NCAA playoff semifinal dates...pending?

This report is straight from Dr. Saturday, and it hits a topic I'd been wondering 

about as well...

Report: ESPN, NFL want CFP to change date of semifinal games

 

By Sam Cooper3 hours agoDr. Saturday

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College Football Playoff Executive Director Bill Hancock poses with the College Football Playoff National Championship …

Year one of the College Football Playoff was a huge success with the two semifinal games falling on New Year’s Day. Next year, however, the two semifinal games are scheduled for New Year’s Eve.

ESPN apparently isn’t too happy about it.

According to the Sports Business Journal, ESPN executives “are lobbying CFP officials” to move next season’s semifinal games – the Capital One Orange Bowl and the Goodyear Cotton Bowl – from New Year’s Eve to Saturday Jan. 2, 2016.

On New Year’s Eve, ESPN’s broadcasts would compete with a bevy of countdown broadcasts that bring in the New Year. With ratings in mind, ESPN is hoping for a change.

From the SBJ:

Sources say that senior network executives as high up as ESPN President John Skipper are pushing for the change as a way to get better television ratings, but the CFP is unwilling to make such a move because it is committed to the original plan to hold tripleheader bowl games, including the semifinals, on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Despite ESPN’s wishes, the CFP isn’t budging.

“We’ve started a new tradition and we don’t want to back away from it now,” said Bill Hancock, the CFP’s executive director.

The championship game drew record ratings (33.4 million viewers), while the semifinals each drew “more than 28 million viewers.” According to the SBJ, “ESPN insiders say they are prepared for double-digit drops in viewership” if the games stay on New Year’s Eve.

On top of the wishes of ESPN, the NFL is mulling the possibility of expanding its playoffs. One of its new playoff games could potentially be moved to Monday, which would “compete directly with the CFP championship.”

Because of this, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reportedly met with CFP commissioners to discuss a potential conflict.

From the SBJ:

Sources say NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell initiated a series of high-level meetings with some of the CFP’s most influential commissioners, including the SEC’s Mike Slive and the Big Ten’s Jim Delany. Goodell approached the commissioners to discuss the potential impact an NFL playoff expansion would have on the CFP championship game.

Additionally, Goodell reportedly “told the college commissioners that any playoff expansion likely would put a wild-card game on Monday night.”

The CFP’s 12-year contract with ESPN has the title game being played on a Monday night and Hancock said the CFP office is opposed to an NFL playoff game being played on the same night.

“We picked Monday night because it was open and it was the best night for our game. We announced that in June 2012,” Hancock said. “We established that our game was going to be on Monday night for 12 years.”

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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs.

So, what is the PURPOSE of a national championship playoff?

The first ever four-team tournament for the FBS National Championship has just concluded, and it was won by the fourth seed, the only team that wasn't certain to be in the tournament for the entire month (or season) as Alabama, Oregon, and Florida State probably was. More specifically, it was won by the fourth seed who also was on their third string quarterback, who won a grand total of two games in his college career before winning the national title game. Before New Year's Day, about 95% of the public favored one of the three "expected" teams to win; had it been any previous year, Ohio State wouldn't even have had the opportunity to play for the national championship.

So, over the course of the last two weeks, Ohio State was the best of the four teams in the college football playoffs. Does that make them the best team in the country? 

And, does it matter?

When you look at the NCAA "March Madness" basketball tournament, can anyone say with a straight face that by choosing sixty-eight teams and making them play single elimination over the course of three weeks, they're proving who the best team in college basketball is? Not a chance. But that's an effective and popular tournament - and they're letting teams with ten losses, twelve losses, even losing records into the tournament. Does that make it wrong? 

The big fear of the college football community was that expanding beyond a two-team "playoff" would cheapen the regular season. Again using the college basketball comparison, does anyone really care about the regular season in terms of the eventual national champion? No - because the only teams that have viable shots at the title are virtually a lock to be invited from December on. The suspense is non-existent. Even with the four team playoff in FBS football, however, Florida State may have been guaranteed entry if they kept winning, but was there ever a doubt that IF they lost, they were done? Or Oregon? Or OSU, TCU, or Baylor, for that matter? Maybe Alabama could have gotten in had it lost to Missouri...maybe. But for the most part, one loss and you're out at least for the moment. If anything, the excitement spread from watching the two games the top two were involved in to four, five, six games a weekend, even towards the end!

(By the way, if they go to eight? I argue that it makes it LESS interesting, above and beyond the "don't make the fans travel three times" or "don't extend the student-athlete seasons any more" (either because of the student part or the wear and tear on bodies, as Urban Meyer emphasized). Then you'll be guaranteeing five power conference champs, a Group of Five rep, and two wild cards. And if your conference champ is GUARANTEED to go to the playoff? Why would you ever schedule tough non-conference games again? They no longer count for ANYTHING. You could be ranked 25th and get in if you win the conference, which just means winning your division and one more "play-in" game. So much for "earning your title"...)

To the second point: Does it matter if Ohio State was the best team of the year, or just of January? (And not even that, if TCU's game counts as January....) Depends. 

Do you believe that the BCS champions were the best college team of the year in the years they won? 

Do you believe that the #1 team in the AP or UPI polls after New Year's back in the day was the best team that season?

I would argue that the poll was the MOST likely of the methods we've tried to get the team that was the best team of the season - and the public fought against that one forever until they were finally given the BCS' predecessor and it, pitting the top two teams "in theory" against each other once at the end of the season.

And I would argue that it was more likely that choosing the TWO best teams of the season and having THEM play is more likely to give you the season's best than choosing the FOUR best and having THEM play. Yet we fought against THAT one, too, until we got four. 

So...guess what'll be coming sooner or later? The FCS has a 24 team tournament, and North Dakota State's won it four years in a row, most probably because they were the best team four years in a row, or close to it. It wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen.

But I'm hoping we don't go past four teams for a while. (To be honest, I didn't care as much about Oregon/OSU as I did for the January 1st games. Maybe 39 bowl games does that to a man...)

PREDICTION SCOREBOARDS!

We'll keep the running standings here as the bowl season winds through the National Championship game on Jan 12...

Comparing FOLLOWING FOOTBALL to the Vegas casino spreads...
Dec 20) FF was more accurate with four of the five, bombing on picking Colorado St over Utah. Not. Even. Close. Still, Vegas 1, FF 4!
Dec 22) Going to do something strange here...we're going to declare ourselves the LOSER even when the bet would've paid off! We had Memphis by 3 today, more than the 1.5 Vegas gave them, and they won by 7. So, we were closer, right? Wrong. To us at FF, since the game went into overtime, we feel the spread was "zero", so the casinos were closer. Look at it this way: If they'd gone for two and MADE it when they scored their "tying" touchdown in the last minute of regulation, they'd have WON outright...by ONE point, thereby giving Vegas the edge over us. Why should WE be rewarded by a quirk of fate that gave them a chance to overscore by a full TD? Nope! Vegas 2, FF 4!
Dec 23) Everyone got Marshall right - not hard - but only WE got Navy over SDSU! Vegas 3, FF 5.
Dec 24) If we had to lose on the Bahamas Bowl, five straight TDs in the last 12 minutes for the Chippewas was a spectacular way to lose! Vegas 5, FF 5.
Dec 26) Despite our 10-3 record straight up, we fell behind the casinos today with our conservative LT prediction and our (half point) optimistic UCF spread. Vegas 7, FF 6.
Dec 27) We all missed VT, our blog nailed the Head Ball Coach's win, and we lucked out that ASU missed their two-pt conversion, so we won that one as well. In fact, thanks to comebacks by Penn St and Nebraska, we went four for five today! Vegas 8, FF 10.
Dec 29) Had the "over" for Texas A&M (made our pastor happy), and the under on Oklahoma (almost had them losing - not quite, though!), before the Arkansas annihilation of the Texas Lnghrns (no O, get it?). Vegas 9, FF 12.
Dec 30) We all failed to see Notre Dame 's two-QB experiment working, but at least we had LSU winning by less, so we won that point. Stanford and Georgia each won big, which our model doesn't really account for when top teams meet in bowls. We'll work on that for next year... Vegas 11, FF 13.
Dec 31) Here's where the Idahoan in us hopes we're wrong about the Fiesta Bowl! And we were - never been so happy our data was wrong! Vegas 13, FF 14 (thanks to Georgia Tech for letting us keep our lead!)
Jan 1) It's the big day! The three morning bowls were all exciting! Wisconsin surprised us all by managing 34 points against the Auburn defense (thanks to Melvin Gordon's rushing), and the Spartan comeback over Baylor was incredible, but at least Missouri held up against Minnesota's wild attacks, so we all got one of the three opening games! Vegas 16, FF 16!
Jan 2) We got two of the four, simply by being more conservative about Houston and K-State. Still tied, three games to go... Vegas 18, FF 18!
Jan 3) Florida managed to win by eight today - how'd they manage 28 points? - so we bet the wrong side of 7. We'll need to be right twice to win this part of the match, even if we've won the straight-up contest (below) long ago. Vegas 19, FF 18.
Jan 4) Got the right team, but they won bigger, not smaller. Game, set, match. Oh well. Lost money this year. Vegas 20, Following Football 18.  (Wanna go double or nothing on the last game, Vegas?)


Tallying up straight-up predictions for all four of our sources...
                             ESPN                       Sagarin                       Vegas                     Following FB
Dec 20)              2-3                            2-3                               3-2                            3-2
Dec 22)              3-3                            3-3                               4-2                            4-2 (all correct!)
Dec 23)              4-4                            4-4                               5-3                6-2 (Navy over SD by 1!)
Dec 24)              6-4                            6-4.                              7-3                            8-2 (all 2fer2!)
Dec 26)              8-5                            7-6                               8-5                           10-3! 
      (So, Following Football leads by two full games after the first week!)
Dec 27)              11-7                           10-8                             10-8                          13-5
      (Surprisingly, because so many games have the same predictions from all four of us, the Vegas casinos CANNOT catch Following Football this season, down three games at this point! Neither can Sagarin, and ESPN has to be perfect in the games in which we differ to do so. Does that make us "dormie", golf fans?)
Dec 29)            13-8                           12-9                            11-10                          15-6
Dec 30)            14-10                          14-10                         13-11                           17-7
      (And just like that, our lead increases today to THREE games over all opposition!)
Dec 31)            16-11                          15-12                           14-13                          18-9
Jan 1)               18-14                         17-15                           16-16                          20-12
Jan 2)               19-17                         18-18                           17-19                          21-15
      (LOTS of upsets as the new year begins! All four of us went 3-6 on these nine games!)
Jan 3)               20-17                         19-18                          18-19                          22-15
Jan 4)               21-17                          19-19                          19-19                          23-15
      (To reiterate, Following Football posts the best bowl prediction record!)  
Jan 12)             21-18                         19-20                          19-20                         23-16
      (Well, by differing amounts, we all thought Oregon would win, but congratulations to the national champion Ohio State Buckeyes! And congratulations, Following Football ACNC for winning the Bowl Game Prognostication Showdown!)+

It's college bowl season - continued!

Here's week two of the FBS bowl season, from Dec 27 onwards (see our previous post for the first week's predictions), from ESPN, Sagarin, Vegas, and Following Football:

Dec 27                                           ESPN                  Sagarin                  Vegas           Following F
Cincinnati v Virginia Tech:       Cinc by 6           Cinc by 0.2           Cinc by 3         Cinc by 6
Duke v Arizona St:                      ASU by 4        ASU by 6.6        ASU by 7.5    ASU by 4
Miami-FL v South Carolina:     Mia by 7            SC by 0.3            Mia by 3           SC by 1
Boston College v Penn St           PSU by 3          BC by 3                  BC by 2.5         BC by 2
Nebraska v USC:                         USC by 11        USC by 2.1         USC by 6.5   USC by 1

Dec 29
Texas A&M v West Virginia      A&M by 1         A&M by 2.0     WV by 3.5        A&M by 2
Oklahoma v Clemson:                OU by 11             OU by 5.6             OU by 3           OU by 1/2
Arkansas v Texas:                       Ark by 7           Ark by 12.4       Ark by 6        Ark by 1

Dec 30
Notre Dame v LSU:                     LSU by 3            LSU by 12.7         LSU by 7          LSU by 5
Georgia v Louisville:                   Lou by 4             UGA by 11.5     UGA by 6.5   UGA by 3
Maryland v Stanford:                 Stan by 14      Stan by 11.2      Stan by 14     Stan by 6

Dec 31
Ole Miss v TCU:                           TCU by 3         TCU by 1.4        TCU by 3       TCU by 2
Boise St v Arizona:                      Ariz by 3            Ariz by 5.2            Ariz by 3.5       Ariz by 4.5
Mississippi St v Georgia Tech:  GT by 4           MSU by 10.2        MSU by 6.5     MSU by 1

Jan 1
Auburn v Wisconsin:                  Aub by 7            Aub by 10.3          Aub by 6.5       Aub by 2
Michigan St v Baylor:                Bay by 7            Bay by 4.6             Bay by 3           Bay by 3.5
Missouri v Minnesota:               Mizz by 4       Mizz by 6.4        Mizz by 5      Mizz by 2.5
Florida St v Oregon:                   Ore by 11        Ore by 9.7          Ore by 9        Ore by 3
Ohio St v Alabama:                     Ala by 7             Ala by 4.3               Ala by 9.5       Ala by 3
  Jan 2
Pitt v Houston:                              Pitt by 4           Pitt by 3.1             Pitt by 3            Pitt by 1
Iowa v Tennessee:                        Tenn by 11    Tenn by 6.3      Tenn by 3.5   Tenn by 3
Kansas St v UCLA:                       KSU by 3          KSU by 5              KSU by 3           KSU by 2
Washington v Oklahoma St:      UW by 14         UW by 5               UW by 5.5         UW by 7

Jan 3
East Carolina v Florida:             ECU by 4          Fla by 13.6        Fla by 7           Fla by 4

Jan 4
Toledo v Arkansas St:                 Toledo by 4       ArkSt by 0.3    Toledo by 3   Toledo by 1

Now, if the predictions hold true, we'll be previewing the Oregon/Alabama national championship game on January 12th in the new year. And remember, not only will we be tallying our Following Football predictions compared to that of the casinos, but also running a pure count of how many games each of the four predictors does forecasting 39 games where the teams have had a month to both rust and prepare.

Never say die...

The Houston Cougars scored three touchdowns in four minutes, plus a two point conversion on the last one, to catch and pass the Pitt Panthers to win their bowl game 35-34 today. It required TWO successful onside kickoffs, and in fact allowed the Panthers just under a minute for a comeback of their own, which fell short with six of seven incomplete passes. 

New Year's Six bowl games in progress!

JAN 1 UPDATE: Watching three really great bowl games simultaneously: Wisconsin finding a way to come back and defeat Auburn 34-31, using a heavy dose of Melvin Gordon running wild, as he has against everyone except Playoff contenders, it seems...Minnesota's  Maxx Williams hurdling Missouri players en route to a touchdown...Baylor's Bryce Petty throwing touchdowns to targets large and small, including a 400-pound target "wearing" a receiver's number as a half shirt!

There were some WILD plays in the Citrus Bowl - click on www.espn.com and watch the highlights of the Minnesota/Missouri game: weird fumbles, hurdled defenders, you name it. For that matter, the Baylor/MSU game's got some great plays to show you as well! (And if you like great running, watch Wisconsin's highlights while you're there!)

Weird! As Baylor is trying to run out the clock, one score up on the Spartans, and they have a great run down to the five negated by an offensive facemask by the runner! Fortunately, they still got the first down, but Michigan St blocked the field goal attempt that would have iced the game, getting one more shot at the winning touchdown with 65 seconds to go!

What an AMAZING comeback for Michigan State, blocking a field goal and then getting down the field in 47 seconds to score and kick what looks like the winning extra point with seventeen seconds left. It's hard not to picture TCU fans celebrating the karmic vengeance of Baylor's bowl opponent to come back from 21 down, just like the Bears did to THEM in the fourth quarter to win 61-58, the most famous score of the year! 

Florida State sure is suffering from bad luck/execution in its clash against Oregon! Getting stuck at the six inch line, on replay, no less, and shooting themselves in the foot with penalties and mistakes...down 11-3 at the moment. Maybe they're just setting the stage for more Jamies-magic in the fourth quarter?

HEY, SEMINOLES! HANG ON TO THE BALL! Oregon now leads 39-20 after two outright swipes of FSU runners in the third quarter.

Amazing to hear Kirk Herbstreit say on a national TV broadcast, "Florida State has quit. I can't believe I'm saying it, but they have shut - it - down, early in the fourth quarter." Sad thing is, he may be right. 59-20, five FSU turnovers,  all converted into TDs. The last two scores, it looked like the Oregon runners (Mariota, then Tyner) simply ran through the Seminole D like it wasn't there.

Weird statistic: the ONLY team out of the 128 FBS teams that has not converted a single fourth down this year....is Florida State, odd considering their penchant for late comebacks which so often for most teams seems to involve fourth down conversions. And so far, it's still true.

Alabama/Ohio State was such a great game, with two teams which remembered they were great (ahem, Florida St!). Congratulations to the Buckeyes, condolensces to the Tide, and lookong forward to a lot of P on the 12th (get it? O?).



DEC 31: So far, this looks like Revenge of the Little Guys, starting with TCU and their annihilation of  the poor Ole Miss Rebels, 42-3, as they looked faster on offense, defense, and on special teams. Now, just ten minutes into the game, Boise State leads Arizona 21-0, with three brilliant touchdowns including Jay Ajayi's "Statue of Liberty redux".

Amazing to see how a game can change from one half to the next! First half, Boise had 400 yards, Hedrick was 17-18, and they scored 31 points. Second half, Boise's offense hasn't scored, under a hundred yards gained, and up one TD with three minutes to go....

Fourth and one, Arizona's QB Anu Solomon kinda hands off to Grigsby...actually, he hung on to the ball and ran WITH his running back through the line. "First time I've ever seen the quarterback make the tackle!", said the TV commentator...

Never been so glad to be wrong in our lives...Arizona's Anu Solomon does the only thing he could not do - let himself get tackled in bounds, and let the clock run out without taking one last shot at the end zone. As it was, Boise St wins their third straight Fiesta Bowl, all as an underdog, this one 38-30. Next: Mississippi St and Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl!

Hard not to be impressed with GT's balanced attack - for the premier running team in the nation, the Yellowjackets put together a very nice passing game that attacked MSU just when they weren't ready for it. Both QBs were outstanding, and it's hard not to be sad for such a phenomenal season for Mississippi St to end on such a down note.

Forget Saban/Meyer - here's the ultimate contrast in bowl coaches!

As we follow the "Belk Bowl" (whatever the blazes a "belk" is), between Georgia and Louisville, we here at Following Football can't help but mention the HUGE difference in the head coaches involved. Georgia's Mark Richt is perhaps the most famous Christian coach in the nation, even appearing as the inspiration in the famous Christian film Facing The Giants. Meanwhile, Bobby Petrino was famously relieved of his duties at Arkansas after crashing his motorcycle with his illegally hired mistress on the back; this after arriving in Arkansas when he literally deserted the Atlanta Falcons midseason when the opportunity to jump ship arose. 

Forgive us, UL friends, if we root for the Bulldogs tonight....

Hard to read the Longhorns tweeters tonight...

As the Arkansas annihilation of the Texas Lnghrns (no O, get it?) stretches into the fourth quarter with an 8:39 drive for a TD making it 31-7, the numbers and complaints are staggering...

In the second half, Texas has had three drives, all negative, totalling seventeen negative yards. In fact, the Longhorns have a TOTAL of 25 yards of offense. That's not only fewer than Arkansas has points, but fewer than they have penalty yards (29). Now, factor in the fact that the UT touchdown drive went 44 yards. That means that for the ENTIRE GAME except for that one short scoring drive, the Longhorns offense has NEGATIVE NINETEEN YARDS, with under six minutes to go.

Marty Akins@MartyAkins10

Where's that burning fire? Where's that fighting spirit? Where in the hell is that relentless will to win? Just asking!

Jordan Cannon@jordanlcannon

My mom, who is definitely not an avid sports fan, just texted me to ask when they were putting in the first string players... #TexasBowl

Mike Finger@mikefinger

5 years ago the UT press corps was in California. I recall a conversation about how impossible it was to imagine them not winning 10 games.

Chuck Carlton@ChuckCarltonDMN

MT @mikefinger: Texas in danger of its fifth 20-point loss in one season. It's been playing football since 1893, and that's never happened before.

         Steve Habel@stevehabel

Swoopes misses a big play when he leads Johnson out of bounds on a bomb. But Daje stepped out of bounds before the catch anyway. Ugh. #horns

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It's college bowl season!

Sorry for the delay in this post: real life intervened. But, here are the 38 scheduled bowl games and their predicted outcomes, not just from Following Football but from Sagarin, ESPN, and Vegas:

Dec 20:                                          ESPN             SAGARIN           VEGAS           Following FB
Nevada v LA-Lafayette:              Nev by 4        Nev by 1.4           Nev by 1.          ULL by 1/2
Utah St v UTEP:                            USU by 13  USU by 8.8.    USU by 10.     USU by 12
Utah v Colorado St:                      CSU by 3.      Utah by 5.6     Utah by 3       CSU by 1/2
W Michigan v Air Force:             WM by 7.      WM by 0.5.        AF by 1.5.       AF by 6
Bowling Green v S Alabama:     BG by 1         SA by 2.4.           SA by 3.            SA by 1/2 

Dec 22
BYU v Memphis:                            Mem by 7.  Mem by 2.0    Mem by 1.5.    Mem by 3

Dec 23
Marshall v N Illinois:                    Mrsh by 7.  Mrsh by 12.5. Mrsh by 10   Mrsh by 4
Navy v San Diego St:                    SDSU by 1.    SDSU by 3.1.       SDSU by 3.     Navy by 1

Dec 24
C Michigan v W Kentucky:          WK by 13.     WK by 5.0.     WK by 4.      WK by 5
Fresno St v Rice:                            Rice by 8.     Rice by 2.6.    Rice by 2.5   Rice by 1/2

Dec 26
Illinois v Louisiana Tech:            LT by 11.       LT by 9.1.       LT by 6.          LT by 4
Rutgers v North Carolina:          NC by 3.          NC by 2.7.         NC by 3.            Rut by 1/2. 
N Carolina St v UCF:                    NCS by 1.      UCF by 3.3.      UCF by 2.         UCF by 2 1/2

...and we'll pick up the second week later in this week. But for Bowl Season, we're scoring a little differently...or at least, a little additionally! We'll ALSO keep a tally of which of these four highly esteemed methodologies picks the highest number of game winners, straight up. To the victor belong the non-existent spoils! 

Whither art thou so maniest bowl games?

Here's a good piece from Five-Thirty-Eight about the merits of having mediocre teams in bowl games, and the trends thereabouts. It's not as bad as you'd think - for some of the "Group Of Five" teams, it may be the only time recruits outside their state see them play, and coached LOVE the extra fifteen practices you get for being in a bowl game of ANY caliber!

Fiesta Bowl, eat your heart out...

As a longtime Boise State follower, it's hard to beat the 2007 Fiesta Bowl as the greatest college game of my lifetime (the USC-Texas/Vince Young national title game is the only one I have above it), but piece the highlights together from today's Bahamas Bowl between Western Kentucky and Central Michigan, two medium level teams who played an amazing game today.

WKU scored touchdowns on all six of their first half possessions and led 49-14 going into the fourth quarter. With less than twelve minutes left, CMU scored the first of their five consecutive touchdowns: the first two just looked like garbage time scores to pretty up the final tally, the third brings them within two TDs with just over three minutes to go; the fourth with 1:06 to go seems to mean an onside kick has to be successful...but using their timeouts, they get the ball punted back to them with one second left, on their own 25. CMU QB Cooper Rush threw a Hail Mary to about the thirty, and four laterals later, Titus Davis stretched out to reach the pylon and tie the game...

...except that CMU head coach Dan Enos has balls the size of Wilson.

No time on the clock, extra point pending, he decided to go for two - win or lose on one play. 

I'm all for it, and I'll tell you why.

First, who cares? It's a BOWL GAME. It doesn't really affect your standings, your conference record, or anything else. Why not?

Secondly, they had ALL the momentum! CMU had just scored five touchdowns in less than twelve minutes. Western Kentucky hadn't stopped them in forever - why not? 

Thirdly, the football gods were with them! One play for the win when you just pulled off a play that looked like The Play? Why not?

But fourth and most importantly, it shows your current and future players that you have balls. When push came to shove, you trusted your players to win or lose that game. It's the flip side of the coach that refuses to go for 4th and 1 at midfield and punts instead ("because we're playing the 'field position' game...") or at the goal line and tries the field goal ("because we need the points on the board") instead of trusting that if you miss, your defense will get it done. It's the same thing as the Pulaski (ARK) Academy "never punt" theory that says, trust your players to win games, instead of playing scared and not to lose. It's playing the game with courage and integrity, instead of pussyfooting around and trying to deflect the blame to your players if you lose. Be a man, coach. Play to win, like Enos did. 


(Did they win or lose? I won't tell you...because it doesn't matter. It was the guts to try it that mattered.)

Givin' a little love to the Broncos...

While we cover football on a national international level here at Following Football, we're really just a very small contingent based in Idaho, USA - and when you talk football in Idaho, you have to start with the Little Engine that Could, the Boise State Broncos college football team. From its roots as Boise Junior College in the 30s through the early 60s, through the BSC years in Division II, and then as a university moving into what was then called "Division 1-AA" (where they won a national title in 1980), and finally moving up into Division 1A in the lowly Big West, then to the WAC, and finally (so far) into the Mountain West conference...Boise State's football program has been amazingly and consistently successful at every level. 

For most non-potato-bred fans, their familiarity with the Boys on the Blue starts with arguably the Best College Football game of the Century (at least it's in the conversation) - the 43-42 "upset" of Oklahoma in their first Fiesta Bowl appearance on New Year's Day, 2007. (We say "upset" because most folks fail to remember that while OU was a huge betting favorite, Boise was undefeated and actually two spots ahead of the 10-2 Sooners in the polls.) Watch the game again - Boise actually dominated the game, controlling the line of scrimmage on offense AND defense, and led 28-10 in the third quarter, looking to put away the disgruntled Sooners with ease...when they muffed a punt return, giving OU the ball for a short field, a quick TD, and the game was on. From there, re-invigorated, Oklahoma kisked a FG to bring themselves within eight at the start of the fourth quarter, and scored a TD with less than two minutes to play, followed by the wackiest set of two-point attempts you'll ever see (they succeeded - called back on OU penalty; they failed - called back on a BSU penalty; they succeeded the third time to tie at 28-28).

Then the fun began.

Given the ball with 1:06 to go, Boise QB Jared Zabransky immediately threw a pick-six and "lost" the game, 35-28. The narrative became, "The plucky little team held fast against the big bad seven-time national champs all game long, but eventually it was just too much for them." And then, first-year coach Chris Petersen started in on his bag of tricks. (Until then, he'd not needed them - as I said, they'd been winning 'conventionally' all game long.) Facing fourth and eighteen at midfield, down to under twenty seconds to play, they called the "hook-and-ladder" play: Zabransky to Drisan James, who tossed it to Jerard Rabb running full speed the other way and barely made it into the corner of the end zone for the tying TD.

Still not over. Tie game: Overtime.

Oklahoma's Adrian Peterson (great college running back - wonder whatever happened to him?) sliced through the exhausted Bronco defense like warm butter. Uh-0h, thought coach Petersen. We can't keep going like this. So when the Broncos scored their touchdown (on a halfback pass on fourth down, of course...), Petersen went for two and the chance to win or lose right there. One play, for the Fiesta Bowl championship.

The Statue of Liberty.

Famously, receiver Legadu Naanee, standing on the sideline when the play was called, immediately said, "We just won the game." The combination of the audacity of the call, as Pat Forde puts it, and the upset victory itself drove the stadium (and the country) into pandemonium...ratcheted up one more notch a few minutes later when, during an interview on national TV following his game winning two-point scamper, running back Ian Johnson proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend and shocked the poor interviewer. I love Johnson's casual explanation for the timing: "There's no better time than on national TV after the game-winning two-point conversion."

After that game, the Bronco legend took on steam. They went 12-1 and 11-1 in back to back seasons without returning to the BCS (but while watching Hawaii go and fail completely), until they returned in 2010, as the first team to "earn" a berth from an 'inferior' conference (rather than get the automatic non-power conference bid for being top 12)...only to play the OTHER non-power conference team, TCU (at the time, still a Mountain West member, while BSU played in the WAC), and win 17-10. 

As you'll read in this article from long-time ESPN Bronco writer Andrea Anderson, that Fiesta Bowl legacy is what drew many of the current players to Boise State. It's a heritage that they're eager to live up to. Personally, although Arizona will be higher ranked and essentially playing at home, although this 11-2 Bronco team objectively isn't as good as the previous BCS teams they've sent, I won't bet against the Boys from the Blue. The Wildcats probably don't realize what this game means to Boise St. They'll think of it as a home game.

A home-away-from-home game. 

All 38 bowl games in one place!

(Sorta...)

Here's Graham Watson's obligatory piece rating the lo-oo-ong list of bowls from most to least interesting to watch. (This one's from Dr. Saturday on Yahoo...I'm sure ESPN and SI.com will have theirs up any moment now.) 

On our list, we particularly like the Arkansas/Texas matchup of the old SouthWest Conference rivals in the "Texas Bowl", as well as the Utah/Colorado St matchup in Vegas. Both games have teams right next to each other in our rankings, and are regional rivalries with a great deal of interest. West Virginia/Texas A&M in Memphis' "Liberty Bowl" should be a blast as well. Finally, as a Group of Five proponent, we are partial to the meeting of the C-USA and MAC champions, Marshall/Northern Illinois, in Boca Raton, Florida - two very good teams, no matter what level they're on. (We'll have much more on the bowl games down the road, including our projections for all of them.)

As promised, here are the final regular season FBS rankings, #1-128:

FF rank	Team	Conf	OvRecord	CfRec
A1	Oregon	pac	12-1	9-1
A2	Alabama	sec	12-1	8-1
A3	Florida St	acc	13-0	9-0
A4	Ohio St	b10	12-1	9-0
A5	TCU	b12	11-1	8-1
A6	Baylor	b12	11-1	8-1
B07	Mississippi St	sec	10-2	6-2
B08	Michigan St	b10	10-2	7-1
B09	Georgia Tech	acc	10-3	6-3
B10	Ole Miss	sec	9-3	5-3
B11	Kansas St	b12	9-3	7-2
B12	Auburn	sec	8-4	5-3
C13	LSU	sec	8-4	4-4
C14	Georgia	sec	9-3	6-2
C15	Missouri	sec	10-3	7-2
C16	Arizona	pac	10-3	7-3
C17	UCLA	pac	9-3	6-3
C18	Arizona St	pac	9-3	6-3
D19	Oklahoma	b12	8-4	5-4
D20	Wisconsin	b10	10-3	7-2
D21	Clemson	acc	9-3	6-2
D22	USC	pac	8-4	6-3
D23	Boise St	mw	11-2	8-1
D24	Minnesota	b10	8-4	5-3
E25	Nebraska	b10	9-3	5-3
E26	Louisville	acc	9-3	5-3
E27	Texas A&M	sec	7-5	3-5
E28	Arkansas	sec	6-6	2-6
E29	Duke	acc	9-3	5-3
E30	Colorado St	mw	10-2	6-2
F31	Utah	pac	8-4	5-4
F32	Stanford	pac	7-5	5-4
F33	Florida	sec	6-5	4-4
F34	West Virginia	b12	7-5	5-4
F35	Marshall	cusa	12-1	8-1
F36	Notre Dame	ind	7-5	*
G37	South Carolina	sec	6-6	3-5
G38	Washington	pac	8-5	4-5
G39	Texas	b12	6-6	5-4
G40	Cincinnati	aac	9-3	7-1
G41	Miami-FL	acc	6-6	3-5
G42	Iowa	b10	7-5	4-4
H43	Maryland	b10	7-5	4-4
H44	Memphis	aac	9-3	7-1
H45	Boston College	acc	7-5	4-4
H46	Utah St	mw	9-4	6-2
H47	Northern Illinois	mac	11-2	8-1
H48	Kentucky	sec	5-7	2-6
I49	North Carolina St	acc	7-5	3-5
I50	East Carolina	aac	8-4	6-2
I51	Air Force	mw	9-3	5-3
I52	Tennessee	sec	6-6	3-5
I53	Central Florida	aac	9-3	7-1
I54	BYU	ind	8-4	*
J55	Penn St	b10	6-6	2-6
J56	Rutgers	b10	7-5	3-5
J57	Oklahoma St	b12	6-6	4-5
J58	North Carolina	acc	6-6	4-4
J59	Pitt	acc	6-6	4-4
J60	Louisiana Tech	cusa	8-5	7-2
K61	California	pac	5-7	3-6
K62	Oregon St	pac	5-7	2-7
K63	Michigan	b10	5-7	3-5
K64	Navy*	ind	6-5*	*
K65	Virginia Tech	acc	6-6	3-5
K66	Nevada	mw	7-5	4-4
L67	Western Kentucky	cusa	7-5	4-4
L68	Western Michigan	mac	8-4	6-2
L69	Georgia Southern	sun	9-3	8-0
L70	Illinois	b10	6-6	3-5
L71	Texas Tech	b12	4-8	2-7
L72	Virginia	acc	5-7	3-5
M73	UL-Lafayette	sun	8-4	7-1
M74	Houston	aac	7-5	5-3
M75	San Diego St	mw	7-5	5-3
M76	Toledo	mac	8-4	7-1
M77	Northwestern	b10	5-7	3-5
M78	Temple	aac	6-6	4-4
N79	Arkansas St	sun	7-5	5-3
N80	Rice	cusa	7-5	5-3
N81	Fresno St	mw	6-7	5-4
N82	Bowling Green	mac	7-6	5-4
N83	Central Michigan	mac	7-5	5-3
N84	UTEP	cusa	7-5	5-3
O85	UAB	cusa	6-6	4-4
O86	Washington St	pac	3-9	2-7
O87	Texas St	sun	7-5	5-3
O88	Appalachian St	sun	7-5	6-2
O89	Kansas	b12	3-9	1-8
O90	Syracuse	acc	3-9	1-7
P91	South Alabama	sun	6-6	5-3
P92	Purdue	b10	4-8	2-6
P93	Ohio	mac	6-6	4-4
P94	Middle Tennessee	cusa	6-6	5-3
P95	Colorado	pac	2-10	0-9
P96	Iowa St	b12	2-10	0-9
Q097	UL-Monroe	sun	4-8	3-5
Q098	Ball St	mac	5-7	4-4
Q099	Wyoming	mw	4-8	2-6
Q100	Buffalo	mac	5-6	3-4
Q101	Wake Forest	acc	3-9	1-7
Q102	Indiana	b10	3-9	0-8
R103	Hawaii	mw	4-9	3-5
R104	Old Dominion	cusa	6-6	4-4
R105	South Florida	aac	4-8	3-5
R106	New Mexico	mw	4-8	2-6
R107	Vanderbilt	sec	3-9	0-8
R108	FIU	cusa	4-8	3-5
S109	Florida Atlantic	cusa	3-9	2-6
S110	Akron	mac	5-7	3-5
S111	Tulane	aac	3-9	2-6
S112	Army*	ind	4-7*	*
S113	North Texas	cusa	4-8	2-6
S114	Southern Miss	cusa	3-9	1-7
T115	San Jose St	mw	3-9	2-6
T116	UT-San Antonio	sun	4-7	3-4
T117	Miami-OH	mac	2-10	2-6
T118	Troy	sun	3-9	3-5
T119	Tulsa	aac	2-10	2-6
T120	UNLV	mw	2-11	1-7
U121	Kent St	mac	2-9	1-6
U122	U Massachusetts	mac	3-9	3-5
U123	U Conn	aac	2-10	1-7
U124	Idaho	sun	1-10	1-7
U125	Eastern Michigan	mac	2-10	1-7
U126	SMU	aac	1-11	1-7
V127	New Mexico St	sun	2-10	1-7
V128	Georgia St	sun	1-11	0-8

A few comments, sub-playoff edition...

> This assumes a victory by Boise St over Fresno St in the MWC title game tonight (they lead 28-7 deep in the fourth quarter as we write).

> This obviously does not include the Army-Navy game, conducted on its own next Saturday in the solitude it deserves.

> Congratulations to SMU for moving out of #128 with their victory over UConn today; it leaves Georgia St, winners over a lone FCS team, as the "wooden spoon" winner.

> The big losers were previously #13-16 Oklahoma, Missouri, Arizona, and Wisconsin, all of whom were embarrassed this weekend.

>