Please Excuse The Ohio State Rant

Man, I can’t get the Burger King theme song out of my head today…

Anyways…

Good Morning!

Playoffs, tournaments, in-season playoffs, in-season tournaments. Whatever you want to call them, it’s all the rage the last 24 hours.

Let’s discuss.

College Football Playoff

The newest CFP rankings were released by the CFP committee last night. We’re going to talk about the top 8 teams because those are the teams with the only chance of making the 4 team playoffs.

Let’s chat 1-4 real quick. If they all win out in their conference championship, they should all make the playoffs.

I don’t want to hear about FSU not being the same team without Jordan Travis. Let’s be clear. If you win out and your star QB gets injured, you shouldn’t get punished. Winning has to mean something. Could Texas win the Big 12 and have a subjectively better team than FSU? Sure. Could Ohio State have a better team than FSU? Sure. The point is, FSU played their schedule and if they win this weekend, they’ll have gone 13-0. IT HAS TO COUNT FOR SOMETHING.

#5 Oregon. How does Oregon get in? Regardless of FSU’s result, If Oregon beats Washington and Georgia beats Bama, I think Oregon gets in at #4. If FSU loses, and Bama beats Georgia, I think Oregon is still in. If Bama beats beat Georgia and FSU wins. I don’t know what the committee will do, and we have talked about Texas yet.

#6 Ohio State. I’m still definitely not biased, but if I was, I would ask a question about what would Michigan’s ranking be if they lost to OSU. Would they be 6? Unlikely. The committee loves to keep OSU right on the edge even if they’ve lost 3 in a row to Michigan. There’s really only one way I see OSU getting in. Florida State loses, Oregon loses, and both Texas and Bama lose.

#7 Texas. Texas has the opportunity to win the Big 12 this weekend and they have the season’s best win against Bama in Tuscaloosa. I think if Florida State loses and the Top 3 win out, Texas gets in. If Oregon beats Wash and FSU loses, Texas might still have a chance. Things start to get a little tricky if Texas and Bama win. Bama would have beat the #1 team on a neutral field but Texas beat Bama this year. Who gets in?

#8 Alabama. My brain is starting to hurt at this point, but obviously for Bama to get in they need to beat Georgia. Here’s the question, if Michigan, Washington, Florida State, and Texas win out, and Bama beats Georgia… Are they going to put Bama in over Texas? Remember Texas beat Bama earlier. Would the committee leave the SEC out? Would they drop Georgia out of the top 4?

There are a lot of questions left to be answered but first, we’ll need to see this play out over the weekend!

NBA In-Season Tournament

Here are a few things that went down last night in the in-season tournament.

🏀 The Celtics needed to win by 23 points to advance to the quarterfinal. They played Matador with the Bulls last night with a 124-97.

🏀 The Bucks secured the 1 spot with a 131-124 win over the Miami Heat.

🏀 The Golden State Warriors needed to win by 12 against the Sacramento Kings to avoid elimination/ to eliminate the Kings. The Warriors blew a 24-point lead and lost the game or the Kings overcame a 24-point deficit and found their way back for a win. Cut it up however you want, Sacramento gets the 3 seed by winning group C.

🏀 The Suns and The Knicks grabbed the Wild Cards spots on both sides of the bracket.

📆 The quarterfinal games are scheduled for Dec 4 & 5.

Anthony Edwards Injured

❤️‍🩹 Anthony Edwards injured his hip in last night’s matchup against the OKC Thunder. There is no timetable for his return

Mark Cuban Making Money Moves

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is reportedly ready to sell a majority stake in the franchise to the family that owns the Las Vegas Sands casino company. Miriam Adelson, who is the controlling shareholder of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. sold $2 billion worth of publicly traded stock on Tuesday. The Mavs’ current valuation is at $3.5 billion and Cuban purchased the team for $285 million in 2000.

It seems like Cuban would still have some equity in the franchise and he would also still be in control of all basketball operations. Cuban’s approach to this partnership is focused on getting gambling legalized in the state of Texas and then building a casino and resort that encompasses a new arena for the Mavs.

Hockey Talk

🏒 Connor McDavid has 12 points in three games and he helped the Edmonton Oilers to a huge 5-4 shootout win over the Vegas Golden Knights last night. This is the Oilers third straight win and things seem to be moving in the right direction with new coach Kris Knoblauch. Here is something alarming though.. The Oilers gave up a 4-2 in the 3rd period to a Vegas team that went into OT the night before. Maybe they’re learning how to mesh with the new coaching staff but they'll need to close games out better.

🏒 Are coaching changes the most effective way to shift momentum? Should we be firing coaches every few weeks? Hype the boys up, increase the vibes in the locker room? Hmm, probably not. Firing a coach every few weeks doesn’t seem like a feasible strategy but it’s worked for the Minnesota Wild after one game. In new coach John Hynes’ first game the Wild grabbed a 3-1 divisional win over the St. Louis Blues. Minnesota is facing the Predators in Nashville tomorrow night, let’s see how it goes.

What To Watch Tonight

NHL

🏒 Detroit Red Wings @ NY Rangers, 7:30 pm ET on TNT

NBA (full schedule here)

🏀 LA Clippers @ Sacramento Kings, 10 pm ET on NBA TV

NCAA Men’s BBall (Ranked Matchups)

🏀 Saint Josephs’s @ #18 Villanova, 6:30 pm ET on FS1

🏀 #10 Tennessee @ #17 North Carolina, 7:15 pm ET on ESPN

🏀 #14 Texas A&M @ Virginia, 7:15 pm ET on ESPN2

🏀 Colorado @ #20 Colorado State, 9 pm ET on CBSSN

🏀 #7 Duke @ Arkansas, 9:15 pm ET on ESPN

Make it a great day.

Have it your way.

-The Daily Breakroom