Continuous change is the new normal in college football, as is UGA's elite status.
As it is now, kirby smart This program seems likely to be ranked No. 1 in the 2024 season.
Or, as the headline of a recent online article put it, “Will college football really be 'Georgia and everyone else' this season?”
But changes are occurring elsewhere as well. ESPN recently won the television rights to the newly expanded College Football Playoff, and the network is teaming up with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery to create a huge joint venture streaming platform, so worry about when Some people. maybe It replaces traditional “linear” broadcasts and is used as the home base for most college and professional sports.
(In the meantime, it should please the growing number of “cord cutters” who are moving away from traditional cable and satellite services.) Subscribers to the as-yet-unnamed service will now have access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, and ACC. Networks, ESPNews, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV, ESPN+.)
College football is changing so quickly that, as the Magic 8 Ball would say, its future is a bit hazy. (Mattel) (Mattel/Dawg Nation)
and Southeastern Conference forms 'Joint Advisory Group' with Big Ten Discuss recent court decisions, pending litigation, governance proposals, and state laws to “play a leadership role in developing solutions for a sustainable future for college sports.”
You know, when these two old adversaries suddenly found themselves on the same footing, we moved into the Upside Down.
In fact, change is happening at a very fast rate. The long-distance future of the “Crystal Ball” game, As some fellow fans and I tried recently, it turned out terrible.
Predicting the future of college football is more like playing the children's game of Magic 8 Ball than hitting a crystal ball, and here's the answer you get after swinging the ball. “Answer vaguely and try again.”
However, in the near future, every premature college football ranking I've seen has the Dawgs in first place. That's not surprising. Because Georgia looks very good once again on offense despite losing teams. Brock Bowers and Rudd McConkey and carson beck Back at QB, there's plenty of talent at running back, receiver, and tight end. And the Dawgs should be as good defensively as they were last season.
Carson Beck will return to lead the high-powered Georgia offense in the 2024 season. (Shin Hyo Seop/AJC) (Shin Hyo Seob)/Dawg Nation)
Part of that is due to Smart continuing to successfully attract top talent to Athens, leading Georgia to No. 1 in 247Sports' recruiting rankings for the fourth time in his eight years as head coach. (Georgia finished below him in the recruiting rankings only once under Smart.)
Georgia's 2024 recruiting class includes five prospects with five-star ratings and 19 four-star ratings. The Bulldogs signed the most five-star and top-100 players (10) in the country.
On top of that, Smart and his staff are known for developing below-three-star players into future NFL candidates.
Rival National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney Smart said: nick saban Now retired, he is arguably the best recruiter in college football. I don't think it's even up for debate at this point. Not only is what he's doing great recruiting-wise, he's turning these guys into national champions and NFL draft picks. It has a snowball effect. Children go there and grow up and are millionaires because of it, but it will create more children who want to do it in Athens. ”
Kirby Smart is considered the recruiting guru in college football. (University of Georgia) (University of Georgia/Dawg Nation)
Ironically, it's in the schedule that the consensus regarding Georgia's upcoming college football season deviates significantly from last year's norm. This time last year, despite Smart's protests, many, if not most, college football observers saw the Dawgs as having an “easy” schedule, especially early on.
This became an annoying meme that undermined Georgia's regular season dominance.
The characteristic of UGA's schedule that I've seen most often this year is “brutal.”
That's because three of the Dawgs' biggest conference games — Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss — are on the road, not including the neutral-field opener against Clemson in Atlanta.
Still, if Smart's Dawgs can avoid the one or two regular-season losses that many prognosticators see as inevitable, he will likely be praised for perhaps the best coaching job of his career.
The Dawgs will visit Tuscaloosa again this season, just like they did in 2020 (AJC files) (AJC file/Dawg Nation)
Either way, it seems very likely that the Dawgs will make it to the SEC Championship Game, even if it's a Georgia team that loses in the regular season or loses in the SEC Championship Game. They will probably advance to the playoffs.
Ohio State acquired blue-chip transfers in the offseason, including veteran quarterback Will Howard 5-star safety from Kansas State caleb downs Five-star QB prospect from Alabama Julian Sane Alabama native, SEC rushing leader quintion judkins From Ole Miss — appears to be the Bulldogs' early main rival for the national championship that will be decided this year in Atlanta.
Of course, Georgia being in the preseason national championship discussion is nothing new.
As for upcoming changes, there are some minor ones. This week's SEC games will be moved from CBS to ESPN, and more. Beer sales at Sanford Stadium He proposed changes to NCAA rules that would add an NFL-style two-minute warning and legalize in-helmet communication and the use of sideline tablets during games.
But even bigger changes are on the horizon for college sports, especially football.
A concession worker pours beer to Georgia fans at Stegeman Coliseum. Sanford Stadium will begin selling beer this fall. (Jason Getz / jason.getz@ajc.com) (Jason Getz/Dawg Nation)
As previously discussed here, many observers feel that it's only a matter of time before the so-called “amateur” template that the NCAA has stuck to for years goes away and college football players become officials, or at least . , Contract Employees — for programs operating at an elite level.
Skepticism about how well the NCAA can address all of this may be behind the SEC and Big Ten gathering together in a study group made up of college presidents and athletic directors.
In other words, they want to be proactive and try to ensure that the new college football landscape aligns with the best interests of the 34 schools.
The new consulting group does not have the authority to implement changes. Rather, its primary purpose is to ensure that large programs do not have to bow to the opinions of rank-and-file NCAA membership.
ESPN's Pete Thamel said: “These leagues don't want Eastern Michigan to have a say in what happens in Michigan or what happens at Florida International that affects Florida.”
They also accused the NCAA and its conferences of violating antitrust laws with an earlier (and now waived) ban on athletes making money off their name, image, and likeness. We also have an interest in obtaining favorable resolutions to pending federal litigation. Other pending lawsuits challenge whether athletes should be considered school employees.
One thing the SEC and Big 10 are probably thinking about is; teeth do not have What we're thinking of doing is completely separating ourselves from the NCAA. The main reason is that he doesn't want to give up on basketball's lucrative march to Madness and its participation in the College World Series.
ESPN will soon manage nearly all Division I college sports championships, except for the men's basketball tournament. (ESPN) (ESPN/Dawg Nation)
“The Big Ten and SEC are deeply invested in the NCAA, and there is no question that the voices of our two conferences are essential to governance and other reform efforts,” said Big Ten Commissioner. Tony Petiti said in a statement. “We recognize that our situations are similar and that it is urgent to address the common challenges we face.”
Reading between the lines, the two major conferences primarily want to have a say in how they approach player compensation, and the NCAA, which has weakened the issue, and individual states. We don't want to defer to unpredictable rules that might come out of Congress or Congress. Probably the court.
“There are no predetermined answers to the myriad questions we face,” SEC Commissioner greg sankey said in his statement. “We don't expect to agree on everything, but increasing interaction between meetings will help us focus our efforts on common-sense solutions.”
UGA President Jere Morehead He told The Athletic that he believes the SEC and the Big Ten “will continue to work with other countries as this issue progresses.” It's not just those two. But it's a great start.”
What elite-level school officials are already scratching their heads about is the prospect of millions more coming in as a result of ESPN's pending new CFP contract. Add to that the fact that whatever you can get from the self-proclaimed world leader's combo, you're going to get it. Discovery comes in sports with Fox and Warner Bros. as streaming becomes a bigger part of college games.
Of course, it doesn't mean that you are already completely in pain. Sankey recently announced that it will distribute $741 million to the SEC's 14 universities in the 2022-23 fiscal year, which ends Aug. 31, 2023. This includes $718 million distributed directly by the conference office and an additional $23 million to be retained by participating universities. in the 2022-23 Football Bowl Game. The SEC paid an average of $51.3 million per school.
And that was before CFP leaders agreed to pay $7.8 billion in a pending six-year deal to make ESPN the home of the 12-team College Football Playoff through the 2031-32 season. They plan to build their operations (after sorting out exactly what they want to do).
The original plan (before the Pac-12 folded) was for the six highest-ranked conference champions and the six highest-ranked at-large teams to participate in the playoffs. Following the departure of 10 teams from the Pac-12, the CFP Management Committee proposed changing the model to five conference champions and seven at-large teams receiving automatic bids. The board will vote on it this week.
They also need to figure out how to distribute revenue from the upcoming playoffs.
The current contract with ESPN has two years remaining, and this year will include quarterfinals, semifinals and the championship game, as well as a new first-round game held on campus.
Still, the SEC's Sankey told The Athletic that the study group was started by his press conference and that the Big Ten is not considering replacing the CFP. “We're certainly interested in continuing the playoffs,” he said. “But there is work to be done.”
A new six-year CFP deal worth $1.3 billion annually would give ESPN control of nearly all Division I college sports championships, except for the men's basketball tournament, which is aired on CBS, TNT and their sister stations. become. 2032.
It's starting to look like college football is going to be ESPN's world and the rest of us are just going to live in it.
I think we should be prepared for an even crazier kickoff time.
