{"id":174487,"date":"2024-01-09T04:37:54","date_gmt":"2024-01-09T09:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=174487"},"modified":"2024-01-09T04:37:54","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T09:37:54","slug":"random-thoughts-cfb-polls-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2024\/01\/09\/random-thoughts-cfb-polls-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: CFB, polls, more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s edition of Random Thoughts centers around a sad time, Monday night college football, basketball polls, a tall task, a surprise team, a lack of undefeated teams, and streaming games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sad<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of the outcome it\u2019s always a sad night when the national championship game is played. Why? Because it\u2019s the final college football game until late August. At least to me, it seemed like this season flew by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Monday night?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why in the world is college football\u2019s national championship game played on a Monday night? The only other college football game I know of that\u2019s played on a Monday night is one on Labor Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The national championship game brings in a fraction of the viewers of the Super Bowl. Saturdays are for college football. Play the game in primetime on a Saturday night and let\u2019s see if the rating climb. I\u2019m guessing they would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polls<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first Associated Press girls and boys basketball polls of the season were released on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Crestvew Lady Knights are ranked No. 3 in Division IV, behind Fort Loramie and Berlin Highland. Marion Local is ranked No. 6. In Division III, the Ottawa-Glandorf Lady Titans are ranked No. 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ottawa-Glandorf and Wayne Trace are ranked No. 2 and No. 4 in Division III, with Lutheran East ranked No. 1 and Preble Shawnee No. 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lima Central Catholic is ranked third in Division IV, behind Warren JFK and Russia. Antwerp is 12th and defending state champion Richmond Heights is ranked No. 5, despite a record of 5-8. Of course, those losses have all come to big schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tall task<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems like it\u2019s the case each year but Van Wert will be looking up when the Cougars face Marion Local on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Among the players on this year\u2019s roster: 6\u20198 Austin Niekamp and 6\u20199 Jack Knapke. Six other players on the Flyer roster are listed at 6\u20190 or taller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprise team?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I had to pick a surprise basketball team so far this season, it would be the Elida boys. The Bulldogs are off to an 8-2 start, with one of the losses being a 53-49 loss to Shawnee in the season opener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Elida finished the regular season 8-14, including a 2-9 second half of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undefeated teams<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is exactly one undefeated boys basketball team around the area \u2013 Antwerp. The Archers are 10-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only undefeated girls team also hails from the Green Meadows Conference \u2013 Ayersville is 8-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Streaming<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could be wrong here, but I believe Jacksonville\u2019s loss to Tennessee saved the Cleveland Browns-Houston Texans playoff game from being relegated to Peacock as a streaming-only game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had it been Cleveland vs. the Jaguars, there\u2019s an excellent chance it would have been an exclusive streaming game. Why? Houston is the No. 6 TV market, Cleveland is 19th and Jacksonville is 50th. In my mind, there\u2019s no way a game with a large market team like Houston would be pulled from an over-the-air broadcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get ready for more of these types of streaming games though, they\u2019re coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts or comments on any of the above topics, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor This week\u2019s edition of Random Thoughts centers around a sad time, Monday night college football, basketball polls, a tall task, a surprise team, a lack of undefeated teams, and streaming games. Sad Regardless of the outcome it\u2019s always a sad night when the national championship game is played. Why? Because it\u2019s the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 01:25:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174488,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174487\/revisions\/174488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}