Although not mentioned, this would apply to us also, battling against middle P5s in Texas for recruits.
. . . from a recruiting standpoint, the biggest winners are the Group of 5 teams that can now sell Playoff inclusion.
We often don’t view the G5 as worthy of a Playoff spot because they don’t play Power 5 schedules and don’t usually recruit at the same level, but the best G5 team every single year is very, very good. Better than most of us give it credit for. Now some of these G5 programs — Cincinnati, UCF, SMU, Boise State, to name a few — actually have something to sell: playoff inclusion. And those teams, which have much better resources and support than most of their peers at the same level, actually have a better chance of making the Playoff on an annual basis than middle-tier Power 5 teams.
I wrote a story about SMU last year and how the Mustangs landed four-star quarterback Preston Stone. The biggest question for Stone: Why rule yourself out of playing in the Playoff when there are plenty of top-tier Power 5 teams involved? Well, that question doesn’t exist anymore, and for a program like SMU, located in Dallas and around a ton of top-level prospects, it isn’t unreasonable to think it could jump into the top 30 of the recruiting rankings based on this inclusion alone.
On the field, the usual suspects will benefit the most. But will Penn State be able to recruit that much better than it already is because it may make the Playoff more often? Probably not. Ohio State is still going to get the lion’s share. But what about Cincinnati, which is battling for Big Ten players every day, and UCF and SMU, which have hundreds of really good players at their fingertips? Those are the real winners in terms of how this expansion will help schools improve their recruiting.
Dykes is doing a great job up in Dallas, no doubt about it. The article mentions Cincy, UCF, and SMU, but no mention of us. We have to get back into the conversation and become relevant again this fall.
Don’t forget bruised ego driven contacts that scare offf better candidates. Making business decisions based on emotions is never a formula for success.
The devil is in the details of this 12 team playoff proposal especially when it comes to money. Will P5s continue to get a base CFP payout of $67M each or will the top six conferences get an equal share?
We shall see. I suppose it depends on how much ESPN is willing to pay if a contract extension is approved.
Critical personal opinions serve no useful purposes. A few simple facts would be informative here.
So who here (on Coogfans) served on the UH FB coaching search committee and has direct first hand knowledge of who (on behalf of UH) made what offers to which candidates, and under what terms and conditions that such offers were made?
Hard to say what Riley would have done if the OU job hadn’t been signaled that they were going to hire him. But they did. If we’d hired him without the terms he would have been gone soon anyway and we would not have been better off.
Lane Kiffin appeared ready to accept the terms. But we chose Applewhite over him.
Holgorsen accepted some very stiff terms (over twice as much as Major, though he’s getting paid a lot more too).
I can imagine it being an issue, but it doesn’t appear to have been an issue yet.
If we’re going to insult Tilman we might consider that he’s an astute business person. And finding the perfect candidate to coach at Houston has always been difficult at best…long before Tilman ever came along to help.
The stinging reality is most hot coaches aren’t interested in more than a short-term engagement here. Tilman gambled with Dana and the jury is still out.
No way is U of H better off if CDH is not successful. Starting over with a new head coach puts us in a rebuilding mode for at least two seasons. I’m getting older I’m tired of waiting for the next great head coach to come to Houston, like it here and never leave. I’m really hoping CDH has a breakout year so I can relax and just enjoy the Fall again. I’m ready to go to the Life Alum tent, see friends, watch the band, Frontiersman, and cheer squad on the field. Winning will just make it better.
