That's what FSU gets for trying to put Oski in a corner. NOBODY PUTS OSKI IN A CORNER.

Question- why are the rest of the week zero games so bad? What is necessary to get a game played this weekend?

Montana State @ New Mexico
SMU @ Nevada
Delaware State @ Hawaii

I get that Hawaii and teams playing at Hawaii can play a 13th game and week zero lets those teams have a bye - but only Nevada is playing 13 this year.

The whole day is open and not really competing with the NFL yet, but here we have a great overseas game and then a couple of FCS buy games. Makes no sense, I want games!

I'd actually like to see a full slate of games this weekend, and then the conference championship games could be moved to Thanksgiving weekend and the 1st on campus round of the playoff could be played in early december, free from competition from the NFL (their partial antitrust exemption prohibits televised games on saturdays before the second week of December).

Thanks for the good thoughts, guys.

Welcome to the conference!

Sebastabear said:

---

God that chant is annoying. Would love Tech to pull this off

---

Stanford Jonah FTW.

ColoradoBear said:

---

Question- why are the rest of the week zero games so bad? What is necessary to get a game played this weekend?

Montana State @ New Mexico
SMU @ Nevada
Delaware State @ Hawaii

I get that Hawaii and teams playing at Hawaii can play a 13th game and week zero lets those teams have a bye - but only Nevada is playing 13 this year.

The whole day is open and not really competing with the NFL yet, but here we have a great overseas game and then a couple of FCS buy games. Makes no sense, I want games!

I'd actually like to see a full slate of games this weekend, and then the conference championship games could be moved to Thanksgiving weekend and the 1st on campus round of the playoff could be played in early december, free from competition from the NFL (their partial antitrust exemption prohibits televised games on saturdays before the second week of December).

---

Huge opportunity and just one of the many reasons I advocate for putting Hawaii on our schedule.

stinger78 said:

---

Thanks for the good thoughts, guys.

Welcome to the conference!

---

Congrats on the win! You have a good looking football team there. Glad we don't play you this year.

Football operating expenses per most recent NCAA financial reports:

Florida State $75.6M

Georgia Tech $35.4M

💰doesn’t buy everything.

— David Teel (@ByDavidTeel) August 24, 2024

Econ141 said:

---

Football operating expenses per most recent NCAA financial reports:

Florida State $75.6M

Georgia Tech $35.4M

💰doesn’t buy everything.

— David Teel (@ByDavidTeel) August 24, 2024

---

That number for FSU is insane. Literally multiple's of Cal's.

ColoradoBear said:

---

Question- why are the rest of the week zero games so bad? What is necessary to get a game played this weekend?

---

There are NCAA rules pinning the start of the season to Labor Day weekend, right? I think you need special circumstances like a 13th game or a trip to Ireland to be able to play on this week.

bencgilmore said:

---

TouchedTheAxeIn82 said:

---

OMG, we might have an upset!

---

Shhh the jinx gods can hear you

---

Do jinx gods listen to those who aren't fans of the school?

Sebastabear said:

---

Econ141 said:

---

Football operating expenses per most recent NCAA financial reports:

Florida State $75.6M

Georgia Tech $35.4M

💰doesn’t buy everything.

— David Teel (@ByDavidTeel) August 24, 2024

---

That number for FSU is insane. Literally multiple's of Cal's.

---

Yet last year Norvell made $5.5 million and Wilcox made $5.0 million. Was the difference FSU spending on legal fees? ;-)

Thank you. We knew our O would be good, but had honest doubts the D. They answered some of that today. We'll see. Glad to be 1-0.

Also glad to have a new "rivalry" with the Cal Bears. We had a couple of historic games way back. Also, had a guy named Bartkowski throw for a lot of yards in a Falcon's uni a bit more recently.

Anyway, all the best in your inaugural year in the new ACC. It's a good place to be: academics + athletics.

stinger78 said:

---

Thank you. We knew our O would be good, but had honest doubts the D. They answered some of that today. We'll see. Glad to be 1-0.

Also glad to have a new "rivalry" with the Cal Bears. We had a couple of historic games way back. Also, had a guy named Bartkowski throw for a lot of yards in a Falcon's uni a bit more recently.

Anyway, all the best in your inaugural year in the new ACC. It's a good place to be: academics + athletics.

---

As FSU is our new USC (hated, enjoy seeing them lose to anyone), in some ways you guys are our new UCLA, a rival school we have respect for. Even have a shared fight song that you stole from us. Will be rooting for you guys the rest of the way.

stinger78 said:

---

Thanks for the good thoughts, guys.

Welcome to the conference!

---

You're probably a good source for an answer to this question about academics and the athletic programs:

Schools like Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, etc. have a well-earned reputation for admitting players with . . . less than stellar academic records and keeping them eligible with little apparent effort. At the other extreme are schools like Cal that have quite stringent admission standards for football recruits that significantly limit recruiting (although admittedly, the standards are even higher for regular applicants) and a generally unsympathetic faculty that gives student-athletes no special consideration.

Georgia Tech has a reputation for strong academics, particularly in engineering. Where do they sit on this continuum (Alabama at one end, Cal at the other) of academics for athletes both from the standpoint of admissions and academic rigor?

sycasey said:

---

ColoradoBear said:

---

Question- why are the rest of the week zero games so bad? What is necessary to get a game played this weekend?

---

There are NCAA rules pinning the start of the season to Labor Day weekend, right? I think you need special circumstances like a 13th game or a trip to Ireland to be able to play on this week.

---

A game played outside the continental US can be played in week zero. Remember Cal's week zero game in Australia several years ago.

Also, to help out Hawaii, the NCAA has a rule that any team can schedule a week zero game if they play in Hawaii that same season. Nevada has a game in Hawaii later this season, and that is why they could schedule SMU for a week zero game this evening.

calumnus said:

---

ColoradoBear said:

---

Question- why are the rest of the week zero games so bad? What is necessary to get a game played this weekend?

Montana State @ New Mexico
SMU @ Nevada
Delaware State @ Hawaii

I get that Hawaii and teams playing at Hawaii can play a 13th game and week zero lets those teams have a bye - but only Nevada is playing 13 this year.

The whole day is open and not really competing with the NFL yet, but here we have a great overseas game and then a couple of FCS buy games. Makes no sense, I want games!

I'd actually like to see a full slate of games this weekend, and then the conference championship games could be moved to Thanksgiving weekend and the 1st on campus round of the playoff could be played in early december, free from competition from the NFL (their partial antitrust exemption prohibits televised games on saturdays before the second week of December).

---

Huge opportunity and just one of the many reasons I advocate for putting Hawaii on our schedule.

---

I am going to guess that an extra 2400 mile/5.5 hour flight is not in the cards for Cal given the amount of east coast travel in the ACC. Week zero could work since it's before classes start. I wouldn't even schedule at 13th game - just more wear and tear on players and the season is long enough. An extra bye wouldn't be bad though.

Pardon the length of this epistle, but I found your question to be an important one and wanted to answer fully.

When I was at GT years ago, every major had to take at least 2 terms of Calculus, 2 terms of lab science, and two terms of a second non-lab science, plus an assortment of other courses such as computer science, linear programming (one of the harder courses I took), engineering surveys (for non-eng students), etc. There was no way around it. Of course, the engineering and science majors had to take more math/science than psych, management, and architecture majors. This went for athletes, too.

I think this is still the same though several newer majors have been added in a college of "liberal studies," though each major focuses on technical approaches in that area. They are not "athlete majors."

Now the GTAA did and does have a well developed tutoring program to assist athletes. I find this fair as they spend so much time in practices, meetings, etc.

All to say that you will find a magnitude of difference (probably multiple) between GT and the large state schools in the SEC. The exception would be Vanderbilt which takes academics quite seriously. There are many good schools there, but athletic budgets will tend to tell you what their priorities are.

As for the ACC, most all are strong academically and many are members of the AAU. You will find this at GT, Miami, UNC, NCSU, Duke, Wake, UVA, VPI, Pitt, Syracuse, and BC. Add Cal and Stanford and I don't think any other conference can match up in terms of academic rigor. However, most of them do have an assortment of lighter majors where athletes can hide, there is still generally a higher rigor. For all but a small handful of ACC schools academics are the driver of the bus.

I am sensing that commitment to be in the crosshairs in the new iteration of college football. However, adding Cal, Stanford, Pitt, Syracuse, Boston College, etc., and the inclusion of Notre Dame (except football) in our last three expansions leads me to believe that the commitment to academics is still forefront. I find that reassuring.

Finally, please resist the urge to lump the ACC as a whole in with the large state universities of the SEC. We are very different at the core.

…and I think most GT fans would be honored to be considered a rival of that stature.

calumnus said:

---

Sebastabear said:

---

Econ141 said:

---

Football operating expenses per most recent NCAA financial reports:

Florida State $75.6M

Georgia Tech $35.4M

💰doesn’t buy everything.

— David Teel (@ByDavidTeel) August 24, 2024

---

That number for FSU is insane. Literally multiple's of Cal's.

---

Yet last year Norvell made $5.5 million and Wilcox made $5.0 million. Was the difference FSU spending on legal fees? ;-)

---

I get the point you are trying to make, but Wilcox made 4.4 million in 2023, and Norvell did get a new contract in 2024 that pays him $10 million/yr with small escalators through 2031.

https://www.si.com/college/fsu/football/full-contract-details-mike-norvells-massive-extension-fsu-football-2024

If Norvell leaves, he is responsible to pay up to $5 million as a buyout. The contract extension does not specify the buyout if fired without cause, but the original 2019 contact states that buyout to be 85% of the remain value. So if they wanted to replace him this offseason, that would be 85% of $70 million remaining (2025-2031). Asymmetric buyouts favoring the HC are pretty common. Obviously one coach has won a lot more than the other.

SMU not looking that great 10 minutes in.

Still early. But all this talk about SMU being the surprise team in the ACC looks like BS

To be fair, our Bears were down 17-0 to Idafrigginho in the 2nd quarter last season...

BearSD said:

---

To be fair, our Bears were down 17-0 to Idafrigginho in the 2nd quarter last season...

---

Yeah…and we kinda sucked last year. At least until we found a competent QB

As more time has passed agreed. Their D is the only thing that is showing anything. ST and O have been booty.

Stinger78,

I really appreciate your contributions here. Welcome.

Was flying from Edinburgh to Dublin yesterday in a plane full of FSU fans.. Did not get a lot of love from anyone when I mentioned I would be in Tallahassee for the Cal game.. They were doing the tomahawk chop song on the plane!
GT made my day..

Thank you. Again, I apologize for the length of that prior post. No one wants a fan of another program to come in and clutter up their board. I hope it was informative, though. All the best this season and again, welcome to the conference!

calftball said:

---

Was flying from Edinburgh to Dublin yesterday in a plane full of FSU fans.. Did not get a lot of love from anyone when I mentioned I would be in Tallahassee for the Cal game.. They were doing the tomahawk chop song on the plane!
GT made my day..

---

Wonder how the flight back will be?

After watching the FSU-GT game and seeing most of the SMU- Nev game, I think if we can tackle cleanly, unlike FSU, we should do well. We'd have more trouble with GTs big QB than SMUs QBs FSUs QB remains semi-slow in decision-making. Our DL needs to step up and stop some run-heavy programs. I think our passing game will do well.

SMU has had so many penalties.

stinger78 said:

---

Thank you. Again, I apologize for the length of that prior post. No one wants a fan of another program to come in and clutter up their board. I hope it was informative, though. All the best this season and again, welcome to the conference!

---

My man, your post was the soul of brevity. You should see some of the stuff that gets written here. And I am as guilty (actually more guilty) than most. Enjoyed reading your thoughts!

Well, I don't know how good Cal is going to be, but based on the results so far it looks like we should have a pretty good record in this conference if we can just be better than last season.

After reading all of the pre season projections it is great to see real football.
Also shows you have to take care of your own business - then let cards fall. Florida State and SMU came into this weekend with everyone thinking they would walk over their opponents today.

Will Wilcox have our guys ready? No reason we couldn't win both of these too, today, but I need to see that prep, that killer mentality, that performing beyond expectations. A great coach makes it happen. We need it now more than ever.

In all honesty; and obviously I'm leaving milk and cookies tonight for the self jinx god that haunts us…but how can you watch todays games and not like our chances?
This is…
Umm yeah.
These were supposed to be the class of the conference this year.