Yep, that just happened.
It's Monday, you know the drill.
From the "Talks too much" studios, who won the weekend?
Weekend winners
The college football playoff committee. They got the right four teams, and in the end that was their job. Yes, it's tough to explain how TCU could win a game by 52 and fall three spots, but that's as more about the process. Plus, the committee also had national attention, something that seems impossible on most late-fall NFL Sundays.
A UTC fan waves a Mocs flag during the Mocs' home football game.UTC. What an awesome and complete performance from the Mocs in the second round of the FCS playoffs. Complete and total domination in almost very aspect. Well-played indeed. (Side note: Tip of the visor to those who took the over 6,500 - and Stewwie was almost dead on the attendance, which reached a respectable 8,419. And David Glenn nailed it, telling Press Row on Friday that the rain would move out before kickoff.)
New England. The Patriots trailed by double-digits on the road against a playoff team. And you still never doubted that they were going to win. That's a rare belief that sports teams and superstars craft through years of excellence. In fact there's a short list of current players who you expect to deliver on a weekly basis, and Tom Brady is high on it. There's an even shorter list of teams you expect to deliver on a nightly, weekly and annual basis, and the Patriots, the Spurs and the Crimson Tide about the length of it. Any other nominations?
Seattle. The Seahawks went across country to visit arguably the third-best team in the NFC and smoked them. Bad. The Seahawks are going to be an especially tough out in these playoffs.
Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston.Jameis Winston. We certainly do not want Winston to watch our kids, but man, when the smoke is circling and the chips are on the table and the noise and situation become suffocating, Winston delivers. It's to the point that after Winston took every haymaker that a determined Georgia Tech offense could throw and still emerged with a win. Dude has developed a galvanized aura that makes FSU go and makes them feel unbeatable. This more than any other attribute make the strongest Winston-Cam Newton comparison valid.
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Weekend losers
The college football playoff committee. They got the four right, but the path here was painful and filled with missteps. Maybe it was a first-year gaffe. Maybe it would be fixed by announcing the rankings every other week or in mid-October and then mid-November before the final list. The messages were unclear. The reasoning - was it a weekly beauty contest, was it a body of work thing, was it best win or worst loss? - has been haphazard and erratic. Now the fallout is obvious outrage in Texas and thankfulness in Ohio. We originally set the over/under on moving to eight teams in the playoff at 5 years and moved it to 3.5 years several weeks ago. It may be a clear 3 years now, and we're still leaning under. That said, the move to eight is not without peril, considering the threat it would have on the madness and craziness that was this weekend for everyone not affiliated with the Big 12. If the committee was charged with picking eight teams in this year's scenario, the Pac 12 and the SEC would have been better served with Alabama and Oregon losing because that likely would have meant two league teams in the dance. As always our biggest concern has been making sure the regular season is not devalued, and a playoff scheme that benefits teams and conferences for losing conference title games seems flawed on its face, no? Oh boy.
The Big 12. Bob Bowlsby gave the committee an easy out by not saying Baylor should be declared the champion. Period and end of discussion. You can make a hard argument that after the punchline that has been "One True Champion" that Bowlsby should be fired.
Tiger WoodsTennessee Titans. Man, that was gross. Watching a complete Titans game falls somewhere between waterboarding and insurance seminars on the level of painful.
NFL rules. When the college rules are better than yours, well, it's time to re-evaluate. The NFL needs to make targeting/helmet-to-helmet calls reviewable. Period.
Tiger Woods. Hey at least he's painfree. You know what? The 5-at-10 swings a golf club painfree and no one wants to watch that either.
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Bowling madness
We are planning on a bowl contest - we've had one every year since 2010 for crying out loud - so stay tuned for that.
As for the bowl games, how about that fickle sense of humor of the bowl pairing folks?
As SEC beat ace David Paschall noted in today's TFP, Georgia gets the Grantham Bowl.
UT goes bowling for the first time since 2010 with a trip to Jacksonville. Giggle all you want Jomo, UT making the postseason is a big deal for a variety of reasons, and winning to finish with a winning record also would be a big deal.
Here's a list of all the bowls and here are the five games in no particular order outside of the national semifinals that are the most appealing:
- Texas-Arkansas in the Texas Bowl. Longtime rivals in the Big 8, an energized Arkansas bunch gets a shot at the other UT. Of all the mid-sized bowls and down, is anyone more pleased than the guys running the Texas Bowl? We say no.
- Ole Miss-TCU in the Peach Bowl. The Peach Bowl gets a good game almost every year.
- Michigan State-Baylor in the Cotton Bowl. Ditto from above. If TCU and/or Baylor are/is motivated after being left out of the dance, these could be a lot of fun.
- Kansas State-UCLA in the Alamo Bowl. Another bowl that year-in, year-out finds fun match-ups.
- Georgia Tech-Mississippi State in the Orange Bowl. This game may be over in 1:50.
And for those of you who say there are too many bowls - turn the station. There probably are too many - heck there probably are too many NCAA tournament bids too - but how does that effect anyone? It's like too many 'reality TV shows' or day-time talk shows. Someone thinks it's worthwhile TV and people watch.
We like the bowl games that dot the TV sked through the holidays. If you don't that's fine, just watch something else.
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This and that
- UK basketball beat Texas and Eastern Kentucky over the weekend. The Wildcats are 9-0 with Columbia on Wednesday and UNC on Saturday.
- And even though we mentioned it above, the Washington Redskins are a dumpster fire.
- Baseball winter meetings are this week. What do you hope the Braves address?
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Today's question
Who won the weekend? Who lost the weekend?
We want your answers.
If you need an off-topic item to sound off on, today is Teri Hatcher's 50th birthday. Hatcher of course has been in a variety of TV shows but she was the girl on Seinfeld who offered the memorable, "They're real and they are spectacular."
What's the Rushmore of one-liners from Seinfeld, which is the most quoted TV show of all time? Let's start outside the main four - Hatcher's famous one and "No soup for you" seem like home-run candidates - characters, deal?
Whatcha got?