i got you
Major [division 1, or, FBS as its known ] College football consists of 5 major conferences, 4-5 smaller conferences, and a few independant schools
- The big ten consists of 14 schools primarily in the midwest, and east coast. Main schools for that are Michigan, ohio state, penn state, and Wisconsin among others.
- The SEC or, South Eastern conference consists of 14 schools based in the south. Main schools for that are Alabama, Florida, TN, and Georiga among others.
- The PAC-12 consists of 12 schools based on the west coast, including USC, Washington, Stanford, and Utah
- The ACC, or, Atlantic Coast Conference consists of teams in the atlantic east coast, including Miami, Florida State, Clemson, and North Carolina
- The Big 12, is based out of the south west. It has 10 schools and the major schools are Texas, Oklahoma, Baylor and Oklahoma State.
Teams within the conference face both their division opponents [usually 8-9 games] and a couple of teams outside of their conference. That can be other major conferences' teams, or smaller conferences. An example of a schedule in the big ten for example can look like this:
Michigan
vs. Florida
vs. Cincinatti
vs. Eastern michigan
vs. BYU
@ wisconsin
vs. iowa
@ michigan stae
vs. minnesota
vs. indiana
@ Maryland
vs. Rutgers
@ ohio state
Throughout the season, the associated press and the coaches [in 2 seperate polls] rank teams based on performance and expectation of end result. These rankings don't REALLY matter.
as the year begins to come to an end, the 'playoff selection committee' which consists of 12 individuals choose weekly rankings of the best teams out of the above pool of teams. At the end, they select a top 4, and those four teams play each other for a chance to win the national championship. Those games are traditionally on jan 1st.
This year it was Clemson, Michigan state, Alabama, and Oklahoma. A week later, the winners play for the national championships.
Teams who do not make that playoffs can get selected for "bowl" games, such as the citrus bowl, outback bowl, cotton bowl, etc. Those bowls have agreements with conferences as to whom will face. As an example; the #2 big ten team faces the #3 SEC team in the Citrus bowl. That gives teams an additional week to practice and get better, and to end the season with an important win.
Other items of note:
- every year awards are given of course, with the most outstanding player being awarded the coveted Heisman Trophy
- Teams have major rivals which add importance and weight to those games [michigan and ohio state, auburn and alabama, michigan state and futility]
- throughout the year, college football coaches are recruiting HS players, and invite them to campus and to games. The first wednesday in February is 'national signing day' where HS Seniors commit to where they will be attending college at. [i may have that day wrong]
- a little history
- Michigan has the most wins in college football history
- notre dame has the highest winning % in cfb history; when michigan faces ND they often jockey this title
- While Princeton and Yale have the most national champions, football was created on the east coast of the us as an ivy-league type sport, and thus have about a 50 year head start on most schools. The school with the most national championships outside of those two, is Notre Dame with 22, followed by Alabama with 19 and Oklahoma with 17
There are various rule difference between NFL and college football, including 'one foot only'; in the NFL for a catch to count, both feet need to be in bounds, in CFB, only one. And 'down by contact'. in CFB, when your knee is down...you are down..you do not need contact by a foe to be down. The SKILL gap between CFB and NFL is quite noticable; the most obvious IMO being in kickers, and the secondary. 30 yard FGS are not chipshots in college...and most college CBs don't look back at the ball reguarly, for example. THIS imo, can make the game more fun as a viewer.
let me know if you need more info.
If you have to ask this, college Football just might not be for you.
It must be, if you had to create this thread.
