Parity in College Football?

[adoniijahsooner]

For the last few yrs the gap between the upper teams and the low tier teams has closed. Going out and beating South Dakota State, Samford, or even Utah State 70-3 is an unreasonable expectation. Every team this year has struggled...including the elite. I never thought it would happen in football, because it was a sport that was based on strength and depth, but with scholarship limits, and the spread offense that just isnt true anymore. So we can sit with our mouths open in utter disbelief everytime a team hangs with is not named Texas or Nebraska, or we can look across the landscape and see that FIU, Samford, South Dakota State, and App state are simply not afraid to go to big time schools, and FULLY EXPECT to walk away winners.

[Soonermagik]

I don't know about that. Ohio State has been beating the crap out of those terrible teams. Alabama beat Duke by like 40 + points.

OU just has to get better on defense and not miss big opportunities on offense. Don't forget how bad OU torched Florida State and they aren't some division 2 school.

[adoniijahsooner]

Ohio State is an experienced team, this OU team isnt. Alabama is the defending national champion with 10 starters back on offense and a heisman winning runningback. Those teams are more consistent, but when a team isnt regardless of talent, that leads to upsets.

[Soonermagik]

My point is lesser teams still get the crap beat out of them. OU could have beaten many of these teams by double digits.

They were beating Air Force by 17 points in the 3rd quarter. They were beating Cincinnati by 12 points last night and Kenney dropped a TD. OU has had the chance to beat several teams by 15+ points.

[bluedogok]

I think the expectation to go blow out people by 60 points is unrealistic. Does it happen? Yes it does but to expect it week in and out is unrealistic, most blowout games are due to turnovers creating a wave of momentum.

There are too many good players available now and teams can't stockpile talent to keep them away from others and players are more likely to transfer now rather than sit on the bench and "wait their turn" than they did 20-30 years ago. In a one game "us against the world" situation anything is possible. It is just a different game than it used to be.

[LRoss]

IMO the reason for this is that the top programs best players don't stay 4 years, but nobody comes out of the smaller schools early, so they have inferior talent but more experience and cohesion playing with the same group of guys. Less talented seniors vs more talented sophomores means the seniors win sometimes. If everybody stayed 4 years 60 point routes would become routine again.