I’d sooner be a Wildcat edition

Standard Advice:  go with your first read!  Whenever, it seems, I’ve changed my mind on the line, the putt then breaks the original way . . . every stinking time.  And so it went for me after I recently opined:

 

Oklahoma gets better every week, and the grind past Texas qualifies them to enjoy a well-earned last laugh . . . they were, they are the real deal in 2019 and so we must admit that the Sooners were not over-ranked after all.  I was dead wrong on this one.

 

Well, when I said I was wrong:  I was wrong.  After several weeks in the top six, the newly schooner-less Sooners laid an egg in Manhattan and finally fell five spots in the AP.  K State walked away from them after an even first half; OU brought it back close, but the Wildcats were just working clock and enjoying the inevitable win while the network commenters tried to convince viewers otherwise; a failed onside kick almost gave Norman a chance and did give the guys in the replay booth at Conference a nice excuse to delay play a good seven minutes before the fat lady could sing.  Anyways, the Crimson were Creamed but will go on to a solid bowl.

 

 

Personal note:  the 2000 KSU team had the quickest defense I’ve ever seen, and you simply couldn’t pass against Terence Newman.  Their fans travel well and have a fearsome, deafening, unending set of cheers.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, master-class of the week in pointy ball was given by The University of the South at Columbus.  The Buckeyes applied the very best talent from Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, and Maryland to the would-be spoilers from Madison.  Save future injuries, LSU is the only defense that would seem to have a strong chance of stopping Ohio State.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notre Dame is perennially overrated, and you might say that I beat that drum enough, but, earlier in the year, they lost to Georgia and then were still ranked above Georgia; it’s just ridiculous, predictable, and this nonsense is crippling the ability of Catholic children to develop logic skills.  Saturday #19 Michigan plowed them like so much snow and the AP accordingly downgraded them eight slots to finally be below both of their known betters.  The great Protestant conspiracy to keep these good kids down has finally won 2019, but don’t worry:  the ND nonsense will flare back up next summer.  Moving on:

 

Week Nine Most OverRated Football Program Results

1          Minnesota did make soup out of Maryland 52 – 10

2          Appalachian State did ruin the Jags of South Alabama

3          SMU survived red-shirt factory Houston’s sometime quarterback Tune

4          Oregon edged Washington State at home

So ZERO new toldjasos™ this week, but, speaking of Notre Dame, I never booked the original win on them at the time so I’m adding that to the list now and taking Oklahoma off my list of misses as well.  Otherwise, a very quiet week we had.  So what’s the longer view?

 

Well, the Committee (motto:  We Meet in Grapevine!) has yet to convene or vote.  The question, like most years, is:  who’s number four?  Conference championships are a toss-up, but we have every reason to expect these teams in the mix:

 

Big Ten           Ohio State, Penn State, or Minnesota

SEC                  Alabama, LSU, or Florida

ACC                 Clemson

 

 

 

 

And these guys can pound sand:

PAC64              Oregon is just too weak; expect a second team from the Big Ten or SEC instead

Big XII             Oklahoma is only the best of the rest after losing to KSU

Notre Dame    is not as good as Oregon

AAC                  UCF is not a top twenty team

MWest             Boise State is not a top twenty team

MAC                 Ball State might be a top hundred team

Okay, everyone knew all that before the season’s first snap (it’s rigged against the small schools!!!!11!!)  Back to our weekly idiocy:  who’s who and what’s what?

 

Yet Another Week N + 1 Most OverRated Football Programs

1          San Diego enters our list as most overrated team of the year but is off next week

2          SMU will meet Memphis in an overrated (and televised) mouse tussle

3          Appalachian State continues to dominate the JV and will host the Statesboro Blues

4          Minnesota is trending up but will get stomped by Penn State

5          Oregon is barely overrated but might have their hands full with USC

 Honorable mentions – I like LSU, but they’re not Numero Uno (Ohio State at a minimum is clearly better on offense).  Baylor is too big for its britches, and Cincinnati love is overheating, but I’ll give them a bit of rope for now.  The same guys who formerly believed in Oklahoma have switched horses to Kansas State.  Previously bagged Utah and Boise State are sliding back up in the competency vacuum.  Wake Forest shouldn’t be within ten slots of the AP at all, and yet they’re there.  This much never changes:  the AP 25 is lunacy, a doctoral thesis in mass hysteria begging to be written.  Now:  on to accounting.

 

Year to Date Hides on the Wall

1          Georgia lost at home to the second-best team from South Carolina that had lost to UNC

2          Utah lost to an unrated USC but seems to be coming back

2          Stanford was revealed by USC

2          Syracuse was unranked after Maryland

2          Michigan was blown out by Wisconsin

2          Notre Dame sold off after losing to a highly ranked Georgia

7          UCF was edged by an unranked Pitt

7          Iowa was no number 15 as Michigan proved

7          Wake Forest allowed Louisville to hang 62 on them

7          Cal was dumped from the AP after losing to Arizona State

11        Boise State lost by three to toothless BYU

11        Iowa State was dethroned before their decent showing against Iowa

11        Memphis lost to possibly 80th best team in the nation Temple and disappeared

14        Michigan State slowly fell out of the ratings, so I was right after all

14        Clemson was dethroned by Mack Brown retirement project UNC

14        Texas lost to OU (mid-season toldjasos™) and has continued to suck

14        Texas probably over-paid for losing to titan LSU (early-season toldjasos™), but then they let Kansas hang 48 on them at home

18        Auburn over-paid for losing to Florida

18        Texas A&M probably over-paid for quality losses against Clemson and Auburn . . . or maybe not

20        Washington State was de-ranked after becoming lowly UCLA’s first win

20        Virginia continues to lose after losing to can-play-with-UGA-but-not-Michigan Notre Dame

22        Oklahoma lost to Kansas State . . . inexcusable

 

Year to Date It-Would-Seem Blown Calls Because They’re Doing Okay Really Well

1          LSU

2          Florida seems to have earned their status by defeating top-ten Auburn

3          Oklahoma is no longer a blown call because Kansas State

4          UCF is now a skin on the wall after Pitt

5          Michigan is no longer a blown call because Wisconsin

6          Washington State is no longer a blown call because UCLA

Our year now stands at 22–2-4.  So closes a tasty week!

 

links to older opinions:                  2019-10-24                 2019-10-17                  2019-10-10                  2019-10-03                  2019-09-26                  2019-09-19                  2019-09-13                  2019-09-06
Disclosure of sources of bias:  your correspondent has attended the University of Tennessee, Memphis State and the University of Memphis, Christian Brothers College . . . and he sleeps with an alumna of Georgia whose parents met at Washington State . . . and his son went to Houston . . . and he never met anyone from TCU he didn’t like . . . and he irrationally hates Notre Dame, UCF, Clemson, and Notre Dame.