Big 12 expansion may not be inevitable — the University of Texas reportedly has issues, and it’s well established that the Longhorns wield more clout than much of the conference. Nevertheless, as the din of conference realignment grows, and nonsensical arguments contingent on seemingly arbitrary percentages gain traction, the possibility of Big 12 expansion has […]
Tag: UCF Knights
NCAA Tournament Teams Suited for College Football
Every March, the NCAA Tournament attracts casual fans whose sports interest typically resides elsewhere for the other 11 months of the year. For college football fans, some of the teams that made the 2016 NCAA Tournament might seem foreign. This year’s Field of 68 featured 14 universities with Football Championship Subdivision programs, including 2015 FCS […]
Thursday Night Football Puts Rock-Bottom Front-and-Center
Thursday night football had all the joy of Artax sinking into the Swamp of Sadness. Truly, the college football season reached its bottom. “What went wrong? How’d they get to this point,” color analyst Jay Walker asked the pressing question from ESPNU’s broadcast of Texas State vs. Louisiana-Monroe. Walker referred specifically to ULM, a program […]
UCF Coaching Search May Be This Cycle’s Toughest
Of the many vacancies already opened this hiring cycle, and of those still to come, the UCF coaching search may well be the most difficult. At the very least, it’s the most unique. Finding a successor for George O’Leary would always be a challenge, which I posited well before the Knights started 0-9 with a […]
Four Downs on Week 7: American Rising
The Bowl Championship Series came back from summer break upgraded to College Football Playoff and had become too good for the American Athletic Conference. Since their break-up, the American loaded up with great coaches, began maximizing the potential of some of its programs, and has come back smoking hot. The Playoff didn’t know what it […]
College Football Coaching Carousel 2015 Promises Insanity
The coaching carousel spins more like a Gravitron than a merry-go-round in 2015. Openings in the SEC, Pac-12 and two in the Big Ten promise more reshuffling than 2011 — and it’s only Oct. 12. Steve Spurrier’s immediately retirement from South Carolina Monday, first reported and by Sports Illustrated, makes five vacancies opened since the […]
Could ESPN Budget Issues Impact College Football?
The heavy, four-fingered-white-gloved hand of Disney Corp. is coming down hard on ESPN, to the tune of a quarter-billion dollars. Just this week, we’ve seen the Worldwide Leader’s cost-cutting measures result in separations with Keith Olbermann and Colin Cowherd, but focus turns to where the real bulk of ESPN’s budget lies: live-game broadcast rights. ESPN […]
College Football News June 13: Jim Harbaugh Piques Nation’s Interest
Michigan football has not had the kind of positive buzz emanating from it that head coach Jim Harbaugh is generating since the week leading up to the “Game of the Century” with Ohio State in 2006. Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News writes that Jim Harbaugh is “The Most Interesting Man in College […]
College Football News June 8: Pac-12 Announces Injury Spotters
Safety concerns remain one of the most vexing issues for football at all levels. In the college game, the Pac-12 is enacting a proactive in 2015 with the introduction of injury spotters. The conference issued a release to media Sunday night, detailing this and other new measures designed to combat players participating with injuries — […]
College Football News June 1: Mike Sherman Finds Surprising New Home
Former Texas A&M head coach and NFL assistant Mike Sherman is getting a fresh start in the game, at a most surprising location: Nauset Regional High School on Cape Cod. The school’s athletic director, Keith Kenyon, told Bill Higgins of the Cape Cod Times: “I’ve known about Mike as far back as the early 1980s […]
Christian Hackenberg and Justin Holman Put on a Show in Ireland
Penn State and UCF were slow to start offensively in Ireland, but the second half proved worth the wait. Sophomore quarterback Christian Hackenberg was as good as advertised in the Nittany Lions’ 26-24 win, coming in from an offseason of hype.
Week 1 Saturday Six-Pack: College Football Picks and Previews
Welcome to the first installment of The College Football Huddle’s season-long college football picks and previews column, the Saturday Six-Pack.
NCAA Autonomy Vote Passes; Group of 5 on Thin Ice?
The NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors voted Thursday to grant autonomy to the so-called Power 5 conferences. In other words, the playing field between the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC and the rest of Division I just got significantly wider.
Steve Spurrier on East Carolina vs. Big Ten Isn’t Trolling, It’s Common Sense
It’s fun for college football media to depict Steve Spurrier as the sport’s Don Rickles. And to an extent, that’s the persona he puts out there publicly when he roasts Nick Saban, Mark Richt and Dabo Swinney (especially Dabo Swinney).
A Radical (and Unrealistic) Plan for A 16-Team Big 12 Conference
Let’s be perfectly clear up front to avoid any confusion: In no way is the following speculation of any backdoor dealings that could expand the Big 12 Conference from 10 teams to 16. Nor is the following a prediction; were Las Vegas sports books to accept wagers on future conference realignment, this six-team parlay might […]