I don’t mean to pick on Stewart Mandel in particular (okay, maybe a little), but this is the kind of punditry that drives me crazy — from today’s Mailbag ($$) about why he doesn’t respect Texas A&M sufficiently:
… beating a three-loss North Carolina team playing without the sport’s most productive running back tandem in 15 years in a game that was tied with four minutes remaining did nothing to change my opinion. If A&M was one of the three or four best teams in the country, it would have won that game by 25-30 points, much like Oklahoma did against three-loss, stripped down Florida.
Which brings me the point of that exercise. It frustrates me that it’s 2021 and we’re still ranking football teams almost entirely by “number of losses.” You can’t tell me Oklahoma wasn’t one of the four best teams in the country by season’s end. The Sooners beat four Top 25 teams (A&M beat two), including two of the committee’s top 10, Iowa State and Florida, in their last two games (A&M beat one top-10 team all season).
So, “three-loss, stripped down Florida” still counts as a big top-25 win because of style points? By the way, that top-10 team Mandel mentions that TAMU beat? That would be undefeated, fully stocked Florida.
I’m not saying whether he’s justified ranking Oklahoma ahead of A&M. It would be nice, though, if he were a little more coherent about his reasons.
Get The Picture 
Coherent and reasoning aren’t two words I would use to describe Stewart Mandel.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I find the same issues plaguing a lot of folks on this blog re: how to process where this team is after Peach Bowl 2021. (Not you, eethomaswfnc, but alotta others…)
LikeLike
Where I think this team is is that we could be REALLY good if we can get some questions answered. If Jordan Davis were to come back, I love what we could be on defense. Monken has shown he can scheme an offense to be productive.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Stew Mandel, like the vast majority of the people who work in the media, and especially in the CFB media as we learned this year, is a fucking asshole so out of touch with reality, why do we pay him any mind at all?
LikeLike
Two peas in a pod.
LikeLike
Awww, right back at you, bud.
LikeLike
But also notice… while I don’t subscribe to The Athletic or read anything Stew writes anywhere, literally paying him no mind, you on the other hand can’t help
yourself. It’d be funny if it weren’t sad, Grafton. 😂
LikeLike
You seem triggered by something. Simma donna.
LikeLike
Rent free.
LikeLike
You go girl:
LikeLike
And here’s another one who can’ help himself, and who thinks calling me a girl like a misogynist villain from an 80’s movie is some kind of an insult.
LOL.
LikeLike
I’m on your team, you big silly. It ain’t you…it’s them, you’re special.
Keep fighting the good fight, they will soon see the error their ways.
GO DAWGS!
LikeLike
Rent free.
LikeLike
I wonder if you two guys have enough brain cells to rub together to realize that you’ve made this, and many other posts, all about me, as opposed to the intended subject?
Whatever point you think you’re making, you hilariously make the exact opposite point. Just trying to help y’all be a little more self-aware.
LikeLike
Grafton with nothing to add but childish insults. Hey look everyone, I’m a zinger! Aren’t I witty and edgy? Grow up dude.
LikeLike
Bigjohnson telling me to grow up? Is that your hotmail address? Stay classy bro.
LikeLike
You can’t see motivation in the stats, but obviously UNC wanted to be there. Just as obviously, Florida didn’t. Hence the point difference.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not sure who wanted to be there less, the FU players or The Portal Master (already dreaming of an NFL payday?).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Coherent Mandel is an oxymoron.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If it weren’t for circular reasoning, most of the CFB punditry would have no reasoning at all.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Maybe they were all Born Under A Bad Sign.
LikeLike
Isn’t the whole point of hot taeking that it is mostly (if not exclusively) incoherent, circular “reasoning” devoid of logic???
LikeLiked by 1 person
Stewart Mandel was always a hack, it’s just that he’s gotten worse.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It doesnt even seem that hard to follow.
Oklahoma beat four top 25 teams.
TAMU beat 2 top 25 teams.
based on that he thinks that Oklahoma was better.
He clarifies that TAMU beating UNC wasnt enough to move them head considering the gap in top 25 wins, and top 10 wins.
LikeLike
Maybe, but he sure does push a lot of his emphasis on one common opponent and selectively dawggrades where convenient. If you’re gonna dawggrade UNC, then the intellectually honest comparison would be to also compare non-dawggraded top10 wins… of which there was 1 each: OctoberFlorida vs Iowa State.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The eye test told me that OU would beat aTm 6 out of 10 times most of the time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If Floriduh hadn’t gotten beat by a shoe’s-breadth by LSU, they would’ve been in the Orange Bowl and we would’ve gotten a fantastic game between OU and TAMU.
I actually think that game would’ve been extremely similar to the 2017 season Rose Bowl between us and OU. Run-first pro-style offense and good defense vs. Lincoln Riley’s wide-open spread attack.
We’ll never know though, because Cousin Eddie’s boys played with the same kind of discipline that Sideshow Dan the Clown displays any time a microphone is shoved in front of his fat face.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think OU would have beaten up on the Aggies pretty badly. They look like a top two team to me. I’m sure ‘Bama and anOSU are happy not to have to play them. Next year, they’ll be right there. On the other hand, I thought Clemson would beat the Buckeyes blind..but I was way off on that.
LikeLike
FU’s putrid defense and we don’t care attitude made them look better than they are.
Now, they ARE a good football team, but not that good. TAMU’s defense is legit and their offense can grind like ours did in 2017 and 2018. It would’ve been a good game. No predictions from me, but it’s ridiculous that OU is getting a bump from beating that clown show from Jortsville when they did but TAMU isn’t.
LikeLike
Who’s penis do you have to taste to get a paying gig like Mandel anyway? He knows little about football and his writing isn’t that spectacular either.
LikeLike
I’m too lazy to go back and check out his predictions of bowl games. Only know that he picked Cinci over Georgia. This guy doesn’t even show up on my radar. Can’t be easy though, having a famous brother like Howie. (joke, before you look it up)
LikeLike
Coherent reasoning and intellectual consistency wouldn’t generate as many clicks.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Not a Mandel fan. Match-ups, injuries, and motivations make transitive comparisons, and even more so margin of victory, largely a fool’s errand in CFB.
But we do it all the time, because it is baked into college football.
It also seems to be a bit of circular reasoning to say the subjectivity of college football is its strength – made possible by conferences, regionalism, traditionalism, a limited playoff, etc. – and also incessantly complain about people earning a living from offering their subjective takes. 😉
Just ignore the ones you don’t like, people!
LikeLike
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
As it ever was. He and Feldman do this on every podcast. It’s infuriating.
LikeLike
The WHY listen??? 🤦🏻♂️
LikeLike
Good information on other CFB topics.
LikeLike