Oh, you know I have words for what went down with the college football powers that be last weekend. That decision was like seeing Michael Jordan airball a layup on purpose.
Looks like Mike took it personally, too.
Meanwhile, the Packers are very much in contention after taking out the Chiefs last week. Though it was nice of Taylor Swift to show up at Lambeau to hang out with my Aunt Coco, who was a happy shareholder as the Packers gave her a great birthday present.
Most people in the know prefer Coco to Taylor (or maybe Koko Taylor), but I'm guessing ol' Taylor will shake it off. Or something like that.
I am feeling the HYYYYYYYYYPPPPEEEE! and ready to pick some games. Watch me work.
Minnesota Vikings (-3) vs. Las Vegas Raiders The Vikings are still in playoff contention and will get a huge lift this week as the Griddy Man has been cleared to return. The thing is, Josh Dobbs has struggled and will get the start again, which has some locals questioning the move. The good news is that the Raiders are a team that is led by morons. Josh McDaniels may have been fired, but Al Davis would have fired everyone about 10 times over if he was still alive. The Vikings should win, but this is the type of game that the Vikings fans love to make uncomfortable. Vikings 24, Raiders 17.
I for one am glad Jefferson is back, because it will certainly help my fantasy football team. The Vikings really needed the bye to reset things. They should be able to beat a highly questionable Raiders team, but as the young fella says, it's going to be uncomfortable, especially if Maxx Crosby gets a head of steam going Vikings pull ahead late to make it look more impressive than it will be. Vikings 28, Raiders 16.
Glorious Green Bay Packers (-6) vs. New York Football Giants Last week was a fantastic performance by everyone. I have been very critical of this team this year, but it's hard to argue with the results. Jordan Love has been great, Matt LaFleur was on fire calling plays last week, the Packers made defensive plays when they had to, and it was the best performance I have seen this year. I'm also really glad that the Chiefs didn't blame the refs, which is a stupid argument to make. Lest we forget, the bad calls went both ways. The Giants are a mess this year, which surprises me. This won't be easy, but the Packers should win given that they are getting healthier. Packers 35, Giants 10.
No Aaron Jones? No Jaire Alexander? No problem! It's been an amazing if weird stretch of games for the Pack, who have really improved as the season goes on. The young receiving corps is growing in front of our eyes and this is the time of year where A.J. Dillon pays off. Giants can rush the passer and they do have offensive talent, but Tommy DeVito is not an NFL quarterback long term. I think this one goes well eventually. Packers 28, Giants 20.
And now, it's time for me to blow a gasket and yell about Florida State getting screwed last weekend. Before I unleash, a quick disclaimer. I am not blaming the Alabama players, coaches, or Nick Saban for being happy or defending their inclusion. They are just doing what they had to do, and the ire belongs somewhere else.
Where is that?
Oh, I'll tell you. What the playoff committee did on Sunday when they explained their reasoning was an utter disgrace and super disrespectful to Florida State. I don't care about how "bad" they looked, they won every single one of their games! That's freaking hard to do. I watched the back end of the ACC title game last week, and what really impressed me about Florida State each time I've seen them this year was that they are a complete football team. This wasn't Jordan Travis and a bunch of scrubs. Their defense played incredibly against a good Louisville team, and they were ranked 4th coming into last weekend. What happened to not dropping a team that didn't lose?
ESPN happened, I think.
What really was disgraceful was what the committee chair said about the Jordan Travis injury. Florida State is a great team with a great defense, and they rallied around their backup quarterbacks to win. Jordan, I know that you probably will never read this or see this, but you have nothing to apologize for about getting injured. It wasn't your fault and I hope that you come back stronger and better than ever for whatever your next challenge is going to be. I'm rooting for you. The other 21 starters, Mike Norvell, and his coaching staff were told that their success was down to one guy, which is a really mean and cruel thing to say. I bet the chairmen wouldn't say that to their faces. You don't win with just one guy in college football.
Unless the one guy is head of the committee.
In regards to the SEC, nonsense like this is why I have been warning about peddling the narrative that they and ESPN try and sell you. The SEC this year was down. They had a losing record against the ACC in the nonconference, and to be frank the Pac 12 and the Big Ten were just as strong if not stronger than the SEC this year. Despite all of the talking points by Greg Sankey and the ESPN talking heads, their top brands were all shaky. Georgia struggled at times, Alabama needed Auburn to forget how to defend a Hail Mary, South Florida to not do anything offensively, Jimbo to get outcoached, and Ole Miss to melt down in the second half just to stay in playoff contention. Heck, the marquee OOC SEC game involved Alabama getting cooked by Texas at Bryant Freaking Denny. I'm also going to point out despite the SEC having a bunch of success on the field, their leadership is still 10 million dollars short in terms of revenue distribution to their member schools, and that gap will only grow as the Big Ten gets to go to the media rights well before the SEC does, even though the SEC added both Texas and Oklahoma to their conference. I'd love to ask Sankey why that revenue gap exists despite the SEC having better results, but professional SEC cheerleaders like Paul Finebaum and Clay Travis don't want to risk upsetting their beloved conference. Like it or not, money matters in college sports and the Big Ten is winning that race.
The results on the field would suggest otherwise, but in the long term you're likely to be correct.
So what would I have done? Simple. I would have had the playoff be Washington, Florida State, Michigan, and Texas. What I would have sold is that these are the four teams who won it on the field, and any criticism about leaving out Alabama would have relied on the head to head. In the future with the 12 team playoff, the committee should be former coaches and players, who would be given clear guidelines for seeding and bids. Results on the field are the only thing that matters, and that their job is to simply seed the teams and pick the at larges. I would get rid of them doing rankings, instead having a bracket preview similar to college basketball coming out a week before Thanksgiving. Is this proposed system perfect? Of course not. No system is. But what we saw last week was a load of well, bullshit, and should never be allowed to happen again.
I would like that, too.
Enjoy your football this weekend. Ben out.
1 comment:
Playoff is basically devolving to the old system, where a lot of good teams got overlooked because they'd lost a game, while lossless teams went to the big bowls because they'd started the season with patsies.
Dunno what to do, because you're talking about college students, and adding a few more games against top opponents is just going to get a bunch of them hurt for life. I don't see an easy solution.
Post a Comment