Baylor and Ole Miss in the top 5???

[Sandy]

Departing from the usual debates over doctrine and the intricacies of Biblical interpretation. I can't remember a Saturday in which the fruit basket was as upset as it was yesterday. With a selection committee not allowed to consider early season rankings, and no "standing" determined until October 28, yesterday really threw a monkey wrench into the whole system. Starting on Thursday night, with unranked, but still unbeaten Arizona taking down Oregon, and with the fantastic beating of Alabama next door in Mississippi, it was not a good day for ranked teams. Oklahoma goes down, Texas A&M, with whom I was sort of impressed, goes down, UCLA goes down.

So it looks like the top 5 will include names like Baylor and Ole Miss. And what do you do with unbeatens like TCU, formerly at 25 knocking off #3, and Arizona, formerly unranked, but beating #2 decisively on their home field? I'd say both teams belong in the top 10, until proven otherwise. TCU goes to Baylor next weekend, and USC, which lost at home to Arizona State last night, goes to Arizona. Could the SEC representative in this playoff be from, (prepare yourself), Mississippi? Could the Baptists and Catholics square off in the final four?

Still lots of football to be played.

[William Thornton]

Mississippi State might have the ticket...extremely pleased to see AZ win. Ducks always manage to flop.

[Sandy]

I think Mississippi State and Auburn have a showdown coming up on Saturday? If the Bulldogs can win that game, they will have the inside track, though I think the most likely scenario is that the pollsters are over-rating the SEC west, comparatively, and in the coming weeks, as these teams all play each other, it will be hard for one team to come out unbeaten. Ironically, in the way the power rankings will rate the teams, that opener between West Virginia and Alabama will have an effect on how everyone in the SEC West finishes, especially if Alabama is still in the mix, or is close to the top. Makes for some good football, though.

Same thing looks like it is shaping up in the Pac-12, and the Big 12. I've thought from the beginning that this four team playoff selected by "committee sans the rankings" would fall flat on its face, and it looks like it will. We're going back to the same problems, except now we're picking four instead of two, from among a dozen or more with all kinds of factors involved. I say eight teams, the champion of each of the five power conferences, and the next three at larges, and play it out on the field.

[Stephen Fox]

I left Don Chico's with five minutes t go in the Bama game and heard the rest on the radio. Was fantastic game; only the 7th time Bama beat Ole Miss since 1944. Archie and Eli beat em, and ole Miss beat Dubose in 03 and Bill Currie in 88.

Go Rebels.

I think Miss St is the better of the two teams in Mississippi--has best chance of beatin Auburn--but if Ole Misss QB keeps having his Stephen Garcia moments, who knows, Look out Jesus, it's Paris Trout!

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014 ... e_big.html

[Stephen Fox]

http://foxofbama.blogspot.com/2014/11/s ... nd-me.html

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.vnews.com/opinion/columns/14 ... U.facebook

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

Five teams in the Pac 12 S with at least 8 wins, comparing schedules, the SEC teams get one more non-league powder puff game. I'm looking forward to the day when, in order to make the playoff field, at least two non-league games must be against teams from one of the other "Power 5" conferences, and no games against teams from a lower division will count for either playoff or bowl eligibility.

I think the loss of some of the big rivalry games is beginning to cause some regrets. The athletic department at Pitt is moaning over the fact that some home games barely drew 30,000 in a 65,000 seat stadium. Of course, going 6-6 doesn't help, but when you lose at home to Akron, and you play Delaware, Duke, Syracuse and Georgia Tech at home, and your biggest home games are Iowa and Virginia Tech, it's hard to fill seats, especially at $60 bucks a pop, and $40 to park anywhere within reasonable walking distance. They dropped both their regular "rivalry" games when they joined the ACC, Notre Dame and West Virginia, both guaranteed sellouts. And I read on ESPN that the vaunted University of Texas had to cut ticket prices to sell all of their seats for their non-conference games against North Texas and BYU, and for the conference match-ups against Iowa State and West Virginia. The Mountaineers travel well, usually, but Austin is a long way from Morgantown, and they don't have many alumni down there. Jerry Jones wants to fill his showpiece in Arlington and bring in the hotel revenue, well, how about a Notre Dame-UT matchup to open the season, or A&M-Oklahoma, or Alabama-Oregon? That would do it. But you'll never get Alabama to play a top tier Power 5 conference opponent at the beginning of the season.

[KeithE]

Looks like we will have another Global Warming Bowl game this year

pits U of Washington (where I did my undergraduate) and Oklahoma State (David’s favorite).

[Stephen Fox]

I thought this guy Remillard's book would be published by now, but not yet. He interviewed Randall Balmer earlier in the year. This oped may be about all he has to say on the subject, but was thinking about it today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ ... story.html