It's not a bad theory and it's going to be a possibly unexciting and clunky season and future of college football. Last year you had UW, Michigan, Texas, Alabama, Ohio State, Oregon, and Georgia who had their fair share of transfers but are nothing like this season where Georgia feels like the only team in that group to me that isn't relying on a huge chunk of transfers to carry the weight and to glue together some culture and synergy on the fly.My current theory, having watched .81 football games this year, is that high profile teams are struggling against "inferior" opponents early in the season because those inferior opponents are comprised largely of journeyman players that have been playing together in the same system for a few years vs. "big time" teams starting 19 players that weren't on the roster the previous season and have only had fall workouts in which to try ironing out the kinks.
This is basically what college hoops have become. So, you're probably right.My current theory, having watched .81 football games this year, is that high profile teams are struggling against "inferior" opponents early in the season because those inferior opponents are comprised largely of journeyman players that have been playing together in the same system for a few years vs. "big time" teams starting 19 players that weren't on the roster the previous season and have only had fall workouts in which to try ironing out the kinks.
Everyone that thinks UW last year was TCU is a huge fag.The Notre Dame lose is just another testament to how hard it is to run the table in college football. You really really need to have stars AND more talent than your opponents, depth, and coaching, and even then you can still get upset. It easily could have been UW last year having to follow up the Oregon game with ASU. I'd also add the extra difficulty of UW having to beat Oregon twice. It's an unmentioned advantage that if the Big 10 had the Pac-12's format Michigan would have had to play Ohio State again and possibly lose.
And for all the 2023 UW/2022 TCU comparisons, keep in mind TCU lost a regular season game and it was against the best team they actually beat in the regular season.