While all the hype will be focused on the Power Five Conferences, the non-power five are scratching, clawing and grinding for the opportunity to get some respect of their own. There are other conferences that are looking to shake up the foundation of College Football Playoff picture right out of the gate.
As we approach the 2023-24 NCAA football season, all eyes are on the University of Georgia. The Bulldogs are the 2-time defending National Champions. Last season, they were undefeated. The season before that, their only loss was in the 2021 SEC Championship Game, against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Big Ten Head Coach and Northwestern Wildcat General Pat Fitzgerald began serving the terms of his 2 week suspension Friday after allegations for hazing violations were verified. The long tenured head coach (being with the program since 2006) said in an official statement:
This upcoming college football season will feature a final curtain call for some, but it will also feature a curtain call to the old CFP format of the Final Four. After getting approved prior to the National Championship, this year will mark the end of four as the CFP will be expanded starting in 2024 to 12 teams.
LSU has been on a roll with winning national championships in women’s basketball and now baseball also. Let’s go back to during women’s March Madness when the LSU women basketball team won the national championship and they are known for doing a gesture with the ring finger showing people that they got a ring.
On April 6, 2023, the Michigan Wolverines would play in their NCAA leading 27th Frozen Four in Tampa. Hopes were high as Michigan fielded an NHL laden roster, with the Hobey Baker Award winner and an offense that lead the NCAA in scoring. Michigan fans, myself included, were eager to show our support and felt confident that we would get a rematch of the Big Ten Championship with Minnesota (Michigan won 4-3).
The Louisiana State University Tigers were celebrating a monumental occasion on April 2nd, as they won their first NCAA Championship in women’s basketball. However, the facts that this year’s women’s championship game set TV records & that LSU won were overshadowed by an incident involving (LSU forward) Angel Reese.
For those of you who’ve been living under a rock for this decade, the NIL stands for “Name, Image, & Likeness” and is a new way for amateur athletes to cash in on their name, skills, looks…….essentially, their brand. No longer do student athletes have to rely on secret envelopes from boosters or gym bags of cash dropped on their parent’s doorstep. It’s now legal to be out in the open, doling out cash to student athletes for all the world to see. Who are NIL’s Top Earners?