College football playoff committee speaks
So there you have it.
Georgia is 1, Alabama is 2 followed in order by Notre Dame and Clemson.
Does it mean Georgia fans should start making travel plans to the semifinals? Or does it mean No. 5 Oklahoma or No. 6 THE Ohio State need their elected representative to start wasting their time and ours by grandstanding about fairness.
Of course not. There's a long way between Nov. 1 and Dec. 3, the Sunday when they announce the field of four. But that does not mean Tuesday night was meaningless.
There were lessons aplenty. There was the fact that the Sooners were a spot ahead of THE Buckeyes, off the power of the head-to-head win for OU in September. There was the high regard for Notre Dame, which still has ranked hurdles against Stanford and Miami on the docket. A Notre Dame team that wins out is going to be hard to keep out is a monster takeaway from this.
There also was the obvious indifference to No. 9 Wisconsin and No. 10 Miami to this point. Each is unbeaten in a Power Five Conference and each is behind six one-loss teams in the committee's eyes.
Miami will have a Notre Dame-level springboard chance later this month and a big test at Virginia Tech this weekend. So the Hurricanes can get there. The same can not be said with certainty about the Badgers, even if they win out, which could include a big-stage moment against THE Ohio State in the Big Ten title game.
And everyone can cool their 'expansion' jets right now. It may be coming. And if two of the spots in the playoff are for UGA and Alabama and a third for Notre Dame, then the expansion talk will be a monster topic with three of the Power Five leagues on the outside looking in.
But right now, the controversy and the hand-wringing and the importance all of this puts on every Saturday is why college football is the best regular season in all of sports.
Los Angeles Dodgers' Joc Pederson celebrates after hitting a home run during the seventh inning of Game 6 of baseball's World Series against the Houston Astros Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)World Serious
Wow.
Just know how special this is: Not since 1931 has baseball had two 100-win teams playing a winner-take-all Game 7 to decide the champion.
Good times.
In fact, this World Series is so dramatic, the only thing that could match it is this report from Vegas. According to RJ Bell, a renowned Vegas insider, is putting out on social media that an unknown better has gone 6-for-6 betting on each of the World Series games to date.
Said bettor has let each winnings ride, and after reportedly putting the whole on the Dodgers in Game 6, has won $14 million so far in the Fall Classic.
And yes, according to Bell, the bettor is letting it ride of Game 7. Oh my. And of course.
Who would have expected a series in which the two best teams in the sport hand the ball to their best pitchers - and future Hall of Famers - in monster moments and neither delivered.
Los Angeles evened the series at 3 - and boosted our anonymous bettor's kitty to more than what the Dodgers paid Justin Turner this season - with Chris Taylor's game-changing double off Justin Verlander and Joc Pederson's emotional home run to stretch the lead to 3-1. (Side note: Man, how about that dude - with a glove no less - who completely booted Pederson's home run. That was likely a five-figure error, because we're betting the Dodgers and/or Pederson would have offered up $10K for that ball. Nevermind the look on his wife/girlfriend/date/acquaintance's face.)
It was a thrilling - and yes much slower-paced - Game 6. And it adds to the lore of this back and forth. Consider what we've seen to this point.
Game 1 was Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher of his generation, being the best pitcher of his generation.
Game 2 was the Astros dramatic, extra-inning comeback that handed the Dodgers their first loss in 99 tries so far this season when L.A. led after eight.
Game 3 was Houston reaching Darvish early and the gesture and the energy that was Houston coming home for a World Series game for the first time since 2005, and the franchise's first World Series win in front of the home folks ever.
Game 4 will be viewed in the history books as the most-one-sided, since the Dodgers won 6-2. But L.A. scored five in ninth - and completely wrecked Houston's closer - that included Pederson's three-run homer to blow open a 1-1 pitcher's duel.
Game 5 quite possibly was the best World Series game of the modern era, and if L.A. loses tonight will be remember as the turning point in a game that Kershaw could not protect 4-0 and 7-4 leads.
Then there was last night. And now there is tonight.
Game 7, and in a lot of ways no matter which team loses, we all have won. (Well other than that dude who booted Pederson's homer.)
New England Patriots quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (10) leaves the field after an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, in Glendale, Ariz. The Patriots won 23-21. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) NFL moves and shakes
The NFL trading deadline came and went Tuesday with a lot of movement.
It was way busier than usual. (Side note: As everyone is high-fiving Buffalo for getting Kelvin Benjamin and San Fran for adding Jimmy Garoppolo as well as New England getting a high second-rounder for him, please note that Seattle adding a legit left tackle in Duane Brown may be the most important move of the last 48 hours.)
And it was business as usual, at least for Cleveland, who was unable to file the paperwork in time to pull of a deal for Bengals back-up QB A.J. McCarron. That move means McCarron is going to a Pro Bowl sooner rather than later, considering the last two quarterbacks the Browns could not pull the trigger on were dudes named Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson.
So there's that. And now there's this.
Colin Kaepernick's attorney said on Tuesday that he expects the former San Francisco quarterback to be signed within the next 10 days.
Smokescreen? Maybe. Wishful thinking? Possibly.
But after the Camp Kaep has been this quiet for this long, this coming out of the blue has to have some behind-the-scenes meet on the bone, right?
That said, you have to wonder which team would roll the dice with the locker room story lines that would assuredly come with adding Kaepernick, who, if you have been under a rock on Venus for the last 16 months, is the guy that started the kneeling-during-the-anthem demonstrations.
Maybe it's Cleveland, which some would say is a fitting penance for Kaepernick. But that would mean the Browns would have to figure out how to work their fax machine or email.
Stupid technology.
This and that
- Speaking of the World Series, Dodgers starter Rich Hill stepped off the mound when Yuli Gurriel got to the plate. "It was my silent protest to his gesture," Hill said referencing the Astros first baseman's slant-eyed gesture in Game 3 toward Dodgers starter Yu Darvish, who will start Game 7 for L.A. As Hill waited the crescendos of boos for Gurriel grew louder and louder.
- Speaking of the World Series, hey, Tommy Lasorda, feel free to speak your mind. Apparently after Game 6, Lasorda told Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts, "You haven't done s--- until you win tomorrow night."
- Speaking of the World Series, the biggest play of the game was not anything done at the plate or on the mound. With two out and runners on first-and-third and L.A. holding a 2-1 lead, Houston star Jose Altuve hit a grounder to Justin Turner, who fielded the in-between hop and threw as hard as he could trying to get the hustling and fast-moving Altuve. The throw was low and wide and Dodgers first baseman Cody Bellinger scooped it like a superstar. If that ball gets by, Astros go nuts, George Springer, who was steaming toward third when Turner released the throw, scores and in truth Houston probably wins the game and the series. The defensive stats try to pinpoint "Runs Saved" and that's a great number. For Bellinger, that was a potential championship-saving defensive play.
- Speaking of the World Series, Fox announcers and studio folks were saying all weekend that last weekend was "The Greatest Weekend Ever" because of its loaded lineup. Fox had World Series games 3, 4 and 5, as well as the thrilling Penn State-THE Ohio State college football game and Cowboys-Redskins, which was the most-watched program across all of TV last weekend. Maximizing the high viewership with the duration of the viewership, there was more than 23.4 billion minutes of sports television consumed on Fox.
- Speaking of the World Series, this is the 39th winner-take-all game all time in Series history. Looking for an edge? Tough. The home team is 19-19 in the previous 38.
- Because, well, Butch Jones is operating in a high-watt, uber-hot spotlight, comes this report from some website called TheReadOptional.com in which the writers claim that sources inside the program are saying that Jones and staff knowingly played Brett Kendrick for most of the second half with a concussion. (That site is also reporting that a buyout between Butch and UT has been agreed on in principle.)
- Programming note: We missed it late last week, but it just dawned on us as the calendar flipped. The 5-at-10 turned 7 on Oct. 25. Yes, we started this puppy when Cam Newton was at Auburn and before Harvey Updyke poisoned some trees. Every Monday-through-Friday since then we've been here. That's 1,833 consecutive 5-at-10s, counting today.
Today's questions
Lots happening.
Did the committee get it right? Discuss.
Jacques Plante became the first goaltender to wear a hockey mask in an NHL game on this day in 1959.
Gary Player is 82 today. Apple CEO Tim Cook is 57. War Eagle.
Walter Payton died on this day in 1999. He was 45.
As for today, on this day in 1834, the first documented form of poker was discovered on a Mississippi riverboat.
With that in mind, what makes the Rushmore of card games.