Are You Ready For Some... Football?

[Beowolf]

Big10 vs SEC playoffs?

[Paul Pless]

purdue has more wins against #1 and #2 ranked opponents than any other school
nine times they have pulled the upset when they themselves have been unranked

[Beowolf]

Women will always win the Dr. Pepper Scholarship challenge for the simple fact that men are too damn prideful to chest-pass a football.

[Paul Pless]

shovel pass!

[George Jung]

You men. I might point out - not a one of us (including our Alabama contingent) is *currently* 'strapping on a pair' and playing for 'their' teams. Try.... relaxing a bit! Vicarious athletics is... what's the word?... over-rated.

* but maybe a few here have more invested? Any of you play for Alabama? Any D1 school? Maybe have a kid playing?

[amish rob]

There a several kids I have coached playing D1 sports, including a few football players.

[bamamick]

Troy Trojans, Sun Belt champions!

[George Jung]

You coach football? Highschool? That's gotta be fun.

I have a few kids I've seen in clinic involved in various sports, here. And a few former 'greats', now retired. Interesting bunch of folk.

[amish rob]

No. I coach endurance and running technique. I work with individual athletes in several sports, basically working on aerobic fitness and running speed/stamina programs.

Admittedly, much less than pre-pandemic.

I DO still coach youth baseball and I’m still involved with youth softball, though I’m no longer a team coach for softball.

[David G]

Primetime is IN the house!

Deion Sanders will be the new coach at 1-11 Colorado. I bet he'll be able to recruit like gangbusters... but can he coach at this level?

[bamamick]

It will bear watching. I have seen a couple of JSU games, and they generally out-talent their opponents. Well, they always out-talent their opponents. It will be interesting to see how he does on a more even playing field. A friend said he should have taken the South Florida job which went to Tennessee's OC. That's a smaller conference and sort of out of the way, but USF is a really big school in the middle of huge recruiting grounds and they play their games at Raymond James Stadium, iirc. That would have made a lot more sense to me than going to Boulder, which is about as far out there as a D1 program gets.

The rumor is that Deion has already hired someone off of Bama's staff, so we'll see what happens with that. I am happy for Sanders, who certainly gave HBCU football a much-needed shot in the arm, but coaching for the Buffs is a tall task. We'll see how it goes.

Mickey Lake

[bamamick]

Whooee. A lot of ugliness surrounding the Alabama program this morning. Geez, because we missed the playoff for the first time? Because we've 'only' won six national championships in 15 years? The natives are restless and want to fire everyone not named Saban.

You know, you might almost think that some folks take this stuff too seriously.

Mickey Lake

[amish rob]

We did watch Fresno beat Boise on that ghastly blue field. That was a marginally exciting game. Not as fun as watching Bama with Paul, I’ll admit.

[bamamick]

I have a good friend who is a Fresno guy, and he's pretty happy today. Winning the MWC is no small feat.

Mickey Lake

[David G]

I have a good friend who is a Fresno guy, and he's pretty happy today. Winning the MWC is no small feat.

Mickey Lake

I'm relieved that 'bama is out. Too much dominance by one program gets boring... and is stultifying for the sport.

I think the 4 teams that will play for the NC will provide some very interesting contests. Haven't decided who I'll root for.

[Paul Pless]

and who among us isnt pulling for the horned frogs?

[bamamick]

Count me among the toad fans for the next month.

Mickey Lake

[David G]

Jon Wilner: Winners & Losers --

https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/12/...s-biggest-day/

[Garret]

Jon Wilner: Winners & Losers --

https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/12/...s-biggest-day/

Paywall

[David G]

Paywall

<sigh> Too bad. He's worth reading.

[Paul Pless]

maybe you could summarize it for us

[George Jung]

CFP and bowl selections: Winners and losers from college football’s biggest day

Flaws in the system itself were on display this weekend.






By Jon Wilner | jwilner@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: December 4, 2022 at 4:17 p.m. | UPDATED: December 5, 2022 at 4:20 a.m.


There were a bevy of winners on the most important day of the college football season and one clear loser: The system itself.
All the flaws in the College Football Playoff selection process were on display as a team not deemed worthy of inclusion when the week began was extended an invitation for doing absolutely nothing.
Ohio State didn’t win its division in the Big Ten and lost at home by three touchdowns in the most important game of its season.
But precisely because of that late-November loss to Michigan, the Buckeyes risked nothing on championship weekend.
They sat back, watched USC lose in the Pac-12 championship, then celebrated their berth in the semifinals.
Thankfully, we must endure only one more season of this nonsense.
To be clear: It’s not Ohio State’s fault.
The Buckeyes were simply the beneficiary — and not for the first time, we should add — of a selection process that orbits the wrong star.
For nine years, the committee has refused to invite two-loss teams, as if the difference between the “1” and “2” on the right side of the ledger provides the definitive definition of what it means to be elite.
Did USC deserve an invitation? Not necessarily. The Trojans haven’t fielded a playoff-caliber defense all season and were swept by an opponent (Utah) that lost three games.
But once earlier versions of the committee gave primacy to the loss total, and not conference championships, the process began to veer off course.
Alas, 2024 cannot come soon enough.
To the winners and losers …
Winner: Big Ten. Not a bad five months for the conference, which added USC and UCLA on June 30 and placed two teams in the playoff on Dec. 4. At least the committee didn’t stick us with a Michigan-Ohio State rematch in the semifinals.
Loser: Pac-12. The playoff drought is six seasons and counting after USC’s loss in the title game. But the Trojans aren’t entirely to blame. The top of the league was stout enough to undermine the chances of a one-loss champion emerging. Instead, the issue is all those top teams of past years that couldn’t navigate weaker versions of the conference.
Winner: Big 12. For the first time, the conference produced a playoff team not named Oklahoma. The Horned Frogs built a cushion with their 12-0 record and survived the stumble against three-loss Kansas State in the title game. Not bad for a conference that placed just three teams in the committee’s final rankings.
Loser: ACC. Clemson’s regression left the conference with no hope of reaching the CFP entering championship weekend. Reminds us of the Pac-12’s plight for all those years.
Winner: SEC. Because SEC.
Loser: Citrus Bowl. No marquee bowl has a worse matchup than the Citrus with LSU (9-4) against Purdue (8-5). Then again, any game with any team from the Big Ten West is a difficult watch.
Winner: Jim Harbaugh. The first 13-win season in Michigan history produces the No. 2 seed and a winnable semifinal matchup against TCU — as opposed to last year’s role as red meat for Georgia.
Loser: Texas A&M. Ranked sixth to start the season and boasting an insane recruiting class, the Aggies failed to qualify for the postseason. What. A. Bust.
Winner: Kyle Whittingham. Once again, the master of all he surveys.
Loser: Oregon. The Holiday Bowl is a fine destination, except when the Rose Bowl is within reach three quarters into your Week 13 game.
Winner: Tulane. Talk about turnarounds for the ages: The Green Wave was 2-10 last year and finished 11-2 this season under veteran coach Willie Fritz, qualifying for a major bowl (the Cotton) for the first time since the 1930s.
Loser: Oklahoma. Ranked ninth to start the season under first-year coach Brent Venables, the Sooners finished 6-6 and will face Florida State in the Cheez-It Bowl.
Winner: Washington State: Seven consecutive years in the postseason (excluding 2020) across three coaching tenures and hundreds of miles from the nearest recruiting hub. ‘Nuf said.
Winner: Oklahoma fans. At least Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams didn’t make the CFP.
Related Articles

• Pac-12 football: The Hotline’s picks for individual awards and the all-conference teams
• Pac-12 bowl breakdown: Two teams in the New Year’s Six while OSU heads to Las Vegas and UCLA slides to the Sun
• AP top-25 FB ballot: Georgia is No. 1 (again), followed by Michigan
• Colorado hires Deion Sanders: A spectacular move by the Buffaloes, for better or worse
• Utah thumps USC in the Pac-12 championship: What it means for the conference’s bowl bids

Loser: UCLA. We knew one of the Pac-12’s nine-win teams would slide to El Paso. A suboptimal end to the Bruins’ best season in years.
Winner: Oregon State. Nine wins and a date in Las Vegas against an SEC opponent. Say hello to the program that maximizes its resources as well as any in the country.
Loser: Michigan State. For a cool $9.5 million, coach Mel Tucker delivered five wins. (Hey, Spartans: Texas A&M feels your pain.)
Winner: Washington. A mere 53 weeks ago, the Huskies were blown out at home by Washington State to complete a 4-8 season. Here they are, with 10 wins and heading to the Alamo Bowl for a Texas two-step with an old friend.
Loser: Alabama. Any year without a playoff berth — and there haven’t been many — is a bad year in Tuscaloosa.
Winner: USC. If fans had been told on Sept. 1 that the Trojans would win 11 games, lose to one team and make the New Year’s Six, they would have asked where to sign.
Loser: USC. Obviously.
Winner: Colorado. The Buffaloes were eliminated from bowl contention in October. But on the same day the sport celebrated its postseason, CU rejoiced in the start of a new era. Hello, “Coach Prime.”

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*** Send suggestions, comments and tips (confidentiality guaranteed) to pac12hotline@bayareanewsgroup.com or call 408-920-5716
*** Follow me on Twitter: @WilnerHotline
*** Pac-12 Hotline is not endorsed or sponsored by the Pac-12 Conference, and the views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conference.

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[Garret]

Thank you!

[David G]

Thanks, George, for the C&P.

Meanwhile, I'm getting dizzy watching all the turmoil in the Transfer Portal. My Duckies had lost a couple of perfectly serviceable wide receivers, and then today we picked up one of 'bama's rejects who looks solid. Six TD receptions last year --

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/breakin...004804417.html

[David G]

Watched the 2nd half of the Dolphins/Chargers. In spite of all the injuries, the Chargers pulled one out. Good defensive game plan, and Herbert looked very good.

[David G]

Soooooo...

Alabama is now a 'basketball school'? <G> ---


Alabama basketball is ranked higher than football.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/alabama-b...210339648.html

[David G]

RIP Mike Leach.

He was definitely one of a kind. His zany perspective added humor and joy to the college football world --

https://sports.yahoo.com/mike-leachs...150355250.html

[Beowolf]

None of us caught George going all Sky Blue on us in #5016?

[ron ll]

RIP Mike Leach.

He was definitely one of a kind. His zany perspective added humor and joy to the college football world --

https://sports.yahoo.com/mike-leachs...150355250.html

I was struggling to figure out why a Mississippi coach would look familiar to me. Then someone pointed out he was the WSU Cougar coach up until a couple of years ago. RIP, 61 is too young, or the job is too much stress.

[Ted Hoppe]

The Seahawks look helpless against the niners tonight in do or die game for Seattle.

[Ted Hoppe]

Seattle wakes up. Makes it a one possession score. Something always goes on with these rivals.

[Beowolf]

Gooooo Niners!!!

(Trying to get the Pontiac Pussycats into the playoffs over here!)

[Ted Hoppe]

49ers are the western NFC champions with a fabulous rookie QB.

[bamamick]

Former Bama linebacker Demeco Ryans is probably going to find himself an NFL head coaching job after this season.

Mickey Lake

[FishoutaFlorida]

Winner: Oregon State. Nine wins and a date in Las Vegas against an SEC opponent. Say hello to the program that maximizes its resources as well as any in the country.

9 wins in one season! Beat the ducks!

Life is good! (for the time being, we are talking about the Beavers you know )