A Jersey Guy: CBB Different look, but...

Just wondering: Took a hard look at the college basketball season for the first time (November basketball should be banned and December is still football

Just wondering:

Took a hard look at the college basketball season for the first time (November basketball should be banned and December is still football season) and noticed who wasn't among the elite more than who was.

Gonzaga, UCLA, Michigan, Texas, Michigan State? 

Where are you guys?

And this.

Four Top 5 teams--Purdue,  Houston, Kansas and Tennessee lost to unranked teams. As did No. 6 Kentucky and  No. 8 Arizona.

Over all, 24 ranked teams have lost to unranked teams--and it's not even February when the best of blue bloods take a night off before March Madness starts.

What's going on?

"NIL'' stuff is the answer

. It seems that pay for play is more important than recruiting for show. Gonzaga is out of the rankings for the first time in 143 polls, dating back 8 years.

UConn, defending national champion, UConn, took apart a good Creighton team with defense last week.

The Huskies are No. 1.

.""Big East tough,'' said UConn coach Dan Hurley with more than a touch of pride.

Indeed the Huskies are all of that and may not be looking UP at many teams as we move into the crunch part of the season.

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Newly expanded Big 12 looks like a Super Conference with 8 teams in the Top 25....ACC looks like North Carolina and Duke, Big Ten is light thus far, with only Wisconsin and Illinois looking like challengers to Purdue.  But watch out for Tom Izzo's Michigan State team which always is lurking in the spring.... Iowa coach Fran McCaffefry is now fhe victory leader in Iowa basketball history.

Kentucky coach John Calipari won his 400th game at UK. Coach Cal has come a long way since he was forced to  accept an unpaid furlough at UMass as a state employee.

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Congrats to just retired Harvard football coach
Tim Murphy who retired after 30 years as the all-time winningest coach in Ivy League history and 10 Ivy League title.

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It's been fun watching Jim Harbaugh play Michib gan like a violin..Michigan has put togethera 12 million a yeaf package, which is impressive, expect Harbarbaugh is in the 18 million a year range....

Alabama WR Isiah Bond who transferred to Texas told ESPN the current culture in college football.

""It's just like the business world,''' said Bond. "You make the big decision for your company. My company right now is my draft stock. I feel like I'm putting myself in position to increase that and have better draft stoc ck.''

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Texas rise as a Final Fou.r team in football earned Longhorn coach Steve Sarkasian a contract extension thru 2030... Sark signed a six year deal in 2021 worth 34.2 million

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While other schools such as Alabama, Washington, Michigan go through changes, the monster on the block remains  Georgia which looks ready to continue its dynastic run with Coach  Kirby Smart in the newly expanded 12-team playoff system.