2017 College Football Game Thread - Week 10

terrynever

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What the hell was that with James Franklin? He just ran down #7 (from PSU) before the kid got to the locker room, and sent him back to the field. Franklin looked like was trying to stop a murder. Was the kid about to get into a fight with someone or something?
No. 7, Koa Farmer, admitted after the game that he was trying to get off the field without shaking hands with the winning side and Franklin chased him down. Still kind of weird. Franklin was probably late for his handshake with the MSU coach.
 

johnmd20

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No. 7, Koa Farmer, admitted after the game that he was trying to get off the field without shaking hands with the winning side and Franklin chased him down. Still kind of weird. Franklin was probably late for his handshake with the MSU coach.
The coach wanted his entire team to do the right thing after the loss and took action to make it happen. It looked weird but it isn't weird.
 

terrynever

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The coach wanted his entire team to do the right thing after the loss and took action to make it happen. It looked weird but it isn't weird.
Weird to me because maybe Franklin could have sent one of his gofers after Farmer. Anyway, the kid admitted he was wrong, and praised his coach, the words no doubt written by a p.r. flack. There was actually an official statement released, probably because the scene was captured by FOX cameras.
 

Deathofthebambino

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Woah. No way is Rudolph above Barkley. Mayfield will draw closer but Barkley will still be the front-runner. He had one “bad” game today.
No, I was saying if Rudolph had led OSU back to beat OU today, then he would climb into the conversation. Obviously, that didn't happen, so he has no chance, but I'm nowhere near as high on Barkley as you are.

Today was a bad game, but it certainly wasn't his only "not great" game. He's gotten a lot of publicity for making a few big plays in a couple big games, but all in all, he really doesn't have the numbers or pass the eye test of a Heisman winner, IMO. He's only got 801 yards rushing through 9 games (and only 3 100 yard games). He's offset that a bit by having 471 yards receiving, but there were at least 4 running backs in FBS that had more rushing yards going into this week than he has combined yards coming out of the week, and that doesn't include Jonathan Taylor, the Freshman at Wisconsin that had another big game today. Barkley has 14 total td's, when you include the two kickoff return td's, which is a solid number, but it's certainly not in the upper level of what we usually see out of RB's that win the Heisman.

If it ended right now, I think it probably goes to either Mayfield or Adams. If Adams' injury isn't serious, and he's back next week, and ND runs the table, he could very well end up with it. But my dark horse, is Taylor. If Wiscy goes undefeated, and Taylor keeps doing what he's doing, don't be shocked if he wins, because IMO, he means more to his team's offense than any other non-QB in the conversation.
 

Deathofthebambino

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No. 7, Koa Farmer, admitted after the game that he was trying to get off the field without shaking hands with the winning side and Franklin chased him down. Still kind of weird. Franklin was probably late for his handshake with the MSU coach.
Do D1 college football teams do a handshake line like we see in little league? For some reason, I don't think I've ever noticed it (I went to PC, which didn't have a football program), but I'm usually switching to another game within a millisecond of the final whistle. Certainly didn't see one today when Iowa's fans were storming the field. I know players go across the field and shake hands/say hello to opposing players and the coaches do the same, like you see in the NFL, but I didn't know there was an actual formal process in which everyone shook hands?
 
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Woah. No way is Rudolph above Barkley. Mayfield will draw closer but Barkley will still be the front-runner. He had one “bad” game today.
It's two bad games in a row and they were the "biggest" games of the season which matters to voters. I think Barkley is in 2nd.

And Tate...I mean, there's a chance.
 

Deathofthebambino

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He took a kickoff to the house last week and had a rushing TD. His body of work is better than anyones.
I just don't see this. His body of work is better than Love's, or Taylor's, or Mayfields? All of them have been far more consistent on a weekly basis, and aside from Love, they play for teams still in the hunt for a NC. Last week, he had a 36 yard rushing td, but his other 20 carries totaled 8 yards. That is not a good day by any means, regardless of the kickoff return, which frankly, any above average kick returner should score on with that blocking.
 

Deathofthebambino

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Geez, how did Hurts miss that read? He was looking right at Ridley, when Ridley broke, and instead, he spun away from trouble that wasn't there.

And then they come back with the same play. LOL
 

terrynever

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Do D1 college football teams do a handshake line like we see in little league? For some reason, I don't think I've ever noticed it (I went to PC, which didn't have a football program), but I'm usually switching to another game within a millisecond of the final whistle. Certainly didn't see one today when Iowa's fans were storming the field. I know players go across the field and shake hands/say hello to opposing players and the coaches do the same, like you see in the NFL, but I didn't know there was an actual formal process in which everyone shook hands?
At home games, Penn State players gather at one end of the field in front of the student section and sing the school's alma mater song. They shake hands informally with the other team, but not in a line. On the road, Franklin evidently wants them to mingle on the field before heading to the locker room. Koa Farmer explained his quick departure by saying he thought fans were rushing the field, as Ohio State's had done the week before. I still find it weird that Franklin ran Farmer down. He is big on image and will turn this into a rallying point for sticking together over the final 3 games.
 

nolasoxfan

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The 538 interactive chart is helpful, if Oklahoma pulls out this insane game, then they have it at:

Alabama
Clemson
Georgia
Oklahoma

Wisconsin, Washington and Notre Dame are next, Notre Dame will jump up if they beat Miami next game.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2017-college-football-predictions/?ex_cid=rrpromo
Miami needs to beat ND to remove that stain from the playoff picture. Otherwise, I’d like to see the committee keep them out because they don’t play in a conference and will have no conference championship.
 

Vinho Tinto

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Miami needs to beat ND to remove that stain from the playoff picture. Otherwise, I’d like to see the committee keep them out because they don’t play in a conference and will have no conference championship.
If they valued conference titles, Penn State would have played in last year’s playoff.
 

Royal Reader

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If they valued conference titles, Penn State would have played in last year’s playoff.
They don't not value conference titles, they just value them behind number of losses, it seems. Every claim about what the committee values needs to bear the proviso that what they value also isn't consistent year-year. I'd agree no conference title is not likely to be a problem for ND but the H2H loss to Georgia at home might well be.

I suspect if Bama loses to Georgia, it's out (if it loses to Auburn, it loses the division and is definitely out). Georgia is definitely still in win a loss to Auburn but a win over Alabama, I think. Clemson is probably in if it wins out (and I don't see it losing to South Carolina or FSU before the ACCCG) and definitely if Auburn wins either the DSOR or Iron Bowl. That leaves Oklahoma/TCU winner, ND and Washington, plus potentially Georgia if it loses to Bama. I feel like ND is ahead of Washington and behind the big 12 winner and Georgia (given the H2H). Miami-related scenarios don't matter much to ND specifically unless they lose to ND and then win out, which I think is unlikely. I'd say ND needs to win out, then get a loss from Alabama or Clemson, or the winner of TCU-OU this weekend then to lose the B12 championship.
 

Fred in Lynn

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There’s a simple, best-case solution to this annual controversy, and the first two steps are to expand the playoff to 8 teams and to extend automatic entry to the Power 5 conference champions at a minimum. I am quite over the water-cooler debate of which teams “deserve” to have that opportunity as a means for the NCAA (and not even the entire NCAA, just the FBS) to decide the entrants. The rest of the competitive sport world seems to see the obvious value not having a system where voters have an influence in the outcome.

Edit: To be clear, I’m over the NCAA debating playoff entrants based on voting, not fans debating the worthiness of entrants. That’s what fans do; it’s no way to manage a competitive sport.
 
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Royal Reader

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There’s a simple, best-case solution to this annual controversy, and the first two steps are to expand the playoff to 8 teams and to extend automatic entry to the Power 5 conference champions at a minimum. I am quite over the water-cooler debate of which teams “deserve” to have that opportunity as a means for the NCAA (and not even the entire NCAA, just the FBS) to decide the entrants. The rest of the competitive sport world seems to see the obvious value not having a system where voters have an influence in the outcome.

Edit: To be clear, I’m over the NCAA debating playoff entrants based on voting, not fans debating the worthiness of entrants. That’s what fans do; it’s no way to manage a competitive sport.
So the alternative to selection committees is hard and fast criteria. It seems like number of losses is pretty close to being a hard and fast criterion (within the set of P5 teams and ND anyway), then the weighing of SOS, conference championships, and H2H Is more subjective. Seems to me so long as ND is independent, you're still going to have to make a subjective judgement between them and the last power five team in or a mid major champion. I just don't see strict criteria working particularly well for a sport with such wildly varying strengths of schedule and where you're lucky if the teams you compare have one common opponent.

The NCAABB bracket doesn't lack a subjectivity problem, it's just that the tournament is big enough no one even needs to pretend the bubble teams have a claim to be the cream of the crop.
 

swiftaw

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I’ve always advocated an 8 team play off with 5 spots for the winners of the Big 5 conferences and 3 at large bids with 1 of them guaranteed to a non-Big 5 conference team.
 

Infield Infidel

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I’ve always advocated an 8 team play off with 5 spots for the winners of the Big 5 conferences and 3 at large bids with 1 of them guaranteed to a non-Big 5 conference team.
I'm for this but with a cut-off somewhere in the 12-20 range. I'd like to see more objectivity but would still like subjectivity on the bottom. Divisions are usully unbalanced and there are sometimes upsets in conference title games. If someone goes 8-4 but wins their crappy division and pulls an upset in the conference title game, and finish 9-4 and ranked 17, maybe they don't get into the 8-team playoff and add an at-large in the top 10.
 
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Sox and Rocks

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All you ND haters better hope they lose (and I think Miami is the favorite over them next weekend, so they just might.) If they win out, they are definitely in. The committee made that much clear with the initial rankings.
 

johnmd20

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All you ND haters better hope they lose (and I think Miami is the favorite over them next weekend, so they just might.) If they win out, they are definitely in. The committee made that much clear with the initial rankings.
Definitely. If they win out, they will be in the playoff, with a bunch of pretty solid wins and also not necessarily a terrible loss.
 

Sox and Rocks

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Definitely. If they win out, they will be in the playoff, with a bunch of pretty solid wins and also not necessarily a terrible loss.
Not just a "necessarily not terrible loss," but the best loss of any one loss team: one point to the #1 team.

They also don't play cupcakes. Literally every team they play is solid or better. Off the top of my head, almost every team (if not every team) they play is a bowl team (and I know there are too many bowls, but still)
 

Mr. Wednesday

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All you ND haters better hope they lose (and I think Miami is the favorite over them next weekend, so they just might.) If they win out, they are definitely in. The committee made that much clear with the initial rankings.
I don't think that's necessarily true. The committee ranks according to what's in front of them at the time. They aren't assuming a conference title for any of the teams that are in a conference, so we won't really know until the final rankings how that plays into things.

(Also, ND doesn't play cupcakes at the level of most P5 teams, but UNC is pretty bad this year and Miami-OH isn't looking particularly strong either. I don't think "solid" is appropriate for either team.)
 

The Needler

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Not just a "necessarily not terrible loss," but the best loss of any one loss team: one point to the #1 team.

They also don't play cupcakes. Literally every team they play is solid or better. Off the top of my head, almost every team (if not every team) they play is a bowl team (and I know there are too many bowls, but still)
No, literally every team is not solid or better. North Carolina, Temple, and Miami are not solid. And why are you going off the top of your head? Is your google broken?

Notre Dame has played a good schedule, and IMO deserves a spot if they win out, but you're exaggerating.
 

Sox and Rocks

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I don't think that's necessarily true. The committee ranks according to what's in front of them at the time. They aren't assuming a conference title for any of the teams that are in a conference, so we won't really know until the final rankings how that plays into things.

(Also, ND doesn't play cupcakes at the level of most P5 teams, but UNC is pretty bad this year and Miami-OH isn't looking particularly strong either. I don't think "solid" is appropriate for either team.)
You're right about UNC and Miami-OH. I didn't realize they played Miami-OH. The rest of the schedule, though, supports my point.

Yes, the committee ranks what's in front of them, and given that Notre Dame now plays a top ten team in Miami on the road, a win will only validate or perhaps even raise their ranking. Same with Stanford on the road the final week. In other words, that ND is in the top 4 now with a solid schedule to finish, they will stay in the top 4. And if they lose, of course, this discussion becomes meaningless.
 

Sox and Rocks

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No, literally every team is not solid or better. North Carolina, Temple, and Miami are not solid. And why are you going off the top of your head? Is your google broken?

Notre Dame has played a good schedule, and IMO deserves a spot if they win out, but you're exaggerating.
10 of 12 counts as "almost every team," no?
 

nolasoxfan

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You're right about UNC and Miami-OH. I didn't realize they played Miami-OH. The rest of the schedule, though, supports my point.

Yes, the committee ranks what's in front of them, and given that Notre Dame now plays a top ten team in Miami on the road, a win will only validate or perhaps even raise their ranking. Same with Stanford on the road the final week. In other words, that ND is in the top 4 now with a solid schedule to finish, they will stay in the top 4. And if they lose, of course, this discussion becomes meaningless.
Let’s hope so. And for the record, I am not a Notre Dame hater. I just don’t like the idea of the four team playoff being populated with teams that don’t win their conference championships.
 

RedOctober3829

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Let’s hope so. And for the record, I am not a Notre Dame hater. I just don’t like the idea of the four team playoff being populated with teams that don’t win their conference championships.
It's more about having the 4 best teams regardless of conference titles. If Alabama and Georgia are 2 of the top 4 teams, then they deserve to be there.
 

johnmd20

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Let’s hope so. And for the record, I am not a Notre Dame hater. I just don’t like the idea of the four team playoff being populated with teams that don’t win their conference championships.
That feels like a manufactured thing to be angry about. Last year, Penn State won the Big 10 and didn't make the playoff. Ohio State did. So if ND has a solid schedule and a bunch of solid wins and they are in the Top 4, what's wrong with them making the show?
 

Sox and Rocks

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It's more about having the 4 best teams regardless of conference titles. If Alabama and Georgia are 2 of the top 4 teams, then they deserve to be there.
Right, and the fact that ND is an independent obviously means they can't win their conference. Now, if the rules were changed to require this, ND would obviously join a conference, and there is a debate to be had about whether they should or not be forced to do this. But for now, the guidelines, however ambiguous they may be, are what they are; punishing ND for not being in a conference when they play a schedule that is as or more difficult than most (all?) conference affiliated teams is disingenuous.
 

Sox and Rocks

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And for the record, I think ND will lose this weekend in Miami. They are a damn good team, much better than I expected, but they have holes just like every other team.
 

nolasoxfan

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That feels like a manufactured thing to be angry about. Last year, Penn State won the Big 10 and didn't make the playoff. Ohio State did. So if ND has a solid schedule and a bunch of solid wins and they are in the Top 4, what's wrong with them making the show?
Last year, I felt that Penn St. should have made it in over OSU. Again, I would like to see teams rewarded for winning their conference championships. Simple as that.
 

nolasoxfan

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It's more about having the 4 best teams regardless of conference titles. If Alabama and Georgia are 2 of the top 4 teams, then they deserve to be there.
Sure, that’s one way of looking at it. Personally, I would like to see the conference championships valued more. I think it makes the tournament more interesting.
 

nolasoxfan

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Right, and the fact that ND is an independent obviously means they can't win their conference. Now, if the rules were changed to require this, ND would obviously join a conference, and there is a debate to be had about whether they should or not be forced to do this. But for now, the guidelines, however ambiguous they may be, are what they are; punishing ND for not being in a conference when they play a schedule that is as or more difficult than most (all?) conference affiliated teams is disingenuous.
If they are voted in as one of the final four, ND will have played one less game than all of the other teams. Something rubs me the wrong way about that.
 

Sox and Rocks

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If they are voted in as one of the final four, ND will have played one less game than all of the other teams. Something rubs me the wrong way about that.
Not in all cases; Georgia only plays eleven games to ND's 12, so playing in the SEC Championship will give them the same number as ND, not one more. Alabama will play 13 assuming they make the SEC championship, but one of those games is against Mercer, which doesn't/shouldn't really count.

ND is clearly benefiting financially from their independent status, but they aren't benefiting by playing an easier schedule or less games.
 

The Needler

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Not in all cases; Georgia only plays eleven games to ND's 12, so playing in the SEC Championship will give them the same number as ND, not one more. Alabama will play 13 assuming they make the SEC championship, but one of those games is against Mercer, which doesn't/shouldn't really count.
What makes you think Georgia has, or would have an 11-game schedule?
 

Sox and Rocks

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What makes you think Georgia has, or would have an 11-game schedule?
My mistake.I pulled up their schedule and there was only 11 games listed. Their opener against Appalachian St. wasn't listed.

So, they're in a similar situation to Bama in that they will play one more game in total than ND, but given that they play Appalachian St. and Samford, it can be argued they are playing less meaningful football than ND, not more.