2023 College Football thread

[beefytee]

Football is more important than religion in the South. Alabama fans will pay to an NIL collective before they donate to their church. Money will never be a problem for Alabama football. While Alabama as a state is poor, there is a lot of old family money in the hands of rich white families that love Alabama football. Texas A&M is the same. There are a ton of filthy rich oil executives that poor money into those schools and that oil money isn't drying up anytime soon. Tech bros don't really care if Washington wins a national title. Oil bros would sell their first born for a national title.

The Huskies rarely get over 70,000 fans in the stadium. I bet LSU and Alabama get 70,000 people that tailgate and don't even have tickets to the game. Go to a game in the South and you'll see why DeBoer picked Alabama over Washington.

Not following how TAMU is the same. Alabama doesn't have near the money from oil (or otherwise) that Texas does.

Oregon and Phil Knight showed us in the pre-NIL age that ultra-rich donor money can buy program prominence. Money is only going to get more important. I don't think the number of fans in the stands is very high up the list for recruits and is becoming less and less important every day with NIL money coming in.

I know several "tech bros" that made the trip out to the national championship. It's not the religion it is in the south, but there is definitely interest, especially at this point where the program has been doing well.

The other problem with the south is that when the fanbase treats it as a religion, they take the first opportunity to sacrifice their coach to the football gods when there is any appearance to being off course.

DeBoer has been successful everywhere he has gone, so there is an alright chance he does well at Alabama. I just think he had a better opportunity of continued success staying at Washington.

[Pelado]

Probably striking while the iron is hot. After this season he loses Penix and several top receivers. Probably recognizes that recruiting top talent to UW going forward will be much more difficult than reloading at Alabama.

[USUC]

Probably striking while the iron is hot. After this season he loses Penix and several top receivers. Probably recognizes that recruiting top talent to UW going forward will be much more difficult than reloading at Alabama.

Washington also isn't situated in the South, where most top recruits grow up. But somehow tech nerds are going to make up the difference? This is crazy talk.

[beefytee]

The biggest unknown for Washington was going to be the transition to the Big 10. Now it is finding a head coach during that transition.

I think the most likely outcome in Alabama is that DeBoer gets the Frank Solich treatment where he generally has success but not to the over inflated standards that Saban established. My guess is he doesn’t last long.

I’m not saying that Washington is going to become some unstoppable powerhouse similar to what Alabama has experienced. They should have the resources to compete when they have a good staff, similar to what Oregon has accomplished the last couple decades or so.

I’m mostly saying that Alabama is pretty vulnerable with the changes that are currently happening in college football. Their upcoming seasons are more likely to be similar to the years where Bear Bryant, Gene Stallings, and Nick Saban were not the coaches.

[Pelado]

The biggest unknown for Washington was going to be the transition to the Big 10. Now it is finding a head coach during that transition.

I think the most likely outcome in Alabama is that DeBoer gets the Frank Solich treatment where he generally has success but not to the over inflated standards that Saban established. My guess is he doesn’t last long.

I’m not saying that Washington is going to become some unstoppable powerhouse similar to what Alabama has experienced. They should have the resources to compete when they have a good staff, similar to what Oregon has accomplished the last couple decades or so.

I’m mostly saying that Alabama is pretty vulnerable with the changes that are currently happening in college football. Their upcoming seasons are more likely to be similar to the years where Bear Bryant, Gene Stallings, and Nick Saban were not the coaches.

Sure, but I'd expect it to be easier for a head coach to recruit top talent to Alabama than to Washington - just as has been the case for, well, forever.