Who would have won a full season of 2020 college football?

 More than a decade ago when Steve Pallotto and I put together a series called "Blowing up college football". The premise was that people wanted a college football playoff, with teams then winning the championship based on actual games played on the field. Steve and I noticed that even when the BCS playoffs used a formula to pick the top 4 teams, the initial polls in the season carried a lot of weight. It wasn't actually fully won on the field. In hindsight, we have seen Central Florida go undefeated and still not be given a chance at the title, and Cincinnati, undefeated, is still not in position for the playoffs, because they play in the wrong conferences.

Of course, now, the imperative has changed thanks to the dawning of the super conference. People, especially in the southeast, are irritated that people would even think that a 2 loss Alabama would miss the playoff to an undefeated Cincinnati. "Why not put the 4 best teams in the playoff?" they say. So much for letting it play out on the field. 

Well, to me, solving it on the field still matters, and I think all those years ago, we figured out how to do that. To summarize, we broke everything up into geographically apportioned conferences, and every team played each other once. Out of conference games are played in order to help determine the strength of conferences and providing seeding for teams when the playoffs arrive. When I say things are determined on the field, I mean it. Everything we can think of, if we could solve it on the field, we would. 

I didn't touch on the 2019 simulated season, (Joe Burrow's LSU beat Georgia in the championship, with Oklahoma and USC reaching the semifinals) but I figured since 2020 was a wash, it would be cathartic to review the 2020 simulated season. 

Unless you are a Gophers fan. Their lackluster season was reflected in the simulation (done on Whatifsports), where the team went 1-11, and surely would not have earned PJ Fleck an extension. Conversely, Purdue win the Great Lakes conference (over every Indiana school but the Indiana University, and all the Michigan schools) perhaps fortelling their success in 2021. The Boilermakers were the 10 seed in the tournament and were felled by Florida. 

Florida eventually made the semifinals as well, joining Clemson, Brigham Young and Alabama. It was a banner year for Group of 5 schools, as Memphis, San Diego State, Louisiana, Air Force, Brigham Young, Marshall and Buffalo all reached the tournament. Alabama and Florida were the only two SEC schools, which is the same number of schools as the Mountain West. The Big Ten was the leader with 4 teams (Ohio State, Purdue, Indiana and Rutgers, which is not a ringing endorsement for football in the mid-Atlantic). 

Of course, none of the Big Ten teams made it out of the 2nd round, and the only time an SEC team lost, it was to another SEC team. Alabama won the entire thing, defeating Brigham Young for the title. The final 4 featured three quarterbacks that were drafted high into the NFL in Trevor Lawrence, Zack Wilson and Mac Jones, and I think that is a decent reflection of the state of the world American football right now. Quarterbacks are very important.

For 2021, the question of Cincinnati's inclusion in a potential playoff will be much more simple to navigate. They just need to win their conference, and they can figure it out on the field, and not rely on anyone's opinions. 

I'm ready for College hoops

 Tonight is opening night on the college basketball schedule, and if all goes as expected, this will be the first "normal" season, nose to tail since 2018-19. After two screwed up seasons, it will be good to level set one of my favorite sports after it was one of the first and most significantly disrupted sports by the Pandemic.

Covid-19 destroyed the 2020 NCAA basketball post season just recently underway when the whole world ground to a halt. First conference tournaments were scrubbed, then the rest of the league. While professional leagues later came back in bubbles later that summer, the 2020 NCAA season was just done and gone forever. Then, the beginning of the 2020-21 season was affected by the same problems the rest of the world was, with breakouts, delays and cancellations. VCU missed the tournament because of a late positive on their team.

This year? There shouldn't be as much, if any of that. College basketball will return to represent sports as chaos again, in such a good way. Today, there are a few big match ups, and a lot of games featuring huge disparities in talent, like Purdue's opener with Bellarmine, a small school from Louisville. It will offer the first samples of teams with big names choking away games against smaller teams, but will also be the first introduction to the best teams in the country. 

Purdue is one of the best squads in the country, and I'm excited about that, as you might imagine. Minnesota Gophers basketball was my first sports love, and even though they will likely be bad, they are a full on mystery, and I'm excited about that. St. Thomas is D-1 now, and I am excited to see them play. I have no Following the Compass teams for this season (it was the New York Giants and Colorado Rapids this season), but that's no matter, as I will still keep tabs on ever team I've tracked in the past, I'm sure, and I'm excited about that.

But mostly, I'm just excited that there will be basketball in gyms, at the right time of year again. I think that we have all learned a lot about preventing and mitigating the spread of contagious diseases, and of course, are finding more and more people getting vaccinated, so it will be safer this season. There will be games on my TV almost every night I want them to be on. We've been grasping for normal for almost 2 years now, and by God, tonight's excitement feels normal. 

A show that isn't Ted Lasso, but is still good.

 I'm not someone who binges TV shows. I don't have the patience or attention span to stay with the same show over the course of a week, or whatever, but I will watch the season of a show released every week (like The Mandalorian) but because a couple of factors, (I'm watching with my wife and the shows are really good) I've recently gone through two shows with the aggressive passion that we are supposed to this day in age.

The first show is Ted Lasso, but if Halloween has taught us anything, it is that we are all pretty saturated with Ted Lasso. If you haven't watched the show, I recommend it, because you will like it. It's widely acclaimed, so that is a pretty common opinion. I am not a fan of sports shows or movies, and even I like it. So yes, it's good, but you probably already know that, or are sick of hearing that. 

I am here to tell you to watch Netflix's Sex Education. Like Ted Lasso, it isn't quite what you would expect going in, and the first few scenes, and the first couple of episodes definitely lend to the belief that it is a raunchy, graphic show, that caters to the basest TV watchers, but as it progresses, you find that it is a smart character study of a diverse cast. 

Like Ted Lasso, Sex Education takes place in England and is smarter than one would expect. It looks at the lives of promiscuous high school students and their families. The show starts focused on Otis Milburne (Asa Butterfield) and his mother, Jean (Gillian Anderson) but expands its scope to include a vast array of characters that it never forgets, even if they were introduced in a seemingly secondary manner earlier in a given season. And all of the characters are complex.

The show is funny. It's a different brand of humor, certainly, than what Ted Lasso offers, but it also deals with very serious topics related to sexual health, gender identity, classism and bullying, but never feels as heavy as all that sounds. Still, it has a heart, brought to pass because it respects every character and allows us to connect with each of them. I'm surprised it hasn't ever received the acclaim of other shows, but that might just be because of the name.

I know that I've drawn comparisons to Ted Lasso at every turn, so here is one last one for you to take note of if and when you start watching the Sex Education. One of the main characters on Lasso has a small role on Sex Education as well. Can you spot them? Give it a shot, because you should give Sex Education a shot. 

St. Thomas is here

Obviously, St. Thomas has always been here, but specifically I mean that St. Thomas has a Division One college institution. They've started playing their first games as an FCS football team, and even had their first hockey games against in-state rivals St. Cloud State. Of course. St. Cloud isn't really a rival, because St. Thomas in all other sports is a D-1 institution, and St. Cloud is only D-2 (and significantly better at hockey).

Pardon my giggling, but I've always thought that the state of Minnesota needed another D-1 institution. It was strange that Hawai'i, Wyoming and Vermont were the only other three states with but one D-1 school, especially given Minnesota's size, both population and physical. The real lift for me, personally is in college basketball, and I am enthusiastically looking forward to the Tommies taking the court and joining the Summit League. Sure, it will be 6 years until they are post season eligible, but heck, they still might be the next Minnesota team to reach the Big Dance.

The Tommies' basketball schedule is out, and I intend to catch at least a couple of games, if I can. I was curious to see if they would have any Major conference foes in their first year as a D-1 establishment, and the answer is no, they will not. They have three mid-Majors on the calendar though. Fordham out of the A-10 comes as their third game and provides the team with a trip to New York City in year one. The only local school to play the Tommies in a non-con game is Drake, who play in the Missouri Valley. 

The Tommies do play in an invitational, headed to Youngstown State along with Niagara and Southern Illinois (also from the Mssouri Valley) in November. This will be part of a very long road trip to start the season, with stops in Chicago, New York and Seattle before coming home to play Crown College. Not a D-1 school, but their first home game as a D-1 institution. 

Their first game at all in D-1 is at Chicago State, which as been one of the worst teams in college basketball since they moved up. It's a real opportunity for the Tommies to start with a win. They aren't playing many top tier teams, but the travel will be grueling early on, which may be enough to put them behind the 8-ball before the conference schedule gets underway.

They have one D-1 non conference opponent (Montana State) before they start Summit League play, and a few sub-D-1 opponents. Conference play will be interesting. The Summit League is home to all 4 teams from the Dakotas, including North Dakota State and South Dakota State, the strongest of the bunch. Also, Oral Roberts, Cinderella of the 2021 tournament, will come to St. Paul in February. 

The Tommies might be pretty bad this year and for a few more to come, but in 6 years, they very well could be running the Summit League, ready to make the Big Dance. Enjoy the growing pains and every small win this year. It's fun. Small schools are fun. 

Tuesday

When I was in high school, I always wanted to do something that separated myself from others. I wanted to be interesting, somehow, some way. As I approached the end of my time in high school, I'd also made the decision to go into meteorology, and I wanted to move away from home, the only one I had lived in since I was 3. It was time, I thought, to move on. In the end, all of those goals came together, and uniquely, I was the only member of my high school class to go to Purdue University, three states away, to get my meteorology degree.

I was one of the first of my friends to leave for college, going down there in mid-August. By the beginning of September, I had been down there long enough to get to my first college exam, but not long enough, as yet, to make any real close friends. Still, I knew those friends would come, and I didn't regret my decision to go to Purdue. 

My first exam was scheduled for Tuesday evening. I only had one class on Tuesdays, a review class that I intended to skip and study all day for the test instead, after making sure I was well rested. That Tuesday morning, my roommate's friend called, and woke me up. My roommate was already at class, so his friend, Jon, told me instead. In his words, there were "planes crashing everywhere, into the World Trade Center, The Pentagon, one somewhere in Pennsylvania." 

Three weeks into adulthood, 9/11 happened. 

My dad was still working with the FAA at the time. I tried him first on the room's ground phone, but good luck getting a hold of the FAA on that day. I called home to no answer. My mom was working as a child psychologist in the local school district. It turned out my dad was off that day, and was golfing. He shot the best round of his life that day, and still has the ball, scrawled with the date and his score. It's in poor taste, of course, but fortunately out of the eyes of most visitors.

My mom had a cell phone, so I tried that, but the cell networks were overwhelmed. I tried to call my aunt and uncle, whose numbers I actually knew, and left a frantic message on their answering machine that nobody has ever spoken of, and I have never heard. Everyone was terrified that day,

So then, I finally turned on the TV, and sat . there mesmerized, all day, alone. My roommate came back, sat in our inflatable chair, and watched for a bit with me, then went to go be with his friends. I don't know when I finally talked to my family, but I think it was days later.

The test wasn't cancelled. It was in the Elliott Hall of Music, and I'm sure there were space issues. We all went in and took, for many of us, our first college exam. We were all zombies. There was no nervous energy, just mourning ahead of this test. I failed it. I'm surprised some people didn't. 

The next day, they did have a vigil for those lost in the tragedy the morning before, in the same facility I had my test the night before. I made an effort to go, but there was no room when we arrived. Classes were not suspended at Purdue as they were at many other campuses. At a communications class the next morning, the teacher asked if anyone wanted to talk about the day before. I think some people spoke up, but not many did.

My department faculty advisor called me when the grade on my test came back, and wanted to make sure I was adjusting to college OK. My test had been on Tuesday, I explained. "Oh. Yeah." 

I was going to meet some friends that weekend who attended Notre Dame or St. Mary's and were all coming to West Lafayette to watch the Purdue Notre Dame game scheduled for the weekend. It was one of the few things at Purdue that was cancelled. I don't think I've spoken to any of those friends since then. 

So that's how dealt with one of the worst days in American history. Alone and with very little structural support.

9/11 is such a visceral, terrible factor in everyone's lives. There are so many people in New York and Washington who endured the terror of tangible danger, and those that lost someone close on that day. The direction of the country was forever changed, and there is a direct line from 9/11/2001 to 9/11/2021, even how we stand divided and unable to wrap our hands around the ongoing crises of our time. Many families sent sons and daughters to war, or were impacted financially by subsequent economic strife. 

But everyone has a personal story, and everyone has their own personal trauma. I still am accustomed to dealing with negative emotions on my own. Even today, 20 years later, I can feel the ache of loneliness that I felt 20 years ago. Frightened of a world that was bigger than I ever imagined. 

We all dealt with something that day. Most of us are still dealing with some of it. Today, even as my kids are driving me nuts, I will make sure to hug them a little bit tighter. 

The Phillies are the failure Yankees

 Everyone who takes umbrage with the way baseball's salary structure has been set up always talks about the Yankees and how they always have the best players on a bloated payroll. While this is true, it's important to note that they wouldn't get so much scorn if they weren't also successful.

The Yankees are in one of their longest ever World Series droughts, but have started to build back. They will get back to the post season this year and with aggressive moves at the deadline, it's clear that they intend to make a deep run this time around.

To make those moves, the Yankees needed to put together a farm system that would produce talented enough players that other teams may desire them. Also, they recognized that great teams aren't necessarily bought from top to bottom. In addition to the assets developed internally for trade purposes, they also have a healthy number of players on the Major League roster, headed by guys like Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez.

While the Yankees get the rap for buying their team, just down the road and in the National League, you can find the Philadelphia Phillies, quietly bumbling along with their store bought team. The Phillies certainly don't have the historic track record of the Yankees, but they have definitely tried to emulate the purported team building techniques of the Bronx Bombers.

Philadelphia has, in two different seasons signed the biggest name on the free agent market, first on offense with Bryce Harper, then a pitcher, Zach Wheeler. The Phillies also traded for and extended J.T. Realmuto, and kept signing more and more free agents. Not a single one of their every day players now was developed in the Phillies system.

And now, they are in a dog fight for the NL East, in contention because of division mediocrity. They are only 4 games over .500, and worse still, they were unable to supplement their team beyond Kyle Gibson and Ian Kennedy at the deadline because of a dearth of top end minor league talent. 

The Phillies are trying to be just like the Yankees, which makes sense. The Yankees are one of the mot successful teams in baseball history. Philadelphia, though, is really bad at it. 

Purdue is back to normal

 

I went to Purdue immediately after Drew Brees led the Boilermakers to the Rose Bowl. While I was there, they continued to be a decently regarded football team, reaching bowl games each season while I was there. Thanks Kyle Orton! 

The hot ticket in town, as you might imagine, was for Ross Ade Stadium. Everyone wanted to go to Boiler football games, ESPN College Gameday came to town once and the focus of collegiate athletics in West Lafayette was on the football team.

Meanwhile, Purdue basketball was extremely pedestrian in the final years of Gene Keady's coaching career. They missed the tournament a couple of times, and didn't really make much noise in the Dance when they got there. Basketball tickets were easy to come by.

Of course, that wasn't the trend before I got there. Purdue football had enjoyed a couple of good quarterbacks through the year, but before Brees and coach Joe Tiller, Purdue football was bordering on embarrassing. Keady was in the waning years of his career while I was there, but before I got there, that career was long and storied, and marked by 1st and 2nd seeds in the Tournament, as well as superstar players, like Glenn Robinson.

Almost immediately after I left, the Boilermakers football team started veering downhill. Tiller retired, and was replaced by a couple of underwhelming head coaches. Jeff Brohm is there now, and while there is some recent success, nobody is talking about Purdue football like there were in the 2000s. They are a non factor, even when they are at their best.

Of course, on the other hand, Matt Painter seized the helm of the basketball team from his mentor Keady, and quickly recruited teams that steadily got good seeds and made it to the Sweet 16. It started with the Jajuan Johnson, E'Twaun Moore, Robbie Hummel triumvirate and continued with top recruits and eventual NBA draft picks like AJ Hammons, Carl Landry and Caleb Swanigan. They were a whisper from the Final Four in 2019 on the back of Carsen Edwards and Dakota Mathias.

And some how, they might be bringing in their best team yet. Not only do they have Trevion Williams as a veteran presence in the paint, but they also have Jaden Ivey and Zach Edey, who have been playing for their respective countries on the international stage, and will bring more experience to the roster than the typical sophomore provides.

Purdue flipped upside down a bit when I was a student, but things are back as they ever were.