This Week's BlogPoll Top 25: LSU vs... Anyone?

I sort of hate myself for doing it, but I kept Alabama at No. 2, because losing by a field goal in overtime to the No. 1 team in the country is hardly disqualifying. I think Bama would throttle Stanford or Boise or Oklahoma State or anyone... besides LSU.

Here's where things get tricky: I am adamant that there not be an Alabama-LSU rematch in the national title game. So: Can I rank Alabama the 2nd-best team in the country while denying them a spot in the title game that pits the top two teams in the country? You bet I can.

DanShanoff.com Ballot - Week 11

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
3	Stanford Cardinal	--
4	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	1
5	Boise St. Broncos	-1
6	Oregon Ducks	--
7	Arkansas Razorbacks	1
8	Oklahoma Sooners	-1
9	Clemson Tigers	2
10	Houston Cougars	-1
11	Virginia Tech Hokies	4
12	Wisconsin Badgers	5
13	South Carolina Gamecocks	-3
14	Georgia Bulldogs	--
15	Texas Longhorns	6
16	USC Trojans	--
17	Texas A&M Aggies	-5
18	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	--
19	Michigan St. Spartans	-3
20	Southern Miss. Golden Eagles	--
21	Auburn Tigers	--
22	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-9
23	Michigan Wolverines	-3
24	Penn St. Nittany Lions	-1
25	Cincinnati Bearcats	--
Dropouts: Kansas St. Wildcats, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Arizona St. Sun Devils, TCU Horned Frogs, West Virginia Mountaineers

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

11/06 (LSU!) Quickie

Couple of quick thoughts:

*What a win for LSU -- that Alabama team was ridiculous, particularly the D. And to do it in Tuscaloosa? It's a testament to the seasoning LSU went through earlier in the season, with Oregon and Mississippi State and West Virginia.

*I can't believe the folks on Twitter killing the game for being "boring." This was as elite level of defense as you'll see. The Oklahoma State-Kansas State game was full of offense; those guys couldn't stop at a red light. We've seen this: Oklahoma averages 50+ ppg and Florida shuts them down. Ohio State averages 40+ ppg and Florida shuts them down. Alabama throttles Texas. LSU throttles Ohio State. The defense is at another level, and if you didn't realize that when LSU contained Oregon, you realize it now -- and will realize it in January.

*I still think Oklahoma State loses to Oklahoma and Stanford loses to Oregon. I have no idea what happens at that point (I think an LSU-Oregon rematch has as much traction and appeal as an LSU-Alabama rematch), but I'd certainly like to see Boise get a shot at LSU. If Oklahoma State beats Oklahoma and Stanford beats Oregon, it looks like Oklahoma State gets a shot and Stanford gets shut out. I think LSU throttles Oklahoma State.

*Tentative BlogPoll Top 5: (1) LSU, (2) Stanford, (3) Alabama, (4) Oklahoma State, (5) Boise (which isn't exactly dominating lowly UNLV). Oregon right there. Arkansas right there.

A word about Penn State and this scandal: It's horrifying. It's appalling. At this point, I'm OK if you told me Penn State was getting the death penalty. That won't happen, but I do think it indelibly changes our perception of Penn State as a program and Joe Paterno as a legendary coach. The AD should be fired. The president of the university should be fired -- if he won't resign. Joe Paterno should resign. I don't add that last one lightly -- ultimately, you can't give JoePa a pass. You can't say he did his best or that he at least did the minimum asked of him. You can't even lean back on the idea that he's been an empty figurehead for a decade and not responsible. He IS responsible. I don't say that with anything but sadness. But I have no sympathy for Paterno. None. I save my sympathy for those poor victims and their families.

-- D.S.

11/04 (LSU-Alabama) Quickie

LSU-Alabama is everything you want in a college football game.

It is the two best teams. But, more than that, it is two teams seemingly playing the game at a different level. That's where this is more than just "1-vs-2," which historically has left plenty of room for the idea that No. 3 or 4 or 5 might be in the discussion.

In this case, there is no debate: These are the two best teams, and they will play each other for the presumptive right to play for (and, again, presumably) win the national title.

(This deciding-it-on-the-field stuff matters a lot, no matter how you feel about the BCS. You want a playoff? This is it. It is laughable that the loser of this game will drop in the rankings behind Oklahoma State -- and probably Boise and Stanford -- when the loser of this game is still the second-best team in the country.)

That parenthetical said, I am virulently against a rematch in any form this season -- say, in the national-title game. I don't care if it is the greatest game ever played and we all are begging for four more quarters. What makes this game so amazing is not just that it pits the best two teams, but that it is definitive. If the loser gets a rematch, this game is essentially meaningless -- more meaningless than any game that will be played in college football this season, actually.

The talent. The subplots. The stakes. This game has it all, and I cannot wait. I don't think it's understating to call it -- at least in pre-game theory -- the best match-up of the year, and that includes the Super Bowl, Heat vs. Anyone in the NBA Playoffs, whatever. Now, the game itself might or might not live up to that expectation -- but the expectation is there. By virtue of college football's system, the magnitude of the outcome alone ensures the game has about as much gravity as any championship elimination game has had this year.

Prediction: Alabama, decisively.

And be sure to check out the Alabama-LSU stream on Quickish. It is loaded with awesome stuff.

More:

*Other CFB this weekend: Oklahoma State is going to throttle Kansas State... Expect Stanford and Boise State to put up big style points, too... If not for LSU-Bama, then Arkansas-South Carolina would be a damn good game of the week... Upset Special: Iowa over Michigan (would Texas Tech over Texas in Austin count?)

*NFL: Steelers-Ravens is the Game of the Week, but -- to the point above -- it is largely inconsequential who wins, because both teams seem to have a bead on the playoffs. I mean, the winner gets an edge for a Wild Card bye and home-field advantage, and that's not nothin'. But let's be honest: The game everyone is going to be paying attention to is the Broncos vs. the Raiders, because Tim Tebow remains the most talked-about topic in football, even if that drives everyone a bit crazy. (Fans and haters, alike.)

*NBA Lockout: This whole "decertification" thing feels like a badly executed feint. The union might as well cave now and save what is left of the season.

*MLB Hot Stove: There are few things I want to see more in 2012 than 49-year-old Jamie Moyer pitch in the Major Leagues again.

*Happy 9th anniversary to Around the Horn. I point to my career 0-4 record proudly.

Have a great weekend. Quickish is rocking the whole time.

-- D.S.

11/02 (Pay College Athletes?) Quickie

What to do about paying college athletes gets a bump today. In this week's SI, George Dohrmann takes a deep dive not on the morality, but simply the feasibility. On Grantland today, Charlie Pierce takes on the morality -- and the NCAA's impossibly FUBAR logic.

I go back to an old Shanoff staple: The crux of the problem is the perceived exploitation of the star college football players, the ones who are worth far more than any college could ever afford to pay them, under any system.

The simplest solution is to create a pro football minor league that allows the best/star players (read: top NFL prospects) to skip college at any point -- before their freshman, sophomore or junior years -- to enter a minor-league system that (a) prepares them for the NFL better than college would/could and (b) pays them rather well for it.

College football would be fine -- it doesn't need "star" players. It needs its teams and its traditions. That college football put an emphasis on its biggest future-NFL talents was a huge reason it got itself into this mess (the media have been complicit). The perceived exploitation -- not to mention the levels of compensation in a pay-for-play system -- would be mitigated.

The players would be better off: They would be getting paid. They would be focused full-time on maximizing their NFL potential. Back on campus, scholarship slots would be given to players with no pro future -- the ones for whom a full-ride college scholarship helps set them up for a non-football future.

The NFL would be better off: The league doesn't need the marketing bump of college football to get fans excited about its rookie players. And instead of college players learning college systems and playing for coaches with no incentive to train them for a pro career, they enter a system whose entire rationale is to maximize their NFL potential. While paying them.

I wish Mark Cuban would stop futzing around with a college playoff when the more valuable arbitrage is so obviously the three-year gap between the moment a star player enters college football and the moment they leave for the NFL Draft.

If the minor league gets a nominal, reasonable piece of the players' financial future (we're talking fewer percentage points than an agent would demand), the minor league could be self-sustaining within a few years. There is even a compelling (and ironic) case it be created as a non-profit.

-- D.S.

11/01 (Flag Football) Quickie

Excuse me, but I'm a little obsessed with Kevin Durant spontaneously showing up at an Oklahoma State frat flag-football game and playing, because one of the frat guys tweeted him about it.



(I appreciate the frat guy's hustle. When I was in college, I was the intramurals impresario for my house.)

Despite my complete aversion to tackle football as a sport any kid should be playing (or any parent should be letting a kid play), I have Gabe signed up for flag football, starting this Saturday. I guess I need to look into getting him a Durant Sigma Nu No. 35 jersey.

Meanwhile...

*Good for Tony La Russa: Impressive ending to an already Hall of Fame career.

*The Tim Tebow backlash (aka "The Tebacklash"): Can't say the schadenfreude was unexpected. I follow this pretty carefully (obviously) and think he'll get 3-4 more starts from John Fox, then get benched for the rest of the season (barring injury to Brady Quinn), then get cut in the offseason (then get signed by Bill Belichick, who will turn him into a QB/RB/FB/TE/WR hybrid who scored 10+ TDs per season).

*Chargers blow it: Yeesh.

*MLB Hot Stove: Yankees lock up CC Sabathia by throwing an extra $30M or so at him for a year down the road. Good move by both sides.

*NBA Lockout: I'm a little obsessed with the "amnesty" stuff. Prediction: The team that wins the NBA title will have in its playoff rotation at least one amnestied player.

*Kardashian and Humphries divorce after 72 days: Everything's kind of been said, hasn't it?

*Congrats to my pals at SB Nation -- now Vox Media -- on the re-branding of the parent company and the official launch of The Verge, instantly one of the great tech-news sites.

It's November already?

-- D.S.

This Week's BlogPoll Top 25 Ballot

The winner of LSU-Alabama will play for the national title (unless the winner of that game has some kind of freakish epic upset later this season). That is a phenomenal outcome -- among the best you can get in an inherently flawed system -- when the two best teams can play each other and the winner gets a clear shot at the national title. (And, really, does anyone think that Stanford or Oklahoma State or Boise can really beat the LSU-Alabama winner? Or LSU-Alabama loser, for that matter.) The other spot is Oklahoma State's to lose... that is, until they lose to Oklahoma. Then it's Stanford's to lose... that is, until they lose to Oregon. And then we'll have a ravaging national debate about whether Boise's unbeaten record built on top of a middling schedule deserves preference over a 1-loss team (Oregon or Oklahoma, neither of which have proven themselves worthy of a title shot) with a vastly superior schedule. Here's this week's ballot:

DanShanoff.com Ballot - Week 10

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
3	Stanford Cardinal	2
4	Boise St. Broncos	--
5	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	-2
6	Oregon Ducks	--
7	Oklahoma Sooners	1
8	Arkansas Razorbacks	2
9	Houston Cougars	6
10	South Carolina Gamecocks	4
11	Clemson Tigers	-4
12	Texas A&M Aggies	1
13	Nebraska Cornhuskers	5
14	Kansas St. Wildcats	-2
15	Virginia Tech Hokies	1
16	Michigan St. Spartans	-5
17	Wisconsin Badgers	-8
18	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	--
19	Texas Tech Red Raiders	-2
20	Michigan Wolverines	-1
21	Texas Longhorns	--
22	Arizona St. Sun Devils	-2
23	Penn St. Nittany Lions	-2
24	TCU Horned Frogs	--
25	West Virginia Mountaineers	--
Dropouts: Baylor Bears, USC Trojans, Cincinnati Bearcats

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

10/30 (Luck!) Quickie

Remember a few weeks ago when so many "experts" were worried about 4 or 5 or even 6 unbeaten teams this season? Ha: Quaint times.

We're down to just a handful now, after Clemson pulled a Clemson and K-State felt Oklahoma's wrath (let's not even speak of poor Wisconsin).

Stanford barely survived its trip to USC -- Andrew Luck looked brilliant (well, except for the pick-6 that could have cost the Cardinal its dream season). Stanford will lose to Oregon.

Oklahoma State throttled Baylor -- a very good Baylor team, I thought. The Cowboys have some swagger... just enough to peek past rival Oklahoma to the BCS title game. OKS will lose, too.

There is the winner of LSU-Alabama next week -- as it should be, at least one half of the national championship picture settled on the field, head-to-head -- and then... who?

I'd like to see Boise, even though I think Boise's schedule is a sham and a scam. As usual, there are probably a dozen teams in the country that could go unbeaten with Boise's schedule. I try not to let that obscure that they are, in fact, a terrific team in the absolute sense. (Frankly, I'm unclear that Boise could hold off Houston, another prolific unbeaten with even less of a chance of playing for the national title than Boise.)

But what we have -- and this is mostly perennially -- is the excitement that a single loss ruins aspirations for more (as if an ACC title and BCS bowl game is a terrible outcome for Clemson) and the clarity that comes with sports' most exciting and most(ly) meaningful regular season.

Clemson didn't make it. Stanford is still going. Oklahoma State looks strong. And the rest of us are captivated along the way.

-- D.S.

(Oh, NFL Week 8 today, so it's Red Zone Channel all day. Pats-Steelers might be the Game of the Week, but you should expect plenty of coverage of Tebow vs. the Lions.)

10/29 (Cardinals!) Quickie

What an amazing World Series champion -- one of the most unique in baseball history. You don't have to be a Cardinals fan to appreciate what they did (or, more importantly, how they did it).

They came back from 10+ games behind at the end of August. They played a big role in "Game 162." They beat Roy Halladay in an elimination game. They played in that unreal Game 6 on Thursday night. The rain-out let Carpenter pitch in Game 7. They have the best player of the generation (yes, who might leave in a few weeks). They have a polarizing manager. They have a group of no-names and reclamation projects and hometown kids and mid-season trades. They have a World Series championship and the accompanying baseball immortality.

More than anything -- and apologies in advance for the trite observation -- it reminds that just when you think sports can't get any more amazing, they do.

College Football Saturday: LSU and Bama have a bye week to get ready for each other next week in the Game of the Year, but plenty of intriguing games on the schedule today:

*Is at USC the trap game for Stanford? (Remember when Stanford was the trap game for Pete Carroll?)

*Is this the week (at GA Tech) that Clemson finally pulls a Clemson? (Yes.)

*Can Baylor and Robert Griffin keep up with Oklahoma State in Stillwater? (Unlikely.)

*Does a bitter Oklahoma take out last week's season-killing disappointment on still-unbeaten K-State in Manhattan? (Yes.)

*Does a bitter Wisconsin take out last week's season-killing disappointment on Ohio State? (Yes.)

*What's the "let-down" factor for Michigan State at Nebraska? (Big enough.)

*Has Georgia-Florida ever been less exciting? (In 11 years of avidly following, nope.)

*Nominal Upset Specials: Tennessee over Lattimore-less South Carolina in Knoxville, Purdue over Michigan in Ann Arbor. Oklahoma over Kansas State doesn't count.

So maybe Stanford, Oklahoma State and Clemson will all win -- although, after last week's insanity, the chance is better than not that one of them will stumble -- but each team gets a chance to bolster its resume and reputation with a quality win.

-- D.S.

10/28 (Cardinals! Game 6! Holy S--t!) Quickie

As a sports fan, I live for those rare moments of pure unexpected drama-infused joy-hysteria-awesomeness. Last night was one of them.

Without hyperbole or typical "instant-history" crazy, it was one of the greatest baseball games of all time.

Joe Buck takes a lot of grief, but even he nailed the perfect climactic note, echoing his father's famous "We will see you tomorrow night!" from the walk-off Game 6 20 years ago.

I want to do it justice here, but I'm not sure I can. Instead, I'm putting all my energy into Quickish -- into creating the best collection of columns, front pages, videos and Tweets you'll find anywhere.

Please give it a look (and pass it along to your friends). What a night and what a day-after. (And Game 7 coming tonight. Whew.)

-- D.S.

The Night the Red Sox Won the World Series

So 7 years ago tonight the Red Sox won the World Series. I was leaving the next morning for my honeymoon, and I knew I wouldn't be able to write about it after the fact.

But the Sox winning the World Series was such a HUGE deal that I just had to have my say. So in the Quickie before that Game 4 the Sox clinched the title, I wrote everything I would have said had I been writing the next morning, one of the more memorable columns for me:

Two Words For You:
REALLY. OVER.

It's over, and this time I really mean it.

There will be no historic 0-3 comeback. We've already had one of those. Laugh at the people who cite the ALCS as some kind of precedent.

Once you give yourself over to the only conclusion possible, it hits you like very few feelings you've ever had as a sports fan:

The Red Sox.

Are gonna win.

The championship.

I'm so sure that Boston is going to capture their first world title since 1918, that I'm going to pre-empt the series' remaining games and write a "Sox Win!" lead today, to beat the crowds.

(Okay, I'm also doing it because I'll be on my honeymoon starting tomorrow -- and it's so wrong that I might miss commenting this moment.)

Break out the champagne ...

Sox Win!?!?
"Pre-printed" from after the Sox eventually win, despite the hostility today from my "believe-it-but-can't" RSN friends to stop me:

What the hell happens next? For sports fans everywhere, the reality we have all known, grown up with and lived with for our entire lives will change.

What's that? Jumping the gun?

No more Curse? No more New England fatalism? No more self-loathing?

RSN is averting their eyes...

Clocks will be re-set: Not Daylight Savings, but some kind of Spiritual Savings, at least for Red Sox Nation.

Protest howls! (And peeking?)

As for the rest of us, we can simply bask in experiencing something that no one younger than 86 has ever been around for.

It's okay, Sox fans. Embrace it! I'm already on the other side, and I can tell you: It's the most liberating sense you've ever had!

Fun times.

-- D.S.

10/27 (Tebowing) Quickie

I'm in the 99th percentile of people who pay attention to the Tim Tebow phenomenon, and even I have to step back and marvel that two days ago some dude created "Tebowing."

Game 6 can't get here fast enough.

10/26 (Game 6) Quickie

*Would love to have the World Series Game 6 tonight -- unclear if the weather will accommodate. It'll change the pitching availability a bit at the margins, particularly for a Game 7. (Game 6 pick: Cards)

*I don't mind admitting that the NBA Lockout discussion -- which is full-throttle, every day, if you're following NBA folks on Twitter -- is wearing me out. I think I'm in the silent majority (which includes plenty of NBA media) that sympathizes with the players but would rather see the season start now than the players get a fair deal. It's abhorrent but true.

*As I have been since the start, I am totally down with Theo in Chicago. As a die-hard Cubs fan as a child (if not today), I can get behind this.

*More good Tebow analysis.

Pop by Quickish for a bunch of good recommendations (on a surprisingly slow day).

-- D.S.

10/25 (La Russa) Quickie

What happened last night in the bottom of the 8th inning -- La Russa's debacle -- was so inexplicable (literally and metaphorically) and so unexpected (not to mention so critical in the grand scheme of winning a World Series title) that I found myself rooting on the insanity.

Partly, that's because I'm not a huge La Russa fan. Partly, that's because I enjoyed the irony of the folks who just a few nights ago were praising TLR as a genius now burying him. Partly, that's because it was just so damn fascinating.

Frankly, this is what Quickish was made for: This morning, I've pulled together the best reactions to La Russa. Quickish showcases a money quote, but you can click through to read all the various rippings of the manager, all deserved.

(It's worth noting that if the guy had simply said: "Cripes, did I mess up," it's mitigated. But by obfuscating and throwing his coaches under a bus, he compounds his initial problems. Remember: The cover-up -- in whatever form it takes -- is almost always worse than the crime.)

NFL MNF WTF: I didn't watch, but from all accounts, the Ravens-Jaguars game -- featuring what I think we can all agree was a stunning JAX upset of a team many thought was a contender in the AFC -- was a dog. I will say this: I won my fantasy league week in dramatic come-from-behind fashion thanks to Josh Scobee. So there's that.

Have you seen that Wade-CP3-Melo TV ad yet? It might be my favorite ad since the Volkswagen Super Bowl "Star Wars Kid" ad. Check it out here. I don't want to spoil it, but let me just say that I thought I had seen my favorite part when -- BOOM -- the ad takes it to an entirely new level of awesome.

More later.

-- D.S.

10/24 (Tebow) Quickie

As a longtime Tebow-watcher, the defining moment for me of yesterday's Are-You-Not-Entertained?! game was just after Prater kicked the game-winning field goal in OT. Tebow's reaction was to drop to a knee, then calmly walk around hugging his teammates. No jumping around. No histrionics.

Tebow was clearly glad to have won the game, but he clearly understood that his performance for the first 55 minutes was sub-par. Partly that was him, partly that was the typically orthodox-to-a-fault Broncos coaches' play-calling.

When things opened up in the furious final few minutes -- the first successful NFL comeback from 15 points down with 3 minutes to play in 40 years -- good things happened. John Fox could learn a lesson from that.

Prepare yourselves: It's going to be a long week of Tebow mania -- not from me, but from the mainstream media; I'm demure by comparison. I think it's fair -- even predictable -- that Tebow's performance gave both the fans and the haters something to latch on to. Wouldn't be any other way.

Other notes from NFL Week 7: Drew Brees was incredible, even if it was against the Colts... Aaron Rodgers' 2011 season is quite possibly the greatest I have ever seen by any NFL player (or perhaps any team-sport athlete)... Love the breakouts, including DeMarco Murray's... I have to admit: I thought Carson Palmer would be a lot better (then again, that's a low bar).

CFB: LSU-Alabama? Yes! Twice? No! I said this below -- I think that LSU and Alabama are clearly the two best teams in the country, and that won't change after they play on November 5. But this idea of a rematch in the event the other unbeaten teams get nicked (and it could easily happen -- OK St losing to Okla and Stanford losing to Oregon and Clemson losing to anyone) is brutal. The amazingness of the game on Nov. 5 is that it is a de facto playoff; that is entirely undercut if the idea is that the loser gets another shot. I'm aggressively anti-Rematch.

(I am, however, rooting for the above-mentioned unbeatens to lose; I'd love to see a LSU-Bama winner vs. Boise national title game, even though there is an entirely fair argument that penalizing a 1-loss team (or teams) for having an infinitely more difficult schedule than unbeaten Boise is patently unfair.)

MLB: Derek Holland's mustache is as amazing as his performance last night. This is one hell of an entertaining World Series, and the idea that it's now a best-of-3, with Carpenter vs. Wilson tonight in the so-called "pivotal" Game 5, is quickly bringing this Series up the all-time best-ever rankings.

-- D.S.

This Week's BlogPoll Top 25 Ballot

It's LSU and Alabama. I'm already weary of the ludicrous talk that there could be a rematch for the national title. I hate that idea -- it diminishes the game on Nov. 5. If they're just going to play again, who cares who wins? The whole idea is that whoever wins this game on Nov. 5 means EVERYTHING. It's a de facto playoff, which is a huge part of its appeal. I'm 100% against the "rematch" idea.

DanShanoff.com Ballot - Week 9

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
3	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	4
4	Boise St. Broncos	1
5	Stanford Cardinal	1
6	Oregon Ducks	2
7	Clemson Tigers	2
8	Oklahoma Sooners	-4
9	Wisconsin Badgers	-6
10	Arkansas Razorbacks	--
11	Michigan St. Spartans	5
12	Kansas St. Wildcats	7
13	Texas A&M Aggies	-2
14	South Carolina Gamecocks	-2
15	Houston Cougars	-2
16	Virginia Tech Hokies	2
17	Texas Tech Red Raiders	--
18	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-1
19	Michigan Wolverines	3
20	Arizona St. Sun Devils	-5
21	Penn St. Nittany Lions	--
22	Baylor Bears	3
23	USC Trojans	--
24	Cincinnati Bearcats	--
25	West Virginia Mountaineers	-11
Dropouts: Auburn Tigers, Georgia Bulldogs, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, SMU Mustangs

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »