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Illinois dismisses suspended DT Lere Oladipo

By John TaylorNov 20, 2019, 9:56 AM EST
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The Champaign soap opera that is Lere Oladipo has taken yet another twist.

In a statement Tuesday evening, Illinois announced that Oladipo has been dismissed from the Fighting Illini football program for violating unspecified team rules.  In mid-September of this year, the redshirt sophomore defensive tackle was indefinitely suspended from the team, a suspension that had remained in place right up until his dismissal.

In late October of last year, Oladipo was arrested in connection to a domestic incident and charged with one count of domestic battery/bodily harm and two counts of domestic battery/physical contact.  As Oladipo, who pleaded not guilty to all counts, was set to go trial, the three charges he was facing were dismissed.  The state’s attorney’s office dropped the charges after the alleged victim and a witness called the police and changed their stories.

Suspended after the initial arrest, Oladipo was reinstated and participated in both spring practice and summer camp earlier this year.  He played in the first two games this season before his second suspension; it’s unclear if the second issue is/was related to the first.

Oladipo was a three-star 2017 signee.  He played in four games as a redshirt freshman before the off-field issues sidelined him.

New Year’s Six matchups, full College Football Playoff top 25 unveiled

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By Bryan FischerDec 8, 2019, 3:17 PM EST
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The College Football Playoff is set, now it’s time for the rest of the postseason picture to shake out.

The CFP Selection Committee followed up the announcement of the Peach Bowl (No. 1 LSU vs. No. 4 Oklahoma) and Fiesta Bowl (No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 3 Clemson) semifinals with the rest of the New Year’s Six matchups and there are some enticing games to take in over the coming month. Making some tough decisions and throwing in a handful of surprises, here’s the full lineup of the major bowl games:

College Football Playoff Semifinals — December 28, 2018

  • Peach Bowl: No. 1 LSU vs. No. 4 Oklahoma
    4 p.m. ET, ESPN
  • Fiesta Bowl: No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 3 Clemson
    8 p.m. ET, ESPN

New Year’s Six

  • Cotton Bowl: No. 10 Penn State vs. No. 17 Memphis
    December 28, 2019, 12 p.m. ET, ESPN
  • Orange Bowl: No. 9 Florida vs. No. 24 Virginia
    December 30, 2019, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN
  • Rose Bowl Game: No. 6 Oregon vs. No. 8 Wisconsin
    January 1, 2020, 5 p.m. ET, ESPN
  • Sugar Bowl: No. 5 Georgia vs. No. 7 Baylor
    January 1, 2020, 8:45 p.m. ET, ESPN

The College Football Playoff National Championship Game is scheduled for Monday, January 13, 2020. Kickoff in that one is slated for 8 p.m. ET on ESPN from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, La.

The Selection Committee also released their final set of rankings for the 2019 season. They will not release a top 25 after the bowl games — as that’s left for the AP and Coaches Poll — so the members on the committee are done with their duties this year. In what is sure to be a controversial ranking (or two) for some schools, here’s the order they put teams in:

  1. LSU
  2. Ohio State
  3. Clemson
  4. Oklahoma
  5. Georgia
  6. Oregon
  7. Baylor
  8. Wisconsin
  9. Florida
  10. Penn State
  11. Utah
  12. Auburn
  13. Alabama
  14. Michigan
  15. Notre Dame
  16. Iowa
  17. Memphis
  18. Minnesota
  19. Boise State
  20. Appalachian State
  21. Cincinnati
  22. USC
  23. Navy
  24. Virginia
  25. Oklahoma State

Report: South Carolina making ex-Colorado State head coach Mike Bobo the Gamecocks’ new OC

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By Bryan FischerDec 8, 2019, 2:32 PM EST
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South Carolina fans will soon be able to yell ‘Run the dang ball Bobo!’ next fall.

According to the Post and Courier, Will Muschamp is set to hire ex-Colorado State head coach Mike Bobo as the Gamecocks’ new offensive coordinator “barring a last-minute change of heart.”

Receivers coach Bryan McClendon is expected to remain on staff after serving as OC this past season while Bobo is likely to fill the role vacated by recently fired QB coach Dan Werner.

Bobo is no stranger to South Carolina or SEC fans, having spent eight seasons as the coordinator at his (and Muschamp’s) alma mater of Georgia. He won two conference titles and five division titles while with the Bulldogs and spent 15 years on staff in Athens.

The Rams and Bobo announced they had mutually parted ways after the end of the regular season last week after the head coach spent five seasons in Fort Collins.

CFP chair confirms debate for No. 4 was between Oklahoma and Georgia

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By Bryan FischerDec 8, 2019, 1:41 PM EST
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Let’s be honest, there was no debating the College Football Playoff this season. You want to try to stir things up and say that Ohio State and not LSU should have been No. 1? Fine.

But those top four teams? That seemed set in stone from the moment Utah fell flat on its face in the Pac-12 title game against Oregon. It was always going to be the Buckeyes, Tigers, Clemson and the Sooners after they beat Baylor in the Big 12 Championship Game.

For formality sake though, the Selection Committee still had to go through the motions and tick off all the boxes in the process. That included, as chairman Rob Mullens told ESPN, discussing final spot in the field between OU and what he revealed to be the No. 5 team in the rankings: Georgia.

“That conference championship win against Baylor moved (Oklahoma) to the No. 4 spot. Wd did spend some time talking about Oklahoma and Georgia but in the end, it was a solid selection for Oklahoma in the No. 4 spot,” said Mullens. “We put them on the board because we want to be thorough and we want to make sure that we consider everything. So we did have Oklahoma and Georgia on the board and Oklahoma was the number four team.”

Such a debate may not have lasted much more than 30 seconds but there you go Bulldogs fans, at least there was some consideration for your team.

Perhaps more notable is the fact that Mullens all but confirmed UGA was the No. 5 team in the full rankings released later on Sunday, which means they’ll be put in the Sugar Bowl against Baylor.

The College Football Playoff is set: No. 1 LSU, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Clemson and No. 4 Oklahoma

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By Bryan FischerDec 8, 2019, 12:24 PM EST
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The 2019-2020 College Football Playoff field is set.

Thanks largely to a drama-free and fairly straightforward conference championship weekend, the CFP Selection Committee made the easy choice of the four teams who will play for this season’s national championship: SEC champion LSU at No. 1 in the Peach Bowl semifinal against No. 4 Oklahoma and recently crowned Big Ten champ Ohio State at No. 2 in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal against reigning champions and No. 3 Clemson.

“You’ve got two complete teams, obviously. They’ve both had a conference championship and when we’re comparing schedule strength, you’ve got LSU 4-0 against teams in the top 13, Ohio State 5-0 against teams in the top 21,” committee chairman Rob Mullens said on ESPN of the only debate that existed on the top seeds. “It was really close, I mean we’ve spent the entire ranking season, six weeks of just, you know, one going above the other one just by a tick.

“We saw the last couple of weeks an LSU defense that’s healthy and playing better, continued quality play out of Joe Burrow at the quarterback position so this week we just felt that LSU deserve that number one seed going into the playoffs.”

The Peach Bowl in Atlanta will kickoff first on Saturday, December 28 at 4 p.m. ET and be followed by the Fiesta Bowl at roughly 8 p.m. ET with both games broadcasted on ESPN.

Perhaps most notable regarding this year’s final four is who’s not involved as this will be the very first College Football Playoff since its inception in 2014 without Alabama and Nick Saban. Two-loss Pac-12 champion Oregon was also not involved in the discussions for postseason tournament either as the conference has missed out on the CFP for the third straight year.

This will be the Sooners’ fourth appearance and first trip to the Peach Bowl in the current setup, having posted an 0-3 mark in their previous semifinals. The Buckeyes are on their third selection, having won the first Playoff altogether while also getting shutout by Clemson in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl.

The newbie of the group? That would be Ed Orgeron’s Tigers, who are the first SEC team other than Georgia and the Crimson Tide to make it in. The site of this season’s National Championship Game is at the Superdome in New Orleans — notable since LSU’s past two titles were won there.

The Selection Committee’s full top 25 and the rest of the New Year’s Six matchups will be announced later on Sunday but for now, let the discussion over this year’s Playoff begin.