I Tell Ya' Herbie

     This edition of I Tell Ya' Herbie will stick with one topic.

I Tell Ya' Herbie: 

                                  The latest realignment news between the Mountain West, the resurgent Pac 12, and the American is enough to keep your head spinning.

It looked like the Pac-12 was about to raid the American for as many as four teams between Memphis, Tulane, UTSA, and South Florida, making the Pac-12 the deepest conference among the soon-to-be Group of Six.

The American fought back and attempted to add Air Force from the Mountain West.

The AAC kept their four but Air Force decided to stay in the Mountain West and things were swinging the MWC's way after their remaining eight schools all agreed to remain in the league.

Then the Pac 12 took over with the surprising announcement that Utah State was jumping to their side only to sway back to the Mountain West when UNLV and Air Force agreed to stay under conditions that would see those two schools receive a larger piece of the monetary pie.

This leaves each league with seven football schools (the Mountain West needs eight full-time schools as Hawaii is football only) and needs to add members to reach the NCAA's requirement of eight.

The best solution might be to just merge everyone into one league, which they could have done to start but it seems there are plenty of hard feelings, so it's unlikely.

If the movement between the leagues has ended (and it only takes one to jump) and the AAC has cemented its roster, who would be left to fill these three slots to maintain NCAA viability?

When you look around, two schools that have been traditionally shunned by the Mountain West might be the best candidates.

UTEP was an original member of the WAC but when most of the WAC spun off into the newly created Mountain West, the Miners were left behind.

New Mexico State has always wanted to be in the league but in-state rival New Mexico has always managed to rebuff the Aggies efforts, this time they may not have a choice.

The other possibilities could add a school that would move up from 1-AA.

North Dakota State and South Dakota have won six of the last seven national championships and they may bring their rivals (North Dakota and South Dakota State) if a league wants to be larger.

Montana, Montana State, and Idaho would be nice fits for the Pac-12 with proximity to Oregon State, Washington State, and Boise State

Sacramento State and UC-Davis aren't quite as strong as the aforementioned two but adding two California schools would appeal to the Mountain West with only San Jose State remaining in their league.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out and which of the two (and the AAC) proves to be the best of Group of Six.

It's pretty close at this time but I'd give the edge to the Pac-12 with Oregon State, Washington State, and Boise State at the top.

Oregon State and Washington State are still using players recruited as a Power Five school, can they sustain that recruiting at the G-6 level?

Still, this is far from the conference lineup that we will see for 2026, and short of an iron-clad contractual agreement, it could be completely different ten years from now.

I Tell Ya' Herbie

      I Tell Ya' Herbie returns with a few thoughts from the world of college football.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            Those who announced the demise of Nick Saban and Alabama may worry that they were a bit premature.

The SEC West may not be the best division in college football this season as LSU cannot stop anyone on defense, Ole Miss has already fallen to the Crimson Tide, and Texas A&M continues to underachieve despite their lauded recruiting success with a loss to Bama this season as well.

Alabama may still lose to Georgia in the SEC title game but they look likely to win the West and get their chance at the Bulldogs after almost being written off after losing to Texas and struggling by South Florida.

I Tell Ya' Herbie: 

                            The Pac 12 is so loaded in its swan song season that you can find games to be excited about almost every week and that doesn't count the Oregon, Washington, and USC triad that is almost certain to provide one team for the CFP, and I wouldn't be stunned if it's two.

Oregon State, Washington State, UCLA, and Utah are all quality squads with the capability to upset any of the three powerhouses and even Arizona drove the Trojans of USC to overtime just last week.

Yet an argument could be made that the conference might be too strong and unless a conference champion finishes with only one loss, it's not out of the question that the Pac-12 could be left out in the cold.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             An under-the-radar team for the Group of Five spot in the New Year's Day Bowls is the Mountain West's Wyoming Cowboys.

Craig Bohl's Cowboys have upset Texas Tech in overtime in Laramie, gave Texas all that the Longhorn wanted in Austin, and last week, dumped undefeated conference favorite Fresno State 24-19 at home.

There is still a long way to go and Wyoming's next two games are on the road at Air Force and Boise State but should they win those two games, the Cowboys might be the favorite to win the NYD bowl slot at the end of October.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             Mario Cristobal is in only his second season with the Miami Hurricanes and considering his contract and status, Cristobal shouldn't be in any security issues as far as his job but the Miami loss to Georgia Tech is one of those losses that can linger for a long time and should Cristobal enter the hot seat eventually, the loss to the Yellow Jackets will certainly be mentioned.

In case you missed it, Miami has the ball on a third down on the Georgia Tech thirty-yard line with thirty-five seconds, the clock running, and Georgia Tech out of timeouts, Miami calls a running play rather than kneel down and allow the clock to expire.

Predictably, Miami fumbles and Georgia Tech recovers at their own twenty-five but still trails by three and has only twenty-five seconds without their timeouts.

Georgia Tech throws an incomplete pass followed by a completed pass to get to the Miami forty-four but the receiver couldn't get out of bounds, and Georgia Tech raced to the line of scrimmage to spike the ball, which they do with only ten seconds to go.

Miami allows a wide receiver to cut across the field with four defenders yards behind him to grab the ball and score easily for one of the most epic meltdowns that you'll ever see.

Hard to believe.

                           

Cleaning out the Inbox

    The inbox hasn't been overflowing in recent weeks even though it has been a while since I have cleaned it, so consider this an effort to keep things in order and not too full.

The Athletic writes of the soon-to-be-defunct Longhorn Network from its controversial beginning to a quiet ending at the end of the 2024 spring sports season.

Originally envisioned as a joint network between Texas and Texas A&M, the Aggies turned down the offer to be involved and chose to join the SEC.

The other members of the Big 12 thought the network would give Texas an advantage but it didn't pan out to be the money maker that Texas and ESPN thought it could develop.

The Longhorn Network will be absorbed into the SEC Network next year when Texas (and Oklahoma) make their move from the Big 12 to the SEC.

The Athletic appears with two more articles from their series that listed several articles about college football's realignment and how it has affected different schools in various ways.

Arguably, and that is being very kind, the worst decision by a conference over the thirty years since the beginning of conference shuffling has been the Big Ten's selection of Rutgers to join their league.

The Athletic's article states that not only is Rutgers to the Big Ten the worst move in that time but that it is even worse than most fans believe that it is!

The Rutgers athletic department runs at massive financial losses each year, the football program has a conference winning percentage of under .200 since arriving in the conference, and they have finished last in the Director's Cup, a competition that measures a school's performance in all sports, in the league in four of the last six years and have never finished above tenth place.

Add to that. the flawed premise that started Rutgers's entry that they would deliver the New York City market hasn't paid off and it's easy to see why the Big Ten might feel that they didn't get what they paid for.

The final article compares the struggles of the four former Southwest Conference schools that didn't make the Big 12 cut when the SWC was raided out of business to those of the four remaining Pac 12 schools following their own conference defections.

The SWC "leftovers" (Houston, Rice, SMU, TCU) as the article calls them each have their own hard road since the dissolution, and learning from their experience could help California, Oregon State, Stanford, and Washington State as they prepare for their own decisions on their future beyond the PAC 12.

The New York Times writes that the final remaining living player of the Brooklyn Dodgers' famous "Boys of Summer" Carl Erskine was recently awarded the Buck O'Neil award from the Baseball Hall of Fame for lifetime humanitarian achievement.

The ninety-six-year-old Erskine threw two no-hitters for the Dodgers, won 122 games, and his fourteen strikeouts in game three of the 1953 World Series set a then-series record.

SpaceNews makes the case that the first manned mission in the eventual return to the moon should be a return to the original landing spot- The Sea of Tranquility.

The NASA plan is to make several landings near the South Pole of the moon but this argument states that the Tranquility location has a lower risk for the initial return and it would be an opportunity to see the effect of fifty lunar years on the remaining items left from the Apollo 11 mission, as well as securing the site as a historical site.

I don't think it has much of a chance of being selected but I can see the logic in the debate.

Pac 12 Collapses! Oregon, Washington to Big 10

   The family picture to the left is suddenly outdated as "Black Friday" hit the Pac-12 conference in one day the elite conference in the Western United States lost five of its members as Oregon and Washington agreed to join the Big 10 and Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah decided to leave to become the newest additions to the Big 12.

These moves combined with USC and UCLA's Big 10 relocation to the Big 10 that was announced last year for a 2024 arrival and the recent decision of Colorado to defect to the Big 12 leaves the Pac 12 with only California, Oregon State, Stanford, and Washington State as members in good standing past the 2023-24 athletic season.

One of the requests by USC, when they joined the Big 10, was that Oregon not receive a future invitation to the league but clearly either the Trojans were pacified or reluctantly pushed into tolerating the Ducks entry into the conference.

I'm not sure if I'm thrilled with the Ducks and Huskies entering the Big 10 and while I do think it is ridiculous for travel and especially for the non-revenue sports, in the current climate it was a move that the Big 10 almost had to make.

The Pac-12's two most recent commissioners have made mistake after mistake with their television contracts and have basically sat the conference on a ticking time bomb that would eventually blow up.

I understand why the Big 10 wanted Oregon and Washington as the game continues down a path of two conferences that essentially separates the sport between North (Big 10) and South (SEC) with the Big 12 and ACC as fun lesser leagues with a few notable schools that can compete at the national level.

And while I don't either team will struggle in the Big Ten, I'm not sure that Washington will be more than a middle to occasional upper level such as Iowa in the league, I could see Oregon with their Nike money behind them becoming a top five league presence, although not perhaps a title contender every season.

It is a bit ironic that after dumping divisional play in the conference for next year, the Big 10 may have to return to divisions before they were even phased out.

Eighteen is a very clumsy number and doesn't fit well into a full league or schedule setup, so it is very possible the league could be forced into a two-division/nine-team alignment, which might be more to my liking anyway when you consider the four Pac 12 newcomers would bolster the western division.

My divisional setup;

East: Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers, Indiana, Purdue, Illinois

West: Wisconsin, Iowa, Northwestern, Minnesota, Nebraska, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington

I actually kinda like that and if you really wanted to make the Big 10 title game worthwhile, there is a way to do so.

Play eight games in your division and play the ninth against a team that finished in the same place as your team did in the previous season in the other division.

Or use the ninth game as a semi-final for the Big 10 title game with the other teams playing 3rd vs 3rd, 4th vs 4th, and so on.

Using this setup, only one rivalry would be lost (Illinois vs Northwestern) and if you really pushed creatively, you could make sure they played much as possible (perhaps making that game automatic, if the two teams were within two or three places of each other in the standings) and you would save the special aspect for the traditionalist, along with the different matchups on the next to last week of the season.

The Big Ten likely has an end game of twenty teams and while they would love the academic cache' that Stanford would bring, California would be a Rutgers-like drag on the conference, and taking both would also take away the long-term pining that eventually they would land Notre Dame.

As for the Big 12, well they did very well for themselves as they grabbed some gold for their league.

Utah brings a solid top-twenty program and returns their rivalry game with BYU to a conference battle,

Arizona offers an elite-level basketball school to what is arguably the best basketball conference in the country.

Arizona State is always thought of as a potential giant with the right coach and commitment and Colorado will add lots of attention as long as Deion Sanders is the coach there.

All four make the Big 12 stronger and while they lack a top-of-the-league power such as Clemson or potentially Florida State and Miami, what they possess is many schools with breakout potential and what I think is the most competitive league in the nation, top to bottom.

As for the remaining four Pac-12 schools, Oregon State and Washington State appear to be headed for the Mountain West unless the American decides to make a move but even so, the Mountain West is a better geographic fit with Boise State as a built-in immediate rival for both schools.

Hopefully, both schools will be able to keep their in-state rivalry games intact and it does seem that there is a willingness to do so.

Stanford and Cal are different cases.

Stanford as noted earlier would have some appeal to the Big 10 but not at the cost of adding Cal and I could see them trying out independence in hopes of the Big 10 adding down the road.

As for Cal, I could see Cal deciding to de-emphasize athletics and dropping down to a lower level or at least maybe 1-AA for football only. 

In neither of those schools, do I see them going to the Mountain West (academics) or the American (same and travel), if the Big 10 wanted them, a bid would have been offered already, and the Big 12 isn't a fit on many fronts.

The ACC could make sense in theory with Stanford and Cal academic-wise but just imagine the travel costs for those two schools.

Does the logistics of adding those two add up to being worth either party's while?

Only the grant of rights held by the ACC is holding that league together as the ACC would love North Carolina and Virginia with Georgia Tech, Miami, and Duke as possibilities and the SEC would covet Clemson, Florida State, and North Carolina, although I could see the SEC picking up N.C. State in the event that North Carolina would be unavailable.

The real certainty is that college football is changing to a national sport rather than a regional sport with occasional national interests and while the sport continues to evolve, its changes aren't going to stop anytime soon.

I tell ya' Herbie

I tell ya' Herbie returns with our weekly look at the college football world starts with a win that I didn't see coming and a look back with what proved to be a prescient thought.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                           I'll admit to being very surprised with Minnesota's victory over Penn State last week and I'll be even more surprised if P.J. Fleck's Gophers can survive Saturday's trip to Kinnick Stadium in what looks to be a trap game immediately after what could eventually be looked at as a program-defining win over the Nittany Lions.
However, you have to give P.J. Fleck credit for what he has been able to build at Minnesota.
How many times in the past under Glen Mason would Minnesota start 5-0 after rolling over three non-conference weak sisters and then eat a few bottom-dwellers before melting like a Kit Kat left in the car in their first test against a conference heavyweight?
Answer: Every Time.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          I saw this coming with P.J. Fleck dating all the way back to 2015 and I'm not talking about the ability to turn programs around.
In 2015, Fleck brought the Western Michigan Broncos to the Horseshoe in Columbus and I didn't know much about him as a coach, although I did remember that he had spent one season with Ohio State under Jim Tressel as a graduate assistant.
Fleck spent the game running up and down the sideline like a nut, screaming non-stop and I remember telling Ryan- "if this guy ever gets a Big Ten job, he's going to be very annoying'.
SHAZAM!!!

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          I know Iowa State's two-point attempt was stopped by Oklahoma with 24 seconds to go as the Cyclones played for the win on the road rather than kick an extra point to go to overtime, but I still love the mentality in going for the win by Matt Campbell's Cyclones.
In my mind, if you have a lesser team and especially if you are on the road, you go for the win in these situations.
The longer the game goes, the more likely that the more talented team will be able to win.
Unless the coach in question really blows the actual play call, I wouldn't criticize the coach that goes for the win,
Campbell's name continues to be a name in play after the job that he is doing in Ames with Iowa State with his name mentioned as a candidate at the two jobs already open for 2020 (Florida State and Arkansas) and as a dark horse at the biggest of them all at USC, should that position come open.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          I wrote a post on the mess at Arkansas with their firing of Chad Morris and the corner that the Razorbacks have put themselves in with their run of recent bad hires over the last ten years.
I intended to write a small blurb for " I tell ya' Herbie", but there were so many things to discuss on the Hogs that as I was writing the post that it easily grew into its own post.
I haven't heard anything about a leading candidate other than the possibility of Auburn's Gus Malzahn, but the surprising news that I have read is that so many fans want Bobby Petrino to return.
Petrino did lead the Razorbacks to their last strong seasons but considering Petrino's exit from Arkansas (fired for deceiving the school on finances that involved paying a far younger mistress in the athletic department) and Petrino's final year at Louisville (2-8 last season), I'd be surprised if Petrino would actually be given consideration.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          The Pac 12 is getting their fair share of publicity for potentially grabbing a playoff spot for their champion (assuming that it's the one-loss survivor of an Oregon-Utah title game) and that's a fair point, but what I find odd is the conference as a whole.
Entering today, other than Oregon and Utah, the remaining ten teams in the league have records no better than 6-4 (Washington and USC), no worse than 4-6 (Colorado) and the remaining seven teams are either 5-4 or 4-5.
On one hand, that is a remarkably balanced league that can arguably see any team beat any other, including Utah, who lost to USC in their only loss, but on the other hand, it could be looked at as a league filled with a bunch of mediocre teams that can play a large number of competitive games, but with few standouts.
For the Pac 12 to thrive and begin to attract more notice for their quality of play, one or two more schools are going to have to jump up to a higher level,
                         

Cleaning out the inbox-College Football

I am planning on a special post that I've been talking to different people for their perspectives yesterday and I wanted to finish it today, but I still feel that it needs refinement.

Hang in there and I hope to get that and the Ric Flair piece finished over the next few days.

Texas Tech and TCU have been conference rivals (SWC), not (Texas Tech was an expansion Big 12 member, TCU moved to the Mountain West first before receiving their Big 12 invitation), but haven't played for a trophy since 1970.
The Red Raiders and Horned Frogs decided to change that with the return of the Saddle Trophy for this year's game.
Why the return of the trophy? Because after playing for the saddle for years after the Red Raiders win in 1970, the trophy disappeared and hasn't been seen since.
I love trophy games when they come organically and aren't forced into existence, so the return here makes lots of sense.
TCU currently plays for the Iron Skillet against the SMU Mustangs, while Tech shares the Chancellor's Spurs trophy with the Texas Longhorns.

I recently mentioned that I've watched a lot more Pac 12 football this season and that I like watching their games for various reasons.
However, the league does have some problems that need fixing and Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury-News takes a swing with what he calls a radical solution and what I would say is an amazing and simple plan to address issues with the conference.
My only questions are these-Why haven't I heard of Wilner before this and how in the world hasn't the Pac 12 picked up the phone and called Wilner for some counsel?

David Briggs of the Toledo Blade writes of the poor attendance of the battle for I-75 earlier this week between the Toledo Rockets and Bowling Green Falcons and Briggs raises an excellent point- is the amount of money that the MAC receives from ESPN to play these November games on weekdays along with the exposure worth the hassle and lost attendance numbers to their fans?
It's a good question and for as much as I like being able to watch MAC football during the week, the deal with ESPN has to hit attendance hard and I wonder just how many high school recruits are sitting in their living rooms watching Central Michigan play Akron on a Wednesday night...

Awful Announcing writes that the Mountain West has issues with television as well in a different manner as their problem is with the late night starts to have their games televised to the East Coast.
The Pac 12 has been complaining about this as well, but their contract is far more substantial than that of the Mountain West and the MWC has to wonder (like the MAC) if the money that they bring in from ESPN and CBS Sports Network is worth the bother to their fans and the lost attendance.
The Mountain West contract still has three years to run, so they have time to figure things out.
It really is an intriguing issue to consider for Group of Five schools and one that affects the bottom line of schools that don't have nearly the budget of larger conference schools.

Another note on Bowling Green, which seems to be a program in flux under second-year head coach Mike Jinks.
Jinks had never been a head coach at any college level or even a coordinator when the Falcons selected him to replace Dino Babers, who left to go to Syracuse.
Jinks also seemed to be a questionable hire, having spent his entire coaching career in Texas, which meant no familarity with the Midwest and the main recruiting base for schools in the MAC.
I make no claims about the recruiting levels in the MAC, but that doesn't seem to be a recipe for a successful program and it'll be difficult to quickly turn things around for the next coach at those schools.
The MAC at its base is a transient league for head coaches as coaches that succeed there usually don't last long as they move to Power five jobs, but that has its issues as schools that hit the bottom of the league with a thud, not a bounce.
Bowling Green has had three of their last four head coaches move on to Power five jobs with success (Urban Meyer, Dave Clawson, and Babers) and the other (Gregg Brandon) was fired after six years with an overall winning record (44-30).
With one game to go in the season, Jinks is just 6-17 and even though two years isn't really long enough to judge competely, can a school with the tradition of Bowling Green afford to gamble on another a year or two after falling from 10-4 to possibly 2-10 ( with a possible loss in the season finale to Eastern Michigan) in just two years?
It'll be interesting to see if Jinks is given more time or if BG cuts their losses and looks elsewhere for the latest MAC coaching star...

Confessions...

I quite enjoyed Confessionals when I first wrote about this back in July and I thought it was time to revisit now.

Keep in mind some of these are things I haven't written/told about and others are general knowledge...

1) I'll be doing a Ric Flair piece this week on his 30 for 30, but here's a sneak peek- I was a little disappointed in it...

2) If anyone comes to town to visit me and wants to go out to eat at a place that they can't visit at home-I only have two non-chain staples.
Washington Chicken and Vince's Pizza.
Vince's isn't for the pizza (I know you have to be tired of hearing me rave about Ohio pizza) it's for the terrific burgers that they sell...

3) I go back and forth over the last 10-15 years on my favorite comedy (non-premium channel) between The Office and Parks and Recreation.
Love them both and seem to give one a hairline edge over the other-When I am watching that particular one.

4) If we are in one of those "pick to save the world" scenarios- I'll take Parks for just one reason.
They didn't have a bad season as the Office did in the next to last season when they force-fed James Spader in as the new CEO as "Robert California".
The season is fine when Spader isn't in it, but when he is- not so swift.

5) If you follow me on Twitter, you probably see me follow lots of different people from lots of different areas, but I'd guess if I had to guess on what the most "liked" topic was (in amount of liking other people's non-sports posts on my timeline), I'd wager it's actress Amy Acker.
This is because of the people that follow me from the days of "Person of Interest" television and their Acker pics on the timeline are always showing up.

6) As much as I like Acker, her new show "The Gifted" isn't doing much for me so far.
It's not bad, it's just not catching my interest in the way that a first-year show should.
It's too bad because I was really hoping to love it.

7) I know that you know that my favorite football conference is the Big 10 and you likely know that I see a lot of Boise State and Houston along with rooting for Bowling Green, but this year, I've really enjoyed the Pac 12.
I know their champion won't be in the title chase this year, but the games are generally fun to watch and almost anyone has a chance of beating anyone else.

8) It's been at least 15 years since I cared enough even to be mildly interested in pro wrestling, but my YouTube guilty pleasure is wrestling from the NWA in the 1980's.
Other than music and odd TV clips, the Crockett promotion is my YT winner for most often viewed.

9) I know I've been quoted as saying that the next big female star in sports television is going to be Olivia Harlan and she may very well be, but I've changed my mind- it's Laura Rutledge.
Rutledge sits in on Monday's and Tuesday's on the Paul Finebaum Show (I know what's a Big Ten guy watching an SEC show for, but it's entertaining and the BTN attempts at this type of show have been dreadful) and she's incredibly knowledgeable.
Rutledge is going to be a huge star in the football television game and she's so good that I wouldn't mind seeing her give play by play a shot someday,

10) I'm stretching my stadium radius farther than I ever thought possible (25 + new stadiums between 2016 & 2017) and it's to the point that there won't be too much more that I'll add in a given year.
So when I'm asked these questions- Which new place (within possibility) do you want to see most in 2018 and which place would I like to go back to most, I have to think about it.

Here goes;
I'm going to go with one place that is most realistic for 2018 and one that I want to do but is unlikely.
Kingsport, Tennessee is the most realistic as it can be done in a day (Albeit a very long day) and would complete the Appalachian League for me.
My most wanted and unlikely stop is a tie between Myrtle Beach South Carolina (I've visited the stadium, but not for a game) and Dayton, Ohio.
Myrtle Beach would complete the Carolina League for me, while Dayton would finish the state of Ohio, so both have appeal.

For the place that I liked so much that I would like to return to again, it's a three-way tie.
I really liked Buies Creek North Carolina, the autographing was great and it's only going to be used for one more season before the new stadium in Fayetteville North Carolina is up and ready for 2019.
I also really liked BB&T Ballpark in Winston-Salem North Carolina.
I didn't get to spend as much time there because we had to hit Danville VA that night, but I liked it enough that I'd like to spend more time there.
The main AAA field was Louisville, I just loved the stadium and even though I didn't get one card signed, the ballpark was great and I really liked the city.