OT: College Football Discussion (Realignment, Penn State, Other)

[zambonir]

A large majority of these kids still get their degree. Some more seriously than others in terms of what they study. Even the ones who fail/don't graduate have gotten some education.

Of course you could still have that for thousands of players in what would basically become fcs, whether you had an actual pro league or just a de facto version like they are heading for.

[Philsmania]

Personally, I think the best scenario is that we have one set of two or three conferences for football and another set of conferences for everything else (hoops, etc.) which will essentially be the conferences as they were until 2013...or earlier. Heck, outsource the running of the football conferences to the NFL. The Pac 10 will live on in baskeball and everything else as will the ACC, the Big 10 just might go back to actually being ten/eleven teams, the Big East goes back to being the old Big East, etc. Just my crazy modest proposal.

It wouldn't entirely surprise me if the Big Ten ultimately takes the Northern California duo (Cal & Stanford) as well as they would fill a market and they fit academically.

[andyb]

Definitely going to end up with 2 super conferences though I wonder if the SEC has any place to expand now. Arizona would not really add that much and FSU/Clemson are subject to huge exit fees.

So I think this stage of realignment is mostly done. SEC and Big 10 are super conferences. ACC and Big 12 are pretty good. Mountain West (or maybe they even call it the Pacific-??) is a notch behind and then everyone else.

I actually hope they still keep the playoff at 12 teams with the best 6 conferences. It opens it up a little more for the smaller schools. And if they tried to lobby for 2 automatic bids for the SEC and Big 10 then we might as well just call them pro leagues.

[bkeich]

I am not saying there are not some that get degrees, not sure a large majority is correct when you talk about schools like Georgia or Alabama, but some. No problem with the ones that care about getting a degree getting the opportunity, but many have no interest or intent to get an education. They are just there to try and get an NFL contract (at the top schools, not talking about teams that do not compete). Schools engage in academic fraud to keep them "eligible" by either creating fake classes or giving them phony grades.

My buddy's son who played at FSU proudly told us once that he did not attend a single class or ever take a test in his 2 years on the football team. He wasn't even sure where the academic buildings were as he did not visit the campus except to (big surprise) "look for girls". He had a great time in college.

If you switch to basketball, it gets even more ludicrous. How many years did Georgetown (one of the finest academic schools in the country) go without graduating a single basketball player? At one point they had a hilarious streak going (20 years ago or so).