The Open Man countdowns to the 2018 college football season with 129 — in honor of the 129 programs participating in the Football Bowl Subdivision this year — things we love (and some we hate) about the sport. Click the 129 Things tag to see every entry. The College Football Playoff sucks. OK, that's not entirely true;…
Disappointment resonated in the tone with which Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton spoke to the small gathering of reporters around him outside of the Seminoles locker room in Los Angeles' Staples Center. His team came one game, four points, shy of reaching college basketball's Promised Land, the Final Four. And yet, despite the disappointment,…
UCF’s Peach Bowl defeat of Auburn capped the only perfect season in the FBS in 2017, punctuated the sheer stupidity of the Knights ending the regular season at No. 12. After not factoring into the College Football Playoff conversation whatsoever, UCF scored a win in some ways identical to the seminal Sugar Bowl that helped…
LOS ANGELES -- A single play does not shape a 12-win college football regular season on its own. Georgia wide receiver Terry Godwin is the first to stress that point. "It's just another play in a game," Godwin said of the catch. Now, if you know anything about the No. 3 Bulldogs' run to the Rose…
SANTA CLARA -- USC entered into its Pac-12 Championship Game matchup with No. 12 Stanford ranked 10th. Forget the College Football Playoff, a gridiron version of the Final Four -- sitting at No. 10 wouldn't land the Trojans in an Elite Eight. But after a 31-28 win to claim the program's first conference title since…
For the past five weeks or so -- essentially since Washington State beat USC, TCU topped Oklahoma State and Iowa State stunned Oklahoma -- the the Pac-12 and Big 12 appeared the Power Five conferences most likely headed for College Football Playoff exclusion. And, indeed, the path for a representative from either conference remains treacherous,…
Predicting or projecting the College Football Playoff final four with half the season played is a fool’s errand. And there are plenty of fools – apologies, fellow scribes – willing to run that errand. The carnage from this weekend is evidence enough that college football is our favorite sweetheart because she is so damn unpredictable.…
When the College Football Playoff announced plans to hold national semifinals on New Year's Eve, Bill Hancock promised to create "a new paradigm" for the holiday. A plummet in television ratings in Year 2 of the Playoff, and the first with New Year's Eve semis, forced the committee to immediately shift back. The Game Ball…
I am not pleased with the College Football Playoff, though not for the reasons bounced around the echo chamber for the last few weeks. Yes, the Playoff's second installment featured some abysmal semifinals, but that's not my concern. Neither is a dip in TV ratings. These are simply root causes of a more troubling element…
Plenty of outlets are peddling a College Football Playoff championship preview, but only CFB Huddle can offer you a cold sixer to go along with your national title breakdown. The Saturday 6-Pack goes out in a blaze of Playoff glory before officially goes dormant until next September. Sad times here at CFB Huddle HQ. But…
Stanford head coach David Shaw may have summarized Playoff hysteria best, saying "media...sit and stew and look for somebody to blame." With the Pac-12 perhaps eliminated from a spot in the tournament, the conference's 9-game league schedule became an immediate and easy target for blame despite evidence to the contrary. Internal groundswell against the Pac-12…
Anarchy! Chaos! Welcome to another week of college football, and welcome to another round of projections for the College Football Playoff ranking. Four of last week's Top 10 lost in Week 11: No. 6 Baylor, No. 7 Stanford, No. 9 LSU and No. 10 Utah. Of the four, only Baylor lost to a ranked opponent.…
The second College Football Playoff ranking drops today at 7 p.m. ET. It's hardly March Madness Selection Sunday, but I'm still geeked. A few noteworthy teams I anticipate being left out of the top 10 are Michigan State, Utah and North Carolina, all of which sport losses to teams well outside of the Playoff conversation.…
LAS VEGAS - One sentence uttered at Mountain West media days may best crystallize popular sentiment for College Football Playoff expansion. "All we want is a chance." That's how San Diego State head coach Rocky Long summarized the Mountain West's place in the college football landscape, and Long said the only way it or any…
It's just early June, but the release of the 2015 season's New Year's Six Kickoff times on Tuesday should give you a jump-start on planning your holiday. The Peach Bowl gets the New Year's Six started for a second consecutive season, while coming campaign's College Football Playoff semifinals are slated for Dec. 31 to accommodate…
