Recruiting is mostly done

Still waiting on pro/stay decisions

Still waiting on "returning production" calculations

Figured we might as well shoot the **** about exciting nonconference games

I don't get why the good G5 teams schedule 1 or at most 2 P5 teams. Why not schedule 4? You're gonna go bowling regardless, every win you notch improves your program visibility and is a mini bowl game in of itself. I guess it's all about home game revenue + trying to get that one G5 slot which basically requires going undefeated or 1 loss and beating at least 1 P5 team.

But there are some G5 teams of years past that actually would've had a shot at the playoffs had they added 1 or 2 more middle of the road P5 teams, and they played UMass instead.

The AAC is good enough that you probably only have to play 3 instead of 4, whereas Appy has to play 4. Imagine if UCF, instead of playing just UNC and @ GT added Florida and Georgia. No way they'd be out of the playoffs if they ran the table.

Anyway... IS THIS THE YEAR that a good G5 team could crack the playoffs if they manage to go undefeated? Short answer: No, none of them have good enough schedules:

Cincy
09/05 - Austin Peay
09/12 - Western Michigan
09/19 - at Miami (Ohio)
09/26 - at Nebraska

Houston
09/05 - Rice
09/12 - at Washington State
09/26 - North Texas
10/17 - at BYU

Memphis
09/05 - Arkansas State
09/12 - at Purdue
09/26 - at UTSA
11/21 - UT Martin

Navy
08/29 - vs Notre Dame (in Dublin, Ireland)
09/12 - Lafayette
10/03 - at Air Force
12/12 - vs Army (in Philadelphia, PA)

SMU
09/05 - at Texas State
09/12 - Stephen F. Austin
09/19 - at North Texas
09/26 - TCU

UCF
09/03 - North Carolina (or 09/04)
09/12 - FIU
09/19 - at Georgia Tech
10/10 - Florida A&M

BYU - maybe?
09/05 - at Utah
09/12 - Michigan State
09/19 - at Arizona State
09/26 - at Minnesota
10/02 - Utah State
10/10 - Missouri
10/17 - Houston
10/24 - at Northern Illinois
11/07 - at Boise State
11/14 - San Diego State
11/21 - North Alabama
11/28 - at Stanford

That's a legit P5 schedule. Six P5 games (four on the road) plus Boise, SDSU, Houston and Utah State. Even NIU is a real team. That's a real P5 slate. They're not good enough to go undefeated though.

Appy State
09/05 - Morgan State
09/11 - at Wake Forest
09/19 - at Wisconsin
09/26 - UMass

Boise State
09/05 - Georgia Southern
09/19 - Florida State
09/26 - at Marshall
11/07 - BYU

Pretty decent slate from the B12. Three winnable games against the SEC, which will help them erase from their disastrous bowl performance if they play well:

Baylor
09/05 - vs Ole Miss (in Houston, TX)
09/19 - Incarnate Word
09/26 - Louisiana Tech

Iowa State
09/05 - South Dakota
09/12 - at Iowa
09/19 - UNLV

Kansas
09/05 - New Hampshire
09/19 - Boston College
09/26 - at Coastal Carolina

K State
09/05 - Buffalo
09/12 - North Dakota
09/19 - Vanderbilt

Oklahoma State
09/03 - Oregon State
09/12 - Tulsa
09/19 - Western Illinois

Oklahoma
09/05 - Missouri State
09/12 - Tennessee
09/26 - at Army

TCU
09/05 - at California
09/12 - Prairie View A&M
09/26 - at SMU

Texas
09/05 - USF
09/12 - at LSU (holy **** this is a big game)
09/19 - UTEP

Texas Tech
09/05 - at UTEP
09/12 - Alabama State
09/19 - Arizona (I like this new southwestern rivalry)

West Virginia
09/05 - vs Florida State (in Atlanta, GA)
09/12 - Eastern Kentucky
09/19 - Maryland
Playing 11 P5 games, wish us luck lol

Pac-12 has several teams committing suicide, as usual, playing 1 cupcake while teams like Alabama play 3. Basically the conference's entire reputation rests on two games, both of which are thankfully at home: Oregon/Ohio State Washington/Michigan. Lose both of those, and we're basically ****ed. USC upsetting Alabama in Texas would give us a mulligan, but feels pretty darn unlikely. Any combination of 2-1 in those games, and we are live.

Cal
08/29 - at UNLV
09/05 - TCU
09/12 - Cal Poly

Oregon
09/05 - North Dakota State
09/12 - Ohio State
09/19 - Hawaii

Oregon State
09/03 - at Oklahoma State
09/12 - Colorado State
09/19 - Portland State

Stanford
09/05 - William & Mary
10/10 - at Notre Dame
11/28 - BYU

Washington
09/05 - Michigan
09/12 - Sacramento State
09/19 - Utah State

Wazzu
09/05 - at Utah State
09/12 - Houston
09/19 - Idaho
(This is a terrible sched. Houston and Utah State are pretty decent, and you won't get jack for beating them)

Arizona
08/29 - Hawaii
09/05 - Portland State
09/19 - at Texas Tech

ASU
09/05 - Northern Arizona
09/12 - at UNLV
09/19 - BYU

Colorado
09/05 - at Colorado State
09/12 - Fresno State
09/19 - at Texas A&M (An old B-12 game that is now a PAC/SEC game)

UCLA
08/29 - New Mexico State
09/05 - at Hawaii
09/19 - at San Diego State

USC
09/05 - vs Alabama (in Arlington, TX)
09/12 - New Mexico
11/28 - Notre Dame
(this schedule is suicide)

Utah
09/05 - BYU (I know Utah has to play BYU, but I wish they were playing a middle of the pack SEC team)
09/12 - Montana State
09/19 - at Wyoming

ACC noncon slates have the biggest variance IMO. Some are pretty respectable (FSU, GT), some should be illegal (NC State, Miami... Syracuse should be banned from the sport for this slate)

BC
09/05 - Holy Cross
09/12 - Ohio
09/19 - at Kansas
09/26 - Purdue

Clemson
09/19 - Akron
11/07 - at Notre Dame
11/14 - The Citadel
11/28 - South Carolina

FSU
09/05 - vs West Virginia (in Atlanta, GA)
09/19 - at Boise State
11/28 - Florida
TBA - Samford

Louisville
09/19 - Murray State
09/26 - WKU
11/21 - at Notre Dame
11/28 - Kentucky

NC State
09/12 - Mississippi State
09/19 - at Troy
09/26 - Delaware
11/21 - Liberty

Syracuse
09/12 - at Rutgers
09/19 - Colgate
09/26 - at Western Michigan
10/17 - Liberty

Wake Forest
09/05 - at Old Dominion
09/11 - Appalachian State
09/19 - Villanova
09/26 - vs Notre Dame (in Charlotte, NC)

Duke
09/05 - Middle Tennessee
09/12 - Elon
09/19 - Charlotte
10/31 - at Notre Dame

Georgia Tech
09/12 - Gardner-Webb
09/19 - UCF
11/14 - Notre Dame
11/28 - at Georgia

Miami
09/05 - Temple
09/12 - Wagner
09/19 - UAB
09/26 - at Michigan State

UNC
09/03 - at UCF (or 09/04)
09/12 - vs Auburn (in Atlanta, GA)
09/19 - James Madison
11/07 - UConn

Pitt
09/05 - Miami (Ohio)
09/12 - at Marshall
09/19 - Richmond
10/17 - Notre Dame

Virginia
09/07 - vs Georgia (in Atlanta, GA)
09/12 - VMI
09/19 - UConn
10/24 - at Old Dominion

Virginia Tech
09/05 - Liberty
09/12 - Penn State
09/19 - at Middle Tennessee
09/26 - North Alabama

SEC, as usual, is a ****ing dumpster fire

Alabama
09/05 - vs USC (in Arlington, TX)
09/12 - Georgia State
09/26 - Kent State
11/14 - UT Martin

Arkansas
09/05 - Nevada
09/12 - at Notre Dame
10/03 - Charleston Southern
11/21 - ULM

Auburn
09/05 - Alcorn State
09/12 - vs North Carolina (in Atlanta, GA)
09/26 - Southern Miss
11/14 - UMass

LSU
09/05 - UTSA
09/12 - Texas
09/19 - vs Rice (in Houston, TX)
10/03 - Nicholls

Mississippi State
09/05 - New Mexico
09/12 - at NC State
09/26 - Tulane
11/21 - Alabama A&M

Ole Miss
9/05 - vs Baylor (in Houston, TX)
09/12 - Southeast Missouri
10/24 - UConn
11/21 - Georgia Southern

Texas A&M
09/05 - Abilene Christian
09/12 - North Texas
09/19 - Colorado
10/10 - Fresno State

Florida
09/05 - Eastern Washington
09/19 - South Alabama
11/21 - New Mexico State
11/28 - at Florida State

Georgia
09/07 - vs Virginia (in Atlanta, GA)
09/12 - ETSU
09/26 - ULM
11/28 - Georgia Tech

Kentucky
09/05 - Eastern Michigan
09/19 - Kent State
10/10 - Eastern Illinois
11/28 - at Louisville

Missouri
09/05 - Central Arkansas
09/26 - Eastern Michigan
10/10 - at BYU
11/21 - Louisiana

South Carolina
09/05 - Coastal Carolina
09/12 - East Carolina
11/21 - Wofford
11/28 - at Clemson

Tennessee
09/05 - Charlotte
09/12 - at Oklahoma
09/19 - Furman
11/21 - Troy

Vanderbilt
09/05 - Mercer
09/19 - at Kansas State
09/26 - Colorado State
11/21 - Louisiana Tech

Number of teams who play 10+ Power5/ND/BYU games:

Pac-12: 10/12 (and 2 play 11)
Big-12: 10/10 (and 1 plays 11)
SEC: 1/14 (none play 11)

There's usually no one else willing to play those good G5 teams, other than the 1 they already had scheduled in a given year

Teams like Auburn or aTm usually have close to the toughest, or the actual toughest, SoS in the country, and that includes their "dumpster fire" OOC

So if you want to see them play better OOC, maybe the rest of the country should also find a way to toughen their schedule. Maybe when the Big XII teams start playing Oklahoma 3 or 4 times a year, it would stop being unfair and ridiculous to expect SEC West teams to stop playing cupcakes

Florida offered UCF a 2:1 home and home, and UCF indignantly turned it down.

If you ask every P5 team for a 2:1 or a 3:2 home and home, I guarantee you can fill four slots.

G5s keep acting like they are on even footing with P5s, and they're not. They get to play three or four (if in the AAC) or like four or five (if in the sunbelt) Rutgers level teams a year.

The SEC is the best and hardest conference. They also play absurdly awful OOC schedules. Those things balance out, and if that's how people treat it I wouldn't have any issue.

The problem is people frequently discuss the former and all but ignore the latter. A 1-loss SEC team always always always gets treated better than a 1 loss Pac-12 team because the "SEC is a better conference." Which is true! But for all the criticism of P5 teams winning big bowl games of "yeah but its easy to get up for one game when you play all those creampuffs" nobody talks about how SEC teams get like 4 gimme games and Pac-12 teams have to show up every week.

If Oregon plays Eastern Washington instead of ASU, they're in the playoffs (and would've gotten smoked).

My preference would be for SEC teams to play OOCs just as hard as the Pac, and then for people to be like "yeah but this 10-2 SEC team is just as impressive than the 11-1 Pac team" and they'd be right!

Prime example is Texas A&M, who went 7-5 without beating a SINGLE team in the top-45 and having 4 wins against teams outside of the top-100, and then getting ranked because they were a tough SEC team.

It's impossible to do that in the Pac or Big 12.

Also, to be clear, "a few great teams and more cupcakes" vs the "grind of mediums" makes it tougher for your elite teams (Alabama has it tougher than Oregon), but makes it a lot easier for your medium teams (a lot easier to be Tennessee or Texas A&M than it is to be UCLA or Cal)

They also didn't lose to a team outside the top 13. Their losses were Clemson, Bama, Auburn, Georgia, LSU.

They played Clemson out of conference to go along with their SEC murderer's row. What else would you want them to do this year? Next year, their schedule will be easier because they play Colorado out of conference and will replace Georgia with an easier team from the East.

Jake Fromm is declaring for the draft. Uga fans rejoicing.

The SEC consistently has tougher rated schedules than most of the other P5 conferences if not all of them. Continue to ***** and moan about nothing


Grantham might become the new head coach of miss st. I wouldn’t be that sad if it happened tho it does suck for the players that committed and wanted to play for him

Idk Their depth chart doesn’t look great. Seems like most fans want a portal QB

I don't know about "rejoicing."

My approval rating of him as a junior is a lot lower than it was as a true freshman that took us to a title game, but UGA is definitely worse off in 2020 with whomever we put under center than with a 4 year starting senior Jake Fromm.

I think he's an idiot to come out this year when his stock could be improved with a good senior season. Burrow, Tua, and Herbert are all probably ahead of him, Fromm's best case scenario is a day 2 pick.

But then again, I think Fromm's collegiate resume is a lot better than Trubisky or Danny Dimes' college resumes, and it only takes one team to fall in love.

Wish him all the best at the next level, but I think he'll find it tough to gain traction.

Yep, only takes one team. But honestly think Fromm’s career will fall along a similar trajectory as Aaron Murray. You won’t see much of him at all to start. He’ll bounce around from team to team and eventually end up in the xfl or whatever

You're probably right.

I'm the same guy who said David Greene was gonna go on to break all of Peyton Manning's NFL records the same way he broke all his SEC records

I heard he's selling insurance after bouncing around as a backup and never playing.

I don't think it's going to be a great year for the Pac, as both Oregon & Washington will have new QBs. Either could be very good by the end of the season, but probably not so much to start. If USC-Bama or OSU-UO is somewhat competitive, that's a win for the Pac. UM-UW & ND-USC should be good games and will be the real barometers from a W/L perspective. USC still has plenty of talent from its '17 & '18 classes, and has a lot of experience at most positions (incl. QB) due to all their injuries this past season.

Stanford had a dozen players enter the transfer portal last year, including QB KJ Costello. He may be the top QB target, along with Anthony Brown (BC) & Jamie Newman (WF). For the really desperate, there's Felipe Franks. An article listed 3 likely destinations for Costello as Florida St., Georgia or LSU.

I'm gonna go on the record and say I don't like or agree with "the transfer portal" rules, especially for QB's.

And I freely admit it comes only from my perspective as a UGA homer.

Jacob Eason was highly recruited to UGA. He got hurt, true frosh Fromm took over, and took us to the national title game. Eason saw the writing on the wall, and went back to his home state of Washington, which never could fully appreciate the pageantry, history, and gravity of SEC football. He had to sit for a year, because reasons.

Justin Fields in high school saw Fromm take us to the national title game as a true freshman. He was even more highly ranked, and came to UGA to beat out that QB that took us to a title game as a true freshman. Didn't actually happen. Fields had a weird, uneven year as a gadget QB, and never came close to unseating Fromm.

So he leaves. Goes to Ohio State. DOESN'T have to sit a year. Ohio State romps because they have 5* guys everywhere else and don't play anybody... and Fields fulfills the Sith prophecy about destroying balance. I was happy they lost, even though Fields looks like he's way better than Eason, or Fromm for that matter.

So Eason kinda sucks, but I root for him in an irrelevant, try-hard teen virgin kind of way for a school and conference that doesn't really matter. Fields leads a well-oiled machine, a fully operational death star. And Fromm is leaving, so UGA is starting either a true freshman in 2020, or something from "the transfer portal," which I hate.

As I was processing the shock and awe of the SECCG defeat, I decided I was gonna root for Clemson. Because at least they, unlike the other 3 playoff teams, grew their own QB in house.

And didn't resort to some hack mercenary gen z overrated-yet-talented punk kid who wouldn't stick it out when faced with the slightest bit of adversity.

Jamie Newman is going to Oregon. I watched a lot of him this year, and think he's excellent, so that's not great. I was consistently underwhelmed by Oregon's playcalling this year though, they have an NFL QB and the best line in the country and somehow went extremely long stretches without scoring in every game I watched.

No idea what's happening at Stanford, seems like some kind of internal meltdown. Costello doesn't seem like a big loss though, Davis Mills threw for 1960 yards at 8.1 YPP and 66% completion vs Costello 1038 yards for 6.2 YPP and 61% this season. Seems likely that Mills is just better.

Eason has the build and arm, but he's not particularly agile and has a ton of work to do on the mental side of the game.

That's pretty rich telling the state of Washington & the Pac that they could never fully appreciate the pageantry, history, and gravity of SEC football. As far as pageantry, the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade are the original pageants of American football. If by history you mean the conference of racial segregation whose dominance is built on being the region of literal slaves, then be proud... or something. I don't even know what was meant by gravity, given that it's a ****ing game, but then I wouldn't be surprised if most attendees of the fine institutions of higher learning that comprise the SEC don't know anything about gravity either.

Hmmm... that should help Oregon, but not sure how much it will help them in their first real game of the year and against Ohio State. That may make them favorite for P12 though.

Seems like USC, UCLA & Stanford are all having problems, which should be good news for Cal and the rest of P12. Costello may not be a big loss, but a dozen players entering the portal in one year seems like quite a lot. Stanford had a lot of injuries last year, so will be interesting to see how they do next year, I'm not writing them off just yet.

Washington also has won a national title more recently than Uga. So lol that post. Seems like a whole lotta butthurt. Typical for Uga fans. Lol at the whole notion of doing it right and winning a ship with your home grown guy. Who gives a ****? Transfers are part of the game now. If my team can bring in a guy from another school and compete for a title the next year you bet your ass I want him on my team. Ou has made a living doing it for 3 years now. They just don’t have the defense to win nattys

notice how you never hear bama fans talking about "appreciating the pageantry, history, and gravity of SEC football." It's always the fans of schools who haven't won anything in 50 years who talk like this.


@TJEckelberg
instead of blaming the "Gen z punk" for transferring blame your coach for playing a worse player instead of a better player.