Andy

I know it's not actually going to happen, but the guy needs to have another answer ready for that question than 'the literal maximum amount of teams it's possible to get.' The SEC and B1G claim they haven't pushed forward with a further expansion to this playoff that would further benefit themselves because they 'want to see how this selection process plays out,' but unspoken in that is that they're essentially blackmailing the committee to put all the teams from their leagues in that they can or they're just going to expand it to 14+ and stack the field with auto-bids for their teams (and they'll probably do it anyway).

Rub it in

Top 25 games (20) Illinois at (1) Oregon (3:30 pm, CBS) (3) Penn State at Wisconsin (7:30 pm, NBC) Nebraska at (4) Ohio State (12 pm, FOX) (5) Texas at (25) Vanderbilt (4:15 pm, SEC Network) Florida State at (6) Miami (7 pm, ESPN) (8) LSU at (14) Texas A&M (7:30 pm, ABC) (11) BYU at UCF (3:30 pm, ESPN) (12) Notre Dame vs (24) Navy - in East Rutherford, NJ (12 pm, ABC) Washington at (13) Indiana (12 pm, BTN) (21) Missouri at (15) Alabama (3:30 pm, ABC) Kansas at (16) Kansas State (8 pm, ESPN2) (17) Boise State at UNLV (10:30 pm Friday, CBSSN) Oklahoma at (18) Ole Miss (12 pm, ESPN) Syracuse at (19) Pittsburgh (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPN) (22) SMU at Duke (8 pm, ACC Network) Other nationally available games Tuesday Sam Houston at FIU (7:30 pm, ESPNU) UTEP at Louisiana Tech (8 pm, CBSSN) Wednesday Liberty at Kennesaw State (7 pm, CBSSN) Middle Tennessee at Jacksonville State (7:30 pm, ESPN2) Thursday Georgia Southern at Old Dominion (7 pm, ESPN2) Friday Louisville at Boston College (7:30 pm, ESPN2) Rutgers at USC (11 pm, FOX) Saturday TV North Carolina at Virginia (12 pm, CW) Tulane at North Texas (12 pm, ESPN2) Charlotte at Memphis (12 pm, ESPNU) Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech (12 pm, ACC Network) Buffalo at Ohio (12 pm, CBSSN) Arkansas at Mississippi State (12:45 pm, SEC Network) Texas Tech at TCU (3:30 pm, FOX) Maryland at Minnesota (3:30 pm, FS1) Northwestern at Iowa (3:30 pm, BTN) Wake Forest at Stanford (3:30 pm, ACC Network) Rice at UConn (3:30 pm, CBSSN) Oregon State at California (4 pm, ESPN2) West Virginia at Arizona (7 pm, FS1) Utah State at Wyoming (7 pm, CBSSN) Michigan State at Michigan (7:30 pm, BTN) Auburn at Kentucky (7:45 pm, SEC Network) San Jose State at Fresno State (8 pm, TruTV) Cincinnati at Colorado (10:15 pm, ESPN) Washington State at San Diego State (10:30 pm, CBSSN) Saturday Streaming (all ESPN+) Georgia State at Appalachian State (1 pm) Central Michigan at Miami (OH) (2 pm) Temple at East Carolina (2 pm) Bowling Green at Toledo (3:30 pm) Eastern Michigan at Akron (3:30 pm) Kent State at Western Michigan (3:30 pm) Northern Illinois at Ball State (3:30 pm) Oklahoma State at Baylor (3:30 pm) Southern Miss at James Madison (3:30 pm) UTSA at Tulsa (3:30 pm) Wagner at UMass (3:30 pm) UL Monroe at South Alabama (5 pm) Troy at Arkansas State (7 pm) Utah at Houston (7 pm)

Sankey completely seriously said the number of SEC teams he'd be satisfied with in the playoff is 8. The maximum they can have in the current format. As long as chodes like him and Petitti are running the sport it's going to get worse.

"I win, Google me" might go down as the greatest called shot by a first year coach ever. Their schedule is pretty pillow soft but they're also smashing everyone on it. It's awesome.

I saw that he resigned the day they were mandating he turn over electronics communication related to this investigation, which definitely seems like a thing people do.

CB Ben Morrison out for the season for ND with a hip injury. Likely ends his college career as he's a slam-dunk 1st round pick and one of the best players in the country. That makes something like 5 or 6 starters wiped out by injury before the season is half over.

Top 25 games (5) Georgia at (1) Texas (7:30 pm, ABC) (2) Oregon at Purdue (8 pm Friday, FOX) (6) Miami at Louisville (12 pm, ABC) (7) Alabama at (11) Tennessee (3:30 pm, ABC) (8) LSU at Arkansas (7 pm, ESPN) UCF at (9) Iowa State (7:30 pm, FS1) Virginia at (10) Clemson (12 pm, ACC Network) (12) Notre Dame vs Georgia Tech - at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (3:30 pm, ESPN) Oklahoma State at (13) BYU (10:15 pm Friday, ESPN) (14) Texas A&M at Mississippi State (4:15 pm, SEC Network) Nebraska at (16) Indiana (12 pm, FOX) (17) Kansas State at West Virginia (7:30 pm, FOX) Auburn at (19) Missouri (12 pm, ESPN) (21) SMU at Stanford (8 pm, ACC Network) (24) Michigan at (22) Illinois (3:30 pm, CBS) East Carolina at (23) Army (12 pm, ESPN2) Charlotte at (25) Navy (3:30 pm, CBSSN) Other nationally available games Tuesday Troy at South Alabama (7:30 pm, ESPN2) Kennesaw State at Middle Tennessee (8 pm, CBSSN) Louisiana Tech at New Mexico State (9 pm, ESPNU) Wednesday Western Kentucky at Sam Houston (7 pm, ESPN2) FIU at UTEP (9 pm, CBSSN) Thursday Georgia State at Marshall (7 pm, ESPN2) Boston College at Virginia Tech (7:30 pm, ESPN) Friday Florida State at Duke (7 pm, ESPN2) Fresno State at Nevada (10:30 pm, CBSSN) Saturday TV UCLA at Rutgers (12 pm, FS1) Wisconsin at Northwestern (12 pm, BTN) UL Lafayette at Coastal Carolina (12 pm, ESPNU) Wake Forest at UConn (12 pm, CBSSN) South Carolina at Oklahoma (12:45 pm, SEC Network) Hawaii at Washington State (3:30 pm, CW) NC State at California (3:30 pm, ACC Network) Colorado at Arizona (4 pm, FOX) Baylor at Texas Tech (4 pm, ESPN2) USC at Maryland (4 pm, FS1) New Mexico at Utah State (4 pm, TruTV) Iowa at Michigan State (7:30 pm, NBC) North Texas at Memphis (7:30 pm, ESPNU) Kentucky at Florida (7:45 pm, SEC Network) Colorado State at Air Force (8 pm, CBS) UNLV at Oregon State (10 pm, CW) TCU at Utah (10:30 pm, ESPN) Saturday Streaming (all ESPN+) Arizona State at Cincinnati (12 pm) Central Michigan at Eastern Michigan (2 pm) Tulsa at Temple (2 pm) Florida Atlantic at UTSA (3:30 pm) Houston at Kansas - in Kansas City, MO (3:30 pm) Kent State at Bowling Green (3:30 pm) Ohio at Miami (OH) (3:30 pm) Rice at Tulane (3:30 pm) Texas State at Old Dominion (3:30 pm) Toledo at Northern Illinois (3:30 pm) UAB at South Florida (3:30 pm) Western Michigan at Buffalo (3:30 pm) James Madison at Georgia Southern (4 pm) Arkansas State at Southern Miss (7 pm) Ball State at Vanderbilt (7 pm)

One under discussed thing with the mega conferences and the playoff is that parsing the schedules teams are playing will probably require more nuance than most CFB fans are capable of. As a for instance (I'm not picking on anyone, I just happened to look it up), if Illinois drops out of the poll for nearly losing to awful Purdue, Penn State will have one currently ranked team on its 2024 schedule (Ohio State). Depending on how Vanderbilt (who knew?) and Oklahoma are evaluated in today's poll, the same may be true of Missouri as well (Texas A&M). It's not going to be as simple as "this team is in a power 2 conference so their schedule is automatically a death march."

There's no reasonable amount of games that will make those series less random. If you want less random playoffs you need to let fewer teams in. That's it. No other solution will regularly produce the best teams at the end.

The plan as I understand it is for the two teams never to meet in the regular season. The traditional game will be played when it currently is and not count in the league standings.

The actual Army/Navy game can't affect anything because it will be played after the CFP is set, but the two would meet in the AAC championship if what you are hoping for comes to pass, with the winner likely getting that spot. This creates the deeply funny possibility of the teams playing in back to back weeks with only the first game having any actual stakes - and the deeply fun possibility of that first game being played on one of the academy campuses, as AAC title games always take place at campus sites.

Not sure what happened there, brain fart

Top 25 games (1) Texas vs (18) Oklahoma - in Dallas (3:30 pm, ABC) (2) Ohio State at (3) Oregon (7:30 pm, NBC) (4) Penn State at USC (3:30 pm, CBS) Mississippi State at (5) Georgia (4:15 pm, SEC Network) South Carolina at (7) Alabama (12 pm, ABC) Florida at (8) Tennessee (7 pm, ESPN) (9) Ole Miss at (13) LSU (7:30 pm, ABC) (10) Clemson at Wake Forest (12 pm, ESPN) Stanford at (11) Notre Dame (3:30 pm, NBC) (11) Iowa State at West Virginia (8 pm, FOX) Arizona at (14) BYU (4 pm, FOX) (16) Utah at Arizona State (10:30 pm Friday, ESPN) (17) Boise State at Hawaii (11 pm, CBSSN) (18) Kansas State at Colorado (10:15 pm, ESPN) (21) Missouri at UMass (12 pm, ESPN2) California at (22) Pittsburgh (3:30 pm, ESPN) Purdue at (23) Illinois (3:30 pm, FS1) Other nationally available games Tuesday FIU at Liberty (7 pm, CBSSN) Wednesday New Mexico State at Jacksonville State (7:30 pm, ESPN2) Thursday Coastal Carolina at James Madison (7:30 pm, ESPN2) UTEP at Western Kentucky (8 pm, ESPNU) Middle Tennessee at Louisiana Tech (8 pm, CBSSN) Friday Memphis at South Florida (7 pm, ESPN) Northwestern at Maryland (8 pm, FOX) UNLV at Utah State (9 pm, CBSSN) Saturday TV Washington at Iowa (12 pm, FOX) Wisconsin at Rutgers (12 pm, BTN) Georgia Tech at North Carolina (12 pm, CW) Toledo at Buffalo (12 pm, ESPNU) UAB at Army (12 pm, CBSSN) Cincinnati at UCF (3:30 pm, ESPN2) San Jose State at Colorado State (3:30 pm, TruTV) Louisville at Virginia (3:30 pm, ACC Network) San Diego State at Wyoming (3:30 pm, CBSSN) Ohio at Central Michigan (4 pm, ESPNU) North Texas at Florida Atlantic (7 pm, ESPN2) Washington State at Fresno State (7 pm, FS1) Air Force at New Mexico (7 pm, TruTV) Oregon State at Nevada (7:30 pm, CBSSN) Vanderbilt at Kentucky (7:45 pm, SEC Network) Marshall at Georgia Southern (8 pm, ESPNU) Syracuse at NC State (8 pm, ACC Network) Minnesota at UCLA (9 pm, BTN) Saturday Streaming (all ESPN+) Ball State at Kent State (12 pm) Miami (OH) at Eastern Michigan (2 pm) Akron at Western Michigan (3:30 pm) Northern Illinois at Bowling Green (3:30 pm) Old Dominion at Georgia State (3:30 pm) Southern Miss at UL Monroe (5 pm) Arkansas State at Texas State (7 pm) UTSA at Rice (7 pm) Appalachian State at UL Lafayette (7:30 pm)

What a freaking week. Four of the top 11 go down to unranked teams and #9 Missouri got smoked by #25. And who knows, Miami might yet lose.

Missouri was kinda giving off fraud vibes after the BC and Vandy games but clowning them like that is quite impressive. Good to see Weigman back in form as well.

Working in the Bears' favor here - LB Shaq Thompson suffered a season-ending injury last week and his backup, Josey Jewell, is also likely out for this game because he got hurt after Thompson did.

MLB wanted this. No one cares about the regular season in any sport unless there's some theoretical chance of a postseason berth, but because the only way to make that a thing most of the season is to have a thousand playoff teams, we have to create systems that make the regular season mean little. This would be largely fine if baseball wasn't an inherently random sport where even the worst team in the majors can (usually) beat the best team 35-40% of the time. I can't stand it in concept, though because the Astros got bounced I'll accept it this year.

And then strikes out the next 2 to get out of the inning. I really hope the Tigers steamroll these guys.

I'm fine with Rose in the HOF now, but after Ron Santo had to wait until after he died for absolutely no reason at all, Rose and those who gambled on baseball when they knew they weren't allowed to can wait until after they die as far as I'm concerned.

The 2021 season literally accounts for all 36 of those, for whatever that is worth.

Today in 'I feel old'...

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-announces-changes-to-uniforms-for-all-star-game-regular-season Apparently the uniforms being fully fixed for 2025 was a white lie. Somehow, due to 'production delays,' only the road uniforms will be ready for 2025 and the home uniforms won't be ready until 2026. They'd better have fixed the damn letters by 2025, even if the full implementation isn't ready yet. This is way more important to me than it should be. Oh, and the ASG will again feature regular uniforms being worn by the players, not the stupid garbage of the past few years.

One of my favorite things about Kyle was how at his peak he was shutting everybody down but every opposing fan base (especially St. Louis) was constantly complaining about why their guys couldn't hit this soft-tosser. One of the all-time outlier success stories. Something feels narratively correct about such an outlier being the one who outlasted all the other 2016 Cubs. I'm going to miss him a lot.

That struck me as an overreaction, but they do now have the best win in the country, so not egregious, to use a Jim Deshaies-ism.