CFP Confusion: Playoff Picture Sparks Controversy Ahead of Final Rankings
The Key for the week of December 2, 2024
Turn out the lights…
You know it’s time to throw in the towel when, at the beginning of the broadcast CBS has the Bengals in the “still in the playoff hunt” column, then by the end of the game the Bengals’ logo is nowhere to be seen on that same graphic. In a stretch where most “experts” thought that the Bengals would need to win two of three against the Chargers, Steelers and Cowboys, they’ve already lost two. And the upcoming Monday night game in Dallas may be memorable only because cartoon characters (The Simpsons) will be woven into game action. Yes, that’s where we are now, although the Bengals continue to be favored (-5.5, according to BetMGM) against the Cowboys. The sharps are just as confused as we are—how can a team this good be this bad?
Them’s fightin’ words…
Ben hasn’t seen skirmishes like this since the Battle of Concord, as Michigan-Ohio State, North Carolina-NC State and Florida-Florida State, among others, all decided that 60 minutes wasn’t enough to settle the score and they had to resort to hand-to-hand combat. Flag planting, disrespecting, all add up to big fines for most of the schools involved, including $100K each for the Wolverines and Buckeyes. What’s the solution? Don’t bring a flag down to the field? Get your players off the field faster? How about, in this era of NIL and player revenue sharing, fining the players themselves? That might be a deterrent to pushing and shoving, if you knew one confrontation could cost you thousands of dollars personally.
CFP chaos already
We won’t have the final college football playoff lineup set for another week, but already, teams are jockeying for position. While it probably was a good idea at the time to have the conference champions in the Power 4 get a first-round bye, you could have SMU and Boise State holding the coveted off week while Penn State, Alabama and Georgia have to play that first round game. The ACC already is squawking that it is “shocked” that Miami fell to 12th in the CFP rankings after its second loss of the season to Syracuse, while three-loss Alabama has (for now) the 11th seed and would play Notre Dame at South Bend the third week of December in a must-see game that harkens back to the days of Bear Bryant and Ara Parseghian. Don’t be surprised if there are more upsets in the conference championships this weekend that will have fans clamoring to expand the playoffs (again).
Ben’s best bet…
Call us a homer, but you have to think that the Bengals’ bad luck in one-score games has to end soon. Yes, I know everyone is talking about Joe Burrow’s purchase of a Batmobile (Thanks, Hard Knocks) instead of deferring that money to one of his wide receivers, but Ben digresses. The Men in Stripes are almost a touchdown favorite to Dallas at Jerry’s World, and frankly, there’s no better must-see TV than the cutaways of Jerry Jones in the owner’s box, agonizing over every play. Simpsons or no, take the Bengals and points for an outright, too little, too late, win in Big D.