Jump to content

CFB Catch-All Thread -- 2024

LTtxfan

By LTtxfan
in Football

 Share

Recommended Posts

mdmost

mdmost 42997

Posted
Posted (edited)

I mean they won 10 games last year and went into College Station and got a win. Are they great, no. Should they be ranked today, yes. There's also playing down to your opponent. 

Edited by mdmost
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
LTtxfan

LTtxfan 49141

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Several rivalry games in Week #3...

On the Line: The Group of 5 takes center stage Week #3

In a week with only two AP Top 25 matchups, the intrigue lies with the Group of 5 Top 15.

ZACH BARNETT          SEP 12, 2024

In case you've missed it, we here at FootballScoop (along with our partners at Athlon) launched the Group of 5 poll at the onset of the season. Response from coaches has been universally positive, and the play on the field has given us many reasons to celebrate the football played in those leagues. (Hello, Northern Illinois.)

The Week 3 slate, light on intrigue in the Power 4 -- one ranked matchup, and it's No. 24 BC at No. 6 Mizzou, GameDay at LSU-South Carolina(???) -- brings us plenty of games that will shape the race for the Group of 5 Playoff spot(s). All rankings from the FootballScoop Coaches Poll.

-- No. 4 UNLV at Kansas (7 p.m. ET Friday, ESPN): UNLV is third in the nation in rushing this young season, fresh off a 503-yard performance against Utah Tech. Kansas is 17th. This may be a game where both teams run for 200-plus.

-- No. 1 Memphis at Florida State (noon ET, ESPN): Hoo boy. The voters think Memphis is really good, but are they good enough to deliver a death blow to a Florida State team that's had two weeks to circle the wagons and author the best performance they're capable of -- whatever that may mean? 

-- Cincinnati at No. 13 Miami of Ohio (noon ET, ESPNU): In a rivalry that dates back to 1888, Cincinnati and Miami are both 60-60-7, so there will be absolutely no fear of the Big 12 Bearcats from the MAC RedHawks. And considering Cincinnati has beaten one FBS team in a calendar year, there shouldn't be.

-- ARV North Texas at Texas Tech (noon ET, FS1): Texas Tech is 129th against the pass and 117th against the run through two weeks. Granted, North Texas is 87th in yards per play against South Alabama and Stephen F. Austin, but... sheesh.

-- No. 5 Tulane at AP No. 15 Oklahoma (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN): Does last week's near-miss against AP No. 14 K-State inspire the Green Wave to finish the job against Oklahoma, or was that their best shot at knocking off an AP Top 25 Power 4 team this year?

-- No. 10 Toledo at Mississippi State (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPNU): Did you see that Mississippi State was out-rushed 359-30 last week? Beyond the obvious opportunity there, the Rockets should be getting a beat up Bulldogs squad licking its paws with Florida, then No. 2 Texas and No. 1 Georgia upcoming. 

So, there are seven opportunities for ranked Group of 5 teams to take down Power 4 opponents, including one in four successive ESPN windows -- Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday early and Saturday mid-day. 

The subplot to Texas A&M-Florida that no one wants to talk about (but I can't ignore). We have two choices here: to stick our heads in the sand, or to tell the truth. I choose the latter, which means that Texas A&M isn't going to Gainesville to simply beat the 2024 Florida outfit, they're going there to potentially take their quarterback.

Billy Napier's job status is one of the overarching story lines of the season, and he did no favors by authoring that 41-17 clunker to Miami in the opener. The other overarching storyline? The transformative impact (both good and bad) of transfer quarterbacks. Whatever Miami paid to keep Cam Ward out of the NFL draft was worth it, and then some. (See: Miami 41, Florida 17.) On the flip side, there's Notre Dame with Riley Leonard, Florida State with DJ Uiagaleilei, Auburn with Payton Thorne... and Florida with Graham Mertz.

That takes us to Saturday. Mertz will reportedly return to action after missing last Saturday's Samford game with a concussion, and he's expected to split time with DJ Lagway. Lagway, who was the No. 1 quarterback in the class of 2024. Lagway, who hails from Willis, Texas, an hour's drive from College Station. 

The jury is very much out on Conner Weigman, who posted a 200 QB rating against McNeese and a 55 against Notre Dame. 

There's a lot still to happen between now and the portal window opening at the end of the regular season. But the outcome of this game could go a long way toward setting the stage for early December. 

Additional Games: 

-- No. 20 Arizona at No. 14 Kansas State (8 p.m. ET, Fox): It's the second straight week we've had a big game involving Big 12 teams that's not a Big 12 game, following Utah's 23-12 win over Baylor last week. 

-- No. 4 Alabama at Wisconsin (noon ET, Fox): Alabama has been to Camp Randall once before, in 1928. Can the Crimson Tide clean up last week's issues in the secondary against [checks notes] a team that threw for 406 combined yards against Western Michigan and South Dakota?

-- No. 13 Oklahoma State at Tulsa (noon ET, ESPN2): The good: Oklahoma State was the first team since 2020 to allow 550 or more yards with a minus-200 yardage differential and still find a way to win last week against Arkansas. The bad: Oklahoma State allowed nearly 650 yards against Arkansas.

-- No. 16 LSU at South Carolina (noon ET, ABC): This game features three of the absolute freak athletes in the game today -- South Carolina wide receiver Nyck Harbor (6'5", 235, faster than your wife falls asleep on the couch during Couples Movie Night), South Carolina edge Dylan Stewart, and LSU linebacker Harold Perkins. How good are the teams around them? Remains to be seen.

-- No. 24 Boston College at No. 6 Missouri (12:45 p.m. ET, SEC Network): Yep, it's the one AP ranked matchup of the day, and it features two 2-0 teams whose four wins have combined to win one game. Buffalo (a Mizzou opponent) defeated FCS Lafayette in Week 1, otherwise the three remaining opponents the Eagles and Tigers have beaten are winless.

-- No. 9 Oregon at Oregon State (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox)
-- Washington State vs. Washington at Seattle (3:30 p.m. ET, Peacock): Credit to these schools for finding ways to get these games played. Their colleagues in Oklahoma should take note. No offense to anyone involved, but I hope Oregon State and Washington State hammer their pompous in-state rivals. 

-- No. 18 Notre Dame at Purdue (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS): Purdue played Indiana State and then took a week off, so it's fair to say Ryan Walters' team has been prepping for this game for six weeks. For his sake, hopefully Marcus Freeman patched the holes that NIU exposed in Notre Dame's tape. 

-- West Virginia at Pitt (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2): Two games in, the returns on Kade Bell in Pittsburgh. The Panthers dropped 55 points on Kent State, then put 28 on Cincinnati -- a number Pitt only reached one time against Power 4 opponents last season. Let's see if they can get there again against WVU's 109th-ranked defense.

-- Appalachian State at East Carolina (4 p.m. ET, ESPNU): Last year, in proclaiming North Carolina was done playing App State, he encouraged NC State and East Carolina to take on the Mountaineers. Now the Pirates are doing just that. App State has won two straight in this series, including a 43-28 decision last year in Boone. 

-- No. 12 Utah at Utah State (4:30 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network): Utah makes its first trip to Logan since 2012, a 27-20 Aggies victory. 

-- No. 5 Ole Miss at Wake Forest (6:30 p.m. ET, The CW): The story of Ole Miss's season will be told in how the Rebels perform against LSU, Oklahoma and Georgia. But that won't stop Lane Kiffin from trying to whip the public into submission by dropping 50-plus as often as he can. 

-- Indiana at UCLA (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC): Ben Bolch of the LA Times had a great story on all the fans Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota are expected to bring to the Rose Bowl this fall, which begs the question: will UCLA get out supported in its own building by... Indiana? Probably not, but they very well get out-scored by a Hoosiers team that dropped 77 on Western Illinois. 

-- Colorado at Colorado State (7:30 p.m. ET, CBS): The rematch doesn't have near the juice of last year's Sunglasses Bowl, but it's still CSU's first home game with Colorado since 2015, and thus the biggest game in Canvas Stadium's history since its 2017 opening. 

-- Rice at Houston (8 p.m. ET, ESPN+): In the 46th Battle for the Bayou Bucket, Rice seeks its first back-to-back wins over their crosstown rivals since 2000-01.

-- San Diego State at Cal (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN): In a week highlighted by Group of 5 teams taking on winnable Group of 4 opponents, what a perfectly fitting way to end with a future #Pac12AfterDark game. Or at least we hope. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...
Underdog

Underdog 28543

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, LTtxfan said:
  • Bama loses to Vandy
  • Wash up 14-0 on Michigan
  • Arky leads Tenn 3-0
  • Indiana undefeated
  • aggy "whoops" mizzu

Parody in cfb has arrived... and road games are tough. 

I find this no laughing matter. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
TKthunder2

TKthunder2 4985

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, LTtxfan said:
  • Bama loses to Vandy
  • Wash up 14-0 on Michigan
  • Arky leads Tenn 3-0
  • Indiana undefeated
  • aggy "whoops" mizzu

Parody in cfb has arrived... and road games are tough. 

8 top 25 teams did not play.
7 top 25 teams lost…
and Miami is currently losing…
only 9 teams in the top 25 won

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
LTtxfan

LTtxfan 49141

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
On 9/7/2024 at 5:09 PM, Jshep34 said:

How in the heck is ND even ranked? They'll probably sneak to a 1 loss record then get stomped in cfp

All the losses today in the Top12 along with aggy big win over mizzu really helps ND in CFP rankings...

 

 

Edited by LTtxfan
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
horn009

horn009 139

Posted
Posted
48 minutes ago, Funk Doctor Spock said:

Tenn losing to Arky is hella funny. All that noise about Tenn and Nico are finally going to be dialed down. We're #1, baby! Where we should be. 

They didn't even look all that impressive in their win over OU. That game was more about Jackson Arnold melting down than anything Tennessee did.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
PittsburghTiger

PittsburghTiger 6174

Posted
Posted

Pitt is now 5-0 with Cal coming to town this week. It was 1991 when Pitt was last 5-0 to start a season.

Paul Hackett was the head coach. On the staff were: Jon Gruden, Marvin Lewis, Skip Peete, Sal Sunseri and Mike McCarthy was a Grad Assistant.

Alex Van Pelt was the QB. Also on that team was Curtis Martin, Sean Gilbert, Keith Hamilton, Dave Moore, Jeff Christy, Anthony Dorsett, Jr., Tom Barndt, Ricardo McDonald, Steve Israel, Vernon Lewis, Rob Coons, Billy Davis, Dietrich Jells, Tom Tumulty, and Ruben Brown. All went to the NFL and some had very successful careers.

 

Also on that team was Doug Whaley, now one of the heads of the XFL.

In spectacular Pitt fashion, I like to say, Pitt Happens, the Panthers finished the season 6-5 with the only win coming against Rutgers surrounded by a horrible loss to Notre Dame, then Syracuse, then a Jeff Blake led ECU, then Boston College, then Penn State to close out the season. 

Hopefully we don't fuck up this season in the remaining weeks.

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
LTtxfan

LTtxfan 49141

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Iowa's Leshon Williams, Kaleb Brown to enter transfer portal

Max Olson, ESPN Staff Writer    Oct 7, 2024

Iowa running back Leshon Williams and wide receiver Kaleb Brown are leaving the program and entering the transfer portal, the school confirmed Monday.

Williams ranked sixth in the Big Ten in rushing yards in 2023 with 821 yards and scored two touchdowns for the Hawkeyes (3-2). He missed time in fall camp due to injury and did not play in the last two games after rushing for 21 yards on 11 carries in three games.

Kaleb Johnson has emerged as Iowa's top running back this season and ranks second in FBS in rushing with 771 yards and 10 touchdowns. The junior began the season with four consecutive 100-yard performances, including a career-high 206 yards and three touchdowns in a win over Minnesota.

Williams played in 33 games over his four seasons with the Hawkeyes and produced 1,496 yards from scrimmage and four scores. The fifth-year senior will have one more season of eligibility in 2025.

Iowa said Brown also will enter the transfer portal after he announced that he would redshirt and sit out the rest of the season. The former Ohio State transfer and top-100 recruit was the Hawkeyes' third-leading receiver in 2023 with 215 yards and a touchdown on 22 receptions but has played sparingly in three games this season, recording one catch for 18 yards.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Magus Ossis

Magus Ossis 2797

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

Iowa's Leshon Williams, Kaleb Brown to enter transfer portal

Max Olson, ESPN Staff Writer    Oct 7, 2024

Iowa running back Leshon Williams and wide receiver Kaleb Brown are leaving the program and entering the transfer portal, the school confirmed Monday.

Williams ranked sixth in the Big Ten in rushing yards in 2023 with 821 yards and scored two touchdowns for the Hawkeyes (3-2). He missed time in fall camp due to injury and did not play in the last two games after rushing for 21 yards on 11 carries in three games.

Kaleb Johnson has emerged as Iowa's top running back this season and ranks second in FBS in rushing with 771 yards and 10 touchdowns. The junior began the season with four consecutive 100-yard performances, including a career-high 206 yards and three touchdowns in a win over Minnesota.

Williams played in 33 games over his four seasons with the Hawkeyes and produced 1,496 yards from scrimmage and four scores. The fifth-year senior will have one more season of eligibility in 2025.

Iowa said Brown also will enter the transfer portal after he announced that he would redshirt and sit out the rest of the season. The former Ohio State transfer and top-100 recruit was the Hawkeyes' third-leading receiver in 2023 with 215 yards and a touchdown on 22 receptions but has played sparingly in three games this season, recording one catch for 18 yards.

 

Good news for Washington, I guess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
LTtxfan

LTtxfan 49141

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Cal taps NASA specialist amid concerns over ACC travel

Jeff Borzello, ESPN Staff    Oct 10, 2024, 

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina -- Moving to the ACC has been a boost for Cal and Stanford from a number of different standpoints, providing both schools with a long-term home in a power conference after the Pac-12 fell apart in the summer of 2023.

But the change also has brought worries over travel during conference play, with nearly every road trip in January, February and March involving a multiple-game swing and several days away from home.

"I'm absolutely concerned about the travel," Cal coach Mark Madsen said Thursday at ACC Tipoff.

The Golden Bears, however, are taking steps to minimize the impact the long-distance travel will have on their student-athletes, Madsen said.

In the offseason, Golden Bears athletic director Jim Knowlton brought in a NASA specialist to give a presentation to the school's sports teams.

"He specialized in recovery across time zones. How the body can recover under duress. It was very informative," Madsen told ESPN. "We were there with all the head coaches. A lot of great information was shared. The bottom line is we'll come out during conference play, we'll come out either two days early or one day early, depending on the academic workload."

"We're not going to leave a single stone unturned," he added. "If it means one or two additional wins across 10 different teams, the preparation level, we're going to do it."

Madsen also said he spent time in the offseason thinking about how to incrementally improve the performance of the men's basketball program, from nutrition to how to help players visualize scouting reports. And among those potential improvements was drinking water while flying.

"Hydration on long flights. Can we get a little bit better? Yes," he said.

Stanford coach Kyle Smith has similar concerns as Madsen, although the travel problems Smith had during his time at Washington State the past five years prepared him and his staff for this season's trips.

"I imagine it's something you probably have to get used to," Smith said. "Our staff's ready because we were at Washington State and we were going commercial. So it was a bus ride, a flight into Seattle, then Seattle to, it might be another stop. So everything -- honestly, it'll be less time. Our time travel [was] more in Pullman. And it's chartered."

Smith is cognizant of how it could impact his players, though.

"Players, that's going to be different. The time zones. That's real," he said.

On Wednesday, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips spoke about the travel -- pointing out that the conference already had a preview of any potential issues with the league's fall sports.

"In the end, I really feel we've scheduled well. We've come up with travel partners for the first time, so when you go out to California, the teams that are on the East Coast, they'll play two games. When Cal, Stanford come in this direction, they'll play two games," Philips said. "I think it makes a lot of sense to do that. We've gotten an early kind of snippet view with our Olympic sports. I think it's worked out pretty well, but I'm sure it won't be perfect. I just know that because we've gone now outside of our footprint that we had for 71 years.

"So we'll adjust and make some changes as we go into the future, but so far so good."

The ACC isn't the only league dealing with new logistical concerns, with the Big Ten and the Big 12 both expanding out West. UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington all joined the Big Ten, while Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah all went to the Big 12.

Oregon coach Dana Altman said at Big Ten Media Day that he is talking with NFL and NBA teams who are helping him find ways to keep his team fresh when the Ducks have to make multiple trips to the East coast and Midwest during college basketball season.

"We've done a lot of calling around to the NBA, to all the West Coast teams in the NBA, and even some NFL teams and how they travel when they go east," Altman said. "Everybody talks about how tough it is to go east and west and all the numbers prove it out, the road records and so forth. So we've studied that."

He said those teams have given him tips, such as making sure players don't fall asleep on flights so they can adjust to their new time zones when they land.

"I'm going to have to do a better job of cutting back on some days of practice maybe, which is hard for an insecure coach to do because you want to go over everything one more time," Altman said.

UCLA's Mick Cronin said he's not as concerned as Altman. He said his players have been traveling the country since they were teenagers on the AAU circuit -- although he wants his team to have chartered flights that have lounge chairs so players can relax on their flights.

"I think it's all a little overrated," he said. "But [Altman] and I have talked about it, trying to get a certain type of charter flight. You've seen them in the NBA, with the lounge chairs. But is that really going to matter with victory? I think recruiting and toughness and shot-making matter more."

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
LTtxfan

LTtxfan 49141

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Screenshot_20241016-214223_kindlephoto-7123904.png.7308baf2eb7c6e65accb180bb61f0968.png

The NCAA is closing the loophole used by Oregon to shave time off the game clock at the end of Saturday's win over Ohio State.

In a release Wednesday, the NCAA issued a new rules interpretation on how to handle a penalty for 12 players on the field in the final two minutes of either half. If the defense has 12 players actively participate in the down, the offense can choose, along with the 5-yard penalty, to have the game clock reset to the time that had been displayed at the snap.

No time change would be made if there were 12 players but one of them was attempting to leave the field and did not affect the play.

Oregon coach Dan Lanning said Monday that the No. 2 Ducks had intentionally used 12 men on defense against the Buckeyes to help run time off the clock as they closed out the final seconds of their 32-31 win.

"We spend an inordinate amount of time on situations and some situations don't come up very often in college football, but this was obviously something we had worked on," Lanning said. "You can see the result."

Just before the ball was snapped, Oregon defensive back Dontae Manning walked onto the field, giving the Ducks an extra defender. Ohio State failed to complete a pass against Oregon's 12-man defense, and the Ducks were flagged for an illegal substitution penalty, surrendering 5 yards but also taking four seconds off the clock. A scramble by Ohio State quarterback Will Howard on the next play ended the game.

Such a ploy will no longer work going forward, as NCAA football secretary-rules editor Steve Shaw said in a statement that they were looking to "take away any gain for the defense" from committing an intentional penalty.

"Football is a very dynamic game," Shaw said. "Occasionally there are specific situations where committing a penalty can give a team an advantage. A guiding principle of the NCAA Football Rules Committee is that there should be no benefit when a team commits a penalty." 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
LonghornSean

LonghornSean 3989

Posted
Posted

Interesting article about logistics for CFP home games:

 

Quote

How will College Football Playoff home games work? Tickets, traditions and other questions

Chris Vannini

Nov 1, 2024

IRVING, Texas — Construction is underway several floors up in a nondescript office building just off the highway. Tarps, tape, the works cover offices. On the other side of the elevator bank, behind a door with a big gold football logo, another kind of construction is nearing completion.

When the College Football Playoff and conference commissioners unveiled a 12-team expansion proposal in 2021, the size of the field was the headline change. But just as interesting to many fans was the new first round: four games played at the home stadiums of the teams seeded No. 5 through No. 8, instead of bowl sites. One game will take place Friday, Dec. 20, with three following in a tripleheader on Saturday Dec. 21.

The new format sparked a high level of excitement and an unprecedented undertaking. After decades of the sport’s postseason taking place almost exclusively off campus, college football’s top playoff will, for the first time, feel like actual college football.

“There was a feeling that the home game opportunity was healthy for fans, not having to travel,” said SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, part of the four-member subgroup that began exploring expansion in 2019.

College football games are massive events that reshape the economics of college towns on gameday more so than pro sports do for major cities. Schools and CFP staff have spent the past year and half putting together all the logistics, gaming out every conceivable detail, from visitors’ seating options to the best way to put the CFP patch on the jerseys. The process culminated in an 87-page manual the CFP released to schools in August, since obtained by The Athletic. But the work is still ongoing. The plans for ticket prices recently changed again.

“It’s been a daunting task,” said CFP chief operating officer Byron Hatch. “But we have a really good staff here. The big rocks, the big areas to run a football game, we’re covered.”

With the first set of in-season CFP rankings coming out on Tuesday, the years of planning will move closer to reality for the four schools eventually selected to host, and everyone agrees with what Sankey said in Nashville earlier this month: This has to go right.

“For some of these schools,” said CFP executive director Rich Clark, “it’s going to be the biggest game they’ve ever had on their campus.”

Will it feel like a home game?

For most of college football’s 100-plus-year history, the postseason has made little to no sense. Championships were long determined by polls. Bowl games began in the 1900s as local exhibitions for economic benefit. Over time, the bowl executives became power brokers that played a role in the national championship. Outside of Miami winning some national championships in its Orange Bowl home stadium and UCLA playing in the Rose Bowl stadium (neither of which are located on campus), the postseason was played at neutral sites. That continued with the BCS and the four-team College Football Playoff. The closest comparison to a true home game with the stakes of December’s first round might be Group of 5 conference championship games and lower-division playoffs.

Finally, for one round, the FBS postseason will have true home-field flair, and the CFP wanted to make sure the games felt like home games. All 134 stadiums were eligible. Although schools can choose a neutral site to host, Clark said Wednesday that every school in the mix this year plans to use its home field. Schools can hold their normal home game rituals, including run-out music, third-down crowd prompts and traditions between quarters. Clemson can run down the Hill. Oregon’s duck mascot can ride out on a motorcycle.

“A team earned the right to play at home, and along with that comes pageantry,” former CFP executive director Bill Hancock said. “College football is pageantry.”

The visiting team will also be allowed to use its traditional run-out with music and a video, if it would like, according to the manual. If the visiting team brings its band, it, too, will perform at halftime. Both bands would get six minutes and 30 seconds as part of the 22-minute halftime – a break two minutes longer than the regular season but normal for previous CFP games.

The field will be painted as normal, with a CFP logo somewhere on the field, and the CFP will provide goal post wraps. The CFP will control digital signage and in-game entertainment. If you hate the recent trend of stadiums flashing all their lights after touchdowns, some good news: That’s not allowed. Schools must cover up any lower-bowl advertising that might show up on TV and use CFP sponsors, but their field sponsorships can remain. The game officials are pre-assigned by the CFP.

Much of this is similar to when schools host an NCAA championship event in any other sport. The difference is that a round of the baseball or soccer tournaments, or even an FCS playoff game, doesn’t bring in more than 100,000 people and a full ESPN production like this could. The CFP has Zoom meetings scheduled with team operations officials on the Sunday the field is finalized (Dec. 8), and an online portal will go live in November with each school’s information.

“Baseball, you get awarded a Super Regional and turn around within a week, but it’s very different than 101,000 at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium,” Texas executive senior associate AD Drew Martin said. “The scale is definitely different.”

Because the first-round games are not bowl games, there will be no postgame trophy presentation. Instead, there will be a recognition in the winning team’s locker room with representatives from the upcoming bowl quarterfinal.

How will tickets work?

First-round CFP hosts will handle seating similar to a normal home game, with some exceptions. Each conference has its own visiting ticket policies, from the number of tickets visitors are given to where those seats are located — only the SEC requires a block of seats in the lower bowl — so the CFP and the commissioners had to come up with a standardization.

The rules: Visiting teams will receive 3,500 tickets, with a maximum of 500 of those available to the band. The fans can be split up into no more than two blocks, with at least 1,500 in the lower bowl. The visiting team will decide where its band sits, but it must have access to the field.

Home teams will handle their ticket sales however they would like. Most expect to give first dibs to their season-ticket holders like they would any other postseason game and handle it like a typical home game. Prices were originally set to be equal to the highest-priced home game from the previous two years, but after questions about donations and seat licenses, the CFP has set a flat set of ticket prices for every site. Tickets will cost between $100 and $250 for general seating, not including clubs and suites. (The CFP will retain all ticket revenue and redistribute to the conferences.)

“We want it to be as similar to a normal home game as possible,” said CFP director of premium and ticket sales Michael Bos. “We’re trying to have them make as few changes as possible.”

Schools are still figuring out when they want to put the possible home game tickets on sale. Texas will open it up next week. Bos would like all of the schools to get moving, so there is a better idea of how it will look.

The big unknown remains students. Schools will be on winter break, and many will have completed winter graduation ceremonies. Notre Dame will keep its dorms open an extra 24 hours for students, if the Irish host. Student tickets will cost $25 and are not included in any season-long plan, per the CFP.

“The biggest question we’re getting is, what do we do if our students don’t show up?” Bos said. “Ohio State’s holding 29,000 student tickets, Texas A&M’s 39,000. Some schools are concerned, so we’re trying to figure out when to go on sale. Some schools are far away. We’re still talking a lot about that to see what everybody else is doing.”

The answer is that nobody really knows how this will go. The CFP and schools are hoping for the best and will adjust next year depending on what happens.

How are stadiums getting ready?

When Texas hosted Georgia on Oct. 19, more than 1,000 part-time staff were needed to put the event together, on top of normal staff and nonprofits. The scene outside Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium included food and drink vendors, team stores, large TV screens, a Ferris wheel and other carnival games and rides. During the game, it all had to be cleared out so streets would be open as fans left the game.

Every college football Saturday is a massive event, whether it’s a metropolitan area like Austin or a smaller town like Clemson, and game dates are set months or years in advance. A CFP first-round game will be set with two weeks’ notice, so schools have had to make sure they have everyone on call, from concession staff to nonprofit groups and more. (Unlike with tickets, schools will keep all concession and parking revenue.)

“It’s that temporary part-time staff that operates gates, ushers, concessions on short notice, that’s the one that causes me personally the most trepidation,” Martin said. “But we have great companies with infrastructure and have assured us we’re OK. Until we live through it, that’s a wild card.”

In those smaller college towns, game day hotels and rentals are big business because they’re scarce. Securing visiting team hotels was a top priority. Working with the agency Collegiate Sports Travel, the CFP sent out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to hotels in all 134 FBS towns in fall 2022 to see what was possible. Hatch and the CFP eventually signed hotel contracts in about 90 markets, with plans to whittle that number down as teams fell out of CFP contention. The first cut day is next Wednesday, and the CFP will cancel a majority of those hotel contracts. Sorry, Tallahassee.

Visiting teams are expected to handle travel like a normal road game, arriving in town the day before the game. But home schools were required to secure off-site practice fields in case the visiting team wants to practice, perhaps if they travel cross-country and arrive a day earlier.

There is nothing the CFP and schools can do about the weather but hope for the best. Penn State winterized Beaver Stadium for the purpose of winter events like the CFP, and other schools have prepared as best they can. Schools hosted December games during the pandemic-impacted 2020 season, but with limited fans in attendance.

“Playing a game in December in Provo could be really exciting and also snowy and really cold,” BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe said. “We usually shut the stadium down in November. You’ll have to keep it alive.”

Into the unknown

It’s inherently awkward for schools to talk about home CFP games in early November. The possibility of hosting implies they didn’t win their conference championship. There has been chatter among administrators over why the top four seeds in the CFP won’t get to play at home. The bye to the second round is the reward, and that won’t change. The new CFP deal, running from 2026 through 2031, keeps the bowls involved past the first round, whether or not the field expands beyond 12.

“We all like the tradition of the bowls, but moreso, the bowl committees know how to put on games and hospitality and game operations,” Hancock said. “They know how to do that better than anybody.”

For the CFP staffers, this is exciting and nerve-racking new territory. They’re not in full control. They trust schools’ ability to host games, but no one’s gone through something like this at this scale before, and the turnaround will be so quick. The NFL also scheduled two big matchups opposite the CFP on Saturday, a not-so-subtle shot across the bow.

Clark, the former Air Force lieutenant general and academy superintendent, is just four months into the job leading the CFP, but he spent months shadowing Hancock. On the eve of college football history, he compares this preparation to his military work in a simple way: land the plane.

“When you fly and there’s an emergency, you make sure you have the engines working, you have the gear down, and if you have that done, you can get the plane on the ground,” he said. “We’re getting the gear down. We still have engines cooking, and we’ll be able to do this.”

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5889137/2024/11/01/college-football-playoff-home-game-tickets/

  • Hook 'Em 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...