College Football Playoff (CFP) Chaos, it's all the rage: Several weeks ago I pitched the idea of UNC crashing the CFP Final Four and then all of America read the same tea leaves and the Tar Heels have occupied much of the discussion ever since. My royalty check for such a prescient idea must be lost in the mail. Oh well. After making such a bold prediction that Larry Fedora would challenge the committee's Mission Statement, I'm prepared to take a wild left turn off that same idea and predict yet another layer of chaos. Let's set the stage for Saturday: Oklahoma is IN, Alabama is IN after a tougher-than-expected win over UF, the B1G champ is IN, and Stanford loses to USC. With that setup, Clemson and UNC wage a war for the ages. Two high-scoring offenses with overlooked defenses engage in a defensive struggle that ultimately results in a grind-it-out, last second GW field goal for UNC 23-21. Under those very specific circumstances, I predict a scenario where Clemson claims the #4 spot in the Playoff. This obviously thumbs its nose at the AP Poll traditionalists who are still brainwashed to believe that losses immediately knock you out of contention and open the door for another team with its own older loss to whiz past them in the rankings. But if the committee is entrusted to select the "best four teams" and Clemson has unquestionably held the #1 spot for most of the season and loses a nailbiter on the final play to a team that everyone, including the committee, has kicked in the shins for 3 weeks because of a weak, FCS-laden schedule then why not Clemson? Admittedly, this scenario looks waaaay different if Clemson gets their teeth kicked in for four quarters, but a hard fought loss in a conference championship game should keep the Tigers in the running for the National Title.
Proud (??) NFL Sunday Ticket Subscriber: Paul Tagliabue got his wish. Parity runs amok in the NFL and I'm not convinced its such a good thing. I suppose the idea of parity is meant to keep every team in contention for a longer period of the season and inspire playoff hopes among more fan bases across the league, but its actually created one giant morass of Meh. Each week I set up three TVs in my bonus room and fire up my Sunday Ticket package eagerly seeking the marquee matchups that will keep me sitting on the edge of my seat from 1pm to 7pm. Instead I do a once-over on the schedule and realize most of these games will be complete snoozefests. I've come to refer to the 2nd quarter as my naptime for the day. Entering Sunday, 13 teams (40% of the league) are within 1 game of .500. Another six teams are 4-7 with the last sliver of playoff aspirations hanging in the wind this weekend. As a fan, its impossible to get excited about most of these teams (I'm ignoring the fantasy component of watching football; call me corny, but I watch football for the love of the game). Its not like they are all equally matched super-squads with multiple HOFs among them slugging it out every Sunday for a small chance of staying alive in the playoff hunt. Nope, these are ugly teams playing mostly ugly football. Granted, I'm a Falcons fan, so I see alot of ugly football which might cloud my vision, but I do have 2 other televisions with other games on and commonly those games lack just as much sizzle as the Dirty Birds. I don't have the space to solve this problem, but suffice it to say that it IS a problem that originated from a solution to a different problem 25 years ago.
Parenting Story of the Week: My wife has a pretty good habit of regularly tidying up our kids' clothes drawers and reposing old clothes to the Rubbermaids in our garage. Its getting cold here in NC and my 2.5 year old son had a dearth of adequate pants. As I rummaged through his pants drawer I saw some jeans he hadn't worn in awhile and thought "eh, these'll work". As soon as I put them on he quickly rubbed his belly right at the waistband and I didn't think anything of it, then as he ran down the hallway I thought "man, he's getting tall, those pants are highwaters on him". A little while later my wife came home and pointed out to me that I put our 33 month old son in 18 month old jeans. I'm an idiot.
Random Thoughts:
Proud (??) NFL Sunday Ticket Subscriber: Paul Tagliabue got his wish. Parity runs amok in the NFL and I'm not convinced its such a good thing. I suppose the idea of parity is meant to keep every team in contention for a longer period of the season and inspire playoff hopes among more fan bases across the league, but its actually created one giant morass of Meh. Each week I set up three TVs in my bonus room and fire up my Sunday Ticket package eagerly seeking the marquee matchups that will keep me sitting on the edge of my seat from 1pm to 7pm. Instead I do a once-over on the schedule and realize most of these games will be complete snoozefests. I've come to refer to the 2nd quarter as my naptime for the day. Entering Sunday, 13 teams (40% of the league) are within 1 game of .500. Another six teams are 4-7 with the last sliver of playoff aspirations hanging in the wind this weekend. As a fan, its impossible to get excited about most of these teams (I'm ignoring the fantasy component of watching football; call me corny, but I watch football for the love of the game). Its not like they are all equally matched super-squads with multiple HOFs among them slugging it out every Sunday for a small chance of staying alive in the playoff hunt. Nope, these are ugly teams playing mostly ugly football. Granted, I'm a Falcons fan, so I see alot of ugly football which might cloud my vision, but I do have 2 other televisions with other games on and commonly those games lack just as much sizzle as the Dirty Birds. I don't have the space to solve this problem, but suffice it to say that it IS a problem that originated from a solution to a different problem 25 years ago.
Parenting Story of the Week: My wife has a pretty good habit of regularly tidying up our kids' clothes drawers and reposing old clothes to the Rubbermaids in our garage. Its getting cold here in NC and my 2.5 year old son had a dearth of adequate pants. As I rummaged through his pants drawer I saw some jeans he hadn't worn in awhile and thought "eh, these'll work". As soon as I put them on he quickly rubbed his belly right at the waistband and I didn't think anything of it, then as he ran down the hallway I thought "man, he's getting tall, those pants are highwaters on him". A little while later my wife came home and pointed out to me that I put our 33 month old son in 18 month old jeans. I'm an idiot.
Random Thoughts:
- Annie Lennox begat Pink. Cyndi Lauper begat Lady Gaga. Barbara Streisand begat Adele.
- Sometimes I toast my PB&J bread to trick my stomach into thinking I'm eating a hot meal.
Things we learned this week:
- Jahlil Okafor hates losing almost as much as he hates being heckled about losing
- Kerwin Roach got mad hops
- These two Adele-related videos from SNL and the BBC caught my eye.
- I played this for my in-laws last week and they laughed heartily at Moms learning iTunes.
Housekeeping: Please note the polls on the right margin. They'll stay active for the week and polling will close every Friday night. If you have a poll question submission just email me and we'll see, no promises. I'll also regularly post fun lists for you to WOW your friends at the water cooler. I've received suggestions for future topics, but some of them are outside of my wheelhouse. So, I encourage you to submit a paragraph on a topic from the world of sports or entertainment and I'll see if you can co-opt a section of my blog :) I'm hoping to do a section on Survivor and/or The Amazing Race in the coming weeks. Top Chef returned this week, too, so maybe that'll make the cut. Finally, if you're new to The Chatter check out the archives. I went live with this iteration of the blog this week, but beta testing included some early blog posts. Check 'em out.
