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Too Long, Didn't Read (TLDR)

• Burt’s back as the rest of the boys have been given the week off, so it’s just the Bandit sharing his thoughts on the playoff field—and other sexy happenings—before we return to our regular programming next week.

• TTM's putting on a bracket competition folks! See below for entry details, and tell all your friends so we can juice this pot...

It’s TTM’s…*tornado sirens blare, women’s underwear swirls* First…Annual…Bracket Bust-Off!!!

Why the hell not? The college football playoff’s finally big enough to get a bracket game going, and what’s better than introducing a little personal rooting interest into these holiday capers? The fat cats over at ESPN run a pretty good game, so let’s fill ‘em out and get our own little TTM contest cooking.

Entry:

• Fill out your bracket here, and then where it says “Join Group,” search for our very private and exclusive group (“TTM’s Bracket Bust-Off”). Password is “Noles”. Remember to capitalize Noles.

• $20 per entry, one entry per person, all brackets must be submitted by 8pm ET on 12/20 (kickoff time for Notre Dame/Indiana).

• Venmo your $20 entry fee to @Sam-Ranson, who will aggressively invest that money to grow the pot! (Kidding…Also, if we need to explore another payment method, just respond directly to this email and we’ll work something out.)

• An outright winner takes 70% of the pot, second place 20%, third place 10%. In the event of a tie, winners will split the booty.

• Tell all your friends!

The SEC finally loses an argument.

And it’s good for the game.

More importantly—because angry ‘Bama (or Ole Miss, or South Carolina) fans don’t give a damn about whether it’s good for the game—the committee got it right. Now, did they do it for the right reasons? My gut tells me no. I think they did it to protect the cash cow that is conference championship games. (If SMU would have been dropped from the playoff—they came into the game ranked #8—for losing a tight contest in the ACC championship game, why would any power conference team already in the playoff field ever participate in a conference championship game again? What made it so uncomfortable for the committee—and ESPN and FOX—was the fact that they’d spent hours talking on-air about how a loss in the SEC championship game by Georgia or a loss in the Big Ten championship game by Penn State would not affect those teams’ chances of making the field—in effect locking them in—while very clearly leaving open the possibility that SMU might get dropped with a loss. Again, the gap between the Power Two and the others is real and growing, despite this decision in the little guys’ favor.)

But this isn’t what my Alabama friends want to hear about. They want to hear about how a small-time team from a soft-ass conference is better than their 9-3 juggernaut. The reality is, SMU may not be a better team than ‘Bama (SEC folks are saying “yeah, no shit,” but many of them also haven’t actually seen SMU play. The Mustangs are a super dynamic team on both sides of the ball. They fly around. They’re better than Vanderbilt.) The Tide would be favored over the Mustangs on a neutral field, but the Tide also lost 24-3 (!) to a 6-6 Oklahoma team (!!) TWO WEEKS AGO. Just as Miami’s late-season loss to Syracuse mattered, SEC teams’ actual results have to matter too. Not just the perceived strength of their rosters. And I think this bears mentioning: ‘Bama was valued as the top 9-3 team. Hell, they were ranked above a bunch of 10-2 teams. So to say their quality wins and strength of schedule weren’t factored in is inaccurate. They just didn’t push the Tide over top of an 11-1 team—SMU’s record before the conference title game, since we’re saying conference title game losses can’t hurt you…—to give the SEC four entrants to the ACC’s one. Instead we wound up with a 3:2 split between the SEC and ACC, a result ACC schools will celebrate…and one that will have SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey in his lab late at night poring over invasion plans for the state of North Carolina…In the words of noted hipster college football writer Steven Godfrey: “The empire will strike back.”

In a nutshell—and this is just Burt’s opinion as a jilted FSU fan who also went to Georgia and has a tremendous amount of love for Southern college football, of which the SEC is unquestionably the beating heart—when the SEC wins every argument, it shrinks the sport. When the SEC’s unquenchable thirst for power within the college football landscape is satiated at every turn, it dries up the drinking water for the rest of us. Was the SEC the best conference in college football this year? Yes. I say that fairly unequivocally. The SEC had, as usual, the best out-of-conference (OOC) record versus other power conference teams (13-6), while the second-best league by winning percentage—the ACC at 10-12—didn’t even have a winning record. (Note: the Big Ten played fewer OOC games versus other power four teams and didn’t fare particularly well, finishing 7-9. Did the league of FOX deserve FOUR playoff spots? No, not in my opinion, but I’ll have to leave that as a different discussion for a different day—we WILL get to it.)

But here’s my key question: did the SEC this year have the same quality of top-end team and/or teams that tend to set it apart? Because that’s what the SEC always has that other leagues don’t: Multiple clear heavyweight natty favorites. No! There’s no juggernaut there. There are just a bunch of good teams. And good 9-3 teams don’t have a birthright to the playoff. Yes, even you Alabama. My simple message to Tide fans is this: don’t lose to Vanderbilt. Don’t get embarrassed by a mediocre Oklahoma team two weeks before Selection Sunday. Kalen DeBoer knows that, and so do all his players.

Whew! Hope you made it through all that…Now onto a few other thoughts on the playoff field and other recent activity:

This feels like D-Day for Ryan Day.

We’ve had this conversation before, but Ohio State’s big-money folks aren’t spending what they’re spending for Ryan Day to 1) get embarrassed by Michigan every year and 2) not win national titles. It’s a tough draw for the Buckeyes, who host a dangerous Tennessee team in the opening round for the privilege of earning a rematch in the quarterfinals—yeah, it’s a long road in this new format too—with top-seeded Oregon. Do a couple wins and a semifinal berth buy Ry Guy some more time? It’s tough to say, because while wins over Tennessee and Oregon (and, say, a close loss to Texas) would be nothing to sneeze at, Ohio State didn’t bring all these guys back for a 3-loss season and a semifinal run. They brought ‘em back to win a trophy. Such is life for the head guy at a blue blood program, so we’ll just have to see how far ole Just For Men can take ‘em.

Tennessee fans bask in the glow of the big time.

And you know what? Those crazy bastards have earned it. This is a proud, loyal fanbase that’s essentially been kicked in the nuts repeatedly for 25 years. Is it feelin’ like ’98?? I don’t know about that…But I’ll admit that when I saw Ohio State-Tennessee on the TV I thought, “well that could go either way.” If they road-warrior it up in Columbus, do they have the juice to beat a rough-and-tumble (yeah, it’s true) Oregon team? Hell of a test…But we’ll see! The Vols are battle tested, they’re good along the lines of scrimmage (especially on defense), and there’s talent on that Heupel offense. One thing I’ll be looking for in Columbus is whether or not they feel comfortable cutting Nico loose. A dangerous downfield passing game may be the only thing standing between Tennessee and truly contending for the big prize.

Is it finally Oregon’s time?

Phil Knight certainly hopes so. That Ben Affleck wannabe has poured Fortune 500 money into this program for decades now…and he’s seeing some serious results under third-year head man Dan Lanning. The Ducks are odds-on favorites to win the whole thing, and it’s hard to pick out a lot of weaknesses here. Their defense is elite, their quarterback is experienced and dynamic, and they have the typical West Coast playmakers you’ve come to expect of Oregon. They’ve already beaten Ohio State once, and if they take care of the winner of Ohio State-Tennessee, they’ll get the survivor of the Texas-Clemson-Arizona State pod. I’m not sure I see a great team in that bunch, so Oregon would be favored until the championship game…where they’d likely be favored again. The Ducks have been waiting for a year like this: no Southern juggernaut, a roster equipped to compete with the best along the line of scrimmage, and a veteran quarterback. It’ll be interesting to see how they play with the target on their backs.

Boise State’s in the playoff! How freaking cool is that??

Well, I think it’s cool…We’re talking about a program and a fanbase that is totally committed to winning—and has been capable of competing at the highest level a couple times throughout the year—but have been shut out by the system and unable to compete for the big prize. No more…Superfreak tailback Ashton Jeanty and a rugged Broncos squad will get the winner of Penn State-SMU in the Fiesta Bowl, and I think they’re more than capable of beating either of those teams. Halcyon days for the folks out in Boise, and we’re happy for ‘em.

Miami ponies up for their best team in 20 years and earns an invite to…the Pop Tarts Bowl!

What a team! Cam Ward!! Whoever else Miami had this year!!! Miami spent more money—put more eggs in the basket this year—than ever before, and their reward is a showdown with Iowa State in the Pop Tart Bowl.

Now I’ve said it all season: Miami was good this year. They were a dangerous team to other good teams, primarily (or maybe entirely) because of their offense. They could put up 30+ on pretty much anybody. But the ‘Canes lacked a killer instinct, and that’s something a great team has to have. Could it be that none of these ‘Canes have ever been there before? I think you saw that deficiency shine through as the year wore on, as Mario Cristobal’s guys consistently let lesser teams hang around, and especially (obviously) as they let off the gas with a 21-0 lead against Syracuse and let the Orange back into a game the ‘Canes apparently didn’t realize they needed to win. As an FSU guy I say “tough shit.” As a Miami fan, you have to hope that Mario can parlay a nice (if ultimately unsatisfying) season into further success on the recruiting/portal trail and continue to stock his roster with talent more befitting of Miami teams of old.

My ‘Noles are making big boy hires.

Laugh while you can ya knobs, because my guys are splashing cash and attacking this reset like a desperate bunch…which they are. There’s a lot on the line for FSU right now, first atop the list the Seminoles’ efforts to secure a move to the financial stability of either the SEC—FSU’s likely first choice—or the Big Ten. Going 2-10 as they’re suing their current conference isn’t a great look, but from Florida State’s perspective, the TV numbers are the TV numbers. Media rights deals are driving this bus—billions and billions of dollars of them—and FSU’s probably the most valuable brand remaining outside of the Power Two college football cartel. First up for Mike Norvell and his retooled staff? Instill a whole lot more toughness into this roster, which really begins with their efforts in the transfer portal, where the word is they’ll be prioritizing proven production—even if it’s at smaller schools—over high-end projections. The ‘Noles finished surprisingly strong in high school recruiting, weathering a wave of in-season decommitments to bring in a handful of high-end prospects, a few of whom they flipped from SEC heavies. So perhaps Mike has stemmed the tide. My continued worry is that he’s a broken man serving a lame duck term, but virtually everything that’s happened since the end of the season has—mercifully—been positive for Norvell and the ‘Noles. We’ll see what that all looks like when FSU opens next season at home against Kalen DeBoer’s Year 2 Crimson Tide…

Belichick returns to the sideline, signs three-year deal with the Carolina Panth…Tar Heels?!

::Record scratches:: Yeah, North Carolina slammed their wallet down on the table and brought in Bill cheerleader-dating Belichick to coach their football team. Is it gonna work? Who the hell knows. Is it a massive signal of intent by a UNC program that’s been all over the map in their level of seriousness toward football? Yes. And that’s the point. It’s actually kind of irrelevant whether or not it works, because the fail-safe built into it is that 1) it will immediately draw some high-end talent to Chapel Hill and 2) it will attract a ton of attention and—this is key—television eyeballs. So if Carolina only wins 8 games next year, and then 9 the next, they’ll still do it to huge television audiences, and they’ll probably deliver some notable talent to the league. That in itself may amount to success for the Carolina brass, who—though they won’t say it as publicly because they’re the beating Tobacco Road heart of the ACC—are angling for the same thing as Florida State, which is a spot in the Power Two and financial stability for their athletic program moving forward. Either way, it’ll be a fun ride with Dull Bill, and it’s fair to say—as weird as it sounds—that Carolina kinda matters now??

All my 'Dawg fans are saying, what about us Burt??

Apologies boys, but we’ll get to Georgia and any other playoff team we didn’t cover next week. Your boy just ran out of time, and let’s be honest, the ‘Dawgs have gotten their share of coverage…Still, how bout ‘em?!?!

Remember to sign up for our first annual 'Bracket Bust-Off'!

Entry:

• Fill out your bracket here, and then where it says “Join Group,” search for our very private and exclusive group (“TTM’s Bracket Bust-Off”). Password is “Noles”.

• $20 per entry, one entry per person, all brackets must be submitted by 8pm ET on 12/20 (kickoff time for Notre Dame/Indiana).

• Venmo your $20 entry fee to @Sam-Ranson, who will aggressively invest that money to grow the pot! (Kidding…Also, if we need to explore another payment method, just respond directly to this email and we’ll work something out.)

• An outright winner takes 70% of the pot, second place 20%, third place 10%. In the event of a tie, winners will split the booty.

• Tell all your friends!