OKBoomerSooner

So exciting to see man. I really thought this was the type of thing that couldn't improve week-to-week. Athletic QBs with happy feet have a hard time breaking out of the run-first mindset that quickly. This is fricking awesome because I really think the only thing holding us back from real contention was if Sam didn't settle in. What a dime dude :cheers:

I think the margins just got extremely thin. The SEC leveled up massively, not just at the top but in the middle class. Alabama “regressed” from transcendental all-time dominance to a mere mortal best-in-class program. Georgia improved to best-in-class status at the same time. But previously, behind Alabama there were a handful of talented programs (Georgia included, but also LSU, Auburn) that were good enough to take a game here and there but not really compete as equals… and then a bunch of mediocrity.

Now any given year there’s Georgia, Alabama, probably Texas in that same tier, but like 4 to 6 other teams that can plausibly take games and go on a run to the conference title game. And then there’s another 3 to 4 with the talent and coaching to compete that have horrible injury luck or one brutal positional regression that knocks them out of contending that year, but that have potential to go on a run any given year. It’s just really hard to stay ahead of that many programs putting that many resources into competing.

It’s only gonna get worse, too, as the Big Ten finally catches up with their media deals. They’ve already won the last 3 titles, and on a talent level it’s difficult to argue that their top end can’t compete, since they splattered SEC teams along the way. Their middle class isn’t as good yet, but the money for that is coming.

So, long story short, I’d say Saban got out before the rule changes really leveled the playing field, and that Kirby was more of a harbinger that change was coming. I don’t think Saban’s “legacy” would have been “tarnished” if he hung around and they really fell back to the land of the good but not great. But the trend was obvious and I don’t see anything that would have prevented it. And Kirby’s living with it just as much as anyone else right now, though he’s doing a great job of staying a step above the surging competition.

If that's not the official name of that play in the playbook, it needs to be.

I was just thinking about this lol. Feels like home field is a solid touchdown edge rather than the ~3-4 points it's supposed to be

Either program would be very foolish to fire their coach

They are definitely Grindproof, there is no possible way that anything bad could happen to Alabama in Starkvegas today.

People say the SEC is up, yet zero SEC teams have made the playoffs so far this season. Curious!

24 is way too far.

I actually like 12 even though I expected to hate it. I think 16 might even be better, as unintuitive as that probably is, because it doesn't add another round - it just shoves the pity invites over to play the top-4 seeds in round 1 and creates more interesting first-round games among the next-8. And obviously I think shrinking to 8 has a ton of merit too.

But anything that adds another round is foolishness IMO. Adding another round that has even fewer of the top teams in it is just dumb. And I know I saw that they were going to do away with most conference auto-bids, but I really strongly suspect nonetheless that they're going to smuggle auto-bids for all conferences into the final version. Maybe I'm wrong there, but don't tell me you can't see them doing it lol.

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We are just celebrating that we don't have to dickride Florida next week to avenge the loss.

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:bow: :bow: :bow:

Baw god that catch was a thang of beauty baws