College Football Is Better When It's Unpredictable
This week on the Southbound Sports Show, Matt and I covered a lot: NFL officials getting suspended, why the league can't keep its stars healthy, the College Sports Act, and a Michigan program that looks like it's coming apart during a bye week.
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The NFL's Officiating and Ratings Problem
The league suspended two officials after videos showed one berating a player who was trying to help him up and another yelling obscenities at Cardinals tight end Trey McBride. I get that players are probably in officials' faces all game. But with cameras everywhere, that kind of behavior is a bad look. My bigger issue is how often officiating is swinging games. Some people are arguing that the number of one-score games shows the league is doing something right. I'm not convinced.
TV ratings are also down, and the NFL is complaining about how Nielsen is counting viewers. I think the injuries are part of the story. Young quarterbacks like Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams, and Dart keep getting hurt, and when your quarterback is on the injury report, it's hard to stay invested. There's also no villain. In the 2000s, we had Ravens/Steelers and Brady/Manning. Right now it's Mahomes against a bad knee.
Steelers Dysfunction and Quarterback Development
We spent time on Pittsburgh's mess, with Aaron Rodgers yelling at receivers and Mike Tomlin's Minecraft world. Matt's point stuck with me: if there was a better quarterback option, they'd use it. We also talked about how college offenses built on simple reads and RPOs may be leaving NFL quarterbacks unready to read a defense, and whether helmet communication can bridge the gap.
The College Sports Act
The bill passed the Senate, and the House still has to vote. Matt thinks it's mostly a talking point for the midterms, and he may be right. I'm against it because it would cap what athletes earn while schools keep the extra money. It also threatens the parity we're finally seeing. Indiana winning a national title, UCLA hiring Chesney, and Northwestern upgrading its facilities all show what money and smart roster-building can do. We also talked about the 20-team conference cap and what it would mean for the ACC, which already gets very little ESPN coverage.
ESPN, the Rankings, and the ACC
I checked ESPN's homepage and the football coverage is nearly all SEC. Missouri is ranked 14th after losing to Mississippi State, and Mississippi State was ranked higher after losing to Alabama. If that were Wisconsin, USC, and Nebraska, the pollsters would just drop all three. In the ACC, only Duke, Pitt, and Miami are still undefeated, and the unbalanced schedule means Duke could end up in the title game with a very easy path.
Penn State, Virginia Tech, and a Missed Kick
Penn State is 3-2 after losses to Northwestern and Wisconsin, and I'm worried about Matt Campbell's recruiting. James Franklin's Virginia Tech team also lost to Pitt on a missed field goal that Franklin had set up on the right hash, and his kicker acted like he'd made it.
Michigan
Michigan lost a bye week before it even finished, with players leaking chats, reports of a split between staff and players, and an athletic director who is a lame duck. Bryce Underwood has struggled in the pocket, and the last play, a fourth-down throw out of bounds, was hard to watch. I think the defense can beat anyone, but the offense needs a real change. If it comes to that, Chesney at UCLA is my number one guy. And yes, I texted Matt about buying and creating Gruden to Michigan website.
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