BARNEStorming: Gearing up for Week One and other thoughts around the college football world

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss recently welcomed approximately 5.000 freshmen to campus, the most in school history. And for the second consecutive year, the Ole Miss student section has sold out for the season.

Student Season Tickets are SOLD OUT 🚨#PartyInTheSip pic.twitter.com/A6SRQI2O7P

— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) August 23, 2023

The success of the football team, the gameday environment of The Grove and the University itself has always been attractive to prospective students, and now those undergrads are showing their support for the Rebels.

The athletic department is also showing its appreciation to the fans with enhanced experiences at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium this season. Night games will feature new light shows and fireworks while the Pride of the South band will mic’d up to enhance its sound.

Additionally, there will be cutouts in the concourse for fans to take selfies. Not only will those fans be able to take those photos home, but they will also be able to share those photos and live videos on the video board inside the stadium.

Football season is here! 🏈🌳

Click below to see what's new at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and The Grove this season.

📰 https://t.co/XOQDcSk49c pic.twitter.com/lFMBD0vdTX

— Ole Miss Athletics (@OleMissSports) August 24, 2023

Ole Miss is proving it wants to share the success on the field with the fans in the stands.

Dynamic Duos

Probably the marquee game in the first full week of play is Florida State playing LSU in Orlando. Apart from each contending for their conference titles and the drama of last year’s game in the Superdome, there is something else that is intriguing in this one.

Each school boasts the possible best individual offensive/defensive player tandems in college football.

LSU has quarterback Jayden Daniels and the monster linebacker Harold Perkins. Daniels is a true run-pass threat and not only can Perkins rush the passer, he can drop back in coverage and cover from sideline to sideline.

For the Seminoles, a pair of transfers who played for FSU last season are impressive. Quarterback Jordan Travis might be the best signal caller in Tallahassee since Jameis Winston. It is also appropriate defensive lineman Jared Verse started his college career as a University of Albany Great Dane because he is one big dog.

Of course last year, Alabama quarterback Bryce Young and defensive end Will Anderson, Jr., were named the best duo in college football. Not only did the Crimson Tide not make the playoffs, Bama didn’t even win its division.

Wanna Bet?

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has not been shy to compare today’s college football landscape with the National Football League. With the transfer portal (free agency) and Name, Image and Likeness funding (paying players just to play), he is not wrong.

College football is now embracing another aspect of the NFL — gambling.

ESPN is now referencing Caesars Sportsbook openly on its broadcasts. NBC says it is getting its information from a gambling website.

But it took on a bigger role last week. The Big 10 has announced each team must release its “availability list” each week. To be clear, that is a list of injured players who may or may not be playing in that week’s game.

Now is that for fantasy football players or is it for the folks in Vegas to help set its point spreads?

A week-one upset?

The word out of New Orleans is the Tulane players are still getting pats on the back for winning the Cotton Bowl against USC. If the Green Wave somehow found a way to get past Ole Miss in Week 2, albeit as unlikely as that might be, they could be set to run the table with the greatest test coming in the final game against Texas-San Antonio.

But what happens between last year’s bowl win and a visit from Ole Miss to New Orleans? South Alabama comes to town for week-one action.

The Jaguars went 10-3 a season ago with a one-point loss at UCLA on a last-second field goal and Troy, which won the Sun Belt and only lost twice, escaped from Mobile with a 10-6 win. USA ended the regular season on a five-game winning streak before falling to Western Kentucky in the New Orleans Bowl. The Jags will be motivated to have a better showing in the Big Easy this week.

If Tulane looks in the rear view mirror at the Cotton Bowl or peeks ahead to Ole Miss, South Alabama could pull the upset.

A Regional Conference Remains: It Just Means More

The best thing about the conference system in college athletics is the proximity to the other schools. That is going by the wayside these days. West Coast teams are heading to the Big 10 that already has schools from the East Coast. There’s probably not a lot of hype building next year for Rutgers-USC.

Schools from the Southwest are headed to the Big 12. And that comes after the league expanded for this season. The conference now has a school in Orlando, Fla. and Provo, Utah. Gee, that is a potential rivalry.

The ACC is looking to add Stanford and Cal. By the ACC, that means Notre Dame wants it. Four schools voted against that expansion, but the league office can be held for ransom by Notre Dame because the ACC wants the Irish as a full-time member.

That leaves the SEC. Sure, the conference is adding Texas and Oklahoma next season, but that makes sense. Texas is not that far from Texas A&M. Oklahoma at least borders Texas, Arkansas and Missouri.

SEC fam roll call 🗣️

🎨 via @CornDoggyLOL pic.twitter.com/I5AI2SyGxs

— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) August 25, 2023

Do fans think OU versus LSU won’t be more attractive than Arizona-Cincinnati or USC-Northwestern? The SEC is the only true Power 5 — Power 4 if the PAC-12 dies — that has a truly regional conference left in the sport.