Alabama vs. Auburn

that was an amazing comeback!

 

Lol, Alabama is ranked #8 and Auburn isn't even ranked? And Alabama lost to lowly Texas this year! So sick of ya'lls east coast bias ruining what's great about college football... You play bad teams more than you play good teams and then act like you're better than folks out west who actually (had) a competitive conference of high level teams until east coast TV executive collusion destroyed our conference entirely.

Elitist snobs of college football, especially in the SE are so much weaker than they realize. Maybe next Friday watch real football in Huskies vs. Ducks?

Out here in the PNW these two teams are ranked in the top 6 and currently Huskies are ranked high enough for the championship playoffs, yet we're entirely ignored because we aren't on the East coast...

Even the amazing Michigan vs. Ohio st. game gets no mention? Is that too far west for you? I watched some of the greatest college football ever in past few months and none of it had anything to do with fake winning teams on the east coast with easy schedules that rarely play the best teams.

 

I gave Alabama 0% chance of scoring on that last play, that was a doozy.

 

Son in law is a if alum, whooping it up last night in a win over the gators to go 12-0.
I can’t really get into college football like the south , Midwest, etc.
I do appreciate a good game though

 

Make sure to watch Oregon vs. Washington in the last ever Pac12 Championship Game next Friday night... It's gonna be the greatest college football game ever!

 

I would have been the person staying home, wondering why everyone was so excited about the gladiator games

 

Ever since our GM for the Seattle Mariners held a press conference at the end of the season saying that his goal is to win 54% of the time (because greedy owners trade the best players right before their big contract comes in) I promise to never watch or spend another penny on baseball ever again. The Seattle baseball team has never once been to the world series and being a fan of them for 20 years is over!

 

20 years? you should have been a sox fan from 1918 to 2004

 

Our state doesn't have enough of a population to support a Major Leage Team so we have to pick from surrounding areas. Reds, Cardinals and believe it or not the Cubs are all popular teams around here.

The Cubs truly have a tortured past

"From their days as a founding member of the National League to their Deadball Era dominance to the 108-year championship drought that has come to define them, the Chicago Cubs have never lacked for memorable moments. Here's a look back through the Cubs' long and often tortured history, from their founding in the 19th century to their long-awaited World Series title in 2016."

Some say the Boston Red Sox got a taste of the Cubs futility when they had ex-Cub Bill Buckner playing 1st base for them when he cost them a potential World Series.

Bill Buckner 1986 World Series Game 6 "Between the Legs" - YouTube

 

20 years is just when I got here... The truth is the Mariners have been in the league for 46 years and are still the only major league baseball team to have never played in the World Series and their ownership group is much like the Oakland A's. They think having a winning team puts an undue burden on the owner's profits so they run the team like its minor league and charge outrageous prices for everything. You can't even watch their games on TV without paying an extra $30 a month on top of your existing $130 cable tv package. I hate 'em!

 

Pass.
If the Pac12 were relevant there would be a championship game next year.

That's what you get when you use statistics to measure human activity.
Auburn gave Jawga fits during their game IIRC and they've always punched above their weight, including their excellent performance last Saturday.
College rivalries run deep, which is why the Iron Bowl has something of a history with late fourth quarter action.
Rivalries also account for a lot of the upsets we saw last Saturday

I understand it to be 11-1, with them winning their last 10.
I expect them to lose to Gawga next Saturday, but I do sincerely hope they give a good account of themselves.
The Bulldogs last loss was in 2021 (back when there was still a Pac-12) when they lost to Bama in the SEC Championship game.
Georgia is still relatively injury free even after nearly a full season of playing a decent schedule - so I wouldn't expect them to have much trouble after Bama - but you gotta play em to find out.

 

womens golf, they don't whine every time they miss a putt like the men

 

I'd rather watch THE View.....
(Honest Branding.....)

 

Being from the Southeast I consider the SEC Championship game to be the real College Football Championship Game.

The College Football Playoff games to me are just a beauty contest ESPN and others put together to generate cash.

Both Georgia and Alabama went through their SEC Schedule undefeated. This is nearly impossible. Look at the number of SEC Teams in the top 25 ranking and imagine going though that murderer's row undefeated- just an impossible task.

Alabama's only loss was to Texas the first game of the season when they still didn't know who their quarterback would be and trying to figure out their team concept. Boy did they ever get it together to win some incredibly tough games with a nightmare schedule from hell.

Georgia hasn't lost a game since 2021 playing in the SEC - how do you do that?

Thank you for letting me get that rant off my chest - I now feel so much better and won't visit the subject again!

 

I'm from Indiana and I pretty much think the same thing.
Most people who look at college football objectively do, although if you think about it the transfer portal and bringing monetization out of the closet is flattening out the league which will be a value add eventually.

Yup.
Until now, middling talent could 'shelter in place' in conferences where they play maybe one or two ranked opponents all year and perhaps fool a professional talent scout into thinking they're better than they really are. One might think that statistics would suss all of this out, but the above-mentioned flattening effect AND the politicization of the ranking system leaves a pretty big air gap between theory and reality.

It's succeeding!
Can a #5 team from Oregon come in and 'Duck you up' in a playoff after playing one ranked team in a 13-game season?
Yep.
You bet!
The old Strength of Schedule argument.
However (comma!)
Money goes where the talent is, and not having looked I'd be willing to bet the the SEC overperforms in getting talent into the pros.
As it turns out, STRENGTH of SCHEDULE builds STRENGTH.
A UT fan I know named Bill McCraven talked about it in a motivational speech about the importance of making your bed every morning. His dad played in the NFL and drove a Supermarine Spitfire in WWII, so Bill comes from good stock.

 

That's the mench I made about taking monetization out of the closet.
They should also more fully acknowledge that the scholarship can be deferred until after the the athlete's sports career is completed.
This would leave MOST of the present de facto school employees with a more valuable and useful post career education opportunity.

It would kinda be bad for the military academies but they're already getting a half-million dollar ejumacation jammed up their backsides a nickel at a time for four years - so they have other priorities - mostly.
Cadets at the United States Military Academy, Air Force Academy and midshipmen at the Naval Academy get "free" tuition, room and board, and medical and dental care.
In addition, all of these fine future leaders receive roughly $1,200 per month, which they can spend as they like once they pay for laundry, barbers, uniforms and uniform upkeep, books, computers, and other incidentals.

A lot of those expenses are necessarily front loaded so they get an interest free advance.

Fun Fact:
The 2023 Defense Authorization Act bill will only allow service academy graduates to accept professional sports contracts two years after graduation....