Jon Joseph

A good look at the PO 1st round games from Connor O'Gara - Saturday Down SouthEarly Round 1 Playoff thoughts on a wide open fieldThe Round 1 matchups for the College Football Playoff are in place, so here's what's worth watching for in each game.

😴 If a tree falls in South Bent ...?

Strike while the Dome is hot! Cancel ND without delay. Many pac-12 teams have open dates. No reason to inflate the postseason MIA (😁) Domers schedule. To Wit: In the fall of 2026, the Gurus of Grapevine No. 1 Hosers will battle No(t) Texas - The Somewhat Ticked Off Green, Howard's (Endangered) Bisons, and some Western Kentucky guys who, like Uncle Bill, have a still on the top of a hill.

Great comment, JS. They're afraid of playing Ohio State OOC instead of Ohio Wesleyan. And why not? The nation's No. 1 team played donut holes OOC. A 24-team PO will include two G6 teams. Including Tulane and JMU in the 12-team field is because of a screwed up ACC, lawyers, and politicians. Notre Dame, Texas, Vanderbilt, and yes, USC, would have a chance to win it all? Tulane and JMU?

5-7 Rutgers said, 'Good Knight' to a bowl invitation. Practice? Practice! For the P4, I think a 13th stand-alone champ game and lower-level bowl games are dying on the vine. FCS - 24 team PO. If the NCAA and not ESPN managed the FBS postseason, we'd already have a 24-team PO. Stop dumping on Tony Petitti and go to 24 with AQs and plenty of at-large spots that would keep Notre Dame and Miami out of the cardiac ward and make everything groovy in South Beach and South Bend.

Thank you, Charles. It's chaotic and frustrating but pay-for-play and transfer-whenever-for-whatever-or-no-reason seem to have leveled the playing field. Piling on and pointing out other preseason and early-season errors. We got Knowles, you got ... Patricia? 😜 Dabo, doing it his way, leads Clemson to another championship! 😧 The Real Death Valley winners were not Kelly's Heroes, even though Brian used a million dollars of Pat Mc ... er, his dollars to build a roster that would sweep the South and not buy a $54 million broom to sweep him out of office. 🤬 The Guv of Louisiana wants you to know that he is focused on matters far more important than college football. 🤪 He simply can't remember what they are. 🤔 All of you Butkus Award winners whose spouses are Blackhawk pilots, please step forward. USA! USA! USA! 👍👌❤️ FSU beats Bama! What a Seminole win! We're bac... We were invited to a bowl, notwithstanding our 5-7 record, but we obviously don't need the extra practices. 🙃 Texas is bac ... er, Cheesing It vs. Michigan. What's that? On September 12, 2026, Ohio Wesleyan will be replacing Ohio State? (Same season ticket price!) 😉 Yes, Virginia, there is a Duke. Not to be confused with the Dukes making their way West to Autzen. (And it don't cost OBD nothin' to play a Sun Belt team! 🤑) We defeated USC! We don't understand the reason we're not in. We had the nation's best losses. We're taking our ball and staying in South Bent! 😇 Oregon played a crummy schedule. Six Big Ten teams are not bowl eligible. Your conference sucks! The Ducks are wayyyy overrated! What's that? Six ACC, B12, and say-it-ain't so, Pawalll, SEC teams aren't bowl eligible. Nothing to see here, move right along. ☹️ 14 new starters? The Ducks are foie gras. 🤔 We watched BYU blow lunch in Dallas. By the time the next game kicked off, it was 5 PM in Bristol, so between cocktails and hors d'oeuvre's we only have a foggy recollection of the game in Atlanta. What's that, Bama got the Dawg beat out of it? Waiter! More martinis with olives and make it snappy! 😴 Only five teams in and only three out of four hosting first round games! Greg Sankey demands that those enhanced new metrics be even more enhanced! 🤮 The U is in. ND is out, and we play JMU and not TOSU. Out OBD's way, this looks like another perfect day. 😍

Congrats, Brother Gat. You are now banned in Bristol and Birmingham! 🤬 According to posters in the post office, you are toast in Tuscaloosa. 😍

The AP looks at how a loss in August tarnished the Domers. Hey, AP, this just in! In the NFL, a loss in September does not go away because it was a 'good loss,' the team that lost improves during the season, and come October, according to a committee of unaccountable experts, the team looks so good when winning. To Hades with the record, this team deserves to be in the PO! (Like Alabama and South Carolina last season, right?) AP NewsWhy did Notre Dame's August loss cost the Irish a playoff...The College Football Playoff selection committee's decision in 2025 has sparked controversy. Notre Dame was dropped from the playoff despite not playing last week.

I think SC will be more than happy to help ND with its schedule. 😁

Terrific post. Thanks. Oklahoma won at Alabama. A rematch in a different venue with both O's being beaten down over time. ACC and B12 have one team in the PO. Vandy, Texas, and Notre Dame are left out. Alabama's bad showing against Georgia doesn't count. So why does BYU's bad performance count? A crescendo of complaints that can be dampened by backing the Big Ten's AQ PO plan. No matter the metrics used or abused, there are not enough games between teams with equal rosters to make a CFB PO anything other than a guessing game. The Notre Dame/Miami controversy is only a controversy because of five nothing-burger committee rankings before the PO field, and the seeding of the field was finalized. During GameDay on Saturday, Herbie said these interim rankings need to end. Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, and Desmond Howard, via body language, agreed. Rece Davis, who made his bones as a host, did not react. Five SEC teams are in the field, and SEC coaches are whining about playing nine conference games. Oregon is the only team outside of the SEC hosting a 1st round game. Three of the four 1st round games played in SEC stadiums are not enough. "In a conference so great from top to bottom, why should we play more than eight?" Fine, play seven and have an SEC intramural playoff. The 18-team Big Ten and 16-team B12 played nine conference games this season, and each has six teams that are not bowl eligible. (5-7 Rutgers, along with Notre Dame, turned down bowl invites.) The 17-team ACC and the 16-team SEC played eight conference games this season, and each has six teams that are not bowl eligible. If the SEC gauntlet is so brutal, why are there so many one and two-loss teams? Why aren't there more teams in Dixie missing out on bowl games? Why did so many SEC coaches get canned? In 2025, Florida's schedule was brutal. A&M's schedule was not. Mega-conference SOS will vary significantly year to year. But I cannot foresee a season where a 4th-place B1G or SEC team would be an embarrassment to a 16-team PO field. If you use preseason polls, human or otherwise, that have over half of the conference ranked in the top 25, you are ipso facto going to have the most difficult SOS and SOR rankings. DUH! I want the ACC and the B12 to survive. I don't want to see a G8. I don't want to see millions of ACC/B12 fans 'disenfranchised.' So, wake up, commissioners, and back the Big Ten PO format, tweaked as needed and agreed upon over the next six weeks. Do not allow the foolish pride of, 'You have to earn the right to be in the PO!', to lead to millions of dollars in lost revenue. Put this ESPN subjective nonsense to bed. I posted what a 16-team playoff field would be after the committee's fifth rankings tease, there would still be complaints, but nothing as we see with this current format and selection process. Fans in South Beach and in South Bend would be happy. Let's do what Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy did: Destroy the Dukes!

I love that OBD is the PO 5th seed and is -21.5 vs. JMU. What a reversal, thank goodness, from last season's PO opener. Defeat JMU on the 20th, and it's a terrific break to play Texas Tech in the Orange and not the Cotton Bowl. Notre Dame, hoist on its independent petard. Too bad, so sad. In the ACC as a football member or in the B1G, and ND is likely in the PO. Bama? No way was the committee going to penalize a Bama team with the nation's top SOS for losing a conference championship game, especially with so many starters not able to play yesterday. If Bama is healthy, I think the Tide has a chance to roll over an over-ranked OK team that it significantly outgained in the regular season loss. Keep Those Machines Turned Off! Beat the Dukes! 😁

THIS: Canes WarningScott VanPelt states Miami win over ND is THE data pointOn his eponymous SVPod, Scott VanPelt stated Miami's win over Notre Dame is not just a data point, its THE data point.

I love this! Bring on Tony P's PO format ASAP. Notre Dame had 'better losses?' I watched 10-2 Miami defeat 10-2 Notre Dame. Miami's best win is the defeat of No. 10 ND. ND is 1-2 vs the top 25, was battered in South Bend by an A&M team that was propped up by a crummy in-conference schedule. ND's best win was a 10-point home win over No. 16 USC in a typhoon. When two teams are as close as these two, using anything other than head-to-head results is simply speculation. I watched both teams destroy Pitt. Both looked capable of defeating one another. The format sucks. Both teams have Blue Chip Rosters and playing to their potential, both could win a Natty. Tulane and JMU will not win a title this year or in any other year.

Spot on! And my bad for overlooking the 5 conference champs are in rule. Massey Ranking SOS - Duke 62/ JMU 100 Hmmmm?

Good Call! But I see the committee seeding Miami at 11 and giving No. 6 Ole Miss all it can handle in Oxford. We'll see(d). 🙃