It’s back, baby! The college football season rolls on with playoff drama, stupid time slots, heavyweight matchups and yup, you guessed it, elite whining.
First Place…
Booger McFarland, Stanford Steve and ESPN. For two straight weeks all I’ve heard is what a travesty it is that Indiana is not ranked higher than Penn State in the College Football Playoff rankings. As I’m sure you know, Indiana is undefeated and Penn State has a loss to Ohio State. Everyone and their mother in the media is crying about this injustice, especially ESPN folk. The week after the first rankings were released, the biggest complaint was how Indiana beat UCLA by 29 and Penn State only beat the Bruins by 16. I hate comparing scores in common games. It’s stupid, but whatever, I get it. Fast-forward a week. Indiana squeaks by a Michigan team that can’t score and Penn State drubs Washington by 28. You know what wasn’t mentioned this week? Indiana only beat Washington by 14. Shocker. I understand the frustration people have with Penn State. They never beat top ten opponents. They haven’t played for a Big Ten title in almost a decade. It’s all true, but their strength of schedule is 70 spots higher than Indiana’s. They lost to Ohio State by a touchdown despite two empty trips inside the five. If Indiana goes into Columbus and beats Ohio State next weekend I will send McFarland an apology letter. If they lose by one score I’ll send Stanford Steve a T-shirt. But that’s not going to happen. They’re going to get drubbed. Let’s stop pretending the Hoosiers deserve a higher ranker.
Second Place…
Hey look, Joel Klatt and his FOX cronies are getting even more aggressive in defense of their efforts to ruin college football. What’s worse than a big game kicking off at noon ET? How about putting Colorado on at 10AM local time? The worst part is Klatt acts like he’s doing college football a great service by featuring Colorado in FOX’s “premiere” time slot. You can tell the outrage from Penn State and Ohio State fans is getting to the FOX people. This week Klatt shared an extended explanation on X about how Big Noon games are the highest watched and blah blah blah. He did the same on his podcast this week. They’re in damage control mode. Does he not realize when almost every one of your Big Noon games features Penn State or Ohio State it’s going to do numbers? They are two of the biggest fan bases in the entire world. Put them on in prime time and I guarantee you those numbers would grow. I know I’ve complained about Big Noon a lot this season, but I think some changes might actually happen in the next year or so. The Big Ten teams can’t be happy about their most dynamic matchups happening at Noon and the heat has clearly reached the FOX executives. Klatt can keep pretending it’s great for the sport but he’s nothing but a shill at this point.
Third Place…
Everyone whining about how the SEC schedule would dominate any team from any other conference needs a reality check. The SEC is top heavy just like the Big Ten. Florida stinks. Oklahoma is garbage. Missouri is the product of a cupcake schedule. Auburn and Kentucky are zombies. Even worse, almost the entire conference schedules a virtual bye in November. Alabama battles Mercer this weekend. Texas A&M hosts New Mexico State. Next week Georgia and Tennessee matchup with UMass and UTEP, respectively. South Carolina, Auburn and Kentucky all have a similar cupcake on the schedule. Texas must not have gotten the SEC memo on the late season week off because they don’t get a powder puff game like most of the rest of the conference. Come on. It’s November. You can’t allow your powerhouse conference to take a week off. It decimates the TV schedule and my viewing pleasure. Do it in the beginning of the season like the Big Ten.
*****
Thursday Night Pick; Eagles -4.5 (It is November 14th. In the last 712 days, the Philadelphia Eagles have won at home by more than a single score… one time [Week 7 vs Miami]. ONCE. That’s it. The Linc is a torture chamber to a fanbase whose baseline is angst. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I believe in this team. Tonight is the night the Eagles declare to the NFC and the Detroit Lions… We’re coming for you.)