NCAA Division I FBS - 2024 season

icdg

FBS Top 10 - AP Poll

No 1 Georgia (SEC)

No 2 Ohio St (Big 10)

No 3 Oregon (Big 10)

No 4 Texas (SEC)

No 5 Alabama (SEC)

No 6 Mississippi (SEC)

No 7 Notre Dame (Ind)

No 8 Penn State (Big 10)

No 9 Michigan (Big 10)

No 10 FSU (ACC)

Week 0 TV picks (all Sky Sports+)

Sat 5pm FSU @ Georgia Tech (also TG4)

12:30am Florida A&M @ Norfolk St (yes I know it’s an FCS game…)

Week 1 - so far confirmed

Sat 31st 5pm Clemson @ Georgia

Sky are in the second year of a two year deal to broadcast NCAA fixtures that are being broadcast in the US by ESPN. This year, as a result of a change in TV contracts in the US, they should have better access to the SEC, whose top picks move from CBS to ABC. Last year the typical schedule was Gameday followed by a triple header of games on a Saturday on Sky Sports NFL. Their new online service Sky Sports+ may allow for additional coverage options.

So huge changes to the structure of college football. The PAC-12 conference is more or less no more, with the Big 10 and SEC the main beneficiaries. The CFP expands to 12 teams, so teams in the remaining Power conferences can for the first time ever play themselves into a playoff spot, without having to worry about the Committee, by winning their conference. So FSU, who kick off their season here in Ireland on Saturday, shouldn’t have cause to say “we was robbed” again. Of course some say realignment has yet to fully play out, but for the moment the 12 team play off should be interesting. It also means a shake up in bowl games, the New Years Six become the quarter final and semi finals of the new look CFP,  meaning bowls will still be played well into January, with the CFP Championship Game now around the third Monday in January.

Rule changes wise, the two minute warning is in, which basically means the NCAA is following more or less the same timing rules as the NFL now.

Two massive coaching changes in the top 10 - Jim Harbaugh has left champions Michigan, who have dropped in the off season down to No 9, taking his coaching ticket with him, and they’ve lost a lost of players too. Meanwhile Nick Saban has left the Tide, bringing an end of an era for the dominant team in college football for the last while. And the SEC perhaps. 

icdg

Week 1 slate for UK TV. Welcome back the SEC!

5pm Clemson@Georgia Sky Sports+
8:30pm Miami (FL) @ Florida Sky Sports Mix
12:30am Notre Dame @ Texas A&M

theoneeyedman

Georgia impressive the afternoon against Clemson. Took them a while to get going, but looked very strong in the second half. And Clemson are probably a good side too.

Realt Dearg Sec

SEC my ass, go Irish

icdg

Naturally in these early non conference games some massive blowouts, with #1 Georgia, #2 Ohio State, #4 Texas, #5 Alabama and #6 Ole Miss not being troubled. Neither were Miami (FL) in their derby against the Florida Gators with a big away win.

I didn’t stay up for it but well done Notre Dame in their away win against the Aggies.

The Sky NFL channel launches tomorrow, so good news for anyone frustrated with Sky Sports+, it’s all back on old fashioned linear next week:

5pm Arkansas @Oklahoma St

8:30pm Northern Illinois @ Notre Dame

12:30am Tennessee @ North Carolina State

el Fenomeno

Catch of the year already? It just happens to be an interception...

https://youtu.be/Rh2p_cFr9yw?feature=shared

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122569421#Comment_122569421

Miami looked good on the highlights, Ward at QB in particular. Hard to tell though how good Florida are

Fr Tod Umptious

Unranked BC beat FSU last night 28-13.

I watched the first quarter and BC did exactly what Georgia Tech did the week before, just run the ball.

So FSU who came in to Dublin with a 63% chance of making the playoffs and a point to prove, are now 0-2 , both losses coming against unranked teams, and now have a 1% chance of making the playoffs.

That's some collapse in just over a week.

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122577017#Comment_122577017

Only point they proved was that the ranking committee (and a lot of onlookers too) made the right call last year.

Looks like they are all noise and no heat.

icdg

Notre Dame lose to unranked Northern Illinois, not a good open before their home crowd after defeating the Aggies last week.

Earlier, a double overtime win for Oklahoma St over Arkansas, in a match that ran about four hours.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122593437#Comment_122593437

Not only are Northern Illinois unranked the they are also a Group of Five team, so they are way down the pecking order.

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122593962#Comment_122593962

ND paid them 1.4 million to turn up and provide the Cannon fodder and a nice easy home win to start, 28 point favorites with the bookies too.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594087#Comment_122594087

Equally South Dakota came to Madison and gave Wisconsin a scare,vas did Bowling Green at Penn State.

icdg

Must put their playoff hopes in doubt already, they won’t still be #5 after that.

Next week, the SEC in focus with a triple bill of conference games (all Sky Sports NFL)

5pm LSU @ South Carolina

8:30pm Texas A&M @ Florida

12:30am Georgia @ Kentucky

Realt Dearg Sec

ND absolutely crapped the bed, and deserve to drop significantly. I hope it was just a bad day. It's the kind of thing that happens when you take an opponent for granted, and they were definitely doing that (the throw for the last interception was indicative of this, just arrogance, and a totally pointless thing to do in that moment). A serious kick in the arse is what they need after that.

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594145#Comment_122594145

More room for error this year with the 12 team playoff, which is designed to keep the likes of ND alive into the playoffs as anything else.

icdg

They’d want not to lose to another unranked team (like their derby at Purdue tomorrow for instance), being an independent, they can’t play themselves into a playoff spot on the field by winning their conference. They’ve already dropped to No 18.

Hot on their heels at No 17: last years champions Mitchigan. That’s some fall. But they haven’t even played a conference game yet of course, so time for them to recover.

Realt Dearg Sec

It's a long season so any week two loss can be recovered from, but if you have two losses, especially against unranked teams, you're shagged. Don't see either team making the final twelve even, if that's the case.

Incidentally I'm playing hurling against Purdue on Saturday. If we lose, I'm going to retire from the sport altogether, the only acceptable response. I hope ND take the same attitude.

Fr Tod Umptious

Some great games today.

LSU beat South Carolina after being 17 down at one stage, SC missed a FG with the last kick to bring it to OT.

Pitt beat West Virginia 38-34 after being 10 down with 4 minutes to play.

icdg

Notre Dame got the job done with a big win at Purdue, and there were wins for pretty much all the high ranked team, though No 1 Georgia had only a 1 point margin to show for it at Kentucky.

So remember when the Irish were hardly on TV here? Now with the deals changed they’re practically on every week (not yesterday, as it was the Big 10 on CBS) but they are back taking centre stage in South Bend next week, playing Miami (the non sunny version).

Week 4:

5pm Florida @ Mississippi St

8:30pm Miami (OH) @ Notre Dame

12:30am Tennessee @Oklahoma

icdg

Late addition to the slate - tonight 12:30am, Stanford @ Sycaruse.

Fr Tod Umptious

Also

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122637634#Comment_122637634

Also 22 Illinois @ 24 Nebraska is on at 1am tonight.

Fr Tod Umptious

James Madison beat North Carolina 70-50.

That's nuts.

I'd love to know what the O/U was.

icdg

Michigan escape with a narrow win against USC. The defending CFP Champions, remember.

icdg

Georgia had a bye this week, which probably won’t help when No 1 Texas (did I mention they were No 1? ) had a big win.

Next weeks schedule isn’t finalised, but we are getting our first look at the Crimson Tide since Sky took over the rights (bowls aside). Now in the old days of the SEC on CBS, this would have been a lock in for the 8:30pm slot, but ESPN have the rights now, so it’s shifted to prime time. The Tide and Bulldogs is normally one of the games of the regular season, so worth staying up for if you can. (I can’t).

In the (Irish) prime time slot, Notre Dame again. They are the Fighting Irish, I guess!

Friday.

12:30am Virginia Tech @ Miami (FL)

Saturday

5pm TBC (slot in the schedule)

8:30pm Louisville @ Notre Dame

12:30am Georgia@ Alabama

theoneeyedman

Is the Friday night games a new thing? Always thought they stayed away from Friday to allow the High Schools to play that night.

icdg

No not new, ESPN always had some, and CBS one on Black Friday.

What is new this year is that Fox have established a regular Friday Night Football slot so there’ll be more of them (not necessarily for us, these games aren’t on TV here)

What seems to be the case is that Sky can show three ABC/ESPN games per week of the regular season, so they can take a fourth game if it’s a Notre Dame home game, because they’re under a separate deal.

And yes in the States, Friday Night is Friday Night Lights, but unlike the NFL and Saturdays there’s no rule against CFB being scheduled that day.

icdg

The 5pm pick is Oklahoma St @ Kansas St.

So the poll

https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll

The SEC are totally dominant with the Buckeyes the only non SEC team in the top 6. But one of Georgia or Alabama will lose this weekend. Elsewhere, Notre Dame climb one place, but still five off the #11 place they need to make the playoffs. Incidentally (and making the brave assumption the top ranked team from each conference will win their conference championship) No 25 Boise State would qualify ahead of No 12 Michigan as the fifth ranked conference champion. Now I can see controversy there if something like that happens come December, but there’s a long way to go.

Fr Tod Umptious

The highlights of unranked Virginia Tech @ 6 Miami of Florida last night just popped into my YouTube feed.

I didn't know the score, they are 20 minutes long so I thought this must be good.

And it was, it looked like an absolute brilliant game of college football.

I won't give the result here in case anyone else wants to watch it without knowing the score, but I will say the VT kicker broke his career long by 11 yards by putting over a 58 yarder and then a a 52 yarder later in the game.

Go watch.

https://youtu.be/I8LenJ_WEQw?si=q4DUjszVkmlX4I_U

theoneeyedman

That VT Miami game was nuts, what a finish!

Fr Tod Umptious

Georgia at Alabama looked great as well, I went to bed with Alabama up 28-0 in the second quarter.

Georgia then managed to take the lead 34-33 at some point, Alabama scored to make it 41-33 and then Beck the Georgia QB was intercepted in the end zone trying to win it with about 0:40 left on the clock.

theoneeyedman

Just watched the extended highlights there, looked a good game. Both teams will again have a big say in who wins it out.

icdg

That massive win for the Tide has sent them straight in at #1, with Georgia down to #5 (and last weeks #1, still undefeated Texas, down to #4).

Sky picked the wrong game for 5pm…had they gone with ABC instead of ESPN we’d have got to see Ole Miss lose to unranked Kentucky, which has sent them falling down the poll from #6 to #12.

The Notre Dame- Louisville game was quite entertaining, ultimately the Irish too good for the Cardinals, and now up to #14. Injury wobbles for their QB Riley Leonard at two points, but he seems to be fine.

Week 6. Are we at week 6 already? CFB season always seems to fly by. No Irish this week, but we do get the Bulldogs again. Sat all Sky NFL.

5pm Missouri @ Texas A&M

8:30pm Auburn @ Georgia

12 midnight Clemson @ Florida St

Fr Tod Umptious

Odd kind of docket this weekend.

Only two ranked teams facing off.

#9 Missouri @ #25 Texas A&M.

I'm not sure what I'll watch.

Maybe Ole Miss at SC.

Fr Tod Umptious

Unranked Vanderbilt are leading #1 Alabama 33-28 with less than 5 minutes left and less than 6 minutes left and have the ball inside the Alabama 10.

This would be massive.

Vanderbilt have never knocked off a #1

Fr Tod Umptious

Make that 40-28.

el Fenomeno

And that's the game. Amazing result.

Fr Tod Umptious

#1 ranked teams were something like 642 and 2 against unranked teams when they scored 35 points or more.

After tonight that's 642 and 3.

icdg

Absolutely crazy result.

Can you even call who’ll be No 1 tomorrow.

Texas A&M are top of the SEC, but only No T-25 - is that sustainable? Surely they should go up?

No 2 Texas, on a bye this week - still only played one conference game, so is that position real

No 5 Georgia - comfortable win over Auburn, but by no means a blowout.

Over in the Big 10, No 2 Ohio St are 5-0, surely they have the biggest claim to stake to the No 1 now.

icdg

Three other ranked teams lost to unranked opposition overnight.

No 11 USC 17-24 Minessota

No 10 Michigan 17-27 Washington

No 4 Tennessee 14-19 Arkansas

el Fenomeno

Ashton Jeanty continues to have a monster season for Boise State. His 10.6 YPC is ridiculous. You really don't see those numbers often for someone who's carrying the ball nearly 20 times a game.

Oregon aside, opposition has been poor but through 5 games, he is averaging over 200 yards per game and over 3 TDs per game. And that's having sat out the second half completely in 2 games.

With Alabama (and Milroe) losing last night, Jeanty has to be one of the Heisman frontrunners now.

He's also on track (if you assume Boise will get to the MWC game) to break Barry Sanders all time record. If they get to a bowl game also, and if he doesn't opt out, he could shatter it.

icdg

The poll…

https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll

Texas back to top spot, and their cross state cousins at A&M shoot up to No 15, with it being a bit mad that the SEC leaders had a large chunk of their conference ahead of them in the poll. Georgia sit at No 5, Alabama have fallen back down to No 7. The Big 10 now have three of the top four, Buckeyes, Ducks and Nitanny Lions at Nos 2,3, and 4. Notre Dame manage to rise three places without even playing, to No T-11 (with Iowa St), that still wouldn’t be good enough for the playoffs because assumed MWC champion Boise St would need to be accommodated.

Week 7, and Sky most surprisingly do not currently have Notre Dame down for coverage even though they’re playing at home (against Stanford, so you’d assume they’ll win that one, but a lot of people assumed things last night…).

5pm South Carolina @ No 7 Alabama

8:30pm No 1 Texas @ No 18 Oklahoma

12 midnight Florida @ No 8 Tennessee

icdg

No 3 Oregon beating No 2 OSU the big one from last night. Also No 13 LSU beating No 9 Ole Miss.

No 7 Alabama came through against unranked South Carolina, but they had to struggle for it which won’t help them (a win is a win, of course).

No 1 Texas walked their game against No 18 Oklahoma and you’d expect they’d keep their top ranking

theoneeyedman

Think it's Georgia away to the Longhorns next week, will tell a tale or two that one and maybe indicate where the honors are going this year?

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122714060#Comment_122714060

It’s an absolutely massive one, alas once again the new TV deal does us no flavours as these games once upon a time shoe ins for CBS’ 3:30pm slot now air in prime time on ABC.

The poll sees Oregon climb to No 2, Penn State to No 3, and LSU to No 8. Ole Miss collapses to No 18. And Army and Navy make their debuts and are both in the poll at the same time for the first time since 1960.

Next week on Sky:

5pm No 6 Miami (FL) @ Louisville

8:30pm No 7 Alabama @ No 11 Tennessee

12:30am No 5 Georgia @ No 1 Texas

Fr Tod Umptious

Two good games later today

20:30 Irish time Alabama at Tennessee

00:30 Georgia at Texas

icdg

That loss may be fatal to Bama. No 2-loss team inside the top 12.

Georgia beat Texas, in what might be a preview of the SEC championship, and likely to go straight back to No 1.

Did I say could be a preview of the SEC championship? Except Texas A&M are still number one in the SEC league, as opposed to poll standings, and won again and are on a six game W streak and are 100% in conference play (their one loss being to the Irish in week 1). Why are they still ranked so low? Perhaps because they still have two massive conference games, the first one next week against second place in the SEC, LSU. Their remaining opponents after that are all unranked until another massive game in the last week, their derby against Texas.

icdg

Oregon to No 1, Georgia up to No 2, Tennessee take over Alabama’s No 7 while the Tide crash down to No 15. Texas fall to No 5. Notre Dame stay at No 12.

Sky haven’t announced next weeks games yet. Games available to them might include No 12 Notre Dame @ No 24 Navy, No 21 Missouri @ No 15 Alabama and they will surely show the top of the table SEC game of No 8 LSU @ No 14 Texas A&M (the alternative if they don’t would be the derby of Florida St @ No 6 Miami (FL)).

icdg

Saturday’s games now confirmed

5pm No 12 Notre Dame @ No 24 Navy

8:30pm No 21 Missouri @ No 15 Alabama

12 midnight Florida St @ No 6 Miami (FL).

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122754379#Comment_122754379

Well ND v Navy turned out like many of those ND v Navy games you see in Dublin, totally one sided 51-14.

Alabama keeping Missouri at arms length right now 20-0.

Maybe the late game might be a bit better.

icdg

The Tide ended up shutting out Missouri 34-0. I really am not sure what Sky were at with their late pick though when they had LSU@Texas A&M available to them.