[College Football]

I'd like to say I'm surprised Georgia shat the bed today, but I'm really not; for all the hype, they hadn't really played a truly good team all year.

Anyway, it seems obvious to me that the committee will choose Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, and Cincinnati (even though it will kiiiiiillllllllllll them to have to include that last team) and probably order them that way (even though I'd argue that the top two should be Michigan and Cincinnati since I don't the think the SEC is as strong this year as usual).  The only other order I could foresee is Michigan, Alabama, Cincinnati, and Georgia.  They'll be angling for an Alabama/Georgia rematch in the final (which I would give just about anything to prevent), so they'll go with one of those two orders since there's no way they won't have an SEC team as #1 or #2.

[MLB Thread]

Steve Cohen is paying a dead arm $130 million.  Have fun with that, Mets fans!

[College Football]

8 hours ago, Carey said:

Georgia is still number one.  They will be the first of 4 teams headed to the College Football Playoff.  It should be close to business as usual; chaos happens, but I'd be stunned if everyone loses (Alabama, Michigan, Cincinnati).

Well, since Georgia and Alabama are playing each other, one of them is guaranteed to lose.

[Figure Skating]

11 minutes ago, Lady Whistleup said:

I have heard commentators make some comments (directly or indirectly) about Guillaume being gay so P&C not being convincing as a "romantic" couple. Which is nonsense, but ...

But what?

[College Football]

The CFP committee right now: "$hit, now we have to put Cincinnati in the top four, don't we...UNLE$$!  We could tooooootally leapfrog Michigan over them!  Notre Dame, too!  That one might not go over well with the non-ND public, but who care$$$$?  Thi$ i$ completely fine, we don't have to put Cincy in the top four, we can work thi$ out!🤑🤑🤑"

[The NBA]

I notice that in his typically condescending remarks about Kanter, Bron-bron didn't actually address anything Kanter said, and that's because Bron-bron knows there's nothing he can say without coming across as an even more incredibly greedy hypocrite than he already is.  Kanter is exactly right in his criticisms, and Bron-bron is a coward.  God, he sucks.

[The NBA]

1 hour ago, emmawoodhouse said:

I'd argue that those scummy Lakers are ESPN's darlings.

The Lakers are completely ESPN's (and that asshole Stephen A. Smith's) darlings.  To argue anything else is madness.  MADNESS, I tell you!

[College Football]

8 hours ago, roamyn said:

So you think an OR team that lost to Stanford is better than tOSU?

They're both one-loss teams, and we have tangible proof from their game on 9/11 that Oregon is better than OSU.

5 hours ago, PepSinger said:

2) IMO, it’s disingenuous to compare AP/Coaches Poll rankings with the CFP rankings. Once the CFP rankings come out, those polls no longer matter. You either have to look at AP/Coaches poll rankings or the CFP rankings. You can’t mix the two

The CFP rankings are very, very, very manipulatable and biased, though.  I mean, look at the horseshit Gary Barta was spewing to justify ranking Michigan above Michigan State – and that's just one example.  I agree with you that Cincinnati should be in the top four, but the committee will do everything in its power to prevent that from happening.

Ultimately, these are intended to ensure that as much revenue as possible is generated by the playoffs, which means arranging the rankings so that specific teams are guaranteed to make it and specific teams are guaranteed not to make it.  The committee pretends that it's not about money, and that's my biggest issue.  If the committee just said, "We care first and foremost about generating as much revenue as possible and will prioritize the teams that we think will generate the most revenue," I'd have so much less of a problem with the whole endeavor because it would at least be honest.  It would still be shitty, but it wouldn't be a totally hypocritical charade.

Also, everything @mojoween posted.

I swear I hadn't read this article before I posted!

[College Football]

1 hour ago, galaxygirl76 said:

So the committee chair Gary Barta said that Michigan deserves to be ranked higher than MSU because they think they are the better team. If only they had played each other recently to see who is the better team..

Translation: "We think Michigan would be a more profitable team to include than Michigan State, so we'd like for Michigan to be the B1G backup to Ohio State."

[NFL Thread]

Abdul-Jabbar's last paragraph:

Quote

I can’t help but think of Colin Kaepernick, who was blacklisted by the NFL for passively expressing his frustration with systemic racism—a brave act meant to help his community and save lives—while multi-millionaire Rodgers will continue to play, despite lying to the fans and his teammates and putting innocent lives in danger. Time will tell whether Rodgers will be judged by the content of his character or the strength of his throwing arm.

Incisive perfection.

Rodgers has been lying about who he is for years because he's a selfish coward.

[The NBA]

8 hours ago, cambridgeguy said:

Scottie Pippen's memoir is out today.  I have a feeling MJ won't be a fan.

But will he take it personally?

[Figure Skating]

I got about two-thirds of the way through the "Gold War" episode of Bad Sport before I had to turn it off because I was reminded so clearly of several things:

1. Jamie Salé has always annoyed the shit out of me.  She came across like the whiniest victim who was ever victimized before she set a blade on the ice in Salt Lake City, and seemingly nothing has changed in the ensuing nineteen years.

2. I'd have voted for Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze then, I'd still vote for them, and I still think the double gold was undeserved (even with the judging scandal).  B/S's program was much more difficult, and their presentation was stratospherically better than everything about that horrible "Love Story" program (hated it then, still hate it).  Also, and this was conveniently omitted because it wouldn't fit the storyline, Salé and Pelletier fucking fell at the end of their short program and still placed second when they should've been fourth, so Jamie, her dick agent, that self-righteous judge who talked about the non-mistakes B/S made and held S/P up as the paragon of pairs skating perfection, and (as much as I usually like her) Christine Brennan can shut their collective pie holes.

3. Nothing about the manifold judging issues in figure skating was fixed with the new scoring system; if anything, the issues are worse because the anonymity of the current system makes for an easier cover for chicanery.

Everything else about this was propaganda, which is interesting given the Cold War angle this was hitting so hard.

[College Football]

8 hours ago, PepSinger said:

I think it’s important to stress that the committee doesn’t care about the AP Top 25 or the Coaches Poll. They are irrelevant to the CFP Committee because they use different criteria. Now, if you want to talk about overhauling the whole thing, I am more than happy to entertain that conversation. However, in the realm of how the committee works currently, AL being number 2 makes sense. All that matters at this point is that AL lost to the #14 ranked team. All that being said, I’m not going to act as if I wasn’t surprised when I saw them at number 2. I was thinking three or four.

And the criteria seems to be that Alabama is credited with losing to the #14-ranked team while Cincinnati isn't really credited with beating the #10-ranked team.  I've yet to see a reasonable argument on that one.  Oregon might've beaten the #5-ranked team and was credited for that, but it lost to an unranked team and seemingly wasn't punished for it.  We can argue all day about whether this team or that team is ranked too high or too low, but these are the rankings right now, and they're pretty galling.

The truth is that this committee is driven by money, and ESPN pays a lot of money to the SEC for the exclusive rights to air marquee SEC games; therefore, it behooves everyone to keep ESPN happy and have as many SEC teams ranked as possible and increase that easily manipulatable strength of schedule factor so that one SEC team – two, if possible – can be guaranteed to make the playoffs.  No G5 team can ever actually make the playoffs, and it's bullshit.  The only argument on that I've heard this year is that, well, Georgia or Alabama would crush Cincinnati (it's the same argument every time), as if most of the actual playoff games under this four-team system haven't been really one-sided affairs.  Truthfully, no one really knows how Cincinnati would do in the playoffs because Cincinnati is not allowed to make the playoffs and prove themselves.  They've so far done everything they were told they needed to do (go undefeated, have a marquee out-of-conference win), and it's still not enough because the committee will always move the goalposts for the G5 teams.  It's such gross hypocrisy.

[NFL Thread]

Rodgers has had plenty of practice deliberately lying about himself over the years, so his intentional prevarication about his vaccination status is just more of the cowardly same.

Henry Ruggs, I hope your drunken joy ride was worth it because, if there is even a tiny bit of justice, you will be going to jail for at least most of the rest of your life.

[MLB Thread]

2 hours ago, mojoween said:

I’m not unhappy.  It would have been nice to be a different NL team, but Houston lost again and that’s really what matters.

That's where I am.  I'm not happy for the Braves' racist fans and their racist gesture and chant, but I'd still have rather seen those players win than the cheaters on the other team.

[MLB Thread]

Racist cheater Yuli Gurriel being the last out was deeeeeelicious.

Sorry, *tros, maybe next year (you'll lose again).

[MLB Thread]

1 hour ago, nittany cougar said:

He has one as a player but not as a manager.  

As a Dodgers fan, I'm aware of that.

[MLB Thread]

1 hour ago, annzeepark914 said:

Two positives if the Astros win: the racist cheater chanters will be losers *and* Dusty will get the accolades.

I don't see either of those as positives because of the much bigger negatives associated with them.  The Braves fans are gross racists, but they're not cheaters; more importantly, neither are the players.  I don't have anything against the actual players, and since the players themselves are the ones who actually win, I'd be less grossed out to see the Braves players win.  Dusty already has a WS ring, so he doesn't really need another, especially since that would mean a whole organization of actual cheaters from which he willingly took a job would get another.

[NFL Thread]

I hate being a Bengals fan so much.

Why did my parents have to live in Cincinnati when I was born?

[MLB Thread]

1 hour ago, Lantern7 said:

Here’s a bit of incentive to root against the Braves. Wouldn’t mean you’re pulling for the *tros.

Go, Dusty! Make the fans cry like their football team blew a 25-point lead in the biggest game imaginable!

Well, since one of these two shit teams has to win, here's a much larger incentive to root against the *tros.

[NFL Thread]

4 hours ago, Lamb18 said:

I think Cardinals.could. or have they already played the Bucs? I think Cardinals are the best team Vikings have played this year, well, maybe 2nd after the Browns.

The Cardinals aren't playing the Bucs (at least not during the regular season), and the Browns are not a better team than the Cardinals since, you know, the Cardinals spanked the Browns 37-14 just last weekend.

[MLB Thread]

Well...at least Trevor Bauer won't get a ring, and Blake Treinen won't get...another (non-asterisked) one?

[College Football]

2 hours ago, PepSinger said:

Well, he’s gonna need that because there’s no way in hell he’s gonna win that lawsuit. He was fired for cause. 

ETA: From reading the linked article, he is arguing discrimination. LOL. “Unvaccinated people” are not a protected class. There is nothing in the Catholic religion that prevents him from receiving vaccinations. Has he received other common vaccinations? If so, he case is going to be thrown out —for multiple reasons— once he steps inside the courtroom. He better use his devout Catholic beliefs to pray the judge doesn’t laugh him out of court.

Moreover, since Washington State is a public university, he was a state employee and, therefore, was subject to any and all statewide mandates, COVID-related or otherwise, for employees of the state of Washington as conditions of employment.  He has absolutely, positively no legal leg to stand on.

I sincerely hope he's not only laughed out of court, but also fined and forced to pay all of the legal costs associated with this frivolous lawsuit.

[MLB Thread]

[College Football]

1 hour ago, ChitChat said:

It's possible that the Catholic faith isn't all that defines him.  Maybe he has convictions that go beyond the Catholic church.   However, I'm sure that many people taking a religious exemption are just using it for an excuse, but it's not for me to judge.  I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.  He doesn't want the vaccine.  He's trying to use the out that is available, and I don't blame him or other people for that.  

Again, his body, his choice.  He's choosing to take a stand for what he believes is right for him, and he's willing to sacrifice his job for it.  

He is applying for the religious exemption based on his "devout" Catholic faith, so he actually is exactly defining himself through his Catholic faith in this instance.  Nothing about Catholicism is anti-vaccine, and I have zero doubt that his refusal to get the vaccine has nothing whatsoever to do with his "deeply held" religious beliefs.

Moreover, he's apparently not willing to make this sacrifice since, as @Crs97 pointed out, he's suing to get his job back/an easy payday.  He wants to have his cake and eat it, too, so, no, screw him.  He and the many others like him who are trying to abuse the religious exemption don't deserve the benefit of any doubt.