Andy

God knows there are bigger priorities than watching sports and I'm not here to tell anyone how to spend their time, but I just can't possibly understand this line of thinking. Take it from a fan with firsthand experience in this area: "A chance to make a postseason" =\= "a chance to win the championship." After 3 or 4 times of the #7-10 type teams getting blasted to pieces by the teams that are going to keep being better than they are in the playoff, I imagine many who follow the sport will be right back to the same complaints. IMO, if it's impossible for you to enjoy anything about following your team without a postseason carrot involved, that's a decision you make. I'm not calling it right or wrong, it's just not why I personally became a sports fan.

Might be the least deserved 2 outs in the history of baseball. 108 mph rocket double that missed being a HR by literal inches and another laser for a double play line out. And now the ump is hosing Seiya again. Fun

On that topic, my least favorite subplot of this offseason, and there have been a lot of bad ones, was "can (fill in team here) follow the Michigan blueprint?" No, they cannot. Forgetting all the off-field nonsense, the 2023 playoff contained either 0 or 1 top-5 teams besides UM (by most advanced metrics) because Georgia, Oregon and Ohio State, who all graded out as better than anyone besides Michigan that was in the playoff, all missed the playoff. Good luck to any relative upstart hoping to replicate that sequence of events.

ND snark aside, I agree. The only reason this playoff got bigger was for TV money, and the CFP didn't even really get that much of that compared to the numbers being thrown around when the topic was first broached. Like I saw a Tweet earlier about 'now Ole Miss has hope,' and I thought 'to do what exactly?' In the 4-team world, it was at least theoretically possible for Ole Miss (and they're just an example) to take out their top SEC competition and set themselves up for a title because they wouldn't have to face a bunch of those teams again in the playoff. Now they will. ETA - I should add that I know darn well some of the games will be fun and social media will clown on people like me when they are. Football being fun has never been at issue for me.

It exists in the most technical sense. The CFP mandates at least 8 to be considered a conference for selection purposes. The NCAA mandates 6 for its tournaments. However, conferences have a two-year grace period if they fall below 6 to get back to 6. That is where the Pac-2 currently sits. Oregon State and Washington State have a 6-game scheduling agreement with the MWC for this year, and general consensus is there will be some sort of merger at some point between the parties - but it hasn't happened yet and doesn't have to happen until 2026.

I have no idea how Swanson managed to turn on that way inside pitch but please score

Clearly so he could do what he did. But then, Assad apparently has no interest in allowing us to win so it doesn't matter

Real live football today. As much as the changes of the last couple years have turned me off, I still find myself looking forward to it.

PCA is as fun as anyone in baseball, holy crap

I'm excited for him to immediately return to form with the Astros because they're definitely not doing anything suspicious that jacks up half their pitchers' performances

Getting Neris uncomfortably close to vesting that option was about the only thing Counsell was consistently doing well the past couple months.

That Merryweather thing from last week, throwing a recently 60 day IL'd guy for a 2nd inning with a rested bullpen with predictable results, was pretty much my last straw. Guy has not shown me a single positive thing I didn't see from Ross. And I think even Ross would've had enough of Neris by now.

I would say just for that I'm not giving you guys any money for Jimbo's buyout but I got gas today so I guess I already did

Game week is pretty much here, believe it or not, so my weekly threads are back. You pretty much know about all the insane conference changes and playoff changes for this year, but in addition, worth noting that two schools have different home-game situations this year. Kansas will play all their home games in Kansas City this year as their stadium is being remodeled - their first two home games, against Lindenwood and UNLV, will be at the Sporting KC soccer stadium, and the remaining four will be at Arrowhead. Northwestern, meanwhile, is playing in a temporary on-campus venue (named Northwestern Medicine Field, if you are curious) for this year and next while Ryan Field is replaced with a much snazzier stadium (that will still be called Ryan Field when it opens in 2026). "Week Zero" (Aug. 24) (10) Florida State vs Georgia Tech - in Dublin, Ireland (12 pm, ESPN) Montana State at New Mexico (4 pm, FS1) SMU at Nevada (8 pm, CBSSN) Top 25 games (14) Clemson vs (1) Georgia - in Atlanta (12 pm, ABC) Akron at (2) Ohio State (3:30 pm, CBS) Idaho at (3) Oregon (7:30 pm, BTN) Colorado State at (4) Texas (3:30 pm, ESPN) Western Kentucky at (5) Alabama (7 pm, ESPN) Furman at (6) Ole Miss (7 pm, ESPN+) (7) Notre Dame at (20) Texas A&M (7:30 pm, ABC) (8) Penn State at West Virginia (12 pm, FOX) Fresno State at (9) Michigan (7:30 pm, NBC) Boston College at (10) Florida State (7:30 pm Monday, ESPN) Murray State at (11) Missouri (8 pm Thursday, SEC Network) Southern Utah at (12) Utah (9 pm Thursday, ESPN+) (13) LSU vs (23) USC - in Las Vegas (7:30 pm Sunday, ABC) Chattanooga at (15) Tennessee (12:45 pm, SEC Network) Temple at (16) Oklahoma (7 pm Friday, ESPN) South Dakota State at (17) Oklahoma State (2 pm, ESPN+) UT Martin at (18) Kansas State (7 pm, ESPN+) (19) Miami at Florida (3:30 pm, ABC) New Mexico at (21) Arizona (9:30 pm, ESPN) Lindenwood at (22) Kansas - in Kansas City, KS (8 pm Thursday, ESPN+) Western Carolina at (24) NC State (7 pm Thursday, ACC Network) Illinois State at (25) Iowa (12 pm, BTN - Regional) Other nationally available games Thursday Howard at Rutgers (6 pm, BTN) Central Connecticut at Central Michigan (7 pm, ESPN+) Fordham at Bowling Green (7 pm, ESPN+) Jackson State at UL Monroe (7 pm, ESPN+) Lafayette at Buffalo (7 pm, ESPN+) New Hampshire at UCF (7 pm, ESPN+) North Carolina A&T at Wake Forest (7 pm, ESPN+) Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Arkansas (7:30 pm, ESPNU) Duquesne at Toledo (7:30 pm, ESPN+) North Carolina at Minnesota (8 pm, FOX) North Dakota State at Colorado (8 pm, ESPN) Coastal Carolina at Jacksonville State (8 pm, CBSSN) Alcorn State at UAB (8 pm, ESPN+) SE Louisiana at Tulane (8 pm, ESPN+) Northwestern State at Tulsa (8 pm, ESPN+) Eastern Illinois at Illinois (9 pm, BTN) Sacramento State at San Jose State (10 pm, TruTV) Friday Lehigh at Army (6 pm, CBSSN) Florida Atlantic at Michigan State (7 pm, BTN) Elon at Duke (7:30 pm, ACC Network) Western Michigan at Wisconsin (9 pm, FS1) TCU at Stanford (10:30 pm, ESPN) Saturday TV Virginia Tech at Vanderbilt (12 pm, ESPN) UConn at Maryland (12 pm, FS1) Indiana State at Purdue (12 pm, BTN - Regional) Kent State at Pittsburgh (12 pm, ESPNU) Austin Peay at Louisville (12 pm, ACC Network) Bucknell at Navy (12 pm, CBSSN) Portland State at Washington State (3 pm, CW) UTEP at Nebraska (3:30 pm, FOX) North Dakota at Iowa State (3:30 pm, FS1) FIU at Indiana (3:30 pm, BTN - Regional) Miami (OH) at Northwestern (3:30 pm, BTN - Regional) Ohio at Syracuse (3:30 pm, ACC Network) Merrimack at Air Force (3:30 pm, CBSSN) Boise State at Georgia Southern (4 pm, ESPNU) Old Dominion at South Carolina (4:15 pm, SEC Network) Idaho State at Oregon State (6:30 pm, CW) UNLV at Houston (7 pm, FS1) UCLA at Hawaii (7:30 pm, CBS) Southern Miss at Kentucky (7:45 pm, SEC Network) James Madison at Charlotte (8 pm, ESPNU) Georgia State at Georgia Tech (8 pm, ACC Network) Texas A&M-Commerce at San Diego State (8 pm, TruTV) Wyoming at Arizona State (9:30 pm, FS1) Weber State at Washington (11 pm, BTN) Saturday Streaming (all ESPN+) Towson at Cincinnati (2:30 pm) East Tennessee State at Appalachian State (3:30 pm) Eastern Michigan at UMass (3:30 pm) Kennesaw State at UTSA (3:30 pm) Western Illinois at Northern Illinois (3:30 pm) UC Davis at California (5 pm) North Texas at South Alabama (5 pm) Stony Brook at Marshall (5 pm) Campbell at Liberty (6 pm) Eastern Kentucky at Mississippi State (6 pm) Norfolk State at East Carolina (6 pm) Richmond at Virginia (6 pm) Bethune-Cookman at South Florida (7 pm) Central Arkansas at Arkansas State (7 pm) Nevada at Troy (7 pm) North Alabama at Memphis (7 pm) Sam Houston at Rice (7 pm) Tarleton State at Baylor (7 pm) Tennessee Tech at Middle Tennessee (7 pm) Abilene Christian at Texas Tech (7:30 pm) Alabama A&M at Auburn (7:30 pm) Grambling at UL Lafayette (8 pm) Houston Christian at SMU (8 pm) Lamar at Texas State (8 pm) Nicholls at Louisiana Tech (8 pm) Southern Illinois at BYU (8 pm) SE Missouri State at New Mexico State (9 pm)

It's such a relief that even though this team isn't good enough at hitting, slugging, pitching or anything else to be a playoff team, at least we know they're good at the fundamentals. No I'm not watching the broadcast, why do you ask

The sort of loss that if they'd won the game where they led 8-0, or the one where they drew 6 bases loaded walks in one inning, or the one where they had the final out of the 8th on a popup to shallow center, or pick any of the other 12 ridiculous losses they've had this year, might not hurt as much

I think that might be conservative. I don't think the ACC or Big 12 will get more than one at large team each except under unusual circumstances. But then I'm one that thinks the Florida State snub last year was a signal of how teams that aren't playing SEC or B1G schedules will be treated from now on.

Yes. The byes will go to the Power 4 conference champs (that's not codified, but that's how it will work in practice), followed by 5-12 being seeded via the final CFP rankings. First round games on campus (12/20-12/21), quarterfinals in bowls (12/31-1/1), semifinals in bowls (1/9-10) and championship in Atlanta (1/20).

They're definitely the best and they would win everything even if whatever perception I have about the judging was eliminated (they're totally blowing away the field with their scores).

I'm no diving expert but it just seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy watching those events, where everyone knows how good the Chinese always are in diving so the judges are giving them higher scores. I saw several occurrences of (again, untrained eye) seeming imperfections by Chinese divers being given much more leeway than the same imperfections by Canadians or British or what have you.

None of this would even be a thing if they hadn't screwed the Romanian gymnast out of 0.1 point for an out of bounds violation she didn't even commit. Between that and watching the Chinese divers automatically have a 1 point per judge advantage on every other nation's athletes no matter what they do I'm really getting sick of judged sports.

You were close

Neris really must have been a saint in some previous life

Michael Busch is awesome and we need more players as awesome as he is