https://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2018/12/vegas_releases_gambling_lines.html If you want to cover 6 on Michigan vs. Fla. you need to do it soon cause I guarantee it moves to 7 real quick.
Not sure what to think of the Gator bowl - The Aggies opened as 3 pt faves and it has already jumped up to 7! :shock:
According to all the experts, all of these games are already decided. All that means is that there are sure to be plenty of upsets.
I do like the Irish plus 11.5 as well. These bowl games though as opposed to playoff games can be extremely volatile and hard to pick because of the NFL factor. Some players like Leornard Fournette just opt out..... and truthfully as far as the Gators are concerned I wish each and every NFL bound player who didn't feel fully committed would just sit this one out. In the 2015 Citrus Bowl I witnessed the worst display of effort by any UF football team I can ever remember in an absolute debacle vs. Michigan.... especially by several NFL bound defensive players. Any player with that mentality going in needs to recuse himeself from the situation and ride the pine for the bowl game. Otherwise a piss poor effort isn't fair to the fans or to the rest of his teammates.
Well you won't have to face Michigan All-American DE, Rashan Gary, he has opted out of playing in the Bowl. Ed Oliver of Houston has also opted out of playing in the bowl. I fully expect quite a few players who are NFL bound and likely to be 1st round draft choices or even 1st day draft choices (2nd and 3rd round) to opt out of meaningless bowl games.
Eddie O says LSU is ready and motivated to play UCF, that they have a lot of respect for UCF. Some felt like last year that Auburn just sort of showed up and really wasn't thrilled to be playing UCF so they didn't really put out a good effort. Eddie O says that will not be the case for LSU.
And they should sit out and do gamblers, fans, their opponents and teammates a favor by not screwing up the legitimacy of the game. UF's Jordan Scarlett is heading for the NFL and yet says he will play in the bowl game. Well if the going gets tough for UF's leading rusher and he can't get it going from a motivational standpoint I hope he pulls himself out of the game.
I think some of the decisions are based strictly on Agents talking to them and reminding them of what happened to Jaylon Smith in the Fiesta Bowl a few years ago when the Irish played Ohio State. I can't think of the Miami RB who was also severely injured in the Nat'l Championship game vs Ohio State and while Jaylon has recovered and after 2 years of rehab playing like the LB he was at ND, I don't think that Miami RB ever was the player he was before the injury. Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette both battled some injuries their Senior years and it was pretty understandable why they declined to play anymore and focus on rehab and getting ready for the combine. Irish 1st Round Draft picks Mike McGlinchey (SF) and Quentin Nelson (Colts) both elected to play in last years bowl game with LSU. So I expect that we'll see who's in and who's out in the next week or so as teams get through finals and start Bowl prep.
Not surprisingly everybody has an opinion on whether the committed got it right. Some like Herbie think it's not right that UGA is not in the final 4. A few think that in spite of being unbeaten the Irish don't belong. Everybody talks about expanding the playoffs, but the committee apparently doesn't think it's necessary. So it's unlikely, no matter how much the public , the media or the teams left out complain we will not be getting an expanded playoff till this current contract runs out. After that who knows. Certainly conferences want their champion in the playoffs and no doubt would like a guaranteed bid for the Conf Champion. So that would mean 5 guaranteed slots and 3 at large. In the old BCS days there was language about rankings and stuff for the major bowl bids that allowed for Notre Dame to have a criteria for a major bowl bid, and it also had criteria for what is now known as the Group of 5 to have a bowl bid. That's how Boise State got that famous Fiesta Bowl bid and how Utah got that Sugar Bowl bid the year they beat Alabama. This year it would be easy to identify 8 teams. 1. Alabama 2. Clemson 3. Notre Dame 4,5,6,7,8 in no particular order. OU, Ohio State, Georgia, Washington, and UCF . If they went to the 5 guaranteed bids, then it's a little tougher. Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, OU, and Washington...then the 3 at large would be Notre Dame, Georgia and who do you take between #7 Michigan and #8 UCF? Washington was #9 but gets in due to guaranteed bids to conference champions. I'm guessing UCF gets left out again. Only thing for sure about this is that everybody still expects Alabama to win it all and most feel like that Alabama and Clemson have seperated themselves from the other top 10 teams such that it's those 2 and pick'em for the other 2 spots for the right to get crushed by either Clemson or Alabama.
If Alabama proves to be the best team in the country and wins it all I'm a believer that Georgia is one of the 4 best teams in the land.... but based on criteria and precedence and other data that judgement just couldn't be made... hence Georgia is 5th and OU is 4th.
Right now.having 2 losses keeps you out. If we go to automatic bids for the 8 team playoff we will probably end up with 3 loss teams. Are we ready for that?
In Georgia's case they lost in a very hostile environment to a top 5 ranked team... and played the top ranked team to the very end in a great game. Justifying two losses is one thing.... just can't see three loss teams getting in there. The drawback to the NCAA basketball tourney is that 10 or 11 loss teams can get hot at the end and make a run and win it all. Everyone acts as if they are the top team....the very best.... undisputed champions etc. But I always feel that they made a great run through their bracket only and certainly there were probably better teams out there who would have beaten them soundly if they would have had to play them. Don't want CFB going down that path.
Here's the thing about Herbie and why he can STFU. You can't market a college football season in which 'every week is elimination week' and bill every game played as 'every game matters' and then cry when you wind up playing a tough game vs #1 that you choked away, BECAUSE YOU GOT THE **** KICKED RIGHT OUT OF YOU BY LSU. This isn't about 1 game, which is what Herbie is nefariously trying to do, it's about 2. LSU lost them both. Those aren't the breaks, those are the facts.
Bingo on the LSU loss for Georgia.... While they could indeed be the 4th best team in the country that Alabama does not want to meet in the playoffs it's that LSU loss that keeps the Dawgs outside looking in and rightfully so.
Corey, MCG, I agree in general with what you are saying, BUT, Georgia lost to #1 and #11 and beat #10 (CFP latest standings). That should at least be considered. Oklahoma lost to #15. Now Michigan has a very similar claim as Georgia in that its two losses were to highly ranked teams. Oklahoma didn't play a team in the top 15. Ohio State of course lost badly to an unranked Purdue. I think the 2 losses disqualifies Georgia but you have to at least include them in the discussion because of the quality of those losses. 8)
I see that Kelly Bryant has decided to transfer to Missouri. Drew Locke will be out of eligibility and moving on to the NFL so the job is open.