The following is a look at this week’s most interesting news and notes from the world of college football. Clemson rewards it's coach after a strong season while the Fighting Irish pick up a few key additions to their squad.
NCAA Football News & Notes- June
12
The start of
another college football season is less than three months away, making this the
perfect time of year to start putting your own game plan together for another
profitable season of wagering on the games. A vital part of the that strategy
should be to always keep yourself abreast of any new developments that in one
way or another end up having a major impact on a particular team’s odds for a
run to a conference championship and possible BCS national title.
Clemson head coach earns an extension
The Clemson
Tigers decided to reward coach Dabo Swinney with a three-year contract
extension after he led the football team to it's first ACC championship in 20
years. The Tigers went on to the BCS Orange Bowl for the first time in 30 years
but the season ended with a disappointing and embarrassing 70-33 loss to West
Virginia.
Clemson made
a serious run up the BCS rankings with an 8-0 start that had it ranked as high
as No. 6, but lost four of its next six games to finish 10-4 on the year. The
Tigers finished ranked 22nd in both the AP and USA Today Coaches
Poll.
They come
into this season at 30/1 to win a national title with only Virginia Tech at
28/1 and Florida State at 14/1 having lower odds in the ACC.
Selection Committee for potential
playoff system
While NCAA
football continues to move in the direction of setting up a four team playoff
system to determine the national championship as early as the 2014 season, the
debate among the top power conferences in the nation as to how these four teams
should be decided rages on.
The Big Ten
is currently spearheading a move that would set-up a selection committee to
determine which four teams should play for a title similar to one that is used
to select the at-large teams for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. The SEC
and the Big 12 are in favor of the four best-teams format but have not
publically advocated of selection committee to determine them. The PAC-12 has
advocated that the field consist of just conference champions which has met
some resistance from the SEC, which sent two teams to last season’s BCS title
game.
While we are
still a long ways off of any kind a definitive structure for the new playoff
system, the general consensus is that a new alterative to the current status
quo is vital for the continued growth and health of the sport.
Notre Dame lands a couple of
blue-chippers
Brian Kelly
and his recruiting staff at Notre Dame have been unusually quiet this spring
but that all changed in the month of June with the addition of two defensive
studs to their 2013 recruiting class. This past week both five-star linebacker
Jaylon Smith and four-star defensive end Isaac Rochell verbally committed to
play their college football in South Bend.
Smith is a
6-foot-3 225 lb prospect from nearby Fort Wayne who named Scout’s No.1 outside
linebacker in the class of 2013. Rochell was Scout’s 12th-best
defensive end in the 2013 class and has the shown the versatility to play
offensive line as well. That is not likely given the Irish’s strength in that
area. On paper, many experts believe that Notre Dame is having its best
recruiting season since 2008 with 12 four-star or higher players already
verbally committed for 2013. Notre Dame is currently listed as 25/1 to win the
national title in 2012.