2024-25 NCAA Football (Week 14)

Games I saw (some of):

Georgia Tech 42-44 (8OT) (7) Georgia

I turned this on at halftime when Tech was up 17-0. I still thought UGA would win, but it was pretty clear they wouldn't be covering the 19.5 point spread. But I was blown away at Tech's offense casually slicing and dicing the vaunted Dawg defense. Tech kept converting 3rd downs, ran the ball effectively, made plays when they needed and more or less just looked like the better team. Then, deep in the 4th quarter, it happened: Tech's QB fumbled (after clearly getting a helmet-to-helmet hit that no one bothered to do anything about) and from there UGA was able to hold off the fatal blow and tie it back up. The OT's went on forever, I now actually understand the rules on college OT, and Tech had their chance in the 1st OT to go for 2 and end the game, but honestly I'm not sure the coach knew what he was doing. Look: after the 1st OT, both teams are required to for a 2-point conversion after a TD, so why not just do it after the 1st one? If you tie the game with a TD in the 1st OT, you have the advantage to finish the game...why not just go for it? Anyway, UGA crawled back out of their hole and staved off disaster, but take away that fumble and they lose in regulation--and UGA certainly wasn't dominant in OT. UGA just isn't as good this year and it isn't simply their stiff QB, this defense gets turned around. This playoff is gonna be weird. 

Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Bayern Munich

I was in and out of a bunch of games this weekend but the big Bundesliga match was the most interesting to me. As a Dortmund fan I had low expectations, it has been a frustrating season so far, but when Dortmund went up before halftime, I was piqued. The game had very little offense, not match action around either goal, Bayern was a little better but never got anything dangerous going with any consistency. Felt like Dortmund was gonna sneak out the W, but Munich (of course!) got the equalizer late on some chaos after a free kick. *sigh* Hey, man, a draw against the best team in the league and your #1 rival is a good result, but, man, the W was in hand. 

Michigan 13-10 (2) Ohio State

Man, I just kept waiting for the Buckeye offense to get going and it just never did. I grant that the Wolverines still have a superior defense but the rest of the squad has taken a major step back since last year's championship run and I would've thought this was easy money for an Ohio State squad that hasn't beaten Michigan in 4 years. Well....I guess not. I've seen enough of both of these teams this year to know that the Buckeyes are clearly easily the better team but they just never got going in this game. Great W for the Wolverines--they can tell themselves they had a GREAT season! Puzzling L for the Buckeyes, this lost them the Big 10! They're still gonna do damage in the playoff, but this one was on their racket and they let it get away.

Top 25

Handled their business

(1) Oregon, (3) Texas, (4) Penn State, (5) Notre Dame, (8) Tennessee, (9) Southern Methodist, (10) Indiana, (11) Boise State, (13) Alabama, (14) Mississippi, (15) South Carolina, (16) Arizona State, (18) Iowa State, (19) Brigham Young, (21) Missouri, (22) UNLV, (23) Illinois, (25) Colorado

Won but did not impress

(7) Georgia. I dunno, man, UGA strikes no fear in me these days. 

Bad beat

(20) Texas A&M. A&M just isn't as good as Texas, they avoided a blowout but they were never in this game. 

(24) Kansas State. The Wildcats had a chance to resurrect their season, but Iowa State is the better squad. 

Not so good

(2) Ohio State. Still losing to Michigan? WTF is going on? 

(6) Miami. Called it! Syracuse has actually been quietly pretty good this year, while the Hurricanes have plowed through a soft schedule. Should've won money on this one. 

(12) Clemson. I thought it would be Clemson winning with a late FG but it was South Carolina. Close games yield unpredictable results. 

(17) Tulane. Every year they either beat Memphis or they don't. This year was a don't. 

Next week's CHAMPIONSHIP matches:

Mountain West: (19) UNLV v (10) Boise State (Haven't watched either of these guys all year long, I look forward to correcting that mistake this weekend)

American Athletic: Tulane v Army (both teams had moments this season, not sure who is the better team)

Big 12: (16) Iowa State v (12) Arizona State (holy shit! I just now realized that ASU is in the Big 12! (Yeah, I'm not very good at this football-watching thing); both teams seem to be getting hot at the right time, should be a fun match)

SEC: (5) Georgia v (3) Texas (a rematch of UT's lone L this season, will they get their revenge? I think they will)

Big 10: (3) Penn State v (1) Oregon (okay, this is interesting; I think Oregon is the best team in all of college football, and while Penn State has trouble against the big boys, the Nittany Lions are a solid team and not gonna be an easy out)

ACC: (18) Clemson v (8) Southern Methodist (SMU has been one of the more consistent squads all year long, Clemson has been up and down; gotta go with the Mustangs)

My Top 12

(Aw, crap, I gotta do one of these? Look: for years and years we've measured the top teams by L's, who had the worst losses against those that had "forgivable" losses. I think that still works fine for the top 4. But expanding out to 12 requires a deeper look at the good W's. For example, Georgia Tech has not made an appearance in the top 25 this season but if they had completed the W over Georgia the other night, that would've given them 3 top-10 W's this season and why not throw them into the playoff? Look, man, you're looking for teams that have unexpected wins, teams that have gone above and beyond, those are the teams that are gonna give better bang for the buck in the playoff. Meh, I'll probably still end up with the same 12 teams I was going to anyway, just a thought for future seasons)

1 Oregon

2 Texas

3 Notre Dame

4 Penn State

5 Ohio State

6 Southern Methodist

7 Indiana

8 Boise State

9 Arizona State

10 Georgia

11 South Carolina

12 Tennessee

(Just couldn't get there with Iowa State, Brigham Young or Alabama. As for, Mississippi, UNLV, Miami and Clemson, they never really even got to my radar. I know, I know: I backloaded three SEC squads in there, even though I have never been less impressed with the SEC than this year. But I think South Carolina is playing well lately and UGA for all their faults do still deserve to be in the playoff conversation and the Vols, well, I dunno, I just thought they were a little better than ISU, BYU or Bama)