G’s Exploration or Which Conference Is Actually the Strongest?

Welcome back sports fans. With all the controversy surrounding the Playoff Committee’s choices tonight (although Selection Sunday is the REAL one) brought on, in part, from the “our team is better than that team” and “our conference has to try really hard” type stuff. The politicking is sometimes whining, sometimes poignant, always entertaining. I’ve said …

G’s Exploration or End of September Analysis

Welcome back, oh great and wonderful college football fans! It’s hard to believe but the first month of college football is over! I’ll give you a moment. Ok, but it’s time to look at a couple of different cuts of the data. There are 3 looks I’d like to chat about. ….. First, of the …

G’s Exploration or The Most Difficult Conference in 2024

Welcome back sports fans as we finish up our pre-season strength of schedule analysis. We’ve gone through 24 conferences in the last 100 days or so, and it’s time for the cream of the crop. The 18-team Big Ten conference now houses both teams from last year’s championship game. In addition to Washington (14-1 last …

G’s Exploration or The Second Most-Challenged Conference

Welcome back oh great and wonderful college football fans! We are nearing the end of our pre-season SOS discussions, and I have to thank all of you for sticking with me. These are heavy on data and sometimes a little difficult to follow, but we are almost done. In fact, after this post, there are …

G’s Exploration or The Bronze Medal Goes to…

Welcome back college football fans as we approach the beginning of the season. In this episode we will explore the new-17 team ACC and some of the issues they face. First, congratulations to the SMU Mustangs who are stepping up from the Group of 5 American Athletic Conference (AAC) to the Core 4 ACC. In …

G’s Exploration or The 4th-most Challenged Conference

Welcome back, oh great and wonderful college football fans. We have finally reached the final 4. Each of the Core 4 have made impactful changes in their conference line-ups. All told these 4 have a total of 67 teams, or 16.75 per conference. The sheer number of conference teams has wreaked a little havoc on …

G’s Exploration or The Final Non-Core “Conference”

Happy Sunday and welcome to the latest episode of the GCR. Today is all about a conference that’s not a conference. With Army joining the American Athletic Conference (AAC) over the off-season, we now have just 3 FBS Independent football programs. Two of them (UCONN and UMASS) are considered Group of 5 level programs. What …

G’s Exploration or the Most Difficult Group of 5 Conference (6th overall)

We are getting closer, oh great and wonderful college football fans. Today is the 6th most difficult conference (really 5th as you’ll soon see) and the most-challenged Group of 5 conference. Tomorrow, we’ll explore the 3 FBS independents in the actual 5th position, but they aren’t a conference. Then we have the Core 4 (ACC, …

G’s Exploration or A Special Mascot Episode

Welcome, college football fans, to a special edition of the GCR related to those sometimes odd, sometimes confusing, but always inspiring mascots. Some schools have live animals as their symbol, some have more than one, some have mascots based on historical people. There is a wide range. Based on a question by long-time reader Carl, …

G’s Exploration or The 7th Most Challenged Conference in 2024

Welcome back to the latest episode of the GCR. I have to apologize for the non-standard schedule. My day job is rewarding, yet very long days. So, if you can forgive me and maintain flexibility, we will keep driving toward kickoff (just 4 weeks from yesterday). ….. Today we are going to look at the …