Andy

Literally every other major American sport has an overly inclusive playoff system. We can't just have one that isn't?

I don't think this is true at all. Mid-major teams can now shoot for a New Year's 6 bowl every year, and lower-tier Power 5 teams (Minnesota, Kentucky, Wazzu to use a few examples) still know they're not likely to make the playoff and can use a certain number of wins or even an occasional New Year's 6 bowl appearance of their own as benchmarks. I do think the further you expand the playoff, the less of that there will be.

Michigan State has no business ahead of Notre Dame. ND beat Michigan and Purdue by more and looked far better in their loss than MSU did. MSU has a better top win, but they also played an FCS team and Eastern Michigan. I'm 100% ok with ND at 10 if 11 smart people and Tyrone Willingham came to that conclusion, but I think Arizona has a better case than MSU to be ahead of them. TCU and Arizona are too low, and Oregon and Auburn are too high. That being said, none of this matters. If the committee fully re-evaluates every week and adjusts accordingly, rather than falling into a poll inertia situation, all of this is fine.

I remember Jacque Jones hitting a home run over the hill, and I feel like I remember him making a great catch up there too, but I might have someone else in mind.

Written by a Florida State grad. Who decided not to disclose that in this piece. That's not to say his points are without merit, because they aren't, but I find that suspicious.

For S's & G's, my top 4 right now would be, in order, Mississippi State, Florida State, Alabama and TCU. I feel like it's a lock that the committee top 4 will waver from the polls' top 4 in this first ranking, just to prove that they're different.

I'm putting in a FAAB claim on Lorenzo Taliaferro and planning on dropping James Jones for him in my 14-team league. Assuming I win the bid (which I may not because I've blown most of my budget already), I'm not crazy, right? For context, I'm stocked at WR (Demaryius, Hilton, Maclin, Hopkins, Terrance Williams) and short at RB (at present, just Ben Tate and Ronnie Hillman, with Isaiah Crowell as a Tate handcuff). Ideally, the only time I'll be playing Taliaferro (or Jones, if I didn't win the bid) will be Week 10, when both my flex-starting WRs are off.

SRO tickets for tonight's WS game in KC are starting at $328 on StubHub. Factoring in the bigger city, smaller park and bigger fan base, I'm thinking it might be close to double that for a Cubs game. That may even be conservative.

Though they continue to cherish their independence, I wonder if this would lead ND to consider a conference. As of now, theoretically, there could be 4 teams in the playoff that aren't conference winners (extremely unlikely, I know), but that number goes down to 3 with this potential format and, more importantly, guarantees the conference champ a spot. I don't think they would join, but you never know. Chance at a guaranteed spot for joining the B1G or ACC might make it more appealing. I'm sure they would make some sort of ND rule like they did for the BCS, like if ND is in the top 8 of their rankings they have to be picked. Their continued sway over an entity far bigger than them is unbelievable. I actually don't mind ND, but am perplexed as to why the powers that be continue to let them do whatever the hell they want. It's really something, probably helped out by the fact that the NCAA is such an awful organization with no real power. Good for them, I guess. The NCAA lets everyone do whatever the hell they want, especially with regard to football. The only thing that makes ND different is that they decided to shop their own TV rights rather than hand them to a conference. (Actually, the MWC lets Boise do that too, although that doesn't seem to be doing much for them.)

Though they continue to cherish their independence, I wonder if this would lead ND to consider a conference. As of now, theoretically, there could be 4 teams in the playoff that aren't conference winners (extremely unlikely, I know), but that number goes down to 3 with this potential format and, more importantly, guarantees the conference champ a spot. I don't think they would join, but you never know. Chance at a guaranteed spot for joining the B1G or ACC might make it more appealing. I'm sure they would make some sort of ND rule like they did for the BCS, like if ND is in the top 8 of their rankings they have to be picked. That seems highly unlikely to me. They made no such rule regarding ND qualifying for one of the New Year's 6 bowls, so I'm guessing they'd just be thrown in the pool with everyone else battling for one of the other 3 spots.

And it's going to suck. The only good thing that came out of the BCS was it made every game affect every other one in the title picture. If every power conference gets an automatic bid, there's no reason for anyone in B1G country to care about an SEC game, and vice versa. ND could finish #5 this year and I'd still be vehemently against any further playoff expansion. Like it or not, it's going to happen. A) AD's and conference commissioners are going to lose their [expletive] when their teams are left out this year. B) Mo money, mo money. I honestly would love to see it. Miss St vs TCU, Mich St vs Bama, Georgia vs ND, Oregon vs FSU? Yes, please. I know it's going to happen. That won't make me like it.

waiting for the autopsy report Being perfectly honest, that was one of my first thoughts given the organization's history. But hearing about wackadoodle drivers in Latin America does make it make a bit more sense.

And it's going to suck. The only good thing that came out of the BCS was it made every game affect every other one in the title picture. If every power conference gets an automatic bid, there's no reason for anyone in B1G country to care about an SEC game, and vice versa. ND could finish #5 this year and I'd still be vehemently against any further playoff expansion.

Seattle wasn't even [expletive] trying to rush the passer and still sacked Cam two straight times on that last drive. What a joke.

BREAKING: Blowing multiple red-zone possessions and forcing the 27th-ranked defense in the league to hold up for an entire game is not a winning game plan.

New TV rules this year permit the NFL to flex games between networks for better exposure for games they deem better matchups. Texans/Titans is on FOX today. Pats/Bills was on FOX a couple weeks ago.

Updated with committee Top 25 Top 25 games ------------------------ Arkansas at (1) Mississippi State (7:15 pm, ESPN2) (2) Florida State at (25) Louisville (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPN) (3) Auburn at (4) Ole Miss (7 pm, ESPN) Stanford at (5) Oregon (7:30 pm, FOX) (7) TCU at (20) West Virginia (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) Oklahoma State at (9) Kansas State (8 pm, ABC/ESPN3) (10) Notre Dame vs Navy – in Landover, MD (8 pm, CBS) Florida vs (11) Georgia – in Jacksonville (3:30 pm, CBS) (12) Arizona at (22) UCLA (10:30 pm, ESPN) Kansas at (13) Baylor (4 pm, FS1) (17) Utah at (14) Arizona State (11 pm, FS1) Purdue at (15) Nebraska (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) Illinois at (16) Ohio State (8 pm, ABC/ESPN3) (18) Oklahoma at Iowa State (12 pm, FS1) (23) East Carolina at Temple (12 pm, ESPNEWS) (24) Duke at Pittsburgh (12 pm, ESPNU) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------- Troy at Georgia Southern (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPNU) Cincinnati at Tulane (8 pm Friday, ESPN2) Tulsa at Memphis (8 pm Friday, ESPNU) Air Force at Army (11:30 am, CBS) Wisconsin at Rutgers (12 pm, ESPN) Maryland at Penn State (12 pm, ESPN2) Northwestern at Iowa (12 pm, BTN) UL Monroe at Texas A&M (12 pm, SEC Network) UCF at UConn (12 pm, CBSSN) Boston College at Virginia Tech (12:30 pm, ACC Network/ESPN3) North Carolina at Miami (12:30 pm, ACC Network/ESPN3) Washington at Colorado (1 pm, Pac-12 Network) Central Michigan at Eastern Michigan (1 pm, ESPN3) Western Michigan at Miami (OH) (2:30 pm, ESPN3) Western Kentucky at Louisiana Tech (3 pm, FSN) NC State at Syracuse (3 pm, FSN South/ESPN3) Indiana at Michigan (3:30 pm, BTN) Virginia at Georgia Tech (3:30 pm, ESPNU) BYU at Middle Tennessee (3:30 pm, CBSSN) Georgia State at Appalachian State (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Kentucky at Missouri (4 pm, SEC Network) Houston at South Florida (4 pm, ESPNEWS) USC at Washington State (4:30 pm, Pac-12 Network) Arkansas State at Idaho (5 pm, ESPN3) South Alabama at UL Lafayette (5 pm, ESPN3) Old Dominion at Vanderbilt (7 pm, ESPNU) Colorado State at San Jose State (7 pm, CBSSN) Texas at Texas Tech (7:30 pm, FS1) Tennessee at South Carolina (7:30 pm, SEC Network) San Diego State at Nevada (10:30 pm, CBSSN) California at Oregon State (10:30 pm, Pac-12 Network) Wyoming at Fresno State (10:45 pm, ESPN2)

So apparently Utah ran an obvious pick play on their game winning TD that of course wasn't flagged. I didn't need to know that.

I expect [expletive] like that out of Les Miles. Stewart Mandel said if Les had done that, it would've worked. Hard to argue.

Winter meetings are in the winter. January or early February, I believe.

One baseball reporter tweeted that it's through 2016. Don't know if any financials are available.

I Googled and found an article about Yunel Escobar that said Maddon and the bilingual bench coach (Dave Martinez) met with him before the waiver deadline to assure him he wouldn't be moved. Since the writer specifically mentioned Martinez was bilingual, I'm guessing Maddon isn't.

You're not alone. I'm not disinterested in the NFL, but I've been watching fewer and fewer games that don't involve Carolina. A lot of that has to do with being married to a non-football fan, granted, but I've actually gotten to the point where I don't mind watching only a day and a half straight of football and not two days.

Whatever the Dodgers said about Mattingly, it seems hard to believe he's not headed to LA.

In the last 3 weeks, I have faced the teams that ranked 2nd, 1st and 1st in my 14-team league in scoring for that week, including, this week, a guy who traded Aaron Rodgers in a rebuilding effort DURING THE WEEK before facing me.