Yesterday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Ken Sugiura wrote up an article on the ACC’s latest football scheduling plan. As we all know, between the divisional issues, Notre Dame and out-of-conference rivalries for many teams, it’s been a mess since Syracuse and Pittsburgh joined the league in 2013.

The ACC is trying to fix that mess, but may end up making an even bigger one in the process. The latest idea is an “eight plus two” model.

Sugiura describes the idea, which will be on the agenda when ACC athletic directors meet this Friday, as a way to increase appealing football inventory for the ACC Network. Or at least, that’s the thinking of some athletic directors, including Georgia Tech’s Mike Bobinski, who Sugiura spoke to for the story.

Right now, most ACC teams schedule at least one non-conference game against a Power 5 opponent (or BYU), and by 2017, all will have to by league mandate. Schools like Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Louisville are already covered on that front with an annual non-conference rivalry game. Five ACC schools per year also play Notre Dame — a list that has overlap with the aforementioned list some years. So some years, those four schools already have an “eight plus two” setup by way of Notre Dame, and in the years the Fighting Irish aren’t on the schedule, most do typically schedule an additional power program.

That sounds fine for playoff contenders. But certainly not for the rest of the ACC’s vast middle class. For the majority of the conference, the issues are numerous:

1. Scheduling a second P5 team doesn’t increase television inventory

The ACC’s move to 20 games in basketball is not universally loved, but is understood as a means to increase inventory for the ACC Network. But forcing every ACC team to schedule an additional P5 opponent doesn’t have that same effect (and is supposed to be the point of this games-adding exercise). Any P5 team is going to want a home-and-home. So every other year, the ACC loses a game in their inventory to another league. That game would’ve otherwise been a bodybag home game, which even if less entertaining, the conference would have possession of.

2. Not all P5 games are created equal

Annual non-conference matchups of Clemson and Texas, or Florida State and USC, or Virginia Tech and Ohio State all sound fun. But for every one of those, you’re going to get Wake Forest and Washington State, or Boston College and Kansas that literally no one wants to watch. Doubt that? Maybe consult the next two points.

3. There aren’t enough P5 teams to go around

The Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 already have nine-game schedules. Four SEC teams are already taken up with a non-conference game every year against the ACC. Where are these additional teams coming from? In theory, there are 44 non-conference P5 slots available per year outside of the ACC when you take out those aforementioned SEC rivalry games, and Stanford and USC’s respective Notre Dame deals. The ACC is not the only P5 league looking to schedule there (all the leagues pretty much have to). The math doesn’t add up unless you create idiotic exceptions like the Big Ten has already instituted.

4. Future schedules are already set for many teams

Not every school is as bad as Syracuse at scheduling into the future. NC State has 25 of a possible 32 games locked up through 2024. Wake Forest has 27 in the same stretch. So you’re going to force those schools to pay to break contracts? And not only that, but actively remove games from your inventory too? All so that you can watch Wake Forest lose to Utah instead of watching them beat Old Dominion. Which reminds me…

5. Why are you going to force teams to schedule losses?

Smart programs schedule for their station in the college football world? Looking to make a bowl game? Schedule at least three non-conference wins so it’s easier to do so. Looking to contend for the College Football Playoff? Make sure you get at least one major name on your non-conference schedule so the committee doesn’t ding you. By forcing teams to schedule a certain way here, the ACC is potentially hurting its chances at more bowl teams (and more bowl revenue). College football’s main goal has always been “don’t lose.” For teams that would lose five or six times against a standard schedule, why put them in line for a seventh?

This isn’t to excuse programs that can’t find success. It’s to point out that you shouldn’t punish programs for needing a year to build themselves back up or to get a new coach the personnel he needs before really hitting his stride. The extra practices from bowl games are valuable, just as much as the conference revenue is. Every team can’t go 12-0. That doesn’t mean every team but the conference’s top four or so has to go 5-7 or 4-8.

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Clearly the ACC has been batting this issue around for a few years now, but we’re no closer to a resolution. While I applaud the conference for trying to think differently about its unique scheduling quandaries and desire to create more television inventory, I’m just not sure this is the right tact. Unless, y’know, you want to convince Texas to join the ACC in some sort of Notre Dame-type arrangement… then sure, go for it.

Purdue has received it’s 10th commitment of the 2017 class, with the verbal from Marcus Jones, an undersized athlete. Jones will more than likely play defensive back for the Boilermakers. He comes into the class unranked, with offers from many small schools and getting interest from some SEC schools.

Honestly, little is known about him. He stands only 5’8”, 165 pounds. I am not knocking height, as Ricardo Allen was only 5’9” on a good day. According to his Hudl page, he does run a 4.4 forty yard dash, which may be why he started to get some looks from bigger schools.

Hopefully, Marcus will go out his senior year, explode, get a ton of power 5 offers and decide to stay with us. You can check out his Hudl highlights below. He shows great ball skills, acceleration and athleticism.

I really like how this class is starting to shape up for Hazell & Co., while we have been bottom dwellers in the past few years, this class is shaping up to be more of a middle of the pack class. It is a weird thing, you show commitment to updating facilities and we have got some verbals out of it. Maybe the next AD will actively be involved in the B1G Arms Race, because it is showing results with just one new update.

Oklahoma has landed a prized commitment from 2018 quarterback Cameron Rising out of Newbury Park, California. Rising is ranked as the No. 5 pro-style quarterback in the 247Sports Composite Rankings and holds offers from Alabama, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Ole Miss, Oklahoma State and UCLA. This is another huge recruiting victory at the position for Lincoln Riley, who has managed to snag Austin Kendall and Chris Robison in the 2016 and 2017 classes, respectively.

However, this means that 2018 Southmoore (Moore, OK) product and OU legacy Casey Thompson is left looking elsewhere. With both quarterbacks holding offers from the Sooners, it appears that it was just a matter of Rising pulling the trigger before Thompson.

As far as Rising is concerned, it’s apparent that the arm talent is there. He doesn’t just throw a ball deep – he throws a good deep ball (like Jason White used to do). Anyway, OU has recruited the position very well even before Riley came in. It seems like we get a highly-touted quarterback every year, it’s just a matter of developing them. I trust Riley in the latter respect.

The opener against Houston is now less than four weeks away, and today we’ll take a little bit of time to talk about a man who appears to finally have an opportunity to shine this year after waiting his turn.

Dakota Austin doesn’t have the size of a future NFL corner (he stands at 5-10 and 170 lbs.), but he showed last season that he steps up when his number is called. Zack Sanchez injured his leg on the first play from scrimmage against Texas Tech, which is the wrong opponent to face when being short a star cornerback. But Austin came in and held his own, picking off a pass and keeping Tech’s passing attack at bay. Now it appears that he’ll be replacing Sanchez once again, with Mike Stoops indicating yesterday that he’s currently the starter at corner opposite Jordan Thomas.

Austin is a senior this year and doesn’t have the upside of some of the other guys (namely P.J. Mbanasor), but I think the position will be in safe hands if he is indeed a starter this year. He seems to have a knack for making plays (two interceptions last year) and it’s apparent that he gives a ton of effort out there. He doesn’t shy away from contact out on the edge despite his thin frame, which is more than I can say for his predecessor.

Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh will J.T. Rogan as his new personal assistant, which is the director of internal communications and operations. The first person to hold the position under Harbaugh, Zach Eisendrath, will leave the Wolverines for another opportunity.

While Harbaugh was coaching at San Diego, Rogan was an All-American running back. Rogan was also a member of the offensive staff at Stanford under Harbaugh. For the previous 4-5 years, he has been a reporter and football commentator in San Diego.

Rogan set records at San Diego from 2004-2009 as the leading rusher in school history. He was an FCS third-team All-American in 2007.

Sefo Liufau owns a lot of records at Colorado—75 of them, to be exact.

He has been in control of Colorado Football for three seasons, but after suffering a lisfranc injury against USC last season and the commitment of Davis Webb, it looked like things could be changing. But, following Webb’s flip to Cal and a full recovery, Liufau is once again poised to lead the Buffs in 2016.

“I think I’ve made a lot of progress,” Liufau said. “To be able to shed some weight off, get healthy with my foot, it’s been a long road, but it has been a great one, to be able to come back and achieve my goal of being ready for fall camp, so I’m pretty happy with the time I’ve had off and the amount of work I’ve put in in the last four months.”

For the Buffs to finally get over the hump and make a bowl game this year, they will need Liufau to improve on last season, when he completed 213 passses on 344 attempts for 2401 yards, nine touchdowns and six interceptions. The nine touchdown passes is his lowest total for any of his three seasons at CU. Even in his freshman season when he only played eight games, Liufau managed 12 touchdowns. However, he believes that the team’s overall improvement will be the difference this season.

“As players, we’re the ones out there playing, we’re the ones out there making plays, we’re one ones out there that are winning or losing games,” Liufau said. “Being a more mature team, I think we’ve got a lot more pieces to the puzzle, we’re on each other a lot more to make plays as a team overall. “

Echoing both Phillip Lindsay and Chidobe Awuzie, Luifau spoke about just how much it would mean to him to help lead the Buffs to a bowl game this season, but not just any bowl game—the highest of the high.

“I want to leave this football team and university a lot better than when I came here as a freshman because they invested so much in me and I just feel like I owe them everything, so that’s kind of how I’m looking at it this year.”

After everything that Liufau has been through, especially in the past year, it’s easy to see why he is so motivated to make his senior season one to remember.

Les Miles has been the coach on the bayou since Nick Saban left following the 2004 season. However, he wasn’t necessarily the obvious choice to take over the job. There were reports in the midst of LSU’s search that Houston Nutt might be a candidate. That wasn’t shocking considering Nutt nearly left Arkansas the year before to take over at Nebraska.

Bo Mattingly interviewed Nutt on his show this week put this out in the Twitterverse:

Nutt on how close he came to taking the LSU job when Saban left: “I thought there for a while that it might happen.”

— Bo Mattingly (@SportsTalkwBo) August 3, 2016

Which seems ridiculous, but then at the same time you never know.  Could Nutt pull wins out of teams with the amazing vein of talent that is Louisiana?  Would Nutt have superceded Miles’ lunacy? Would LSU have to have completely shutdown because Nutt would’ve destroyed the football program which is the only thing holding the bankrupt school system together?

The possibilities are an endless twisting nether that I may never be able to fully comprehend, but the real question I have is who would Arkansas have picked up on the coaching block in early January 2005?

Who knows.  But it’s intriguing to think what would have happened had Nutt not been around for the McFadden years and if someone capable of managing the Springdale thing had been in charge. What do you think would have happened?

If you have been active on the internet over the past few months, you know the story of Harambe the Cincinnati gorilla, who was shot after a child slipped into his pen. The There have been a slew of memes, and all sorts of mentions on social media. Basically, name a story and Harambe has been thrown into some sort of joke involving it.

Yesterday, graduate transfer Boston College quarterback Patrick Towles went to Instagram/Twitter to weigh in on his upcoming season. He proclaimed (probably joking) that he is dedicating his season to Harambe the gorilla, and as you can guess, it went viral

The responses to Patrick’s tweets were pretty funny. Here are a few:

Surely it was just a joke, and nothing to take seriously, but still something topical and rather funny.

Training camp opens on Monday, let’s hope that Patrick Towles will bring some of that Harambe magic with him to the Heights.