Expanded playoff, super-sized conferences, losses of legendary coaches spotlight marketing campaign forward
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Howdy … expanded playoff, super-sized conferences and later-date title tilt.
So lengthy … Nick Saban, Khaki Pants and — already — FSU’s unbeaten season.
Wow! What a special panorama we’re with the 2024 NCAA soccer season kicking into full kind this week.
The Energy 5 is alive with so many modifications however wanting extra like a Energy 4, to be sincere.
That’s as a result of the Pac-12 has been picked aside, with 10 groups having been plucked from the once-proud West Coast league.
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Its 4 marquee applications — the Oregon Geese, the UCLA Bruins, the USC Trojans and the Washington Huskies — have relocated to the Huge Ten, which is now an 18-team monster.
Two others — the California Bears and the Stanford Cardinal — have taken their footballs to the ACC, which is now 17 sturdy and likewise consists of the addition of the SMU Mustangs from the American Athletic Convention.
And 4 extra — the Utah Utes, the Arizona Wildcats, the Colorado Buffaloes and the Arizona State Solar Devils — have joined the Huge 12, which is now comprised of 16 faculties.
That’s left simply two crews within the Pac-12 — the Oregon State Beavers and the Washington State Cougars — to fend for themselves in a convention left for useless.
In the meantime, the much-hyped transfer of the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners is now full, with these two Huge 12 powers set to open up play within the SEC this season. That brings that league as much as 16 sides, as effectively.
And what awaits all of them is a brand new 12-team format within the Faculty Soccer Playoff. Meaning a rise from two to 4 rounds of bracket ball, with the eventual NCAA king to be topped after three or 4 playoff wins on Monday, Jan. 20 — the most recent date ever for a championship recreation.
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It’s all so very totally different — and unusual.
SECOND DOWN
The primary spherical of the 12-team bracket is a pre-Christmas four-pack (Dec. 20-21), involving the squads ranked fifth by means of twelfth by the CFP committee after the 17-week common season wraps up. The subsequent spherical — the quarterfinals — are set for New 12 months’s Eve and New 12 months’s Day, with the 4 top-ranked groups slotting in to play the winners of the first-round tilts. Then it’s the semifinals on Jan. 9-10 main as much as the championship finale 10 days later at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta … With a dozen groups now making the playoff, it means one dangerous recreation received’t essentially sink a faculty’s probabilities of scoring the nationwide title. That’s good. Additionally good is we’re going to doubtless see a couple of two-loss groups within the CFP combine, together with these — comparable to Penn State, NC State and North Carolina — who’ve eternally been plundered by the powerhouses round them. These sides can lastly discover their approach to the massive dance even when they do get bullied in convention motion. And that’s good, too … However the not-so-good is it does look like the powerhouses — today being Georgia, Alabama, Michigan and Ohio State — are already locked into the playoff, given there’s loads of room for error. And that’s no enjoyable for anybody.
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THIRD DOWN
That stated, groups can’t chill out an excessive amount of. Have a look at what’s already occurred to No. 10 Florida State (0-1) — the pre-season favorite to win the expanded ACC. It suffered a Week 0 24-21 upset by the hands of Georgia Tech (1-0) in Eire for its first regular-season loss since 2022 and is already in a gap. That already offers the CFP committee, which robbed good FLA ST of a final-four berth final yr, a straightforward out to maintain Mike Norvell’s bunch from this yr’s playoff … Significantly, although, the 12-team bracket means an early season loser isn’t as far behind the 8-ball. However perhaps that takes a little bit of shine away from ranked-v.-ranked affairs, that are not do-or-die … Week 1 video games has three of these premier-type video games — No. 1 Georgia (0-0) vs. No. 14 Clemson (0-0) on Saturday (midday ET, ABC/TSN), No. 7 Notre Dame (0-0) vs. No. 20 Texas A&M (0-0) on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC/TSN2), and No. 23 USC (0-0) vs. No. 13 LSU (0-0) on Sunday (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC/TSN2) … What’s Alabama going to appear to be now that Nick Saban has retired, taking with him his wonderful 292-71-1 document with the six-time champ? New ’Bama head coach Kalen DeBoer — you’ll keep in mind him from nationwide finalist Washington final yr — is actually no slouch … Jedd Fisch lands within the Pacific Northwest from Arizona to take over for DeBoer at UDub, which isn’t even within the AP Prime 25 pre-season ballot.
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FOURTH DOWN
So lastly Texas is a top-of-the-heap workforce once more. However with this transfer to the SEC comes a complete new set of challenges threatening to knock that program again down the ladder. Steve Sarkisian’s squad is going through Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and Texas A&M as a substitute of the likes of Baylor, Kansas, Texas Tech and West Virginia. Sorry, Huge 12, there’s a large distinction. Three losses within the SEC is straightforward to search out … Identical goes for fellow switch Oklahoma … It’s gotta be Ohio State’s yr, proper? Jim ‘Khaki Pants’ Harbaugh has left the faculty ranks, leaving Michigan way more depleted than simply its lack of graduated champs, comparable to QB J.J. McCarthy and RB Blake Corum. And Ohio State gained scoring whiz Chip Kelly as its offensive coordinator, after he surprisingly left the head-coaching put up at UCLA … Sherrone Moore, who ran Huge Blue for a great chunk of final yr when Harbaugh was suspended for Stalions-gate, is the brand new head man at Michigan … Maintain your eyes — and ears — on: No. 11 Missouri (0-0) amongst contenders — that’s a bizarre one; Heisman Trophy-frontrunner QB Dillon Gabriel main No. 4 Oregon (0-0) in a bid to win the Huge Ten after leaving No. 16 Oklahoma (0-0); QB Cam Rising again at full well being at age 25(!) to helm No. 12 Utah (0-0); and a ‘gun tradition’ at Colorado (0-0), the place coach Deion Sanders has a revolving door with 43 new transfers into the daring program that may’t be good for chemistry. Is it ‘Prime Time’ or ‘Crime Time’ in Boulder? Keep tuned.
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AP TOP 25
Rank Group (final week) File
1. Georgia (1) 12-0
2. Ohio State (10) 11-2
3. Oregon (6) 12-2
4. Texas (3) 12-2
5. Alabama (5) 12-2
6. Ole Miss (9) 11-2
7. Notre Dame (14) 10-3
8. Penn State (13) 10-3
9. Michigan (1) 15-0
10. Florida State (6) 13-1
11. Missouri (8) 11-2
12. Utah (NR) 8-5
13. LSU (12) 10-3
14. Clemson (20) 9-4
15. Tennessee (17) 9-4
16. Oklahoma (15) 10-3
17. Oklahoma State (16) 10-4
18. Kansas State (18) 9-4
19. Miami (NR) 7-6
20. Texas A&M (NR) 7-6
21. Arizona (11) 10-3
22. Kansas (23) 9-4
23. USC (NR) 8-5
24. NC State (21) 9-4
25. Iowa (24) 10-4
NR — not ranked
GAME TO WATCH
#14 CLEMSON @ #1 GEORGIA (-13.5)
Saturday, midday ET, in Atlanta, ABC/TSN
Georgia has some ’splaining to do after falling in need of one other title final yr, and Clemson’s merely falling now.
PICK: GEORGIA
BEST BETS
(-3) #19 MIAMI @ FLORIDA
Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET, ABC
Everybody’s alive about Miami once more. The Swamp ought to kill that.
PICK: FLORIDA
#7 NOTRE DAME @ #20 TEXAS A&M (-3)
Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET, ABC/TSN2
Who’s the higher workforce? Actually not ever-underachieving A&M.
PICK: NOTRE DAME
BOSTON COLLEGE @ #10 FLORIDA STATE (-16.5)
Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET, TSN2
Norvell & Co. get proper shortly after that Week 0 drop in Dublin.
PICK: FLORIDA STATE
2023 RECORD: 28-26-2
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