Explain college football to me...

[Team Sheep]

I've been a huge NFL fan for a few years and watch it religiously, but I've never gotten into college football. I've watched the odd game here and there but have no idea who the good teams are, what format the league is, how the play offs work and how it's all structured and that so I don't have much of a clue about it. Being from the UK there's not that much information about it. Also it seems as if there's like hundreds of teams so it gets confusing.

I want to get into it this season, and I watched ECU v Virginia Tech yesterday, good game. Just give me a basic rundown of how it's all structured, how many games are played, how the playoffs are decided, etc. Thanks.

[Nervous Ferret]

OK. So to start, you have conferences. THe BCS or 'bigtime' conferences are the SEC, ACC, Pac-10, Big Ten, Big East and Big 12. I might have missed one but I don't think so. Then there are a ton of other 'mid-major' conferences such as C-USA, WAC, ETC

I will give you an example. Say you are Clemson. (Where I go to school). You are in the ACC (atlantic coast conference). Most of your schedule is going to consist of other ACC teams. (florida st., BC, virginia, ETC). The BCS conferences are usually split into two divisions anyway but that is not as important. So the schedule is about 6-8 games within your conference. Based on your IN-CONFERENCE record is what decides who wins the conference or who will play in the conference championship game. I think Big Ten and Big East don't play conference championships, can't be certain.

Anyway, in addition to your in-conference record, you will play out of conference games. For instance last night Clemson (ACC) played Alabama (SEC). And they got their asses whooped. Anyway, your whole schedule is what counts towards the BCS. So Clemson getting their ass beat by an SEC team cripples their national championship hope, but doesn't affect their chances of winning the ACC at all.

So basically at the end of the year there are bowls. The major bowls are
Rose Bowl
Fiesta Bowl
Sugar Bowl
Orange Bowl

and now they have a seperate National Champuionship Bowl. The #1 and 2 teams in the country as per the BCS play in the National Championship. I am not entirely sure how they decide the other major bowls anymore, but traditionally the Big-10 champ would play the PAc-10 champ in the Rose Bowl and so on and so forth. But now you can play a major bowl as a BCS AT-LARGE bid. As in if you won a mid-major conference and went undefeated or something. Or a BCS conference team that only had 1 loss to the National champions or something.

Aside from the major bowls there are seriously like 20 other bowls like the Capital One Bowl, Liberty bowl, Insurance.com bwol. It is ridiculous really. But if you are a D-1 school with a .500 or better record you will go to a bowl

Maybe stima or something can explain better. There aren't playoffs, the 'BCS' decides everything and gives you one postseason matchup. So, in college football, EVERY game counts. Because usually the two teams in the national championship are the only two teams who went undefeated or had 1 loss.

Also the BCS doesn't do the non-major bowls, the actual bowls do the invites and such, but you want a good BCS ranking. bleh, hard to explain if you didn't grow up with it

[Nervous Ferret]

Last year LSU (lousiana-state, SEC) beat Ohio State (Big-Ten) in the National title. And before that it was Florida (also SEC) beating OHio State in the National championship.

The SEC is pretty clearly the dominant conference the last few years, but this year the Big-12 will be strong.

Michigan is rebuilding currently, so it is only really Ohio State and Wisconsin in the Big-10. USC (southern california) is always dominant from the Pac-10, they always have a shot at the national championship. (USC had Carson Palmer and then MAtt Leinart at QB back to back a few years ago :naughty: )

UH, ACC is REALLY weak this year. Like embarrassingly weak. IF Clemson doesn't make the ACC title game it would be an embarrassment. VA TECH is the other ACC power this year and you saw them lose to East Carolina (an unkown) yesterday.

The Big East really shouldn't be a major conference anymore

UH yeah, let me just answer some questions I guess

[Indifferent Clox]

The Volunteers are the best College Football team ever. Period.

[RP]

Wikipedia motherfucker

[The Genius]

if you wikipedia BCS they will have a full explanation on scoring the strength of schedule, wins, loses etc and how they factor into the seperate BCS ranking which is different than the coach's and AP polls. since there is no playoff in college football, each win in the regular season is important and not only do you have to win but blowing out your opponent helps with BCS voters too.

[RoXer]

The rules are just about the same too. Except you only need one foot to be in bounds during a catch and the clock stops until the ball is re-spotted on 1st downs. And it seems they love to change the rules of the clock every other year too. Can't get it right.

And you might need to take a class on how the BCS works if wikipedia doesn't help you. Nerf did a pretty good job explaining it so I won't try to confuse you any more.