Fall is in the air – soon.  Though high temperature here in the swamp remains in the blast furnace upper 90’s again this week, we can (hopefully) expect some cooler weather in a few weeks.

Fall brings a little less yard mowing, a few more outdoor activities, and the aroma of some of our favorite baked foods coming from the kitchen.

Last Sunday in New Orleans, the Saints served-up several turnovers to their visitors from Tampa Bay in the fourth quarter.  The result was an ugly 20-10 home loss in the Superdome.

Saints Chef Jameis Winston has a renowned reputation for serving-up timely turnovers throughout his six-year NFL career.   By tossing three interceptions in the final quarter and a victory to visiting Tampa Bay, the New Orleans quarterback reminded gleeful Buccaneer fans why they made the right choice by cutting Chef Winston from their team two years ago.

Former LSU All-American linebacker Devin White now plays for the NFL Buccaneers.  After Tampa Bay was handed this game by the Saints (New Orleans had won the previous four meetings in this series), Devin White smiled and gave an honest comment to a reporter following the game.

He said, “”When Jameis left our team, everybody knows what he did that last year.  He threw 30 picks. We just knew he was going to give us the ball.”

Devin White said out loud what the rest of us had been quietly thinking.

The statistics don’t lie.  The odds are high that quarterback Jameis Winston will make some terrific plays and a few costly ones within the same football game nearly every week.

While with Tampa Bay in 2019, Famous Jameis passed for an NFL record 5,109 yards.  He also set a league record with a whopping 30 interceptions.  Tampa Bay went 8-8 that season and failed to make the playoffs.

Back in 2015, Tampa Bay used the #1 overall selection to make Jameis Winston their quarterback of the future.  During his five seasons in Tampa, Winston threw an incredible 88 interceptions in just 70 games.  The team won just 40% of the time Winston was under center for the Bucs.

Realizing that their talented-but- error-prone quarterback was simply not improving, the team unceremoniously dumped Winston as his contract expired.  Tampa Bay immediately signed legendary 43-year old Tom Brady as their next signal caller and won the 2020 Super Bowl the following season.

Can one player make that big of a difference in a football team?  Yes, they can.

Though Winston won a Heisman Trophy while leading Florida State to a national championship in 2013, his college statistics showed a propensity to make too many mistakes on the field.

Winston threw for ten interceptions during FSU’s national championship season, but that number ballooned to 18 interceptions in his final year of college football.

Upon entering the NFL, Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston tossed 15, 18, 11, 14, and the current NFL record of 30 interceptions in 2019.  An NFL team generally won’t win enough games to make the playoffs if the quarterback gives the football back to the opposing team frequently.

Finding himself unemployed and without a contract, Jameis Winston was picked up for, quite literally, peanuts by New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton in 2020 to become the understudy for the final season of retiring legend Drew Brees.   He was paid $1.1 million for one season.   At that point in his career, Jameis Winston seemed happy to have a job and learn from Brees and Coach Payton.

After Brees retired, Saints coach Sean Payton gave Jameis Winston another one-year contract – this time for $12 million – in hopes that he might resurrect his career in New Orleans.

Through the first seven games in 2021,

No, it isn’t college basketball season already.  It’s just been a long time since the college football programs of the Duke Blue Devils or the Kansas Jayhawks have mattered very much.

This Saturday at 11AM on FS1, these two well-known basketball schools will have their under-appreciated 3-0 college football teams on display and competing in Lawrence, Kansas.

Prior to the start of the 2022 college football season, the hearty fans of both universities had good reason to be wary.  It’s been a long time since either Duke or Kansas football had been very good.

From 1995 through 2007, Duke’s football team was horrible.  The Blue Devils won 22 games and lost 117.

Coach David Cutcliffe arrived in Durham in 2007.  During his 14 years leading the Blue Devils football program, the Duke football team significantly improved.  Duke appeared in six bowl games over a seven season span between 2012 and 2018.

Alas, all good things come to an end.

The Dukees have not been to a bowl game since the 2018 team visited Shreveport to grab a 56-27 victory over Temple in the Independence Bowl.

Over the next three years, Coach David Cutcliffe’s Blue Devil football teams finished 5-7, 2-9, and 3-9.  The long-time football coach agreed it was time to step aside after the 2021 season.

Duke’s new football coach is Mike Elko.  Coach Elko is 44 years of age, but he has never been a head football coach at the college level before this season.

Duke football fans were hoping for improvements, but Coach Elko is exceeding the early expectations.

Mike Elko came to Duke after a long history as an exceptional defensive coordinator at the FCS (small college) and FBS (large school) levels.  His most recent job was the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M where his teams were ranked #9 and #20 in the country during the last two seasons.

Starting the 2022 football season, Coach Mike Elko is a perfect 3-0 as a head coach at Duke.

His Blue Devils have shut-out Temple 30-0, won at Northwestern 31-23, and easily defeated North Carolina A&T 49-20 last weekend.  The team’s defense is ranked 23rd nationally.

Duke’s football team now travels to Kansas on Saturday for a nationally televised encounter with the equally surprising Kansas Jayhawks.

This football game feels as if we are looking at two teams staring at one another in a mirror.  Neither school could have envisioned such a successful start to their 2022 season.

Kansas is also a surprising 3-0 coming into Saturday’s game with Duke.   The football team has outperformed most fans’ expectations through its opening three games.

Last Saturday, Kansas fell behind 14-0 at the University of Houston.  By the time the game ended in Houston, it was KU taking home a convincing 48-30 win over the stunned Cougars.

Kansas football is for real in 2022.

Like Duke, Kansas is primarily known as a basketball powerhouse.  The Jayhawks are the current men’s basketball champions after winning this spring’s Final Four.  The Jayhawks basketball team has spoiled its fans by being a participant in the NCAA March Madness every season since 1989.  That’s 33 years and counting.

Success in college football is quite another matter in Lawrence, Kansas.

Over the past 40 seasons, the Kansas Jayhawks football team has played in just six post season bowl games.  The football team hasn’t posted a winning record or bowl appearance since 2008.  That’s fourteen years for long-suffering KU football fans.

The last Kansas football team to post a winning record was back in 2008 under Coach Mark Mangino.  If his name sounds familiar, it’s because Mangino was the last Kansas coach to lead the football team to a few years of national ...

How much longer can you take this, Dallas Cowboys fans?

I have written before about the legendary “Curse of Tom Landry” (the long-time Cowboys coach who was fired in February, 1989 by the team’s new owner – Jerry Jones).

Perhaps it is possible that there may be some truth about this alleged curse.

Ever since the beloved Tom Landry passed away in February, 2000, the Dallas Cowboys have not appeared in the NFC Championship game or the Super Bowl.

During the first thirty years of the Super Bowl era, the Dallas Cowboys appeared eight times between 1966 and 1995.  After going 5-3 in those season finales, Dallas hasn’t come close to appearing in the big game since the year 1995.

That streak is now at 26 years, and the outlook for 2022 in Dallas is looking bleaker by the day.

After the Dallas Cowboys opening game 19-3 home loss to Tampa Bay last Sunday, it’s nearly a guarantee that “The Streak” will reach 27 years by this season’s end.

Some of my long-time Dallas Cowboys friends firmly believe that the real problem in Dallas has been the team’s overconfident, micromanaging and perpetually meddling owner, Jerry Jones.  Ol’ JJ and his family firmly control and run the Dallas Cowboys organization.

If the former Arkansas Razorback football player was simply an employee, Jerry Jones (and his family) would have been fired years ago and sent back to Fort Smith to operate the family’s oil interests.

Millions of Dallas Cowboys fans would be thrilled to help him transition back to the oil patch.

Last year, the Dallas Cowboys actually had their fans excited in going 12-5 during the regular season and qualifying for the NFC playoffs.  Of course, Dallas (at home) lost to San Francisco in the first round to end the season and extend the curse.

True blue Dallas Cowboys fans are incredibly loyal to this football team.

Every year for the past few decades, the team’s devoted fans remind me of Charlie Brown as he tries to kick that football.  Then Lucy (played by Jerry Jones) pulls the ball away from Chuck at the last minute.

Cowboys fans keep buying those tickets and supporting their favorite team, but the Jones family’s combination of management ineptness and buzzard luck compounds the problems.

Here’s a good example.

You would think that the ownership of an NFL team which went 12-5 last season would know that they were finally getting close to making a championship run.  By adding a few key pieces here and there, perhaps 2022 might be the season when the Dallas Cowboys would finally get a chance to play in the NFC Championship game and, perhaps, the Super Bowl.

Entering this season, the Dallas Cowboys were expected to rise to the top of the NFC East.  Playing in a perennially weak division featuring the morbid New York Giants (one winning season in past nine years) and awful Washington Football Team (five straight losing seasons), the Dallas Cowboys’ only legitimate threat in 2022 was expected to come from those pesky Philadelphia Eagles.

Instead of adding a few major personnel upgrades to the football team in 2022, the Dallas Cowboys management (the Jones family) sent the team’s top wide receiver for the past few years (Amari Cooper) to the Cleveland Browns.

Despite his impressive recent receiving totals, the 28-year old Cooper’s contract was costing Dallas $20 million per season.  When added to the money paid to starting quarterback Dak Prescott ($40 million/year) and running back Ezekiel Elliott ($18 million), the Dallas Cowboys were paying nearly 40% of the team’s salaries to just three of the 53 players on the current roster.

Who do you think agreed to pay those players all of that money?  Yep,

Just four years ago, the hearty fans of the University of Nebraska were so thrilled about their new head football coach that they sold-out 86,000 seat Memorial Stadium for a football game in just 90 minutes after the tickets were put on sale.

This wasn’t for a game against a national power such as Ohio State.  Those tickets were sold for the school’s annual spring intrasquad football game!

After Nebraska had completed a disappointing 4-8 season in 2016, the school’s new head football coach was coming back home after leading the University of Central Florida to a perfect 13-0 season.

Scott Frost, the former Cornhusker quarterback on the school’s last national championship team in 1997, was returning to Lincoln.  Nebraska fans could feel the magic again.  Scott Frost’s previous coaching job at the University of Central Florida resulted in a miraculous turnaround.

Most people (including me) figured that Scott Frost was the perfect hire to do the same for Nebraska.

Frost was a tough and focused college football player at Nebraska.  Over the years, he morphed into a steely-eyed, determined college football coach whose ability to recruit and motivate his players helped lead UCF to its perfect 13-0 season in 2017.

Though UCF was left out of the four-team College Football Playoffs, Coach Frost and the university declared themselves to be National Champions anyway.  The UCF football stadium still has the “2017 National Champions” sign along the side of the press box today.

Scott Frost’s alma mater beckoned.  Nebraska offered their former quarterback-turned-coach a generous 7-year, $35 million contract to come home and help to remake Big Red football into a national power once again.

Hope for the football program soared higher than the corn in the Midwest.

Nebraska football simply wasn’t used to having losing teams.  In the thirty-year span from 1968 through 1998, the Nebraska Cornhuskers never lost more than four games in a single season.

In the last 17 years between 2004 and 2021, Big Red has lost at least four football games in each and every season.

Husker Nation’s grain elevator dropped from a fully-loaded silo to a nearly empty ground floor during the past decade.

The University of Nebraska football fans are the envy of nearly every college football athletics director.

OH YES, THEY CALL IT “THE STREAK!”

The Huskers own the longest home field sellout streak in NCAA history.  We’re talking about 385 consecutive sellouts at Nebraska home games.

Yes, the football team has sold out 86,000 seat Memorial Field for every home game since 1962.  Nebraska’s streak is now at 60 years and counting.  It is a huge source of pride for the school and its football fans.

Nebraska’s home sellout streak began under President Kennedy and has stretched through the presidencies of Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, Trump and now Biden.

That streak has also covered the Nebraska coaching tenures of Bob Devaney, Tom Osborne, Frank Solich, Bill Callahan, Bo Pelini, Mike Riley, and now Scott Frost.  The current Director of Athletics Trev Alberts is also a former Nebraska football player.  He is quite aware of “The Streak” as it began long before his football career ended in the early 1990’s.

Two months ago, Trev Alberts mentioned the pressure of maintaining the school’s legendary sellout streak:

“It doesn’t stress me out.  Because I will tell you, as I mentioned before, sitting in the Big Ten Athletic Director meetings yesterday, every one of the ADs talks about our fan base, how incredible our fans are and that experience when we go to Memorial Stadium, so it’s really important to us.”

Over Labor Day weekend, LIV Golf had the professional golf stage all to itself with its golf tournament being held in Boston.  One week earlier, the PGA Tour season came to a close in Atlanta as Rory McIlroy backed-up the Brinks truck to claim his $18 million first place check at the Tour Championship.

With the PGA Tour taking a pause over the Labor Day weekend, the upstart LIV Golf group had a great chance to reach interested golf fans at home via television.

That is, assuming you could find them.

Though the 48 golfers competing in the new LIV Golf tournaments are being compensated beyond their wildest dreams, home television viewers aren’t so lucky.   For this inaugural season, the men’s golf events are only available on either the LIVGolf.com website or via their dedicated You Tube Channel.

FIRE UP THE COMPUTER!  I’M WATCHING SOME LIV GOLF!

I brokered a deal to bring my wife’s laptop into the living room on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  I watched the LIV Golf Boston tournament on her computer while keeping tabs on the opening weekend of the college football season on our living room television.   In return, she had the use of the living room both nights to watch old movies while I retreated back to my “Man Cave” to watch more college football.

It was definitely worth the effort – especially during Sunday’s final round.

The LIV Golf Boston event delivered an exciting finale which featuring a three-man playoff.  As the sun was slowly setting in New England, Dustin Johnson rolled in a 35-foot eagle putt on the first hole to win the tournament’s $4 million first prize.

DJ was part of the winning team called the “4 Aces GC” with teammates Patrick Reed, Talor Gooch, and Pat Perez.  Each of those four players pocketed an additional $750,000 as part of the winning team which finished 32-under par for the 54-hole event.   The 4 Aces GC team has captured three of the first four team events on the LIV Golf tour this year.

Perhaps the Feds should try to break-up this money making golf monopoly!

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who discovered LIV Golf over the Labor Day weekend, either.  Though I have yet to read an official estimate of total television viewership, the You Tube channel indicated that nearly 900,000 people watched the final round from Boston Sunday.

You Tube regulars may scoff at “only” receiving 900,000 views.  I’m pretty sure my son and daughter-in-law would tell me that their favorite movie reviewer or home cooking star racks up at least that many views in an average You Tube week.

I watched the coverage last weekend on the LIV Golf website.   Though I have been unable to find any published reports about the viewership, I’ll guess that the LIV Golf website probably had a similar amount of internet viewing traffic as You Tube.

To put Sunday’s LIV Golf viewership into better perspective, the PGA Tour’s final round of the Tour Championship the previous week had about 3.6 million viewers.  As a reminder, the PGA Tour’s television coverage aired nationally on NBC and Golf Channel (also owned by NBC).

In golf vernacular, the PGA Tour’s television coverage has to “spot” the internet-only LIV Golf coverage at a full 36 handicap (two shots per hole) advantage.

In other words, you really have to be motivated to find and watch LIV Golf on television.  Once you find it, it doesn’t take long to notice some positive features in the TV coverage.

From the kitchen, my lovely wife immediately chimed in Saturday and asked, “Is that David Feherty on the coverage?”  Indeed, it was!

David Feherty was a long-time European Tour golfer who was talented enough to have played in one Ryder Cup event during his professional career.  He has become better known as a non-traditional...

I hope that you stayed awake to watch the entire LSU vs. Florida State game on Sunday night from the Louisiana Superdome.  The game was a true snoozer in the first half as Florida State took a measly 7-3 halftime advantage.  However, the second half was filled with some exciting plays and a few inexplicably wacky ones, too.

Honestly, LSU didn’t deserve to win this game based on the way the Bayou Bengals played for three of the four quarters of this game.  When your special teams units allow one blocked field goal attempt, a blocked extra point, and has its punt returner (bless his heart) drop two punts which were recovered by Florida State, your football team was lucky simply to have a chance to win at the end of this interesting SEC vs. ACC match-up.

The Seminoles prevailed 24-23 after blocking an LSU extra point attempt after the Tigers scored a touchdown with no time remaining on the clock.  The extra point would have tied the game, sent it into overtime, and kept a suddenly awakened LSU crowd partying in the French Quarter of New Orleans for most of Labor Day Monday.

Alas, it was not to be for the LSU Tigers in Game #1 or for the team’s new “$95 million over ten years” head coach, Brian Kelly.

The former Notre Dame football coach was expected to bring more discipline to LSU’s football team this season.  Last year’s fired former head coach “Easy” Ed Orgeron seemed to lack control over his players for most of last season’s disappointing 6-7 campaign.

After Week #1, Brian Kelly now has the game film to offer as a weekly reminder to this team.  The message is that LSU remains a very undisciplined college football team.  Talent does not always overcome carelessness in most games.

The smallest details really do matter.  Ask anyone who has played for Coach Nick Saban!

Though this year’s LSU squad may be lacking in big name talent, the expectations were that the new coach would help to improve and develop his players.  Tiger fans are expecting a more fundamentally sound LSU squad under Brian Kelly than those under former Coach Ed Orgeron.  LSU’s defense lacked consistent tackling technique, the offensive line blocking schemes needed improvement, and both sides of the ball would benefit from fewer mental errors and careless penalties.  Championship teams understand that the little things add up.

Instead, Coach Kelly is now 0-1 for the football season.

After Florida’s big win against Utah Saturday night, former University of Louisiana – Lafayette coach Bill Napier will be on the minds of many Tiger faithful this week.  LSU opted to pass on offering the head coaching job to the successful young football coach from a school located just 40 miles west down I-10.  Instead, the Tigers Athletics Director Scott Woodward opened the piggy bank to hire an established big name coach in Brian Kelly to return LSU back to the top of the SEC.

At $9 million per year, Coach Brian Kelly’s job is to mold a winner in short order.

LSU’s defense continues to be enamored with making collisions with the opposing team rather than going low to wrap-up the legs of the offensive player (this method is usually taught and learned by junior high school).  In doing so, Florida State’s players frequently broke loose and continued downfield.   LSU’s defense still looked a lot like last year’s 6-7 team.

LSU defensive captain and starting defensive end Ali Gaye was tossed from the ball game after a dangerous helmet shot to the head of Florida State’s talented quarterback Jordan Travis.  As a result of this penalty, the defensive captain will be on the sidelines for the first half of LSU’s game this Saturday against crosstown rival, Southern University.

Likewise,

To the surprise of virtually no one, the national odds makers have made two SEC football teams as betting favorites to participate as part of this year’s four-team College Football Playoffs.

America’s bettors are selecting Alabama to win it all in 2022.  Ohio State is barely edging out last year’s champion Georgia for the #2 spot.  According to Vegas, the #4 team will be Clemson.

Sound familiar?

SEC West stalwart Alabama features the returning Heisman Trophy winner (Bryce Young) at quarterback and a likely Heisman candidate anchoring the defense (Will Anderson, Jr.).   Last year’s national champion Georgia Bulldogs will return with quarterback Stetson Bennett to once again operate an offense like an experienced surgeon this season.  Both teams should be really good in 2022.

So, who’s #3 in the SEC?

Being the third-best team in the SEC may not sound very exciting.  However, you never know when either Alabama or Georgia might have to deal with some unforeseen difficulties this year, either.

Despite all of the constant media attention given to Bama and Georgia, there are several other teams which will make some noise in the SEC this season.  Let’s take a closer look at a few other teams which might be part of the SEC title discussion in early November.

#6 Texas A&M

 

The Texas Aggies now have a target on their backs after their head coach got into a barking match with the long-time King of the SEC, Nick Saban.  Jimbo Fisher was offended after Alabama coach Nick Saban accused the Ags of buying-up many of the top high school recruits with millions in NIL money courtesy of A&M’s deep pocketed and quite enthusiastic Former Students.

In Austin, Texas, the burnt orange brigade of college football fans can’t get enough of this story.  Many Texas Longhorn fans have never liked A&M’s “attitude”, either.   I suspect that they will be pulling for Bama when the Aggies visit Tuscaloosa in October.

Texas A&M will have three home games against teams ranked in the AP preseason Top 25.  Beginning on September 17, AggieLand will host #16 Miami (Florida) and then receive a visit from #19 Arkansas the following Saturday.   The long-awaited game at #1 Alabama happens two weeks later on October 8.

After that, the Aggies will host #21 Ole Miss on October 29 and then finish the season against an LSU team which owns an 8-2 advantage over Texas A&M in the past decade.

The schedule is tough, and I think the Aggies are overrated to begin the season.

Prediction:  8-4

#19 Arkansas

The Razorbacks have slowly crawled out of basement of the SEC West.  This team has become a legitimate force to be reckoned with after just two seasons under Coach Sam Pittman.   After last year’s 9-4 finish, the Hogs may find out how high the ceiling is this year.

Arky features a senior quarterback in K.J. Jefferson.  He’s just as likely to run as pass.  Arkansas’ running game was dominant last year, but their opponents have had an entire off-season to study it and know what is coming.

Arkansas’ football schedule begins with a home opener against #23 Cincinnati.  The Hogs have a brutal four week stretch playing at #6 Texas A&M, a home game against #1 Alabama, at rival Mississippi State, and a road trip to play #25 BYU.   Later, Arky plays back to back games against LSU (at home) and goes to play at #21 Ole Miss.

Prediction:  8-4

#20 Kentucky

Yes, Kentucky plays football, too!  Under head coach Mark Stoops, Kentucky won ten games last season and remains a threat to win a lot of games this season.  Quarterback Will Levis may be selected by the NFL as a first round pick next spring.  If some of the new receivers step-up this fall and help the Wildcats to score enough points,

Welcome back to football season!

Before we cover your favorite NFL team, it’s time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of America’s favorite team.  Yes, the world-famous Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders are 50 years old in 2022!

A recent story profiled the interesting history of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.  They have traveled the world together, starred in a 1979 TV movie, and have been featured in a reality television show.

Despite the fact that these young ladies practice their dance routines up to five times per week and perform at every Dallas home game, they were paid a measly $15 per game from their inception in 1972 all the way through the 1996 season.

Fortunately, the pay finally improved.  The current 36-person Dallas Cowboys cheerleader team receives an hourly wage for each practice and $400 for their game day performances.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys’ goofy cartoon-like mascot named Rowdy has been paid $65,000 per year for his work.

Go figure.

Perhaps it might be a little payback karma that the Dallas Cowboys football team has not appeared in a Super Bowl for the past 26 seasons.

Around the NFL this coming season, some cities are stoked knowing that their team has a good chance to be a Super Bowl contender.  However, other cities will be watching more college football as the season progresses to guess who should be their team’s next #1 pick in next spring’s NFL draft.

THE PRETENDERS:

It is going to be difficult to stay hyped for the entire 17-game regular season if you live in cities like Houston, Jacksonville, New York City (Jets or Giants), and Detroit.  Should any of these football teams post a winning record in 2022, it is most definitely party time!  I wouldn’t bet on it, though.

THE MUDDLED MIDDLE:

Longtime NFL head coach Bum Phillips was known for his famous one-liners.  He once said, “There’s two kinds of coaches.  Them that’s fired, and them that’s gonna be fired!”

We might be waving goodbye to long-time Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll by the end of this season, too.

The Seahawks lost franchise quarterback Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos and then failed to add a quality starting quarterback to their roster in the offseason or via the draft.  When your team is counting castoff quarterbacks such as Drew Lock and ten-year veteran Gino Smith while playing in the same division as the Super Bowl champion Rams and the San Francisco 49ers, it may be a long year.  The rain in Seattle should help mask the tears of long-time Seahawks fans.

Speaking of sad sacks, it’s time to mention the Cleveland Browns.

As covered here several times in recent months, the team’s recently acquired quarterback Deshaun Watson remains suspended through Game 11 this season.  By then, the Browns (who play in a very competitive division with defending AFC Champion Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh) should be reduced to a spoiler team.

After reviewing each team’s schedule, playoff chances are iffy this year for AFC teams in Miami, New England, Tennessee, Denver, and Las Vegas.  Miami is the sports media’s most hyped team in 2022.  Though I wasn’t born in Missouri, you’ve gotta “Show me”.   Likewise, New England may have the best coach in the NFL, but this year’s Patriots roster seems quite pedestrian.

Over in the NFC, I believe the teams which will be staying home for the playoffs include Philadelphia, Arizona, Chicago, Washington, Atlanta, and Carolina.  I can hear to howls from Philly fans already.  However, it won’t matter which team emerges from the weak NFC East to make the playoffs.  That team will be one and done.

THE CONTENDERS – AFC:

Now, we get serious.

Take a bow, Phil Mickelson!  Lefty

Nearly every day seems to bring another set of rumors about the jumbled state of college athletics conferences.

Today’s hot story suggests that more impending doom is headed for the Pac-12 Conference.

The buzzards are circling once again as the athletic conference kingpin of the Pacific Coast fights to stay alive.

The University of Southern California (a 49,000 student private research university in Los Angeles) recently signed-up to move to the Big Ten Conference in 2024.  So did their longtime crosstown public school rivals at UCLA.

With 47,000 students of its own, UCLA has become (pardon my pun) a political football.

Politicians are threatening to fumble the football for UCLA.  After the school’s announcement to leave the Pac-12 and move to the Big Ten Conference in 2024, California’s governor (and presidential wannabe) Gavin Newsom is giving the media his version of Lee Corso’s famous line, “Not so fast!”

Ditto for the Board of Regents.  The rhetoric (as usual in politics) sounds serious.  One of those regents, John Perez, recently said, “All options are on the table.”

Yeah, right.  Let me translate.  “We want to make sure that the University of California in Berkeley (near San Francisco) receives an offer to move to the Big Ten, too!” 

The Big Ten Conference is quickly becoming big, bad, and nationwide.

After a previous expansion gobbled-up East Coast schools like Rutgers (New Jersey) and the University of Maryland to go along with nearby Penn State, the Big Ten-tacles Conference surprised many sports fans recently by announcing that USC and UCLA would be coming aboard beginning in 2024.

The Pac-12 minus two equals just ten schools will be remaining.  The earthquake is just beginning out west.

The University of Oregon has not been happy about being left out of the moving party.   The Ducks have a legitimate right to gripe.  Oregon has been the lone Pac-12 participant in the College Football Playoffs since the system started eight years ago in 2014.

By comparison, the SEC has placed ten teams into the four-team postseason field during the same period.

The Pac-12 Conference has been fading quickly from major sports relevance for more than a decade.

It’s not just in football, either.  The last Pac-12 team to win the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four tournament was Arizona in 1997.  That was 25 years ago.

Being in the Pac-12 Conference also means that your team is unlikely to be followed as much as teams positioned in the Eastern and Central time zones.  With a 7PM Pacific Time kickoff for a college football game out west, it translates to a sleepy 10PM start on the East Coast.  Only West Coast fans and East Coast football insomniacs, bettors, and college alumni are staying up to watch the late games after seeing three other football games preceding it every Saturday in the fall.

The truth is that the Pac-12 Conference has been less competitive in football than the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC.  The Pac-12 Conference television ratings are also the weakest of the bunch, too.

So, why would the Big Ten Conference throw a life preserver to USC, UCLA and, potentially, a few other Pac-12 schools?

Money, of course!

By snagging the #2 US television market in Los Angeles, the Big Ten Conference is planning to go shopping for other teams in large TV markets.

Let’s take a look around the Pac-12 and review the largest television markets for each school:

#2 – Los Angeles – USC and UCLA (got ‘em!)

#6 – San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose – both Cal (Berkeley) and Stanford (Palo Alto)