COLLEGE FOOTBALL 101

Last night the college football season kicked off. 

First… what do I think about this season…


CONFERENCE RE-ALIGNMENTS

The big story that took place during the off-season was the shake up among the BCS Conferences. Starting in 2011, Colorado of the Big XII and Utah of the Mountain West are leaving their respective conferences to join the Pac-10. Nebraska is leaving the Big XII for the Big Ten. And Boise State, Nevada, and Fresno feel that it is time to move from the WAC to the Mountain West. Brigham Young will become an Independent. There were rumors circulating that Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State were going to head to the Pac-10 as well. Luckily for the Big XII, those schools will be staying put.

Confusing… the Big XII will have ten teams, while the Big Ten will have twelve teams.

Twelve teams in a conference is a magic number.

Why?

That is the minimum number of teams a conference can have in order to host a conference championship game.

The Big Ten will host their inaugural conference championship game in Indianapolis in 2011. The Pac-10 is trying to determine what their conference is going to look like when they have twelve teams in '12.

All these teams leaving might actually benefit college football. Even though I am not a fan of the current BCS system and would rather see an actual playoff, this is the best we get. In a way, the college football season is a playoff. A bastardized version of a playoff, but it is there. Your best chance is to run the table, and hope for some chaos at the top in order to wind up in one of the top two spots in the BCS Standings. If you lose early and you happen to be one of the top programs, your chance for the national title is not gone. If you lose later in the season, then just like any other sports' playoff system: next season.

We are closer to a playoff with the creation of conference championship games. How many conference championship games are there? SEC, Big XII, Conference USA, ACC, and soon to be Big Ten and possibly Pac-10. Potentially six conferences will hold some sort of a semi-final game to determine who will go into a pool to determine the two that will play in the BCS Title Game. I think what is not fair in college football unlike with college basketball is that unless you are from one of the BCS Conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big XII, Pac-10, SEC) and Notre Dame, you have a more difficult path to the title. In college basketball, EVERY school in Division I-A has a shot.

I see more defections in the future leading to the creation of more 12+ team conferences in order to host a conference championship game. The Big XII is going to have to convince two schools to defect to their conference in order to maintain their status as one of the big boys. I see the Big East getting in on this. I don't know which schools will join the Big East and the Big XII, but I see that happening in the future.


 
UNT MINUTE

Last season, UNT had a habit of snagging defeat from the jaws of victory. The season started off with an upset of Ball State on the road followed by a string of losses by all means possible.

The two games that I think sums up the UNT 2009 season best was a road loss at Lousiana-Lafayette where North Texas had a 34-31 lead only to lose it in the final 30 seconds as the Ragin' Cajuns drove down the field for the winning score. The second game was against Army at home. North Texas attempted a field goal to make it a six-point game at the 2:00 minute mark. The kick was blocked. Within two plays, Army scored a touchdown to make it 17-13. The Mean Green got the ball back and drove down to win the game. The quarterback threw an interception in triple coverage.

We do have a good running game with the emergence of 2009 First Team Sun Belt Conference running back junior Lance Dunbar. Last season he rushed for 1,378 yards and 17 touchdowns.

In order for UNT to at least be competitive in the Sun Belt conference, they are going to have to improve their defense. Last season, the Mean Green defense gave up 35.6 points per game which was an improvement from 2008 where they gave up 47.6 points per game. Despite that jump, it still ranked near the bottom of Div 1-A (112 out of 120).

I do plan on going to a couple of home games this season, but I am not making any plans to head to New Orleans for R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl on December 18 (Sun Belt Conference's automatic bowl bid).


 
FEARLESS COLLEGE PREDICTIONS

1. The Heisman list will change. That is a given. Alabama running back Mark Ingram will be invited to New York but will not win the trophy.

2. One, if not two, non-BCS conference schools will remain in the top seven.

3. The following teams that are in the Top 10 now will NOT be there at the end of the season: Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska

4. The following teams that are NOT in the Top 10 will be in the Top 10 at the end of the season: Oregon, Wisconsin, Miami (FL), Pittsburgh

5. Cotton Bowl: Oklahoma over Arkansas

6. Rose Bowl: Oregon over Iowa

7. Fiesta Bowl: Texas over Pittsburgh

8. Orange Bowl: Miami (FL) over Florida

9. Sugar Bowl: TCU over Alabama

10. National Championship: Boise State over Ohio State