Bring Back the Challenge Bowl: Conference All-Star Games
This is would be one way to put the myth (or truth?) of college football conference superiority to a legitimate top-down test. I'm looking at you SEC.
Here's Big 8 vs. PAC 10 all-stars in 1979.
Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, Iowa State players on the same team against USC, UCLA and Washington, etc. players.
edit: link should work now.
November 18th, 2011 at 1:51 PM ^
Too bad we didn't have this last year. Can you imagine Pyror's Twitter reaction when Denard was selected as the QB? I'm betting it would be a fakeass all-star game.
November 18th, 2011 at 1:58 PM ^
Your parameters... they're invalid.
Edit: Now they're valid. Congratulations to you and your parameters.
November 18th, 2011 at 1:57 PM ^
I think that would be sweet. They could have it around the same time as the Senior Bowl, no? Any ideas as to why they stopped doing this?
November 18th, 2011 at 2:01 PM ^
Would this be leaders vs legends or big ten vs some other conference. I couldn't fathom us playing with ohio.
November 18th, 2011 at 2:05 PM ^
Agreed, and Sparty would be even worse. The first year they had a left tackle on the same team as a Michigan quarterback would be the last game that QB played in.
November 18th, 2011 at 2:07 PM ^
About the Challenge Bowl which was played at the Seattle Kingdome.
Washington QB Warren Moon played in this game for the PAC-10 after leading Washington to Rose Bowl win vs. Michigan 27-20.
November 18th, 2011 at 2:08 PM ^
Would this be leaders vs legends or big ten vs some other conference. I couldn't fathom us playing with ohio.
November 18th, 2011 at 2:08 PM ^
It'd be awesome to kick the SEC's ass.
November 18th, 2011 at 2:14 PM ^
Enh, the top prospects would duck it. No reason to risk an injury that would hurt their draft status and cost them millions of dollars. Lots of people would suffer nagging turf toe and stuff right after the bowl game I bet.
November 18th, 2011 at 2:21 PM ^
Could they do a couple of these instead of the dumb Senior Bowl, Shrine game, and the rest? Have teams from the B1G, SEC, Pac-12, Big XII, ACC, and one for everyone else. Play them in Texas, Florida, and California.
I think the games will be better and more fun for the players, since they should be a little more familiar with each other from playing against each other in conference. Also, playing styles should be generally more consistent with teams within the same conference.
November 18th, 2011 at 2:28 PM ^
I hate the Senior and Shrine bowl. They are not exciting. I think exclusive conference matchups would be totes awesome.
November 18th, 2011 at 4:10 PM ^
plz.... never again.
November 18th, 2011 at 2:27 PM ^
with all proceeds given to charity, like the Shrine Game, etc.
I wouldn't care if it was a Pro scouting game either. But it would be nice to see a more flavorful tournament scenario. It was only 32 players on each team, which I think is manageable.
I'm sure some players would give it a miss, but some would. Also, some of the under the radar players (i.e. Big Ten, SEC 2nd and 3rd team all-americans) would probably give it a whirl.
November 18th, 2011 at 2:31 PM ^
It's a fun gimmick, but throwing a bunch of players together for a week would tell you nothing about conference superiority.
November 18th, 2011 at 2:33 PM ^
The saber cuts both ways on that one.
Somehow I think that an OSU DT, a Michigan NG and a Michigan State DE could line up and take great joy in drilling an SEC QB into the turf.
November 18th, 2011 at 2:46 PM ^
Like to see this, start a petition
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November 18th, 2011 at 2:52 PM ^
alternative but equally cool idea: have pre-season Big Ten first and second team square off (in the pre-season, of course).
November 19th, 2011 at 9:25 AM ^
Football All-Star games aren't real football. They can't blitz and they don't have enough time together to put together any kind of interesting offense so you're left with back yard football with referees.
The only All-Star game that's worth a damn is the MLB All-Star game and even that isn't great because the pitchers only pitch an inning or two, if at all. The NBA All-Star game could be cool except the NBA players have agreed to some weird code where they don't play defense.