Bowl Season and the fall out from Championship Saturday

Only the Bowl games left…and it FSU vs War Beagles for all the marbles !! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ What a conundrum on Saturday night. I loathe Ohio State and loved it when Sparty beat them. On the other hand, FSU would rout the buckies by 30 or 40 points, but Auburn is dangerously good, especially with Gus’ offense! Before I dive any deeper, I ready today where Todd Monken, coach at Southern Miss, personally bought each of his seniors a suit, so they are ready to interview and get jobs. Nice one coach! I think coach Monken was previously at Georgia Southern, where nephew Coach Baker is!

Back to the BCS Championship game… I, of course, will be pulling for FSU all the way. I would rather Winston NOT win the Heisman,but it looks like no one else has grabbed the prize. Auburn is scary explosive on offense and that is to Malzahn's credit. He does not have the best personnel (Mason is very good) but he is out in front of all the defenses with his scheme and his team's execution and confidence. FSU's defense is the closest to Alabama's that the war beagles will see, but in the end Auburn should be able to score somewhere around 30 points - my early guesstimation. Auburn's secondary is not elite, so the Noles will be able to pass with a lot of success. That should open holes for the 3 the best RB's FSU has had in a long time.

Got nearly a month to waffle, but I like FSU in the range of 42-30 ....It will not be a 6-3 defensive struggle! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Nothing short of ironic that Jason’s Tigers and my Noles are butting heads in the last BCS title game! I have already decorated his undefended office with FSU stuff!! 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Mizzu matched Auburn’s offense for about 3 quarters, but it only took a slight slip up on offense and suddenly they were behind for good. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ UCF was horrible. It was ridiculously cold in Dallas, but SMU? Baylor will lay 60 on them…it will be hard to watch. Oklahoma surprised me in Bedlam and now they get a date with Alabama as a reward  Stanford surprised me too. When they are on, they are BEAST. How did they lose to Utah and Arizona? Don’t get it. Of course South Carolina flopped in Knoxville somehow and the Gamecocks are the best team in the East, not Mizzu… Jadaveon got caught going over 100mph Saturday night...might he have received a little advance on his NFL fortune??? :)

Criminole or not? Playoff and SEC expansion

The long awaited decision to charge Jameis Winston with sexual assault will be announced at 1:00 my time today... **************************************************************************************** Now, college football’s last weekend before the Bowl games is here. A whole lot still to settle with conference Championship games for the ACC, SEC, big10 (w 12 teams), and the PAC12. Other conferences have Champ games too, CUSA, MAC, and even MW. Army Navy has their annual spectacle and in the big12, Bedlam is a biggie and the Texas – Baylor game is a biggie. FSU looks “in” the BCS Championship game in the final year of the BCS, barring the all time upset by Duke.

Next season we start the 4 team playoff. If we had it this season, we can play around with what it should be on Sunday, but I’ll take a swing: FSU LOCK SEC Champ LOCK Ohio State (if they win Sat) LOCK ????Alabama? 11-1 Oklahoma State? 11-1 Baylor??? A smoking red hot Arizona State? What will the criteria be for the selection committee? BEST TEAM or conf champs? The problem is that the March Madness selection INCLUDES strength of schedule, while football really doesn’t. FSU has played a weak schedule. ACC sucks and even UF was abysmal this year. Big 10 is pretty sucky too and the ohio state buckies did not play a decent non conference game. FSU looks like the real deal, but a selection committee might take battle tested teams from SEC, PAC and Big 12…

********************************************************************************** It is a good first step in my opinion, but has to get to 8 teams sooner than later. There are 5 “major” conferences – SEC, ACC, PAC 12, big10 and big12. There are 5 2nd tier football conferences – AAC, Mountain West, MAC, CUSA and Sunbelt. An 8 team playoff could allow each of the 5 major conferences to send their champion, plus 3 at large teams to be selected from all 10 conferences. Would it be heavily weighted to the 5 major conferences? Sure, but it would allow for that 12-0 Fresno, or NI, or Boise to slip in most years. Then other 2 slots would go to the 2nd most deserving teams in the “big 5”. This year it would look like this: 1. FSU 2. Ohio State or Mich State 3. Auburn or Mizzu 4. Oklahoma State (assuming they win Sat) 5. ASU/Stanford winner 6. At large Northern Ill (begrudgingly) 7. At large Alabama At large Ohio State if they lose Saturday, OR 2nd PAC team like Oregon, OR 12-1 Baylor if they beat Texas. The selection committee will seed them and we will have 4 amazing round 1 matchups, semi finals the next week, and then the championship game. Of course there would be much arguing about who deserves the at large, with this 8 team bracket all the big conferences get their big dog in the fight, and some years also their 2nd best team. A couple of other mandates/ rules I would like to see invoked: Each of the big 5 must have conference championship games. The big 12 (w 10 teams) does not currently, so they need to snag BYU and one more team to get to 12 and play a Champ game. ************************************************ ACC: make Notre Dame join completely or get their butts out. Don’t give me this partial in crap! Eliminate the Irish advantage pronto. ************************************************* SEC: the expectation is to move to 9 conference games. That will be tough with more “beating up on each other” resulting. Whether it is 8 to 9 conference games, the real need is to only have the conference games “IN DIVISION” count on the conference record. Spurrier is actually the one I heard suggest this approach and it is the only way to determine a true East and West champion. Over the last 4 or 5 seasons, Georgia made it to Atlanta over South Carolina and Florida, by virtue of skipping play dates with Alabama and LSU, the big dogs in the West. The Gamecocks or Gators would beat Georgia head to head, but their 2 losses to the west would cost them a berth in Atlanta. Just to illustrate this point, consider some of the cross over foes for SEC teams next season: • Mizzu, the defending East champs gets A&M and Arkansas from the West • Florida, coming off their first losing season since 79, gets ALABAMA AND LSU…ouch • South Carolina gets A&M and Auburn • Georgia plays Auburn and Arkansas • Tennessee has to deal with ALABAMA and Ole Miss • Vandy gets the 2 Mississippi teams…favorable draw • Kentucky gets Miss St and LSU And out West: • Arkansas plays Georgia and Mizzu • Alabama plays Florida and Tennessee • Auburn plays Georgia and Tennessee • A&M plays South Carolina and Mizzu • Ole Miss plays Vandy and Tennessee • Miss St gets Vandy and Kentucky – that could really help their SEC record in the current format ************************************************************************ The last item for my insightful ranting today is SEC alignment and expansion. They will go to 16. In a year or two, I see NC State and Va Tech bring the SEC all those TV eyeballs in North Carolina, Va and all the way up to DC. Then when that happens, the SEC EAST winner will not be further west than the WEST winner is. They can put Mizzu and Vandy in the West like this: EAST: Florida, Georgia, South Caro, Tennessee, NC State, Va Tech, Kentucky and AUBURN! WEST: Alabama, Mizz, Arkansas, A&M, Ole Miss, Miss State, LSU and VANDY!

December is here - Championship Saturday is coming

College Football is the best!

The Auburn win over Alabama was one of the most exciting football games I have ever watched. I really did not think the war beagles could hang with the Tide, but they did. And big bad Nick choked more than once in the game, or at least proved he is human after all. When he decided against a FG try from the 13 yard line I sent a text to Roger “what is he thinking?”. High school kickers everywhere make 30 yard FG’s. I know, you are Alabama and you should be able to gain a yard, but give Auburn credit for playing with MORE heart and passion than the tide. By the way, last year’s SEC Championship game between Bama and Georgia was right up there in the all-time great games. Back to the Iron Bowl, I am a sick puppy when it comes to football, but a 109 yard missed FG return with no time on the clock! Wow! Auburn gained ~300 yards on the ground against the vaunted Tide “D”. ON the ground! Gus is gonna be trouble in the already stupid good SEC for years to come. Jason will be hard to live with…unless the Noles get to hammer them  ************************************************************************************************************************** Mizzu beat A&M and johnny football to secure the SEC East top spot. Very impressed with Mizzu. Sure Georgia and Florida were down when they played the Tigers, but Mizzu got better every week. They will not lay down in Atlanta. In fact, I expect a terrific shoot out between the two TIGERS teams. ***************************************************************************************** South Carolina beat Climpsun but the Mizzu win eliminated them from Atlanta. I thought Carolina would be playing Alabama and I think South Carolina would have won that one…It boggles my mind that USC lost to Tennessee… Duke did it! They won their 10th game and will play in the ACC Champ game Saturday night in Charlotte. Sure, FSU should beat them but what an amazing job Cuttcliff has done. Up north the ohio state beat Michigan when the Maize and Blue failed on their 2-point conversion. So, at this point OSU looks to play FSU in the BCS game. I will be a huge Michigan State fan in the big10 (w 12 teams) champ game. The absolute worst case scenario for me will be that FSU plays the buckies without Jameis…makes my stomach hurt. Go Sparty! Arizona State hosts Stanford in the Pac 12 title game. I like the Devils who are smokin hot with a 8 game win streak going. Oregon eaked out a w over cross state rival Beavers… In addition to the conference championship games on Saturday, the Bedlam (I love games with names/titles) matchup of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State is huge. The Cowboys win the big 12 (w 10 teams) if they prevail. If the Sooners win, Baylor gets the crown (assuming they beat Texas – not a sure thing). UCF played like dog crap against USF. Knights are gonna go BCS bowling, but NOBODY in that league deserves a bid, as much as I have sentimental feelings for the Orlando school. Don’t give me that North Illinois garbage either. They had their day in the sun last year and a weaker FSU team beat em by 21.

If I did this right, this pic is 3 of my cousins loving the season FSU is enjoying! ************************************************************************************************* Gators played hard in the 1st half, but as expected, FSU pulled away and won by 30. My dad and my mother in law are in mourning... So, Will fired his OC and another sacrificial assistant. With next year’s murderous schedule, Florida better be ready to score some points for a change.