jpa2825

A - you can dislike the rule if you want. However, anyone that believes the rule was applied incorrectly in this instance (unless they want to argue the evidence to overturn was inconclusive) is not living in reality B - if I am an NFL coach, I demand after every TD catch that my players walk immediately to a referee and DEMAND that they take the ball from my hands "tug o' war" style. I don't want any question about whether I "completed the catch" -- and I get to make the NFL look stupid for having such a silly rule by doing it as well.

Let's play "what if?" If the Reds had made Cozart a qualifying offer (1 yr., $17.4M), would he have taken that OR the Angels' deal (3 yr., $38M)? If you think he still signs with the Angels, Reds messed up and lost a compensatory draft pick.

JOAT - do you mean that in an "absolute" sense or a "the current market" sense? From an absolute sense, I agree with you. From a "current market" sense, it sounds like a pretty middle of the road deal. Maybe even slightly leaning toward the Angels.

Actually, the NFL is entitled to the opinion that matters here. Your rationale and thinking are that of an "old grappler." Even though the NFL celebrated people getting "jacked up" and "earholed" with videos and special highlight reels, those are no longer the rules. Moreover, it's moving farther and farther away from those rules each and every week. Whether you think JuJu was right on the hit (everyone presumably agrees the taunting was wrong and likely why he was suspended) is kinda irrelevant. The guys that get to make the rules say it was illegal, he was flagged, he was suspended and is out some cash. Keep doing it and he'll get the reputation Burfict has and won't be able to sneeze the wrong direction without drawing 15 yds. Don't have to like the way the NFL is going, but you can no longer argue that it wasn't an illegal play.

Surprised there isn't a thread for this already. UofL projected to the Sun Bowl (El Paso) v. AZ State by a few pundits but I have also seen Tax Slayer (Jacksonville), Pinstripe (NYC) and Camping World (Orlando).

Here's the way it SHOULD work to qualify for the Playoff. A - be a P5 and win your conference championship with 0 or 1 loss B - be a P5 non-champion with only 1 loss with a strong SOS (incl. at least 1 good OOC game and some good conference wins) If there aren't 4 teams that meet the criteria under A and B, is there a G5 team that went undefeated? If yes, they get in. In 2017, Clemson, OU & Georgia meet the A&B test above. You have to answer the B question as to Bama. I'd argue they did enough b/c FSU in the opener was supposed to be a good game and the SEC was barely good enough this year to qualify. That said, I could certainly see someone arguing the flip side of that. To me, 2 loss P5 team should not get in over undefeated G5 team. Has nothing to do with who would be favored by Vegas or anything else. Under the above system, P5 has ALL the advantages in the world and completely control their own destiny in the Playoff, but you'd at least give G5 teams a sliver of "hope" at the beginning of the year and as the season goes on that they CAN get in. If they can NEVER get in, Kanell is right - this is just an invitational.

Should be an interesting game tonight. Winner goes to the Final 4 in Philadelphia to face winner of #1 seed Wake Forest v. #9 seed Stanford.

Any player that can't consistently make FTs (say 66.6% for shooters and 50.1% for big men) at every point (beginning of practice, middle of practice, end of practice, during games, in street clothes walking past the gym if a coach sees you, whatever) should be required to shoot them underhanded at all time (practices and games) until they can meet those benchmarks. There was an interesting analysis (Ep. 590 of This American Life podcast) of the physics behind shooting FTs this way and why most that could demonstrably improve their performance by doing so (Shaq) refused to do so because "it wasn't cool." At the HS level, coaches should have enough control over their players to say "If you can't meet this RIDICULOUSLY LOW benchmark, you're gonna shoot 'em underhanded until you do." I suspect a bunch of kids would eventually get better at shooting FTs and a few would decide to keep shooting them underhanded.

Rooting for Bama and tOSU to be left out because I think with those 2 fan bases excluded the noise will get louder to expand to 6 or 8. I think it's a travesty that you have lots of FBS schools, this year UCF, who come to practice on Day 1 and KNOW they won't be playing for a national championship and there's absolutely nothing they can do about it. If only P5 + ND have a chance to play for a national championship, create another subdivision for everyone else. Let 'em play for something.

False equivalence. tOSU made it because of scheduling and beating OU. PSU lost out as B1G Champ because their OOC schedule (which they control) was soft. In this instance, Auburn lost AT the current #1 team (Clemson) to open the season. A "good loss" is more valuable than a cupcake win.

Purdue -25.5, won 35-28, Purdue better than most thought they'd be and are going bowling, congrats to Brohm @ UNC -12, won 47-35, UNC worse than thought but good win on the road for Cards v. Clemson +3, lost 47-21, Clemson played well, Cards did not and got beat by a better team v. Kent St., pay for win v. Murray State, pay for win @ NC St. -3, lost 39-25, NC St. better than thought v. BC -19, lost 45-42, BC better than thought, Cards defense atrocious and allowed BC to run wild on them, fumble by Jaylen Smith squashed a late rally but they deserved to lose that game @ FSU +6, won 31-28, UofL took advantage of poor FSU offense and won a game they should have @ Wake -2.5, lost 42-32, Wake better than thought, Cards defense bad v. UVa -11.5, won 38-21, defense starts to improve and good win v. Syracuse -14.5, won 56-10, defense continues to improve over injury riddled Syracuse team v. UK -9, won 44-17. Summary: UofL favored in 10/12 games and were 7-3 in those games (7 were double digits - won 6 of them). Wake & NC St. were basically "pick em" favorites on the road and lost both. UofL split the 2 games they were underdogs @fsu & v. Clemson) and were never a double digit dog. The BC game sticks out as the only real outlier. They were supposed to win big and lost close at home. They won the games they were supposed to and lost the 3 close spreads. In retrospect, the spread should've been larger v. Clemson as UofL is not yet in their class but it was early in the season for them with a new QB. Similarly, FSU probably shouldn't have been a 6 point favorite v. UofL but they were coming off the loss at home to BC where defense was wretched and it was in Tallahassee with Jimbo wanting some revenge for the curb stomp in 2016. Could've been 9-3 or 10-2. 7-5 was about the bottom against that schedule. 6-6 would've been a collapse. It's good that fans are barely satisfied with an 8-4 season with a boat race of UK in the final game.

Should Kentucky fans be worried about Nick Haynes' tweet? | Lexington Herald Leader

Did they change the rule on linemen downfield on punts? Obviously talking about UK's rugby style punter (UofL didn't punt). With no rush by UofL, it seemed like the other 10 players were all 10+ yards downfield before the ball was punted.

Love the way Snell plays and how he runs. That said, giving the "double Ls down" after scoring late to cut the lead from 34 to 28 was not a good look. Celebrate if you want, but don't call out your opponent in that situation.

So we agree that JTBIV should not be a Davey O'Brien Finalist?

But SHOULD he?

Maybe this is a whole separate topic, but the idea to create a "pay for play" college basketball system at HBCUs is pretty interesting. An HBCU Pay-for-Play Basketball League would disrupt the NCAA - HBCU Gameday

Undefeated and B1G champ Wisky gets in over either 1 loss TheU or Bama. 2 loss tOSU wins B1G champ and there's lots of screamin' and yellin' going on between them and Bama. I think 1 loss & non-champ TheU is at the bottom of any of those lists.

It just seems to me that if 1 guy, say Arenado, was SOOOOOO valuable to the Rockies that he helped them get to the playoffs, how can Blackmon also be that valuable? Maybe my mind just doesn't work that well.

I don't hate either guy's explanation. However, for the 4 ballots that had Votto/Stanton 5/6, all had Blackmon & Arenado above them. I just can't imagine how you can put 2 guys on the same team (a team that won the same # of playoff games that the Reds won ) ahead of either of those guys. Mind boggling.

It's also "bendable" to play in an existing co-tenant situation so long as there is a "soccer only" stadium on the drawing board in a realistic timeframe. Would be interesting to see if FCC has the "stones" to call MLS' bluff. Don't commit but show the possibilities and see if they get franchise awarded. If yes, slow roll things for the best deal while still playing at Nippert and keeping most happy. (Of course, FCC misses out on most/all concessions at Nippert which is a big chunk of change. If they self-fund in Newport, they get to keep all of that.)

Play along with me here: tOSU wins out. USC wins out. Bama, Miami and OU win out. Who gets the 4th playoff spot between tOSU and USC? (If it matters, assume Wisky loses to MI this week and is not undefeated when tOSU beats them in the B1G Champ.)

Playing the "harder side" of the Conference also matters (in SOS). Wisky controls its OOC schedule, so shame on them if they are on the outside looking in with 1 loss. UGa would've been in the same situation if they had beaten Auburn and then lost to Bama in the SEC Champ. UGa would have at least had @ND on their OOC schedule to make the argument.

Hyperbole much? Duvall 2016 WAR was 2.9 (high "solid starter" to low "good player"); his 2017 WAR was 1.8 (high "role player"); neither = "awful"; given his economics (total control and not Arb1 until 2019), there are more important things to address with the 2018 Reds. Schebler was 0.6 in 2016 (w/ Reds) and 1.4 in 2017; worse than Duvall, but not awful and economically advantaged (total control and not Arb1 until 2020 earliest) Hamilton was 3.1 in 2016 and 1.2 in 2017. He's Arb2 and should make around $5M, so he's closing in on fish/cut bait time. Would hate to see him go from an attitude standpoint, but if you can get something good for him, I am not opposed. If not, drop him to #8 or #9 and ask him to play defense.

I assume you are giving spots 1-3 to SEC Champ, ACC Champ and Big 12 Champ?