College Football Thread

[Lebowski]

12 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Everything you posted is true, but Hova's point is that Maryland currently sucks, and that could continue to be an ongoing thing if their administartion doesn't do a 180.

 

3 minutes ago, Hovadipo said:

I haven't once argued otherwise.

My point is that IU was in the exact same spot 2 years ago. Just because they suck now doesn't mean they suck next season. Especially with the current landscape in college football.
 

[Hovadipo]

2 minutes ago, Lebowski said:

 

My point is that IU was in the exact same spot 2 years ago. Just because they suck now doesn't mean they suck next season. Especially with the current landscape in college football.
 

And my point is that it isn’t the exact same spot. It’s more complicated than “IU can do it, so they can too.” I’ve laid out my reasoning for that multiple times now. 

[Lebowski]

3 minutes ago, Hovadipo said:

And my point is that it isn’t the exact same spot. It’s more complicated than “IU can do it, so they can too.” I’ve laid out my reasoning for that multiple times now. 

Maybe I don't understand what resources you are talking about that IU had? The stadium was empty. I was there. 

[Home Jersey]

JMO but I am pretty familiar with both schools and there's some pretty big structural differences between the IU and Maryland jobs.

The big one being that Maryland's campus is within 30 minutes of like 8 different pro teams in a bunch of different sports. A Maryland football home game isn't drawing a bunch of local fans when they're competing with the Ravens and Commanders right there.

Another important one is the competitive recruiting ground it's in. The entire east coast raids the DMV for talent and Maryland, even when they've been at their best historically, doesn't tend to stand out to the best local players.

Lastly, the internal politics with UA seem really stinky and limiting. They don't have the same grassroots appeal as IU (largest alumni network in the U.S.) or the same level of engagement / investment from their deep pocketed alumni.

Not to say Maryland doesn't have some good stuff going for it or that they can't have sports success... they have had it before. I just don't think the job has the same ceiling as the IU job in football specifically. 

[Home Jersey]

On 9/29/2026 at 9:53 AM, Lebowski said:

I'm very skeptic with the bill. I have a feeling this will be a disaster and will only fix parts of the current climate. I don't have any knowledge about the bill so keep that in mind. I just think the folks in DC are inept at just about 80% of things they do with the other 20% being about themselves. We as fans should question why they're in a hurry pass this. 

Can someone on here give me the cliff notes with the bill and provide pros and cons? I can probably google it but I'd prefer to hear it from Hoosier Nation. 

I just saw an interview from Barstool with a Senator about the bill from 8 days ago. 

He said they could just pass a bill that says 5 for 5 or x amount of transfers / x% for agent fees.

An interviewer asked how that could work, because without the antitrust exemption, wouldn't there still be constant lawsuits?

The Senator said the antitrust exemption isn't required for eligibility rules, what's in the bill from an antitrust perspective is to allow schools to have greater power in negotiations over TV contracts. Every single college football program could bind together and use their total leverage to get contracts from networks or streaming services.

There's language in the bill that says if they negotiate that way, they have to have at least 1 local market where people get the game for free. In Texas there are 20 different local TV markets. So 1 would get it for free and they would sell the rights in the other 19 TV markets in Texas to Amazon, Netflix, etc. Says it will greatly increase their bargaining power for TV rights mostly at expense for fans having to pay more to watch games. 

He says this legislation would be the first step to Congress micromanaging college sports. 

There is a decent amount of political commentary in the interview so I'm not linking it here, but it's easy enough to find with the information in this post for those interested in a long form interview. It lasts about 30 minutes.

[OliviaPope40]

Was listening to a podcast episode about the bill that the senate passed this week quite an interesting episode. 

[Demo]

Huh

[Artie86]

.....Penn St. vs. Northwestern tonight at 8 should be a good one! Being their first home game in the new Ryan Field Stadium, I would love for Northwestern to thump Penn St. A solid Northwestern win will definitely help our game look a little better.

[str8baller]

We’re definitely headed for a 24 team playoff, it seems. Personally, I’m not a fan. 

[LIHoosier]

7 minutes ago, str8baller said:

We’re definitely headed for a 24 team playoff, it seems. Personally, I’m not a fan. 

I'd like it if it ends up with 8 auto bids and 16 at larges so we're not debating 7-5 teams on the bubble but I'm also not holding my breath.

[Pagoda]

1 hour ago, str8baller said:

We’re definitely headed for a 24 team playoff, it seems. Personally, I’m not a fan. 

How long until they try to make it 32?  That’s a nice clean bracket number… those teams ranked #25-32 are solid… may as well!

/s

[Brass Cannon]

20 hours ago, Demo said:

Huh

 

[str8baller]

1 hour ago, LIHoosier said:

I'd like it if it ends up with 8 auto bids and 16 at larges so we're not debating 7-5 teams on the bubble but I'm also not holding my breath.

I was always an advocate of 8 w/ conference auto-bids to preserve the importance of the conference championship. But at this point I’d prefer to go back to the old bowl and poll system. I’m just not a fan. 
 

People have put up with a lot of change over the last 5+ years. I’m curious if CFB can continue to weather it.  I don’t think playoffs exactly hurt it—beyond a minority of people like me—but golf and Nascar have desperately tried it at the behest of tv execs and more or less hurt the popularity of the regular season and their big playoff push is kind of a dud. 
 

The MLB and NBA have both expanded the playoffs to try and capture interest with no avail. Some might say it has further hurt their regular season.  
 

We’ll see, I guess. 

[Hardwood83]

2 minutes ago, str8baller said:

I was always an advocate of 8 w/ conference auto-bids to preserve the importance of the conference championship. But at this point I’d prefer to go back to the old bowl and poll system. I’m just not a fan. 

People have put up with a lot of change over the last 5+ years. I’m curious if CFB can continue to weather it.  I don’t think playoffs exactly hurt it—beyond a minority of people like me—but golf and Nascar have desperately tried it at the behest of tv execs and more or less hurt the popularity of the regular season and their big playoff push is kind of a dud. 

The MLB and NBA have both expanded the playoffs to try and capture interest with no avail. Some might say it has further hurt their regular season.  

We’ll see, I guess. 

I agree with you. Why does the #23 team in country even deserve a shot at the NC? Why should the #3 have to beat them? 

 Our society is convinced that more is always better, and clearly it is not. 

I recognize that am not the "typical" fan, in that I assume anything new is stupid and people that like it are mindless lemmings chasing shiney things. Having said that, CFB became so popular for a reason, people liked what it was. Much of that has been lost or diluted in the last decade. Are these changes bringing in new fans? Or does it just alienate a % of fans and weaken the overall product?    

[Pagoda]

I’m worried this is eventually going to devalue the regular season.  If mediocre 9-3 teams and even some 8-4 teams make it… are regular season games going to feel as important as they do now?  I kinda doubt it.  Lose three games you’re still okay?  Eh.

The best team in the country is usually going to be in the top-12.  I could see a case for 16 teams.

But 24?  Nah.

This could be okay if teams are really worried about seeding and that keeps the regular season feeling important.  Not sure that happens though and I tend to doubt it will.

CFB is really popular.  Why mess with the golden goose for just a little more TV $?  I guess the answer is it’s a little more TV $.

Oh well, we’ll see how it goes…

[WayneFleekHoosier]

16 seems like the perfect number. 24 is a lot.  

[Loaded Chicken Sandwich]

Huh... Northwesterns new stadium looks really cool. Unfortunately, Indiana will continue slapping lipstick on both of their pigs. 

[Pagoda]

11 minutes ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

Huh... Northwesterns new stadium looks really cool. Unfortunately, Indiana will continue slapping lipstick on both of their pigs. 

Waste of money.  Spend it on players (and coaches).

And it’s like 75% full.

[LIHoosier]

It means we'd have to play at Lucas Oil for 2 years or keep the bleachers for Little 5 at Armstrong year round.

[IU5355]

Injuries are not being kind to Northwestern. Their left guard just went down. Hoping these guys smack Penn St.