College Football, Week Two: Overreaction Saturday?

Overreaction Saturday. That is what it is being called around the nation. Or at least that's what I am calling it. I mean sure I called Houston beating Oklahoma, but that doesn't mean I am the next Nostradamus. I mean come on, I did whiff on both LSU and Notre Dame, so I am not perfect.

Oh. Wait. That is what I was talking about anyway. No, I believe that this weekend should be called 'Overreaction Saturday' because of the general overreactions to every outcome last weekend.

Here are the five biggest overreactions to college football after week one:


1 Alabama is head and shoulders above the rest of the college football world:

Sure the 52-6 drubbing of USC--a ranked Power Five conference school---by the Crimson Tide is impressive. Very impressive. But until I see proof that the Trojans are indeed contenders in the PAC-12 South, I am not ready to crown 'Bama national champions yet again. They are, by virtue of being the defending champs, the top team in my Power 5 rankings (see below). Yet I don't know that they are somehow invincible after just one game.


2 The college football playoffs will not include either Oklahoma or LSU.

This reaction makes me nauseated, and it is not because either of those teams belong in the college football semifinals. I mean I am just tired of hearing about who the four teams that will make the CFB playoffs are before the halfway point of the 2016 season. As impressive as the victories in Ann Arbor and Columbus were, no one can say for sure that either of those two teams are locks for Tampa. Or that the Sooners or Tigers won't be there either. If  I'm not mistaken, Clemson was the only undefeated team in the semifinals last year. So it's not a stretch to say there will be at least two teams in Tampa this January that have at least one loss.

3 Texas is legitimately back in the conversation, and the Longhorns should be the favorites to win the Big 12.

The 'Horns victory over the Irish was impressive, even more so considering a true freshman played under center for part of the game for Texas. But I hesitated on this one for quite some time before admitting this might be an overreaction. After all, UT did beat the Sooners last season despite being near the bottom of the conference.

The good thing for Charlie Strong's squad is that they should have all the confidence in the world heading into week two and beyond. So it will be interesting indeed to see where the Longhorns finish this season.

4 Houston has no chance of making the college football playoffs

What did I say earlier about Tom Herman not getting enough respect nationally as a head coach? Say what you will about the Cougars, but I believe if UH is 12-0 at the end of the season they deserve an invite to Tampa. End. Of. Story.

5 Christian MCcaffrey has to be the favorite to win the Heisman after week one.

Again, this is another one of those premature statements. With so many outstanding performances on Saturday (and one by a freshman on Monday who is drawing comparisons to Jameis Winston) we really have no idea who the best player in the nation is.

My Power five teams after Week One:

1 Alabama

2 Clemson

3 Stanford

4 Houston

5 (tie) Michigan and Ohio State



This really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone but I think it's worth noting that neither Michigan or Ohio State created any distance from the other with their lopsided win (s). And that won't change until one of them wins convincingly over a ranked opponent or loses.

Onto a preview of this week's top matchups:

13 Louisville at Syracuse: Count quarterback Lamar Jackson as one of the guys on the outside looking in at the Heisman race. Just don't count me as sold on the Cardinals as a legit top 15 squad just yet. The Orange always seem to play tough at home. Louisville struggles in this one until the end.

Louisville 27, Syracuse 20

Virginia Tech at 17 Tennessee: Volunteers may escape another close call this weekend against the Hokies. Yet they may not either. Without Beamer Ball, who knows what is possible. 

Tennessee 24. Virginia Tech 17


Trap Game of the Week: Louisiana Monroe at 14 Oklahoma:

The Sooners should be plenty pissed after laying an egg in Texas last weekend. But one has to wonder if they will be focused on the Warhawks or whether they will be looking ahead to next week's tilt with the Buckeyes. My gut says the Sooners roll but this is definitely a contest to watch.

NCAA Tournament: Tennessee keeps Play-in game relevant

Good morning all, and happy NCAA Tournament. While it appears a virtually certainty that no one will win Warren Buffet's billion dollars, I hope none of my readers' brackets are busted yet.

Today I'd like to talk about the play-in games to the NCAA tournament, also known as the first round by the mainstream media. Previously I have gone to great lengths to discredit the whole play-in round, saying its impact on the tournament is by and large minimal.

Yet since the inception of the play-in round, the teams that comprise that component of the NCAAs have continued to prove me wrong. It started several years ago when little known VCU (a cinderella team to no one anymore) made it all the way to the final four. Fast forward to today, when the University of Tennessee has once again proved a play-in team can make it to the round of 32.

The Volutneers opponent in the round of 64, the University of Massachusetts, may have been wrongly seeded. The Minutemen were awarded the sixth seed in the Midwest Region despite finishing behind both St. Joe's and George Washington in the A-10 (both St. Joe's and GW, coincidentally, were seeded lower than the Minutemen)

Adding more fuel to the fire were comments made by Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, who implied the A-10 wasn't even good enough to have 6 teams in the dance. With only Dayton advancing to the round of 32, he may have been onto something. It's just too bad his Blue Devils won't be playing this weekend either.

But I digress. Tennessee not only beat UMass, but they throttled them 86-67, shooting over 53% from the field. The Volunteers may have all they can handle when they play the Mercer Bears(the team that ended up defeating Duke) tomorrow afternoon, but they have a better than average shot of making the Sweet Sixteen. Their key to victory will more than likely be to do something Duke could not, that is stop Mercer's pick and roll.

Regardless of the outcome tomorrow, one thing is for certain: it is no longer passe to call the play-in round irrelevant.