Random thoughts: football and more

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

This week’s Random Thoughts center around the college football playoff, bowl game goodies, Urban Meyer, polls and Week No. 17 of the NFL season.

CFB Playoff

Alabama-Oklahoma and Notre Dame-Clemson college football playoff games will be played on Saturday, with the winners advancing to the national championship game.

In last week’s Monday Mailbag, I noted I was against expanding the playoff to eight teams and I heard from a lot of people who said I was wrong, that all five Power 5 conference champions and three at-large teams should be let in.

My response to that: You’d really want to see 9-4 PAC-12 champion Utah and 9-4 Big 10 champion Northwestern (assuming the Wildcats would have upset OSU) in the playoff? What if Texas beat Oklahoma – would you want the 10-3 Longhorns in the playoff? Here’s another one: imagine if Pitt upset Clemson in the ACC title game – under the eight team scenario, the 8-5 Panthers would have been in the playoff.

There are plenty of people (myself included) who don’t think a two loss team belongs in the playoff, but a team with at least four losses would be okay?

Still think eight teams is the way to go?

Bowl game swag

Did you know that players of bowl bound college football teams get some nice gifts from their bowl? Most of the stuff is pretty nice.

If you want to check out the list, click:
https://www.si.com/college-football/2018/12/11/bowl-game-gifts-guide-rankings-player-swag

Urban Meyer

Does anyone know what Urban Meyer is really going to do after the Rose Bowl?

He’s going to co-teach a class and apparently be the assistant athletic director. He also says he wants to stay in Columbus, but something just doesn’t feel right.

I could be very wrong, but I get the impression he may be coaching again in a couple of years.

High school basketball polls

The first girls’ and boys’ high school basketball polls of the season will be released shortly after the New Year’s holiday. While I don’t treat the polls as gospel, it’ll be interesting to see how the teams are ranked in the initial poll.

Pittsburgh Steelers fans

In an ironic twist, Steelers fans will be forced to root for the Browns on Sunday. Pittsburgh needs Cleveland to defeat Baltimore for the AFC North title and a playoff spot.

Of course, the Steelers need to defeat Cincinnati, but I don’t see that being a real issue at this point.

As a Browns fan, I don’t want to help the Steelers in any way. However, I’m good with possibly knocking Baltimore out of the postseason.

As always, if you have thoughts on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com.