Georgia leads AP Top 25 preseason poll

  In unsurprising news, the Associated Press’ preseason Top 25 is led by Georgia, ahead of Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama and LSU. USC, Penn State, Florida State, Clemson and Washington round out the Top 10. In all, there are 6 SEC, 5 Pac-12, 5 B1G, 4 Big 12, 3 ACC as well as Notre Dame, and, er, Tulane. In a bigger statement, Yahoo Sports pointed out that all of the Top 7 will be in the SEC or B1G next year. Surprisingly, Texas is the top team in the Big 12 at 11. We thought they’d be higher. Here is the complete list. 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Ohio State 4. Alabama 5. LSU 6. USC 7. Penn State 8.

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Is Alabama’s opener with Missouri in jeopardy?

This College Football season has already had a few highlights. We’ve had the return of Miami’s Turnover Chain, revamped and restudded (Miami’s also 2-0, so people are already saying: “IS MIAMI BACK?” (Clue: Yes, until they play Clemson and get beat by 40). There’s the laughter at the Big 12, who seem to be embarrassing themselves at every opportunity. There’s the Big Ten, who have managed to put the train back on the tracks, and frankly, we can’t wait until their match-ups start at the end of October, because More College Football. But there have also been the cancellations or postponements. There’s COVID-19 cases and contact tracing and schools scurrying to make sure that all hell doesn’t break loose. Baylor

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How do you keep players ‘in the bubble’?

  Right, so keeping players in the bubble’s going to be tough. It’s pretty obvious that the kids who are going back to school think that just because they passed a COVID test between March and now that they aren’t ever gonna get the plague, so they are gonna hang out, drink and do dumb stuff, because they are students. Football players aren’t different, particularly with all the distractions. And no, we ain’t talking about studies, since a lot of college football players wouldn’t be in college if it wasn’t for football. Hell, it’s a miracle most of them got through high school. A great friend of mine was pursuing the sort of lifestyle that would have made Hunter S Thompson proud

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SEC, ACC: No plans to scrap college football

The SEC and ACC have both said that they have no plans to quash their college football plans after the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences said that they are cancelling fall football. B SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement: “I look forward to learning more about the factors that led the Big Ten and Pac-12 leadership to take these actions today. I remain comfortable with the thorough and deliberate approach that the SEC and our 14 members are taking to support a healthy environment for our student-athletes. We will continue to further refine our policies and protocols for a safe return to sports as we monitor developments around COVID-19 in a continued effort to support, educate and care

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The Terminator Chronicles: Big Ten/Pac-12 edition

August 11, 2020, the Big Ten and the Pac-12 fired the first missiles. After arguing as to whether the fall college football season should be delayed or not, the conference decided that that was it: They were cancelling fall football. There were words of players practicing at Nebraska and Iowa. There was a sense of hope that everything could get sorted with a player-pushed protest. News of all but Iowa and Nebraska deciding to resist came through yesterday, but they had said there wasn’t a vote. There was. And the red button was pushed. But now, there will be no Game. There will be no bitter battles for weird jugs, trophies and helmets. We won’t be able to jump around, white out,

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Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC are moving to Conference-only games

And so the dominos continue to fall. According to multiple media sources, the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 have all decided that they will play a nine-game conference-only season It is an effort to cut down the season and make it work, as well as give schools some wiggle-room if there an outbreak of COVID-19 on teams and campuses. For the SEC a bunch of non-conference games will be affected, including (sadly), Clemson vs South Carolina, Georgia vs Georgia Tech, Louisville vs Kentucky and Florida State vs Florida. Notre Dame have been told that the ACC will accommodate Notre Dame in its own schedule. For the Big Ten the biggest match-ups being lost are Notre Dame’s game with Wisconsin, Penn

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Is LSU really the third best team in the SEC? Week 8 Rankings

LSU suddenly look as though it has something to make its fans excited about. After the Troy disaster, the Tigers have won three straight (Florida, Auburn and Ole Miss), and even Danny Etling does not look as bad as Gary Danielson makes him out to be (some people think Gary Danielson’s better than WE think he is). But are the Tigers the third best team in the SEC? It’s between them at Texas A&M. A&M was on a bye week, but with LSU’s road victory – albeit an Ole Miss team that is inept at stopping the run, they move up to third. Auburn’s also pretty good, too. So here you are. Alabama: Nick Saban will probably be yelling at backup

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Can Tennessee survive Alabama? Week 8 SEC Predictions

We’re going to make a massive prediction this week and tell you that someone might make a comment about Philip Fulmer when Tennessee comes to Tuscalossa. Apart from that, this – on paper – isn’t a wildly interesting slate with Auburn going to Arkansas, LSU going to Ole Miss, Kentucky going to Mississippi State, and Idaho visiting Missouri. So here are the games in the level of interesting: Auburn (-15.5) vs Arkansas: If things were going to be smooth for Bret Bielema and Arkansas this season, things suddenly became a lot less smooth when it was reported that Bielema’s buyout was in fact $5.9 million NOT the $15 million as earlier thought. That’s a hell of a jump. Apparently, a reporter

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After the mayhem of Week 7, Auburn and Tennessee fans are unhappy

After the unbridled craziness of Week 7 (see Clemson, Washington and Washington State all getting upset) Alabama and Georgia still rule the SEC. While Alabama rolled, it wasn’t the most convincing of performances from Georgia, who only woke up in the second half of their game against Missouri. Elsewhere, Auburn blew a 20-pt lead on a horribly hot day at LSU and really, really pissed off their fanbase in the process (To LSU fans, ‘Coach O’ is now God), the Tennessee soap opera continued with a 15-9 home loss to South Carolina in one of the ugliest games you’ll ever see, while Texas A&M now like Kevin Sumlin again after the Aggies won by 2 points in an electrifying atmosphere

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What conferences need from their teams to get in the play-off

We love college football because of the passion. We love college football because of the tailgates. We love college football because it’s the chance to see old college buddies again, cheer the team on, and have a brew or seven two. We love college football because anyone beats anyone, anytime. But the SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 don’t need parity. They need their good teams going as far as possible to give them the biggest chance to get into the country’s worst-timed play-off…..The College Football Play-Off. So here’s what each conference will need to maximise their needs…. SEC The SEC would be really, really happy if Alabama and Georgia met in the SEC Championship Game unbeaten. That would

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