Bill Walsh

Balogun was in on goal. He beat the defender and was about to score. No red card. No penalty. No yellow card. No foul. No review. The bizarre thing is that Fox Sports showed a replay that began just AFTER the defender let go of the arm. So weird. How could the officials miss this? And how could the TV crew miss it as well? @USMNT

There are four kinds of possible outcomes in an SEC Conference game (according to how the Committee describes the various results): - Great Win: Beat any team in the top 1/3 of the conference. - Quality Win: Beat any team in the bottom 1/3 of the conference. - Good loss: Lose to any team in the top 1/3 of the conference. - Neutral loss - Lose to any team in the bottom 1/3 of the conference. It is a gauntlet, you know. Some resulting realities: - Any game involving any team in the top 1/3 of the conference will result in a Great or Quality Win. - Any game between two teams in the top 1/3 will result in a Great Win and a Good Loss. - Many great wins and quality wins are guaranteed. There is no avoiding that. - Once you get your head around no losses being bad losses, you need to put 3-loss SEC teams in the playoff. That is what the Committee is coordinating now. Two-loss SEC teams are currently ranked #5, #7, #10, #13 and #14. Alabama and Texas have already basically been guaranteed playoff spots, even when they take their 3rd losses. You have to hand it to them. They let everyone know what they were planning a few months ago. Nobody should be surprised.

No team has been elite this season. Here are the top 12 in the rankings and games where they underperformed. 1. Miami (8–0) - Florida State: Won 43–35 at home; allowed 35 points to an unranked opponent. - North Carolina: Escaped 38–35 against an unranked team, winning by just 3. 2. Georgia (7–1) - Auburn: Lost 27–24 at home to an unranked team. 3. Utah (8–0) - Colorado: Barely escaped 27–24 against an unranked opponent. - Houston: Won just 21–13 at home against the current No. 17 team. 4. Indiana (8–1) - Northwestern: Won just 29–23 at home against an unranked team. - Nebraska: Escaped 20–17 against an unranked opponent. - Michigan: Struggled offensively, winning 13–6 against an unranked team. - Minnesota: Won just 23–16 at home against an unranked opponent. - Ohio State: Lost 19–15 at home to the current No. 12 team. 5. Alabama (6–2) - Georgia: Lost 20–17 at home to No. 2 Georgia. - Tennessee: Lost decisively, 26–10, to the current No. 13 team. 6. Kentucky (7–1) - Alabama: Crushed 45–17 at home, losing by 28. - South Carolina: Barely escaped 35–34 against a three-loss team. - LSU: Needed a one-point victory, 35–34, at home against the current No. 14 team. 7. Texas (6–2) - Oklahoma: Lost 27–24 to an unranked opponent. - Florida: Lost 27–24 at home to a three-loss team. 8. UCLA (8–0) - Purdue: Allowed 38 points in a 52–38 home victory against an unranked opponent. - Oregon: Won only 17–15 against the current No. 23 team. - Wisconsin: Managed just 17 points in a 17–7 home victory over an unranked team. 9. BYU (7–1) - TCU: Escaped 17–10 against an unranked opponent. - UCF: Lost 39–31 to an unranked team. - Arizona State: Won just 27–20 at home against an unranked opponent. 10. Ole Miss (6–2) - Louisville: Escaped 41–38 at home, allowing 38 points. - Florida: Blown out 52–28 by an unranked team. - Texas: Lost 34–27 to the current No. 7 team. 11. Notre Dame (7–1) - BYU: Lost 28–24 away to the current No. 9 team. 12. Ohio State (6–2) - Texas: Lost 24–23 to the current No. 7 team. - USC: Lost 30–18 to the current No. 20 team.

#11 Notre Dame is a 5.5 point favorite over #1 Miami on Saturday. No team outside the top 10 has ever been a favorite over a #1 team in the playoff era (and going back at least 50 years). The issue, of course, isn't that the bettors are disrespecting Miami. The issue is that the Committee put ND at #11. They want a 2-loss ND out of the playoff discussion because they plan to put multiple 3-loss SEC teams in the bracket. That is why they stacked the rankings with so many 2-loss SEC teams and placed some of them so highly. Basically, Alabama is getting a spot now if they take a third loss. They are even getting a spot if they take a 4th loss in a conference title game. So, the explanation for why this weekend is the first time a #1 team has ever been an underdog to a team outside the top 10 is that the Committee wants to put multiple 3-loss SEC teams in the playoff. There. I explained it for you.

The College Football Playoff Committee just guaranteed a playoff spot to Alabama if they get their 3rd loss in the regular season and their 4th loss in a conference title game.

Notre Dame at #11 means that some of the Committee members had them lower? #1 in almost all of the advanced metrics and a pretty big betting favorite over #1 next weekend.

Top 15 QBs in Heisman odds - CJ Carr has the most 90+ QBR game performances so far (4 of 5 games). Keelon Russell and Julian Sayin both have three. Carr is also the only QB that is among the leaders in Passing TDs, Interceptions and Sacks per game. See the Per Game "green cells". Key: Green-Excellent. No Color-Good. Yellow-Not great. Red-Bad. @NDFootball @AlabamaFTBL @OhioStateFB

This is now the heart of college football. @NDFootball @IndianaFootball @OhioStateFB

The key objective for Notre Dame last night was limiting big runs by their QB, Colton Joseph. Joseph rushed for more than 1,000 yards last season. He had 179 yards on 10 carries (2 TDs) against Indiana. ND held him to 3 yards on 12 carries last night… total deletion of Wisconsin’s key weapon. @NDFootball

No FCS team has beaten a ranked FBS team in 5 years. They are, effectively fake games. Should FBS teams be punished for playing these games? Ban them from the playoff? Disallow them from qualifying for their conference's playoff auto-bid? The auto-bid justification has been that "they had to play an extra game". Well, there are 17 Power 4 Top 25 teams with fake games on the schedule this season. In addition, there are two ranked teams (USC and Penn State) with THREE Group of 6 games on their schedules. Should they be punished? How? Note that 7 teams in the Top 25 have not scheduled FBS teams. They should be commended (as long as they didn't schedule a slew of Group of 6's).

Colorado blocks the field goal to beat Georgia Tech. What do you think?

Notre Dame is on the most dominant high school recruiting run of any team over the last decade. NIL has changed things. Teams like Alabama and Georgia can no longer land the #1 or #2 classes year after year. The playing field has been leveled. What matters now (for high school recruiting) is which teams can sustain the best recruiting relative to the others. I think you should look at teams over a 2-year stretch. Why? Some programs have an an "NIL push" for a year but a drop off the next season. Take USC. Their 2026 class was #1, but they are #13 for 2027. Or A&M. They are #1 in 2027 but they were #8 in 2026. The picture shows all the teams that averaged 10.0 or better for any 2-year period over the last 10 years. Notre Dame's performance over the last 2 years (compared to the 2nd place team over the same period) is the largest margin for any #1 over #2 in the last decade. @NDFootball @NDrecruiting01