There are more college football thoughts, as we get real stuff to argue about this week with the College Football Playoff committee doing its dog and pony act for the first time.
1. Fans should boycott watching the CFB Playoff committee reveal shows.
This practice should be adopted not just because ESPN mostly puts out hyperbolic refuse, but because the show is a total farce and looks like a smoldering take vehicle just to get people up in arms. It’s like when Maury Povich used to have a real, interesting talk show until he realized the idiot reaction came from the “you are NOT the father” paternity test routine all the time. The audience no doubt was dumbed down, and the shelf life pretty much has run its course.
Last year, the final rankings turned out perfectly for the most part while the lead-up had you worried it was going to be total idiocy. I have faith the committee knows what it’s talking about, but in the spirit of getting mentions on social media, ESPN has the committee putting on its idiot suits weekly. Boycott style over substance, and expect 9 SEC teams in the top 10 this week.
2. Review sometimes sucks the soul out of the aweseome-ness of the moment.
The ACC suspended officials for blowing the famed Miami-Duke final call, and really, they should have been additionally suspended from being able to enjoy the remainder of the 2015 holidays for taking nine minutes to come to a lousy decision. The precedent is weird: if you review something to get it right and still get it wrong, we’re going to punish you. Not sure how this gets applied going forward, but simply sucking that bad at your job for the moment deserves some sort of punishment. Then there was the end of Michigan and Minnesota, where Michigan won by stopping a quarterback sneak, celebrated because that’s what you do when you win, then had to go back to the sidelines for an emotion-sucking review, before somewhat of a flaccid “I guess we get to be happy now for real?” moment. I know folks love replay because the ends justify the means (until they don’t), but it does sap some of the immediate emotion from the games and that’s too bad. I’m not sure how you fix that.
3. Yo, Purdue, what up?
Coming into this weekend, the most points Purdue had scored under Darrell Hazell against a Power 5 opponent was 38, and that was against woebegone Illinois last season. They’d scored over 31 only three times against P-5 teams under Hazell. So why not go for 55 against Nebraska? So long as the players don’t show open quit-ness and there are no NCAA scandals (none are going to happen, it’s just an added caveat), Hazell rightly will come back. Maybe this is a signature win for the Boilermakers? Maybe Nebraska is suddenly really bad? Either way, this one came straight out of nowhere and picked up an impossible sandwich on the way. The sandwich, however, has to taste better than anything from Sonic.
4. Why isn’t Baylor getting treated like Iowa?
Both are unbeaten. One has mostly been going to the park and blocking middle schoolers with their elbow and then raving to their girlfriend when they get home about how they dominated at the schoolyard all afternoon. Iowa, unlike Baylor, at least tried to test itself by hanging Pitt on the schedule earlier. Is it because they don’t put up “looter in a riot” numbers on offense? Look, not playing anyone at your skill level is not playing anyone at your skill level, no matter how you slice it. Baylor might be really good, and I’m as open as anyone to it, but they’re in everyone’s default top 5 it seems while playing the Mich Ultra Lime Cactus of schedules.
One bonus thing I think
There are no good Halloween flicks anymore, it seems, but in spite of it, nearly 20 percent of Americans say they’ve seen a ghost. This is up double from 1996, which makes sense, since as we’re overpopulated, more people are becoming ghosts. I’ve seen a few. They’re out there. Sometimes, they talk back. So the next time you’re in a room with at least five people, just know: odds are, one of them has seen the undead. I also think the Ghosts Union has been working hard to let them get out and do more stuff, rather than just hanging out in the afterlife and only coming through when snot-nosed teenagers pick up an Ouija board. Score one for labor over spiritual management.
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