Catching up has a totally unbiased ballot

Now Chris Petersen hates the BCS: It's all the system's fault:

"Everybody is just very tired of the BCS. I think that's the bottom line. Everybody is frustrated. Everybody doesn't really know what to do anymore. It doesn't make sense to anybody. I don't think anybody is happy anywhere. The whole thing needs to be changed, there's no question about it."

Let's start with this: Boise State got hosed. Being No. 7 and getting passed up for two possible at-large spots (and ending up in the Las Vegas Bowl against ASU lol) sucks a lot. This is not in dispute.

But his argument is still fundamentally stupid. Boise has played in two ginormous bowl games in the last six years entirely because of the BCS. Way back in the day, blah-conference champions went to blah-conference-champion bowl games. BYU went undefeated in 1984 and played in the Holiday Bowl against 6-5 Michigan. Boise has played in the Fiesta Bowl twice almost entirely because the BCS has an autobid for non-AQ-conference champions. BTW, that's another easy counterpoint: Boise would be (a) guaranteed a bid and (b) probably playing for the national title if it had won the freakin' WAC. The WAC! The second-place team in the WAC isn't getting a BCS bid while the first-place team goes the Poinsettia Bowl.

There are a lot of legitimate gripes about the ridiculousness of the BCS; Petersen doesn't have one. Scrapping the system would do nothing whatsoever for this year's Boise and would've cost previous years' versions a couple Fiesta Bowls and bazillions of dollars. The end.

Fresno State fires Pat Hill (?!?): There was a time not long ago when Fresno State was arguably the best non-BCS-conference team in the country. Remember David Carr and the '01 team and then the epic USC game in '05? Man ... RABBLE RABBLE NOT GOOD ENOUGH RABBLE! Pat Hill went 112-80 in 15 years and had a grand total of three losing seasons; this year unfortunately was one of them. Fresno State went 4-9, which was a little too much considering that there was already some disenchantment around the program's plateau at New Mexico Bowl levels.

To be fair, Fresno wasn't exactly in a crater when Hill got there. Jim Sweeney had three straight losing seasons at the end but left with a winning percentage .654 when Fresno was in the old Big West. Hill's winning percentage was slightly worse but against better competition, especially in the early 2000s, when Fresno was playing a ridiculous nonconference schedule every year. The 2001 team beat Colorado, Oregon State and Wisconsin (when all those teams were actually good) and would've played for the national title if not for a prophetic/ironic loss to Boise State in November.

Anyway, Hill is about to turn 60 and probably wasn't gonna be around a whole lot longer but probably deserved to go out on his own terms after 15 years of (mostly) awesomeness. He set the bar high and generally coached up to it. I'm curious to see whether Hill gets another job and whether Fresno gets somebody of comparable quality (albeit probably much younger) to replace him. The job is a relatively good one despite the potentially unrealistic expectations.

Oregon dismisses Cliff Harris: Ahh, Cliff Harris. Sadly, this isn't surprising at all:

All-American cornerback Cliff Harris has been dismissed from the Oregon Ducks for violating team rules.

Harris was already suspended from the Ducks because of a traffic stop in October and wasn't allowed to participate in team activities. He missed the last five games of the regular season and last weekend's Pac-12 championship game.

The Fresno Bee reported Monday that Harris was cited for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana in Fresno, Calif., on Nov. 25. The junior is from the central California city and went to Edison High School.

Harris was suspended from the team indefinitely by coach Chip Kelly on Oct. 24 when he was cited for driving on a suspended license, without proper insurance and without a seatbelt. Harris was also suspended for the season opener to after a he was cited for driving 118 mph on Interstate 5 in June.

Solid life choices. In case you forgot (and you might have), Harris was an All-American last year and probably the best punt returner in the country; he had a ridiculous 18.8-yard average and four touchdowns (!). He basically didn't play at all this year: six games as a backup, one pick and nine punt returns for about seven yards a pop. Oregon obviously moved on this year and should be fine in the secondary with Terrence Mitchell, Troy Hill, Avery Patterson and maybe Dior Mathis. Harris will presumably try to transfer (maybe to juco?) since he's got a year of eligibility left, which offers a full 12 months of new arrest opportunities.

UAB hires Garrick McGee: Interesting. McGee is pretty widely regarded as an excellent passing-game O-coordinator at Arkansas (obvsly since he works under Bobby Petrino) and was thought to be a potential candidate for some bigger jobs before being introduced at UAB on Monday. He's also a Broyles Award finalist this year and is only 38.

McGee has never been a head coach and has only been a coordinator for two years but is still a pretty fantastic hire for UAB, a school with almost zero fan support (16,000 a game???) and an 18-42 record over the past five years; Neil Callaway had exactly zero winning seasons before getting fired. Obviously, the bar is pretty low.

McGee reportedly turned down the Tulsa job last offseason and might have been a Plan C-level candidate at Arizona State since he started his playing career there and presumably had some connections. Instead ... umm ... UAB. He should be able to implement a reasonably effective passing game (he's got extensive experience as a quarterbacks and receivers coach) and at least sell some tickets. The winning part might be a little tougher, but again, the bar is low. A couple .500-ish seasons and a division title would make him the Kevin Sumlin of 2014.

Tulane hires Curtis Johnson: I'm gonna be honest: I know absolutely nothing about Curtis Johnson except for the widely reported fact that he's been the New Orleans Saints receivers coach for the past six years. A little research reveals that all his previous coaching experience was at the college level (that's good) as a receivers coach (that's not so good), most notably at Miami from 1996-2005. He's making a big jump up to D-I head coach.

That doesn't mean he can't be successful -- Art Briles had all of one year as a running backs coach at Texas Tech before getting the Houston job -- but it does make things a little tougher, as does working two jobs; Johnson is gonna stay with the Saints through the end of the season. The one thing he's definitely got going for him: He's from New Orleans and reportedly has massive recruiting connections. That can't hurt.

It's always seemed to me like Tulane should be a pretty good program: good market, great recruiting base, a little history, etc. They allegedly wanted Mike Leach and actually offered the job to Rich Rodriguez, who was the O-coordinator at Tulane back in the Tommy Bowden era. Those guys were totally unrealistic but were worth a shot because they both have a track record of (mostly) success. Johnson has no track record and is therefore a complete unknown in terms of his head coaching abilities.

Greg McMackin retires: Remember when Hawaii was playing in the Sugar Bowl four years ago? Yeah ... McMackin's relatively disappointing tenure ended with a three-touchdown loss to BYU on Saturday that completed a 6-7 season. In four years, he went 6-7, 7-7, 10-3 and 6-7. That's a 29-25 record that compares not so favorably to June Jones' 76-41 record over the previous nine years (and Jones took over a program that was totally in the crapper).

McMackin obviously wasn't terrible but definitely had some issues. Outside of Bryant Moniz's ridiculous 2010 season, the offense wasn't nearly as good as it was under Jones, and the defense stayed about equally mediocre. This year's Hawaii played a bunch of close games but also lost by three touchdowns to UNLV (!) and lost to bad San Jose State and Fresno State teams. Oh, and there was this:

There were also unfounded allegations that some players may have been involved in point-shaving.

The university said it received an anonymous letter Nov. 3 accusing unnamed players of intentionally playing poorly to affect the final score as part of a gambling scheme. Honolulu police and the NCAA were notified after the university received the letter, but police have said there isn't enough information for a criminal investigation.

The Warriors were 0-7-1 against the spread in their last eight games.

The school said McMackin wasn't forced out, which may or may not be entirely true but doesn't really matter now. He's 62 and probably didn't see massive improvement in the near future. The obvious candidates are O-coordinator Nick Rolovich (a former Hawaii QB who's an old man at 32) and Texas defensive backs coach Duane Akina. I bet you can figure out his connection.

Dayne Crist no mas at Notre Dame: No surprise here. Crist apparently had no desire to spend his senior year on the bench behind Tommy Rees and is planning to transfer since he's already got a degree. Crist was never very good at ND (despite playing in the quarterback-friendliest system in existence) but won the starting job twice and obviously has some talent; he could be of value somewhere and probably won't have much trouble finding a place to play.

Everybody's saying Wisconsin, which would make sense since Russell Wilson is a fifth-year senior and Wisconsin apparently has no issues with going the free-agent route. Crist isn't Russell Wilson but would probably be better than the group of guys they've got who have never seen the field. BTW, shouldn't they have to play a non-senior non-transfer quarterback at some point? Argh. The other obvious possibility: Florida and Jabba the Weis, who recruited Crist at Notre Dame.

Jake Heaps to transfer: Jake Heaps was the top-rated quarterback in the country in 2009 and picked BYU over a billion other offers. He started for most of 2010 and was pretty dang good for a freshman (a little under 60 percent with 15 touchdowns and nine picks). He started the first five games this year, played pretty poorly, got benched for Riley Nelson, played great in the two games Nelson missed because of injury, then went back to the bench. Result:

After two seasons at Brigham Young, former Skyline standout quarterback Jake Heaps is transferring.

The sophomore, who started the Cougars' final 10 games as a freshman and the first five in 2011, was given his release by coach Bronco Mendenhall Monday. Heaps has yet to decide where he will continue his college football career.

Some guys bail because they just can't cut it; Heaps isn't one of those guys. He wants a starting job and can probably get one since he's already got offers from USC, Washington, Washington State and some others. Word on the interwebz is that Wazzu is probably the favorite since (a) Mike Leach hahaha and (b) he's from Washington, although he actually went to school about five minutes from Seattle and U-Dub. Steve Sarkisian's not bad with quarterbacks either.

Nick Saban puts Oklahoma State at No. 4: Nick Saban doing something borderline unethical to benefit himself?


That is all.

RichRod is gettin' the gang back together: Arizona announced three coaching hires Monday that I could have named off the top of my head in advance: Calvin Magee (offensive coordinator), Tony Dews (receivers coach) and Tony Gibson (defensive backs coach). All three of those guys were with RichRod at West Virginia, left with him for Michigan and ended up at Pitt this year. They're his core guys, even if Gibson is widely agreed to be terrible. Magee, on the other hand, has actually had some head coaching interviews, so getting him back at Arizona isn't an insignificant move. That's the good news.

The bad news: There's now one scholarship quarterback on roster, and that's redshirt senior Matt Scott. Ex-Rutgers QB Tom Savage lasted about a month in Tucson before announcing his transfer this week, which wouldn't be a significant problem except fairly highly touted freshman Daxx Garman is also transferring. The Savage thing was allegedly unrelated to the Rodriguez hiring; I'm sure the Garman thing wasn't. Recruitin' time!

One more note on the coaching staff: RichRod said he hopes to have a defensive coordinator by the end of the week. That may or may not rule out Jeff Casteel since West Virginia is set to play in the Orange Bowl on January 3. I haven't heard any other specific names as obvious candidates and have to believe Casteel is Plan A, B, C, D and E after the never-ending D-coordinator debacle at Michigan.

LSU team shop derp: This seems like an obvious hack job but was admitted by the vendor to be a hilariously unfortunate mistake:

Hilarious.

Michigan State advertising derp: The banner ad should probably be updated:

Spartyfreude: It's so delicious.

Weber State hires John L. Smith (?!?): John L. Smith is 63 and ... ummm ... OK fine I really just wanted to post this video:


I have nothing to add.

Purdue hates ACLs: There's a little-known rule that all Purdue athletes must tear an ACL at least once, preferably twice. Seriously, it's out of control. Ralph Bolden is compliant:

Purdue starting running back Ralph Bolden has suffered a torn ACL that will end his season.

Boilermakers coach Danny Hope confirmed Bolden's injury Sunday night. Bolden sustained the injury in the third quarter of Purdue's win against Indiana on Nov. 26. The junior leads the team in rushing with 674 yards and six touchdowns on 148 carries.

Bolden is legitimately good but just can't keep his knees from exploding. I won't be surprised if his career's over; if he can recover and maintain some semblance of athleticism, he does have a year of eligibility left. Sad-but-hilarious graphic goes here:

Poor Purdue.

Why am I supposed to be furious?

According to every columnist-type person in the universe, I should be outraged right now at the idea of a rematch and the stupidity of the system and everything else related in any way to the BCS. RABBLE RABBLE SEC UNFAIR RABBLE WIN CONFERENCE RABBLE.

So ... the outrage. I don't have it. LSU and Alabama are probably the two best teams in the country and will play for the national title. This is not the worst thing ever; it isn't even a bad thing. My understanding is that the two best teams are supposed to play for the national championship. That's about to happen. Hooray?

I made this comment the other day ...

The whole thing is simple (kind of) but gets complicated by a million arguments that miss the forest for the trees.

... but didn't really expand on it a whole lot. AFAIK, the entire purpose of the BCS is to match the two best teams in the country, and that's good (at least in theory). Everything else is a byproduct that's really no better or worse than the old bowl system (not significantly, anyway). I've argued with people a lot over the last few years about that particular premise. The weird thing is that those arguments were always about Boise State. My side: I don't care at all about strength of schedule or number of wins over ranked teams or conference strength or blah blah blah. What I care about is which are the two best teams. If Boise State is/was one of the two best teams in a given year, skewing the poll because of some relevant-but-not-all-telling number is stupid. Vote for the best teams.

The problem (for lack of a better word) is trying to figure out how to define "best." Everybody has a slightly different formula that typically gets closer to entirely resume-based by the end of the season. I mean, performance is what matters, right? But there are extremely limited data points because of schedule variations, small sample sizes, etc. Houston/Boise State/whoever can go 12-0 and not be top-10 good. Houston/Boise State/whoever can also go 12-0 and be absolutely dominant. The record shows no difference. Things like total yards and scoring margin and whatnot offer some help; how much help is hard to determine since you have to do a lot of schedule-related adjusting to figure out exactly what the numbers mean. There are almost zero direct comparison points available, and a lot of the ones that exist are too skewed (because of site, injuries, circular "Team A beat Team B beat Team C beat Team A" logic, etc.) to take at face value. There are infinite variables that can't be stripped out and can't be mathematicized the way the BCS tries. What that means is that every ranking system is some sort of fluid combination of randomly timed observations, preferable stats and a simplified wins-times-strength-of-schedule formula. And then it changes to fit the argument.

I've realized recently that there's a fundamental difference of opinion about that. To me, the championship game should feature the two best teams. To other people, it should feature the two most deserving teams, which might be easier to define in a formulaic sense but is really hard to define in a fairness sense. To other people, it should feature whatever particular combination seems compelling that year, which is super subjective.

All the arguments I've seen against an LSU-Alabama title game revert to the same stupid premise: We've already seen that game once and therefore shouldn't see it again in the title game. The problem with that: It ignores the possibility that the two best teams in the country are in the same conference or division. This would be an appropriate spot to reiterate the two best teams are (in theory) supposed to play for the championship.

The one argument I really haven't seen (at least not specifically) that has some validity is the one that says it's impossible to know with 100 percent certainty that LSU and Bama are the two best teams. Alabama didn't play Iowa State or Oklahoma or Baylor and Oklahoma State didn't play Penn State or Arkansas; again, the comparison points are not just limited but nonexistent. Maybe Oklahoma State is the best team in the country. We'll never know for sure. But if the consensus is that LSU is the best team -- which seems to be commonly accepted -- Alabama has to be right there too. We know for a fact that LSU and Alabama are almost dead equal; there are infinite scenarios in which one play turns out slightly differently in that game and Alabama wins, thus becoming the unanimous No. 1 team and an indisputable lock for the national title game. The difference between a win and a loss in that game was nothing.

There's part of me that wants to see Oklahoma State-LSU for both the entertainment value and the give-me-another-data-point value. Let me put it a better way: If Oklahoma State is roughly equal to Alabama and we've already seen LSU beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa, why not give No. 2(b) a shot so we can see LSU against all legitimate challengers? To be clear, I wouldn't have an issue with that. The Oklahoma State-Oklahoma game was enough for me to believe that Oklahoma State might be in Alabama's class and therefore LSU's class. The obvious problem with that scenario is that it's setting up a de facto playoff solely for LSU. There'd be an absolute and unquestioned national champion if LSU were to win that game since that'd be a ridiculous fourth win over a top-six team, but an Oklahoma State win wouldn't necessarily mean anything definitive in that scenario other than Oklahoma State > LSU. The reason it wouldn't necessarily mean anything: We'd just have taken one particular team of similar quality to Alabama to create a new scenario since we'd already seen the most obvious alternative. But couldn't Stanford/Boise State/whoever be just as good as Oklahoma State? The lack-of-data-points issue can't be resolved by putting LSU and Oklahoma State on a field and saying, "yup, this settles it." Nay.

In the absence of a larger (non-two-team) playoff, a line has to be drawn below the consensus second-best team. That's it. The hypothetically amazing idea of seeking out all possible relevant matchups is ridiculously implausible given the bowl format. That's unfortunate for the people who believe Oklahoma State is the second-best team this year. It's a ranking-based, Republic-style system. It is what it is.

Speaking of which, there's a hilarious meme that gets rehashed every year at this time by Coach Pissed Off of Snubbed University regarding "the system" and how it's so unfair and the computers make no sense and yadda yadda yadda. We get it: You're old and cranky and don't know what Twitter is. Chris Petersen is this year's That Guy.

"The computers" are not the problem. They're valuable because they spit out hypothetically unbiased numbers based entirely (allegedly) on wins, losses and schedule strength, even if those numbers sometimes make no sense because the people in charge of the system don't allow a whole bunch of relevant information; that's probably an argument for another time. BTW, I want to punch every coach who says "I don't understand how can computers pick a national champion" the same way my great-grandma would say "I don't understand how a computer can get mail." Information goes in and information comes out. It's not freakin' Skynet putting money down on Oregon and then manipulating the results.

"The system" is not the problem. The system was designed to be an improvement on the old every-bowl-pick-some-teams days that led to a 1-2 matchup about twice a decade and a split national championship about equally often. The BCS produces a 1-2 game every year and a bunch of other bowl games that are basically equal to (or maybe better* than) what we had before.

The concept of the system is the problem: Picking two and only two teams (best, most deserving, whatever) based on the amount of information that can be gleaned from one season is a totally unreasonable task. I read a pro-playoff piece once that pointed out that the college football season provides less data/information than any other sport yet is the only season that doesn't end in a playoff of some sort. Think about that.

A playoff is so obvious that I don't even need to argue for it. Preaching, choir, etcetera. But there isn't one. There's a two-team game, and LSU and Alabama are in it because a large majority of people believe they're the two best teams. That's what's supposed to happen. There's an important distinction between the system failing and the system doing exactly what it was intended to do but failing to produce the publicly preferred outcome, which was essentially an everybody-gets-a-shot-at-LSU playoff.

Week 14: Nothin' left but the bowls

Playing 30 minutes is sufficient: I didn't think LSU was capable of playing such a totally and completely inept half of football. The fact that they did and still beat a top-15 team by five touchdowns is pretty ridiculous. The numbers at halftime Saturday: no first downs, eight total yards, no offensive points. Guh. It could have been 20-0 Georgia but instead was 10-7 because (a) LSU's defense is pretty good under any circumstances and (b) Tyrann Mathieu might be the best player in the country. Video:


Absurd. BTW, crossing the goal line before celebrating is usually the way to go:


Don't be DeSean Jackson plzkthx. Anyway, Georgia was winning 10-7 at halftime; one forced fumble and one more ridiculous punt return later, it was 21-10 LSU and the game was over. LSU had 46 total yards at that point. It only got worse once the offense actually started, like, getting first downs and stuff. What's crazy is that I'm not sure LSU can play any worse; this team might have the lowest floor of any team I've ever watched. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I gotta agree with Gary Danielson: No matter what happens in the BCS title game, LSU deserves at least a share of the national championship. A one-loss LSU is still the best one-loss team in the country based on a split with Bama, a ridiculous resume and pretty much everything else.

That's a paddlin': There was a question on College GameDay's Twitter feed the other day along the lines of "Oklahoma State has to beat Oklahoma by ___ to move up to No. 2." Whatever number I would have put in there would have been totally unreasonable but probably no bigger than the actual margin. It was an absolute whoopin' from beginning to end ... well, kind of. Oklahoma played fine for most of the first half and got inside the Oklahoma State 40-yard line four times but got a total of zero points because of a pick, two crappy series and this disastrousness:


This happened about two possessions later and was even more derpy:


Oklahoma State could have produced zero points on offense and still won. It was 44-3 after three quarters and could have gotten really ugly if Mike Gundy hadn't gone into run-out-the-clock mode the rest of the way. I wonder if he's reconsidering now. Anyway, like I said last night, I'm now willing to acknowledge that Oklahoma State might be Alabama-level good. A pretty good team can't beat Oklahoma by a million points. The Iowa State game just seems so inexplicable now. It's kind of weird and dumb to think about how different things would be in the alternate universe in which Iowa State has a mediocre kicker and Oklahoma State is unbeaten and a unanimous No. 2 despite being the exact same team. /headasplode.

As for Oklahoma, I don't know what happened to Landry Jones. He didn't throw a touchdown pass in any of the last three games, and while the Baylor game was kinda fluky because of the nonstop Tebow Heavy deployment with Blake Bell, the last two games were against Iowa State's mediocre pass defense and Oklahoma State's pretty-good-but-not-exactly-dominant pass defense; his combined line in those games was 49 of 97 for 506 yards with no TDs and four picks. Was Ryan Broyles that important to the Oklahoma offense? Maybe. The drop-off was both immediate and drastic.

Thank you, Wisconsin: The Big Ten championship game: It was awesome. It was exactly like the first Wisconsin-Michigan State game except filled with "lol wut" plays that would have seemed basically normal in a Tuesday night MAC game but seemed totally ridiculous in the Big Ten championship game. Here's one ...


... and here's another ...


... and here's another:


Entertainment FTW. The Wisconsin offense did whatever it wanted on the first three drives and then disappeared while Michigan State scored 22 straight points (just like last time) to go ahead 29-21 at the half. I don't understand why Wisconsin sucks so much in the second quarter against Michigan State. Anyway, nothing of significance changed until Wisconsin had a fourth-and-6 at the MSU 43 with about four minutes left in the game, at which point Russell Wilson did a bunch of amazing things and Jeff Duckworth (?) did an even amazing-er thing:


Wow. Wisconsin then got the ball back but got stopped and had to punt with a little under two minutes on the clock. FYI, Wisconsin's had some similar situations this year that haven't ended well. This one did end well via the ultimate "SPARTY NOOOO" moment:


Hahahahahahahaha. Without the penalty, that's a Michigan State touchdown and a freakin' Rose Bowl berth. With it, Wisconsin wins. Spartyfreude: It's delicious. BTW, Montee Ball finished with his usual four touchdowns and now has an absolutely ridiculous 38 this season. He'll tie Barry Sanders' mind-boggling record with one more in the Rose Bowl, which seems pretty doable.

Clemson makes no sense: I just don't understand how this team got blown out three times in the last month around obliterations of a pretty good Virginia Tech team. Clemson hadn't given up fewer than 28 points since the beginning of October (!) and then gave up 10 to Va. Tech. David Wilson had 32 rushing yards on 11 carries. Logan Thomas had 2 yards (yup, 2) on 12 carries and went 22 of 44 with a touchdown and two picks. No comprendo. And Tajh Boyd went absolutely ham against a typicall elite Virginia Tech defense, going 20 for 29 for 240 yards with three touchdowns and no picks and running for 28 yards and a TD (it was a QB sneak, but still). Solid. Dabo Swinney got carried off the field, which was probably awesome considering that the options were "9-4 and a definite possibility of getting fired" and "school's first-ever ACC championship and a spot in the Orange Bowl." He's safe for at least another year, maybe longer since there's a good chance Clemson finishes 11-3 with a BCS win over West Virginia (guh). Virginia Tech (for some reason) is headed to the Sugar Bowl despite playing zero BCS-conference teams outside the ACC and losing twice to the only ranked team on the schedule. In other words, Boise State got hosed.

End of the road for Houston: That was ... ummm ... unexpected? It can't be underestimated how well the Southern Miss defense played; Case Keenum threw 67 times and finished with 373 yards, two touchdowns and two picks, one of which was a pick six. That's not good. Houston had easily its lowest point total of the season, and that's gonna be a problem when the defense gives up 35 points and close to 500 yards. Austin Davis outplayed Keenum by a mile and finished with 8.5 yards per attempt and four touchdowns. I kind of assumed after the Tulsa game last week that Houston was just too good on offense to lose to anybody at the C-USA level; I was obviously wrong. There's a reason I never put Houston in the top 10. BTW, I wonder if it's worth it for Conference USA to have a revenue-generating conference championship game that ends up costing the conference about $18 million in BCS money. Just a thought. At least Houston ended up in a pretty good bowl game (unlike Boise) against a pretty good Penn State team. I'll watch that.

Oregon whatever: There's not much to say. UCLA started with the ball and was trailing 7-0 about 90 seconds into the game. Darron Thomas and LaMichael James combined for 448 total yards and six touchdowns, and it could've been 10 if Oregon hadn't taken the fourth quarter off. UCLA actually played reasonably well on offense but had no chance despite Gus Johnson making it sound like it was a spectacularly thrilling game. Also, Kevin Prince = dead:


Yeesh. He got hit just as hard later and somehow still finished finished the game. I award him 1,000,000 meaningless toughness points. It should also be noted that Oregon has now won the Pac-whatever three straight times since Chip Kelly took over. Yes, Oregon is becoming a dynasty.

It's MAC-tastic: The underrated game of the week was unquestionably the MAC championship game between Ohio and Northern Illinois. Ohio led 20-0 at halftime and 20-7 midway through the fourth quarter. NIU got a 32-yard touchdown pass, stopped Ohio near midfield, got some help from a 13-yard punt (lol) and scored on a 22-yard touchdown pass to tie it with about three minutes left. Ohio then went three-and-out and punted with 1:18 on the clock. NIU could've taken a knee but didn't and got 27 yards on the first play and 15 yards on the third and then won it on a chip-shot field goal as time expired. That's a clutch/ballsy way to win a title.

The Big East: It's not good. I'm totally in favor of getting rid of the AQ concept. That is all.

Player of the Week: I'd like to use this space to point out that North Texas running back Lance Dunbar had a ridiculous 313 yards (!!!) and four touchdowns against North Texas on Saturday. He averaged 7.8 yards on 40 carries.

Post-everything top 10: I've already said my piece about the teams at the top. The difference between LSU and Alabama is so microscopic that I just can't put anybody else at No. 2; matchups aren't relevant here. Oklahoma State is a lot closer to second than anybody else is to third, if that matters. The teams at the bottom are a mix of "whatever" and "because somebody has to go here." I'm not really sure what to do with Oklahoma since the pre-Broyles-injury Oklahoma was awesome and the post-Broyles-injury Oklahoma was blah. I'm also not sure if I can put Michigan in the top 10 without angering the gods and therefore will stick with Arkansas.

1. LSU
2. Alabama
3. Oklahoma State
4. Oregon
5. Stanford
6. USC
7. Boise
8. Oklahoma
9. Wisconsin
10. Arkansas

I like Sugar

Sugar. So much sugar. I believe a road trip to New Orleans is in order.

And now we wait

The games are over. Sad face.

We know a lot. We know LSU can play an entire half without producing a single first down (srsly) or any positive yards and still beat a top-15 team by five touchdowns. That is an absurd statement. We also know Oregon's offense is still ridonkulous and Montee Ball scores touchdowns the way I eat Snickers.

What we don't know is who's gonna play for the national title, which should make tomorrow pretty interesting. I said this just a couple days ago:

And since a one-loss Oklahoma State isn't jumping a one-loss LSU in any poll, the BCS title game is gonna be a rematch. I'm OK with that this year. There's not a team out there that can make a serious case to be ranked ahead of LSU or Alabama.

Derp. Oklahoma State just made a serious case. I mean ... yeah. It was 44-3 (!!!) after three quarters. Against Oklahoma! Exclamation points!!! I'm willing to acknowledge after watching a good chunk of that whoopin' that Oklahoma State might be Alabama-level good.

The thing I always tell people is this: None of the let-me-distort-some-numbers stuff should matter. Whether Oklahoma State has more top-25 wins (a totally arbitrary cutoff) or more losses to unranked teams or a conference title or more points scored in weeknight road games played in front of crowds between 30,000 and 50,000 people doesn't matter. The only thing that matters: Which are the two best teams in the country? The whole thing is simple (kind of) but gets complicated by a million arguments that miss the forest for the trees.

IMO, the best teams in the country are as follows: LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma State. I'm less positive about the second spot than I was yesterday but still can't justify splitting LSU and Bama given the way their game played out and the splinter-in-my-head thought that Alabama was literally one decent kick away from beating LSU and being a unanimous No. 1. I'd put those two in the national championship game without any concerns about a rematch or conference championships or blah blah blah. The best teams are the best teams, even if there are more than two in the discussion. But not everybody will see it that way after the terrible things Oklahoma State just did to a borderline-elite team. Okie State is gonna be second in the computers and probably second on some ballots, partially because of the total obliteration of Oklahoma (obviously) and partially because of some voters' indisputable desire to avoid a rematch by elevating Florida in 2006 any tenuously comparable replacement. Whether those ballots are enough to offset all the ones* from south of the Mason-Dixon Line is anybody's guess; my guess is no based on how much ground (a lot) Oklahoma State will have to make up in the human polls, which comprise two-thirds of the formula.

It'll be close, though, and that's entirely due to Oklahoma State planting a seed of doubt that most people didn't think could exist. The BCS Selection Show-type thing will actually be worth watching for once.

Assuming Bama stays at No. 2, everything else is a no-brainer because of the total lack of available at-large spots this year. TCU is probably gonna get an autobid by being a conference champion ranked in the top 16 and ahead of the Big East's crappy winner, which means there will be autobids for LSU, Alabama (championship game invite), Oklahoma State, Stanford (guaranteed a BCS spot by finishing in the top four), Oregon, Wisconsin, Clemson, West Virginia and TCU. That leaves one at-large spot for either Virginia Tech (no), Boise State (no), Houston (hahaha), Kansas State (no) or Michigan (yay). There'll be a second at-large spot if TCU doesn't make it into the top 16, which is a possibility given the fluidity of the mid-teens in the rankings.

The Sugar Bowl gets the first pick (to replace LSU) and will take Michigan since the other available options suck in terms of ticket sales. The Fiesta will take Stanford to play Oklahoma State, the Sugar will take TCU -- or Kansas State if it's an at-large pick -- to play Michigan and the Orange will get its bazillionth straight craptacular matchup by taking West Virginia and Clemson. Woo.

Oklahoma State being No. 2 actually wouldn't change a whole lot. Alabama would obviously slide down to the Sugar Bowl to replace LSU, and the Fiesta Bowl (now without strippers!) would then jump all over Michigan and Stanford. The rest of the picks would be the same: TCU or Kansas State to the Sugar Bowl and Clemson and West Virginia to the Orange Bowl. Man, that Sugar Bowl could be ugly.

So ... that's where things stand. Pointless speculation FTW.

*I'm hoping Gary Danielson doesn't have a vote since he'd have the entire SEC ranked 1-12.

Coachpocalypse: A&M eats a lot of money

Previously in coachpocalypse: No more Zooker, no more hilarious punts, Neuheisel a goner and What happened at Kansas?

Boy, that escalated quickly. Mike Sherman went from "possibly on the hot seat" to "probably staying" to "50-50" to "YA FIRED" in the span of about 12 hours Thursday. Texas A&M threw a trident. There was a man on fire.


So ... Mike Sherman is gone after a four-year tenure that featured a terrible start, two years of steady improvement and one year of groin-punchingly frustrating losses. His record at A&M: a spectacular 25-25. That's not very good considering that Sherman took over when Dennis Franchione was fired following two straight winning seasons that weren't winning-y enough. There are expectations of some level of success A&M, and .500 isn't that level.

That said, the way the whole thing went down was still pretty weird/surprising. A&M went from 4-8 in Sherman's first year to 6-7 in 2010 to 9-4 (with a Cotton Bowl win) last year. This season started with a top-10 ranking in both polls and ended at 6-6, which was undoubtedly infuriating because of the way it played out but wasn't exactly a disaster. I mean, this wasn't a Kansas situation; A&M was actually really close to being really good this year. They led in the fourth quarter of five of their six losses this year and lost to Missouri in overtime, Kansas State in four overtimes and Texas on a field goal as time expired. They also blew a 17-point lead against Oklahoma State in a one-point loss and an 18-point halftime lead against Arkansas in a four-point loss. Clearly, second halves did not go well.

It's not hard to envision a scenario in which a few bounces go differently and A&M is sitting at 11-1 and in the top five. This is cliche but particularly relevant in this case. The Wall Street Journal (?) actually did some research and made two interesting observations:

1. Sherman's teams don't show any historical tendency to lose close games (6-5 before this year).
2. Five of the six teams that beat A&M finished the season ranked (Mizzou was the lone outlier).

Playing a lot of close games against good teams is a sign that you're at least close to being a good team. Then again, losing all those games isn't much of an argument to retain a guy with a .500 record in four years. At some point, actually winning is necessary, even if the losing seems tenuously fluky. There's sort of a fine line there.

And there probably would have been a lot more wins if the defense hadn't been as sucky as it was in three of Sherman's four years. Only in 2010 (the one good year and the first with Tim DeRuyter as D-coordinator) did the defense give up fewer than 28 points per game, although this year's numbers weren't totally awful -- 66th in yardage and 76th in scoring -- and were probably skewed a bit Oklahoma, Okie State, Baylor, etc. Sherman was also thought to be pretty much engulfed in playcalling and therefore not a great game manager.

My guess is that a win over Texas would have salvaged everything and guaranteed him a fifth year. All the irregular stuff surrounding the end of that rivalry might have made the bazillionth heartbreaking loss in a season full of them a little too much for somebody to take. Whether that somebody was R.C. Loftin or Bill Byrne or somebody with a Scrooge McDuck-esque pile of money is irrelevant; it was somebody who had the desire and power to get Sherman fired despite a massive buyout that's either $5.5 million or $8.8 million, depending whom you believe. That's a lot o' cash.

The consensus is that the SEC thing also played a role in the decision. ESPN didn't have a specific quote but indicated as much after talking to Byrne:

The school also wanted to enter SEC play next year with a primary storyline of energy and enthusiasm and not a storyline of Sherman's position on the "hot seat."

I can buy that. There's something to be said for avoiding the guaranteed SEC media poopstorm surrounding anybody who might possibly be considered fodder for Paul Finebaum. Sherman's also 57 and might not have been viewed as an ideal long-term option. It's hard to justify not making a move when you've got less-than-overwhelming support for a guy with a limited number of years left anyway. See Dennis Erickson.

The elephant in the room state: Kevin Sumlin. All things being equal, I'm not totally sure Sherman doesn't still have a job if Sumlin either doesn't exist or has Houston sitting at 5-7. It's interesting that Sherman didn't get fired right after the Texas game and was generally deemed safe until Thursday, which just happened to be the day Arizona State got serious about Sumlin and got him all but locked up. It's entirely possible (and probably likely) that Sumlin's availability just expedited a firing that was gonna happen anyway because of the Texas loss; I guess we'll never know for sure. I do think he was the straw that broke Sherman's back, so to speak.

Sumlin doesn't seem that desirable except for the following things: (a) he's already in southeast Texas and has gobs of in-state recruiting connections and (b) he was a Texas A&M assistant back in 2001-02 before going to Oklahoma. If you're Bill Byrne and you're putting together an ideal resume for an A&M head coach, it probably looks a lot like Sumlin's. A hypothetical choice between a 47-year-old Sumlin and a 57-year-old Sherman would probably be a pretty easy one. That scenario assumes Sumlin wants the A&M job, but that seems like a safe assumption given the job's potential, his current locale and ASU's reported decision to move on to Plan D (I'm pretty sure Sumlin was A, B and C). There's no reason ASU would do that unless Sumlin indicated his preference for another school. Long story short, I'll be surprised if Sumlin isn't sitting at a podium by Tuesday. Rumor has it that Kirby Smart and Charlie Strong are the requisite backup plans.

There was a poll -- I think it was done by ESPN the Magazine or ESPN Insider or whatever -- last offseason that asked college coaches to rank the most underachieving (or something like that) programs in the country. A&M was the runaway winner. There were a whole bunch of anonymous comments about money and the Texas recruiting base and the fan support and blah blah blah. It's clearly a desirable job when other coaches are gazing longingly and saying, "man, that's a school that should be winning a lot." Also, Dennis Franchione left Alabama to take over at A&M, which shows what's happened to those two programs in the last decade.

I don't see the SEC West being beneficial in that regard; finishing any better than third on a regular basis is gonna be pretty tough. Still, expecting to be significantly better than .500 on a regular basis isn't unreasonable (what's the difference between A&M and Arkansas?). Sherman got four years and couldn't quite do it, although I don't think he was far off. Maybe Sumlin the next guy can.

Catching up is skeptical of Topeka in general

It must be true if it's on Twitter: OMG Mack Brown is retiring! This is 100 percent certain since it's being reported by a Topeka (???) sports-talk host named Jake Lebahn:

According to a source Texas Longhorn head coach Mack Brown will retire this Saturday after the game against Baylor.

Kansas radio guy reporting a Texas football scoop while Kirk Bohls and Chip Brown have nothing other than denials? This registers a 78 (out of 10) on the skepticism meter. There's also this from Texas:

“You can say we said it doesn’t even warrant a response.”

That seems about right, although Burnt Orange Nation brings up a valid counterpoint:

Of course, even if there was truth to the rumor, Texas SID wouldn't admit it anyway, so the response means essentially nothing. ...

The best guess is still that Brown wants to see this team complete much more of the rebuilding process than has already been achieved, but it's also the case that Brown may not have anticipated the process to be this difficult. Especially in light of the still-unstable quarterback situation without a proven difference-maker on campus that could seriously delay any major progress.

So, in summary, there don't seem to be many reasons to believe the report based on where it came from, but there are also some reasons why it isn't completely outside the realm of possibility, either.

Translation: It's B.S. unless it isn't, which is unlikely but plausible.

What is Akron doing? Akron offered its head coaching job to Jim Tressel this week. Jim Tressel! He would be an unbelievably awesome hire if this were two years ago and he didn't have an NCAA show-cause penalty hanging over his head (he also wouldn't be a candidate for jobs like Akron). FYI, a show-cause penalty basically says any violations accrued at one school stick with the coach when he goes elsewhere unless it can be demonstrated that they shouldn't; that latter part is irrelevant for Tressel given the extent of what he knew and did/didn't do at Ohio State. So Akron would be voluntarily hitting itself with massive NCAA violations in exchange for hiring Jim Tressel. Maybe that'd be a fair trade-off for a school that's gone 2-22 the past two years? I dunno. It won't matter much since Tressel apparently wasn't interested:

“While Coach Tressel has shared with us that he is not interested in coaching at Akron, he has graciously volunteered to help his alma mater however he can during the search for our next football coach.”

BTW, Tressel is an Akron alum. The more I think about it, the more I can see some logic to giving the guy a call given (a) Akron's inability to win anything the past few years, (b) the guaranteed fan-support explosion and (c) the inevitable spike in regional and national recognition that comes with hiring the guy who was Ohio State's coach for the last decade.

Rich Rodriguez will give you access: Since Rich Rodriguez will let any credible person with a pen and paper follow him around and record every detail of his life, SI took advantage and put together a breakdown of the 48 hours surrounding his introduction at Arizona. It's interesting. Read it.

The part I found most fascinating was how a couple intelligent people in the AD's office sat him down and actually, like, told him about stuff. Important stuff. Excerpt:

In a meeting before Rodriguez's introductory press conference, LaRose and Francis ran down a list of what to mention and how to mention it. Items to mention:

- Winning the Pac-12 South and the Pac-12.
- Going to the Rose Bowl.
- Arizona's weather. ("We have a dry heat here," LaRose said.)
- The Territorial cup rivalry with Arizona State. (The Wildcats had just beaten the Sun Devils.)
- Bear Down, the school motto taken from the dying words of former Arizona football and baseball player John "Button" Salmon.

LaRose also added one more piece of advice. "Don't say you don't like spicy food," she said.

That sort of administrative support was nonexistent at Michigan and would've helped a LOT in terms of not violating all the the super-secret codes nobody every told him about and thus pissing off a bunch of crotchety former players.

I also enjoyed this part:

When his kids tossed out some pricier restaurant suggestions for Thanksgiving Eve dinner, he suggested IHOP.

Mmmmmm, IHOP. I knew I liked the guy for a reason.

Woo UCLA is goin' bowling: For some unknown reason, the NCAA approved a waiver Tuesday that will allow UCLA to go to a bowl game with a 6-7 record after getting obliterated by Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game. That's probably a PR move since it'd be an embarrassment to have the Pac-12 title-game loser get left out of the postseason entirely while two of the Pac-12's bowl slots go unfilled, but ... I mean ... have some consistency. ASU got denied a bowl bid last year at 6-6 because two of the six wins were over FCS teams (and that issue was created by San Jose State pulling out of a game at the last minute and hanging ASU out to dry), and the NCAA has repeatedly ruled that teams playing 13 games have to win at least seven. Except this time. For no particular reason.

Florida Atlantic finds a coach: Nebraska defensive coordinator Carl Pelini (?!?) will reportedly be Howard Schnellenberger's replacement at FAU, which looked like an on-the-rise program three years ago but then went 4-8 last year and 1-10 (guh) this year.

Pelini's name briefly popped up in a few coaching searches last offseason but had seemingly dropped off the radar over the course of this season, partially because of Nebraska's defensive backslide and partially because guys like Gus Malzahn and Brent Venables simply became more attractive candidates. But Florida Atlantic being Florida Atlantic, Malzahn and Venables weren't realistic; that's both the downside of the job and the reason a second-tier candidate like Pelini ended up getting it. In that regard, it seems like a logical fit for both parties.

The question that has to be asked (as with a lot of coordinator-turned-head-coach hires): How much of Nebraska's recent (except for this year) defensive success was because of him and how much was because of his brother? Nebraska fans don't seem totally convinced that he's anything more than a glorified defensive assistant, which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement. And offense might be an issue considering his thoroughly one-sided resume. Whether all that stuff is relevant is pretty much unknowable until he has his own program (which he apparently will) and either succeeds or fails. He's not exactly a "safe" hire, but there are no safe hires when you're Florida Atlantic.

Little Pelini (who's actually the slightly older Pelini at age 46) also has a fantastic temper that complements Bo's perfectly but represents the polar opposite of the Schnellenberger-in-suits era. Commence the Boca Raton media tongue-clucking.

The Big Ten does or does not have an attendance problem: So an ad popped up on Craiglist earlier this week offering $75 to anybody who would show up at Lucas Oil Stadium in red (for Wisconsin) or green (for Michigan State) to fill a seat for the Big Ten title game. This seemed odd but not totally ridiculous since tickets are available everywhere for as little as $10, a disgustingly low amount for a conference championship game. If the secondary-market cost is $10, there's no way anybody's paying face-value prices at the ticket office. But it turned out to be a hoax:

The author of the Craigslist ad offering $75 to anyone willing to don red or dark green clothing and fill empty seats at Lucas Oil Stadium came clean to the website SBNation.com, explaining that he was miffed at the massive collapse in value of the tickets he purchased long ago with the intent of scalping them.

Nice. I'd feel a little bad for the guy if he weren't a scalping whore. BTW, the game is actually shockingly close to a sellout; there are about 2,000 tickets left from Wisconsin's allotment. There are also about 10,000 tickets available on StubHub, so it's only a sellout in the most technical sense possible.

The Urban Meyer recruiting question: Lost amid the Urban Meyer media lovefest is a little bit of an interwebs-centered debate about whether the guy is actually a good recruiter. This seems ridiculous on the surface and is definitely a nitpick but has its basis in this: Meyer was at Bowling Green for two years, Utah for two years and Florida for six, and Florida hasn't exactly been unbeatable for the last two years.

There are basically two not-really-exclusive sides to the argument: the "look at the rankings" side and the "look at the post-Meyer plunge" side. The rankings have been ridiculous: His five classes at Florida were ranked second, 11th, third, first and second by Rivals. Those also mean very little if there's any truth to the rumor that he recruits based on the Rivals/Scout/ESPN rankings and not scouting; getting the highest-ranked players doesn't necessarily mean getting the right players. The post-Meyer plunge has been obvious everywhere (although Utah has been OK) but also might be due to, like, not having Urban Meyer anymore. It's hard to say if that's a talent issue or a coaching issue.

Here's the thing: There's no way to know which side is right (or which side is more right). His recruiting won't even matter until three or four years in, and a guy who's winning nine or 10 games a year is gonna attract enough talent solely through winning to continue winning with some regularity. I also feel comfortable saying he can coach up lesser talent since I doubt Utah and Bowling Green were stacked with elite players just waiting to be guided to 10-win seasons.

If Meyer's still alive and coaching in six or seven years and is going through a Florida-style blah stretch at OSU, there'll be enough data for a hypothesis. As of now, it's just an interesting question. And if I'm an Ohio fan, I'm waaaay more worried about the short-term NCAA damage than the long-term anything.

A timely decision: The NCAA decided Wednesday that the stats from the Michigan-Western Michigan game (the season opener) will in fact be considered official even though the game ended with about a minute left in the third quarter because of lightning. Michigan and the Big Ten were already recognizing the stats; the NCAA was counting the game as official but the stats as nonexistent, which made no sense whatsoever and therefore was exactly what I expected from the NCAA.

The undoubtedly useful NCAA Statistics and Records Advisory Board apparently changed that ruling last month:

The advisory board unanimously voted during a conference call in early November to change the rule, determining that if the win-loss record from a game counts, so should the statistics.

Hey, that actually makes sense! Amazing.

Upshot: Fitzgerald Toussaint is now officially credited with 1,011 yards this season by the NCAA. Brandon Herron also now has two career touchdowns instead of zero (he's a linebacker, so duh).

Holy pants: Denard Robinson's pants from the Notre Dame game this year went up for sale this week on Michigan's official website. I'm not Stephen Ross and therefore couldn't afford them; they ended up selling for $1,310.00.

The reason I'm posting this: Why doesn't Denard Robinson get some/most of that money? There are infinite reasons pay-for-play won't work (not in any useful form, anyway), but there's no good reason a player isn't allowed to make money off his personal game-used stuff that the school can turn around and sell it on its official website for gajillions of dollars. I don't think a free-market system would be viable -- shenanigans would be an issue since you know Bobby Lowder would voluntarily buy every game-used Auburn jersey for like $10,000 each -- but game-used stuff is valuable almost entirely because of some immeasurable sentimental attachment to the player who wore it, so that player should really get some kind of kickback from the school's regulated sales of said stuff. IMO, game-used equipment/apparel has to be viewed differently from a standard replica jersey in that regard.

Counterargument: Slippery slope etcetera etcetera.