Cole Tollison

Wisco Wednesday: Luke Fickell is an Upgrade at Wisconsin

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How much better will Wisconsin be in 2023?

The badger state is full of excitement and anticipation. What will the new QB look like? What will the offense look like? Packer fans need to know what will happen now that Rodgers is gone. Oh, you were talking about the other football team going through massive changes in Wisconsin.  

The Badgers have the same questions mentioned above, and one more big one. Can Luke Fickell deliver the championships he has mentioned frequently since taking over the program? There’s a lot of unknown there, and it might take time for the program to be what Fickell is envisioning. When comparing Fickell to his predecessor, a more focused question would be: Can he win big games, the type of wins that have mostly eluded Wisconsin since Russell Wilson was under center?

Under previous coach Paul Chryst, the answer was mostly no. There was the Rose Bowl loss, no wins over Ohio State or Penn State, losses to Notre Dame and Alabama in marquee non-conference matchups, and 0 for 3 in Indianapolis in the B1G Championship game. It hurts a lot more when it’s laid out like that. Everyone liked Coach Dad.  …

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Projecting the biggest CFB games of 2023: Week 2

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This is Part 2 of a series where I go week by week ranking what I expect to be the biggest games in college football. Check out part 1 here!

As we get deeper in the season there will be some nuance in guessing who has a decent record and who has fallen off. The elephant in the room is very much overshadowing some quality matchups this week.

3rd – Utah at Baylor

Massive props to Utah for scheduling hard! They have 9 conference games plus 2 high-quality P5 non-conference matchups (this one and Florida week 1). 

This is good for:

  • Season Ticket holders
  • Comparing  conference strength
  • The overall quality of College Football

Baylor is an enigma to most CFB fans outside of the Big 12; they are 5th in conference title odds. With how chaotic the Big 12 is, Baylor finishing anywhere from 1st to 11th seems reasonable. After Texas and Oklahoma leave, Baylor aims to be a flagship brand in the Big 12. If the Big 12 wants to remain respected among the P5 (or P-whatever) their power players like Baylor need to win these non-con games.

2nd – Oregon at Texas Tech

How the hell is …

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Projecting the biggest CFB games of 2023: Week 1

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Which games will be the best each week in College Football this year?

For the first few weeks of the season, this is a fairly easy question to answer. For example:

Colorado at TCU: How will Deion’s Colorado look? Will TCU continue to outperform expectations after being CFP runner-up?

Texas at Alabama: 2 playoff hopeful teams squaring off in week 2.

FSU vs LSU: A top 10 showdown in week 1. The loser starts the season in survival mode (no 2-loss team has made the playoff… yet).

But the deeper one looks into the season, the harder it becomes to predict. Will Notre Dame be undefeated when they play Clemson, or will they have 2+ losses at that point? Will Clemson have any blemishes on their record by then? Louisville isn’t on anyone’s marquee radar right now, but their schedule is so marshmallow soft that they could easily be 9-1 and must-see TV by week 12. Is the B1G West pure chaos like last year? Would that make it more or less watchable?

Week by week, I will give my predictions for what the 3 must-watch games of that week will be. For games deeper into the season there will …

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Hurt Feelings in the MWC

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What’s going on between San Diego State and the Mountain West Conference?

Waiting too long in a waiting game.

San Diego State has champagne problems. They want to go to the Pac-12, and they are certain the Pac-12 will offer them a spot – after the Pac-12 finalizes a media deal. That’s the issue.  

There is no real deadline for a Pac-12 media deal. June 30th was viewed by many, including myself as the hard deadline because of San Diego State. 

A major assumption being made by everyone is that the Pac-12 would want SDSU ASAP. But, they still have 3 years left in the Mountain West (through the 2025/2026 season). 

When SDSU requests to leave impacts what they owe.

  • If San Diego State requests to leave the Mountain West on or before June 30th – They owe the conference approx. $16.5 million
  • If San Diego State requests to leave the Mountain West after June 30th – They owe the conference approx. $34 million

Two weeks of Letters

June 13th – San Diego State writes the Mountain West conference with two main requests. 

  • Extend the deadline to request leaving the conference from the end of June to the end
…

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