Strange but impressive college football note.

[robinreed]

Apparently you (robinreed) weren't paying attention when I outlined ESPN's semifinal success in the thread about parents/guardian pay for travel. ESPN set records and WSJ article documented the success and ESPN would be charging Super Bowl like rates for Championship. ESPN will use this to build momentum for 6 or 8 team playoff. ESPN knows playoff football sells, it's captivating but it hurts college basketball tv because viewers don't get interested in hoops until football is over. ESPN will lure and the big schools will find a way to say yes because the $'s are huge and ESPN has the thing locked up until 2025.

Don't feel bad BEwannabe. I almost never pay attention to your posts. Don't take it negatively it is not mean as an insult.

[BEwannabe]

Apparently you (robinreed) weren't paying attention when I outlined ESPN's semifinal success in the thread about parents/guardian pay for travel. ESPN set records and WSJ article documented the success and ESPN would be charging Super Bowl like rates for Championship. ESPN will use this to build momentum for 6 or 8 team playoff. ESPN knows playoff football sells, it's captivating but it hurts college basketball tv because viewers don't get interested in hoops until football is over. ESPN will lure and the big schools will find a way to say yes because the $'s are huge and ESPN has the thing locked up until 2025.

Don't feel bad BEwannabe. I almost never pay attention to your posts. Don't take it negatively it is not mean as an insult.

Trust me, I don't feel bad and could not care less if you pay attention to my posts but if you would've paid attention then you wouldn't be 4 days behind the news and completely in the dark about what is unfolding in the live tv sports world.

[robinreed]

Apparently you (robinreed) weren't paying attention when I outlined ESPN's semifinal success in the thread about parents/guardian pay for travel. ESPN set records and WSJ article documented the success and ESPN would be charging Super Bowl like rates for Championship. ESPN will use this to build momentum for 6 or 8 team playoff. ESPN knows playoff football sells, it's captivating but it hurts college basketball tv because viewers don't get interested in hoops until football is over. ESPN will lure and the big schools will find a way to say yes because the $'s are huge and ESPN has the thing locked up until 2025.

Don't feel bad BEwannabe. I almost never pay attention to your posts. Don't take it negatively it is not mean as an insult.

Trust me, I don't feel bad and could not care less if you pay attention to my posts but if you would've paid attention then you wouldn't be 4 days behind the news and completely in the dark about what is unfolding in the live tv sports world.

Thanks for your concern BEwannabe, I appreciate it, please go on with your posting and comments.

[Xudash]

In my world, Xavier basketball comes first and Ohio State football is a very close, lifelong second.

With that noted, and trying to be objective about it, a few observations on the game:

1. First and foremost, winning 42 - 20 (35 - 20, if you care to take the "controversial" final touchdown away) with 4 turnovers is domination.

2. Ohio State was bigger, stronger and faster than the Ducks, and did to them what the Buckeyes did to them in the 2010 Rose Bowl: they wore them down.

3. Oregon had key drops in the game - no doubt about it - but Ohio State was clearly driving during its turnover drives, so I doubt that Oregon was going to get too far in that game anyway.

4. Full confirmation of that: Ohio State's goal line stand when Oregon went for it on 4th down. That miss had to send shock waves through that sideline at that point in the game.

5. The other thing that had to have the Ducks quacking was when Cardale Jones ran over the Oregon nose tackle; a quarterback bulled over a key defensive lineman.

6. Now insert Elliot and all those trap plays.

7. So, two screw-ups by the Buckeyes led to 10 Oregon points in the 3rd quarter. What does Ohio State then do? It marches right down the field over 75 yards and scores a touchdown.

8. It follows that up with another long drive for a touchdown.

9. All along during 7 and 8 the Oregon defense is getting the life beat out of it.

The Joey Bosa tackle? I think it was close, but, you can't come to that conclusion by looking at the slow motion replay. Most of what I've read about it since declared it a clean play. And, lest we forget, the official was on top of the play and did not throw a flag on it.

The final touchdown? I'm not sure I cared for that, but Oregon fans are the last people who should be complaining about that, given some of the scores Oregon posted this season. Besides, they did call one timeout at the beginning of that sequence, albeit before the Buckeyes made them jump off sides. Mariota completed a one play touchdown drive in the 3rd quarter that took seconds. Still, unless the objective was to position EE for a Heisman next year, very much at Oregon's expense, a knee sequence would have been better.

As for the broadcasting side of it, I got the impression that the ESPN collegiate staff up and down the line did everything they could to make this have a Super Bowl feel to it. It was a little overdone, to be polite, but they pulled it off for the most part.

The good news about all this, IMHO, is that they were always solving for football and will continue to solve for football. They nailed it with this 4-team deal. We'll now talk for whatever length of time about 8 versus 4, but this format has completely trumped the BCS non-sense. Alabama v. FSU would have been a travesty this year were the old modeling system used to determine a single game championship. But the point remains: the P5 fat cats are happy, which to me means that basketball will remain the wonderful icing that it is to them while they enjoy their expanded football cake.

[stever20]

In my world, Xavier basketball comes first and Ohio State football is a very close, lifelong second.

With that noted, and trying to be objective about it, a few observations on the game:

1. First and foremost, winning 42 - 20 (35 - 20, if you care to take the "controversial" final touchdown away) with 4 turnovers is domination.

2. Ohio State was bigger, stronger and faster than the Ducks, and did to them what the Buckeyes did to them in the 2010 Rose Bowl: they wore them down.

3. Oregon had key drops in the game - no doubt about it - but Ohio State was clearly driving during its turnover drives, so I doubt that Oregon was going to get too far in that game anyway.

4. Full confirmation of that: Ohio State's goal line stand when Oregon went for it on 4th down. That miss had to send shock waves through that sideline at that point in the game.

5. The other thing that had to have the Ducks quacking was when Cardale Jones ran over the Oregon nose tackle; a quarterback bulled over a key defensive lineman.

6. Now insert Elliot and all those trap plays.

7. So, two screw-ups by the Buckeyes led to 10 Oregon points in the 3rd quarter. What does Ohio State then do? It marches right down the field over 75 yards and scores a touchdown.

8. It follows that up with another long drive for a touchdown.

9. All along during 7 and 8 the Oregon defense is getting the life beat out of it.

The Joey Bosa tackle? I think it was close, but, you can't come to that conclusion by looking at the slow motion replay. Most of what I've read about it since declared it a clean play. And, lest we forget, the official was on top of the play and did not throw a flag on it.

The final touchdown? I'm not sure I cared for that, but Oregon fans are the last people who should be complaining about that, given some of the scores Oregon posted this season. Besides, they did call one timeout at the beginning of that sequence, albeit before the Buckeyes made them jump off sides. Mariota completed a one play touchdown drive in the 3rd quarter that took seconds. Still, unless the objective was to position EE for a Heisman next year, very much at Oregon's expense, a knee sequence would have been better.

As for the broadcasting side of it, I got the impression that the ESPN collegiate staff up and down the line did everything they could to make this have a Super Bowl feel to it. It was a little overdone, to be polite, but they pulled it off for the most part.

The good news about all this, IMHO, is that they were always solving for football and will continue to solve for football. They nailed it with this 4-team deal. We'll now talk for whatever length of time about 8 versus 4, but this format has completely trumped the BCS non-sense. Alabama v. FSU would have been a travesty this year were the old modeling system used to determine a single game championship. But the point remains: the P5 fat cats are happy, which to me means that basketball will remain the wonderful icing that it is to them while they enjoy their expanded football cake.

Yeah- if it had been pretty much anyone but Oregon, I think a lot of folks would have said something about that last TD.

I would say for ESPN- this was/is their Super Bowl. Remember- ESPN has no NBA finals, no MLB playoffs except for a wild card game, 1 NFL Wild Card game, and no NCAA tournament in basketball.

[Boyee]

One thing I thought of during the CFP Championship Game was how weak both teams nicknames are. A Buckeye is a nut from a Buckeye tree a duck is an animal that cannot defend itself against predators.