CFP Rankings Week #4

So Ohio State did move to number one. Penn State dropped to #10 and Oregon dropped all the way to #14. I had seen a prediction that Alabama would regain the #4 spot which made absolutely no sense to me so I'm glad it didn't happen.

#1 - Ohio State (11-0) 
#2 - LSU (11-0) 
#3 - Clemson (11-0) 
#4 - Georgia (10-1) 
#5 - Alabama (10-1) 
#6 - Utah (10-1) 
#7 - Oklahoma (10-1) 
#8 - Minnesota (10-1) 
#9 - Baylor (10-1)
#10 - Penn State (9-2)

Games for the top 10 this week.

Ohio State at Michigan (13)
Texas A&M at LSU 
Clemson at South Carolina
Georgia at Georgia Tech
Alabama at Auburn (15)
Colorado at Utah 
Oklahoma at Oklahoma State (21)
Wisconsin (12) at Minnesota 
Baylor at Kansas
Rutgers at Penn State

So many big games and so little time. Wisconsin and Minnesota will decide who wins the Big 10 West and earns another shot at Ohio State. Ohio State has clinched the Big 10 East but has yet to play Michigan. Alabama gets Auburn and Oklahoma has to play Oklahoma State.

Oh there are so many interesting possibilities not only this week but the following week on Championship Saturday.

CFP Rankings Week #3 Scores

The final scores of the games after the week #2 rankings. Upsets are in italics.

Arkansas - 20 at LSU - 56
Penn State - 17 at Ohio State - 28
Clemson - Bye
Texas A&M - 13 at Georgia - 19
Western Carolina - 3 at Alabama - 66
Oregon - 28 at Arizona State - 31
Utah 35 at Arizona - 7
TCU - 24 at Oklahoma - 28
Minnesota - 38 at Northwestern - 22

Things went about as expected except for Oregon. QB Justin Herbert had an off night and I didn't know that Herm Edwards was the ASU head coach and now I do.

The Ohio State - Penn State game was a bit of a disappointment. I never felt that Ohio State was in jeopardy despite giving away three fumbles including a sure early touchdown. They were clearly the better team and clearly have a better defense than LSU. The offense, not so much. 

LSU had no problem with Arkansas and Alabama (*cough, cough*) won a 66-3 squeaker (*cough, cough*) over Western Carolina.

I think the win over Penn State should put Ohio State back in 1st so let's say the top six will be like this:

#1 - Ohio State
#2 - LSU
#3 - Clemson
#4 - Georgia
#5 - Alabama
#6 - Utah

I honestly think Ohio State is the more complete team and I would love to see LSU and Ohio State in the final. Of course Clemson and Georgia might have something to say about that.

CFP Rankings Week #3

Looks like the committee wasn't as concerned over LSU getting reamed by the Ole Miss running QB as I was as they're still #1. The only change was to drop Minnesota to #10 and kick Penn State and Oklahoma up one notch.

#1 - LSU (10-0)
#2 - Ohio State (10-0)
#3 - Clemson (11-0)
#4 - Georgia (9-1)
#5 - Alabama (9-1)
#6 - Oregon (9-1)
#7 - Utah (9-1)
#8 - Penn State (9-1)
#9 - Oklahoma (9-1)
#10 - Minnesota (9-1)

Games for the top ten this week.

Arkansas at LSU
Penn State at Ohio State
Clemson - Bye
Texas A&M at Georgia
Western Carolina at Alabama
Oregon at Arizona State
Utah at Arizona
TCU at Oklahoma
Minnesota at Northwestern

Obviously the biggest match will be Penn State at Ohio State. It's all on the line for Penn State and perhaps for Ohio State as well. I'm going with Ohio State in this one and a win should put them back at #1.

Texas A&M at Georgia could also be interesting and maybe (*cough, cough*) Western Carolina can beat Alabama (*cough, cough*).  Well, at least Mac Jones will get in an extra week before Auburn.

CFP Rankings Week #2 Scores

The final scores of the games after the week #2 rankings. Top ten team loses are in italics.

LSU - 58 at Mississippi - 37
Ohio State - 56 at Rutgers - 21
Wake Forest - 3 at Clemson - 52
Georgia - 21 at Auburn - 14 (12)
Alabama - 38 at Mississippi State - 7
Arizona - 6 at Oregon - 34
UCLA - 3 at Utah - 49
Minnesota -19 at Iowa - 23
Indiana - 27 at Penn State - 34
Oklahoma - 34 at Baylor - 31 (13)

The only top 10 team to lose was Minnesota so the Gophers lost their top ten position, their undefeated season and the hog in one afternoon. Oklahoma looked like they were in trouble for a while but ultimately pulled the game out.

Alabama lost Tua Tagovailoa for the rest of the season with a dislocated hip and possible posterior wall fracture. I say possible because the reports are inconsistent. Doctors say he'll fully recover but as a guy who had multiple shoulder dislocations let's just say I find that "fully" a tad questionable. I hope I'm wrong.

LSU at Ole Miss was a crazy affair including 94 points, over 1300 yards in total offense and over 200 yards rushing by the Mississippi QB John Rhys Plumlee. LSU won but it puts a bit of a question mark on its run defense. Joe Burrow also had a short span of being human when he threw two picks in the 4th quarter. I say "short" because he also threw for 489 yards and 5 TDs.

So what happens to the top six?

I've given up trying to understand how the committee thinks but what might happen is Ohio State going back to #1. 

Let's go with that and say it will look like this.

#1 - Ohio State
#2 - LSU
#3 - Clemson
#4 - Georgia
#5 - Alabama
#6 - Oregon

CFP Rankings Week #2

Well I was right about LSU taking over #1 but I'm a bit surprised that Alabama fell all the way to #5 and Georgia was moved up to #4. The LSU-Alabama game was competitive so I'm not sure why Alabama dropped two spots as a result. Minnesota got a lot of love for beating Penn State, enough to kick Florida out of the top ten.

#1 - LSU (9-0)
#2 - Ohio State (9-0)
#3 - Clemson (10-0)
#4 - Georgia (8-1)
#5 - Alabama (8-1)
#6 - Oregon (8-1)
#7 - Utah (8-1)
#8 - Minnesota (9-0)
#9 - Penn State (8-1)
#10 - Oklahoma (8-1)

Games for the top ten this weekend.

LSU at Mississippi
Ohio State at Rutgers
Wake Forest at Clemson
Georgia at Auburn (12)
Alabama at Mississippi State
Arizona at Oregon
UCLA at Utah
Minnesota at Iowa (20)
Indiana at Penn State
Oklahoma at Baylor (13)

Let's start with there ought to be a law against having Rutgers play Ohio State. State is something like a 52 point favorite. The question is can Rutgers keep Ohio State from scoring 100 points? Clemson and Wake Forest could be interesting even though the Tigers are 34 point favorites.

Georgia has a challenge at Auburn and that should be the best game of the top four teams. Minnesota has to try and avoid a big let down at Iowa.

CFP Ranking Week #1 Scores

The final scores of the games after the week #1 rankings. Upsets are in italics.

Maryland - 14 at Ohio State - 73
LSU - 46 at Alabama - 41
Penn State - 26 at Minnesota (17) - 31
Clemson - 55 at NC State - 10
Missouri - 0 at Georgia - 27
Iowa State - 28 at Oklahoma - 42
Oregon - Bye
Utah - Bye
Vanderbilt - 0 at Florida - 56

The big news was Minnesota's upset of Penn State moving the Gophers to 9-0 for the first time since 1904. Funny, it seems like yesterday.

The LSU vs. Alabama game was everything you could expect resulting in the highest point total ever in the 124 year history of the series.

So, how will this shake things up?

Obviously Penn State will fall out of the top 4 and will I suspect be replaced by Clemson. I think the win over Alabama should send LSU to #1 but given the competitiveness of the game I don't see any reason for Alabama to drop out of the top four. So I'm thinking the top six will look as follows:

#1 - LSU (9-0)
#2 - Ohio State (9-0)
#3 - Clemson (10-0)
#4 - Alabama  (8-1)
#5 - Georgia (8-1)
#6 - Oregon (8-1)

But I wouldn't be surprised if Ohio State stayed at #1, Alabama was #3 and Clemson #4. My choices are just my opinion. We'll see Tuesday what the CFB committee decides.

CFP Ranking Week #1

OK, so I was wrong. Ohio State did come in at #1 and Penn State was #4. Here's the first top ten.

#1 - Ohio State (8-0)
#2 - LSU (8-0)
#3 - Alabama (8-0)
#4 - Penn State (8-0)
#5 - Clemson (9-0)
#6 - Georgia (7-1)
#7 - Oregon (8-1)
#8 - Utah (8-1)
#9 - Oklahoma (7-1)
#10 - Florida (7-2)

Games for the top ten this weekend.

Maryland at Ohio State
LSU at Alabama
Penn State at Minnesota (17)
Clemson at NC State
Missouri at Georgia
Iowa State at Oklahoma
Oregon - Bye
Utah - Bye
Vanderbilt at Florida

The biggest game is LSU and Alabama but Penn State is facing Minnesota (8-0) who is ranked 17th.

Elizabeth Warren's Medicare for All Plan

I think Warren’s plan gives us something to mull over and it provides a baseline that I think was sorely needed.

That being said, there is one part of it that I’ve rejected before and I’m going to reject again and that’s the wealth tax.

It’s not that I have any issue with taxing the extremely wealthy it’s just that I’m not sure how practical this tax is going to be.

First of all calculating net worth as a basis to levy the tax upon strikes me as fraught with all sorts of potential problems when wealth is not held in liquid assets. Even if we could come up with a reasonable way of calculating wealth in that case do we really want to demand that people sell stocks, bonds, real estate or other non-liquid assets in order to pay a wealth tax?

Second is that its constitutionality is questionable especially with the current SCOTUS. Even if it SHOULD be considered constitutional I don’t feel confident that this SCOTUS will find it so.

I would much prefer adding two or three higher marginal tax brackets and adding a bracket or two to long term capital gains. This is simple and we know with absolute certainty that it’s constitutional.

The polls seem to indicate that a majority of people support Medicare for All But there is a difference between supporting something in principal and supporting a specific approach for implementation.

The big issue is that people tend to be suspicious of change. People who have access to reasonable health care are going to be concerned that any big change is going to screw things up. I suspect a lot of current Medicare subscribers are going to be concerned that opening up Medicare to everyone is going to negatively impact them in some way manner shape or form with the most likely being that it will be harder to get appointments or treatment.

And they may be right. But we won't really know until Medicare for All is implemented.

CFP Ranking Prediction

Well. it's that time again. The first official College Football Playoff (CFP) ranking will be released at 9 PM tonight. I'm thinking the top six will look as follows:

#1 - Alabama (8-0)
#2 - LSU (8-0)
#3 - Ohio State (8-0)
#4 - Clemson (9-0)
#5 - Penn State (8-0)
#6 - Georgia (7-1)

I've seen predictions that LSU will be #1 and that's possible but I think the CFP is going to go with Alabama. The two teams are playing Saturday so whoever wins that game will almost certainly be #1 in next week's poll regardless of where they end up today.

I saw at least one columnist saying that Ohio State will be #1 but I can't believe that it won't be an SEC team so either Alabama or LSU.

The same columnist felt that Penn State would be #4 rather than Clemson and I suspect that's more likely than Ohio State at #1. Clemson hasn't looked that good this year and I'm not overly impressed with their schedule.

Still, Clemson will probably finish 12-0, unless they stumble against Wake Forest in two weeks. I don't see them losing to NC State or South Carolina although I suppose you never know.

LSU and Alabama play each other this week and Ohio State and Penn State play each other November 23rd so at least two of Clemson's main rivals will have at least one loss. Georgia already has a loss as does Oregon, Utah and Oklahoma.

Anyway, let the games begin.