The Championship Stays in California

Chris Ross led this year wire to wire. He ran off six straight victories to take the lead and then held off Analicia Baker in the final game after she had rushed back to tie him before the Orange Bowl. Therefore, the plaque stays in San Rafael, California, but with a new name. The Commissioner has been informed that the California crew will take care of adding the name out there on the left coast for the sake of economics. 

Of course we mourn the loss of R.C. our founder during this year. Like I said before, he would want us to carry on with this great contest. I was glad to see Kirsten back in contention. Matthew had a strong year picking and ended strong. We encourage you to invite others to participate in future contests. Anyone with a connection to the family who is actually a human being. Next year we will return hopefully to a full bowl season with more than 20 games to pick, a visit to some bowls by participants in the pool, and a more colorful blog with pictures and comedic banter. 

But for now I'll leave you with this memory. R.C. loved college football. He used to take me in the summers to the North Carolina High School All-Star Football Game where he would point out Carolina signees to me as they competed. The game would always end with a fireworks show. And, as was his custom when he drove on the return trip he would tap out jazz drum beats on the dashboard as he guided the car on the freeway. One year, Tim accompanied us and I had a date! Tim in the front passenger seat sleeping. R.C. lost in jazz and driving and drumming. Me in the backseat with my date... well... I'll leave that alone. The more the merrier is the message here. Get your mind out of the gutter. The beauty of sports and music and fellowship and fireworks all wrapped up on a beautiful summer evening in North Carolina. You can't beat that. You savor that. Savor every last second of it. 

Take care on your journey. Every day is a blessing. As Jim Valvano said, a good day is when you laugh, you cry and you think. That is a great day. I hope you have plenty of them in this new year.

- The Commish

One Final Day - Four Bowls

 It has been a quick bowl pool season. Ohio State provided our upset of the season last night with a thrashing of Clemson - that's a shame. This sets up a final game of Alabama versus Ohio State. If you have read this blog you know what an anti-playoff person the author is. Here are some stats for you about the playoff:

We have had the playoff for seven years since the 2014-15 season. As it is a four team playoff there have been 28 slots available. Only 11 programs have filled those slots. No team outside the power five conferences despite plenty of candidates (take Cincinnati this year) has filled a spot. Alabama and Clemson have been in six of the seven years. Ohio State and Oklahoma have appeared four times. All seven years, at least one team who made the playoff the previous year has appeared again. Six of the seven years at least two teams have made the playoff who made the playoff the previous year. One year, three of the teams in the playoff had appeared in the previous year's playoff. This system is giving the same programs extra visibility, increasing their recruiting footprint and therefore turning college football into a pyramid scheme. Given what we know about recruiting so far, would you not expect Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma to make it in again next year? 

One of the arguments made by pro-playoff, anti-bowl advocates is that the student athletes are not motivated to play unless there is something to play for. They always use blowouts in the other bowls to make their point, especially when a big name like Georgia has some athletes opt out and lose as a favorite. But let's look at actual results. There have been 14 semi-finals played since the playoff began. Ten of those fourteen have been blowouts (the winning team has won by two or more touchdowns). Only one of those games has gone into overtime. This blowout pattern extended to this year where both games were blowouts. Overall, the average margin of victory in a playoff semi-final is 21 points or 3 touchdowns. In the six Championship games, three have been blowouts. Currently, Alabama is more than a touchdown favorite. If you look at scores of other seasons of bowls, I would argue the results are no worse, and actually a little better. We have had three really tight games in our pool this year among the minor bowls: the Peach, the Liberty, and the Cheez-It. We have had four blowouts: the Alamo, the Duke's Mayo, the Cotton and the Citrus. We have four games left. Let's hope they provide better entertainment than yesterday's semi-finals.

Today's games: The Gator Bowl - Kentucky versus North Carolina State. Real important to Candace's chances of repeating. She cannot have Kentucky win or Chris eliminates her. 

The Outback Bowl - Indiana versus Ole Miss. Matthew needs to keep an eye on this game. Unusually, most of us picked against the SEC team here.

The Fiesta Bowl - Iowa State versus Oregon. The Truck Stop Big 12 versus the Conference of Champions PAC 12 (Bill Walton Reference for those in the know)

The Orange Bowl - North Carolina versus Texas A&M. This will be emotional for us. Despite who we picked, I know we will all be rooting for the team in Carolina blue. 

Have a great day. Watch the Orange Bowl if nothing else and drink a toast as you watch to the man who created this fun. I'll have more to write at a later time.

New Year's Day

 Of course, back in the day, this was the traditional big day for bowls. All the big bowls and some minors were played on this day. You still get a lot of games, but the day no longer carries the mystique that it used to. Depending on the year and when the NFL plays, you have a varied schedule. Memories of this day for me always send me back to the George Autry parties in Chapel Hill. While most parties were on New Year's Eve, the Autry party was on New Year's Day. I think I only went to two that I can remember. But there was a "pig pickin'" (I believe that is the term) and other foods (I seem to remember quail being served one time). And there were old fashioned tube television sets in every room set to the games. People would mill around and basically the party would last all day. 

Four games for us today: Peach Bowl - Cincinnati versus Georgia

                                        Citrus Bowl - Auburn versus Northwestern

                                        Rose Bowl - Alabama versus Notre Dame

                                        Sugar Bowl - Clemson versus Ohio State

RCs rule when the Pool first started was never pick against Notre Dame. How times have changed. Notre Dame is definitely the underdog today. Clemson has never lost to Ohio State. I remember when Woody Hayes punched the kid from Clemson. That jinx lives on and I think Clemson will win again. Get ready for another Clemson versus Alabama final game two weeks from now.

I hope you have a great New Year's Day. Give someone you love a hug.