe that, but there's a lot of things they want you to believe that simply aren't true and haven't been since Lloyd Carr retired.   

 

          

 

Yeah, it is literally impossible to win a natty at Michigan and we can't recruit any talent.  Money situation is desperate.  We keep losing NIL battles to...who exactly? 

[buddha]

1 hour ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Not fire him, but just move him to a different situation.     He might be better-suited as a college coach. 

 

Michigan - a Top 5 job in the country?>     I'm not so sure about that anymore.       Michigan wants you to believe that, but there's a lot of things they want you to believe that simply aren't true and haven't been since Lloyd Carr retired.   

 

          

 

you need to relax.

[MichiganCardinal]

I see college football programs in tiers.

Michigan isn't a Tier 1A school where you're born on third base, but that's probably limited to Alabama, Ohio State, and Georgia. Those three have the infrastructure in place where I think most warm bodies could be the head coach and go 10-2 or better. It's just a machine in need of a figure head. They should compete for a national championship in the 12-team format every single year.

But I would put Michigan in the next tier, 1B. The infrastructure and money is in place where you should be very competitive every single year. 9-3 should be the floor, and it shouldn't happen in back-to-back years. And you should probably seriously compete for a national championship at least once every 3-4 years. In the modern format, this probably means qualifying for the playoff at least every other year and advancing to the semifinals every four years. I'd also put schools like Texas, USC, Notre Dame, Oregon, LSU, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma into this category. Clemson will probably eventually get here too.

And then below that is Tier 2, who should have a legitimate shot at a national championship once a decade, but whose realistic ceiling year-in and year-out is probably 9-3 or 10-2. This is where I would put places like Ole Miss, Florida, Auburn, Missouri, Tennessee, Florida State, Miami, Penn State, Michigan State, Washington, and Utah. Maybe Iowa, Wisconsin, and Nebraska too, though all three of them are weird in their own ways.

Tier 3 encompasses the programs that can maybe catch lightning in a bottle, but probably don't have the institutional supports in place to sustain it over a longer term. Most of the ACC and Big 12 fits this mold, along with places like Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Illinois, and Minnesota. You get the idea, it gets worse from there.

I think there are a'plenty of coaches that would gladly take a promotion from Tier 2 or Tier 3 programs to Tier 1B. Likewise, in a vacuum, Michigan is arguably a better job than say LSU or Texas A&M, who is Tier 1B but thinks they should be 1A. In the same way Washington and Utah are probably better jobs than Penn State and Miami, who are Tier 2 but think they should be 1B.

But people don't exist in a vacuum. Kenny Dillingham may prefer to stay home at Tier 3 Arizona State. LSU may back up a Brinks truck to hire whoever their donors want. [Insert Candidate Here] may not love not knowing who the AD and President will be in year two, even with a Tier 1B school... And Michigan is not going to poach someone from an equal or greater-footing school (i.e., Freeman or DeBour) unless extraneous factors make it possible (i.e., folks with torches outside DeBour's house, instability in South Bend).

[Deleterious]

 

[romad1]

8 hours ago, MichiganCardinal said:

I see college football programs in tiers.

Michigan isn't a Tier 1A school where you're born on third base, but that's probably limited to Alabama, Ohio State, and Georgia. Those three have the infrastructure in place where I think most warm bodies could be the head coach and go 10-2 or better. It's just a machine in need of a figure head. They should compete for a national championship in the 12-team format every single year.

But I would put Michigan in the next tier, 1B. The infrastructure and money is in place where you should be very competitive every single year. 9-3 should be the floor, and it shouldn't happen in back-to-back years. And you should probably seriously compete for a national championship at least once every 3-4 years. In the modern format, this probably means qualifying for the playoff at least every other year and advancing to the semifinals every four years. I'd also put schools like Texas, USC, Notre Dame, Oregon, LSU, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma into this category. Clemson will probably eventually get here too.

And then below that is Tier 2, who should have a legitimate shot at a national championship once a decade, but whose realistic ceiling year-in and year-out is probably 9-3 or 10-2. This is where I would put places like Ole Miss, Florida, Auburn, Missouri, Tennessee, Florida State, Miami, Penn State, Michigan State, Washington, and Utah. Maybe Iowa, Wisconsin, and Nebraska too, though all three of them are weird in their own ways.

Tier 3 encompasses the programs that can maybe catch lightning in a bottle, but probably don't have the institutional supports in place to sustain it over a longer term. Most of the ACC and Big 12 fits this mold, along with places like Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Illinois, and Minnesota. You get the idea, it gets worse from there.

I think there are a'plenty of coaches that would gladly take a promotion from Tier 2 or Tier 3 programs to Tier 1B. Likewise, in a vacuum, Michigan is arguably a better job than say LSU or Texas A&M, who is Tier 1B but thinks they should be 1A. In the same way Washington and Utah are probably better jobs than Penn State and Miami, who are Tier 2 but think they should be 1B.

But people don't exist in a vacuum. Kenny Dillingham may prefer to stay home at Tier 3 Arizona State. LSU may back up a Brinks truck to hire whoever their donors want. [Insert Candidate Here] may not love not knowing who the AD and President will be in year two, even with a Tier 1B school... And Michigan is not going to poach someone from an equal or greater-footing school (i.e., Freeman or DeBour) unless extraneous factors make it possible (i.e., folks with torches outside DeBour's house, instability in South Bend).

Coaching and culture matters more at the lower tiers to get to 9 win seasons.  Eventually a coach and culture can move a program into the higher tiers.   If the rich demi-god (maybe an Emir's son from the Persian Gulf, maybe one of Musk's kids) decides he wants to go to the University of Neverwin and that demi-god decides that Mount Olympus should imbue the program with resource, well the opportunity now is wide open for that to happen.  It probably needs to be reigned in to produce a sustainable system.  Its broke now though. 

[buddha]

8 hours ago, MichiganCardinal said:

I see college football programs in tiers.

Michigan isn't a Tier 1A school where you're born on third base, but that's probably limited to Alabama, Ohio State, and Georgia. Those three have the infrastructure in place where I think most warm bodies could be the head coach and go 10-2 or better. It's just a machine in need of a figure head. They should compete for a national championship in the 12-team format every single year.

But I would put Michigan in the next tier, 1B. The infrastructure and money is in place where you should be very competitive every single year. 9-3 should be the floor, and it shouldn't happen in back-to-back years. And you should probably seriously compete for a national championship at least once every 3-4 years. In the modern format, this probably means qualifying for the playoff at least every other year and advancing to the semifinals every four years. I'd also put schools like Texas, USC, Notre Dame, Oregon, LSU, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma into this category. Clemson will probably eventually get here too.

And then below that is Tier 2, who should have a legitimate shot at a national championship once a decade, but whose realistic ceiling year-in and year-out is probably 9-3 or 10-2. This is where I would put places like Ole Miss, Florida, Auburn, Missouri, Tennessee, Florida State, Miami, Penn State, Michigan State, Washington, and Utah. Maybe Iowa, Wisconsin, and Nebraska too, though all three of them are weird in their own ways.

Tier 3 encompasses the programs that can maybe catch lightning in a bottle, but probably don't have the institutional supports in place to sustain it over a longer term. Most of the ACC and Big 12 fits this mold, along with places like Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Illinois, and Minnesota. You get the idea, it gets worse from there.

I think there are a'plenty of coaches that would gladly take a promotion from Tier 2 or Tier 3 programs to Tier 1B. Likewise, in a vacuum, Michigan is arguably a better job than say LSU or Texas A&M, who is Tier 1B but thinks they should be 1A. In the same way Washington and Utah are probably better jobs than Penn State and Miami, who are Tier 2 but think they should be 1B.

But people don't exist in a vacuum. Kenny Dillingham may prefer to stay home at Tier 3 Arizona State. LSU may back up a Brinks truck to hire whoever their donors want. [Insert Candidate Here] may not love not knowing who the AD and President will be in year two, even with a Tier 1B school... And Michigan is not going to poach someone from an equal or greater-footing school (i.e., Freeman or DeBour) unless extraneous factors make it possible (i.e., folks with torches outside DeBour's house, instability in South Bend).

i wouldnt put texas a&m, oregon, or clemson as tier 1 football programs.  tier 1 is for blue bloods who are still successful and well heeled.  i would rank penn state above all those schools.

[Deleterious]

 

[gehringer_2]

3 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

 

Undersized but calls a good game?

[Tiger337]

On 12/7/2025 at 9:20 PM, buddha said:

such bull**** favortism for notre dame.  why should they be guaranteed anything?

join a conference or stfu.

The conferences are stupid now.  Some of them are so big that teams don't even play half the other teams in their conference.  Giving one team an automatic bid is stupid too though.  Maybe give an automatic bid to the top four conference champions plus an automatic bid to the highest ranked team that doesn't qualify on that basis.  That would give Notre Dame and teams from Atlantic Ten, MWC and the new PAC whatever conference next year a chance to get into the playoffs without guaranteeing that some two-loss team from a crappy conference gets in.  

[Motor City Sonics]

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

The conferences are stupid now.  Some of them are so big that teams don't even play half the other teams in their conference.  Giving one team an automatic bid is stupid too though.  Maybe give an automatic bid to the top four conference champions plus an automatic bid to the highest ranked team that doesn't qualify on that basis.  That would give Notre Dame and teams from Atlantic Ten, MWC and the new PAC whatever conference next year a chance to get into the playoffs without guaranteeing that some two-loss team from a crappy conference gets in.  

Go to a four-conference set up.  20 teams in each conference.   MAKE IT REGIONAL.   East/Central/West/South.  (let them all keep their silly names ACC/BIG 10/SEC/Big 12 or PAC).   However the individual conferences decide their championship games - that's the first round of the playoffs.  8 teams.  If you didn't get to your conference championship, you have no gripe.      Notre Dame - join a conference or go pound sand.   Nobody cares anymore.   To Hell with the Big Ten.  To Hell with the SEC and To Hell with Notre Dame.    

Just go ahead and start treating this like a minor league for the NFL since that's what it is now.   Enough with this bullspit altruistic lie about "STUDENT ATHLETES".   They're paid employees now.  

 

The other "Group Of Five" or whatever they are called can have their own playoff system so they can play for a title on their level rather than go to the big playoff and be a sacrificial lamb.    James Madison and Tulane deserve to play for some sort of title but they are going to get brutalized in this playoff.    This isn't like basketball where some small school can shoot the lights out for a couple of games and get into the Sweet 16.   These big conference schools can come at the smaller school with wave after wave of playerscch

 

How come a stupid cartoon by a couple of very very smart, but immature yuck ups like Matt & Trey can paint it so clearly but the rest of us can't?

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Motor City Sonics

[Tiger337]

30 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Go to a four-conference set up.  20 teams in each conference.   MAKE IT REGIONAL.   East/Central/West/South.  (let them all keep their silly names ACC/BIG 10/SEC/Big 12 or PAC).   However the individual conferences decide their championship games - that's the first round of the playoffs.  8 teams.  If you didn't get to your conference championship, you have no gripe.      Notre Dame - join a conference or go pound sand.   Nobody cares anymore.   To Hell with the Big Ten.  To Hell with the SEC and To Hell with Notre Dame.    

Just go ahead and start treating this like a minor league for the NFL since that's what it is now.   Enough with this bullspit altruistic lie about "STUDENT ATHLETES".   They're paid employees now.  

 

The other "Group Of Five" or whatever they are called can have their own playoff system so they can play for a title on their level rather than go to the big playoff and be a sacrificial lamb.    James Madison and Tulane deserve to play for some sort of title but they are going to get brutalized in this playoff.    This isn't like basketball where some small school can shoot the lights out for a couple of games and get into the Sweet 16.   These big conference schools can come at the smaller school with wave after wave of playerscch

 

How come a stupid cartoon by a couple of very very smart, but immature yuck ups like Matt & Trey can paint it so clearly but the rest of us can't?

 

 

If you want to make it logical, then make it 8 conferences of 10 teams each and they each play every team in their conference.  Notre Dame doesn't play in a conference because it makes more money that way.  The rest of the teams play in super conferences because they make more money that way.  There is nothing noble about playing in these huge conferences containing teams from all over the country just like there is nothing noble about Notre Dame being independent.  If you are trying to get the best 12 teams in a playoff, it shouldn't be about what conference you're if in you aren't playing half the teams in your conference.  

[Motor City Sonics]

37 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

If you want to make it logical, then make it 8 conferences of 10 teams each and they each play every team in their conference.  Notre Dame doesn't play in a conference because it makes more money that way.  The rest of the teams play in super conferences because they make more money that way.  There is nothing noble about playing in these huge conferences containing teams from all over the country just like there is nothing noble about Notre Dame being independent.  If you are trying to get the best 12 teams in a playoff, it shouldn't be about what conference you're if in you aren't playing half the teams in your conference.  

Let's be honest.  The way the two power conferences want it  - it should be 24 teams in 2 conferences and half the teams make the playoffs.   That's what it feels like with the SEC and Big Ten stranglehold on everything.  

 

Oh, and nice move Diego Pavia.  Class act.   Did you not know you weren't going to win going in?   Complete jackass.