The world has grown cold. Decades long power struggles crescendoed into a cataclysmic fallout that has left the landscape cold and barren. What was a rich, fertile ground of numerous communities have become unfeeling mega-conglomerates, huddling the masses together like rats on a sinking ship. The stories your father and grandfathers told you are a faint light in the distance, only getting farther away until it is indistinguishable from the night sky. Silence and conformity have become the norm more haunting than Isaac Asimov could have ever imagined.

It is not 1984. It 2025. And College Football is different.

The last 13 years have shown the true face of college football. It has changed into an entity that is lucrative as the former NFL. And with media and corporations controlling, colleges and universities, constricted by shrinking governmental budgets, had no choice but to accept deals that allowed them to keep the doors open. So what lead to our current situation? Let’s look back on the times that were.

2012:

Florida State made several outrageous claims about switching to the Big XII in the media. This act caused the resignation of ACC Commissioner John Swofford in favor of exiled NFL GM Mickey Loomis, who colorfully left the professional ranks in favor of rebranding the ACC. This convinced the Noles to stay in conference, and ended up winning the ACC and the Orange Bowl over Pittsburgh. At the end of the season Pittsburgh and Syracuse left for the ACC and a completely disgruntled Louisville joined West Virginia in the Big XII

2013:

The NCAA passed a 4-team playoff proposal which allowed the 4 conference champions with the highest BCS rankings play for the national title. In an ironic twist, it was only open to conference champions, thus leaving the independent teams scrambling for new homes. Army and Navy found comfortable homes in the Big East, BYU joined the Pac 12 with former Mountain West standout Boise State, but the biggest fish in the sea was Norte Dame. The Big Ten and ACC threw out huge incentives, but at the end of the day, the ACC lured them to the east coast, allowing them to start their own Norte Dame Network, giving them a bigger piece of the TV contract to get it off the ground. To balance out the divisions, the ACC took Rutgers from the Big East to make a conference of 14 teams.

2014:

Florida State, now completely unhappy with the revenue split with the ACC and Norte Dame, opened up serious talks with the Big XII. With no ammunition left to accommodate both teams, Florida State leaves the ACC with fellow member Clemson at the end of the season. Seeing the writing on the wall, other ACC teams explored their options with other conferences.

2016:

Finding out that the ACC was getting passed over by the Big Ten, Big XII, Pac 12, and SEC for the National Championship Playoffs the past 3 seasons, member institutions began to head to greener pastures. Without John Swofford to keep the North Carolina Schools together, NC State and Virginia Tech left to head to the SEC. Mr. Loomis still had powerhouses Miami and Norte Dame still in the fold and allowed them to exit without so much as a hesitation.

2019:

After a resurgence of Norte Dame Football, the ACC started to make appearances in the NCP. This made the ‘Big 4’ upset, and with the help of the newly formed Championship Alliance with ESPN and FOX, required that starting in 2021, only 14 member conferences were allowed to compete for National Championships. This opened the door for conferences to bid on other teams to reach that minimum, and the ACC was the main target.

2020:

Virginia, already having discussions with the Big Ten, made the biggest splash by grabbing Norte Dame and headed up north. This move gave the ‘Big 4’ 14 teams each, leaving the ACC with 10 teams and the Big East with 8. Both the ACC and Big East filed anti-trust suits against the NCP.

2021:

After months of back and forth between the two entities and the trial of the century on the doorstep, President Jeb Bush announced that a deal had been reached. The ‘Big 4’ would absorb 2 more teams each, making 16-school conferences. The remaining conferences would dissolve into 2nd-tear Division I schools, eligible for bowl games but not the National Championship.

2022:

With the deals made, the conferences aligned themselves like this:

Big Ten- Not able to break into the southern states, pulled in Syracuse and Pittsburgh to  completely own the northeast market. They changed their name to the Big XVI Conference and owned every market north of the Mason-Dixon line and most of DMV territory, with Maryland disbanding all sports teams due to extreme mismanagement of university money.

SEC- Not wanting to take any more Florida teams, they broke their one state, one school rule and took UNC and Georgia Tech. They are still the Southeastern Conference, but sponsored by Exxon, whose natural gas pipeline and fracking industry connects every state.

Big XII- Seeing the Exxon SEC abandon two high powered teams, they gladly take Miami and consistent Florida powerhouse South Florida into their league. Florida State was the one dissenting vote, but had to swallow their pride in the interest of hoping for their first national championship in 22 years. The newly formed Big South Conference is still important in the Mid West, but does not have much influence east of the Mississippi.

Pac 12- Last on the list, they took the only two viable teams left, TCU and SMU, somehow passed over by the BSC. The Pacific Conference is now wholly owned by the Rose Bowl, who requires the runner up in the conference to pay for the Bowl Parade and submit 3 floats for judging.

2023:

The remaining 9 teams left over from the Big East and ACC form the Eastern Conference. They group together with MAC, C-USA, and the WAC-MWC conference and agree to play for the minor league football championship. It is held in Toledo, Ohio, sponsored by Little Caesars, and averages 8,000+ fans each year.

2024:

Alabama wins their 7th consecutive FedEx NCP. Tired of the losing to their in-state rival for 11 straight years, and remembering the horrific tragedy of the 2011 Toomer’s Oak fiasco, the Tigers fire off 250 nuclear weapons and lay the United States to waist. Belgium is now the world’s lone superpower.

For the few of us left over in the world, let us unite to bring back college football to the normalcy we enjoyed in the early 21st Century. Until then let us sign the Brabanconne and enjoy some moules-frites and reminisce of the happier times while in our self contained Vaults.

And if you think this is all crazy, it isn’t as completely nuts as the other stuff out there on the internet right now.

Another opening round. Another one goal win.

For those with short term memories, the Hoos opened up the 2011 NCAA Tournament with a 12-11 OT win over Bucknell. This year, it was a little harder competition, but the final came down to the wire. Virginia pulled a, well, total Virginia move and allowed Princeton to get back to within a goal with 79 seconds to go. Luckily LaPierre sacrificed his body for the team, the Hoos got possession, and the win. But just like last year, the Hoos have to make some big adjustments to continue their run to Boston. And it is the complete opposite problem.

Last year’s first round shootout caused Virginia to change their approach on defense and cracked down in the last 3 games, allowing 9, 8, and 7 goals, respectively. This year, it is the offense that has gone cold. Granted, Princeton is a possession team (denoted by the stall warning on their first offensive set), but we had our chances. So what happened?

Everything. We lost the shots in the second half 19-8. We lost the ground balls 14-8. We lost the face offs 2 to 3. We lost the clears 10-8. We lost the saves 4-2. And we turned the ball over more 9 to 8. Through all of that, the Hoos still were up 2 goals going into the stretch of a low scoring game. Not something we can repeat at all going forward.

Next up for the Hoos is a Sunday matchup with #4 Norte Dame. It has been 6 years since we last saw the Irish, winning a 14-10 game against them in the first round of the NCAAs. That was the glorious year where the Hoos went 17-0 and won the NC, a Hoos team that is in the discussion with 1990 Syracuse for best team ever. We are a long way from that, and this will be a different game. They are not the high flying, high scoring team the Hoos will see if they advance, but they play methodical, smart, and close. Look for a game similar to Princeton, but a little more scoring. But either way you know that Dom will be grilling the kids this week to correct those mistakes.

Talk about total domination. You would expect that the #3 Men’s Team would cruise through their first two rounds with ease, but the #14 Women’s Team matched them stride for stride. Now both teams are heading to Athens for the NCAA Round of 16. But there is where the similarities end. Here is what each team is facing this weekend.

Men’s Tennis

I don’t want to belittle Fairleigh Dickinson or VCU, but clearly they were overmatched by the Hoos in the opening rounds. Virginia won each match 4-0 and cruised into the Round of 16. There were no major upsets in the opening rounds, although Baylor did knock off #9 Miss. St. and Tulsa beat #10 Oklahoma, but other than that, par for the course. This means that Virginia will play #14 Cal at 4pm on Friday, with the winner playing either #6 Kentucky or #11 Stanford. Remember, lurking after that is the host #2 UGA and #1 USC, provided all parties win as expected.

Women’s Tennis

The Women had a slightly harder track with VCU then #23 Tennessee, but they blanked the Rams and won 4-1 over the Vols, only surrendering a point at #3 singles. But the women know what is up next. Only #8 Alabama (GT) and #16 Ole Miss (Rice) have been bounced, which means that the matchup with #3 Duke is waiting for them at 4pm on Thursday. If somehow we can overcome our 0-2 record against the Blue Devils this year, #6 UGA, the host team, would most likely be waiting in the Quarterfinals. We were competitive with them in the regular season (4-3 loss), but were blanked in the ACC Semis a few weeks ago.

Good luck to all the Hoos this weekend!

One more week to go, and not a lot got sorted out over the weekend. Yes, Virginia has already wrapped up a bid into the ACC Tourney, but that is just one of many steps to aide the Hoos in getting back to the College World Series. So what does the Hoos have to do from here out to put them in the optimal position for another June run? The way we look at it, it comes down to 3 numbers: 40, 4, and 14. Let’s look at them one at a time.

40 wins

Right off the bat, I will let you know that short of a ACC Title or a dominate run to the conference championship, we will not be a numbered seed this year. But, with focusing on these three areas, we can get a really, really high host seed, and move us away from those high ranked teams. First there is getting to 40 wins. It’s alway a magic number for host teams to have. It just rings out to the selection committee that this is a quality team, mixed with venue and history, could give Virginia a lot of aid in the important seeding phase. Currently, the Hoos are sitting at 34-15-1 and simple math show that we will need 6 more wins to get there. Now there are 4 more games this regular season: a home game with VCU tomorrow then a road trip to Maryland to wrap up the season. Hoos already have a win over the Rams on the road last month and the Terps are 9-18 in ACC play and most likely on the outside looking in come tourney time. It is completely possible to sweep all of theses game. That puts us 2 wins short, and will have to win those in Greensboro. Which brings us to the next part. UPDATE: The VCU game has been cancelled. This means the Hoos will need to win all three games in the ACC tourney to get there. Not impossible, but ending up at 39-16-1 is really good as well. Blerg!

4 seed in ACC Tournament

This one is a lot easier. FSU and UNC have wrapped up the top seeds in Group A and Group B. Unless the Heels sweep VT at home and the Noles lose all games to NC State, FSU will be #1 and UNC will be #2. Now with the Packs series win over UVa, it will take that same FSU/UNC scenario to play out for us to move into 3rd place. We have not been that fortunate this year, so 4 is about as high as we can expect. Now the only bump in the road is Clemson, who is currently tied with UVa for 4th at 16-11 in conference. But the Hoos own the tiebreaker, so the Tiger will need to win one more game in their @Wake series to jump ahead of us. Frankly, if that happens, we don’t need to talk about this much anymore.

Here is how we see the seedings panning out:

Group A
#1 FSU
#4 UVa
#5 Clemson
#8 Virginia Tech

Group B
#2 UNC
#3 NC State
#6 Miami
#7 Georgia Tech

Now the difference between 4th and 5th is mostly irrelevant when it comes to grouping in the ACC tourney, but it does have one subtile difference. The #4 seed will play, in order, the #5, #8, and #1 seed, while the #5 seed plays #4, #1, #8. If we are talking about getting to the ACC Championship, it doesn’t really matter, but keeping FSU til the end and taking care of say Clemson and Virginia Tech, would make the last game a semi-final of sorts, something that could help Virginia come into seeding. Speaking of seeding

Higher Than #14 Nationally

It is not the end all, be all but it will definitely play into the overall host seedings. The only way Hoos move into the Top 10 and in seeded discussion would be to, again, win or come real close in Greensboro. But those 2 other numbers should get us in the mid to low teens in national rankings, which would put us across from teams like LSU or UCLA versus Oregon or South Carolina, which this year, is a big deal. Other teams like Texas A&M, Kentucky, and Fullerton are looking to do what we envision for the Hoos, trying to move up in the seedings. Virginia could have an advantage over these other teams, but will need to hit these marks to make them stand out.

Is it possible? Yes. But we will need a few breaks along the way. It all starts tomorrow against VCU. From there, we can only hope.