5-at-10: Friday mailbag of Rushmores, Tech and college football

Before we get into this thing with an extra gear, thanks to all the questions this week, especially from a bunch of Press Row listeners. If you have questions about the paper, the radio show or for the mailbag, you can email them to jgreeson@timesfreepress.com, send them on Twitter at @jgreesontfp or post them in the comments below.

photo Football tile

From the "Talks too much" studios, it's go time.

Question for mailbag - Listening to commentary about Auburn-Ga from Auburn perspective....Huge rivalry game with a lot at stake, but did Auburn team (and some fans) adopt the "playoff or nothing" mentality or "national championship or nothing" mentality? The idea is that after losing for second time in A&M game, they did not play with maximum effort and emotion. So does what is currently talked about (playoff) loom larger than rivalry and tradition for the modern college athlete? Maybe so. But not a good thing for college football or the coaches if the playoff or bust mentality takes hold. Your thoughts ?

Jomo -

Maybe, and we referenced that in our picks.

But, before we get to the tangent that is the big part of your question, we discussed Auburn's motivation as a trend in an effort to try to pick winners. In truth, Auburn could have showed up in Athens with the battle focus of William Wallace and it might not have matter. Granted, they showed with the intensity of Marcia Wallace, so it became a rout, but still. To say Auburn's lack of focus was the biggest factor in that game is to discredit an excellent effort from Georgia, especially in O-line and its stud-duck tailbacks.

As for the playoff-or-bust mentality overshadowing some rivalries, it's certainly possible. In truth, that's on the coaches for not having their team ready to play, which is a big part of those seven-figure salaries with seven-figure buyouts that they get.

But that's not the biggest potential damage looming for college football.

Theoretically, college football is still pregnant with a playoff. It has not even been delivered yet and fans and media folks are dying for the field to be expanded to eight teams sooner rather than later. And by sooner we mean by, say, lunch on Monday.

We believe that the bigger the field, the more watered-down regular season becomes. This is fact. Yes, this playoff Final Four or whatever they are calling it has not had an effect on the drama of the regular season so far. But that "so far" is a mighty big piece of that sentence.

Want to know what damages the regular season? Not rewarding winning and rationalizing losses. The committee did both earlier this week by keeping Mississippi State in the top four and leaving unbeaten Florida State at No. 3.

All of this is an effort to find a better way to determine a champion. But determining a champion is not rewarding the best team. Were the Giants or the Royals the best team in baseball? Nope, they got hot in October and won the playoffs.

Playoffs are better than bowls at determining a champion, but in pre-playoff college football, the march was three months long rather than finding your way into a three-game tournament when it expands to eight teams.

Yes, eight is more equitable than four because you can retain a chunk of value in the regular by making sure the big 5 conference champs get invited. But again, that's looking for a champ, not the best team, especially when a vague and secretive committee is deciding what the candidates should like with no transparency and no established guidelines.

Jeff Long embraced "Game Control" in his testament that one-loss Alabama and one-loss Oregon are better than unbeaten FSU. Forget game control, what about game outcome?

The drama and the energy and the excitement of the college-football regular season is its most valuable commodity. And any part of the playoff that detracts from that should be considered a threat.

While a playoff can be awesome and unbelievable, it should not mean sacrificing the regular season in whole. Ask college hoops.

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From Terry

I'm a Press Row listener and really enjoy Monday's "who won and lost the weekend."

Who are your early candidates to win and lose this weekend?

Thanks and keep up the good work.

Terry -

Great question and we may talk about this today on Press Row from 3-6 p.m. on ESPN 105.1 FM and here at timesfreepress.com.

Potential winners - Tennessee, which could secure a bowl bid this week; the UCLA-USC winner, which would sneak onto the edge of the playoff committee's view; the Seattle-Arizona winner, considering the Cards could grab control of that division or the defending champs could get right back in the mix; NFL fans, which will get two Monday night games since the Bills-Jets game has been moved to Monday at Detroit.

Potential losers - The Falcons, who put their meager defense on the line against Cleveland, which welcomes back a fresh Josh Gordon; any ranked team that loses or does not win by enough for the committee; Duke, which lost back-to-back games in five days to go from firm control of its division to on the outside looking in at the ACC title game.

As for a front-runner for "Already a winner" let's go with Georgia Tech, which got to the ACC title game by Duke imploding last night against UNC. Speaking of Georgia Tech....

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From Jim B.

Why do you and your sports section give such terrible coverage to Georgia Tech?

Georgia Tech is having an excellent season and is closer to Chattanooga than UT or GAW-GA. And I'll tell you right now, the Jackets are going to whip the puppies next week. You heard it here first.

You should be ashamed with your biased coverage.

Jim B. -

Thanks for reading and for the feedback. In truth it's letters like yours that let us know what our fans are passionate about.

photo Georgia running back Nick Chubb runs for a touchdown at Kentucky on Nov. 8. Georgia beat Kentucky 63-31.

That said, while proximity does play a part in the coverage decisions we make, it is not the ultimate factor. Fan interest and support among our readers is the biggest weight when the block-headed TFP sports editor makes coverage decisions. And we know pretty close to first-hand he does not make them lightly or uninformed.

That said, Tech is having an excellent season, and they will be handful for Georgia next week, and then FSU in the ACC title game. In fact, Tech may have as much upward mobility as fellow two-loss foes Mississippi and Georgia to get on the cusp of the whole shebang. That said, if Nick Chubb is healthy, we're not sure that banged-up Tech defense has the horses to stay with that thoroughbred all afternoon.

While we're here, we must tip the visor to the coaching job Paul Johnson has done. Johnson's seat was every bit as hot as Brady Hoke's in Ann Arbor and recently canned Florida coach Will Muschamp's. Johnson has the Jackets back in the ACC title game and within reach of potentially something very special.

And P.J. can flat golf his ball. Good dude.

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From Press Row fan

Hey Jay, I have a quick question: Do you take suggestions for Rushmores on your radio show?

If so, I have two -- one that's serious and one for you.

First, what's your Rushmore of CDs you have played the most.

Second for you, what's your Rushmore of movies you most frequently quote on the air.

Thanks, and if you could just put Press Row fan, that would be great.

Press Row fan -

Wow, as for the CDs, well, we burnt through a ton of cassettes - yes we're that old - back in the mid-to-late 1980s. If memory serves, we smoked through LL Cool J's "Bigger and Deafer," "License to Ill" by the Beastie Boys, "Joshua Tree" U2, "Eazy Does It" by Eazy E and Clint Black's debut album. (Side note: Clint Black was awesome before he became awesome, if that makes sense.)

Sure, the 5-at-10 takes Rushmore suggestions. We may have to work a regular feature in on the radio show where listeners can call in and ask for quick Rushmores from David and me. That would be awesome in its awesomeness. Great idea, actually.

As for the movies, well, off the top of our head, and this would have to be in day-to-day life too, because how I talk on the air is kind of how I am - Godfather, Raising Arizona, Hoosiers and Bull Durham would probably be the ones I quote the most. But we feel like we're forgetting at least one obvious one. Major League and Fletch are right there too.

Great question and great idea too.

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From Sean

photo In this Nov. 18, 2013, file photo, actor-comedian Bill Cosby poses for a portrait in New York.

I wanted to send you an email because me and my friends love your radio show. You guys know you're stuff and you are pretty funny.

I have two questions, first, can you give me a hint if you guys are going to have a Rushmore on Friday's show, and if so, what will it be?

Secondly, I am about your age, and is there any way in a million years you'd have expected Bill Cosby to be involved in this stuff? He would be like the last one we'd guess to be in something like this.

Thanks again,

Sean -

During football season, the Rushmores have kind of slowed down because there's a ton of stuff to talke about, and when we do a Rushmore, well, it's become so popular, it kind of dominates the show.

So, we're not sure we'll have one for Friday or not.

As for Cosby, no doubt, it's like a huge shocker. Not sure if he'd be the last one we'd expect to be involved in something this but he's certainly in the team picture.

In fact, we were kicking around a potential Rushmore of people who had the biggest/most shocking fall from grace, and we came up with OJ, Cosby and Lance Armstrong as three quick answers.

Thanks for listening and playing along.

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