College football is upon us. Well, it actually entered our television sets on Thursday night, and there are a few moments between the bevy of games that will appear on Saturday, but semantics are for losers. There is a lot going on in the world of college football. Thankfully, less of it has to deal with whether or not we are making decisions about an LSU running back’s future for him. Okay… let’s link.
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College Football
Dabo Swinney says college football polls before October are worthless. I tend to agree. In fact, I went on an entire rant about college football polls. Thing is, I am pretty sure everyone already knows this. However, we all enjoy the ability to look at preseason polls, complain about rankings, and use them as some way to project. It is tricky, but only because we enjoy them as much because we hate them as we need them as talking points.
Hurricane issues may alter a lot of college football games over the weekend. That is stinky. But in the grand scheme of things, safety and other real life issues are best aired on the side of caution in favor of making sure college football is played at a particular time or not.
Bleacher Report has an article up about which teams should be on upset watch. Clemson, because old jokes die very hard, made the list. Saturday’s game against Notre Dame should be telling for both teams.
Adam Rittenberg thinks UCLA’s Josh Rosen is next in the recent line of great freshmen quarterbacks. I doubt you will find anyone to argue that, as Rosen has been a beast, but it is still worth a read. Warning: It is behind a paywall.
Our own Matt Zemek discusses Miami’s decision to go for seven against the Bearcats on Thursday night. As with everything in sports, this discussion needs nuance. No straight line can be drawn to wrong or right.
Another TSS roundtable, as well. The guys discuss which games are the most interesting to watch on Saturday. Could help determine how you view football this weekend.
Extra Point
I won’t push any political agenda here. This is sad, tragic, and becoming far too often a thing. The issue(s) need to be addressed, but not while using the actual tragedy to further political viewpoints. Not every single thing that happens has to be used as a tool for something else, I swear. LET US JUST FIX THIS HOWEVER WE CAN — and not worry how it may alter our stance on whatever.
College Basketball
Kentucky landed a five-star recruit. In other news: Water is wet.
NBA 2K16 features college basketball programs. I like it, as long as no player likeness is being used without consent. That said, selfishly, this makes me giddy.
247 ranks the 10 best coaches in the country. As per social media rules, everyone must argue, debate, and shame the person who made this list because no one ever agrees on these things.
Brian Mull talks how the shorter clock in college basketball will change the sport. I have, unfortunately, had the chance to write on this multiple times. My biggest (almost only) pet-peeve with the 35 clock, was that many coaches would run meaningless motion sets for 10 seconds before starting an honest attempt at offense. Mull discusses it in a more strategic sense than I.
A WAC preview from the guys at College Basketball Talk. This is an excellent preview of the league, and it also provides predictions for possible Player of the Year and All-WAC team winners.
And One
A Twitter think-piece on the possible removal of the 140 characters limit. I have no words. Listen, as long as the mean streets of Twitter don’t become Facebook (ex: baby pictures, people complaining about other people, 5,000 word uneducated posts on political topics) I don’t really care. I do hope, however, Twitter stays as unique a social media platform as it is right now.
