Andy

James projections are always super crazy. Yeah, I used them in a fantasy baseball draft one year. It was right around the time he projected Will Middlebrooks for like 25 homers and a .800 OPS that I realized his projections are the functional equivalent of a crackhead.

The latter I think. Mississippi State is probably the closest to a great team and even they needed Auburn to collapse on itself in the first quarter to give them a lead. I missed the second half of ND/ASU due to a work thing. I wish I could've bet on "ND will rally, then fall short by less than the margin of Everett Golson's first-quarter charity gift" in Vegas, because that was the most predictable [expletive] thing ever. (I'm not counting ASU's running-up-the-score TD, though I have no issue with it.)

LOL ok. ND's offensive line is horrific, Golson has gone full Dalton, and we're playing a backup defense (injuries and suspensions) in 90-degree weather. This one's over and has been for a while.

You never go full Dalton

That's not fair UCLA's QB probably wasn't handing the ball off to them all game No kidding.

I remember when ND turned the ball over 5 times against Syracuse and I was all like "This has never been a problem before, no reason to think this is going to be a recurring issue"

I've seen this thrown around a lot lately. It would add some emphasis on the top 2, which I like. I do feel like 4 is a terrific number, though.

I'll learn to live with it, but the inevitable expansion just reeks of CFB trying to be like every other sport, when a big chunk of the reason it's as popular as it is, is exactly because it's not like every other sport. At least, I feel like that's why. Maybe I'm just a moron and people are starving for a 16-team playoff where 5 SEC teams get in and nothing that happens before mid-October matters. I worry the uniqueness will go away. That's probably more selfish than anything, though.

Auto-bids for the Power 5 (which is an even worse idea, but it's going to happen). They're not expanding to 8 without them. Almost every league has 3-loss teams at least kind of in the race for the title, especially with the unbalanced schedules in the SEC and B1G. Current leaders: ACC: 7-1 Duke, 8-0 FSU B1G: 7-1 MSU/7-1 OSU, 7-1 Nebraska B12: 7-1 KSU P12: 8-1 Oregon, 7-1 ASU SEC: 7-2 Mizzou, 8-0 MSU LOOK AT ALL THE 3 LOSS TEAMS RUINING COMPETITIVE FOOTBALL. Yes, divisional leaders are the only teams in the race for a conference title at this point in the season. Good point.

Auto-bids for the Power 5 (which is an even worse idea, but it's going to happen). They're not expanding to 8 without them. Almost every league has 3-loss teams at least kind of in the race for the title, especially with the unbalanced schedules in the SEC and B1G.

All the games that are made relevant by an 8 teamer will not involve top 8 teams. Isn't that good? To most people, yes, which is why it will happen. I have this crazy idea that games between 7-3 Wisconsin and 6-4 Iowa (or fill in mediocre teams of your choice here) ought not to have some grand meaning to the national title picture. I can say with confidence as a Notre Dame fan that I've never rooted for a team that lost more than once that made me think "Damn, it's too bad we can't play for the national championship! We really deserve a shot!" But it'll happen, to 'make more games relevant', as if I'll be any more likely to watch a mid-tier ACC game just on the off chance that one of the teams involved might win the league and make the playoff.

Nobody ever thought a four team playoff would diminish the regular season. It's more the 8 team and especially the 16 team that would diminish it. 16 is too much, but I think the regular season matchups between the teams competing for spots would still have a ton of meaning. That aside, I find that the games this year feel like they have more meaning when the field is 4 instead of 2. If we were in a BCS format right now, the only thing that would matter would be MSST and FSU's games until/unless one of them lost. Now we have several games per week that are impactful and important And they all involve good teams. When we get to 8, they won't. you must hate the NHL and NBA playoffs. The most they ever are is background noise outside of the Bulls and Red Wings, so yeah, I'd say they're pretty pointless.

All the games that are made relevant by an 8 teamer will not involve top 8 teams.

Nobody ever thought a four team playoff would diminish the regular season. It's more the 8 team and especially the 16 team that would diminish it. 16 is too much, but I think the regular season matchups between the teams competing for spots would still have a ton of meaning. That aside, I find that the games this year feel like they have more meaning when the field is 4 instead of 2. If we were in a BCS format right now, the only thing that would matter would be MSST and FSU's games until/unless one of them lost. Now we have several games per week that are impactful and important And they all involve good teams. When we get to 8, they won't.

I downloaded that song specifically because of that video. I was there for the walk-off wild pitch. It was outstanding. What a fun-ass season that was.

In that case, where is the option where they get blown out and their best player tears an ACL tripping over first base on a meaningless bottom of the 9th HR. I vote for blowout followed by Adam Wainwright bellowing unprovoked racial slurs at an opponent, sparking a brawl in which several STL players are injured trying to take cheap shots.

Seriously, how can this not be the answer? You always hear this nonsense about how fans don't really want their rivals to be bad forever (Ohio St/Michigan as an example) because it's no fun to beat up on a bad team...[expletive] that. I never want them to win a game again.

Soriano was a big part of the reason the Cubs were the best team in baseball once. He was fun as hell to watch hit when he was on (Sept. 2007...dear god). And I was there for the walk-off slam. That's more than good enough for me. Godspeed, Fonzie.

Alabama has no business ahead of TCU. TCU has a better version of the Tide's best win (road vs 'neutral' site), plus another win over a ranked team.

I know it's Mark Sanchez, but -6 against Carolina's horrific defense and almost-as-bad offense seems like a gift from the gambling gods to me. Maclin might go for 200 against the Panthers' secondary.

That is incredible.

Updated with committee rankings Top 25 games ------------------------ UT Martin at (1) Mississippi State (4 pm, SEC Network) Virginia at (2) Florida State (6:30 pm, ESPN) Texas A&M at (3) Auburn (3:30 pm, CBS) (4) Oregon at (17) Utah (10 pm, ESPN) (5) Alabama at (16) LSU (8 pm, CBS) (7) Kansas State at (6) TCU (7:30 pm, FOX) (14) Ohio State at (8) Michigan State (8 pm, ABC) (10) Notre Dame at (9) Arizona State (3:30 pm, ABC) Presbyterian at (11) Ole Miss (12 pm, SEC Network) (12) Baylor at (15) Oklahoma (12 pm, FS1) (18) UCLA at Washington (7 pm, FS1) Colorado at (19) Arizona (8 pm, Pac-12 Network) (20) Georgia at Kentucky (12 pm, ESPN) (21) Clemson at Wake Forest (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPN) (22) Duke at Syracuse (12:30 pm, FSN South/ESPN3) (23) West Virginia at Texas (3:30 pm, FS1) (24) Georgia Tech at NC State (12:30 pm, ACC Network/ESPN3) (25) Wisconsin at Purdue (12 pm, ESPNU) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------- Bowling Green at Akron (8 pm Tuesday, ESPN2) Toledo at Kent State (8 pm Tuesday, ESPNU) Northern Illinois at Ball State (8 pm Wednesday, ESPN2) Buffalo at Ohio (8 pm Wednesday, ESPNU) Memphis at Temple (7:30 pm Friday, ESPNU) Utah State at Wyoming (8 pm Friday, ESPN2) Iowa at Minnesota (12 pm, ESPN2) Penn State at Indiana (12 pm, BTN) UTSA at Rice (12 pm, FSN) SMU at Tulsa (12 pm, CBSSN) Georgia State at Troy (3 pm, ESPN3) South Alabama at Arkansas State (3 pm, ESPN3) Michigan at Northwestern (3:30 pm, ESPN2) Iowa State at Kansas (3:30 pm, FSN) Tulane at Houston (3:30 pm, ESPNU) UConn vs Army – at Yankee Stadium (3:30 pm, CBSSN) UL Monroe at Appalachian State (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Washington State at Oregon State (4 pm, Pac-12 Network) Georgia Southern at Texas State (5 pm, ESPN3) Hawaii at Colorado State (7 pm, ESPNU) Boise State at New Mexico (7 pm, CBSSN) Louisville at Boston College (7:15 pm, ESPN2) Florida at Vanderbilt (7:30 pm, SEC Network) UL Lafayette at New Mexico State (8 pm, ESPN3) San Jose State at Fresno State (10:30 pm, CBSSN)

I haven't seen a lot of UT this year, but I've been impressed. Even though they clearly aren't even close to ready in the way of experienced talent, they've been feisty as hell all year. Butch has you on the right track.

Heh, maybe.

How many years must this happen before I stop seeing these posts? ND should have been up 35-14 at half, made a stupid turnover, and now they're losing. [expletive] infuriating.