In today’s Fact or Fiction I look at three big recent topics in college football and decide whether the statement is indeed FACT or if it’s FICTION.
1. Iowa needs to be punished further for portal transgressions.
Farrell’s take: FICTION
I was harsh on Iowa in the Kadyn Proctor situation (https://mikefarrellsports.com/mind-of-mike/we-need-to-make-an-example-out-of-the-hawkeyes) and believed an example could be made for an obvious admission of tampering by a big name prospect. But now Kirk Ferentz’s suspension because of his tampering with QB Cade McNamara seems a bit much. Is Iowa the team the NCAA wants to focus on when there are accusations out there regarding national title contenders? Iowa is clearly bad at dealing with portal rules but there are others out there doing worse so let’s leave Ferentz and the sad offensive efforts alone.
2. USC NIL was “toy sword” until now.
Farrell’s take: FICTION
Lincoln Riley said NIL is in good shape at USC now and referenced the old NIL ways when he arrived as a “toy sword” making a joke about the Trojans and their NIL “weapons”. But c’mon. We all saw Caleb Williams and his money flashed all over social media and the crib Bear Alexander got for leaving UGA. And Jordan Addison’s bidding war was epic. USC had the money to spend but Riley has been using weak NIL, in Los Angeles of all places, as an excuse why he hasn’t broken through yet. It’s poor recruiting and poor development in the trenches that have led to a Riley regression and not weak NIL.
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3. FSU’s season is done.
Farrell’s take: FACT
Harsh right? But hear me out. A loss in-conference to an assumed lesser opponent is the end for the Noles, at least for their ACC title and playoff hopes. The QB play and offense were awful and the defense got knocked around so how can we possibly think this team can turn it around and finish 10-2 and compete for the ACC title? They can’t. They’ll be lucky to go 8-4 based on what I saw as this team lost so much leadership from last year it’s glaring.
