College Football Week 4 (And a look ahead to Week 5)

Over the last week College Football was less defined by what happened on the field, outside of Michigan's upset of USC it was a fairly benign week, than it was what happened OFF the field.

Realignment: News that 4 schools would be defecting from the Mountain West Conference to head for the PAC was a head-scratcher to some. For one, there's little evidence to suggest that membership in a shrunken, G6 version of the PAC will be any more than even with the MWC. For another, what we're left with now are smaller conferences battling to get to 8. Both the PAC and the MWC now are in desperate need of teams. Both are looking at Texas State, among others. I don't see 8 team conferences being viable for the small schools.  But egos get in the way which is preventing a merger and expansion.  a 16-team Mountain Pacific Conference seems much more viable long-term to me than do two 8-team conferences hoping for table scraps.

NIL: The first issues with the current NIL system reared their ugly heads when UNLV QB Paul Sluka became the first athlete to shut it down for the season, declare his intent to red-shirt and transfer due to not making the type of money he states he was promised. Of course, there are two sides to this story with Sluka claiming he was promised $100,000 while only receiving $3,000 while the University states that after wins over Illinois and Kansas Sluka came to the coaches and demanded more cash.  Since all of this was supposedly a "verbal agreement" it's nothing more than a he said/he said issue now and we'll probably never know the truth. Also, there is a USC Defensive End that's decided to redshirt and transfer as well as the 4th string RB for UNLV. Both of those appear to be related to playing time rather than money however.  Still, until a workable framework is decided upon we might start viewing Week 4 as "shut it down" week as players are only allowed to play in 4 games before losing their opportunity to redshirt.

It's a mess and I'm not sure the NCAA can fix it. My feeling is still that the P4 programs, or the BIG and the SEC are ultimately going to form their own league that closely resembles NFL Lite. This will effectively destroy college football as we know it, but I also predict it will be immensely profitable, and popular.

Looking ahead to week 5 the biggest story might be Hurricane Helene. She's currently barreling toward Florida and could impact the Southeast and Midwest greatly. For everyone in their path, hunker down and good luck.

As for the betting, I've got some plays that I really like but none of those lines are still available, and I don't like where they sit currently so I'm just going to say good luck wherever you are sitting.