It looks like more big changes are occurring throughout the college football landscape. First, the Philadelphia Eagles announced earlier today that they have hired Chip Kelly as their head coach. Kelly, who accumulated a 46-7 record as head coach of the Oregon Ducks, replaces Andy Reid, who was fired on December 31st after leading the Eagles to a 4-12 season. ESPN's report today also mentions that Kelly will be the sixth active NFL coach to be hired directly from a college team (the other five include Pete Carroll, Tom Coughlin, Jim Harbaugh, Greg Schiano, and Doug Marrone). Despite Kelly's lack of NFL experience, the Eagles owner, Jeffrey Lurie, expressed confidence in their new head coach by saying that "he has a brilliant football mind . . . he motivates his team with his actions as well as his words. He will be a great leader for us and will bring a fresh, energetic approach to our team."* As for the Ducks, Bleacher Report's Ian Berg has mentioned three possible candidates to fill Oregon's head coaching vacancy. These include Oregon's offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich, Boise State's H.C. Chris Petersen, and Oregon's defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti.**
Today's second headline has to do with the continuing misfortunes of the Big East Conference. In the weeks after Boise State announced that they will stay in the Mountain West Conference in all sports, ESPN has reported that San Diego State will be reinstated as a member of that league.*** Both schools had originally planned to join the Big East as football-only members, but if the Big East keeps losing teams, there may not be a conference left to join. Since Pittsburgh and Syracuse announced back in 2011 that they were leaving to join the Atlantic Coast Conference in all sports, eleven more schools have either left or have mentioned plans to eventually leave the league. These include, in no particular order of departure: West Virginia, Louisville, Rutgers, Notre Dame, Seton Hall, Marquette, DePaul, Villanova, St. Johns, Georgetown, and Providence. This hemorrhage of members, along with an ESPN report on December 22, 2012 detailing that a "Big East media rights deal was worth about $50 million . . . and the loss of the seven basketball schools would decrease that [amount] by another '15-20%"**** most likely put both Boise State and San Diego State into a position where staying in the Mountain West would be a better alternative than boarding a sinking ship.
Finally, the Mountain West's decision to readmit San Diego State puts that conference into a position where it can offer a championship game in football. This year, Utah State and San Jose State will also join the league in all sports, thus increasing the conference's football membership (the University of Hawaii is a member in football only) to 12 teams. How the Mountain West will divide its members into two divisions will be a subject covered in a future post.
Sources:
*http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8849699/chip-kelly-bolts-oregon-ducks-coach-philadelphia-eagles
**http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1487617-odds-on-next-oregon-football-coach-after-chip-kelly-bolts-for-nfl
***http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8850122/san-diego-state-reinstated-mountain-west-conference-member
****http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8773423/boise-state-trying-get-big-east-mountain- west-allow-broncos-retain-home-tv-rights-according-sources
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