Weekend winners
< Alabama. Wow. Just wow. Mark Widener, the TFP ace sports columnist, wrote this weekend that this may be the best Alabama team ever. Think about that. That history, tradition and success, and this could be the best ever. And it's hard to say they aren't. Others than the shootout against Ole Miss away - a 48-43 final that was aided by at least one cosmetic Ole Miss score at the end - every other Bama win has been by double digits, and other than a 10-0 win over LSU, all of them are by three scores or more.
< Washington. The Huskies needed a statement win in the Pac-12 title game and they made it. Washington earned the right to tap out against Alabama in the Atlanta semifinal of the college football invitational.
< Fab 4 picks. We went 5-1 last week, taking Alabama, Washington, Idaho and Penn State to cover the number as well as the over in the ACC title game. Our one loss was Troy at Georgia Southern. Stupid Troy. We finished 49-34 on the season (59 percent) against the spread heading into the bowl games. Not too shabby.
< Golf. Tiger Woods posted a top-15 finish in the Hero World Challenge, the first golf tournament in 15 months in which the sport's most famous star has completed all four rounds. OK, there were only 17 players in the field. But having Woods back - he made a run up the leaderboard Saturday, and there truly is nothing more exciting in golf than Woods making a move on a weekend, whether it is at Augusta National or the Kiwanis Four-Ball. Woods' swing looked effortless and pain-free, a good sign for a guy who has dealt with multiple back surgeries and several physical setbacks in recent years. And having him back is great for the game.
< Eric Berry. Dude returns to his hometown of Atlanta to play the Falcons, gets two interceptions for scores - one a TD and one on a two-point conversion that proved to be the game-winning score in the Chiefs' 29-28 win over the Falcons. He said after the game that the last time he came home to Atlanta it was for chemotherapy to battle his cancer. He got the game ball, and gave it to his mother. Eric Berry ladies and gentlemen.
< Bonus pick: Tom Brady. At the most important position in team sports and the one that gets too much credit for victories and too much blame for defeats more times than not, Brady became the winningest quarterback in NFL history. he notched his 201st career win as a starter Sunday. To make it more impressive, how many offensive Hall of Famers has Brady played more than two seasons with. Yes, he had Randy Moss for a glorious couple of seasons, and if Gronk returns to form, he's almost assuredly headed Canton, but not much beyond that.
Carolina Panthers' Cam Newton (1) celebrates a touchdown pass against the New Orleans Saints in the first half of an NFL football game in Charlotte, N.C., Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016. (AP Photo/Mike McCarn) Weekend losers
> Blake Bortles. In an era of crappy, check-down quarterback play - and yes, the coaching style of 3-year throws and zero chances is the football equivalent of the Cowardly Lion in terms of aggressiveness - Bortles is the worst of the worst. Check these stats: Sunday, he was 19-42 for 181 with a lost fumble and threw a pick-six. Oh it gets worse. Bottles led the Jags to a 20-10 loss against a Denver team that was starting rookie QB Paxton Luynch, who engineered nine three-and-outs. Yes, Bortles lost to a rookie who led the Broncos to all of one first down after the half. Finally, and this is the kicker, Bortles has now throw 11 pick-sixes (interceptions returned for a TD) in his NFL career; he has 10 career wins as a starting QB.
> Conference championship games. They have been rendered meaningless with the college football invitation committee. Penn State won the toughest league in the country and beat at-large invitee Ohio State but the Nittany Lions got left out.
> Ticket brokers in this college football bowl season. Other than the Alabama faithful lining up for tickets to the Georgia Dome, is there a single bowl game you expect to be a 'hot' ticket? Heck the other semifinal between Clemson and THE Ohio State in less-than-convienent Arizona has almost 1,500 upper level seats selling for less than face value right now. How many sell-outs will there be in this bowl season? Three, maybe? Atlanta for Alabama-Washington, Tennessee in Nashville maybe, and maybe USC in the Rose?
> The 5-at-10's silly dream of 40-0. Yes, we got our hopes up for a potential UK run into the mid-20s-and-0 after a lightning fast start for the Wildcats. Alas, it was dashed when UCLA toppled mighty UK on Saturday. Man, hope that one loss doesn't derail their chances to get into the NCAA invitational. Hey, maybe UK can win their conference title. Oh wait, never mind.
> Cam Newton. A nightmarish season for the reigning MVP in particular and the Panthers in general was punctuated emphatically Sunday night as the Seattle Seahawks hammered Carolina. Plus, Newton was benched for the first series for violating the team's travel dress code.
FILE - In this Nov. 26, 2016, file photo, Ohio State running back Mike Weber, center, celebrates his touchdown against Michigan with teammates Jamarco Jones, left, and Luke Farrell during the second half of an NCAA college football game in Columbus, Ohio. Alabama will play Washington and Ohio State is set to face Clemson in the College Football Playoff semifinals, announced Sunday, Dec. 4. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete) College football invitational
The committee got together and invited who it wanted to invite and that's fine.
But it doesn't mean it's right. The four best teams? Maybe. The four most deserving teams? Debatable.
In fact, the process - relying on the eye test than on the peak accomplishments (i.e. winning your conference title, especially in the toughest conference in the country) -begs for controversy. And maybe that's OK, because more than any other sport, college football is fueled by controversy. But in the end, ultimately that leads to fatigue then to frustration then to disinterest.
So the committee made its best swing, taking three conference champs and one at large team. Alabama, Clemson, THE Ohio State, and Washington. Dancing in a four-team cha-cha to determine who is crowned the national champ.
OK, but the process has to be examined for the consequences, be them intended or unintended.
First, while the committee has said that nonconference scheduling is huge, it rewarded Washington for winning the fourth-best league and having the second-worst nonconference schedule in the country with a spot in the dance. Penn State is out not because it got hammered by Michigan but because it lost by a field goal to Pittsburgh. Penn State's nonconference schedule also included Temple.
We wondered last week on Press Row why the committee did not use the old BCS system, which may have produced the same four playoff field. And if that seems contradictory to you, then you are missing the message of this complaint with the committee.
The four teams may be right but that doesn't mean the process is right. There has to be more structure. There has to be more transparency. And there needs to be a known set of criteria, especially when it comes to nonconference schedules, because with Washington in - after playing and beating nobodies outside of the Pac-12 - while Oklahoma and Penn State are conference champs sitting out this invitational mainly because of nonconference setbacks against ranked teams, well, the message is clear.
Play and beat nobodies.
Then there is the discussion about head-to-head not meaning a hill of beans since, you know, Penn State beat Ohio State. As well as the fact that now every game matters until you lose twice then none of the rest of your games matter, apparently.
So the committee has informed us that everyone gets one mulligan, but only one, no matter who you beat or if you win your conference. (Side note: I hate the thought of expanding the playoff, but the idea of all the power five conference champs getting in does add value to the entirety of the season. Of course, the talk has turned to playing that extra round of playoffs instead of playing a conference championship game, which is a) never going to happen because it makes too much money for the leagues and b) is overrun with potential problems too.)
Finally, the committee unintentionally just told us that they are going to make sure the coolest kids get preferentially treatment.
Don't think so? Just flip the names atop the programs this morning between Penn State and THE Ohio State, and which team is in the dance?
Yeah, we think either way the committee would put the Buckeyes in the mix, and that ultimately means none of the games really mattered. And that makes us sad.
This and that
- Last Thursday night's Dallas-Minnesota game delivered more than 22 million viewers combined between the multiple channels. It's the most watched Thursday night game in the history of the Thursday night franchise. The NFL numbers may be sagging but the Dallas Cowboys are as popular as ever. Five of the six most watched games of the season include the Cowboys.
- John Schuerholz and Bud Selig were elected into the baseball Hall of Fame by some fancy-pants renamed version of the Veterans Committee. Schuerholz can make an argument for one of the greatest building jobs in the history of the game, considering what he made the long-stinking Atlanta Braves into for the 1990s and into the 2000s. As for Selig, well, he piloted the great and the terrible. He was manning the ship when baseball's revenues went from about $1.5 billion to $9 billion. He also buried his head in the sand as PEDs ruled the game.
- Interesting side note here: Yes, the SEC has taken a step back, and has been passed by the Big Ten. A lot of that is because of either very young QBs in the SEC or very mediocre-at-best QBs in the SEC. The SEC still has the most NFL prospects, though, especially in the front seven of defenses. Did you see that Reuben Foster, the stud duck Alabama linebacker, won the Butkus Award. That award is given to either the nation's bets linebacker or college football's best dinner manners. We forget, but it seems like the former. As for the depth of SEC defensive talent, well, Foster won, Vandy's Zach Cunningham finished second, Florida's Jarrad Davis finished third and LSU's Kendall Beckwith was fourth. If UT's Jalen Reeves-Maybin had been healthy, the league might have swept the top five.
- How's this for a great stat to show how blah-tastic the AFC South is? The Houston Texans are leading the divisions despite being out scored by 50 points cumulatively this year.
Today's question
Who won the weekend? Who lost it?
How long before college football goes to eight teams in its invitational tournament to decide who gets Larry Culpepper's trophy? What would be a creative nickname for the fighting' 5-at-10s second-and-third grade youth basketball team? (It's important to note that our colors are blue camouflage.) We are leaning to the Mighty Bears of South Bend Central - which obviously has its roots in Hoosiers, but also subtly pays homage to the Mighty Ducks, Rudy with the South Bend reference and those glorious, never-say-die Bears sponsored by Chico's Bail Bonds - but as always are open for ideas.
If you need a Rushmore, well, let's go here:
What's your Rushmore of the best bowl games this year? Go ahead and take the playoff games out of it - although we're pretty sure Alabama stomps a mud hole in Washington, so there's that - and pick from the other 213 bowl games if you don't mind.