Hey gang! I only have time for some links this morning, but luckily baseball is on the horizon, Friday through Sunday (possibly) with the first pitch for every game at 2:00 p.m. Hydrate. Hydrate. Hydrate.
About a week or so ago I wrote about Texas Tech’s name, image, likeness program, Beyond Verified, and that they were partnering with OpenDorse to coordinate these efforts to attempt to coordinate all of this. AP’s Ralph Russo wrote about this same topic, but he did indulge how much Oregon State paid OpenDorse to operate their NIL program, which was a five-year $216,000 deal. That’s not as bad as I thought it would be.
Yahoo Pete Thamel reports that over the next three weeks, we could see an expansion of the College Football Playoff, namely that there would be a 12-team playoff:
How has a 12-team model become the presumptive favorite? Well, its potential emergence winds through the complex layers and varied agendas that cover a world that spans from Alabama to Troy and Ohio State to UTEP.
Let’s start with at-large bids. In the current four-team College Football Playoff model, all four teams are at-large. In a majority of the eight-team models that have been projected, there’d likely be either five or six automatic bids. That means a decrease in at-large bids, which would not be of much interest to the SEC — or even Notre Dame — which could perceive the expanded playoff as having less access. (The Pac-12 and entire Group of Five, to counter, would likely not be interested in expansion without some type of automatic bids).
I’m all for this personally. Just about every school can catch lightning in a bottle and be good one year and schools should be rewarded for that. An 8-team playoff gets you the Power 5 covered, but then there’s probably a Power 5 slant to the other 3. With 12 teams, there’s more room to invite Coastal Carolina (or insert the team no one expected to do well here).
Athlon Sports’ Steven Lassan answers whether or not you should take the over, under, or pass, on the recent DraftKing win totals, which was 4.5 for Texas Tech. I’m of the opinion to take the over and so is Steven (although I have admittedly never bet $1 in my life on a game so I’ve got no skin in the game).
The three non-conference matchups – Houston, Stephen F. Austin and FIU – are winnable. Add in a projected victory against Kansas and the Red Raiders need just one more victory to hit the over. Texas Tech’s defense cut its per-play mark allowed from 6.6 to 5.7 last fall. If the defense improves, and Shough steps up at quarterback, Wells has a chance to hit six wins in a crucial year.
I always look forward to the anonymous coaches comments that Athlon puts out each year, maybe the most interesting thing I read all year (although it is likely made up to an extent). I’ll definitely be on the lookout for that.
LandGrant Gauntlet’s Phillip Slavin ranks the Big 12 defensive lines and this is one of those “yeah, you have to prove it if you want to be ranked higher”. The only item I’d add is that Tyree Wilson was not an Auburn transfer, but a TAMU transfer. I don’t know that this makes a huge difference, but just a note. I think this group will be better than last year, but we gottta see it.