Jeff Howe

Since nobody has mentioned them: 1. Colin Simmons' strip sack on Pavia against Vanderbilt 2. Malik Muhammad's INT against OU right before halftime 3. Nick Townsend's TD run against A&M

https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/2025/01/espns-college-football-bowl-viewership-reaches-record-highs-for-2024-25-season/ I assume the well will start running dry. Until it does, though, we'll continue to get as many bowl games as ESPN wants to air.

Earl Thomas used to mention West Orange-Stark in his introductions. Not a big deal, IMO.

The bowls will remain until sponsorship money stops flowing. One of the reasons why it has been good for conferences to go to a pool system for bowl payouts is because schools tend to lose money on bowl games.

The Cotton Bowl is the only night game on New Year’s Eve.

Don’t know you know that there’s no room for nuance in a world stuffed to the gills with hot takes?

He did.

It’s time to raid the intramural fields, brother!

Trevor Goosby is No. 15 and Anthony Hill is No. 30. FWIW, Goosby is eligible for the draft as a redshirt sophomore.

Regardless of the bowl site or opponent, I’m viewing it as a glorified exhibition in our first look at the 2026 team. Between NFL opt outs and guys getting ready to enter the portal, the Texas roster for a non-CFP postseason game should look a lot different than what the Longhorns put on the field against Texas A&M.

The SEC essentially assigns their bowl teams to certain games. At last check, I’m expecting Texas to be in the Citrus Bowl if the Longhorns don’t make the CFP.

@Joe Zura has his loins properly girded for the occasion.

I would assume it has more to do with a coaching transition and letting current players figure out where they want to be next semester than the team looking down their nose at a lower-tier bowl game. The group hurt the most by this are K-State’s seniors, some of whom I’m sure wanted to put their pads on one last time.

Not a bad idea:

He told the guys on Coffee & Football Wednesday morning that he didn't know when the injured players would be back.

Jon Gruden did a bit, but it makes more sense than the current format:

I wasn't proposing separation. I meant the Big Ten and SEC will essentially dictate to the CFP what's happening regarding the expansion of the field, the selection process, etc.

I know how everyone on this board feels about Mike Elko, but he's 100 percent right on this topic. All we want is clarity and we're not getting it from the committee:

In all seriousness, I wrote most of this this morning. Last night's rankings were when the country threw up its hands and decided that the CFP selection committee had completely missed the mark. Whenever the Big Ten and SEC decide they've played nice for long enough, everyone outside of those two leagues can blame the committee for mucking up the process so badly that it had to be changed.

I wrote this especially for Joe Z!

What Bruce Feldman said in one social media post encapsulated the growing angst toward the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. Upon the release of the committee’s penultimate rankings on Tuesday, the path to a third consecutive trip to the CFP for No. 13 Texas is, for all intents and purposes, a dead end. To get into the 12-team field, the Longhorns need Texas Tech to win the Big 12, Georgia to notch a landslide revenge victory over Alabama in the SEC title game and then hope the committee values the body of work Texas has put together throughout one of the toughest 12-game schedules any Power Four team had to navigate (LSU is the only bowl-eligible team ranked above the Longhorns in ESPN’s strength of schedule metric, which says Steve Sarkisian’s team played the eighth-toughest schedule in the country). That’s unlikely to happen because the committee, based on what committee chair Hunter Yurachek said on Tuesday’s post-reveal conference call with reporters, believes Texas’ 29-21 road loss to Florida on Oct. 4 is too big a blemish to overlook. “You’re spot on,” the Arkansas athletic director said when he was asked if the loss to the Gators is “the thing hurting Texas the most.” “The committee has a great deal of respect for Texas and they've played an incredible schedule,” he added. “They've got four teams they played in our top 10. They beat OU on a neutral field. They just beat Texas A&M at home this past weekend. They lost to No. 1, Ohio State, and lost to No. 3, Georgia. “But one key stat this week in the teams ranked in our top 15, there's 17 total losses for those teams. Sixteen of those losses came against teams that are currently ranked or have been ranked in our top 25 this year. The only loss to an unranked team was Texas' loss to Florida at Florida, and really Florida dominated that game — held Texas to 50 yards rushing, two interceptions. So, it's not that Texas played Ohio State. It is Texas' loss to Florida that's holding them back now.” We don’t need to read the tea leaves when the committee is shoving them down our throats. When it comes to Texas, the committee has decided that an objectively bad loss supercedes three wins over teams currently ranked in the committee’s top 15. That would be understandable had Yurachek’s words and the committee's actions done anything other than validate Feldman’s rant. The committee ranks teams as it wants, then works backward to make it make sense. How is Texas dinged for the Florida loss, but Alabama’s two-touchdown loss to a Florida State team that finished 5-7 after getting blown out by the Gators last Saturday doesn’t matter? Head-to-head results appear to matter for Oklahoma and Alabama (No. 8 and No. 9, respectively) and Texas and Vanderbilt (the Longhorns passed the 10-2 Commodores in the rankings). That's the case for No. 12 Miami, which opened the season with a win over No. 10 Notre Dame. Two weeks ago, Yuracheck said Oregon was still getting credit for a road win over Penn State. The same appears to apply to Oklahoma's road win over Tennessee and road wins over Missouri for Alabama and Texas A&M, the Aggies going into Baton Rouge and manhandling LSU and the Crimson Tide's Iron Bowl win over Auburn. Still, Yuracheck said on Tuesday that Vanderbilt lacks a signature win because LSU, Missouri and Tennessee aren’t currently ranked by the committee, even though Josh Heupel’s team fell out of the rankings after the Commodores’ 45-24 rout of the Volunteers in Neyland Stadium. The CFP selection process isn’t broken. It would’ve needed to be a well-oiled machine first, which was never the case. And although no system will ever be perfect, a transparent process that leaves more questions than answers isn't working. Bill Hancock was the executive director of the CFP from its inception through last season, when he helped Rich Clark transition into the role. In 2023, when a late-season injury to quarterback Jordan Travis put Florida State’s CFP hopes in doubt, Hancock clarified the selection committee’s criteria for setting the then-four-team field. “It is ‘best,’” Hancock said. “‘Most deserving’ is not anything in the committee's lexicon. They are to rank the best teams in order, and that's what they do. Just keep that word in mind, ‘best’ teams.” Therein lies the problem. Three wins over Associated Press top-five opponents and nine wins against one of the toughest schedules in the country should be a strong enough résumé for the Longhorns to be considered one of the seven best at-large teams. The committee clinging to the Florida loss to justify why Texas should be on the outside looking in is a prime example of how the selection process doesn't end with a bracket of the best teams. Don’t say you’re picking the best teams when Miami’s head-to-head win over Notre Dame, as of now, doesn’t matter. Don’t say you’re picking the best teams when Texas and Vanderbilt, both of whom went 6-2 in the toughest conference in the country, are likely headed to meaningless bowl games. At the same time, Sun Belt favorite James Madison and the winner of the AAC title game between North Texas and Tulane could be among the 12 teams left standing for a chance to win the national championship. Everyone loves the Cinderella story, but how (aside from the money that would go to the AAC and Sun Belt, respectively) is college football better for Group of Five teams getting sacrificed to a legit title contender from the Power Four? Don’t say you’re picking the best teams when the Longhorns, who played a tougher schedule than any of the other current CFP candidates, appear to be disqualified from consideration solely based on accruing three losses. Until the goalposts stop moving or the moment comes when the Big Ten and the SEC decide, by force, to dictate the terms of the CFP to the rest of college football (like it or not, it’s coming), we won’t get a field of the best teams deciding a national champion. We'll get whatever the committee decides it wants, criteria or guidelines be dammed. View full news story