College Football Week 9 (Sports) Open Thread

Last week, Farley and I attended the Oregon at Purdue game on Friday night and the Michigan at Illinois game on Saturday. A couple of thoughts:

1. Purdue is simply a horrible football team
2. Purdue also does not put on much of a show. Some of this is of course because they are bad. But also, they have clearly struggled to generate anything in the way of traditions. This came through quite clear at the start of the 4th quarter, when they played Otis Day and the Knights performing “Shout,” from Animal House. Now, the thing is here is that Oregon does this too. Rob and I were outraged by this bullshit. The Purdue fans claimed they did it first, and maybe they did, but they do it bad so who cares. At Oregon, they have a video where players from the past, including Dan Fouts, Joey Harrington, LaMichael James, Marcus Mariota, and many others are wearing togas and interspersed with the movie footage and the fans go crazy and it’s a real thing. At Purdue, no one sings or does anything. Yawn.
3. Illinois puts on a hell of a show. Now, we got lucky. It was the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the stadium, which was also the game where Red Grange ran his famous 77 yard TD run against Michigan. But even so, they do a good job. With every first down, the stadium announcer loudly states “ILL!!!” and the fams reply “INI!!!!” That works well. The stadium is old but alright (unlike Purdue which is old and crappy and they still have troughs in the men’s bathroom) and they have a fun atmosphere.
4. Michigan meanwhile has just an atrocious offense. Yeeesh. Still I will always be grateful that they denying Washington a title last year.
5. For years, the college football world has talked about how tough the Big 10 is and how these west coast teams can’t compete. I was always suspicious of this and that’s because Ohio State just ran past these supposedly tough Wisconsin and Iowa and Michigan State teams every year. That’s because they have better athletes. You know who else also has better athletes? Oregon. And I really think this “tough” is an euphemism for boring. I think these teams just play boring ball with uncreative offenses and they do so as ideology as much as for victory. Because I gotta say, Illinois and Michigan were both ranked teams but that was not a fun product on the field to watch.

Top 10 games of this week, using the Athletic’s 1-134 ranking and in order of the time they begin.

1. #26 Syracuse at #19 Pitt, Thursday. I wrote this after Pitt absolutely hammered the Orange. Pitt is actually a good team it seems. Syracuse? Meh.
2. #16 Boise State at #27 UNLV, Friday, 10:30, CBSSN. This is a big game. UNLV has to have this to have a shot at the Mountain West title and maybe even that last playoff spot. Boise probably doesn’t get the last playoff spot if they lose it. A lot on the line in the Mountain West! (Sat update: Nice win for Boise)
3. #14 Notre Dame vs. #24 Navy, 12, ABC. This should be fun. Navy is actually good! Notre Dame has put their season back together after losing to Northern Illinois, but losing to Navy is actually possible here. I doubt it? But Navy is going to bring their A game.
4. #37 Nebraska at #5 Ohio State, 12, FOX. For the 20th straight year or so, Nebraska showed they were a total fraud last week, getting absolutely obliterated by Indiana. There’s zero reason to think Ohio State isn’t going to do the same thing to them.
5. #20 Missouri at #15 Alabama, 3:30, ABC. Why is Alabama favored by 17.5 here? They haven’t played a decent half of football since the first half of the Georgia game. Since then, they barely stopped a miracle comeback, lost to Vanderbilt, should have to South Carolina, and lost to Tennessee. I get that Missouri hasn’t proven much. But this is like free money here with that line.
6. #21 Illinois at #1 Oregon, 3:30, CBS. Illinois has had a nice year for them. They are a pretty good team. Having seem them several times though, now in person and live, they absolutely do not have the athletes to keep up with Oregon. They have a nice defense, but their offense stinks. Oregon could play a crappy game and lose, yes, but the Ducks are favored by 22.5 and that seems about right to me.
7. #6 Texas at #22 Vanderbilt, 4:15, SEC. How good is Vanderbilt? Honestly. probably not great, despite beating Bama and then Kentucky. How does Texas respond to being pretty well overwhelmed by Georgia at home? So this could be kinda interesting, but I still struggle to see Texas not winning this going away.
8. #9 LSU at #17 Texas A&M, 7:30, ABC. Probably the best game of a good but not great week of college football. Both of these teams really need this win to stay in a good position for the playoffs. I am always skeptical of A&M in a big game. They are favored by 1.
9. #18 SMU at #31 Duke, 8, ACC. This is a battle between two overperforming teams. SMU -11.5 seems a bit high, but then Duke probably really has overperformed more and SMU is probably the better team. I’d expect the Ponies here.
10. #31 Cincinnati at #38 Colorado, 10:15, ESPN. This ought to be an interesting one. The Deion show goes on, but the Buffs are pretty beat up. Still, they’ve performed well this year. The Bearcats are a solid if not great team. Quality Big 12 matchup here. Also, both of these teams are evidently now in the Big 12.