bukie

Same. [tweet] [/tweet]

Purdue up to 5th, a 19 spot rise. UNC down to 18th. ESPN announced yesterday the B1G-ACC challenge is ending after this year (ESPN is losing the rights to broadcast he B1G which I am sure is a coincidence). Starting next season, there will be an SEC-ACC challenge, which I suppose makes more sense regionally. As for this year's B1G-ACC challenge, the matchups for this season favor the B1G by a 10-4 margin (as the KenPom rates): 1. #122 Georgia Tech at #23 Iowa (Iowa, 91%) 2. #7 Purdue at #164 Florida State (Purdue 89%) 3. #121 Pittsburgh at #46 Northwestern (Northwestern 82%) 4. #24 Maryland at #171 Louisville (Maryland 82%) 5. #70 Syracuse at #22 Illinois (Illinois 81%) 6. #76 Wake Forest at #40 Wisconsin (Wisconsin 73%) 7. #21 North Carolina at #11 Indiana (Indiana 70%) 8. #107 Boston College at #111 Nebraska (Nebraska 61%) 9. #29 Michigan State at #78 Notre Dame (Michigan State 58%) 10. #33 Penn State at #66 Clemson (Penn State 50.3%) 11. #36 Rutgers at #44 Miami (Miami 58%) 12. #19 Ohio State at #20 Duke (Duke 61%) 13. #5 Virginia at #53 Michigan (Virginia 67%) 14. #154 Minnesota at #35 Virginia Tech (Virginia Tech 87%)

Are women allowed to watch their broadcasts, or is that only with express written permission of the father or husband?

Also, fun scheduling quirk, Illinois doesn't play Purdue until March 5. IU and Illinois have been the preseason favorites, but Purdue's week at least puts them into the conversation for now (like MSU's week last week did and this week subsequently took them out of).

I mean, he didn't bring the Colts defense with him. They stayed in Indianapolis. As for the Bears' current defense, it's down their best two players from the start of the season and by the end of today was playing with 1 legitimate defensive starter that they can use going forward and a couple of rookie projects.

Who do you put above them? UNC definitely no, Kansas lost, Duke and Gonzaga lost to Purdue, Creighton and Arkansas lost, MSU lost, Kentucky and UCLA have 2 losses already, Illinois, Baylor and Indiana didn't play anybody of import this week. That leaves Houston (maybe defacto #1), Texas, Virginia, Arizona and UConn, with outside shots for Indiana, Baylor, Illinois and Tennessee staying ahead of Purdue (though I doubt Illinois gets quite that high). Looking at efficiency-based metrics, KenPom still has a preseason component affecting rankings (to avoid early season ratings being too volatile to be reliable), and Purdue is at 9 there, behind Texas, Houston, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Gonzaga, Baylor, and Connecticut. I feel like that's kinda close, except I think Kentucky are a bit buoyed by preseason factors right now. Sagarin's ratings are purely based on in season performance, so it's more volatile, and are only updated once a day (so today's results aren't factored in yet) and here is that top 10 coming into today: 1. Houston 2. Texas 3. Connecticut 4. Purdue 5. Indiana 6. Gonzaga 7. Baylor 8. Tennessee 9. Arizona 10. Illinois That looks pretty good in terms of actual accomplishment, missing a bit on maybe Virginia (they're 11th, they didn't rout all their buy games so far, like I said, there's only 5 games worth of data here so far so each game provides volatility).

Is Purdue the #1 team tomorrow?

I remain convinced there are 4 good teams, the Bills, Chiefs, Eagles and Cowboys. Everyone else is different levels of meh to bad and games break for or against them from week to week. The Bengals and Ravens are close to good, but seem a step behind. The Vikings are a 9-2 team that should be more like 6-5. Every team in the NFC South, West and AFC South are varying levels of bad where one team has to emerge as a playoff team.

Germany scores in the 83rd minute, potentially saving their World Cup once again.

I don't get this FO and coaching staff, Thomas Graham was not great by any stretch last year but he was clearly better than Vildor. Him staying on the roster and getting PT reminds of Qasim Mitchell false starting every snap. It's one of many decisions that indicates to me this organization is not looking to win games this season.

A sack! By a lineman! I have seen the white whale.

Lost in the Eddie Jackson sadness and Mike White praise is that once again Kindle Vildor was 10 yards behind his man and might be the worst cover corner I've ever seen.

The announcing team is being way too effusive of Mike White leading a touchdown drive against this defense.

Canada needs to spend the entire halftime break explaining the concept of marking to their back line.

Germany saved by Costa Rica, now need a draw today and win vs Costa Rica to advance.

If TCU and USC win, then the CFP is easy. If one loses, then it's pick your poison between 1 loss OSU and 2 loss Alabama (or 2 loss Clemson that was already behind both these teams). I can't imagine a scenario where 3 loss LSU gets in even by winning the SEC, so it'd look worse for the CFP to put in Alabama over them. Here's what I expect: If TCU and USC win: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. TCU 4. USC If one of TCU/USC lose: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. TCU/USC 4. Ohio State If both of TCU/USC lose: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Ohio State 4. TCU

Illinois had 8 wins for the first time in 20 years. That's great! Illinois lost 3 games where they outplayed their opponent and had a greater than 50% win expectancy, losing the B1G West in the process. That's bad. Lots of unfortunate turnovers and failed drives petering out in the red zone. Had Michigan beat and turtled and the defense ran out of gas. Improvement to be made for next season.

Friday's game vs England was the most watched US English broadcast of a soccer game in history, beating out the 1994 World Cup final: [tweet] [/tweet]

Argentina finding out exactly how stupidly annoying it is to play Mexico in soccer. Now do it at Azteca.

Something I'm curious about regarding Michigan/Ohio State...is the B1G title game effectively meaningless forbthe winner of this game? If whoever wins this game goes out and loses to Purdue/Illinois/Iowa next week, they're still in the CFP and ahead of today's loser, right?

Today, they knew they needed a result against a Wales team that prefers to sit back. Tuesday, they know they likely advance with a draw, so I fully expect them to go that way. Robinson was flying up and down the left flank all game and the only dangerous spot he allowed that Adams had to rescue was when he made a great run forward that CP didn't see.

UNC finally loses after not having looked very good at any point this season, and should drop from their #1 ranking caused by how good people thought they should be in August. Question is, how far would they fall? I have a hard time seeing voters drop them more than 10 spots, but metric ratings have them more in the 20s, so I'd be curious if they nose dive.

It's been a little frustrating to watch this team boss their opponents for effectively 120 of 180 minutes over 2 games and end up with 2 draws. Many of the players, especially at the wings (Jedi, Musah, Pulisic, Dest, McKennie, Weah, Adams) have been the best players on the field across both games. Depth is a bit of a concern, particularly since Gregg has gone with largely the same lineups for 2 games, aside from splitting Wright and Sargent equally (with neither generating really much with their time aside from the one early Sargent header vs Wales). Moore clearly wasn't ready for primetime, Yedlin is fine but a step slow, and Aaronson/Reyna hasn't had much of an opportunity to do anything yet. I want to say Ream and Zimmerman have been better than I was afraid they'd be, but the only goal the team has given up so far was on Zimmerman, and the US midfield has been so dominant for the majority of the game, there hasn't been a ton being asked of them other than field back passes and distribute the ball forward. CB is still a concern going forward, but Turner and Adams have been good enough where it's only really hurt them once so far. I am not sure how well they will generate chances against a turtling Iran unless they can get better presence in front of the goal, and their set pieces have done effectively jack horsefeathers, but I'd like their chances against almost any other team that won't sit back.

It's soccer, officially. [tweet] [/tweet]

Somebody monkey pawed this season good.