Andy

The Saints have 4 wins and 3 of them are over the two teams tied atop the division. I'm starting to wish Carolina had just sucked again. Having being a playoff team, even one that's destined to get crushed by some NFC West wild card, being repeatedly yanked away when it's been forever since the team wasn't a joke is cruel.

Transfer portal departures and arrivals have really limited the utility of those practices. Your starting team at the end of a season is almost never going to look that much like the one that takes the field for spring practice.

It sounds like he broke into the mistress' house and was expressing suicidal tendencies? Not a good situation all around.

This sport as an enterprise has spent literal decades telling us they don't care about bowls by focusing on how the national title is decided. Teams are starting to act accordingly, just as players did. I have a feeling this bowl season will someday be footnoted similarly to the one where Christian McCaffrey opted out.

Seriously. This thing is by the power conferences, for the power conferences. Unless someone else forcibly boots them out and takes over management of the playoff, it's going to be rigged for them. Any format debate that ignores that reality is a waste of time.

I'd go so far as to say that if yesterday was the first bracket we saw it would've been perfectly justifiable. I'm biased and think Notre Dame is better than anyone playing next weekend (the number geeks agree), but resume should always trump that and I've always said so. Alabama had more good wins, even if they've looked like garbage for a month, Oklahoma beat Alabama, even if they've also looked like garbage for a month, and Miami won a head to head game. Defensible. But the process to get there was so hilariously corrupt.

Tampa Bay inexplicably lost to the Saints so Carolina (which already did that!) is now tied for first. This division is stupid

College Football Playoff First Round Games 12/19, 8 pm (ABC) (9) Alabama at (8) Oklahoma 12/20, 12 pm (ABC) (10) Miami at (7) Texas A&M 12/20, 3:30 pm (TNT) (20) Tulane at (6) Ole Miss 12/20, 7:30 pm (TNT) (24) James Madison at (5) Oregon Quarterfinals Goodyear Cotton Bowl Quarterfinal in Arlington, TX – 12/31, 7:30 pm (ESPN) Miami/Texas A&M winner vs (2) Ohio State Capital One Orange Bowl Quarterfinal in Miami, FL – 1/1, 12 pm (ESPN) JMU/Oregon winner vs (4) Texas Tech Rose Bowl Quarterfinal in Pasadena, CA – 1/1, 4 pm (ESPN) Alabama/Oklahoma winner vs (1) Indiana Allstate Sugar Bowl Quarterfinal in New Orleans, LA – 1/1, 8 pm (ESPN) Tulane/Ole Miss winner vs (3) Georgia Final Four VRBO Fiesta Bowl Semifinal in Glendale, AZ – 1/8, 7:30 pm (ESPN) Miami/Texas A&M/Ohio State vs Tulane/Ole Miss/Georgia Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Semifinal in Atlanta, GA – 1/9, 7:30 pm (ESPN) James Madison/Oregon/Texas Tech vs Alabama/Oklahoma/Indiana College Football Championship Game in Miami, FL – 1/19, 7:30 pm (ESPN) Semifinal Winners Bowl Games Bucked Up LA Bowl in Inglewood, CA – 12/13, 9 pm (ABC) Boise State vs Washington IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl in Montgomery, AL – 12/16, 9 pm (ESPN) Jacksonville State vs Troy StaffDNA Cure Bowl in Orlando, FL – 12/17, 5 pm (ESPN) South Florida vs Old Dominion 68 Ventures Bowl in Mobile, AL – 12/17, 8:30 pm (ESPN) UL Lafayette vs Delaware XBox Bowl in Frisco, TX - 12/18, 9 pm (ESPN2) Arkansas State vs Missouri State Myrtle Beach Bowl in Conway, SC – 12/19, 11 am (ESPN) Western Michigan vs Kennesaw State UnionHome Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl in St. Petersburg, FL – 12/19, 2:30 pm (ESPN) Memphis vs NC State Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise, ID – 12/22, 2 pm (ESPN) Utah State vs Washington State Bush's Boca Raton Bowl of Beans in Boca Raton, FL – 12/23, 2 pm (ESPN) Louisville vs Toledo R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl in New Orleans, LA – 12/23, 5:30 pm (ESPN) Western Kentucky vs Southern Miss Scooter's Coffee Frisco Bowl in Frisco, TX – 12/23, 9 pm (ESPN) UNLV vs Ohio Sheraton Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu, HI – 12/24, 8 pm (ESPN) California vs Hawaii GameAbove Sports Bowl in Detroit, MI – 12/26, 1 pm (ESPN) Northwestern vs Central Michigan Rate Bowl in Phoenix, AZ – 12/26, 4:30 pm (ESPN) Minnesota vs New Mexico ServPro First Responder Bowl in Dallas, TX – 12/26, 8 pm (ESPN) UTSA vs FIU Go Bowling Military Bowl in Annapolis, MD – 12/27, 11 am (ESPN) East Carolina vs Pittsburgh Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl in New York, NY - 12/27, 12 pm (ABC) Penn State vs Clemson Wasabi Fenway Bowl in Boston, MA – 12/27, 2:15 pm (ESPN) Army vs UConn Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando, FL – 12/27, 3:30 pm (ABC) (12) BYU vs (22) Georgia Tech Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl in Tucson, AZ – 12/27, 4:30 pm (CW) Miami (OH) vs Fresno State Isleta New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque, NM – 12/27, 5:45 pm (ESPN) San Diego State vs (25) North Texas TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, FL – 12/27, 7:30 pm (ABC) (19) Virginia vs Missouri Kinder's Texas Bowl in Houston, TX – 12/27, 9/15 pm (ESPN) (21) Houston vs LSU JLab Birmingham Bowl in Birmingham, AL – 12/29, 2 pm (ESPN) Georgia Southern vs Appalachian State Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl in Shreveport, LA – 12/30, 2 pm (ESPN) Louisiana Tech vs Coastal Carolina Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl in Nashville, TN – 12/30, 5:30 pm (ESPN) Tennessee vs Illinois Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, TX – 12/30, 9 pm (ESPN) (16) USC vs TCU ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa, FL – 12/31, 12 pm (ESPN) (14) Vanderbilt vs (23) Iowa Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl in El Paso, TX – 12/31, 2 pm (CBS) Arizona State vs Duke Cheez-It Citrus Bowl in Orlando, FL - 12/31, 3 pm (ABC) (13) Texas vs (18) Michigan SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl in Las Vegas, NV – 12/31, 3:30 pm (ESPN) (15) Utah vs Nebraska Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, TX – 1/2, 1 pm (ESPN) Texas State vs Rice AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, TN – 1/2, 4:30 pm (ESPN) Navy vs Cincinnati Trust & Will Holiday Bowl in San Diego, CA – 1/2, 8 pm (FOX) SMU vs (17) Arizona Duke's Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, NC – 1/2, 8 pm (ESPN) Mississippi State vs Wake Forest

You made troll posts directed specifically at my team twice for absolutely no reason at all, my dude. I never said a single word about your stupid team, which will get nuked into the stratosphere by Ohio State if they manage to get by Miami. I don't need to look at that horsefeathers if I don't want to.

If that had been in place this year, the committee would've played the head to head card much sooner and probably bumped BYU and Texas ahead of them besides. Ranking thresholds don't mean that much when the committee can do whatever it wants week to week.

There are going to be like 3 good playoff games. Miami/A&M will probably be entertaining, but the other first-round games are going to suck (Bama/OU because it will be ugly and the other 2 will be blowouts) and I think at least 3 of the quarterfinals are going to be absolute stompings.

As fun as it is to add another user to my ignore list today, I'm bummed out by opting out. I wanted to watch them play again, stomp BYU and get the revenge tour going right effing now. I wouldn't have made that call. But I'm not stepping on the field to actually do it.

Congrats IU. Your first game just got significantly easier. Every predictive metric in existence thinks Notre Dame is a lot better than either of your potential opponents.

It's Duke winning. If Virginia had won it would be Notre Dame 9 and Alabama 10. But because the ACC was set to be excluded entirely, they moved Miami in. They set this up on Tuesday when they said idle teams could move around.

If it's ND and Miami, Miami will be 9 and ND 10. If it's ND and Bama, it's ND 9 Bama 10. I'm not ruling out Miami and Bama being the two either, but the odds online favor Notre Dame significantly over Bama and Bama over Miami.

Well, BYU wasn't in as it stood (whether that was fair or not is a different discussion) , so they didn't miss because of the title games.

Vegas odds much higher on Notre Dame than Alabama. Given the odds swung Bama's way 12 hours before their jumping ND on Tuesday was revealed, that helps. But I agree with bukie that UVA needs to get the job done for me to feel comfortable. The committee could just blatantly screw over JMU in that case, I guess.

So the Vegas odds telegraphed last night's committee-rankings move of Alabama jumping Notre Dame. Bama probably should have (at least by resume) been ranked ahead of ND to begin with, but that they made that move after Bama barely escaped crappy Auburn and ND routed another bad team made it pretty transparent why the move was made. Basically the committee has now ensured that Alabama won't be trap-doored out of the playoff by a bid thief (BYU) if it comes to pass this time; they were last year. The only reason I'm not panicking that the committee is going to invoke head to head and vault Miami past ND is that those same Vegas odds don't seem to think it will occur. It looks like the current plan is: If chalk holds and UGA/TT win - Bama probably falls one spot behind ND and both teams remain in the field. This would also avert the rematches that are currently slotted, which isn't supposed to be considered, but come on. It would be ND at OU and Bama at A&M. If BYU wins - BYU bumps ND out and the rest of the field probably stays the same regardless. I also think if Duke beats UVA, the committee will dump ND out for Miami to placate the ACC because them not having any teams in the playoff would be a total embarrassment for them. Not that I didn't already think this, but man just get the BCS computers out and have them set the field. This whole committee thing has for some time been an obvious cover for the powers that be doing whatever they want.

Sun Belt Championship Game (7 pm Friday, ESPN) Troy at (25) James Madison American Championship Game (8 pm Friday, ABC) (24) North Texas at (20) Tulane Mountain West Championship Game (8 pm Friday, FOX) UNLV at Boise State Conference USA Championship Game (8 pm Friday, CBSSN) Kennesaw State at Jacksonville State Big 12 Championship Game in Arlington, TX (12 pm, ABC) (11) BYU vs (4) Texas Tech MAC Championship Game in Detroit (12 pm, ESPN) Miami (OH) vs Western Michigan SEC Championship Game in Atlanta (4 pm, ABC) (3) Georgia vs (9) Alabama Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis (8 pm, FOX) (2) Indiana vs (1) Ohio State ACC Championship Game in Charlotte (8 pm, ABC) Duke vs (17) Virginia Dec. 13 Army vs Navy - in Baltimore (3 pm, CBS)

This last month has been the most confusing of Panthers football probably ever. Unfortunately Tampa has a pillow soft schedule the rest of the way so Carolina will probably have to sweep the 2 meetings in the final 3 weeks. But meaningful December football is nice.

CCGs now are just silly nonsense. Five teams tied for 2nd place in the ACC with 6-2 records, and Duke went 0-2 against the other 4. And yet they advance to the conference title game. If whatever the hell that tiebreaker is was replaced with 'highest CFP ranking,' Miami is in the game and has a chance to play their way into or out of the field, but instead 7-5 Duke is in it. It's so stupid. Same with the other ones. It's the MAC so no one cares, but Ohio beat both of the other 2 teams they tied with for 2nd place in the league at 6-2 and they don't get to play in the title game. The Mountain West has to determine their title game matchup by SportSource analytics or some crap because 4 teams tied at 6-2. Four teams tied at 7-1 in the SEC and we ended up with a matchup of 2 teams that already played each other in a league that already features too few intraconference matchups (A&M never played any of the other 3). And this is the system we're using to determine nearly half the CFP field.

I think Miami jumps Notre Dame on Tuesday and we're like 2 more results after that from ND getting squeezed out of the playoff when they're in the top 5 in every advanced metric. (To be clear if it works out like this it works out like this. The resume isn't there despite what the computers think.) If this happens and anyone besides Ohio State wins the title this year I'm going to be absolutely horsefeathers livid.

Also worth noting that BYU is going to be sitting at 11-1, with a ranked road win (Arizona), their only loss to a top 4 opponent, and only one real stinker of a performance in a win (Colorado), and literally nobody seems to care. If anyone should be politicking, it's them.

We're like 10 hours in and I'm so damn sick of the "welp if we don't get in guess we should cancel all our real non conference games" nonsense from Horns Twitter. Don't lose to 3 win Florida, need a miracle to escape Mississippi State and go to overtime with Kentucky. Teams played real non conference opponents for decades before this stupid 12 team playoff with the understanding that if they lost there would be a problem but if they won there would be rewards. And indeed, Oklahoma is only on the right side of the bubble - and Miami is only near the bubble at all - because they have major non conference wins over ranked opponents. But now that there's a bigger playoff we've decided all these games should be free rolls. I really wish these coaches who politic for playoff bids all the time would be made to say who is currently in the field that they think should be bumped out to make way for them.

It'll be very interesting to see where Texas is ranked next week if this holds. Without looking much up, my guess would be either right behind or ahead of Alabama, but I'd believe almost anything.