The playoff games were very underwhelming comparatively.
Bama-Washington was ok. It was a good game through three quarters but after Washington’s first drive it never felt like Bama was going to lose.
Clemson blew out Ohio State.
ESPN tried to game the ratings and it backfired on them. IMO Ohio State should not have been in the playoff over Penn State. But I get the arguments for Ohio State over Penn State. What I don’t get is the seedings. Ohio State should have been the 4 seed. Again, I think this was ESPN trying to set up a Bama Ohio State game for the title that backfired on them.
I think Bama will win easily over Clemson, but I hope its a close game.
Hahahahahahahhahha! Oh wait you ACTUALLY believe that ESPN isnt a sports influencing monstrosity, pulling strings everywhere in the sports world? How cute.
I think ESPN and the committee game the rankings. I can’t prove it but the fact that the rankings are announced on an ESPN show and the fact that pretty much every bowl is televised by ESPN makes me think they do. Also the logic the committee used in year 1 did not apply to year 3 (year 2 was easier and less controversial), and in both instances the inconsistency favored bigger market teams.
You don’t need an ESPN/committee conspiracy to get the result of more money being made due to bigger market teams in the playoffs. The fact that we’re talking about a process overseen by the FBS conferences is plenty all by itself. No matter who they made a deal with to make oodles of money off the backs of unpaid labor, the conferences would have incentive to maximize profits. Selecting the teams most likely to result in good ratings is just good business, and that’s what the selection process is…business. If those selections also happen to choose the teams that are actually most worthy of playing for a championship, that’s a happy accident.
None of what you say precludes ESPN from having sway with the committee, in fact to some degree it make a perfect preface to understanding that since the choices made are business decisions and ESPN is a major part of that business, they are almost guaranteed to have influence in the process. So while you are correct in that you dont need a ESPN-Committee conspiracy, it is also quite logical to conclude that one does in fact exist.
One heck of a Rose Bowl tonight. 101 points total! Penn State really had no business even being close considering all their turnovers, but someone still managed to be right in it. Even a chance to go for the win, before yet another turnover.
Earlier, Western Michigan gave Wisconsin a pretty good game. Better than I’d expected, honestly. Would have been nice to see the Broncos finish out an undefeated season, but it seemed pretty clear that the Badger players were just at another level of size and strength. I thought they did well just to keep it close.
This is entirely speculative on my part. I think a lot of the sporting world was scratching its collective head when Kiffin took the Florida Atlantic job. Definitely seemed like a major step down.
I’m speculating that any of the Top 5 power conference ADs who might otherwise consider hiring Kiffin talked to either Saban or someone in the Alabama AD’s office which one would do when you’re considering interviewing a high profile candidate like Kiffin. And I think that conversation was really poisonous to Kiffin’s chances to landing a Top 5 power conference gig.
So much so that Kiffin had to stoop kinda low to get a HC job at Florida Atlantic which is a place that Kiffin generally wouldn’t spare 5 minutes for an interview.
Might be far out there – but I have tough time believing that Kiffin would take the Florida Atlantic gig if he had some other better option.
Now, what would make Saban/Alabama throw Kiffin under the bus to potential Kiffin suitors? I dunno. Saban doesn’t strike me as any more petty or diva-ish than the other current top college coaches. Maybe he asked Kiffin to stay longer and Kiffin irked him when he said he wanted to move on (and Saban said, fine – go ahead and move on but I’ll make sure you’re not going to coach anywhere close to a place that can be in the CFP). Maybe Kiffin’s a jackass in real life and impossible to tolerate. Who knows.
Kiffin was named Florida Atlantic Head coach several weeks ago – so this is a really strange move and doesn’t speak well for the relationship between Kiffin and Saban (obviously).
The Rose Bowl was fantastic. Again,if I could only watch 1 football game all year, pro or college, it would be the Rose Bowl.
One other nice thing this year, it seemed as though the commercial interruptions were severely limited. Rather than cut away during every time out and before/after every kick off, they stuck with the game much more than any game I can remember in recent memory.
Yeah you have to believe that there were some issues between Saban and Kiffin for Nick to allow him to OC the semi final and then dump him right before the NC game. If Kiffin were going to a school that would have recruiting conflicts with Alabama I could see it but Florida Atlantic does not recruit players that Bama does, at least not successfully so this move looks like a slap in the face kind of move.
The thing is, I noticed it in the 1st half. Had it queued up on the DVR to skip commercials and I kept being surprised by there not being commercials where they usually were ones. Even right from the beginning - no commercial after the early pick, no commercial after the FG which ensued, etc.
If you want to see shitty officiating, go watch the Georgia game. I have no dog in that fight (har har) but I’ve never seen anything as bad as that was.
