COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK 11

Well, thanks for coming PAC12 and BIG12, you may end up playing about 20% of your games (kudos for scheduling a Sunday game between two teams that would otherwise have to sit out…seriously).  With 15 games postponed, at least college appears to be taking the virus seriously (TOB is not saying that is good or bad, just that the NFL has postponed two games total…).

Welcome back to idea corner!  TOB has always been an idea man, execution…not so much.  Feel free to take these and run with them, TOB will sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor.  TOB enjoys cooking, baking, really anything in the kitchen.  This leads to watching the occasional cooking show (Chopped is the preferred).  TOB enjoys the format of surprise ingredients and the time limit on making a meal.  However, TOB can’t stop thinking about how much time it’s going to take to clean up all of the pots, pans, utensils, etc.  TOB wants to see a show similar to Chopped, but when the food is served to the judges, all of the dishes must also be washed and either put back in place or on a drying rack.  I mean, come on, you have every kitchen item at your disposal and no consequences for what you disturb.  Let’s see how creative someone gets knowing they have to clean both food processors, the flat iron grill, two skillets, a cutting board, ladle, three knives, and some weird utensil I’ve never heard of.  While we’re at it, maybe have some kids running around talking about how the food smells bad and they would rather just have McDonalds.  TOB would love to take notes and use some of these recipes but it is a big turn off when the cleanup is going to take longer than cooking and eating.  It’s like a football team receiving the opening kickoff, getting to the red-zone and then claiming victory.  Oh, and the defense can’t blitz or do any sort of exotic coverage.  Wait, did I just describe the Pro-Bowl?

Now back to the good part! 

College Gameday at the Masters!?  If we can get Mike Trout on set TOB would pretty much have all of his interests in one place!  With no games matching ranked opponents this week, the Masters is probably the more compelling storyline anyway.  Let’s go JT!  The college season has been odd so far, with only conference games it’s difficult to tell who is good and who is not relative to other conferences…or is it?  Every year there is a big interconference game early in the season (Florida vs Miami / Oregon vs Auburn / Bama vs USC) but after that it’s all cupcakes and some lower level rivalries.  This may be the best system after all – win your conference, doesn’t matter how many losses, and qualify for a 4 or 8 team playoff with the rest of D1.  Let’s revisit a stat TOB used to bitch about frequently, average margin of victory for the Top 5 teams in the country.  Last year, through 10 weeks it was a whopping 32 – yeah, we certainly miss the days of competition where the best teams only play teams they can blowout.  This year, that number is:  19.  TOB took this as meaning two things:  1)  The top 5 teams are much better than the rest, the talent disparity is much more so than the NFL and probably other sports since one team can just dominate the other in all facets and run away with a game (Clemson winning 73-7 over conference opponent Georgia Tech is an example); 2)  TOB probably bitches too much about the blowouts early in the year, that’s just the way football goes – see item 1.

With the Masters going on, TOB was sent this little gem by friend of the site Ryan Griffin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVkjtq1w1Sg

Pretty bland last week for college football.  PSYCHE!  What a game between ND and Clemson!  Also, Florida pooped all over Georgia’s season possibly cementing Texas A&M as the only other SEC team that could make the CFP if the BIG10, BIG12, and PAC12 don’t send a representative.  This could be the year the CFP finally lets a team in from a non-power conference.  Cincinnati looks powerful, and in TOB’s opinion it’s a win-win for the CFP – if they get blown out, it is justified never letting in in prior or in the future; if they win, it’s a great story they can sell to ABC!  .  Let’s take a quick, relatively uninformed look at the bigger games of last week:

·         Notre Dame over Clemson – Fantastic game, some shine off due to Trevor Lawrence being out, but DJ is going to keep that program in good hands.  He can do some things Lawrence can’t (though that goes the other way on most things), most notably he seems impossible to tackle.  Clemson was missing a few defensive players as well, but can we pump the brakes on that making too much of a difference?  Aside from a player like Lawrence who is a one of one, they have five star recruits lined up on the depth chart just itching to get a chance to play.  ND showed a lot of grit on that final drive sending the game to overtime.  TOB was quietly rooting for ND to go for two (also in overtime), but thankfully cooler heads prevailed.  These teams will likely meet again to settle the ACC and Lawrence will be on the field.  That will be about as highly anticipated as a game can be.

·         OK State over Kansas State – This was not a good look for the BIG12.  Kansas State had this game won and a key scoop an score with about 3 minutes left in the game swung it to the Cowboys side. 

·         Indiana over Michigan – Wait, Indiana is now ranked 10 in the country?  The BIG12 outside of Ohio State is out of control.  The biggest matchup this weekend is Northwestern at Purdue…seriously.  Get it together state of Michigan.

·         Florida over Georgia – The big winner here is Texas A&M (shout out to Brian Battle).  Florida may now go to the SEC title game and get blown out by Bama while A&M sits back with their one loss and climbs in the rankings (already at #5).  This sets the stage for a classic A&M loss to an unranked opponent like Ole Miss or Tennessee.

Big (well, relatively speaking) games of this weekend:

·         Indiana at Michigan State – Only exciting to see if IU can handle being a top 10 team with expectations.  Underrated how much than can affect he psychology of young athletes (or guys in their mid-30’s expected to carry a scramble team)

·         Miami at Virginia Tech – Despite their ranking difference, VT is favored by 1.5.  Miami needs this (read, the ACC needs Miami to need this) to keep up appearances with the rankings.

Unfortunately, that’s pretty much it, save for a potential let down game with ND/BC (BC did give Clemson quite a scare two weeks ago).  Spare me Northwestern / Purdue even though that could give us the Big10 west champion (Wisconsin may not end up playing enough games to qualify). Put that Masters coverage on the main screen!

 Go Irish!  Let’s not make this one quite as close as last week...

 -Tonyonball