“I had a guy send me a note, half-joking, saying this may be the most depressing day of the South since Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox,” said Paul Finebaum, whose radio show is the equivalent of the Southeastern Conference’s fireside chat. “Is that hyperbole? Of course.”
I poked fun at Ole Miss and Miss State getting destroyed by mentioning Grant's Vicksburg Campaign. The SEC is going to bounce back because all the best football talent is in that region. The only states outside the SEC footprint, incl Texas, with that kind of HS talent are Ohio and California. I wonder how Phyllis from Mugla is doing?
But it appears that the new playoff system may have exposed the SEC for what it was: a conference that took advantage of the fact there was no true playoff system until this year. Watch the SEC try to dissuade people from advocating for an eight-team playoff now....
Jimbo Fisher and the Criminoles will continue to recruit prisons and halfway houses for functionally illiterate sociopaths, rapists, theives, misfits and thugs, who will never graduate. Part of the SEC West’s downfall is that it’s always been over-hyped by the sports media. Now, the fickle media will Cannonize Urban Meyer and the Big 10, and PAC 10 as the new college football titans for decades to come. As evidenced with TCU, it’s not about who’s best, but rather which big state schools have the largest alumni base and mass sports media markets. Just watch E$PN turn on the SEC.
“because all the best football talent is in that region” this is obviously true, because the playoff teams are from somewhere other than the south.
We will see if it goes in cycles, historically, there have been cycles of universities or regions doing well the way OU was such a power. Even if the “best” are from one region, there is still a lot of talent around the nation for the collegiate level at least. That is what colleges such as Boise State were built on. Let’s not forget ALL of the big colleges get breaks as well and in some ways, lock out the smaller ones.
In 2012, the NCAA put into effect for Div 1 schools a 1-A football 85 overall and 25 reserved for first year students - reference link at: http://www.speeddevelopment.net/NCAA_College_Scholarship_Rules_and_Limits_-_CollegeAthletes.com.pdf . However, those students who enroll early will not be counted....
This will have a major effect over the next two to three years all schools come into compliance and the schools who benefited from taking higher numbers such as Alabama (28 in 2014) achieve parity in the numbers game of recruiting scholarships.
One point not being mentioned is that Ohio State Buckeyes have been under sanctions and could only take 22 scholarships the past three years (2015 will be their first 25 scholarship limit class sine 2011), which makes all the more impressive their toppling of Alabama.
The Major Programs like Michigan, Texas, USC, UCLA, Penn State, Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, etc. will still be the prime destinations for the elite student athlete recruits in the scholarship game and the up and comers like TCU, Baylor, Mich State, Boise State, etc. will still be competing better in this new scholarship era where recruiting limits stockpiling talent.
The last time NCAA Football did anything this radical was in the early 1970s when it declared limits on programs. For the old timers here, do you remember when Texas and Oklahoma would suite up 300 kids for a football game (in part to keep them from playing against their own school).
A new scholarship and recruiting era is fittingly brought to fruition with a College Playoff system. No two eras are alike and each period will see it's own winners and lose rise and fall.
Go Ducks!