Mailbag: What do you think about megaconferences now?

Well, folks, we’ve made it. No. 2 Georgia at No. 4 Alabama. The undisputed Game of the Season, no?

Well, no, not this year. We’re getting about five just like it.

Am I a bad person if I think games like USC–Michigan, Tennessee–Oklahoma, Georgia–Texas and Oregon–Ohio State are compelling enough that maybe the megaconferences aren’t so terrible? — Rob

You are not a terrible person. You are a football fan who enjoys watching good football, and so far, the realignment gods are delivering. It helps that one of the SEC’s new programs, Texas, is the No. 1 team in the country, and two of the Big Ten’s additions, Oregon and USC, are legitimate College Football Playoff contenders.

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As I look at the calendar, two dates stand out as potential “Wow, really?” moments. On Oct. 19 in the SEC, No. 1 Texas hosts No. 2 Georgia, and No. 4 Tennessee visits No. 5 Alabama. Are you kidding me? In the same conference? A week before that in the Big Ten, No. 3 Ohio State visits No. 8 Oregon, and No. 9 Penn State goes to No. 13 USC in a pair of Rose Bowl-esque cross-country matchups.

And yet … I am conflicted. Because those Big Ten showdowns come with a cost of many, many dumb consequences. This weekend, Clemson is playing an ACC home game against Stanford. No one wants this. Next weekend, Miami is going to play a conference game at Cal that kicks off at 10:30 p.m. in South Florida. Way to think about those fans. And the aftershocks of the Pac-12’s implosion last year are playing out in the form of the saddest possible bake-off over the fate of the Mountain West.

Perhaps that’s why a post on X from Fox Sports exec Michael Mulvihill during the tense fourth quarter of Saturday’s USC-Michigan game on CBS irked me. It was a prism into the way TV folks view realignment:

Can’t believe we’re stuck with this game when we could be watching SC play Cal in front of 40,000 empty seats.

— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) September 21, 2024

This might come as a shock, but most USC and Cal fans very much would like to still be playing each other. Many Trojans fans long have enjoyed their “weekenders” to the Bay Area. Our Antonio Morales had a story last week talking to several die-hard Trojans fans who are finding it far more expensive and difficult to travel to USC’s away games.

But those games don’t deliver 6.3 million viewers.

People eventually adjust to whatever clunky changes the powers that be in this sport throw at them. Mulvihill more than understands that the millions of fans tuning into these new blockbuster matchups far exceed the relative handful who bemoan the impact on their favorite teams.

On Monday, the world got to watch two conferences fight over the Utah State Aggies in real time. What just happened? — Mike S.

It is possible to simultaneously find something both sad and amusing. Because that’s how I’ve felt watching the Pac-12 and Mountain West basically go full-on street-fight scene in “Anchorman” for the leftover scraps of realignment.

The common theme of this soap opera is that all of the parties thought they hold more power than they do. The Mountain West thought it could strong-arm Oregon State and Washington State into paying even more than the $14 million they did last year to extend their scheduling deal, so the Pac-12 said no thanks, then plucked the MWC’s four most attractive programs (Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Colorado State). But then the Pac-12, with its logo and a pitch deck, apparently thought it could pick whomever it wanted to round out the lineup, to which Memphis, Tulane, USF and UTSA said, “Nah, we’re good in the AAC.”

Meanwhile, by initially only inviting four MWC schools instead of six, the Pac-12 gave MWC commissioner Gloria Nevarez time to hatch a plan to try to keep the league together by taking the departing schools’ exit fees and “poaching penalties” (which the Pac-12 is now suing to get out of) and handing that money to UNLV and Air Force. And it looked like it was about to work — except they underestimated Utah State’s desire to join the Pac-12. And once that domino occurred, it sent the other two back to square one.

I get why the Pac-12 went after those four AAC schools. Beyond TV desirability, it would have kneecapped that league and left the Pac-12 as the undisputed best of the Group of 6 (are we using that?) conferences and potentially land the fifth CFP automatic berth most years. Without those, the Pac-12 is basically the Mountain West with a couple of former Power 5 schools, which might or might not be on par with the AAC.

Mostly, I just feel sympathy for all involved. This is not the SEC, already the strongest conference in the country, adding two more powerhouse programs because it could or the Big Ten taking the L.A. schools so it could make $1.2 billion a year instead of a measly $1 billion. This saga involves a dozen or so schools just scrapping to survive in this new landscape. Perhaps not surprisingly, that process has not been the smoothest.

Who has more to lose in the Georgia vs. Alabama game? — Jeff H.

Definitely Georgia, just given the schedule it still has ahead: trips to Texas and Ole Miss plus Tennessee at home. It’s unrealistic to think the Dawgs will go 4-0 against current top-10 teams. Their 42-game regular-season winning streak is going to end at some point. But the longer they can put it off, the better, to alleviate the pressure on those late-season games. Yes, they can still make the Playoff even with a second loss, but it would likely knock them out of the SEC Championship Game.

Meanwhile, it’s fortunate for Kalen DeBoer that his first huge game at Alabama is also the first time since 2007 the Tide have been home underdogs. Not that Bama fans will give him a pass for losing his first SEC game, but it would dampen the blow if it’s to a favorite rather than, say, 13-point underdog Missouri.

Whatever the result, I’m interested to see how fans experience the first top-five showdown of the 12-team Playoff era. My friend and former colleague Ari Wasserman would tell you this game has no stakes now because it doesn’t knock either out of the Playoff. I tend to think if Georgia is driving, down 4 points, with one minute left, it’s going to feel every bit as suspenseful as it would have the same time a year ago.

With UNC soon to be looking for a new coach, will it finally hire a coach who can make it an upper-echelon team? If it ends up in the SEC or Big Ten, doesn’t it finally have to take football seriously? — Craig B.

UNC football is the supposed sleeping giant that never manages to awake. It’s not like this is Tennessee or Nebraska, programs that reached the top of the sport under multiple coaches and have been fighting to get back there ever since. UNC is more akin to Virginia or Georgia Tech, programs that had brief, fleeting moments of greatness, but those periods have proved to be historic aberrations. And yet, this perception persists that UNC could become a national force at any moment, so much so that the Power 2 must be swooning over the Tar Heels.

I’ve seen nothing to suggest that’s the case. But that doesn’t mean UNC can’t be better than it is now.

Mack Brown’s main prowess has been recruiting, and early in his tenure, he appeared to be delivering exactly that. He flipped future NFL quarterback Sam Howell from Florida State within weeks of taking the job, signed a top-20 class in his first full cycle, convinced five-star 2021 quarterback Drake Maye to stay home and landed a program-best No. 11 class in 2022. But recruiting ability only goes so far now if a school doesn’t have a bag of name, image and likeness money. UNC last year signed the No. 26 high school class and No. 58 transfer class, per 247Sports.

Meanwhile, Brown has not figured out his defense. Bringing back Gene Chizik after he had been out of coaching for six years did not pan out. Maybe Geoff Collins will still work out, but his defense just gave up 70 points to James Madison.

In terms of whom UNC might hire next, one obvious candidate is current Liberty and former Coastal Carolina coach Jamey Chadwell. He’s a flat-out fantastic offensive coach who has spent most of his career in that region of the country. Others that come to mind: current UNLV and former Missouri coach Barry Odom, USF’s Alex Golesh, who was previously Josh Heupel’s offensive coordinator at Tennessee, or if a school wants to bet on landing the next Dan Lanning, perhaps 34-year-old Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann.

But whoever UNC hires is only going to be able to elevate the Heels to “upper-echelon” if the school and its collective are capable of investing at the necessary level to do so.

Which is more likely: Bill O’Brien winning his second Bear Bryant Award this season for turning Boston College around and notching a 10-win season? Or Thomas Castellanos winning the Heisman next year? — Jack

Definitely the former. And boy would that be wild. It would tie him with Nick Saban and give him one more than Bob Stoops, Bill Snyder or Frank Beamer.

Hugh Freeze seems to have been given a pass by a lot of fans and journalists because of his recruiting classes. At what point does a good recruiting class become moot because of coaching? Look at Jimbo Fisher at A&M.

(To be transparent, I’m an Alabama fan living in Oxford, Miss., so the schadenfreude of that situation is real.) — Marshall A.

Good to be you. The weird thing about Freeze’s situation so far is he seemed to coach pretty darn well in his previous two stops. Some might say he got too much adulation for beating Alabama in back-to-back years, but his 2015 Ole Miss team was the first Rebels team to win 10 games in a dozen years and earned the program’s first top-10 finish since 1969. And his .609 winning percentage in five seasons was the best of any Ole Miss coach since 1973.

Meanwhile, Liberty was in just its second FBS season when he got there, playing without a conference, and within two years, he’s won 10 games and made Malik Willis a lot of money. So, I for one did not see his Auburn stinker coming.

Now, with the benefit of hindsight, there were a few red flags. For one, expectations are much higher at Auburn than they were at those two stops. So far, Freeze is 3-6 in SEC play at Auburn. Well, he lost eight of his first 12 conference games at Ole Miss, but that wasn’t considered a five-alarm fire. Secondly, his up-tempo offense was so innovative in the SEC a decade ago that Nick Saban blew up his own playbook to emulate it. Today, everyone runs that stuff.

And last but certainly not least: Everyone buys players today, sort of legally, especially in the portal. And his rate in that department — especially at quarterback — is not great.

I wouldn’t write off Freeze yet, but he’s not helping his cause with some of these news conference comments. You likely saw he caught flak from his former Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace for throwing his quarterbacks under the bus after the Arkansas loss. Then Monday, the guy had the gall to say, “the hard truth is (if) we play them nine more times, we’d beat them nine times, and that’s what’s hard to take.”

This stuff tends to exacerbate, not soothe, people’s frustrations. But hey, at least he’s dealing with some of the most patient, rational fans in the country.

Which team is the biggest surprise, Indiana, Illinois or BYU? Vegas’ preseason predicted win total for the season was four or five wins for each team. They are all 4-0. — Marc V.

I had a feeling Indiana might surprise people in Curt Cignetti’s first season, although not to the tune of 31-7, 77-3, 42-14 and 52-14. I had modest expectations for Illinois, but Bret Bielema was only a couple of years removed from winning eight games and giving Michigan its toughest test of the regular season. So it’s not out of nowhere.

But BYU went 2-7 in the Big 12 last season and looked completely outclassed in most of its conference games. When I was doing research for my preseason predictions, I was floored to realize the 2023 Cougars ranked 117th in yards per play on offense (4.9) and 92nd in defense (5.9). So no, I did not envision their hammering a top-15 Kansas State team 38-9 to start 4-0.

Credit to Kalani Sitake, who has built and sustained a culture there during the past nine seasons and didn’t attempt to reinvent the wheel. BYU’s 16th-ranked defense looks much more like what we’ve come to expect from that program. Veteran defensive end Tyler Batty was a proven commodity, but sophomore linebacker Harrison Taggart has been impressive, and Weber State transfer linebacker Jack Kelly was a valuable addition.

And quarterback Jake Retzlaff, 0-4 as a starter last season, looks much-improved. He has gone from 50.4 percent completions to 62.6 percent and from 5.2 yards per attempt to 8.6. The passing game needed to step up because top running back LJ Martin went down in Week 2 with an ankle injury and might not be back imminently.

All three phases were on fire in that K-State game. We don’t know yet whether that will be an every-week thing. All I know is if the Utes and Cougars keep winning, we might need to declare a state of emergency in Utah on Nov. 9.

So are we going to stop disrespecting the entire state of Iowa, where you and Bruce placed Lance Leipold ahead of Kirk Ferentz and Matt Campbell in your coaching rankings? — Themanebro!

I’ve been writing this column for 20-plus years, and this might be a historic moment. Someone is calling the coach of Kansas overrated.

No question, Leipold’s 1-3 Jayhawks have been a flop thus far. It’s not making me look like the sharpest mind for ranking the coach the second-best coach in the sport right now, behind only Kirby Smart. But I do think you’re using some convenient revisionist history.

Leipold’s one winning season last year happened to be Kansas’ first in 15 years. The Jayhawks did not even win four games in a season in more than a decade when he got them to six in 2022. It’s the greatest turnaround job I’ve seen in the sport in the past 25 years, and it will remain so even if the Jayhawks go 4-8 this year.

Meanwhile, this same time last year, Ferentz was producing yet another historically awful defense led by an offensive coordinator the school worked around nepotism laws for him to hire. Ferentz should rightfully go in the Hall of Fame one day, but I would have banned him from consideration for those rankings last spring. As I put in the note at the bottom, “He’ll be out of (coaching) jail this time next year.”

Campbell got as high as No. 10 on my list after taking Iowa State to the Fiesta Bowl in 2020. In the three completed seasons since, he went 7-6, 4-8 and 7-6, dropping him to 21st. I’ll stand by that ranking. The Cyclones are off to a 3-0 start this season, including a win over Ferentz’s Hawkeyes. If they wind up back in the upper quadrant of the Big 12, he’ll go bouncing back up the list in the spring.

As for Leipold, I wouldn’t recast his entire legacy off the first four games of the season. My one concern is perhaps I underestimated the importance of offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, who left for Penn State this offseason after spending the previous 11 seasons with Leipold. KU has averaged just 21.7 points in its three straight losses to Illinois, UNLV and West Virginia.

Can you go one week without mentioning the College Football Playoff? We are at least a month away from having anything interesting to say on the topic. — Brian S.

Absolutely. While we’re at it, let’s tell political writers not to mention there’s an election until about six weeks out.

And maybe the weather guy can hold off on his forecasts until there’s actual rain coming down on us.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.