Seems like an announcement is immiment.
One of the bigger parts about the proposal is supposing mandating 10 P4 games. We have Fresno, Portland State, and the Coug's next year. Unless there is some exception granted as a grandfather in grace period, who do we drop?
As I understand it, for financial reasons we have to have 7 home games as well (maybe that is due to 1/2 B10 revenu), Long term, for both reasons I don't see how the apple cup survives this unless an exception is granted for the cougs/beavs as a P4 matchup, but that seems unlikely.
I expect the metric for a lot of coaches getting fired or not will be making the playoffs now. Pretty cut and dry not the loftiest of goals to expect. I suspect Jedd's future will ultimately be contingent on him doing that or not in the next few years.
I'm not holding my breath, but my hope is that somehow maybe the expanded playoff will somehow be a catalyst for further realignment where some regionality returns in a divisional format rather than mega conferences. Maybe playoff seeding more akin to the NFL based on divisional championships? I doubt the old Pac10 will ever get back together but would like a coastal B10 division with the current 4 + standford/cal isn't unrealistic.
Incoming rant from old man (not actually that old) yelling at cloud, for me, on paper I should like this as it increases our chances for a meaningful season, but it's sort of almost having the opposite effect for me, just removing me one more step from the sport that is almost unfamiliar to me now. I have cared less and about the sport as it has evolved over the last few years and reality in the NIL/Portal/B10 has sunk in. This likely ends tradition such as the Apple cup and the concept of bowl games as we know it. (I won’t miss them as they are, but miss what they once were).
I'm expecting just mediocre seasons ahead as you really have to squint in the purple goggles to see us playing in the championshpi game again any time soon. Watching games now just feels like slop-content for content's sake all done in attempt to make money, but they don't really have any other inherent worth besides that. Games that don't mean much to either school as we never interact with the fanbases of those schools, a win or a loss doesn’t matter as much, and players and maybe even coaches just don’t seem to care about being here and up and bail in the search for greener pastures or whatever. I suppose its just reflective of the world in which we now live as that's objectively good career advise, and I can't fault them for it. But I hate that's where we are a sport. My whole reasoning for liking college over pro sports was for love of the game, not being about money, etc. it’s nearly unrecognizable to me now. Frankly, September and October is a lovely time in the PNW, and there's plenty of other stuff competing for my attention on Saturdays in the fall over sitting in front of the TV. Maybe come November when the rain comes back and there's not much else to do, if we are still in the mix of relevancy I'll find myself more invested and interested in how the end of the season plays out? I don't know.
