Things are not going well. We, at FSU, saw this first hand when Willie was hired right before the very first ESD in 2017. He pulled together a class in mid December, but it was a rather haphazard process. ESPN barely noticed as they were focusing on Jimbo's "great move" to the Aggies because they wanted to believe his narrative as to why he was leaving FSU. Then, sports announcers were "stunned" when Willie was let go in mid-season 2019 (including Herbie, whose classic drunken tirade against the FSU program occurred the night before Willie was let go. Who else is amused that Herbie's recent tirade against the Miami administration was a factor in the firing of their AD?). There were many reasons (no need to repeat them) for letting Willie go at that time, but no doubt the ESD timing issue was a factor. FSU was heavily criticized for taking action in mid season; now other programs are "taking action" early in the season. It's getting to be routine. It amuses me that sports commentators are befuddled as to why this is happening. It's happening because of the combination of ESD, liberalized transfer rules, the transfer portal in general, and the desire of recruits using NIL opportunity as a deciding factor as where to go - all of this is creating an overheated recruiting process during the regular season. The original ESD proposal was for it to be in August, a full year before the student would be eligible to play. But it moved to later in December, for some obvious good reasons. But no one factored in the impact of potential coaching changes, and the fact that those coaching changes would be initiated in anticipation of dealing with the ESD. Any program going through a coaching change now, whether planned (LSU) or not (OU), are at risk of basically losing a stable recruiting class. How does a newly hired coach address this ? It will overheat the transfer portal in the next few months. And that may diminish opportunities for many high school seniors to get a football scholarship. There is no doubt that LSU AD Woodward had a plan in mind when Coach O was fired; as of this writing, LSU fans are wondering what is going on. Riley wins the award for understanding all of this and going undercover to make his move.
And there's more. More than one commentator noted that the addition of Texas and OU to the SEC may have impacted Riley's decision to go to USC. Riley is not afraid of the SEC. but let's get real. OU and Texas will be losing some of their identity by going to a southern conference. Is that a big deal? Maybe. OU was a big dog in the old Big 8 and in the Big 12; Texas ran the Southwest conference and was a dominant player in the Big 12. But in the SEC?
And the playoff committee is meeting on Dec. 1 to see if they can salvage the 12 team playoff so that it can start in 2024, instead of keeping what we have (the 4 team playoff) until a new system starts with the 2026 season. And all the TV contracts (except the ACC) are up for renewal before then. I wonder how that goes.
There is no central leadership to maneuver through this, and there is no trust among the commissioners. And Conference realignment? Seems dangerous.
And there's more. More than one commentator noted that the addition of Texas and OU to the SEC may have impacted Riley's decision to go to USC. Riley is not afraid of the SEC. but let's get real. OU and Texas will be losing some of their identity by going to a southern conference. Is that a big deal? Maybe. OU was a big dog in the old Big 8 and in the Big 12; Texas ran the Southwest conference and was a dominant player in the Big 12. But in the SEC?
And the playoff committee is meeting on Dec. 1 to see if they can salvage the 12 team playoff so that it can start in 2024, instead of keeping what we have (the 4 team playoff) until a new system starts with the 2026 season. And all the TV contracts (except the ACC) are up for renewal before then. I wonder how that goes.
There is no central leadership to maneuver through this, and there is no trust among the commissioners. And Conference realignment? Seems dangerous.
