RunningJacket

The season hasn’t even started yet, We are still in May. Nothing matters in MLB until late August thru November.

All that matters for the Braves is that our starting pitchers appear to be good. Can they be good when it matters or will they suck or be injured?

The freakery the past year or two has been fun to watch. The model can and will absolutely sustain itself. Why? Because high schools produce a lot of football players who want to keep playing. The Ivies don’t even give out scholarships and they seem to field teams every year with no issues.

Sure, there will be changes - I believe for the good - but college football is a thriving business that will keep going.

And if other sports lose funding then so be it. Most of all these subsidized sports should have died off long ago anyway. No one has a right to play a sport no one is willing to pay for with a school name on the jersey. There are sports clubs in every major city for every type of sport if a student wants to try and keep playing certain sports while they attend college.

And a lot of this is just the market catching up and telling these schools that perhaps they were dumb to pay guys named Dabo and Kirby 10’s of millions. And I imagine these crazy NIL prices will also significantly fall as schools simply stop bidding. The bottom line is the supply of players is just about endless so every school will have access to players whether they pay a lot or a little.

The only SEC team with a defense good enough to win a playoff system is UGA. No one else plays good enough defense. All playoff champions have shown they could stop someone which is why they won. The SEC use to be built that way but now the SEC has become the BIG 12 with all offense and no defense.

Here are the point totals given up by the SEC and BIG the past 2 playoffs:

SEC- 10,38,39,34,34,24,10,28,31,23,24,42 = avg of 28 per game.

BIG- 21,22,3,24,0,37,23,14,27,21,41,14,17,10,27 = avg of 18 per game.

This tells the story. That’s a huge difference in defensive play.

You know what made college football different?

Corruption and fraud.

Players were bought decades before NIL. Post season matchups were paired by bowl committees well before the season was completed.

The NCAA punished some teams and let others off.

It’s just shocking to me that so many SEC fans of the have not teams follow Bama and UGA fans in lockstep when they are the ones who have kept you down by buying up all your good players.

The regular season means more now because you have more teams vying for more spots. If this were the 4 team or BCS era this season there would be no reason for 85% of the teams to even play because they have zero chance. But, now if a South Carolina, Miss St type has a good year and pulls an upset or two they could get in. That only happens in an expanded system. Otherwise it would just be another wasted season of watching Ohio State, UGA, Bama, Michigan, and a couple others play the media game to get an invite.

I can’t wait to see the threads in a few years when we have playoff games on campus all over the country that are sold out. You guys will still be saying the sport is dying even while 70K are packed in Neyland or Bloomington, or Dallas, etc. Just funny stuff.

We were told 5 days ago that Strider was done by certain posters in this board?

Just too funny. We have some drama queens when the season doesn’t even start until August.

So why do they lose playoff games and bowl games? The SEC today is completely overrated. I wouldn’t have said that 5 years ago but the portal has decimated the SEC and the playoffs lately have proved that. No one is scared to play the SEC. You have the same number of teams capable of winning the Natty this year as the ACC - 1, UGA. No other team has a defense that will advance in the tourney. Texas and others can score but they can’t stop anyone.

Bunk,
You say the regular season will lose interest. Ok. We’ve been hearing that since they started the BCS. Please show me the evidence that this is true?
It may be true in the pros but there is a vast difference in pro fans and college fans. Arkansas and South Carolina have proved they will spend their money for garbage teams year after year. Not a shot at them but it shows college fans attend for more than the game,

Heck, a week before the playoffs started we saw sold out games that were meaniningless. Both the BIG and SEC champ game were meaningless and yet fans forked over huge bucks to attend.

This mantra that the regular season will be devalued is just false and has been proven to be false. And will be proven to be false again this year. We all know that UGA and Ohio St will make the playoffs this coming season. That’s a given witht their rosters. Yet, all their home games will be sold out.

That’s my point - who decides who is deserving? It’s just opinion. The SEC got 5 teams in the playoffs and didn’t have 1 make the Natty. That shows the entire opinion was wrong that the SEC was the strongest. They clearly weren’t. So if the BIG gets 6 teams in this year based on opinion you guys will be fine with that?

All I want is fairness for everyone whether it’s Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, or Purdue. But before a game is played we’ll already have an opinion poll telling us that this group of teams is better than that group. Look at last year - we were told Bama was good based on opinion and FSU was bad. And then they played and FSU proved to be a team yet Bama remained ranked ahead of them all year. Bama played a very weak schedule and had 1 good win all year. All those wins proved to be against just mediocre teams even thought e opinion polls had them ranked.

Do people not pay big ticket prices to go to regular season MLB and NBA games? Of course they do. I went to a Braves game last week and I dropped about $240 for 4 tix and parking. And I knew going in the game was essentially meaningless.

For some unknown stupidity, a lot of college fans somehow believe their regular is more important than other sports. It’s not. The regular season is nothing but a 3 month period to get ready for the playoffs. And fans will still pack the stadiums like we saw last year.

I’ll gladly say I’m wrong when you can point to me regular season games that are not attended. When Bama or UGA or Tenn or Clemson start drawing 30K then we can talk.

And did you see the other thread about “ most loyal fanbase” and how fans wear it as a moniker of pride to pack a stadium for a bad team.

With a bigger playoff you’ll have higher attendance for teams fighting for spots. If anything, games of the future that pit two 7-2 teams will have larger attendance because that game will actually matter now. And fans for 2 undefeated teams that meet late in the season will still show up even though both are comfortably in the playoffs because that is what has already happened. If I were a UGA or Bama fan there is no way I’d go to a regular season. I’d save my money and time for the playoffs but these two fanbases just live to spend money.

And neither of those teams played in the SEC. Miami didn’t even make the ACC Champ game yet they made the Natty, but the SEC is supposedly better. I do believe the SEC is the bspest conference top to bottom but I also think the BIG and ACC are a half step behind while so many of you still believe the distance is vast. And when I point out how FSU beat Bama y’all go silent but if Arkansas were to beat Bama you’d be screaming how tough the SEC is. Miami didn’t even make our title game yet was a couple plays away from the Natty while your top 5 teams were all sitting at home.

But the thought that an expanded playoff will kill the regular season is just a myth. Last year Ohio St played Texas in a worthless regular season game. It wasn’t a conference game. It was a scrimmage, yet it was sold out.

Bama and UGA played in a sold out conference championship game that meant nothing because both teams were in the playoffs.

Anyone who says the regular season is less meaningful are just eaten up by propaganda. It has been proved to be wrong. Fans are attending in crazy numbers.

What you are really mad about is that teams aren’t eliminated by a loss or two. Boo hoo.