COLLEGE!!!
College Football finally feels back! All conferences are playing for the first time this season (welcome back from Mt. Pius BIG10 and PAC12) and with conference only play things are more unpredictable than ever. Indiana is 3-0? A&M is the second best SEC team? Michigan sucks? Well, maybe some things aren’t that surprising. And how about those Irish?! Before we get to the college football “analysis”, let’s get weird!
Why is it that in nearly every American sit-com/sit-com/family friendly movie they can’t show a scene in the kitchen without showing someone cutting vegetables on a cutting board next to the sink? They must do some sort of research and determine that in every household across the country moms and dads alike (and even the bratty older sister from time to time) spend roughly 10% of their day cutting either carrots or celery. Are we all getting ready to make some sort of a stew or vegetable based soup? If that is the case, why are 60% of us diabetic? Something is not adding up here. Do knife companies have a sneaky product placement deal going with every mediocre show and movie? How many vegetables do they go through before getting the right one? Can you picture the director saying, “Hey Reese, those carrots are popping a little too loud, it’s drowning out your snappy comment back to your doofy husband, can you switch to the celery or green pepper?” How many carrots have wasted film? Feels like a research project for a TOB intern!
Since TOB only writes about once a quarter anymore, it’s difficult to recall if this commercial has made an article. No matter, it’s worth watching again:
The pillow situation is real, and it’s affecting women in their mid-30’s, TOB knows several.
Commercials are what they are, TOB sees way too many since live sports are 90% of my TV consumption (possibly on the low end), we can all rest a little easier knowing the political ads are finally finished for a few months until next year’s mid-term elections. At least we get a holiday season (read: Bowl Season) in peace. Now that the dust has settled for the most part on the political front, shout out to South Park for running an all political marathon the last few weeks (particularly on election night). Two episodes really helped lighten the mood and make TOB and LOB smile:
· Douche and Turd – Season 8 Episode 8
· I’m a little Bit Country – Season 7 Episode 4
These episodes came out over 16 years ago, hold up incredibly well, and help to ease the tension when it seems like our entire democracy is getting burned to the ground (and maybe should). On to football!
What a strange season so far. The usual suspects are in the top 5 (or were), with Clemson, Bama, Georgia, Ohio State, and ND (okay, ND is a surprise and only due to losses piling up). The BIG10 looked to have the best strategy of all by sitting back and letting the SEC beat itself up for 5 weeks before they even took a snap. Then Michigan, Minnesota turned out to be vastly overrated and Wisconsin may not play again this season. Door is open for Northwestern to make the BIG10 Championship and cover a 24 point spread to Ohio State (maybe). Let’s take a quick, relatively uninformed look at the bigger games of this week:
· 4 Notre Dame over 1 Clemson – Incredible game by both sides. A little sloppy at times (though only three turnovers in total, also some key penalties by ND in the red zone that turned TD’s into field goals). Both sides played well and showed they deserve to be top 5. Mike Tirico and Tony Dungy couldn’t help but mention how Clemson was short handed, forgetting that behind their starters are a crop of other 5 start recruits. Clemson will be just fine when Trevor Lawrence leaves, DJ is fantastic and will only get better. This reminds TOB of Mark Ingram getting drafted only to be replaced by Derrick Henry at Alabama. Fun game, would have been more fun 15 years ago (the last time, to the day that ND hosted #1 – USC). TOB and friends (possible new sitcom??) watched this game in the basement of the old Phi Kap house. The pacing of games is different by probably 20%. So many reviews on caught passes, rushing touchdowns, obvious turnovers, it’s hard to stay fired up during some of these replays.
· 8 Florida over 5 Georgia – Georgia had a clear path back to the he playoff if they could keep pace with Bama and have a good showing in the SEC Title Game. That ship has probably sailed. That distinction now may belong to Texas A&M who will not have to play in that game and could easily climb the rankings as other teams falter. The SEC West is down significantly this year with LSU in a rebuild and Auburn being…decent but probably overrated.
· 12 Oregon over Stanford – The PAC12 is going to need a lot of help to push one of their teams into the final, and Oregon is really their only shot. They will also need some COVID luck, of which all other conferences have not had. Likely a lost season for the PAC12, but what’s new. At least they can blame their lack of success on circumstances this year, instead of total incompetence by Larry Scott and the fall of once great programs.
· 14 Oklahoma State over Kansas State – Very dramatic game, and incredibly low scoring for a BIG12 affair. Typically those games are 20-18 at the end of the first quarter. K-State gave it away with a turnover that led directly to a touchdown in the final 5 minutes. OKST did not deserve to win this game, and despite their start they should not make the playoff. The BIG12 is garbage and TOB doesn’t understand why teams like Oklahoma don’t get more hate for getting blown out in the CFP the same way ND seems to. OU’s last two semi-final games against Alabama and LSU they were outscored 108-63, and 30 of those points were in garbage time, combined halftime scores: 80-24.
Ideally with the PAC12 and BIG12 not having a team worthwhile, and the SEC sending only one team, we may finally get a non-power 5 in the playoff this year. Cincinnati looks tough and what better season to see if one of these teams can hang with the big boys? While that would be a nice story (one TOB is rooting for), it would probably be fuel for an 8 team playoff in the future, which TOB is staunchly against.
Unfortunately, with only conference games this year, there aren’t as many big undefeated match-ups and/or one loss match-ups mid-way through the season. While TOB typically thinks those games are fraudulent anyway (most of them involve the BIG12 and PAC12), they do add some spice to the season. The teams this year may be just as good (or bad, depeding on how you look at it), but there just isn’t that sizzle without the “0” in the loss column.
More to come next week (for real…LOB is out of town so TOB has a poker night planned as well as plenty of time to pontificate about things of little consequence!) Also next week, final baseball thoughts (the awards should be coming mid week).
Go Irish!
-Tonyonball
