But this year there was an issue. Ya see, the big hogs at corporate wanted more money in their pockets, so what do you think was the answer for more money and more TV time? More football. As a consumer, more football will never result in a complaint for me, but in order to give the consumers more football, they had to pick up a couple teams that were previously ineligible for a bowl game (You must be at least .500, 6 wins, 6-6, whatever, to be eligible for a bowl game). Which means that we might be watching some pretty lame games in theory (if a team couldn't manage to win at least half of their games this year, then naturally they must be bad, right?) Eh kinda. Here's a quick scoop of that (we'll break it down later, don't worry!):
5-7 Teams that are going bowling:
San Jose State (5-7) vs Georgia State (6-6)<--Will actually be remotely competitive to watch
Nebraska (5-7) vs UCLA (8-4)<--Not so relatively competitive
Minnesota (5-7) vs Central Michigan (7-5)<--Competitive
So whoever decides these bowl games actually did a pretty damn good job of making sure that if we are going to be watching a team that had a losing season, they're at least going to be competitive and a decent game to watch. Except for Nebraska. Yes, I keep harping on the fact that UCLA has been one of the more overrated teams in the nation, but let's not deny that they were (somehow) pretty damn close to getting into the Pac-12 Title Game. Yes you are reading this right, Nebraska, who finished in the bottom half of a deep Big Ten, will be playing the 3rd/4th team in a just as deep/interesting Pac-12. Tell me how that's competitive? (I'm already predicting bad news, which again will get to later) And then as I was making my bowl picks for ESPN's Bowl Mania (*cough* plug *cough*) I noticed that one of the bowl matchups is Auburn and Memphis. Really? That game will (better) be so one-sided it won't even be funny (well actually for me it will be hilarious because everyone said Auburn was supposed to win the SEC but me, el oh el roflcopter hire me ESPN pls). In my opinion, Nebraska should have ended up with Auburn while UCLA got Memphis, now those two would be much more fun to watch (don't get me wrong, I will thoroughly enjoy watching Memphis annihilate Auburn, but again, let's think about the average consumer here for a second)
But I digress. I'm really here to somewhat recap the season and preview the bowl season all in one shebang along with some NFL chatter (or at least...two shebangs). As this was a project to see if I might be on to something with my computer projections, I discovered as I was bringing this all back in, that of the 1000 some college football games that were played this year, my computer shot about an 85% accuracy rate, including some obvious inflation. But still, 85% with some obvious misses is pretty damn spectacular I'd say (That's a B+ in some professors books, which is fitting after finals and my motto, "we take those") And this project was/is very time consuming (It takes me about an hour and a half uninterrupted to get a week's worth of scores in, hence why there was a time I was backed up, I just didn't have the time/energy to sit down and take care of it)
"But Rahmeen, you were like 35-25 in your blog predictions, last I checked that's not 85%!" Congrats you can math (Unlike me in one of my finals or two). I may have gone against my computer projections in this blog....multiple times...and have been wrong...multiple times. Computer 1; Me 0. But I guess that can be a good thing as I might be well on my way to becoming a mad genius. What was fairly spot on, were some early predictions; let's take a quick recapping gander:
ACC:
-People called me crazy for picking Clemson to be one of my solid locks for the playoff (Sure, I ended up giving them 6 toss ups, but I also had them reasonably winning all 6 of those) and look at them now.
-Georgia Tech definitely failed everybody's expectations this year. But hey, they still beat Florida State.
-Louisville, Miami, and Duke ended up being slight disappointments from their preseason projections, but North Carolina made up for that outta nowhere (Each of the three previously mentioned were slated for 9-3, while I had North Carolina at 7-5)
Big 12:
-Injuries plagued all of the top Big 12 teams, but none more than TCU, who unfortunately could not avenge their last season. But they still finished as expected strong, with each cannibalizing themselves for about 2 losses a piece. Unfortunately did not think Oklahoma would turn out to be the one to take TCU's place. Did however think it would have been Oklahoma State, who definitely performed this year
-Totally called Kansas going 0-12.
Big 10:
-Was a bit generous with a couple of the teams, (Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Penn State)
-Northwestern and Michigan exceeded expectations (You win this round Harbaugh)
-Sadly Ohio State couldn't make the playoff, but I suppose Michigan State will do.
Pac-12:
-Both Arizona's, yikes.
-Much like TCU, Oregon got hit with some injuries and lost their juju early in the season. However now they look like the team that they should have been. How ironic they're playing TCU in their bowl game?
-I keep saying UCLA is overrated, but I did have them going 9-3 so close enough. A very bad 9-3 I guess?
-USC didn't meet expectations due to some interesting coaching changes, California, Stanford, and Washington State stepped it up
SEC:
-Hard to argue against Alabama's sustained success. Preseason favorites and current favorites.
-Totally called Auburn being an f-up
-Florida out of nowhere
-Kentucky and Mississippi State I may have been slightly generous with (Both slated for 10 wins...just a bit on the generous side)
-Vanderbilt did surprise me by not going 1-11.
Regardless on how my bowl picks will go, I can say I'm fairly delighted with this season. I will now be turning more towards the NFL playoffs and as the NHL and and NBA get closer to their halfway point I'll be doing that (Spoiler Alert: Warriors win NBA, Blackhawks will fall short in NHL)
Now, I was initially going to post my bowl predictions and mini-breakdowns with this post as well, but I was close to halfway done with them and realized that was an excessive amount of reading for one post, so there will be a second part coming tomorrow with those! However, to make sure I don't disappoint the fans, let's talk some NFL football. If you haven't taken a gander at the tab at the top of the screen that says "NFL" You should. But I'll quickly recap whatever that tab says right here. It's Week 15 which means it is crunch time for some teams to get into the playoffs (and crunch time for my fantasy to not fall face first for their playoffs, high expectations when you win the regular season in the league. But the regular season means nothing if you can't perform in the playoffs...I'm looking good after the Rams/Bucs game but it's way too close than I'd prefer it to be)
Currently in the playoffs:
-New England Patriots (Won AFC East already)
-Carolina Panthers (Won NFC South already, as well as a first round bye)
-Arizona Cardinals (Wild Card at the minimum)
Already eliminated:
-Baltimore Ravens (4 games out of wild card with 3 to play)
-San Diego Chargers, Cleveland Browns (5 games out of wild card with 3 to play)
-Tennessee Titans (Do not have enough tiebreakers to get back into division, 5 out of wild card with 3 to play)
-Detroit Lions, San Fransisco 49ers (4 games out of wild card with 3 to play)
Can clinch this week:
-Cincinnati Bengals: Can win AFC North with win AND Steelers loss. Can win minimum wild card with win AND Chiefs OR Jets loss
-Denver Broncos: Can win minimum wild card with win over Steelers. Can win AFC West with win AND Chiefs loss
-Seattle Seahawks and Minnesota Vikings: Can win minimum wild card with win AND Falcons loss.
-Arizona Cardinals: Can win NFC West with win AND Seahawks loss.
Can be eliminated this week:
-Miami Dolphins: Lose and done. 2 wins between Chiefs, Jets or Steelers and done.
-Buffalo Bills and Oakland Raiders: Lose AND 2 wins between Chiefs, Jets or Steelers and done.
-Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints: Lose and done. Both Seahawks AND Vikings win and done.
-St Louis Rams and Tampa Bay Bucs: Both Seahawks AND Vikings win and done.
-Atlanta Falcons: Lose AND both Seahawks AND Vikings win and done.
-Dallas Cowboys: Lose AND every other team in NFC East wins and done.
Which now leads me to my predictions:
Right meow I pretty much have things holding tight except:
Giants will win the NFC East over the Redskins
Texans will win the AFC South over the Colts
And for the most part my predictions have held relatively constant since Week 4 (which you can check out by clicking on the NFL Tab!)
Again...stay tuned for the mass of text that will be my bowl predictions...
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