Larry’s Lackeys, aka the Pac-12 university chancellors and presidents, met on Friday, September 19th, to discuss playing in 2020. The Conference of Champions gurus were not able to come to a decision and agreed to reconsider the issue later on September 24. According to ‘The Bootlegger‘ football blog, Stanford is adamantly opposed to playing ball in calendar year 2020. The Cardinal powers-that-be believe that playing in 2020 will make a mockery of the already endangered “student athlete” model.
CAL and UCLA are leaning in the direction of Stanford. The fact that the Palo Alto platoon still believes in the student-athlete model is well, quaint. As I have noted before, I think the leaders of CAL, Stanford and UCLA would be happy to see the Pac-12 adopt the Ivy league model; no athletic scholarships. Recall that last year, Stanford decided not to give its student-athletes preference in graduate school admissions.
This decision, in part, led to over a dozen Stanford football players entering the transfer portal and getting inspired by pro-football games like NFL prop bets. Including QB K.J. Costello who will be starting for the Pirate at Mississippi State this Saturday. (One of Costello’s teammates is the son of B1G Commissioner, Kevin Warren.) Meanwhile, USC indicated that if the Pac-12 decides not to play that it intends to find a way to play. And Utah, noting that BYU has already played a game, wants to kick off before the likely 2020 start date of November 7th of this year. The foundation of the Conference of Champions continues to crumble.
Meanwhile, the BIG is back. So long group of five? Had both the B1G and the Pac-12 sat out the entire 2020 college football season, a group of five team may have had a shot at scoring one of Bill Hancock’s four Golden Tickets. Now, with the B1G back and notwithstanding UCF’s impressive 49-21 road win at Georgia Tech, the group of five can likely kiss the playoff goodbye. On College Game Day (CGD) this past Saturday, Lee Corso gave the group of five two chances at making the final four: “None and none.” Sad, but the playoff political payoff money still spends.
The Knight defense played a stingy second half, allowing only seven points down the stretch.
Paper or Plastic? Last season, Syracuse University, with 50 quarterback take downs, finished 127th in sacks allowed. The 2020, 0-2, Orange are consistent in one respect. In its opener, the offensive line gave up seven sacks to UNC. Last Saturday, these young men who have yet to master the ole’ blocking technique, gave up seven sacks to Pitt. These Orange blockers definitely come with pits.
Win One For The Gipper? At halftime on Saturday, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly did his best to wake up the Knute Rockne echoes. “We’re not letting them score any points. We want a shutout. We’re fighting for a shutout. This thing is too damn hard. I’m tired of being a nice guy!” The Domer defense got the message loud and clear. These bad boys pitched a 52-0 shutout against USF, doing their best to morph ‘nice guy’ coach Kelly into an “Irish meanie.”
Meanwhile in Clemson, The Citadel, down 0-49 at halftime eschewed Dabo Swinney’s offer to play the 2nd half with a running clock. The Keydets then proceeded to stonewall Clemson 0-0 over the final 30 minutes. Worry not for The Keydets. The 0ffense didn’t score, but The Citadel did score a whole lot of Jackson’s for taking the short, in-state, body-bag, bus ride.
A Scheduler With a Sense of Humor? From their respective college President, ADs, head coaches, players, fans and all the way down to the peanut vendors, no two schools beefed more about the B1G cancelling the 2020 season than did the folks in Columbus, Ohio and Lincoln, Nebraska. The featured game when the B1G kicks off the weekend of October 24th? You guessed it, Nebraska at Ohio State.
FSU head coach Mike Norvell will have limited team contact for the rest of the season.
The Beat(down) Goes On. Florida State head coach Mike Norvell has tested positive for COVID and will miss next week’s game against the Miami Hurricanes. Slick Willie, wipe that smile off your face!
Speaking of the U. With the 47-34 victory over The Lou, The now 2-0, U is back? Ducks fans certainly hope so. Keep On Rollin’ Miami! Hands off Mario!
Mike won’t be there, but College GameDay, Herbie (Kirk Herbstreit) and Chris Fowler will be in Miami next Saturday for the FSU game. The Canes will be teeing it up in extremely rare back-to-back CGD games. With the SEC kicking off next Saturday, I did not expect CGD to be comin’ to Miami Ci-tay? But then, the light bulb came on. Follow the $ dummy, the ACC Network won’t sell itself.
This week’s best guess of the 4 teams that will be invited to play for World Wide Soda Pop Leader Trophy.
Rose Bowl – Ohio State versus Alabama
Sugar Bowl – Clemson versus Oklahoma
I think I’ve seen this movie before?
Jon Joseph
Aiken, South Carolina
Top Photo Via Eugene Johnson
Chris Brouilette, the FishDuck.com Volunteer editor for this article, is a current student at the University of Oregon from Sterling, Illinois.
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Jon Joseph grew up in Boston, Massachusetts but has been blessed to have lived long enough in the west to have exorcised all east coast bias. He played football in college and has passionately followed the game for seven decades. A retired corporate attorney Jon has lectured across the country and published numerous articles on banking and gaming law. Now a resident of Aiken South Carolina, Jon follows college football across the nation with a focus on the Conference of Champions and the Ducks.