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Holy Moses, what a penultimate weekend of the regular season last week! The theme of the week had to be rushing the field. People were flocking out of their seats like frat boys streaming out of their house if someone left free High Noons and Zyns on the front lawn. We saw it in Norman which resulted in an epic fourth meal, Auburn where once again the hedges took the brunt of the celebration, Tempe gave us the most memorable review of all time, Berkeley with the best film review of the season, and, of course, Lehigh doing their best Vandy impression. It’s one of the ways college football will always trump the NFL. With one more week to go and teams jockeying for bowl eligibility, playoff spots, and conference championship appearances, the stakes going into this week have NEVER BEEN HIGHER. Props to Booger McFarland to be one of the first ones to make the appropriate revelation.
Week 14 Pro Tips:
- Kenny Dillingham’s people know how to spin a narrative. As we referenced earlier, the end of the game wasn’t the best look for him. In a sport where things are morphing into “what can you do for me” at a rapid pace, it’s a great story to see the people willing to recognize how the people around them enable their success. The guess is this would’ve never got out, but was released in a way to let people know he’s actually a pretty awesome dude.
- People are finally realizing why Notre Dame was totally fine with the rules allowing only conference champions to be eligible for byes. Arguably the biggest brand in the history of college football willingly never getting a chance to get a bye? How could that make sense? Only if the best spot in the playoff is being the 5 seed. Now, I don’t think they imagined a 3-loss SEC team would ever be considered for the 12 seed, but rather it would be whatever G5 team happens to sneak in for the easiest warm up game while getting to host it at home. When it comes to the semi-final round, they get the weakest conference champion, likely from either Big 12, MWC, or AAC and ranked significantly lower than any other team in the semi-final. So, in summary, a home playoff game and two teams likely in the bottom half of the top 25 to get to the Natty.
- This was likely always happening, but seeing it so out in the open is crazy. No, I’m not talking about the first time you see that odd couple always making awkward advances and rumored to be swingers getting in cars with different people at the end of the evening, I’m talking about the financial pursuit of top talent. It feels like Dave Portnoy was literally put on earth for this exact moment, well, since T. Boone Pickens is no longer with us – RIP. All this did was set the bar for the next story to be even crazier. It really seems the sport needs to get their arms around this before it gets bigger than they control, assuming that hasn’t happened already.
TOS GAME OF THE WEEK
#3 Texas (-5) at #20 Texas A&M 6:30 CST ABC
What we like about this game: There’s a lot of noise about Texas being a fraud, and to be quite honest the evidence is there. Lucky for them they get one final opportunity at the end of the year to show they’re playoff worthy. What awaits them is an in-state rival and the rowdiest environment in college football. The winner heads to the SEC title game and the loser could be out of the playoff picture.
What we love about this game: This game has 13 years of build up, and while all the faces on the sideline have changed, the emotions of the fans still remain. Expect an electric environment, violence on the field, and memorable celebrations from the victors. This is what prime time, week 14 football is all about!
