First thought on Mississippi State

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but MSU has one helluva wide home-road split this year.  They are undefeated in their own stadium through five games, largely because their offense is averaging 43 ppg at home.  (On the road, they’re only scoring 13 ppg.)

A shootout is a possibility, then… or at least a few more points than we’ve been expecting.

If it’s October, it must be Conference USA.

CUSA just cut a new TV deal with ESPN and CBS.  Here’s the part that raises a few eyebrows.

C-USA’s entire slate of October football games will be played during the week, with most on Tuesday and Wednesday, along with some on Thursday and Friday.

All for the low, low price of $750,000 per school.  Why make that decision?  Product, people!

This idea was floated to me by several people in the league over the last few months. It’s both a way to get more visibility on TV and get a little more money out of the broadcasters. The Mid-American Conference has its MACtion midweek games in November. The Sun Belt has some midweek games as well late in the year. But October live sports content is pretty dry during the week before the NBA and NHL start back up. Instead of being buried on ESPN+ on busy Saturdays, C-USA could be the only game on TV during a weekday in October.

One small catch.

But midweek games are very difficult for fans who want to attend them, especially students and fans who travel long distances. While the MAC gets a lot more TV exposure in November, its crowds are typically barren, in part because of the timing during the week but also the cold weather. This is the tradeoff conferences make when playing midweek games.

Actually, that’s a trade off college football makes every day of the week lately.

History repeating… or not

Seeing a stat like this makes it easier to understand why the pundit class was a little bit skeptical about Georgia…

Interesting stat:

– 18' Bama: 12 players drafted, went from 14-1 to 11-2

– 19' LSU: 14 players drafted, National title to 5-5

– 14' FSU: 11 players drafted, 13-1 to 10-3

– 04' OSU: 14 players drafted, 11-2 to 8-4

– 21' UGA: 15 players drafted, 14-1 to 9-0 and No. 1 ranking

— Jonathan Williams (@Dr_JWill) November 9, 2022

… at least until last Saturday.

The difference between Danny Kanell and Erik Ainge

Texas fans don’t know how to be loud. I bet it will be a nice non hostile environment for me TCU to get a win. Horned Frogs will be just fine in Austin! https://t.co/TpjFvsjkrL

— Erik Ainge (@ErikAinge3) November 9, 2022

At least Erik is able to poke a little fun at himself.