Welcome to Oz, college football style.

Players have “handlers” coming out of high school. They want to know, “how much, how much, how much.” It is making recruiting a totally different beast.

Schools like Oregon are not only offering a winning product, but also the biggest bag. The Ducks have taken over California recruiting from USC, who is not dropping as much cash and is offering whatever that product is Lincoln Riley is putting on the field.

Ohio State made it known money would not be an object in loading up their roster this offseason. As for Georgia, Alabama, and the other SEC powers, I just assume they have been paying players for years.

More schools are finding ways to wrangle up enough money to get, at least, a few good players.

Coaches are cashing in these days, too. Three years ago, James Franklin parlayed USC’s possible interest in him into a rather healthy raise at Penn State, where he continues to lose to Ohio State. USC lured Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma instead. Riley is making 10 million dollars per year, has access to a private jet, and lives in a literal mansion along the ocean in Palos Verdes. He gets all that to go 5-9 in his last 14 games.

Schools certainly aren’t getting left behind in this new land of Oz. Billions are being made, courtesy of the new TV contracts. Penn State is making what will possibly end up being a billion dollar renovation to Beaver Stadium. USC is building a new football training facility and adding more practice fields to the tune of 70 million dollars.

Clearly Oz has enough money to go around, even though the players are being made out to be the villains. In reality, the adults’ greed is what pushed us to this new land of disenchantment. In 2009, Ed O’Bannon filed a lawsuit stating players name, image, and likeness should not be used without compensation. The adults fought the simplistic NIL rule, not having the foresight of what it would lead to. Oz.

Meanwhile, the transfer portal has totally changed the landscape of college football. More and more, good players or forgotten players are moving on to new teams that will better value their abilities. Players from smaller schools are stepping up in level to prove they were more than good enough to play at the higher level.

Indiana is 7-0, and the Hoosiers and their, dare I say, cocky new head coach, Curt Cignetti, are built largely out of the portal. Players most fans have never heard of have blended to create a formidable team.

Indiana is just one example of the parity we are dealing with in 2024.

Parity at the top. Parity in the middle. Parity everywhere.

At the end of the year you will have a lot of team A beat team B and team C but lost to team D who in turn beat team B but lost to team C scenarios. That is great for college football fans, but maybe not so great for the playoff committee.

I am convinced the committee has a certain number in mind for SEC and Big Ten playoff teams. All of this parity may throw a wrench in that plan. SEC commissioner, and resident promotional artist, Greg Sankey is seizing on the parity by suggesting his conference could get as many as eight teams in the playoffs.

Please, Greg. Go back in your hole.

There are many problems in this new landscape. However, one of the problems we all expected was to have the top teams with loaded rosters while the SMU’s and BYU’s of the world would get left behind. At least for one year, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

In the Big Ten, while USC and Michigan are dying a slow death, Indiana and Illinois are rising. If Indiana wins the games they are favored in, the Hoosiers will finish 11-1 and be almost assured a playoff berth.

The SEC has no unbeaten teams. Alabama has two losses and is lucky not to have more. Yet the Tide beat Georgia, as they always seem to do. Georgia lost that game and looked shaky in others. Then the Dawgs go into Austin and handle the number one Texas Longhorns. LSU lost to USC, which essentially ended the Trojans season. Then the Tigers got on a roll and are in position for a playoff spot. Mississippi already has two losses after being a preseason top 5 team. Tennessee beat Alabama after losing to Arkansas and needing overtime to beat Florida. Texas A&M is the forgotten team in the SEC. The Aggies will have a really good shot at only losing one more game. Even Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and South Carolina have stepped up. 

The Big 12 is a total mess of parity, with Iowa State and BYU being surprise undefeated teams. Utah and Arizona were two of the preseason favorites, but have basically fallen completely out of contention. You know who is still in contention? Coach Prime and his Colorado Buffs. The other preseason favorite, Kansas State, is still lurking. Good luck trying to predict the outcome of games in this parity filled conference.

Yes, parity has also hit the ACC. Cal is 0-4 in conference, but was one terrible non call away from beating the sixth ranked team in the country, Miami. Virginia Tech was supposed to be a contender and may still be if not for another curious call that went Miami’s way in their contest. Florida State was supposed to be a playoff contender, but instead is deciding when they should fire head coach Mike Norvell. The Seminoles are 1-6. Flip that coin over and we have two overachievers at the top of the ACC. SMU and Pitt were supposed to be middle of the road teams, but sit undefeated in league play. Oh, and Clemson was left for dead after their opening trouncing by Georgia. Now, Clemson may be the favorite to win the ACC.

Even Notre Dame hasn’t escaped the wrath of parity. The Irish only blemish is a home loss to Northern Illinois. Be careful Golden Domers, as parity has brought Army and Navy to undefeated records. Both are on the Notre Dame schedule.

Will parity continue to reign supreme? For this year we have no reason to think otherwise. The talent is more spread out around the country thanks to the portal and NIL. It is great for college football fans, as many more games are worth watching this year. Games that in the past were blowouts are now toss ups.

The other thing that is making parity a reality is the larger conferences are forcing more good teams to play other good teams. So instead of one or two tough games on the schedule, now there are three, four, or five tough games. Just ask Georgia, who used to only play one or two difficult games per year. This year Georgia plays Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Clemson.

Sure, some of the same names litter the top ten. Most have blemishes already, with more possibly to come. And the days of weekly blowouts seem to be coming to an end. This year, for every Ohio State blowout of Michigan State there are two, three, or more Penn State/USC, Vandy/Bama, Arkansas/Tennessee, Mississippi/Kentucky, etc.

There is no doubt regulations to the current NIL/portal era are desperately needed. If you think football is bad, check out basketball where some teams literally have an entirely new roster from the year before. In the vein of every cloud has a silver lining, this new system may have created a world of parity nobody saw coming.

Teams can be built quickly. That is the reason USC fans are ready to run Lincoln Riley out of LA and why Indiana fans are already prepared to build a statue for Curt Cignetti. The portal provides playing opportunity for far more good, players who normally would have been sitting on a great team’s bench.

It is the perfect storm. Heck, James Franklin may even be able to win a title. Then what will Penn State fans complain about. Indiana could go 11-1. Indiana! Vanderbilt beat Alabama and drowned their own goal posts.

This sure ain’t Kansas anymore.

Welcome to the land of Oz, where parity reigns supreme.

Two Cent Takes

College Football

~What does the committee do with a 1 loss Pitt or BYU or Iowa State or Indiana when weighing them against a 2 or 3 loss SEC team? Interesting times ahead.

~From now on, fans should apparently throw stuff on the field when their team gets a bad call. In Texas Saturday night it got the bad call overturned.

 

 

~Georgia coach Kirby Smart was not amused.

 

 

~USC lost in the last minutes to Maryland. Maryland. After beating LSU in Vegas, Lincoln Riley has allowed a promising season to swirl around the toilet bowl. He has not recruited well, causing the Trojans to be limited on the lines of scrimmage and to have no depth. He cannot manage a game while still calling plays. He calls lousy plays. The Trojans are fourth in pass attempts per game despite being a really good running team. It is a mess in LA, and most fans have lost confidence in Riley’s ability to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

~Not an easy task, but it’s time for another edition of my Two Cent Top Ten:

  1. Oregon
  2. Ohio State
  3. Georgia
  4. Texas
  5. Penn State
  6. Tennessee
  7. LSU
  8. Clemson
  9. Miami
  10. Indiana

MLB

~Richy Rich vs Mr. Monopoly in the World Series. No thanks. I am not remotely interested. Baseball always finds a way to show how broke it is.

~A lone Pirates fan fighting the good fight sitting in them right spot in Cleveland.

 

 

NFL

~Detroit is really good; the 49ers are not.

~The entire NFC North is good; the NFC South is not.

~Washington is stunningly good; the New York Giants are typically bad.

~Shocker: Kansas City is the last undefeated team.

~The Ravens are really good; Derrick Henry is an absolute beast.

~Tampa Bay lost both of their starting receivers, potentially for the year. Once again this year, someone will be forced to win the NFC South.

~The referees were typically on their game again this week. This was called leverage on Minkah Fitzpatrick. It was nonsense.

 

 

~In a twist not many saw coming, Aaron Rodgers eats boogers. Probably gets away with that in his dark space.

 

 

The Weekly Shiny Penny

The reason I became a Steelers fan was Lynn Swann making acrobatic catches. I soon realized the guy on the other side of the field, John Stallworth, was pretty darn good, too. Sunday night the Steelers honored the 1974 Super Bowl team upon its 50th anniversary. It sure did bring back great memories.

 

 

 

 

A Penny For My Final Thought…

I called it in this very space a week ago.

Mike Tomlin listened.

Sunday night the Pittsburgh Steelers played their best, most complete game since November of 2020.

The defense got some turnovers and held the over talked about combo of Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams in check.

 

 

The special teams blocked a kick —actually two but the refs made a bad penalty call on the other.

 

 

They had a 100 yard rusher who became a Yinzer for a few minutes after this touchdown.

 

 

Complete. Game.

Oh, I forgot the most important part.

The Pittsburgh Steelers had a professional quarterback take snaps for the first time in four years.

Russell Wilson will have some clunkers along the way. He is 36 years old and his best days are behind him. He is not the future, but he is the now, and that is all that matters, well, um now.

Over the last half decade, Steelers fans have suffered through a severely hobbled Ben Roethlisberger, Mason Rudolph, Kenny Pickett, Mitchell Trubisky, and Justin Fields. Fields went 4-2 as the starter this year. His legs are his biggest asset. That simply isn’t a professional quarterback.

Mike Tomlin knows that fact. That is why he did as I had hoped, and he made a change at quarterback. Tomlin was ridiculed on every sports talk show. Fans were puzzled and complained. When Wilson got off to a slow start, fans in the seats at Acrisure Stadium booed mightily. Even my friends texted that Fields would have done this or that and Tomlin should switch back before it is too late.

Patience grasshoppers.

Wilson had not played a meaningful snap since last year, so he was bound to be a bit rusty. I called for them to have him throw one deep to Pickens to loosen him up. Three plays later Wilson launched an arcing bomb to Pickens, who leapt high to make the grab. A weight was lifted, and Russell Wilson took charge of the team and the game.

 

 

Russell Wilson has his warts, but he also has a Super Bowl ring. He is a professional. He struggled and talked his way out of Seattle, then was very pedestrian in Denver. The Denver situation was accentuated by the media because offensive guru Sean Payton couldn’t get more from Wilson. The thing is, Payton is the most overrated coach of the last 20 years. Maybe it wasn’t all Wilson.

Sunday night the team looked more organized, with Wilson controlling the cadence like a pro. He got mountain of a man Darnell Washington involved, threw to six different receivers, and did the most important thing for the offense. Russell Wilson treated George Pickens like the number one receiver he is. Pickens was targeted 9 times, catching 5 for 111 yards and a touchdown. Throws down the field are exactly what this offense was missing. Fields just didn’t seem to have the confidence to make such throws.

Sunday night was the first game the Steelers had 5 or more plays of 30+ yards since 2015. The37 points is the most the team has scored since 2020. It has been a minute since the offense looked like this.

The Steelers are one win from being where I said they needed to be at their bye week. The schedule gets exponentially more difficult after the bye, but it would seem the Steelers may be in better position to weather that part of the schedule.

The Steelers have their first real professional quarterback in the last four years. Russell Wilson gives the Steelers the best chance at success. Mike Tomlin sensed that and made a difficult decision as he acknowledged in his post game presser as only Mike Tomlin can.

 

 

The Steelers now have two quarterbacks that have proved they can win games. Nobody knows how the rest of the season will play out, but it would appear Mike Tomlin may be sick of losing playoff games. Tomlin is always going to do things his way, but is it possible he has realized the standard is the standard?

What say you, Coach?

 

 

Just my two cents…