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Today we’re talking about the afternoon kickoff (do you like that?) and premature player celebrations. But first, let’s break down last night’s College Football Playoff rankings.
New rankings
ACC and Georgia in danger
The second edition of the College Football Playoffs Rankings were released last night. This is what the tournament would look like if the regular season ended now:
Who’s participating? Ole ma’am. The Rebels are the only addition since last week’s first rankings. Here’s a look at their resume: an 8-2 record with two three-point losses Kentucky (3-6) and No. 22 LSU (6-3), plus two ranked wins against No. 21 South Carolina (by a score of 27-3) and No. 12 Georgia (28-10). The Rebels should be in good shape for the postseason, but their remaining games are against Florida And The state of Mississippi don’t offer much ground to gain.
First out? Georgia. Kirby Smart’s two-time champions are ranked No. 12 in the committee rankings, but they are the first team out of the CFP bracket because they are No. 13. Boise State would receive an automatic bid to conference champion. This is obviously a fallout from Georgia’s loss to Ole Miss last weekend, but the Dawgs should get some credit for having already played three current top-10 teams (Alabama, Texas and the rebels). If Stewart Mandel wrote Yesterday, it might be time to stop defaulting to the number of losses when ranking teams.
Biggest surprise? SMU. Not only did the 8-1 Mustangs miss the projected Playoff field, but they LEFT a spot to No. 14. My complaint is not with Miami They are expected to clinch the top four in the conference – realistically, the teams before that will play in the conference championship game. My complaint is how far Miami is in SMU’s rankings. The Hurricanes’ best win is against No. 22 Louisville …with the same number of points as SMU.
The Canes haven’t played any other ranked teams and just lost to unranked ones Georgia Tech (not to mention their string of close calls against Virginia technology and Kal). If the committee values close losses (as they did to 8-2 Ole Miss), then SMU’s three-point loss to No. 6 BYU It can’t be what’s holding them back. So what is it?
Best hypothetical matchup on campus: 10-seed and 7-seed Alabama Indiana. Give us the Crimson Tide in Bloomington at the end of December! Memorial Stadium has already hosted and achieved its first “College GameDay.” a record number of selling out. The stadium’s capacity (52,626) is half that of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium (101,821). And to make it even better… let’s hope for snow!
Play with the biggest CFP impact this week: No. 7 Tennessee (8-1) at No. 12 Georgia (7-2). Bulldogs fans shouldn’t sweat too much about their rankings this week as Georgia can get right back to winning ways this weekend. With a win, the Vols would be in lockstep to make the field. If they lose, they risk getting caught up in the crowd of two-loss SEC teams.
Afternoon games
Why does everyone hate them?
Two weeks later State of Ohio beat Penn State in Happy Valley, the two Big Ten powerhouses may have something they agree on: “Big Noon” anxiety.
It was confirmed on Monday that Ohio State will conclude the regular season with six consecutive afternoon games, including the Nov. 23 top-10 game against Indiana. That’s the most conference afternoon games — let alone consecutive — the Buckeyes have played in a season since at least 2014 and the most since “Big Noon Kickoff” was introduced in 2019.
Penn State fans have already expressed their displeasure with the afternoon viewing window by selling and chanting ‘Big Noon Sucks’ T-shirts expletives towards the pregame show in the background of “College GameDay” before hosting the Buckeyes.
ESPN’s Rece Davis replied with a straight face: “They’d rather start a little later.”
There are many reasons for the groans during an afternoon kick. Among them: There’s less time for tailgating, and “that 7:30 energy is just different,” as one Penn State player said (The Athleticsby Audrey Snyder describes other grievances here).
Either way, TV viewers show up. Ohio State-Penn State has an average of 9.4 million viewers when broadcast on Fox’s “Big Noon” over the past few years, compared to 7.3 million viewers when broadcast on other networks and/or in other time windows over the past quarter century, according to Fox president of insights and analytics Mike Mulvihill.
Joel Klatt, one of Fox’s college football analysts, defended “Big Noon” on social media this week amid the backlash.
So let’s resolve this the only way we know how: a poll until Saturday. What do you think of afternoon matches? Tell us here.
Why did Kirby Smart call his player ‘an idiot’?
CFB — Until the exclusive Saturday College Football Beef court – is back today with a player seemingly celebrating on the pitch after his team’s loss and his The coach called him ‘an idiot’.
What happened? After Georgia got hammered on the road against Ole Miss, the Bulldogs largest margin of defeat in five yearsbackup safety Jake Pope was caught on video apparently celebrating with Rebels fans. How bad did it look? You can be the judgebut it’s easy to see how Pope’s broad smile while jumping up and down could be misinterpreted.
Pope, who transferred to Georgia from Alabama this season, later apologized on social mediain which he clarified that the person he celebrated with was a childhood friend and former teammate of his, whom he loved. At his press conference on Monday, coach Kirby Smart responded to the situation.
“What an idiot. I just mean stupid,” Smart said. ‘I only saw it today. But he’s ashamed of it. He’s angry about it. … Just not really smart, but honestly I don’t have time to waste energy on that.”
But yesterday Smart backtracked on his comments, saying it was “a mistake” to call “a great kid” an idiot.
Pronunciation: I’ve seen enough premature celebrations in the past month to know how much they can frustrate fans (Tyrique Stevenson of my beloved Chicago Bears taunted the Washington Commanders crowd in front Jayden Daniels complete a Hail Mary to win the game).
But Stevenson’s move and Pope’s are not the same. A planned meeting for Pope with his old friend outside of the stadium could have prevented this, but the fact that this was captured on video just feels like an accident. As for Smart, I’m all for coaches holding players accountable, but he added fuel to an otherwise major misunderstanding.
Quick snaps
Indiana is undefeated. No SEC team is left unscathed. The Big 12 is wide open. What’s different about this college football season? It’s not parity, it’s the unpredictability.
Speaking of: Indiana is approaching the biggest game in its history. But what else is at stake? Big Ten games this month? Scott Dochterman outlines the main matchups remains for each team.
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(Top photo: Petre Thomas / Imagn Images)