College Football Chaos is coming... Hopefully

Why was there such surprise from college football fans when the 1^st College Football Playoff Rankings were released a few weeks back? You didn’t think a 1-loss Alabama team should be in the playoff ahead of 8 other undefeated teams?  What about Notre Dame and their resume that lacks a big win?

Guess what, it doesn’t matter what you think.  ESPN runs the College Football Playoffs.  They pick the teams and given the chance, they are picking big names like Alabama and Notre Dame.  Look at last year, #3 TCU beats Iowa State 55-3 the final week of the season and they DROP 3 spots in the standings to make room for Ohio State, who jumped up from #5 (outside the playoff) to #4 (in the playoff).  Who do you think gets more eyes on the television, Urban Meyer and Ohio State or TCU?  Who has a bigger fan base?  Who has a rich football tradition and who is still somewhat new to the national picture in college football?

Yes, Ohio State won the national championship, I realize that. But does that justify them even getting into the playoff?  TCU then went on to beat the #9 team in the nation 42-3 in their bowl game.  How do we know they don’t do the same thing to Alabama in the Playoff Semifinal?  That #9 team that TCU beat was Mississippi.  The same Mississippi team that handed Alabama their only regular season loss last season.  Last year it was Ohio State, this year it is Notre Dame.

Notre Dame brings eyes to the television.  ESPN knows this.  That is why if Notre Dame wins their last 2 games, they will be in the playoff, deserving or not.

That is also why I am hoping for mass chaos over the final few weeks of the season.  Consider these possibilities, this is what I’m rooting for.

IN THE ACC:
Clemson wins their final 2 regular season game. Finish regular season 12-0
North Carolina wins last 2 games of regular season. Finish regular season 11-1
NORTH CAROLINA WIN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP.
Both teams finish 12-1.

IN THE B1G:
Iowa wins out in regular season, finishes 12-0.
Michigan State wins out in the regular season to finish 11-1.
Ohio State loses to Michigan State, but beats Michigan. Finishes 11-1
MICHIGAN STATE BEATS IOWA IN B1G CHAMPIONSHIP.
All 3 teams from Big Ten have 1 loss. 2 coming in the final 3 weeks.

OR

Iowa wins out, going 12-0
Ohio State loses both of their final 2 games, finishing at 10-2
Michigan wins their fins 2 games, finishing 10-2
Michigan State beats Ohio State, but loses to Penn State
MICHIGAN BEATS IOWA IN B1G CHAMPIONSHIP.
2-loss Michigan gets bid over 1-loss Iowa?

OR

Iowa loses to Nebraska, finishes 11-1
Ohio State wins out. Finishes 12-0
IOWA BEATS OHIO STATE.
Both tied at 12-1

IN THE SEC:
Florida loses to Florida State, finishes the season 10-2.
Alabama wins out, going 11-1
FLORIDA BEATS ALABAMA.
Both teams from SEC have 2 losses

OR

Florida loses to Florida State, finishes the season 10-2.
Alabama loses to Auburn, finishes 10-2.
BEST 2 SEC TEAMS WITH 2-losses BEFORE THE SEC CHAMPIONSHIP

OR

Florida wins out, goes 11-1.
Alabama loses to Auburn, finishes 10-2.
Mississippi wins out and finishes 9-3.
Arkansas loses 1 of their last 2, finishes 7-5.
MISSISSIPPI BEATS FLORIDA
SEC Champ has 3 loses.

IN THE BIG XII & PAC-12
In both of these conferences there are still so many possibilities, I just checked out some of the extremes.

In the PAC-12, there are only 5 teams that can possibly play in the conference title game.  2 of the teams already have 2 losses, the other 3, each have 3 losses.  We could conceivably have conference champion that have 3 or 4 losses.

Stanford could finish 8-4, win the title game and finish at 9-4
USC could end up the same, 8-4 in the regular season, but a 9-4 conference champion.
Oregon, Utah and UCLA could all finish 9-3, meaning a 3-loss conference champion.

The Big XII at least has a possible playoff team remaining, but they also backloaded their schedule so that every team that has a chance has to play a brutal schedule down the stretch.

Here is what the Big XII schedule looks like the final 3 weeks.
#6 Oklahoma State – vs #10 Baylor, vs #7 Oklahoma
#7 Oklahoma – vs #18 TCU, @ #6Oklahoma
#10 Baylor - @ #6 Oklahoma, @ #18 TCU, vs Texas
#18 TCU - @ #7 Oklahoma, vs #10 Baylor
Sure Oklahoma State could run the table and be undefeated after this stretch and play their way into the playoff.  Or all 4 teams could end the season 10-2 in a 4-way tie.  Nice job Big XII!

We didn’t even mention Notre Dame yet.  With 2 games left, the Irish still leave plenty of questions, a lot of which sit with their opponents and schedule this season.
Notre Dame could still lose to Boston College today or Stanford next week.  But even if they win out, who is their best win (Temple, USC, Stanford, Pitt, Navy)? Tough to find one in that group.  Even worse would be for Notre Dame to win out, but Clemson loses once or maybe even twice.  They have hung their hat on having the best loss.  Well if Clemson suddenly isn’t #1, then what does Notre Dame have going for them?

What if Notre Dame wins out AND Oklahoma State wins out?  Who does the committee take, an undefeated Big XII champ or a 1-loss Independent team?

Oh yeah… What about Houston, they are still undefeated too. If chaos ensues, does a 2-loss Power 5 team get in over an undefeated Houston team? A Houston team that would have 2 wins over Power 5 schools and 2 wins over ranked opponents and the same “best win” as Notre Dame (Navy).

Lots of question still to be answered over the last 3 weeks.  I don’t know what will happen, nobody does, but I do know who I will be rooting for. 

LET’S GO CHAOS!

Pirates Scheduling News

The Pirates made 2 scheduling announcements today.  The 1^st announcement, that Major League Baseball has selected the Pirates and Cardinals to officially open the season, moving the game from its originally scheduled date of Monday April 4^th, to an ESPN Broadcast Sunday afternoon game.  Typically, ESPN kicks off the season with a Sunday night game, but this game will be a 1:05 1^st pitch to kick off the season.  With the season opener moving up 1 day, the rest of the series adjusts as well.  The series was originally scheduled Monday, Wednesday, Thursday.  This now changes to playing Sunday, OFF DAY Monday, play Tuesday and Wednesday, OFF DAY Thursday.  The Pirates then travel and play in Cincinnati for a weekend series beginning Friday.

Obviously, this is a huge honor and recognition for the Pirates to be selected for this game, but the 1^st thing that I thought of was how this allows Hurdle to set up his rotation.  If the Pirates would elect to, and I don’t see why they wouldn’t, they don’t need to throw their #5 starter until GAME 8 of the season. Considering the large question marks regarding the Pirates starting pitching staff for the 2016 season, I think this could be very beneficial.  This also allows the Pirates to throw Cole 3 times in the teams 1^st 9 games.  I know that people may complain about pushing him too much early in the season, but he is the ace of your staff and he would still be going on full rest for all of these starts.  The way the Pirates have started off the last 2 seasons, I would say it would be a good idea to push Cole to make these starts.  The Pirates were 21-26 in April over the last 2 years, which is 5 games UNDER .500.  They were a combined 63 games OVER .500 after April in those 2 seasons.  For whatever reason, the Pirates get off to slow starts, this may be something that helps to avoid that again in 2016.

Another small benefit from this scheduling means that the team could elect to carry an extra bat for the 1^st 7 games of the season.  Being that the Pirates play in Detroit for games 7-8, I’m guessing that they will opt to keep an extra bat, since they will need a DH.

As for the 2^nd announcement made today, the Pirates will be playing in Puerto Rico this season.   The Pirates and Marlins are scheduled to play a 4-game series in Miami from May 30^th to June 2^nd.  Major League Baseball, assuming with the Miami Marlins, moved the 1^st 2 games of that series to Puerto Rico.  The move was to celebrate Roberto Clemente, as all of Major League Baseball will celebrate Roberto Clemente Day on May 31^st.

My only hope is that the celebration of Roberto Clemente Day is kicked off by Major League Baseball announcing the retirement of the number 21 league wide. It would be long overdue.