College football playoff rankings
The top two were expected - Clemson at 1 and Alabama at No. 2. Ohio State and Notre Dame rounded out the top four of the second college football playoff committee rankings
Team A is 9-0 with a schedule ranked 56th best in the country according to Jeff Sagarin's computer.
Team B is 9-0 with a schedule ranked 61st.
Team C is 9-0 with a schedule ranked 68th.
Those teams are Iowa, Oklahoma State and Ohio State respectively. The college football committee, however, has Ohio State No. 3, Iowa No. 5 and Oklahoma State No. 8.
That's the rub, and it's not a big one because the teeth of the schedule for the two OSUs is coming. Iowa, though, has the second-easiest run through the remainder of its regular season behind only Clemson. Iowa has Minnesota, Purdue and Nebraska left before a potential spot in the Big Ten title game, which could be against Ohio State.
The more noteworthy item in the rankings is that Notre Dame moved into the top 4. It's now hard to see a scenario in which the Irish win out and are not part of the dance, considering they close the season with No. 7-ranked Stanford.
We'll play a little what if here:
What if Clemson wins out. And one-loss Alabama and one-loss Florida (which is No. 11 in the rankings) meet in the SEC title game (ensuring a one-loss SEC champ, most likely Alabama). Notre Dame wins out to finish 11-1. Ohio State wins out, and Baylor wins out, leaving each of those as undefeated conference champs.
Who's the four? (Who is house?)
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Fantasy sports
The first major salvo has been fired in the case of states v. daily sports fantasy sites.
The state district attorney of New York (Who we are certain is not Jack McCoy but we are all picturing him as looking just like him, right?) says that Fan Duel and Draft Kings are gambling sites and has asked them stop taking clients from New York.
Nevada has already asked the sites to cease and desist in Nevada, but that's more about going through the regulatory process on the state, since gambling is legal there.
FILE- In this Sept. 9, 2015, file photo, Len Don Diego, marketing manager for content at DraftKings, a daily fantasy sports company, works at his station at the company's offices in Boston. New York's attorney general has sent letters to daily fantasy sports websites DraftKings and FanDuel demanding they turn over details of any investigations into their employees on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File) This is the first blast of a state saying those gaming sites are gambling, and ruling them illegal.
Fan Duel and Draft Kings obviously did not agree with the ruling and will appeal. In fact, if they are prepared to pay $3 billion (yes, billion with a 'B') in prize money, they would have to be willing to spend at least that much in getting this ruling overturned.
This could be an industry killer for each of them.
They contend that, contrary to Jack McCoy's ruling that it's gambling, theory sites are not gambling since they are not games of chance. That's a big distinction of gambling in the eyes of the law.
And in this case, each side is right. It's gambling under the simplest of definitions, and certainly under the long standing common sense version (or to paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart, you may not know the definition of hard-core pornography, but you know it when you see it).
But, to say fantasy football is a game of chance, as the state of New York contends, is also flawed.
Let the legal games begin.
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Not so good Luck
Colts quarterback Andrew Luck is out for at least two weeks and potentially could be out six weeks. It's a monster blow to the most important player in the AFC South.
Indianapolis Colts' Andrew Luck watches his teammates warm up before an NFL football game against the Houston Texans, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, in Houston. Luck will miss the game with an injury. (AP Photo/Patric Schneider) With Luck on the sideline - he has a kidney laceration and an abdominal muscle tear, each of which sounds pretty painful - the South becomes the most wide-open league this side of the league of women voters.
Look at the standings and what's ahead in the next four weeks:
Colts (4-5) with a bye this week then @Falcons, Bucs, @Steelers, @Jaguars ahead.
Texans (3-5) with @Bengals, Jets, Saints, @Bills ahead.
Jaguars (2-6) with @Ravens, Titans, Chargers, @Titans ahead.
Titans (2-6) with Panthers, @Jaguars, Raiders, Jaguars ahead.
That's anyone's division all things considered since the entire league is only divided by one game in the loss column.
We think the Colts likely will prevail, but man would it shock you if any of those teams made a run?
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This and that
- The NCAA is investigating Leornard Fournette's family to see if they violated rules in operating a website that tried to make money off Fournette's catch phrase of "BUGA Nation".
- Not paying much attention to the NBA yet - Christmas is about the time we start giving the NBA a harder look - but we do know this: Russell Westbrook is a bad dude. He dropped a triple-double last night and it was fifth straight game with 20-plus points and 10-plus assists.
- From the random tip of advice category: You know not to play cards with someone nicknamed after a city and to never date a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now comes this if you are a python, eating a whole porcupine will leave you with a deadly case of indigestion.
- In case you are curious, and we had some fun on Twitter last night during the debate. We thought the three winners were, in order, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Donald Trump. Rubio was strong. Paul at least was noticed, - and even with botching the defense question - he stuck to his guns and was as expected solid on conservative economic issues. As for The Donald, all he needed to do was not fall off the stage or show up drunk, considering his polling numbers are so strong. Still, his pro-Putin stance when asked about Russia was puzzling. The loser: Yep, Jeb Bush, who is like Miami football - you expect them to at some point put it all together, and you get disappointed time and time again. And a special nod to John Kasich, who likely will be the next one moved to the kiddie table debate. Kasich tried to pick as many fights as he could (an understandable strategy considering his minuscule polling numbers) but came across as the guy at the Christmas party who has one too many Egg Nogs and will not stop talking.
- Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons got robbed in the NL Gold Glove voting. Period.
(Side note: How crazy is it that Iowa - the same Iowa that was boatraced by UT last January - is a prominent figure in this mess. And as a loyal reader and Mark Vols Fan pointed out, UT has that smoking of Iowa as well as near-misses against three of the top 12 teams in the country. And all of them are still realistic options to be in the four-team playoff.)
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Today's question
Did you remember the mailbag?
We also know that a few of our regulars are veterans and we thank you for your honorable service. We should be grateful every day but on this Veteran's Day we are especially thankful for your efforts.
In that regard, and we have talked about war movies before, so let's change that up.
Today, in honor of all our veterans, we're looking for our Rushmore of military-related TV shows. (And wouldn't M*A*S*H be far left, especially the Henry Blake years when the show embraced being hilarious rather than trying to be Alan Alda's social commentary?)
Whatcha' got?