AdamOnFirst said:

My proposed solution to the byes thing is: move the round of 4 bowl games to the first round. Teams 5-12 play at the bowl sites. This eliminates the big advantage a team gets by being seeded 8 instead of 9, which is very marginal and subjective and probably not fair.

Give the 4 conference champs the bye week AND give them home field advantage. Now we're talking a really major advantage. The reality of the conference champs rules means a lot are still going to be underdogs and lose, but you're heaping all the advantages on the teams who actually earned it through titles and not based on seeding.

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cedricmelons said:

If so, they couldn't even get that right. Spread was 4.5.

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gocatsgo2003 said:

Gronowski reportedly visiting Iowa today, which would make a ton of sense — he’s the kind of veteran game manager QB that they really need.

I think Gronowski is a “high floor” QB take whereas Stone is a “high ceiling” QB take. Happy with the guy we got.

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1830sherman said:

I'm so glad we've got our '25 QB, and we're not still in the Gronowski waiting game.

Waiting for Gronowski...it got to be like waiting for Godot.

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Hungry Jack said:

You guys are doing it wrong.

Basketball rants only. Plenty of fodder after last night. My eyes are still burning.

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SmellyCat said:

I naively expected a make-up call on the inbound. Instead a no-call when Nicholson was pushed. How silly of me.

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CatManTrue said:

What if: Gronowski had come with Lukan for 2024?

Preston Stone looks like a winner based on his 2023 performance.

It doesn’t matter now. Lujan has a QB ready to go (Lausch should play a Colter type role - he’s too talented not to be a WR with some real Wildcat potential).

South Dakota State QB Mark Gronowski to enter portal, keep eye on draft

Quarterback Mark Gronowski, who won two FCS national titles at South Dakota State, is entering the transfer portal but also keeping his eyes on his NFL draft potential, he told

www.kten.com

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TheC said:

As long as that's based on regular season champ and not the stupid conference championship game. One game shouldn't decide that big advantage.

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AdamOnFirst said:

My proposed solution to the byes thing is: move the round of 4 bowl games to the first round. Teams 5-12 play at the bowl sites. This eliminates the big advantage a team gets by being seeded 8 instead of 9, which is very marginal and subjective and probably not fair.

Give the 4 conference champs the bye week AND give them home field advantage. Now we're talking a really major advantage. The reality of the conference champs rules means a lot are still going to be underdogs and lose, but you're heaping all the advantages on the teams who actually earned it through titles and not based on seeding.

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Sheffielder said:

We got to 12 teams for a host of obvious reasons:
* Preserving the "value" of conference championship games and ensuring participating teams don't just bench their starters.
* 12 teams is more than 8...more games = more money.
* The 12 team model will forever inherently favor the Big 2, and they know it. In most years it will include no less than two (but probably three) teams from B1G/SEC.
* 12 teams significantly brings down the heat on the last team in. If it were eight this year, then we would've been debating the exclusion of Ohio State or Tennessee (under the current system, there is literally no difference being #8 or #9)...that ball could've easily bounced the other way since OSU was coming off a "bad" loss to Michigan. As it is, no one is losing too much sleep arguing over 12th/13th/14th.

...so I totally get why they included 12, and I'm fine with it. My favorite solution to the problem we think we're seeing right now: let the top three seeds pick their opponents coming out of the first round. So, in this case, Oregon would've been allowed to pick who they play between Ohio State, Penn State, Texas, and Notre Dame. And then Georgia, and then Boise, and then Arizona State would've gotten the last team left.

Or, if you don't like that...then let Oregon pick from any of the seven teams remaining after the first round...so they could pick Boise (who still got a first-round bye for being one of the highest-ranked conference champs). If logistics and planning are raised as a concern, then you can have Oregon submit its rank-order list once the first-round games are announced, so if they wanted Boise that could've been known on Dec. 8, regardless of the first-round results.

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prez77 said:

I don't think Georgia was national championship material. I think Ohio State and Oregon are the top two.

I agree, not making mistakes is part of being good. Great baseball teams don't make errors at critical moments and great basketball teams don't leave their free throws on the floor.

However, if Georgia had their starting QB, and ND and Georgia were to play a series, I think Georgia wins. Overall, I think they have the better athletes and I think their peak ability as a team is higher than ND's even if ND did play a more disciplined game yesterday.

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JournCat said:

Excited to see Jeb Bush’s campaign? (Just kidding. No one was excited about that one, not even Jeb.)

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