Thread: 2011-12 College Football

Originally Posted by steventhfc

I'm really going to try and get into College Football since watching the film "two days in April" and I may support to Oklahoma Sooners, I'm not too sure why.....

Any tips on how to get into it/keep up with it so I know more for the next draft?

Tip #1 don't support the Sooners.

Alright I guess it's not too bad. At least it's not Texas, Oregon or an SEC team (Besides Georgia, Arkansas and Ole Miss not a fan). Still if you think Arsenal collapses are bad there's nothing worse then the Sooner collapse. Some of the most famous collapses last decades were from the Sooners. To be fair my Trojans are guilty of it too.

What kind of team are you looking for?

Your potential lot vs my lot.

Originally Posted by BlueCrew LA

Tip #1 don't support the Sooners.

Alright I guess it's not too bad. At least it's not Texas, Oregon or an SEC team (Besides Georgia, Arkansas and Ole Miss not a fan). Still if you think Arsenal collapses are bad there's nothing worse then the Sooner collapse. Some of the most famous collapses last decades were from the Sooners. To be fair my Trojans are guilty of it too.

What kind of team are you looking for?

Your potential lot vs my lot.

How can anyone hate my Aggies? lol


I love Texas A&M, but I have been drinking the maroon koolaid for way too long

Originally Posted by LukaModric2010

How can anyone hate my Aggies? lol


I love Texas A&M, but I have been drinking the maroon koolaid for way too long

I forgot ya'll are in the SEC now.

I got no beef with the Aggies, short of ruining the PAC-16 deal 2 years ago . Nice school, good campus.

Originally Posted by steventhfc

I don't even know what I'm looking for I don't even understand how the college league fcking works. Give me a dummies guide to college football haha.

Here's some basics. Found on a site called football for girls believe it or not.

The Season

* The Regular Season begins Labor Day Weekend, one weekend earlier than the NFL
* The teams are allowed to schedule up to 12 regular games a season
* Although games take place all week long, the high profile/highly anticipated match-ups take place mostly on Saturdays.
* The college season post-season is not a tournament or playoff like most other sports. Instead, they use “bowl games” to showcase the top 64 teams in the country. The bowl games match the best ranked teams from different conferences. (See A Girl’s Guide to the Bowls: Super, Rose, Orange…Cereal for more on the bowls!)

Additional Key Terms to Know:

Red Shirt Freshman vs. True Freshman
You will hear those terms a lot during a college game and I was always perplexed by it. A “red shirt” freshman means the player is actually in his second year in college but during his first year, he only practiced with the team, he didn’t play in the games.

Why? In the NCAA you only have four years of eligibility. Players “red shirt” to gain a year of experience with the team: learning the plays, bonding with players and coaches, and developing from high school star to college player, without wasting a year of eligibility.
A true freshman means they start right playing in the games right out of high school in their freshman year. True Freshmen college quarterbacks are extremely rare and coveted.

A walk-on player
If a player is not receiving a scholarship to play football, he is considered a walk-on.

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Basically college football is set up the way it is because of the size of the country. It's not possible for everyone to play each other, and it was less feasible 100 years ago for a team from Georgia to play an away game against a California team. Because of this the league developed regionally with teams competing in conferences of varying sizes. The winner of the particular conference would qualify for a Bowl. Initially there was just one bowl, the Rose Bowl (Los Angeles). Nowadays there's bowls all over the map and seemingly with at random.

Also because teams from different conferences would likely never play the tradition of polls to determine who's the best team in the nation was established, a "National Champion". There's a pre-season poll, a top 25 (It goes further down but those rankings are rarely mentioned). Over the years there have been various polling outlets the most prominent being the Associated Press Poll (AP) and United Press International (UPI). UPI is now no longer in use but AP still is one of the selectors for a National Champion. Basically what happens is after every week of play sports journalist from the AP who have been awarded a vote rank their top 25 based on the previous weeks play. Teams move up and down in the standings an at the end of the season the #1 team, typically playing in the best bowl, gets awarded the National Championship.

Now that was the tradition for around 70 years in America but in 1998 the BCS or Bowl Championship Series came into existence with the sole purpose of getting the #1 team and #2 team in the nation to play against each other in a National Championship game. In the past specific conferences had traditional bowl affiliations, take USC for example if we won our conference (Pac-10 not Pac-12) we went to the Rose Bowl and played the winner of the Big Ten. So many times the two or three teams competing for the title never played each other. So the BCS was instituted to eliminate that. The BCS combines two polls the Harris and Coaches while also using a computer formula (which nobody can figure out) to allegedly more accurately determine position in the rankings. The BCS in this country is the subject of regular criticism, still that just reality. There is the possibility of a split national championship like back in the old days when two prominent polls would give the title to different schools. At times the AP and BCS don't see eye to eye because they're independent of each other.

Players for college are recruited and aren't paid. Which is why for college coaches being a good recruiter is as vital as being a good tactician. College recruiting is somewhat similar to deadline day in England. People tune in from all over the country to see who goes where and who has the better recruiting class from that season. Some schools have a natural advantage in recruiting because of a high level of development in state where most kids prefer to stay, or it's a state were kids want to live. The major recruiting hubs are California, Texas and Florida. The athletes regularly produced are a class above the rest of the nation. Then there's a second tear of states like Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Louisiana etc. Some big schools like Alabama or Oklahoma don't have a strong domestic recruiting base but because of success have long standing connections in states with good talent. Alabama recruits well all over the south but particularly Florida and Oklahoma is Texas's biggest competitor in recruiting. Like with other parts of college football you learn by experience. My uni has traditionally dominated California even in bad years which is why when we do suck it's rarely due to a lack of talent, same with Texas or the Florida schools who have good domestic recruiting bases. Now there's schools like Notre Dame who have always been able to recruit everywhere because of tradition. Notre Dame's biggest recruiting bases are Ohio, California and Florida. While having a good domestic base is a benefit it can be overcome by schools like Notre Dame.

Now that's a bit of the basics of College Football, honestly the only way your ever going to learn is to get involved and learn of the fly. It's ridiculously complicated and takes a while to fully grasp.

As to which team you should pick, like I said earlier that really depends on what you prefer in schools. Like I explained College football is a regional sport each area has different traditions and the fans have different makeups. It's hard for me to recommend you a schools because I'm bias against schools that are popular to other fans. Not a fan of the SEC because I think their marriage with CBS/ESPN has damaged the game and tipped the balance in their favor, so it's hard for me to be positive about them.

Still here's a short list of teams to consider from major conferences, admittedly with intense bias. (forget about teams in the Northeast, not as passionate about football). Some schools recently have moved conferences which is a hot topic out here.

Pac-12 - USC, Oregon, Washington, Arizona State, maybe Stanford and CAL. Stanford might slip back into mediocrity when Luck leaves. Also I can't with a good conscience recommend UCLA to anyone.

Big Ten - Wisconsin (best tailgate), Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Nebraska -- Not a fan of Ohio State but their very popular, so I can understand the attraction. Ohio state wouldn't be a bad choice.

ACC - Virginia Tech, Florida State, Miami (even though their football program may be sanctioned)

SEC - Arkansas, Texas A&M, Ole Miss (2nd best tailgate), Georgia, LSU (3rd best tailgate and they're actually good).

Big 12 - Oklahoma and Oklahoma state are pretty much the only likable teams left imo. Texas has a huge following but I've never cared for them. It's not just because they beat my Trojans in what's considered one of the best games ever. They've always been pretty smug imo, they carry themselves like everyone should bow down to the might of Texas when they aren't even the most successful school in their conference, that's Oklahoma and before Nebraska left for the Big Ten they were behind them.

Independent - Notre Dame, a rival of my school and one of the most successful schools in America. Even though they are the Fighting Irish and are a Catholic school I've found a good number of English fans have chosen to support then.

Originally Posted by VASpur

Why no love for Oregon? Stealing thunder from the premadonas at USC(University of Spoiled Children)?. Oregon fan btw

Stealing thunder? Oregon just won their first Rose Bowl in 95 years. They are the Manchester City of College Football. Phil Knight has basically funded that team and made them relevant, and allegedly stole a couple recruits likr Black Mamba. The all-time record against Oregon is 37-17-2. They have a long way to go before stealing our thunder. Not to mention most of your best players if not for sanctions would have stayed home were they belong. We'll be back, we're arguably one of the best teams in the nation next season.

As for the spoiled children bit, I know it's a joke but I just find that so asinine. The beginning of my life as a Trojan we weren't that good at all. We've had some success but to say that supporting my uni has been easy or that were entitled is ridiculous. Most of the bandwagon Oregon fans would have jumped shipped a couple years ago if they were hit with such unfair penalties. The NCAA dropped the hammer on my university and it's fan for one players involvement with a hood agent. Yet you still see people at the games, supporting the men of Troy, to call us spoiled is a little tired.

P.S. I did include Oregon in my recommendations for what it's worth.