Spending Saturday watching college football was both fun and educational.
Some early observations about the College Football Playoff and one early prediction: My pastor, Chuck "The Pigskin Preacher," won't be wearing his blue and maize tie to church this morning.
Michigan found a way to lose to Michigan State.
Yet, it won't interfere with his home run lesson. Never does.
Let's just get it over with. The much disliked Alabama Crimson Tide belong in the Final Four even if they lose in the SEC Championship Game to Georgia.
Why is simple. The Tide are better than Oklahoma, Ohio State and just about anyone other than Georgia. Losing to the No. 1-ranked team in America should not eliminate you from the playoffs.
Cincinnati, and this is hard to say because the underdog is much loved, didn't look like it belonged based on how it played against 1-7 Tulane. The game wasn't settled until late in the fourth quarter.
No one is more sick of gathering up the usual suspects and having a college playoff than yours truly. Since it doesn't appear much new blood, if any, is going to get in the playoffs, then definitely expand it.
Which is going to happen, but not without some gnashing of teeth and tearing of clothes.
A power struggle has broken out.
When it was first announced officials were considering going to 12 teams, there was joy throughout football land.
The proposal was there would be four play-in games played on campuses. Now the bowl folks have said "Hold on, those games need to be played in bowl games that already exist."
The immediate response to that was, "OK. We'll change it to an eight-team playoff."
Meanwhile, Ohio State has wormed its way back into the conversation for this season's playoffs, despite losing to Oregon at home 35-28.
Granted, the Ducks later lost to an average Stanford team in overtime 31-24. But there was a legitimate reason Oregon wasn't as good that day.
Offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead made the trip but not the game, He had to be taken to the hospital for immediate surgery.
Not making a claim Oregon belongs in the playoffs. But if they don't, neither do the Buckeyes.
Got serious doubts about Oklahoma, too. But that might take care of itself when the Sooners face the Cowboys of Oklahoma State.
The Sooners are 9-0, but they had to score 25 in the fourth quarter to beat Texas and that was because Spencer Rattler, once a Heisman Trophy favorite, was benched for Caleb Williams.
Last week, they went all out to get by Kansas, probably the worst Power 5 team in the country.
On a sidebar, it was announced last week that Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss were joining the Sun Belt Conference. Also fitting into the conference's footprint better than the Conference USA is Louisiana Tech, Texas-San Antonio, Rice, UTEP and North Texas.
No one could have imagined how much the college landscape would change when Texas and Oklahoma announced they were switching from the Big 12 to the SEC, but it has been dynamic and isn't over.
To wrap up this day and prepare to switch back and forth between the Houston Astros at the Atlanta Braves and Ole Miss at Auburn, Georgia moved one step forward to a perfect regular season with its win over Florida at the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.
Statistically it was close, but not on the scoreboard. The Bulldogs last four games are host Missouri, at Tennessee, host Charleston Southern and close at home against Georgia Tech.