bukie

And before anyone starts crying about draft position, can it, beating the Packers means more than 1 spot in the draft.

Just the opposite of any sense of urgency anywhere on this team.

Bears ST tries a lateral just to lose an extra 5 yards on the return.

From this post, the Bears go holding penalty-fumble, losing 15 yards and handing the ball to the Packers without forcing them to take a single time out.

Packers doing their best to try to out-Bears the Bears.

2 minutes to go, Bears have first down on the Packers 43. I am morbidly curious to see what stupid way they ruin this.

WR screen that goes out of bounds isn't ideal.

In addition, I'd probably move up the playoff one week so that the semifinals are Jan 1 with the quarters on Christmas weekend and first round the week before. That gives all teams a week off between regular season and playoffs for finals week, keeps everyone fresh, and doesn't drag the NCAA playoffs into NFL playoff time (granted, it still hasn't happened yet but this is going into late January now and they're holding the championship game on the 20th of January after two weeks of NFL playoffs).

The NFL is a completely different beast than the NCAA. The bye there is one week, while this year teams had 3 weeks of rest with the bye while the first round participants had 2 weeks of rest and then a game. Calling the Georgia-ND game "essentially a 6-3 halftime score" while ignoring the 2 TDs spanning halftime that effectively iced the game is disingenuous at best. Boise State started out the game throwing 3 picks and giving up 2 TDs before they settled down a bit, still down 10 at the half before briefly making it a game before losing by 17. I personally just don't like this bye system with neutral sites. Back in the day, that's why they eventually expanded the NCAA tournament so everyone played every game, and adding the other 4 G5 winners solves two current minor issues while still reseeding them 1-16 without guaranteeing conference champs the top 4 seeds solves the most glaring issue from this iteration.

The solution to all the bye teams having the doors blown off them in the first half would be to have them all play the same number of games so they aren't rusty, yes. I agree Clemson, ASU and Boise were rewarded, and that it eventually worked out to have 5 auto bids because the gap between the top 5 conference champs and the other 4 was big enough this year. However, there will come a time where the difference between champ 5 and 6 is negligible, so why not just include every conference champ? Then at least every team has a theoretical shot at the title. It'll be similar to the 1-16/2-15/3-14/4-13 games in the basketball NCAA tournament, 90% of the time it'll be a blowout, but it will allow for infrequent crazy outcomes while still giving the top seeds a week of play to stay in rhythm with the rest.

Two rounds in, here's my thoughts on the 12-team playoff system... What works: Just about everybody that deserved a national championship shot got one. Boise State got a deserved chance, even though they lost the game. Big 12 and ACC got shots they wouldn't have with a 4-team playoff. Nobody goes home deservedly short changed (except maybe Oregon) Home games in the first round. Electric environments, even in blowouts. Good enough that they should do it for every game until the championship. This was the perfect year to expand, because a 4 team playoff would have been a disaster. Who would have been the 4 teams? Oregon, Georgia, Notre Dame, and then choose between Texas, PSU, OSU, Tennessee, Indiana, Boise State, Arizona State? Nobody would have been happy, and a team that will likely be in the national championship game wouldn't have had a shot. What isn't working: 4 byes for 4 conference champs. All 4 lost, 3 of them handily. Whether it was the long layoff or the seeding being messed up based on there being only 2 deserving conference champs, nobody was rewarded for winning their conference championship game. I'd propose expanding to 16 and inviting every conference champ, so the lower-tier conference championships at least have meaning. Then everyone gets a home game that is ranked high, and everyone is on a level playing field for the quarters. Quarters at neutral sites after first round at home sites. It was almost a disadvantage to be a conference champ this season, even with the byes. Having all the games on a network in the SEC's pocket. All we heard for two weeks was how the SEC got shafted and nobody else deserves a spot at the table, only to watch every SEC team lose and/or struggle. Now they're left with Texas, a team not even in the SEC a season ago and a room full of analysts and Nick Saban left with nothing to say.

Fun fact, Illinois was 6th in BR's rating metric before last night's game. Now they're in the top 10 in KP, BT and NET, which means they're a really really good team whether AP voters think so or not.

I have had a feeling that Illinois was quietly really good and underrated and just needed a big win to get attention. If you think about it, if KJ makes both FTs at the end against Tennessee and hits the fadeaway at the end of regulation in NW, Illinois is probably sitting in the top 10 with effectively the same metrics. 109-77 in Eugene should get attention from AP voters, I suppose.

I can't believe this is a real image...

Four straight terrible instances of blocking.

He should get credit for a half sack. Soldier Field turf gets the other half.

I can't remember the last time I liked the look of a Bears opening drive.

That's 5 games in a row where the Hawks resembled an actual hockey team. Dug a hole too big today, but fought back, and encouraging to see Bedard being one of the best players on the ice today.

SMU's QB has thrown for 62 yards for SMU and 96 yards for PSU.

Also, screw the ESPN announcers and their boldfaced shilling for the SEC. Now I'm to the point of hoping no SEC team makes the semis so they can sit there looking stupid for the last two rounds.

The whole "Indiana wasn't deserving" discourse is so tired and lame. It's possible for both these things to be true at the same time: 1. Indiana and Notre Dame are two of the top 10 teams in the country 2. Notre Dame is head and shoulders better than Indiana I mean, Indiana lost to Ohio State by 23 and ND by 10 and beat Michigan by 4 and blew everyone else off the map. If you look at their composite ranking across all systems (https://masseyratings.com/ranks?s=cf), they're 7th, while Notre Dame is 2nd. And to dismiss them as "just a couple of mediocre 11-1 teams" belies the fact that they were the only 11-1 teams in college football this season. And slow the roll, Illini fans, Illinois was about the 40th best football team in the country this season, and lost at home to Minnesota, while not being able to blow out Purdue or Northwestern. They were good, but not on this level.

...see, the Cubs did get Soto.

Last night was one of the more encouraging outings of the season. Scored goals, Bedard was one of the best players on the ice, lost because goaltending was terrible.

There is a very real chance that no SEC team makes the semifinals this year.

The way I see it, it is in no way unfair that 3 loss Alabama doesn't get a shot at the national title this year. There were 15 teams with 0, 1, or 2 losses. 11 of them made the CFP, with the 12th spot going to a Clemson team that won the ACC and got the bottom seed. Successful playoff selection. The four teams that didn't make it with 2 or fewer losses: - Memphis - 2 losses, didn't make AAC championship game, best win was probably against Tulane, had probably the 50th best resume in the field. - Army - 1 loss, won the AAC, run off the field by ND, best win probably also Tulane. Closer loss to ND and they might be there instead of Clemson. - BYU - 2 losses, didn't play in the B12 championship, best win was SMU, lost to the only good B12 teams they played, and now get an odd bowl game where they play a conference matchup with Colorado. - Miami - 2 losses, didn't play in the ACC championship, they're probably in if they make the ACC championship even though their best win was...I dunno, maybe Florida? Worse resume than Indiana for sure. Hard to argue with any of it, really, even if Alabama might be the 10th best team instead of the 12th best team in reality. Would have been annoyed if Bama made it over Miami, so at least it didn't come to that. If I had to make changes for next year, I'd suggest two simple things: 1. Expand to 16 teams and take champions from all 9 conferences. Still get 7 at larges, just like this year, but there's no arbitrary voting decisions between, say, Clemson, Boise State and Army on who gets a chance and who doesn't. 2. No protected seeding, just seed 1-16 based on strength to balance out the bracket. I think this hurts Oregon and Georgia the most this year, so I think this is the likeliest change to actually happen.