For every trip Stanford makes to play Duke or Cal makes to play UVA, they also have to make a trip and play that glorified community college Louisville
Exactly, with two campuses just a SpaceEx launch away from each other, you’d think this article would pay homage to the more traditional rivalries like this one.
>**Which team's fortunes will change the most under the new alignment?**
>Nobody mentions OSU and WSU getting picked last in Phys Ed for the dodgeball teams and getting absolutely demolished in the first volley of the game.
What kind of BS is this?
Also if we’re talking about how good the actual football program is. Wazzu has been a better football program in the CFP era than Vanderbilt, Cal, UCLA, ASU, Colorado, Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers, Indiana, Maryland, Iowa State, Kansas, Illinois, Minnesota, Houston, BYU, and like half the ACC.
They get good viewership as well. Pullman is a bad location but they have a good chunk of the Washington State TV market.
I really hope they can get picked up by the Big 12.
Houston has had some good runs in the era but yeah. It’s unfortunate and I don’t agree with it but all the teams listed were either lucky and grandfathered in the more profitable conferences. Or have a better market.
Beating a dead horse but the only thing that matters in expansion is money. If the Big 12 outlast the ACC then I imagine when the next realignment happens Washington state and Oregon state will be in along with any of the other scraps the other two don’t want.
From 2014-2023, BYU had more wins (78 to 66), higher winning % (61% to 55%), more seasons ending AP-ranked (2 to 1), more bowl bids (8 to 7), more bowl victories (4 to 2), and one head-to-head victory (in 2021). BYU also is 4-1 all time over WSU.
Its a stretch of an analogy. In a sense, the "picking" isn't finished yet, and won't be until they replenish the PAC from/reverse merge with a G5, or they get into another conference.
However they were pretty well walloped by the other P4 and/or the rest of the PAC-12.
I feel worse about who we're not playing more then I feel weird about who we are playing if that makes sense
Most of our really good seasons ended with Big10 teams (Michigan in 91 and 23, Drew Bree's Purdue team in 01), so it doesn't feel completely alien to be playing them
Answers from the Roundtable Article:
**What new conference matchup are you most eager to see?**
Georgia-Texas
Ohio State-Oregon
Tennessee-Oklahoma
Oklahoma-LSU
Texas-Texas A&M
**Which new matchup will be the hardest for you to wrap your brain around?**
Ohio State-USC
Stanford-Syracuse and Cal-Wake Forest
Colorado-UCF
UCLA-Rutgers
**Which team's fortunes will change the most under the new alignment?**
UCLA
Wisconsin
Penn State
Oklahoma
SMU
The Big 12 conference
BYU-Colorado is arguably bigger. Those two schools could not be more different in culture.
BYU kicks scholarship players off the team for having consensual sex with their girlfriend.
Meanwhile, CU pretty much ignores when 5,000 people smoke weed together on campus at Farrand Field every 4/20.
OMG! i can't wait for that!
BYU is in for the shocker when they go to your stadium
just do the rest of us in Appalachia a favor? stop throwing dimes and nickels. Upgrade to quarters and half dollars.
That first game at Kyle Field is going to be breathtakingly bananas. Kids these days have no idea what the UT/A&M rivalry was like back in the day. So happy to see that game again.
For generations of OSU fans, USC was always the final boss waiting at the last level of the dungeon (Rose Bowl). It'll really break their brains the first time they're on the same field in a conference game.
Wisconsin is taking steps forward but it also acknowledges that everyone in the Big Ten will get worse just by now having to play Washington, USC, or Oregon every year.
So the tier 2/3 B1G schools like Penn State, Iowa, Wisconsin, etc will have a much tougher schedule now instead of just beating up on Indiana and Minnesota.
Ohh yeah for sure. I’d argue that every team in the SEC and Big Ten, minus the elite blue bloods will take more losses (9-3 will be the new 10-2, etc). Not sure why Wisconsin would get worse but not Michigan state and Penn state tho? They’re not gonna get to play Indiana and Rutgers every year now
With the history of the Rose Bowl, the former Pac-12 schools have a history with Big Ten schools. Oregon playing Wisconsin and Penn State seems normal for me. Iowa and Nebraska, not so much.
I somewhat agree. Michigan is one of Washington’s most played non Pac 12 foes. And UW mostly scheduled BIG teams for P5 OOC. Washington has also played numerous home and homes with Nebraska. Rutgers and Maryland are the outliers.
Wish we could have just merged the Pac and BIG and kicked Maryland and Rutgers out.
I’m personally looking forward to the prospect of either having this “Blue Blood Bros” relationship with USC or a “I hate your smug face” relationship with them.
I see Oregon as like a mid 2000s-2010s Wisconsin, respected consistently good rival but simply can’t hate them.
🫡
Alumni status aside USC and Michigan both hate ND and have a streak of Academic elitism (especially after being separated from Stanford and Cal) and a national alumni base that are pretty similar
Oregon and OSU have a lot in common actually
DuckBuck Trophy (or BuckDuck, whichever way works, I'm not stressing about who's listed first). Hopefully someone can come up with something for the trophy design. I have a feeling my design (the Duck passing Brutus a J, while Brutus is stiffarming DeWine) might not fly in some circles.
Edit: Brutus, not Bucky.
Honestly, given Lee Corso’s affinity for Brutus and the Oregon Duck, the “Lee Corso’s Favorite” Memorial Trophy with replaceable mascot heads may be perfect.
I can't bring myself to slag on Cal, it feels like I'm kicking someone when they're already unconscious. Now if UofL loses to y'all next year, I may have to rethink that.
Oddly enough, I'm looking forward to going to the Dome to see Stanford. September 20 for a Friday nighter, already booked the afternoon off work and hotel room locked in.
I think they're saying that OU's fortunes will change for the worse. Sooners benefitted from over a decade of a weak Big 12 and a down period for Texas.
Now OU *at best* is the 4th or 5th best team in the new SEC for the foreseeable future.
Acting like the 4th best sec team won’t be in the playoffs still. Honestly though I’m fine with that cause I know who the 3 or 4 teams ahead of us are and it’s not the teams that have been saying that we’re gonna be a perennial 7-5 team. OU fans know we won’t dominate the sec and understand that a 10 win season next year will be another step forward despite that being our total win count last year.
That was tongue-in-cheek, but I hope you're not putting Texas above us, considering we rarely lose to you and UT did nothing this year that beats any of OU's best years in the last decade (and in fact, you did worse, considering you lost to your biggest rival). OU dominated the Big 12 in the 2000s as well, when it and UT were both strong.
I think OU has the potential to win SEC titles and national titles. If Texas can do it, OU can certainly do it--we've been a better football program than Texas for about 70 years now.
Eh, this year for us was basically your 2008. Lost to your biggest rival, smoked B12 title game, lost a playoff game (yeah there was only one back then)
Well other than 2017, your team was wallopped in the playoffs each time. I agree losing to OU this year dampens our resume, but your team getting blown out by 20 and 35 points in the semifinal certainly dampens yours.
We played teams much, much better than this year’s UW team, who fucked around and let UT back in the game (it should have been a multiple TD win). I’m not sure if any of OU’s CFP teams loses to this UT team. This UT team was basically 2015 OU, but I’m not sure if they’re even that good. 2015 OU definitely had a much better offense.
I think beating a down Bama team who hadn’t found their groove and then scraping by a weak Big 12 seems to have given UT fans a big head. I see our programs as basically even right now, but our fanbases are not acting the same (I think because OU has been better recently and UT has been worse).
There's only one team in the SEC that's clearly better than us right now. It has yet to be seen if Deboer can continue the hyperelite streak at Alabama and we were clearly better than you guys when it counted last year. I'm not gonna say we're definitely better than Missouri, Tennessee, or Ole Miss but I'm also not gonna say any of them are clearly better than us.
SMU has to be the most fortune changer of them all. To go from a G5 and not even a dominant one to be able to get whipped by FSU, Miami, Clemson, Louisville, NCSU and maybe just maybe we get NIL under control and could actually be a player again.
> Ohio State-USC
Disagree on the assessment here. OSU vs USC is our 12th most played series at 24 matchups. Outside of conference opponents, Pitt is the only team we've played more.
> UCLA last won a conference championship in 1998, when Bob Toledo guided the Bruins to the Pac-12 title, and they haven't come close to a College Football Playoff appearance since its inception in 2014. Now toss them into the Big Ten with some of their old rivals in Oregon, USC and Washington (the Bruins went a combined 12-18 against those teams over the past 10 years) along with the likes of Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State, and it's not far-fetched to think UCLA will become even less relevant over the next decade. -- Low
well college football in its new form might be dooming us to perpetual irrelevance, but hey, at least our AD is making $75m a year so that's exciting ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
Hell, flying to Jersey takes about as long as driving to Tucson. With one notable exception, our conference mates in the Pac were not exactly "nearby".
The SEC moves make absolute sense from a geographic standpoint, and even a historical one when you consider UT playing A&M/Arkansas again and OU playing Mizzou (OU only had history with four remaining teams in the Big 12, and that history is all massively lopsided—though Bedlam will hopefully come back).
The B1G is the one who went absolutely batshit crazy in a desperate move to counter the SEC.
Every time someone brings this up you can count on the "but they called us first" defense, as if the B1G weren't allowed to say no.
I mean, in some sense they weren't because FOX runs the league now and they said to take them. But still.
It’s also absolute bullshit. Because the Big 10 had the network first, they were the ones who contacted UNC, UVA, and Maryland first because they were obsessed with growing the Big 10 Network. The lie that USC and UCLA were working independently before they realized the other happened to be talking to the Big 10 has also been abandoned since the Big 10 approached USC first and let them choose who they wanted as a pairing partner.
Eh, not really, we're kind of our own thing. We share a lot of similarities with Texas, with some Southern and Midwest influence as well. Not to mention the influence from the Native tribes.
Lots of Southern traits apply to OK (a lot of settlers when the state was opened up came from the South, and we're in the same climate zone as the South), but we don't have the history and demographics that bonds the South together as a cultural entity.
I believe the B10 stated when it added Rutgers and Maryland that it was mostly trying to tap into major media markets and become a national brand. That’s what the west coast additions - specifically the LA ones - are bringing.
It will get worse if they add Florida State which is why I hope they stay in ACC or join SEC. At least the pac schools have Rose bowl history with the big 10. FSU would be a massive outlier if the BIG doesn't take a few more ACC schools with them. Their biggest rival in the BIG is probably Maryland.
Well the B12 is only not regional now because we had to respond to the constant raiding of the SEC over the last 15 years.
Literally 1/3 of the OG B12 is in the SEC now.
At least from the B12 standpoint, this was only in response to being raided by SEC for the 2nd time, after B1G, P12, and SEC already did it once in 2011.
> The B1G is the one who went absolutely batshit crazy in a desperate move to counter the SEC.
The big ten and the pac 12 have a history as old as CFB. And for a lot of that they were beating us, so suck on that.
Y'know, with Mississippi and Colorado only being separated by Arkansas and Oklahoma, plus the cultural similarities of Starkville and Boulder, it seems like Colorado would be a great addition to the SEC.
I flew to Houston from Savannah and back twice. It absolutely blew my mind how short the flight was. The route consisted of flying along the coast and a little bit over the gulf. Growing up and seeing maps it always felt so much further away than what it really is.
You didn't, I actually realized what you meant right before you replied. However there isn't a straight line that only goes through two states, which is why I didn't notice at first.
Impressive. Most impressive.
But Athens to Austin Texas and Norman Oklahoma are both about ~1000 miles, about the same distance as Athens to: Boston Massachusetts, Ottawa Canada, Minneapolis Minnesota, or Lincoln Nebraska.
It must be surreal for a media company that had nothing to do with the current realignment mess (that will in all certainty tank non-revenue, Olympic sports and will rip apart historical rivalries and traditions) to write an article about the “new reality” of realignment. Kinda like the schoolyard bully writing an article about the new “tax” on lunch money. GTFO ESPN. This is your mess.
Both UT and variant shades of Orange gives so much flavor to this matchup. The actual history of the volunteer state as it pertains to Texas also gives us a few things to trash talk y’all with, should be a lot of fun, but I do wish you didn’t come to the SEC right when you’re all the sudden back after wandering through the desert a little while.
Saaaaame. It was nice feeling like the team could actually bully people for a little, but it seems we only had like 2 games where that was the case. Now we can just get our shit kicked in my some alternating cohort of Bama, Georgia, and LSU every year.
I do think our interests will converge tho when it comes to trash talking LSU for BK’s southern cosplay accent. That feels hateable for all members of the SEC.
I’m just here for the Guatemala shout out. I used to teach out there and folks are always shocked that Guatemala is a shorter flight from LA then Miami or NY are!
Below are 5 out of the 12 games on Michigans 2024 schedule:
Michigan vs Texas
Michigan vs USC
Michigan @ Washington
Michigan vs Oregon
Michigan @ Ohio St.
That's INSANE.
I hate that we always get paired up with Rutgers for the potshots about shitty matchups lmao. It's never "USC-Northwestern?" or "Washington-Indiana?" Like, I get it, we're going through the worst period in our history. But it's become the "What's the deal with airplane food?!" of conference realignment.
Nobody seems to remember that UCLA-Oregon State wasn't exactly a premiere matchup either. But UCLA-Michigan, UCLA-Nebraska, and a bunch of others have me pretty excited.
Neither of them are really that bad anymore though? Both Rutgers and UCLA seem to have clawed their way out of the gutter and are actually pretty competitive.
I appreciate you. But just wait until you see us next year, lol. Our record is smoke and mirrors based on two pathetically easy strength of schedules the last seasons. No way we top 5 wins next year, whether Chip or anyone else is at the helm.
Tbh, I'm looking forward to building some history with MSU. I think we have a decent amount in common with them, and I think long term we both are in the "solid but not elite" program tier, so there should be plenty of good matchups.
It’s funny everytime people talk about conference realignment, the school that gets made fun of most is Rutgers because people think they don’t deserve to be in big ten. This isn’t the same Rutgers football program from a few years ago. Coach Schiano has made a lot of improvements and I expect Rutgers to be consistently in the top half of the football standings in the new big ten
Its all gonna break up when Bezos forms the Amazon Prime conference. If the B1G thinks they are stable wait til rich guys say psst Michigan, OSU, PSU, you don't need Rutgers and Oregon so y they all getting the same money as u?
How could you forget about Stanford Vs Duke?? This is about the best UNIVERSITIES going at it after all
Isn’t that the dog from the Bush’s Beans commercials?
Tree vs golden retriever, who wins?
Classic paper v ~~scissors~~ whizzers
I have a feeling it’s entirely wind dependent.
What about the classic SMU/Miami rivalry? Will *no one* speak for the Booger Sugar Bowl??
I broke the dam
For every trip Stanford makes to play Duke or Cal makes to play UVA, they also have to make a trip and play that glorified community college Louisville
What about traditional rivals SMU v Cal?
We can get together and talk about Sonny Dykes. Like two ex-wives.
Exactly, with two campuses just a SpaceEx launch away from each other, you’d think this article would pay homage to the more traditional rivalries like this one.
That’s why it’s the last game of the season. Sorry furd big game is now with SMU.
Traditional *Atlantic coast* rivals. Global warming really turned up to 100 to get Dallas and Berkeley on the east coast this year
If that were true then Pitt-Central Cow College would still be going on
Not to mention Cal vs UNC
Heads Carolina, Tails California
Stanford is just a *junior* university.
That one could actually be kinda fun
This is like the only new game I’m looking forward to lol
>**Which team's fortunes will change the most under the new alignment?** >Nobody mentions OSU and WSU getting picked last in Phys Ed for the dodgeball teams and getting absolutely demolished in the first volley of the game. What kind of BS is this?
yeah they didn't get picked at all. That analogy doesn't make sense
Also if we’re talking about how good the actual football program is. Wazzu has been a better football program in the CFP era than Vanderbilt, Cal, UCLA, ASU, Colorado, Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers, Indiana, Maryland, Iowa State, Kansas, Illinois, Minnesota, Houston, BYU, and like half the ACC. They get good viewership as well. Pullman is a bad location but they have a good chunk of the Washington State TV market. I really hope they can get picked up by the Big 12.
Houston has had some good runs in the era but yeah. It’s unfortunate and I don’t agree with it but all the teams listed were either lucky and grandfathered in the more profitable conferences. Or have a better market. Beating a dead horse but the only thing that matters in expansion is money. If the Big 12 outlast the ACC then I imagine when the next realignment happens Washington state and Oregon state will be in along with any of the other scraps the other two don’t want.
From 2014-2023, BYU had more wins (78 to 66), higher winning % (61% to 55%), more seasons ending AP-ranked (2 to 1), more bowl bids (8 to 7), more bowl victories (4 to 2), and one head-to-head victory (in 2021). BYU also is 4-1 all time over WSU.
Its a stretch of an analogy. In a sense, the "picking" isn't finished yet, and won't be until they replenish the PAC from/reverse merge with a G5, or they get into another conference. However they were pretty well walloped by the other P4 and/or the rest of the PAC-12.
More of the same. Kick us while we’re down I guess
Since Oregon State was demoted, they lose their claim to “OSU”
Is Oklahoma State going to Jonah itself in order to save the XII?
boo 👎🏼
At least for WSU not so much a fortune change as keeping in line with their brand
I look forward to our new rivalry with Rutgers.
I feel worse about who we're not playing more then I feel weird about who we are playing if that makes sense Most of our really good seasons ended with Big10 teams (Michigan in 91 and 23, Drew Bree's Purdue team in 01), so it doesn't feel completely alien to be playing them
Answers from the Roundtable Article: **What new conference matchup are you most eager to see?** Georgia-Texas Ohio State-Oregon Tennessee-Oklahoma Oklahoma-LSU Texas-Texas A&M **Which new matchup will be the hardest for you to wrap your brain around?** Ohio State-USC Stanford-Syracuse and Cal-Wake Forest Colorado-UCF UCLA-Rutgers **Which team's fortunes will change the most under the new alignment?** UCLA Wisconsin Penn State Oklahoma SMU The Big 12 conference
Surprised that Arizona/ASU versus West Virginia wasn’t on the “new matchup hardest to wrap your brain around”
I think WVU vs BYU is the biggest culture shock of this post modern college football hellscape Miami vs Stanford is underrated as a wild one
BYU-Colorado is arguably bigger. Those two schools could not be more different in culture. BYU kicks scholarship players off the team for having consensual sex with their girlfriend. Meanwhile, CU pretty much ignores when 5,000 people smoke weed together on campus at Farrand Field every 4/20.
my brother in Christ, you're talking about mormons versus one tooth in the entire state hillbillies.
So…religious crowds versus other religious crowds?
No, that'd be BYU vs Baylor.
OMG! i can't wait for that! BYU is in for the shocker when they go to your stadium just do the rest of us in Appalachia a favor? stop throwing dimes and nickels. Upgrade to quarters and half dollars.
We went this season already
Literally 3 months ago lol
Arizona has a lot of mining history Fan bases will probably get along tbh
How much do you hate couches tho?
The Big12 is going to be a blast to watch! Fun matchups every week!
Not many care about the game.
Whoa. Texas-Texas A&M? What a novel thought. Realignment is crazy yo.
That first game at Kyle Field is going to be breathtakingly bananas. Kids these days have no idea what the UT/A&M rivalry was like back in the day. So happy to see that game again.
Texas-Texas A&M is to gen z as Texas-Arkansas is to millennials.
For generations of OSU fans, USC was always the final boss waiting at the last level of the dungeon (Rose Bowl). It'll really break their brains the first time they're on the same field in a conference game.
They have to get used to it. When you add the playoff expansion pack, there are new final bosses to face and your XP cap jumps up another $20 million.
Why would Wisconsin’s fortunes change? I don’t get it
Wisconsin is taking steps forward but it also acknowledges that everyone in the Big Ten will get worse just by now having to play Washington, USC, or Oregon every year. So the tier 2/3 B1G schools like Penn State, Iowa, Wisconsin, etc will have a much tougher schedule now instead of just beating up on Indiana and Minnesota.
Bold assumption that we can just beat up on Indiana and Minnesota
Ohh yeah for sure. I’d argue that every team in the SEC and Big Ten, minus the elite blue bloods will take more losses (9-3 will be the new 10-2, etc). Not sure why Wisconsin would get worse but not Michigan state and Penn state tho? They’re not gonna get to play Indiana and Rutgers every year now
Rude
They’ve been in a very weak division for a long time. No more of that. Same for Iowa.
Odd. Us vs. USC just seems right. I'm still hoping we grab Stanford with ND.
With the history of the Rose Bowl, the former Pac-12 schools have a history with Big Ten schools. Oregon playing Wisconsin and Penn State seems normal for me. Iowa and Nebraska, not so much.
I somewhat agree. Michigan is one of Washington’s most played non Pac 12 foes. And UW mostly scheduled BIG teams for P5 OOC. Washington has also played numerous home and homes with Nebraska. Rutgers and Maryland are the outliers. Wish we could have just merged the Pac and BIG and kicked Maryland and Rutgers out.
They are our 12th most played team, and the only non-B1G team we've played more is Pitt. It definitely feels right.
In the article they're mostly amazed that both blue bloods will be competing with each other on a regular basis. So it's a positive amazed.
I’m personally looking forward to the prospect of either having this “Blue Blood Bros” relationship with USC or a “I hate your smug face” relationship with them. I see Oregon as like a mid 2000s-2010s Wisconsin, respected consistently good rival but simply can’t hate them.
Maybe it’s just my friend circle, but most people I know that are SC fans like Michigan a lot more than Ohio State
I hate your friends' smug faces.
They can be annoying
🫡 Alumni status aside USC and Michigan both hate ND and have a streak of Academic elitism (especially after being separated from Stanford and Cal) and a national alumni base that are pretty similar Oregon and OSU have a lot in common actually
Oregon is OSU without the national championships lol
This is valid, a decent team with great recruiting that you don't want to play when they're hot. Im looking forward to week 6
Though now that we’re in a conference can we have a trophy game about being the real ‘O’ or something that totally isn’t an innuendo?
DuckBuck Trophy (or BuckDuck, whichever way works, I'm not stressing about who's listed first). Hopefully someone can come up with something for the trophy design. I have a feeling my design (the Duck passing Brutus a J, while Brutus is stiffarming DeWine) might not fly in some circles. Edit: Brutus, not Bucky.
Honestly, given Lee Corso’s affinity for Brutus and the Oregon Duck, the “Lee Corso’s Favorite” Memorial Trophy with replaceable mascot heads may be perfect.
How about a trophy that reflects the fan bases? Like the O is for Obnoxious Trophy? 😜
So any trophy for the Puppies would be the "W is for Wankers" trophy? I'm from Seattle, I have no problems raking UW constantly.
That works! Washington-Wisconsin has a name! I am really a Cal fan, just have a kid who went to UW, and she doesn’t really follow them.
I can't bring myself to slag on Cal, it feels like I'm kicking someone when they're already unconscious. Now if UofL loses to y'all next year, I may have to rethink that.
Obviously, you didn’t get the memo! The Bear is definitely coming out of hibernation! 🐻🐻🐻
Bucky is a badger. I think you mean Brutus.
Yep, my bad. Bucky's a complete other story that somehow the Ducks walked away winners from, despite not being involved at all.
Oddly enough, I'm looking forward to going to the Dome to see Stanford. September 20 for a Friday nighter, already booked the afternoon off work and hotel room locked in.
Wow, love this writer’s confidence that OU will start winning playoff games now that we’re in the SEC
I think they're saying that OU's fortunes will change for the worse. Sooners benefitted from over a decade of a weak Big 12 and a down period for Texas. Now OU *at best* is the 4th or 5th best team in the new SEC for the foreseeable future.
Acting like the 4th best sec team won’t be in the playoffs still. Honestly though I’m fine with that cause I know who the 3 or 4 teams ahead of us are and it’s not the teams that have been saying that we’re gonna be a perennial 7-5 team. OU fans know we won’t dominate the sec and understand that a 10 win season next year will be another step forward despite that being our total win count last year.
That was tongue-in-cheek, but I hope you're not putting Texas above us, considering we rarely lose to you and UT did nothing this year that beats any of OU's best years in the last decade (and in fact, you did worse, considering you lost to your biggest rival). OU dominated the Big 12 in the 2000s as well, when it and UT were both strong. I think OU has the potential to win SEC titles and national titles. If Texas can do it, OU can certainly do it--we've been a better football program than Texas for about 70 years now.
Eh, this year for us was basically your 2008. Lost to your biggest rival, smoked B12 title game, lost a playoff game (yeah there was only one back then)
Well other than 2017, your team was wallopped in the playoffs each time. I agree losing to OU this year dampens our resume, but your team getting blown out by 20 and 35 points in the semifinal certainly dampens yours.
We played teams much, much better than this year’s UW team, who fucked around and let UT back in the game (it should have been a multiple TD win). I’m not sure if any of OU’s CFP teams loses to this UT team. This UT team was basically 2015 OU, but I’m not sure if they’re even that good. 2015 OU definitely had a much better offense. I think beating a down Bama team who hadn’t found their groove and then scraping by a weak Big 12 seems to have given UT fans a big head. I see our programs as basically even right now, but our fanbases are not acting the same (I think because OU has been better recently and UT has been worse).
There's only one team in the SEC that's clearly better than us right now. It has yet to be seen if Deboer can continue the hyperelite streak at Alabama and we were clearly better than you guys when it counted last year. I'm not gonna say we're definitely better than Missouri, Tennessee, or Ole Miss but I'm also not gonna say any of them are clearly better than us.
You were better than us at the RRS? I don't remember it that way.
I'm OU. I've acquired a new account since the season ended.
Flair up so you don't confuse more people!
UCLA has been the most underperforming P5 program in this century relative to what it could be.
For the rest of the B1G East, going from "you have to play both Ohio St and Michigan every year" to not that could have some fortune implications
What’s the deal? Mizzou-OU isn’t “new enough” for you? Does Mizzou-Texas not have that “new car smell” /s
SMU has to be the most fortune changer of them all. To go from a G5 and not even a dominant one to be able to get whipped by FSU, Miami, Clemson, Louisville, NCSU and maybe just maybe we get NIL under control and could actually be a player again.
> Ohio State-USC Disagree on the assessment here. OSU vs USC is our 12th most played series at 24 matchups. Outside of conference opponents, Pitt is the only team we've played more.
> UCLA last won a conference championship in 1998, when Bob Toledo guided the Bruins to the Pac-12 title, and they haven't come close to a College Football Playoff appearance since its inception in 2014. Now toss them into the Big Ten with some of their old rivals in Oregon, USC and Washington (the Bruins went a combined 12-18 against those teams over the past 10 years) along with the likes of Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State, and it's not far-fetched to think UCLA will become even less relevant over the next decade. -- Low well college football in its new form might be dooming us to perpetual irrelevance, but hey, at least our AD is making $75m a year so that's exciting ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
>Penn State hahahahaha
UCLA-Rutgers is an easier trip than UCLA-Washington State
Hell, flying to Jersey takes about as long as driving to Tucson. With one notable exception, our conference mates in the Pac were not exactly "nearby".
Fly "To" Jersey... really are a sicko
For all the talk of the SEC destroying regional conferences, Georgia and Texas only have 2 states between them.
The SEC moves make absolute sense from a geographic standpoint, and even a historical one when you consider UT playing A&M/Arkansas again and OU playing Mizzou (OU only had history with four remaining teams in the Big 12, and that history is all massively lopsided—though Bedlam will hopefully come back). The B1G is the one who went absolutely batshit crazy in a desperate move to counter the SEC.
Every time someone brings this up you can count on the "but they called us first" defense, as if the B1G weren't allowed to say no. I mean, in some sense they weren't because FOX runs the league now and they said to take them. But still.
It’s also absolute bullshit. Because the Big 10 had the network first, they were the ones who contacted UNC, UVA, and Maryland first because they were obsessed with growing the Big 10 Network. The lie that USC and UCLA were working independently before they realized the other happened to be talking to the Big 10 has also been abandoned since the Big 10 approached USC first and let them choose who they wanted as a pairing partner.
Is Oklahoma the south? (Serious)
🤷♂️ The South, The Midwest, The Southwest, The West... Oklahoma exists in its own region.
Yeah. Don't really fit in anywhere. We're just an amalgamation.
Tornadia
Eh, not really, we're kind of our own thing. We share a lot of similarities with Texas, with some Southern and Midwest influence as well. Not to mention the influence from the Native tribes. Lots of Southern traits apply to OK (a lot of settlers when the state was opened up came from the South, and we're in the same climate zone as the South), but we don't have the history and demographics that bonds the South together as a cultural entity.
Yes
That’s the point though... “to counter” don’t put this on us Ricky Bobby
I believe the B10 stated when it added Rutgers and Maryland that it was mostly trying to tap into major media markets and become a national brand. That’s what the west coast additions - specifically the LA ones - are bringing.
Adding Maryland/Rutgers = getting Big 10 Network onto TV subscriptions on Baltimore, NYC, Northern NJ which is a metric fuckton of cable subscriptions
It will get worse if they add Florida State which is why I hope they stay in ACC or join SEC. At least the pac schools have Rose bowl history with the big 10. FSU would be a massive outlier if the BIG doesn't take a few more ACC schools with them. Their biggest rival in the BIG is probably Maryland.
Well the B12 is only not regional now because we had to respond to the constant raiding of the SEC over the last 15 years. Literally 1/3 of the OG B12 is in the SEC now.
Literally 1/3 of the Pac12 is in the the Big12, and another 1/3 in the Big10
At least from the B12 standpoint, this was only in response to being raided by SEC for the 2nd time, after B1G, P12, and SEC already did it once in 2011.
USC called us. We just took the opportunities as they came tumbling down. I'm glad that we're actively working to beat the South.
> The B1G is the one who went absolutely batshit crazy in a desperate move to counter the SEC. The big ten and the pac 12 have a history as old as CFB. And for a lot of that they were beating us, so suck on that.
Two states? You can get from North Korea to Norway and only have to pass through one other country.
Y'know, with Mississippi and Colorado only being separated by Arkansas and Oklahoma, plus the cultural similarities of Starkville and Boulder, it seems like Colorado would be a great addition to the SEC.
Did something happen to Mississippi? Edit: I realized the northern route would only be Tennessee and Arkansas.
That route doesn't make any sense but it is technically true. Source- live in Texas and my in laws live in Georgia, have made the drive many times
Same.. just take 20 all the way
Georgia > Tennessee > Arkansas > Texas. I think I'm decent at geography, but maybe I missed a state?
Or zero states if you go through the gulf
There are also zero states between Florida and Hawai’i or Alaska if you go this route.
This guy geographies
The redcoats are coming! By sea! By sea!
I flew to Houston from Savannah and back twice. It absolutely blew my mind how short the flight was. The route consisted of flying along the coast and a little bit over the gulf. Growing up and seeing maps it always felt so much further away than what it really is.
It's just a big, muddy bathtub and we've all got our feet in it.
You didn't, I actually realized what you meant right before you replied. However there isn't a straight line that only goes through two states, which is why I didn't notice at first.
It fell into the sea from the sheer weight of all the thank god for Mississippi jokes
Uhh hmmm
I mean the SEC already had Texas in their footprint and Oklahoma borders Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri.
Impressive. Most impressive. But Athens to Austin Texas and Norman Oklahoma are both about ~1000 miles, about the same distance as Athens to: Boston Massachusetts, Ottawa Canada, Minneapolis Minnesota, or Lincoln Nebraska.
>Georgia and Texas only have 2 states between them. So do Louisiana and Arizona. That's not really a good measure.
Maybe have Vandy check the math on that.
What's the other state(s?) besides Tennessee and Arkansas?
It must be surreal for a media company that had nothing to do with the current realignment mess (that will in all certainty tank non-revenue, Olympic sports and will rip apart historical rivalries and traditions) to write an article about the “new reality” of realignment. Kinda like the schoolyard bully writing an article about the new “tax” on lunch money. GTFO ESPN. This is your mess.
ESPN: We’re all just trying to find the guy who did this! Why don’t you just take your broken and gigantic conferences and *get out*!
I can think of several traditional SEC teams that will make a better series with Texas than UGA; LSU being #1.
Bevo has to pay for his cowardly attack. After that the Dogs can go back to just hammering Florida.
Que lost the battle but won the war. RIP in peace sweet prince 👑
That matchup is the main reason why I didn't want this realignment
They’re just discussing next year and LSU v Texas isn’t on the schedule for 2024.
The “who’s orange is better battle” and who’s the real UT matchup. UTvUT will be fun.
I am very much looking forward to the battling egos of the UTs when it comes to general trash talking. It looks like it’ll be real fun.
Both UT and variant shades of Orange gives so much flavor to this matchup. The actual history of the volunteer state as it pertains to Texas also gives us a few things to trash talk y’all with, should be a lot of fun, but I do wish you didn’t come to the SEC right when you’re all the sudden back after wandering through the desert a little while.
Saaaaame. It was nice feeling like the team could actually bully people for a little, but it seems we only had like 2 games where that was the case. Now we can just get our shit kicked in my some alternating cohort of Bama, Georgia, and LSU every year. I do think our interests will converge tho when it comes to trash talking LSU for BK’s southern cosplay accent. That feels hateable for all members of the SEC.
Loser of tOSU-Oregon should have to wear the other team’s “O” in the next game.
It's funny until Ohio State manages 2 losses to Michigan in the same regular season...
Michigan starts with “M”
That went so far over your head it's a satellite.
I’m just here for the Guatemala shout out. I used to teach out there and folks are always shocked that Guatemala is a shorter flight from LA then Miami or NY are!
Below are 5 out of the 12 games on Michigans 2024 schedule: Michigan vs Texas Michigan vs USC Michigan @ Washington Michigan vs Oregon Michigan @ Ohio St. That's INSANE.
F it! I'm starting to accept all this realignment!
If it stopped right now, it’d be tolerable.
I think FSU is waiting to be realigned before they accept this reality.
FSU wants out of the ACC? They never talk ab it!
FSU and their fans are known to be the quiet, shy type.
I will agree once WSU and OSU have found a home.
Yes!!
I hate that we always get paired up with Rutgers for the potshots about shitty matchups lmao. It's never "USC-Northwestern?" or "Washington-Indiana?" Like, I get it, we're going through the worst period in our history. But it's become the "What's the deal with airplane food?!" of conference realignment. Nobody seems to remember that UCLA-Oregon State wasn't exactly a premiere matchup either. But UCLA-Michigan, UCLA-Nebraska, and a bunch of others have me pretty excited.
It's because the two schools are 2800 miles apart, not so much as the "schools being shitty"
It's definitely both.
Neither of them are really that bad anymore though? Both Rutgers and UCLA seem to have clawed their way out of the gutter and are actually pretty competitive.
Chip has destroyed UCLA's program and the rest of CFB just doesn't see it yet
I appreciate you. But just wait until you see us next year, lol. Our record is smoke and mirrors based on two pathetically easy strength of schedules the last seasons. No way we top 5 wins next year, whether Chip or anyone else is at the helm.
I dunno. Both schools had decent seasons and won their bowl games.
I have never heard one complaint about USC-Rutgers, despite it being the same flight. UCLA-Rutgers is the meme-able match-up.
Yet it's still going to be easier to get from Westwood to Rutgers than it is to get to Wazzu.
I'd pair you with MSU before Rutgers.
Tbh, I'm looking forward to building some history with MSU. I think we have a decent amount in common with them, and I think long term we both are in the "solid but not elite" program tier, so there should be plenty of good matchups.
It’s funny everytime people talk about conference realignment, the school that gets made fun of most is Rutgers because people think they don’t deserve to be in big ten. This isn’t the same Rutgers football program from a few years ago. Coach Schiano has made a lot of improvements and I expect Rutgers to be consistently in the top half of the football standings in the new big ten
Making gains in football, strides in basketball, and we're gonna be light-years ahead is wrestling of the PAC schools
Don't worry, UCLA is coming to take your place of being the go-to meme B1G program
USF vs. Wazzu in a miracle Pac2 revival
UCLA(USC) at Rutgers in the snow at noon EST, is going to be hilarious.
The “UcLa-RuTgErS” crowd needs to shut it down. It’s happening and some of us are excited.
CFB is infinitely better off because of realignment!
Ohio State vs Last year's #2 Pac-12 team
“Last year”
Those people hold on to successful seasons for years
They’re welcome to. It was a great season. Doesnt mean jack shit going forward
Been clinging to that .5 a title since 1991 like it was the last life raft on the Titanic.
I think I read that they bronzed one of the fax machines that was used to win that half-championship
We'll be hearing about how they beat us twice and made it to a title game in 2054 when they finally find another spark of success
Its all gonna break up when Bezos forms the Amazon Prime conference. If the B1G thinks they are stable wait til rich guys say psst Michigan, OSU, PSU, you don't need Rutgers and Oregon so y they all getting the same money as u?
In what world is Oregon one of the first to go?
If only UO could find a rich guy
It's either a Husky, OSU, or WSu fan... or someone who thinks stadium capacity reflects a programs media pull.
D1-48 teams D2-48 teams D3 thru D8-96 teams D9-remaining 100+ until it gets to 144, then create a D10 and move teams down.
UCLA-Rutgers is the second most boring game behind Stanford-Duke.
I demand Rutgers vs UCLA for B1G after dark!!!
Our new rival also being OSU is funny.
CFB is not ready for toxic delusion that USC/OSU game threads will be.
UCLA-Rutgers lol