Yes the idiot is me
Now i know very little of college football. I have been trying to follow it but there is very little of it on TV.
If someone could explain to me the league rankings?
As i get the impression that some leagues have a higher standard than others.
So a 4,000 passing yards in one league is not the same as in another league.
For my example the Scotish Premier League is considered by most to only be the equivalent of a top Division 1 side or mid Championship side. But it is the top league in Scotland.
Any other tips about things to look out for wpuld be most welcomed.
Once again sorry about asking what you all would say is a dumb question.
Paul
Yep. The poster above me explained it well. When most people talk about college football, they refer to Division I FBS football. FBS is the highest level of competition. It's made up of several conferences, more or less arranged geographically.
Five conferences are considered the major ones. They're called the Power 5:
The PAC-12 is a conference of Pacific Coast/Western schools like Berkeley, Oregon, Stanford, etc.
The SEC is the Southeastern Conference. Schools like Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas A&M etc.
The Big 12 is a Texas-Oklahoma and Midwest America conference - schools like the University of Texas, Baylor, Oklahoma, Kansas State, etc.
The ACC is the Atlantic Coastal Conference - schools along the Atlantic coast like Florida State, Rutgers, North Carolina, Clemson, etc.
and the Big 10 is a northern/midwest conference. Universities like Illinois, Michigan, and this year's national champion Ohio State are Big 10 universities.
Outside of the power 5 there are a few less prestigious conferences that still have some good football schools. The American Athletic Conference has the hometown University of Houston and quite a few posters on this site are UH fans. Last year, UCF (Central Florida) of the American Athletic Conference won the prestigious Fiesta Bowl against Baylor (of the Big 12), so there are always good teams in the less known conferences.
The top 25 schools are ranked by the press in the AP poll (which is ultimately meaningless but more or less corresponds to the playoff selection committee's top 25 rankings) before the season starts. As the season progresses winning teams climb the rankings and losing teams fall down or just straight up fall out of the rankings. Near the end of the season, the playoff selection committee starts releasing it's own rankings, and after the conference championship games are done, the top four teams head to the playoff. This year, the SEC (University of Alabama), the PAC-12 (Oregon), the ACC (Florida State, the previous champion) and the Big 10 (Ohio State) were represented in the playoffs. Ohio state beat out Alabama in round one, and Oregon beat Florida State. In the final Ohio State beat Oregon and became the national champions.
Within the separate conferences, there tend to be several rivalries. For example, in the Big 12, UT (Texas) and Oklahoma have a very heated rivalry, as do Michigan-Michigan State in the Big 10, etc. However, schools do jump from conferences. After the 2011 season, UT's biggest in-state rival, Texas A&M, left the Big 12 for the SEC along with Missouri, and with their departure one of the oldest rivalry games ever stopped being played. Departures happen for several reasons - money issues, tv deals, scandals, etc.
The Power 5 conferences are usually considered the top conferences, so when it comes to the NFL most of the top players drafted come from those. Universities like Alabama have been known for churning out linebackers and safeties, while Oregon has a reputation for producing very fast and speedy players. The level of competition in the Power 5 tends to be very high so players who do well in those conferences are considered to be better players, but many players have come from the lower conferences, the FCS (which is the 2nd tier of Division I, made up of smaller regional schools) or Division II. A few example of small school good players:
Ben Roethlisberger, 2 time SB winning QB for the Steelers, played college ball at Miami University (not the University of Miami - different schools) which is in the MAC, a lower conference.
Jerry Rice, greatest WR to ever play the game, came from Mississippi Valley State, which is currently an FCS school,
Joe Flacco, superbowl winning QB, played at the University of Delaware, which is an FCS school,
and so on.
