ESPN’s Mike and Mike show discuss companies that allow beer at work. Apparently, there’s merit to what they’re saying. It’s a pretty funny clip. Check it out.

I took the time after the final hiring of the offseason to put together these FBS head coach hiring rankings, from No. 27 to No. 1 (yes, there were 27 job changes after the 2011 season, which eclipses the totals in both 2011 and 2010. It’s been an insane offseason, to say the least). Today, we dip into the Final Five, and my No. 1 might surprise you a bit.

First, let’s be clear – this is my opinion, and I base it on a number of factors, including the experience and reputation of the coach, the current state of the program, the perceived ability for the program to be competitive early and how the coach’s hire relates to the overall reputation of the program. In other words, did the school get it right?

Second, this is not a best to worst list of coaching hires. I would not say that hires that I have ranked toward the bottom of these rankings means they’re bad coaches. I feel like you have to show you’re a good coach to be a head coach somewhere. Rather, the coaches ranked near the bottom of this survey all have something working against them, such as taking over a bad program, their own lack of experience, issues they have no control of off the field, etc…

And, finally, this is not scientific. Much of it is how I feel about the hire in my gut. I don’t have a formula for determining if a head coach is the right head coach for that school, and neither does anyone else. At the end of the day, it comes down to your gut. And 27 athletic directors went with their guts this winter.

So who occupies the top shelf in our FBS head coach hiring rankings? Find out below.

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I took the time after the final hiring of the offseason to put together these FBS head coach hiring rankings, from No. 27 to No. 1 (yes, there were 27 job changes after the 2011 season, which eclipses the totals in both 2011 and 2010. It’s been an insane offseason, to say the least). Today, we dip into the Top 10.

First, let’s be clear – this is my opinion, and I base it on a number of factors, including the experience and reputation of the coach, the current state of the program, the perceived ability for the program to be competitive early and how the coach’s hire relates to the overall reputation of the program. In other words, did the school get it right?

Second, this is not a best to worst list of coaching hires. I would not say that hires that I have ranked toward the bottom of these rankings means they’re bad coaches. I feel like you have to show you’re a good coach to be a head coach somewhere. Rather, the coaches ranked near the bottom of this survey all have something working against them, such as taking over a bad program, their own lack of experience, issues they have no control of off the field, etc…

And, finally, this is not scientific. Much of it is how I feel about the hire in my gut. I don’t have a formula for determining if a head coach is the right head coach for that school, and neither does anyone else. At the end of the day, it comes down to your gut. And 27 athletic directors went with their guts this winter.

So who occupies the second tier in our FBS head coach hiring rankings? Find out below.

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New head coach Bill O'Brien has some things working against him in Happy Valley as he takes over for Joe Paterno.

It took nearly two months to finish off the college football hiring season, which leads me directly to the PigskinU.com 2012 FBS head coach hiring rankings.

I took the time after the final hiring of the offseason to rank all of the new head coaching hirings in FBS, from No. 27 to No. 1 (yes, there were 27 job changes after the 2011 season, which eclipses the totals in both 2011 and 2010. It’s been an insane offseason, to say the least. After publishing Nos. 21-27 and Nos. 16-20, we’re starting to get into the more recognizable names among the hiring roster.

First, let’s be clear – this is my opinion, and I base it on a number of factors, including the experience and reputation of the coach, the current state of the program, the perceived ability for the program to be competitive early and how the coach’s hire relates to the overall reputation of the program. In other words, did the school get it right?

Second, this is not a best to worst list of coaching hires. I would not say that hires that I have ranked toward the bottom of these rankings means they’re bad coaches. I feel like you have to show you’re a good coach to be a head coach somewhere. Rather, the coaches ranked near the bottom of this survey all have something working against them, such as taking over a bad program, their own lack of experience, issues they have no control of off the field, etc…

And, finally, this is not scientific. Much of it is how I feel about the hire in my gut. I don’t have a formula for determining if a head coach is the right head coach for that school, and neither does anyone else. At the end of the day, it comes down to your gut. And 27 athletic directors went with their guts this winter.

But some did better than others. We’ll start with the what I’ll call the third tier, Nos. 11-15.

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It took nearly two months to finish off the college football hiring season, which leads me directly to the PigskinU.com 2012 FBS head coach hiring rankings.

I took the time after the final hiring of the offseason to rank all of the new head coaching hirings in FBS, from No. 27 to No. 1 (yes, there were 27 job changes after the 2011 season, which eclipses the totals in both 2011 and 2010. It’s been an insane offseason, to say the least).

First, let’s be clear – this is my opinion, and I base it on a number of factors, including the experience and reputation of the coach, the current state of the program, the perceived ability for the program to be competitive early and how the coach’s hire relates to the overall reputation of the program. In other words, did the school get it right?

Second, this is not a best to worst list of coaching hires. I would not say that hires that I have ranked toward the bottom of these rankings means they’re bad coaches. I feel like you have to show you’re a good coach to be a head coach somewhere. Rather, the coaches ranked near the bottom of this survey all have something working against them, such as taking over a bad program, their own lack of experience, issues they have no control of off the field, etc…

And, finally, this is not scientific. Much of it is how I feel about the hire in my gut. I don’t have a formula for determining if a head coach is the right head coach for that school, and neither does anyone else. At the end of the day, it comes down to your gut. And 27 athletic directors went with their guts this winter.

But some did better than others. We’ll continue with the next tier, Nos. 16-20.

Continue Reading…

It took nearly two months to finish off the college football hiring season, which leads me directly to the PigskinU.com 2012 FBS head coach hiring rankings..

I took the time after the final hiring of the offseason to rank all of the new head coaching hirings in FBS, from No. 27 to No. 1 (yes, there were 27 job changes after the 2011 season, which eclipses the totals in both 2011 and 2010. It’s been an insane offseason, to say the least.

First, let’s be clear – this is my opinion, and I base it on a number of factors, including the experience and reputation of the coach, the current state of the program, the perceived ability for the program to be competitive early and how the coach’s hire relates to the overall reputation of the program. In other words, did the school get it right?

Second, this is not a best to worst list of coaching hires. I would not say that hires that I have ranked toward the bottom of these rankings means they’re bad coaches. I feel like you have to show you’re a good coach to be a head coach somewhere. Rather, the coaches ranked near the bottom of this survey all have something working against them, such as taking over a bad program, their own lack of experience, issues they have no control of off the field, etc…

And, finally, this is not scientific. Much of it is how I feel about the hire in my gut. I don’t have a formula for determining if a head coach is the right head coach for that school, and neither does anyone else. At the end of the day, it comes down to your gut. And 27 athletic directors went with their guts this winter.

But some did better than others. We’ll start with the bottom of the rankings, Nos. 21-27. Continue Reading…

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the non-BCS schools don’t know what the heck to do. But the non-BCS superconference is a bad idea.

You know by now that Conference USA and the Mountain West are going to merge for the 2013-14 season. You know as well as I do that, given the membership that will exist at that time, it’s going to create a league with at least 16 schools. That’s unwieldy enough. Remember – the WAC tried that already and failed.

But apparently this new consolidation wants more. Turns out multiple reports have the new league (let’s call it Conference USAXL) seeking to create a league with 18 to 24 teams that would create a coast-to-coast league.

Schools like Utah State are telling news outlets that they’re interested in jumping ship to this new endeavor. That puts the WAC at risk of not just losing members, but folding completely. It barely has enough members to be a conference right now. And now WAC commissioner Karl Benson is reportedly eying a move to be the commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference.

You’re forgiven if you can’t keep up with the upheaval. But there are so many reasons why this is a bad idea. Consider:

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It took an extra couple of weeks – and a reported $20 million deal between West Virginia and the Big East – but we have a Big 12 2012 football schedule.

The conference released the schedule on Tuesday just a couple of days after the Mountaineers engineered their departure from the Big East far ahead of the conference’s original 26-month exit timeline. But that’s what a little money will get you these days.

West Virginia, along with another Big East refugee, TCU (which, technically, never played in the Big East despite accepting the conference’s invitation in 2011) will play football in the Big 12 in 2012. So now we have an idea of the Big 12 opener for all teams, which is Sept. 15 when TCU travels to Kansas. We also know that West Virginia will open up at home on Sept. 29 against Baylor. Mountaineer AD Oliver Luck didn’t sound too worried about selling beer to Southern Baptists on gameday. Remember – the Mountaineers actually sell beer in the stadium.

In a conference where everyone plays everyone, you may not think there are winners and losers in this sort of thing. But when you examine the league schedule, you can see that a few teams received more favorable draws than others, as you’ll find out after the jump.

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Being an independent isn’t what it used to be. So when it comes to National Signing Day winners and losers, it’s really not a fair fight.

Notre Dame grabs the majority of the attention, and that’s easy to see when you consider the only other independents are Army, BYU and Navy. Of the three, only BYU is even capable of challenging Notre Dame in the recruiting department. Funny thing is, Notre Dame wins the fight just about every year, even though you could argue that the two schools are trying to reach similar recruits.

Well, Notre Dame has won eight national titles since 1936 (more if you count the titles the Irish have won from non-Associated Press organizations that the NCAA doesn’t always recognize). BYU has won one. Even though it’s been more than 20 years since the Irish last won a title, that gold helmet still carries a level of respect.

But how did that level of respect carry over into 2012. So who were the recruiting winners and losers among the independents? Read on to find out.

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The mass defections of the past few years to the Mountain West put the very existence of the WAC in jeopardy just a year or two ago. First Boise State left for the MW. Then Hawaii, Fresno State and Nevada left as well. At one point, the only remaining members of the WAC for the 2012 football season were Idaho, New Mexico State, Utah State, Louisiana Tech and San Jose State.

This year both texas State and UT-San Antonio – both FCS independents a year ago – will join the league for football, but that will only push the WAC to seven schools. Dipping into FCS was the only option the WAC had, frankly. And there’s nothing to say that the league isn’t still in jeopardy. Seven schools is the bare minimum for inclusion into FBS as a conference. The WAC was unable to entice top FCS programs like Montana to move up. I even heard a rumor – one I thought was pretty legit – that Lamar might move up to the WAC one day. But that hasn’t happened yet.

WAC commissioner Karl Benson has said in the past that the WAC hopes to add two new members for the 2013-14 school year. So, I would assume that the WAC will have an announcement this summer regarding new members. To be sure, at least one of those schools will play football.

That doesn’t take into account anymore WAC defections, and frankly a couple of the current WAC schools make sense in other conferences (think Louisiana Tech in the Sun Belt, for geography reasons). The state of the WAC is still very much in flux.

Did that impact this year’s overall recruiting class? Well, the WAC was last among the 11 conferences in FBS, according to Scout.com. Yes, even the Sun Belt was ranked ahead of the WAC. These are trying times for the WAC, indeed.

So who were the recruiting winners and losers? Read on to find out.

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