#1- Texas is ranked number one in the country and plays at THE Ohio State next Saturday. THE Ohio State is ranked number three, but the Las Vegas Bookies have the Buckeyes favored by 2.5 points at this time. So there must be some points allowed for home field advantage, or the Bookies believe they know more than the Newspaper voters.
#2- This is our beloved amateur college football. Playing for a scholarship and room, and board. Archie Manning, Texas Quarterback, is allegedly being paid somewhere between $6M to $8M this year for NIL, the famous Name, Image, Likeness payments. And Manning has started a grand total of two games for the Longhorns.
#3- And the coaches. They work for the love of the “game” and their desire to help young men become complete. Kirby Smart, the University of Georgia head coach, will be paid $13,282,580.00 this year, and many other coaches make over $10,000,000.00. (According to AI, the governor of Georgia is paid $175,000.00 per year.)
#4- But the amazing thing to me is the buyouts of their contracts: Smart’s buyout is said to be $118,083,333.00. USC’s buyout with current coach Lincoln Riley is rumored to be between $88M and $90M. $118M, $90M, and we are talking some real money.
#5- USC’s record last year was 6 wins and 6 losses. And for the first time in many years, it is not ranked in the Top 25. Texas is ranked number one in the country, and their coach is Steve Sarkisian, a former coach at USC. And the University of Mississippi is ranked 15th in the ESPN poll, and their coach is Lane Kiffin, also a former coach at USC.
#6- UCLA is not in the top 25 in the preseason polls. They did not get any votes to be listed in the other receiving votes group. Liberty, James Mason, and Toledo are listed as receiving votes, so they are ranked higher than the Bruins. UCLA has won one National Championship (They shared it with Ohio State). How long ago? I was a teaching assistant at the school working on my Master’s Degree, so that must have been 71 years ago. That was a while ago.
#7- The other Division One schools in California, such as Stanford, Berkeley, San Diego, and Fresno State, did not receive any votes and therefore would be out of the Top 49. Yet, I hear that Mater Dei, St. John Bosco, Corona Centennial, Mission Viejo, Concord de La Salle, Orange Lutheran, Santa Margarita, and other CA high schools are ranked as top schools by every rating service. In one reputable rating service, Mater Dei and St. John Bosco are number one and two nationally. Seems like the good high school players must go to the SEC and the BIG TEN.
#8- Anyone who has attended one of my seminars knows that I graduated from Indiana University. We were not a football factory. Just checked, and in the four years that I was there, we won 9 games with a high of three games one year. You can see why we Hoosiers were so excited last year when we won 11 games. And we should have won the other two.
#9- Have to say a few words about the starting time of games. TV controls Sports. I will be watching the Texas/THE Ohio State game at 9:00 AM on the 30th. Then, there is the UCLA game at 8:00 PM. That is late. I live in Southeast Orange County. If I went to that game and stayed until the bitter end, I would be getting home about 2 o’clock in the morning. And for many games later in the year, there are no times announced. They wait until the TV networks make their picks. Try to plan a party when you do not know the time the game will start. All games should start at 2:00 PM for the home team on Saturday afternoon. That is college football.
#10- One final thought: How many teams are in the Big Ten Conference? The current count at this time is 18. Trivia questions for you footballers. Who are the eight teams added? Easy, Cornhuskers, Nittany Lions, Scarlet Knights, Terrapins, Bruins, Trojans, Huskies, and the Ducks.
See you for the Rose Bowl this year, when the game will be between Liberty and Toledo and start at 4 in the morning.
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