Another week of college football has wrapped up, and with it comes even more chaos. Many teams in the AP Poll and teams that were supposed to take care of business were upset. Across the chaotic landscape of College Football, we see Alabama finally entering an instant revival of their dynasty, upsets galore against top-ranked teams plus trap games, and teams going up and down by multiple numbers in the AP polls. But before that, we have to ask a question that has been confusing even the most knowledgeable football analysts can comprehend.
What Is A Catch? The Burning Question Needing More Re-Evaluation After # 7 Miami Barely Escapes Virginia Tech
Trap games are a staple in college football. A powerful top-ranked team meets up against a low-ranked squad that has nothing to lose against them. For some, it would be a cakewalk, pulling out starters by halftime, and racking up the scoreboard by at least 60+. But that wasn’t the case when Virginia Tech entered Hard Rock Stadium on Friday night, as Miami had struggled immensely. Heading into the 4th quarter down 27-24, Cam Ward was having a rough game, throwing two costly interceptions, but had managed to get it into 38-34 at the final minute, which left Virginia Tech’s quarterback Kyron Drones to possibly have a Heisman moment. That moment had seemed to come when at the last play, he chucked it 50 yards to the endzone. At first, it had seemed that Miami would come up with the ball after six players collided, ending the game. But then, referees would rule it a touchdown to Virginia Tech. Since touchdowns get automatically reviewed, the play would take six and a half minutes for the actual ACC command center in North Carolina to finally review the play. The result?
“The ruling on the field is reversed. It’s an incomplete pass. The game is over.” said referee Jerry Magallanes.
Within the six minutes, the replay had shown a Virginia Tech player catching the ball, but fumbling it at the last second. What looked to be a Miami player went out of bounce to then finally get the ball, it would have been ruled incomplete. It had made everyone ask the same old question once again: What is a Catch? And it seems like that answer is not going to be whatever that last play was. With that, currently, #8 ranked Miami would survive and will move on to take on Cal on the road on gameday. This match would only rank Miami one position lower than last week. But once the Saturday games rolled around, let’s just say Miami isn’t as upset as they originally were.
Major Changes In the AP Polls! Three Top 10 Teams Lose, Mountain West Gets Another Newcomer, and Everyone Else Moves Up
Last week, The AP polls saw some significant change in the rankings, with teams flying up and dropping down. But this week made last week look like a regular Sunday in the rankings. Starting with the major matchup, #4 ranked Alabama stuns previously #2 ranked Georgia, winning an almost close game at one point, 41-34. And with this win, Alabama finally reclaims the number one position in the AP polls, dropping former #1 ranked Texas to #2. Georgia on the other hand is only dropped to 5th since, you know, they’re Georgia. But even with that heartbreaking loss, they didn’t lose to Kentucky at least. That special honor goes to Ole Miss, who fell head first into a trap game, losing to the Wildcats 17-20. This loss drops them out of the top 10, placing them at 12th. But even still, they at least kept it kind of competitive (They did lose because Kentucky managed to score off their own fumble at Ole Miss’s goal line, however), and did not completely fall apart. That prestigious award will go to former #10-ranked Utah. While everyone was focused on the Georgia/Alabama game, no one saw until the next day that Utah would end up getting dominated by unranked Arizona, 10-23 (Pac-12 After Dark Lives Forever!) It would end up being the harshest drop out of everyone, getting dropped to #18th in the polls, and moving down eight spots. Other significant losses included #15 ranked Louisville dropping to 22nd, and Illinois falling to #24.
Meanwhile, almost every other team had moved up in the polls, by an average of 2.3 spots. Yet the biggest surprise on the list comes from the Mountain West finally having two teams on the polls. Along with newly ranked #21 Boise State, UNLV becomes the 25th ranked team, dominating Fresno St. 59-14. And even with that win and new rank, some more controversy would come before the game.
Major News: Can NIL Ruin a Player’s Career? Matthew Sulka’s Career May Be In Jeopardy As UNLV Dominates Fresno St. Without Him Under Center
NIL has transformed into a major part of recruitment for new college athletes. Some may think it’s a great way for these young players to put their name out there and be able to get paid for it. Others may think it’s not a good way to get players to join a team, offering money and other benefits, rather than the team’s history, prestige, and discipline. Whatever your decision may be, the debate of whether or not NIL is beneficial to players will be a debate long to come (Except if it involves Waffle House sponsoring Offensive Linemen. That should be an exception). But when current redshirt QB Matthew Sulka announced he would be redshirting this season due to an NIL dispute, it led to even more controversy surrounding it. The issue was that to him being a Transfer from Holy Cross, a UNLV coach had promised him $100,000 to transfer here. How much did he actually get? A minimum of $3,000 instead, according to him. Because of this, and his camp saying they never wanted that much but the guarantee of the hundred thousand, he announced that he would redshirt this year and plan to enter the transfer portal on December 9th. With that, if Matthew had seemed like a key piece to the offense, maybe a payment would have been fully paid out. But under new starter Hajj-Malik Williams, the Rebels dominated Fresno St in their first conference win of the season. Now it seems like a losing battle for Matthew, if UNLV had struggled or lost, they would have to do something to get him back under center. But now, they look to have Mr.Williams be the new starter against Syracuse on Friday Night. No matter what happens from here on out, this moment of controversy will certainly make the debate on NIL more serious, as guaranteed money could be the main reason a person would choose between schools for their start into college athlete life.
