Conference champions set. it will be interesting to see what happens now. Ohio State people all got their feelings hurt when the committee put them in the second seed. The truth is it really does not matter. You just have to get in. You will still have to win two games against two good teams to win the title. Not sure what makes them think that Oklahoma is going to be a stroll in the park.
Oklahoma has been one of the most consistent teams in College Football since the playoff started. With the playoff seeding set already there will be plenty of time to talk about what the committee did with the teams. There also some very interesting match ups in the bowl games. There are also some duds. College Basketball is moving into conference play already. Hard to believe that many teams are ten games into the season already. The NBA and NHL are moving into the hey lets get through this part of the season.
NFL Strangeness and Familiarity
It is getting to the end of the NFL regular season. One of the things that I really like about the NFL schedule is how teams usually start and end with division rivals. That really builds the division championships into meaningful and interesting games. The NFC East is a mess and it is going to be possible a team with a losing or even record makes the playoffs. I am really alright with that.
The last time that happened in was when the Seattle Seahawks went 7 -9 in the 2010 season. They then went on to beat the Saints in the wild card game before getting beat by the Bears in the second round. There has been several times that the last team into the playoffs has won the Super Bowl. So it can happen. It will probably be either the Eagles or the Cowboys that make it in from the NFC East this year. It is unlikely that they will do much in the playoffs but it could happen. Anyway I like the current format. Getting rewarded for winning your division is a good thing. No matter what the record is you have.
Five biglakesports key NFL observations for the week
- Winston auditioning for a new team. Jameis Winston seems to have called up former team mate Ryan Fitzpatrick and asked him how to make some of that Fitzmagic. In the past few games Winston has been putting up some really nice numbers. He went 33 of 45 for 456 yards with 4 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. While the three interceptions are very normal the 456 yards and four touchdowns are not. Winston has always had a ton of talent. He would make some amazing play and then give it all back with a bone head play. He actually reminds me quite a bit of Vinny Testaverde. Ton of talent. Ton of turn overs. Pretty sure that Winstons time with the Buccaneers is over and what ever he does for the rest of the season is just trying out for a new team. Maybe a change of scenery will do him some good.
- Two more teams punched their tickets to the playoffs. The Ravens and the Chiefs are both in. The Chiefs clinches the AFC West and the Ravens grabbed at least a wild card spot. Next week when the Ravens play the Jets they will more than likely clinch the AFC East. The growth of the Ravens has been amazing this year. They really need to keep with it and not waste the year that Lamar Jackson is having. Success one year does not mean that you will have success next season. Jackson has Robert Griffin III on the team to let him and the team know how quickly things can go off the rails. The worry I have with how things are going for the Ravens is did they peak too soon. It has happened before. I am not sure that is the case. It is just a thought that has popped into my mind.
- The Browns are still a mess. Even though they managed to beat the Bengals things are just not on the right track for them. Odell Beckham Jr. is not happy. At least that is the rumor. Difficult to say. Then you have Baker Mayfield bringing up things that should be fore team ears only. The Browns were supposed to compete for divisional and possible conference champions. Technically they are still in the hunt for the playoffs. In order to make it they would more than likely have to win out. That would mean beating the Cardinals, Ravens and Bengals in that order. The first one and the last one are possible. Beating the Ravens is is unlikely at this point. I am a a believer that a coach deserves more than one year to see if he can make a team a contender. It is difficult to see Freddie Kitchens making that happen in Cleveland. It really does not seem like he has the attention of the team or that he will be able to get it. There is so much talent on this team. They should be a much more cohesive unit. They are not and there are no signs that point to Kitchens being the guy that gets this team going.
- Officiating in the NFL is still BAD. Really bad. I think that replay is making it worse. The Patriots were unable to challenge two really bad calls in their game against the Chiefs. They had already used their challenges. One of the bad calls they could not challenge cost them a touchdown. Now not all of this is on the officials. The Patriots should have been more selective on the plays they had challenged. Sometimes it is better to let something go and wait for the big mistake. That way you would still have a challenge in your pocket. Part of it might just be that coaches are fed up with how bad the officiating has been. If that is the case so be it. But you have to be smarter. I am at a point where lets just get rid of replay. It really does not fix much if anything and human error is just part of the game.
- Any one of the teams in need of a coach should go after Ron Rivera. I was surprised that the Panther let him go. I get it. Sometime you just feel like you need a change. He would be great for a team like the Browns or the Giants. The Browns are a ship in search of a captain. River Boat Ron just might be the guy to whip them into shape.
College Football Playoff and Bowls Set
With the end of the regular season and the conference championship games. The bowls are set and the playoff is set. At least the bowls have decided to move the games back a bit. There was a time just a few years ago when the bowls would start around the 15th of December. This year the first bowl game is not until the 20th. I am alright with as many bowls as they want to have. The days of it being a reward for a good season are over. It is just another money making opportunity now. So I say have at it. Saying that I am not sure how many of the bowls I will actually watch this year.
Other than the big ones that is. There are some interesting match ups that I will be paying attention to. In the big picture they probably do not mean a whole lot. It will be much more interesting to see what players sit out the bowls this year than who actually wins them. With Alabama not making it into the playoff this year it will be the first time they are playing a bowl game just for “pride” in a long time. Since they are not playing for a championship it will be interesting to see who sits out.
Five things of note in College Football
- With the final selection done. We know for sure that Alabama is out. The first time in the six year history of the playoff that Alabama will not be a part of the playoff. We still have a top heavy problem here. Clemson will be in for the 5th time. Oklahoma for the 4th time and Ohio State for the 3rd time. Amazingly this will be the first trip to the playoff for LSU.
- LSU getting the top seed was probably a coin flip. Ohio State and LSU have both had really good seasons. The final choice the put them on top probably game down to LSU playing a whole game and dominating Georgia and Ohio State forgetting that the game against Wisconsin has started. They then played a dominant second half and showed that even in playing one of their worst game of the year they just needed to play a half to win the game. Sitting second really should not be seen as a slight or slap in the face. It does not matter what spot you are in. The games are good teams playing good teams. It is still set up for an LSU vs Ohio State Championship game. Which is pretty much what it looked to be all season.
- The coaching carousel is in full swing already. This is not a surprise at all. Rutgers finally caved and gave Greg Schiano. They are going to pay him a good bit of money but most of the stuff he wanted was to improve the facilities so that they could recruit better. Last time he was there Rutgers was not in the Big Ten. When they were in the Big East Schiano was able to build them into a pretty stable team. He left Rutgers with a 68 – 67 record. That is a really respectable record for coaching Rutgers. If they can get back that something like that again with him then his second go around will be considered a success.
- USC decides to hang on to Clay Helton. Maybe this it the right move. More than likely it is not. It is probably just putting off the search for a new coach by a year. The real damage will be with recruiting. USC is already lagging way behind in recruiting for the next class. This is something that will put you behind even further. The PAC 12 needs a shot in the arm. They really need to have a good USC team to grab some attention. The Bowl game this year of USC Vs. Iowa will be very interesting.
- It is time to expand to eight teams. We can no longer afford to have a power five conference left out. Even if that conference has no shot at winning. The Playoff need to go to the conference winners and the three wild card teams. It is all about exposure. That fair part of it will work itself out. Remember this is entertainment not about what is fair.
NHL Who is good and Who is Bad
The NHL season is already a third of the way done. At the bottom we have the Kings, The Devils and the Red Wings. Al three of them are pretty bad. The Red Wings are firmly taking the lead as the worst team. 31 games in the Wings have 21 points. 29 games in the Devils have 23 points. I don’t know if the Red Wings are at the point they are tanking it may just be that they are truly that bad.
Tanking in the NHL really does not pay since the worst team is not guaranteed to get the first pick in the draft. As bad as the Red Wings are they are not on pace for the worst record ever recorded in the NHL. That record would belong to the 1974-75 Washington Capitals . In that season they went 8-67-5 for 21 points in 80 games. Of course that was their first season in the NHL and back then the NHL did not structure expansion teams for success. For the Red Wings drafting near the top for a few years is still going to set them up for future success.
Other teams on the outside looking in are the Toronto Maple Leafs, San Jose Sharks, Tampa Bay Lightning and Nashville Predators. All four of those teams are a bit of a surprise. At least the Wings and Devils were not expected to be good. The Lightning and the Predators were expected to make playoff runs this year. Maybe the beat down the Lightning took from the Blue Jackets has not worn off yet. The Maple Leafs fall was completely unexpected and cost their coach his job. Of course after Mike Babcock got fired it came out that players did not like playing for him anyway. Turns out the players for his previous team the Red Wings did not like him either. Such is life.
At the top are the Capitals and the Bruins. Strangely the Bruins got beat by the Red Wings earlier in the year and the Capitals lost to the Blue Jackets. Shows that on any given day it does not matter how bad your team it. They could still magically win a game. Those are just flukes of the schedule though. The Capitals with 22 wins have won more games than the Red Wings have points. Other than that not a lot going on in the NHL yet. It is getting close to the time where things will really start to matter. About mid January is where the Hockey starts to get interesting.
NBA Regular Season this year still does not matter
The Bucks and the Lakers are leading their respective conferences. This is not unexpected. The Kinicks and the Warriors are at the bottom. One was expected and the other was not. The Warriors run at championships is going to look very interesting for future watchers of NBA history. They are going to go from playing in five straight championship series to possibly getting the number one pick in the draft. Like the NHL the team with the worst record does not automatically get the top pick in the draft. It is some goofy weighted thing. I am not a fan of the lottery. Have talked before about how tanking can be a good strategy to rebuild if it is done correctly. Even with the lottery the tanking strategy has been executed successfully before.
There has been a lot of talk about changing the way the NBA regular season is done. We talked a little about some of the possible changes here. It is too bad that they cannot put those changed in this year. The regular season really needs those changes. The ratings are dropping like a rock. This is a huge problem for the NBA. Salaries are going up and if the ratings keep dropping like this the TV revenue will be going down. Keeping things the way they are will just lead to a bigger drop in the ratings. It has not helped that LeBron James has so many games that are on late at night now. The NBA migrating from a team driven league to a player driven league is probably affecting the numbers as well. The NBA is going to have to act fast to stop this sinking ship.
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