Andy

You just put a team that played one Power 5 school (and got bludgeoned by them) into a playoff, then called the regular season 'more important' under such a scenario. Auto-bids for conferences is a fantastic way to remove any real incentive to schedule up during the regular season you just claimed would be more important. Why risk removing yourself from wild-card contention with a loss when the only games that really matter are in conference?

The only new one they picked up was the Cotton. They've owned the bowls for a while.

I always loved the "Zambrano giving Milton Bradley a black guy" thing and wish it would've lasted longer. Javy not bothering to know people's names is great too. But the obvious answer here is MFer Windermere and the various other Bum specials.

If he's anywhere close to what he was last spring and early summer, this is fantastic.

Between the tie-in situations improving across most of the leagues and the committee setting New Year's 6 matchups rather than the ridiculous selection order/conference tie-in situation of the BCS, I think I like the improved bowl situation even more than the 4-team playoff.

Carolina, which just won its first game in two months, will be half a game out of first place if (when) Green Bay embarrasses Atlanta tomorrow.

R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl in New Orleans, LA – 12/20, 11 am (ESPN) UL Lafayette vs Nevada Gildan New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque, NM – 12/20, 2:20 pm (ESPN) Utah State vs UTEP Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl in Las Vegas, NV – 12/20, 3:30 pm (ABC) (22) Utah vs Colorado State Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise, ID – 12/20, 5:45 pm (ESPN) Air Force vs Western Michigan Raycom Media Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, AL – 12/20, 9:15 pm (ESPN) South Alabama vs Bowling Green Miami Beach Bowl in Miami, FL – 12/22, 2 pm (ESPN) Memphis vs BYU Boca Raton Bowl in Boca Raton, FL – 12/23, 6 pm (ESPN) Northern Illinois vs Marshall San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego, CA – 12/23, 9:30 pm (ESPN) Navy vs San Diego State Popeye’s Bahamas Bowl in Nassau, BS – 12/24, 12 pm (ESPN) Western Kentucky vs Central Michigan Sheraton Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu, HI – 12/24, 8 pm (ESPN) Fresno State vs Rice Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl in Dallas, TX – 12/26, 1 pm (ESPN) Louisiana Tech vs Illinois Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit, MI – 12/26, 4:30 pm (ESPN) Rutgers vs North Carolina Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl in St. Petersburg, FL – 12/26, 8 pm (ESPN) NC State vs UCF Military Bowl in Annapolis, MD – 12/27, 1 pm (ESPN) Cincinnati vs Virginia Tech Hyundai Sun Bowl in El Paso, TX – 12/27, 2 pm (CBS) (15) Arizona State vs Duke Duck Commander Independence Bowl in Shreveport, LA – 12/27, 3:30 pm (ABC) Miami vs South Carolina New Era Pinstripe Bowl in New York, NY – 12/27, 4:30 pm (ESPN) Boston College vs Penn State National University Holiday Bowl in San Diego, CA – 12/27, 8 pm (ESPN) Nebraska vs USC AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, TN – 12/29, 2 pm (ESPN) Texas A&M vs West Virginia Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando, FL – 12/29, 5:30 pm (ESPN) (17) Clemson vs Oklahoma AdvoCare Texas Bowl in Houston, TX – 12/29, 9 pm (ESPN) Texas vs Arkansas Franklin American Mortgage Company Music City Bowl in Nashville, TN – 12/30, 3 pm (ESPN) (23) LSU vs Notre Dame Belk Bowl in Charlotte, NC – 12/30, 6:45 pm (ESPN) (13) Georgia vs (21) Louisville Foster Farms Bowl in Santa Clara, CA – 12/30, 10 pm (ESPN) Stanford vs Maryland Outback Bowl in Tampa, FL – 1/1, 12 pm (ESPN2) (19) Auburn vs (18) Wisconsin Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl in Orlando, FL – 1/1, 1 pm (ABC) (16) Missouri vs (25) Minnesota Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, TX – 1/2, 12 pm (ESPN) Houston vs Pittsburgh TaxSlayer Bowl in Jacksonville, FL – 1/2, 3:20 pm (ESPN) Iowa vs Tennessee Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, TX – 1/2, 6:45 pm (ESPN) (14) UCLA vs (11) Kansas State TicketCity Cactus Bowl in Tempe, AZ – 1/2, 10:15 pm (ESPN) Washington vs Oklahoma State Birmingham Bowl in Birmingham, AL – 1/3, 12 pm (ESPN) Florida vs East Carolina GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile, AL – 1/4, 9 pm (ESPN) Toledo vs Arkansas State “New Year’s 6” Games: Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta, GA – 12/31, 12:30 pm (ESPN) (9) Ole Miss vs (6) TCU Vizio Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, AZ – 12/31, 4 pm (ESPN) (20) Boise State vs (10) Arizona Capital One Orange Bowl in Miami, FL – 12/31, 8 pm (ESPN) (7) Mississippi State vs (12) Georgia Tech Goodyear Cotton Bowl in Arlington, TX – 1/1, 12:30 pm (ESPN) (8) Michigan State vs (5) Baylor Playoff Games: Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA – 1/1, 5 pm (ESPN) (3) Florida State vs (2) Oregon Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, LA – 1/1, 8:30 pm (ESPN) (4) Ohio State vs (1) Alabama College Football Championship Game in Arlington, TX – 1/12, 8:30 pm (ESPN) Semifinal Winners

What's with ND vs LSU in bowls? 3rd time in 17 years. Hopefully this one isn't as terrible as the last two.

OSU would default to the Rose Bowl right? or is the Rose one of the playoff sites? Normally OSU would default to the Rose in this scenario, but the Rose is a semifinal game. OSU would get an auto bid to one of the other NY6 games. Same applies to the Big 12. If the committee picked OSU, whoever the B12 decided was the champ (they'll pick someone if neither TCU or Baylor make it) would normally default to the Sugar, but since that's the other semifinal they'd get an auto bid somewhere else. In this case, of course, both would get NY6 games anyway by virtue of their ranking. It's a little complicated. I've read that if neither Big 12 team gets picked for the playoff, Baylor would go to Cotton by virtue of head to head win and TCU to the Holiday Bowl. What a potential fall from 3rd playoff spot to Holiday bowl after winning a game against a conference opponent by 52 points. No way that's correct. Both teams will be ranked high enough to get a New Year's 6 spot. All the Top 10 teams get one automatically. Whoever gets 'picked' as Big 12 champ probably does go to the Cotton, though.

OSU would default to the Rose Bowl right? or is the Rose one of the playoff sites? Normally OSU would default to the Rose in this scenario, but the Rose is a semifinal game. OSU would get an auto bid to one of the other NY6 games. Same applies to the Big 12. If the committee picked OSU, whoever the B12 decided was the champ (they'll pick someone if neither TCU or Baylor make it) would normally default to the Sugar, but since that's the other semifinal they'd get an auto bid somewhere else. In this case, of course, both would get NY6 games anyway by virtue of their ranking. It's a little complicated.

There are arguments for all 3 of Ohio State, TCU and Baylor. I'd pick Baylor because OSU has the worst loss by far and I think head to head needs to matter. But I don't think any of the 3 would be wrong picks.

Apropos of nothing, I have a feeling Michigan's next coach will not be someone that's already being heavily discussed. My gut says Narduzzi (although I know his name has been floated a bit), but I wouldn't be shocked if they go off the board entirely.

I go by avatar for like 80% of posters here.

Really? Their fanbase has a largely impeccable reputation. Every time they're mentioned on ND boards, someone posts about how great their fans were when they visited South Bend in 2000, and my cousin, a Sparty alum, passed along similar sentiments when he visited Nebraska for their game there in (I believe) 2011.

I don't think that's the worst hire in the world for Nebraska, but it is curious. That said, if you can win 6-7 games a year at a place with literally no history, in a better conference, than you can probably do well at Nebraska. Better than 9 wins a year? Doubt it. But I never figured the Pelini firing was only based on record.

Grantland's Andrew Sharp wrote a great article about how great the 4-team playoff is and why going bigger would be a mistake.

He's the Vegas favorite. Makes all the sense in the world if he wants to go to make the jump now.

To answer your second question, I believe Michigan has to pay him $1M less in buyout if they fire him after Jan. 1 - not that they will wait that long.

I'm never going to forgive Andrew Luck for not declaring for the 2011 draft, no matter how smart it was to avoid Carolina.

Nebraska was pretty much ranked higher in every preseason poll than they ever finished. And the alumni and fans hated him. Probably the single biggest dick in college sports. Yeah, I think this had more to do with him being a dick than anything. He's a good coach, just a psycho. You have to be a great coach to get away with being a psycho at most places.

Updated with committee rankings MAC Championship Game in Detroit (7 pm Friday, ESPN2) Northern Illinois vs Bowling Green Pac-12 Championship Game in Santa Clara, CA (9 pm Friday, FOX) (2) Oregon vs (7) Arizona Conference USA Championship Game (12 pm, ESPN2) Louisiana Tech at Marshall SEC Championship Game in Atlanta (4 pm, CBS) (1) Alabama vs (16) Missouri ACC Championship Game in Charlotte (8 pm, ABC) (11) Georgia Tech vs (4) Florida State Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis (8 pm, FOX) (5) Ohio State vs (13) Wisconsin Mountain West Championship Game (10 pm, CBS) Fresno State at (22) Boise State Top 25 games ------------------------ Iowa State at (3) TCU (12 pm, ABC) (9) Kansas State at (6) Baylor (7:45 pm, ESPN) Oklahoma State at (20) Oklahoma (3:30 pm, FOX) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------- UCF at East Carolina (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPN) Houston at Cincinnati (12 pm, ESPN) SMU at UConn (12 pm, CBSSN) Temple at Tulane (7:30 pm, ESPN2)

Vikings hadn't blocked a punt for a TD in 28 years and blocked 2 in the first half for TDs against Carolina, one in punt safe. Both my football games of the weekend went off before halftime. What a [expletive] train wreck. Enjoy the unemployment line, Rivera, you piece of crap.

I'm not the biggest Brian Kelly fan, but the injuries/suspensions have destroyed this team. USC dressed fewer scholarship players then ND did today. And backups should be good enough to beat Northwestern and lose by less than 35 to USC. Even Ty Willingham didn't lose by 35 to USC, and those teams were breaking every NCAA rule in sight. That's not how it works. When 15 of the 22 positions have a freshman or sophomore in the two-deep, "talent" is not enough to beat teams in power conferences. At least we know what the excuse will be this year. When Kelly goes 8-4 against an awful schedule next year, I wonder what it will be.

Thank you for keeping them out of the playoff. What a great year for the Rebels.

I'm not the biggest Brian Kelly fan, but the injuries/suspensions have destroyed this team. USC dressed fewer scholarship players then ND did today. And backups should be good enough to beat Northwestern and lose by less than 35 to USC. Even Ty Willingham didn't lose by 35 to USC, and those teams were breaking every NCAA rule in sight.