Fact or Fiction: A national title won't mean much in 2020
National recruiting director Mike Farrell and national recruiting analyst Adam Gorney tackle three topics daily and determine whether they believe the statements or not.
MORE: Recruiting never stops, even if games hit pause | The SEC, ACC and Big 12 will play football this fall
1. A national title won't mean much in 2020.
Farrell’s take: FACT. Dabo Swinney said a national title will not be changed even without the Big Ten or Pac-12 this season, but he’s wrong. The reason? Ohio State.
Let’s put the Pac-12 aside for a moment and assume they wouldn’t have a team make the playoff (although I think Oregon could have made a run), but what about the Buckeyes? Led by Justin Fields, they are a formidable foe and would certainly make a push for the national title. I know what Clemson fans are going to say — we’ve owned Ohio State in the playoff — but let’s remember how close last year’s game between the two teams was. Whoever wins the national title, assuming we get to that point, will certainly have a massive asterisk next to it.
Gorney’s take: FICTION. Ohio State is an incredible program and I’m not taking anything away from the Buckeyes, but the fact is other than when they won the national title in 2014, no program from the Big Ten or the Pac-12 has won it all since 2004 when USC got the title. Everyone playing college football today was around the kindergarten age.
The SEC and the ACC to an extent have dominated the top of college football for a long time. The last 15 national champions: Ten were from the SEC, three from the ACC and one each from the Big Ten and Big 12.
With so much noise around the sport right now, the ability to actually play the games and win a title would be monumental. This national title might mean more than in a normal season, not less.
2. Nebraska should leave the Big Ten.
Farrell’s take: FICTION. I put this in here to point out the ridiculousness of some of the college football media and these days. Both Mike Wilbon and Desmond Howard at ESPN said the Huskers should leave the Big Ten if they are unhappy with the decision to postpone the season and many writers have said the same thing. All because Nebraska coach Scott Frost and company said they were going to explore options of playing in 2020 even with the Big Ten postponing.
But when Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said the same thing? Not a peep. Let’s be clear here. It was never the intention of the Huskers to permanently leave the Big Ten and all that money behind and there’s no way they should now despite the early and rash decision to shut things down by the Big Ten six weeks away from the potential start of the season.
Yes, it’s fun to talk of Nebraska back in the Big 12 and all but let’s not be ridiculous. It was never going to leave nor should it unless others decide to disband the conference as a group.
Gorney’s take: FICTION. This comes down to one incontrovertible fact: People on television needs to say things, many times outlandish and ridiculous and sometimes it’s an attempt to go viral on social media or to get clicks on YouTube or to crash the discussion around a much more serious topic.
All I know is when I turn on the TV and people are yelling, usually a good point is not being made and Wilbon and Howard were yelling. Anyway, Nebraska was trying to figure out a way to play football this season because its conference decided not to play. Frost and the university should be commended for considering all options and trying to do the best thing for Nebraska’s players, university, town and state. Some in the media disagreed and unfortunately they’re the loudest. Nebraska should not leave the Big Ten just for disagreeing with the conference’s stance on playing in the fall.
3. Jeff Brohm's spring and fall plan could work.
Farrell’s take: FACT. Brohm, the head coach at Purdue, came up with a plan for the spring that allows for football from February to May and then another truncated season in 2021 from October to January. It’s a solid plan and can work.
Do I like it? Not really, but I get why he mapped it out. The idea of two shortened seasons in the Big Ten doesn’t thrill me and the turnaround from May to October would be very controversial from a player safety aspect, but what else can we do? The Big Ten threw in the towel and now we have to look forward and Brohm’s idea is a solid start.
Gorney’s take: FACT. I commend Brohm for at least coming up with a framework for a plan and trying to be productive. While Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren was on television talking about uncertainty over and over again, Brohm was working on a plan that could have legs and seems like there could be adoption.
One concern I’d have is that a lot of the football activity is predicated around colder months - January, February for the spring season and then the later months of the year for the following fall season - and many of those months are high in regular flu transmission without even factoring in Covid-19 as well. The average temperatures in West Lafayette, Ind., in January and February is 34 and 38 degrees. That could be concerning from an illness standpoint - common cold, flu and now Covid - to get this thing launched that early in the year.
But Brohm should be applauded for at least trying to figure out the future while others don’t seem to have a plan in place at all.