College Football

hoggy87

I've become a huge fan of American football over the last 3-4 years after spending a lot of time in the States. I've concentrated on the NFL obviously enough but as my interest increases, I'm trying to learn more about College ball.

However, it all seems a bit complicated! Could someone (kindly!!) explain the set up of the conferences?! And what are all these bowl games about? My understanding is that they are not necessarily the equivalent of the Championship/Superbowl game. Are they just random post season games?

I've been to Lincoln, NE to see the Cornhuskers and to Ames, IA and tailgated with ISU fans and thought the experiences were amazing! It's a shame our colleges don't have quite the same type of following!

Thanks!

irishbucsfan

Basically the conferences are independent of each other, and the teams are ranked nationally based on voting. The bowl games are decided at the end of the season, and are not always based on record. There is no playoff system.



UNC - TEN is the best American Football game I've seen this year.

Tennessee freshman QB Tyler Bray (who will surely be a top 10 NFL pick in the next 3 seasons?) just threw an INT in overtime, meaning UNC can win with a Field Goal.

blodvyn

UNC - TEN

if EVER a game had everything that was it.

spiking it on 1 second with the FIASCO that ensued BRILLIANT!

jack presley

It would take an eternity to explain the college football system. I'll give it a go but please note that any figure I mention is only a guess and might be one or two out and I'm open to correction on any of the points I make.

There are about 120 teams that play at the top level and these are divided up into 11-12 conferences (and there are a few independent teams like Notre dame and Army who aren't in any conference).

Basically each team plays 11 or 12 games I think, 8 of which are against other teams in their conference. The other games are non-conference games and can be against anyone else and teams pick these years in advance. Some non-conference games are played every year (e.g. USC always schedule a game against Notre Dame) but some are different every year. It is tempting to pick easy games of course but this will affect your 'strength of schedule' and ranking (see below).

Most but not all of the conferences then have a title game to decide the conference champion. This is where it all gets a bit weird. There is no play off in Div 1. college football but there still needs to be a champion determined. It's only the top level of college football that doesn't have a playoff though. Div. 1A and Div's 2 & 3 do.

At the end of every week in college football polls are released (coaches poll, AP, i.e. journalists poll etc.) and the top 1-25 teams are given a ranking. So in the old days whoever was no.1 at the end of the season was the National Champion. Most of the time the polls matched but there have been occasions when 2 national champions were crowned! There is even a pre-season poll and if you're not in the top 10-15 in that, no matter how good you play during the season, you'll find it very hard to jump into National Championship contention. So there's the first flaw!

Most conference championship games takes place in late November/early December. There is then a break of a few weeks for the 'post-season' bowl games. I think US colleges have exams before Christmas so that is why there is the break. The bowls used to be a way to reward good teams by giving them another game, usually somewhere nice (Florida etc.). Some bowls, e.g. Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl etc. have a lot of prestige over the years so it was considered a good accomplishment to get selected to play in one of these. I think the Rose Bowl used to put the Pac 10 conference champion against the winner of one of the other big conference or something like that.

These days there are 35 bowl games so 70 out of the 120 teams get 'rewarded' for good seasons. Therefore you see a lot of 6-6 teams of 7-5 teams from mediocre conferences getting to go to bowls so the whole thing is a farce.

But back to the National Champion! Polls determining the National Champion was never a satisfactory solution and the NCAA were reluctant to go to a playoff. The excuse they give is that more games mean less time to study etc. which is the main reason the players are in college or so they say (it didn't stop them adding a round to the basketball playoffs though but that's a different discussion!).

To get around this the geniuses that run college football introduced the BCS. The 4 iconic bowls kept their high status but a 5th was introduced which matched the 1 and 2 ranked teams in the National Championship match. The merits of the BCS is a whole other argument that would be twice as long as this post so do a google search on it and you'll find plenty to read to keep you occupied for about 4 years.

The 1-2 ranked teams are chosen from a combination of polls, strength of schedule and some other computer calculations. So at least there is some game used to determine the champion but it is far from ideal. Apparently the conferences that run the BCS have too much to lose by going to a playoff as there are millions and millions made by them under the current system which has led to claims by some in the media to a it being a cartel and some have even called for congress to investigate

One thing that should be pointed out as well is that there is some conference re-alignment going on at the moment where some teams are changing conferences so the Big-10 will have 12 teams and the Big-12 11 or something. It's very weird!

That's my 2 cents anyway. Thanks for reading

red_eskimo

blodvyn wrote: »

UNC - TEN

if EVER a game had everything that was it.

spiking it on 1 second with the FIASCO that ensued BRILLIANT!

For two very average teams it was one of the most exciting games i've seen all year.

Lirange

It was exciting at the end. But I had a hard time rooting for either side with the sideline antics of both coaches. Whinging and gesticulating for every single call even early in the game. Still preferred the KSU Syracuse game even despite the odd celebration penalty.

hoggy87

jack presley wrote: »

It's very weird!

You're dead right! That polling thing is ludicrous but I kinda understand the rationale!
Thanks a million, very comprehensive post and it's cleared up A LOT!

cheesehead

Hoggy, college football is a great game to follow. Jack does a great job with his recap of what, obviously, can be a very confusing situation.

That said, while the NFL is wildly popular in the US, many hard-core football fans will tell you they enjoy the college game more than the NFL (although most follow both quite closely - college games on Saturday and NFL on Sunday).

College football has a longer history (dating from the 1860's) than the professional leagues (dating from turn of the 20th century). Fans are quite passionate about their teams. It's interesting you have experienced a Nebraska Cornhuskers game. You won't find more passionate, committed fans than Husker fans (Nebraska has no natural NFL team to follow, and thus the state's residents really get behind their Cornhuskers). If you were looking for a team to support as you delve more deeply into college football, you could do worse than rooting for the Cornhuskers. This year (2011), they will be making a jump to the Big 10 conference (and as Jack alludes to above, the conference now has 12 teams). The reason why the Big 10 conference (now twelve), doesn't change it's name comes back to the "tradition" of college football - college football fans just know the tradition of the Big 10 conference and accept this naming oddity. People in the US understand this, but I can only imagine how odd this must appear to outsiders trying to gain an understanding of the college game.

mikemac

jack presley wrote: »

That's my 2 cents anyway. Thanks for reading

I knew next to nothing about college football but learned a lot there

THanks for posting!

Pegasusbridge

The sugar bowl was a great game. Edge of seat stuff. Great performance from Pryor and heyward. Go buckeyes