You know it’s a down year when…

Steve Spurrier: "We are thrilled to be going to the Independence Bowl."

— Josh Kendall (@JoshatTheState) December 7, 2014

Sadly, he probably means it.

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Belk, you’ve been handed a helluva marketing opportunity.  It’s kismet.  Don’t waste it.

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It turns out the Coaches Poll is still good for something.

In Jimbo Fisher’s case, leaving Georgia off your final ballot is an opportunity to let the world know how much your butt still hurts from losing your defensive coordinator to Mark Richt.  Nice.

And so, the selection committee’s work is done.

As expected, Ohio State wound up crashing the semifinals party.  Here are a few random observations I have:

• The weekly show serves no purpose, but it’s not going anywhere.  In the end, what was the point to it in terms of seeding teams in the postseason?  Obviously, there was none.  As broadcast fodder, though, it makes ESPN giddy.  And that’s why it will return.
• 2014 TCU = 2007 Georgia.  Gary Patterson’s team was in the top four before the weekend and destroyed Iowa State 59-0.  Somehow that wound up equating to a sixth-place finish.  Which means there was nothing TCU could have done to make the playoffs this week.
• How’s that autonomy thing working for ya’?  In the case of the Big 12, not so good.  The selection committee crapped all over the absence of a conference championship game, which was the inevitable result of keeping Texas happy.  Conference expansion simply for the sake of creating a championship game is a lame idea.  So is getting the green light from the NCAA  to okay a championship game for a conference that plays a round robin schedule, which is what I expect the Big 12 to consider.  The real solution would be for schools like Baylor and TCU to beef up their non-conference scheduling, but you know how coaches are…
• Tell me again why we need a four-team playoff?  Vegas promptly installed Alabama and Oregon as double-digit favorites.  So much for all that “deserving teams” talk.
• The playoffs hoopla may be overblown, but there’s one area where the CFP has done the Lord’s work.  Maybe it’s not too much of a surprise, but it turns out when you get the bowls out of the way of choosing teams and use some form of rankings to match up schools, you can do some good things.  The access bowl games are a clear improvement over what we got from the BCS.  The only question is whether they’ll draw as well.

In the end, no big surprise.  It’s a media-driven, money-driven spectacle and that’s what it will be judged on.  Any settling on the field that gets done will be a bonus.  Don’t forget to fill out your brackets!

Settling “settling it on the field”

Chase Stuart offers up a thought on what some selection committee members might be thinking today about how to fill out the semifinals field:

So what will happen today? I have no idea, but I do know some powers that be would love (1) having a Big 10-Pac-12 game in the Rose Bowl, (2) not getting caught up in the TCU/Baylor debate, and (3) having the final golden ticket going to the team that probably has a larger fan base than the other two schools combined. What will happen? Who knows…

Sadly, I can’t argue with that.

At least we never had to worry about computers having a sense of aesthetics.

Amateurism and playoffs, in one quote

Baylor’s Bryce Petty, for the win:

Bryce Petty on playoff: "That question is really above my pay grade. All I'm not paid to do is play."

— Max Olson (@max_olson) December 7, 2014

That is outstanding, man.

Why does an athletic department spend money?

Often times, for the same reason a dog licks his balls:  because it can.

The accommodations before the Longhorns’ home opener were fit for a high-rolling Texas ex.

A custom buffet for $79. And if the all-you-can-eat spread wasn’t enough, there was a $20 snack later that night. Around midnight, when the hunger pangs struck again, the hotel came through with a $24 “late snack.”

The next morning, for $36, the eggs came every way. That was followed by a pregame lunch for $29.

But these weren’t fans at the Omni Austin Hotel at Southpark the night before Texas opened its season against North Texas. It was the 120 or so Texas football players.

The total bill for a stay a little more than 51/2 miles from Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium: $39,000.

Sure, Texas has the resources to spend like a drunken sailor on weekend shore leave, but if you read the article in its entirety, you’ll note that even North Texas (“The university spent $17 million to subsidize its athletic department in 2013”) spent over a hundred grand on hotel stays before home games this season.

Of course, they’ll tell you it’s for noble reasons…

“It’s all about mental preparation and the ability to sleep and rest and concentrate on the things they need to concentrate on and you know where they are,” Teaff said. “You can’t allow guys who are going to play a hard football game the next day to be in a dormitory where on Friday nights they never go to bed.”

Former Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum said the move to hotels for home games started when schools began eliminating athlete-only dorms. As an assistant coach at Kansas State in the early 1970s, Slocum said it became necessary because Manhattan became a zoo on game weekends.

“If you don’t have them sequestered somewhere their friends are coming over and one thing that’s as bad as any is their relatives,” Slocum said. “They come to town with a couple carloads of relatives, and they come over and the poor kid can’t kick his family out of his dorm room or his apartment.”

… but it’s really just about what you’d expect.

“That’s really what the motivation behind it is,” North Texas coach Dan McCarney said. “I really look forward to it, the players do, too. My assistants get my players up on Saturday morning, open the curtains, rise and shine, get your butt out of bed, and let’s go, let’s roll. It’s part of the tradition now and we’ve been doing it for a long time.”

Keep the coach comfortable.  It’s a lot cheaper than paying the players, anyway.

My Mumme Poll ballot, Week 15

One change.  That’s it.

• Alabama
• Baylor
• FSU
• Mississippi
• Mississippi State
• Ohio State
• Oregon
• TCU

Also considered:  Michigan State

I bet I didn’t spend nearly as much time on my ballot as the selection committee members will be spending on theirs.

In which I haz a sad last night…

So, as I’m watching the ACCCG (aka, The World’s Smallest Outdoor Cocktail Party… by the way, nice fog, guys), I find myself wondering if Hutson Mason is watching, too, and if he is, what’s going through his head as he sees FSU’s offensive line appear almost bored handling Ted Roof’s futile attempt to dial up a pass rush.

I swear, there were times when it felt like Winston had enough time in the pocket to pull out a cell phone and order take out.  From somebody whose first language isn’t English.

Georgia’s o-line sure picked a bad week to quit beasting on other teams.

The selection committee’s killing floor

Meet the new (CFP) boss, same as the old (BCS) boss.

And so the new, improved! 2014 regular season has wrapped up, leaving college football in one of the two places the most cynical of us thought it would wind up all along, with more teams in contention than there are semifinal slots to fill. (The other possibility was a replay of 2005, with two clear national players and nobody else worthy of consideration.)

All of the top teams going in held serve in Week 15, which was tough enough.  But Ohio State, which became the first school to start a rookie quarterback in a P5 conference title game, thrust itself into the postseason picture with what was arguably the most impressive win of the week.  So instead of a debate led by the folks at ESPN over who’s number two and who’s number three – gosh, that seems so quaint now – we’re going to be treated to a seemingly endless series of arguments over numbers four, five and six.  Fun times for the selection committee.

Now that’s progress.  And Condi Rice thought she had it rough trying to deal with the North Koreans.

The clear winner out of all of this?  That’s easy.  It’s the proponents of an eight-team playoff, which will be coming sooner than you expected.  Rejoice in more progress.  Best of all, there will be even more progress after that!