Transcript
Speaker: This is the Fuel Sports Network.
Speaker: The rumors are true.
Speaker: This is Talking Sports on the Bleachers with John Glenn. A confident young man, a superb athlete. A look at the sports issues of the day. Holy cow. Grab a seat, pop a cold one. Gee, that sounds kind of interesting. And let's talk some sports. You got to get it done.
Speaker: boholes with the widespread stance arms out over the plate. Bickford from the stretch. The 1 -1 pitch. A swing Dodger Stadium on September 23rd, 2022.
Speaker: three b mbas
Speaker: The Panthers have no timeouts, they can't stop it.
Speaker: What the hell's going on out here?
Speaker: Are you crying? There's no crying! There's no crying in baseball!
Speaker: playoffs don't talk about playoffs you kidding me playoffs
Speaker: Hey, Dad?
Speaker: I wanna thank Kevin for stopping by. me We're gonna take a quick break and be right back. Are you feeling thirsty? In that case, you may already be dehydrated. Just because it's winter doesn't mean you can't get dehydrated. ah People here hear all the time, the warmer months to remember to stay hydrated. Don't ignore the winter months. Americans drink 50 % of the water we should be drinking as recommended by doctors and other health professionals. So when you get dehydrated, it can happen anytime. Your body's chemical balance is thrown off.
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Speaker: Well, we are back and we went a little long with Kevin Wheeler. So it's going to be a little bit a longer program. I'm going to try and not be so long, but, uh, uh, I still want to get some NCAA stuff in. Uh, okay. So final rankings came out on December 8th and they, uh, looked like this. Uh, Oregon was one Georgia, two Texas, three Penn state for Notre Dame five, Ohio state was six.
Speaker: Tennessee was 7, Indiana 8, Boise State 9, SMU 10, Alabama was 11, and Arizona State was 12. After all the conference championships were factored in, here is your field of 12 for the playoffs. Oregon, Georgia, Boise State, and Arizona all get the first round buys, as being the winners of their respective conferences.
Speaker: Moving down to five is Texas, Penn State moves to six, Notre Dame goes to seven, Ohio State drops to eight, Tennessee drops to nine, Indiana drops to 10. Now, SMU falls all the way to 11, which you would think put Alabama in at 12, but hold on, Clemson won the ACC Championship, and since they were ranked outside of the top 12, they come in at number 12, knocking Alabama out of the playoffs.
Speaker: So the first round games and Notre Dame is hosting Indiana on December 20th, the winner that plays Georgia in the circle bowl. and Now on the 21st you have Texas versus Clemson. The winner that faces Arizona state in the peach bowl, Penn state, uh, and SMU face off and the winner goes to face Boise state in the Fiesta bowl and Ohio state and Tennessee square off. The winner gets Oregon in the Rose bowl.
Speaker: For my Illinois fans, they get South Carolina in the Citrus Bowl. It was thought to have been Alabama, but they ended up going to the ReliaQuest Bowl to face Michigan. Interesting notes, you know I've been so much social media looking at the the comments on social media, I should say.
Speaker: ah saying that Alabama was a job by not getting a bid to the football playoffs. Well, in my opinion, the committee did the right thing. Alabama was 9 -3 with three top 25 wins and one loss. That's a decent resume. but ah But the other two losses came against Vanderbilt who put up 40 points on Bama and an under -ranked Oklahoma who only allowed the Crimson tight a single field goal.
Speaker: Uh, the tides non -conference schedule was really cupcake city. When you think about it, Western Kentucky, South Florida, and Mercer. Now they did play a big 10 opponent, Wisconsin, but this is not the badger team that you would think, uh, that you normally see. I mean, it's, it was a week, week badger, a Wisconsin badger team. They played four top 25 opponents and one that became a top 25 later in the season. So to me, the resume.
Speaker: didn't quite meet requirements for play. I mean, nine and three or fourth in the conference. Yes, I know, Indiana was fourth in the big 10, but they were 11 and one. The big difference between 11 and one and nine and three, okay? ah Just that's the way it looks. Another quick note is that by all the chess beating and by big 10 fans and SEC fans saying who are the best, um we're gonna get to see here because in the bowl games, um there's a number of Big Ten matchups, if you will, and even in the playoffs, we've got a ah potential for all of those. um Of course, Ohio State and Tennessee, Illinois, South Carolina, Alabama, Michigan. But Missouri will also face Iowa. ah USC takes on Texas A and &M. And when you talk about the playoffs, ah Indiana versus Georgia, and then you could have ah Tennessee versus Oregon.
Speaker: um And also, there's a lot of options for the Big 10 and SEC to square off ah in this postseason. And we'll just see who does come out on top. ah Very quickly in the NFL, a little quirky connection between the NCAA and the NFL, former NFL coach Bill Belichick will be the next coach at the University of North Carolina.
Speaker: Uh, that's just been, it was just announced a couple about a day or two ago. So, um, we'll have to see how that one, how that works out. Uh, I think it's definitely going to bring a little bit of, uh, notoriety to the North Carolina program. So, you know, might see an improvement over there, but not right away. It may take a couple of years.
Speaker: ah Now in the NFL, we're starting to see some clear definition and separation in many different divisions. In the AFC, Buffalo, Kansas City have pretty much cleansed their division titles. The NFC, Philadelphia, and Detroit have cleansed the playoffs spot, but not their division titles yet. And the while the Jets, Patriots, Browns, Jacksonville, Tennessee, and Vegas have all been eliminated from the AFC playoffs, only the Giants have been eliminated from the NFC playoffs.
Speaker: But there are a lot of teams in the NFC that are on the verge of elimination. I mean, listens let's not kid ourselves on that one. um If the playoffs are held today, the picture is this. The Chiefs get the first round by an AFC at 12 and 1. Bills and Steelers are 10 and 2, so they would get home games. And then you have four, eight, and five teams. Houston, Denver, LA, Chargers, and Baltimore.
Speaker: Houston would get the home game in the first round. Colts, Dolphins, and Bengals are still in the picture, but you know um we'll see how that plays out. um Over the NFC, it's not as cut and dried, I should say. It's more of a wide open picture. ah the Detroit has the best record at 12 and 1, so they would get the first round by. Philly is right behind them at 11 and 2, and they would host an eight and five commanders team. But now here's where it gets a little strange in the NFC.
Speaker: Green Bay who's nine and four has to travel if the playoffs were today would have to travel to eight and five Seattle because Green Bay would be a wildcard while Seattle would be a division winner. And then you have 11 and two Minnesota who would have to travel to a seven and six Tampa Bay.
Speaker: ah team that won their division. It's a little bit screwy over the NFC. And, you know, as I said, you've got a bunch of teams that are still considered in competition for the playoffs. But realistically, Carolina, Chicago, Dallas and New Orleans are pretty much on life support. I mean, um they're just their their chances of making it are going to stem or have to stem from a lot of things going right and them not to lose a game. um Now the Rams, Cardinals, Falcons and 49ers still have viable routes to the playoffs. I mean Atlanta only sits one game behind Tampa Bay and the Rams only are one game behind Seattle.
Speaker: And, of course, both are only one game behind the commanders for that last wildcard spot as well. Now, Atlanta and Frisco still have a shot, but I kind of like what's with Chicago and with the, excuse me, with the AFC. A lot of things are going to have to go right for them to get there, but they still have a fairly legitimate shot. I mean, things can happen.
Speaker: um Got a couple interesting games coming up this week in in NFL. Green Bay, as I said, it's kind of a preview of what could happen because Green Bay does travel to Seattle this Sunday. ah The Buccaneers who can't afford to lose, they're going to face off with the Chargers who need to win. So we're going to have to see how that, it's the immovable object and irresistible force situation.
Speaker: A pair of division leaders in Buffalo and Detroit square off on Sunday and this is an importance to Minnesota because they take on Chicago on Monday. So it's very possible Detroit could lose to Buffalo.
Speaker: Minnesota, they should be able to beat a a Bears team, which has been quite, oh, well what's the best word, hapless, if it's to be the best word. So that could put Detroit and Minnesota in a virtual tie, and guess who plays each other at the end of the season? Detroit and Minnesota. Now, Detroit does own a win already, but if Minnesota would win, then they would go into a set of tiebreakers, and I'm not sure how that would all play out.
Speaker: Um, so that division is still kind of up for grabs. So we'll have to see it as the weeks go on. And um well we'll like I said, I'll keep up on these ah NFL playoffs coming and goings and stuff. And kind of sorry, I'm making that look, that part of the show a little short, but like I said, we did go kind of along with Kevin, Kevin Wheeler, and I really do appreciate his. He had great cement, some great insights, and we'll definitely be talking to him again.
Speaker: So I want to remind you to check out articles and other podcasts on thefuelsportsnetwork .com. You can find the team of rivals podcast talking Cubs and Cardinals baseball with Ron Nuttle, Pete Geddes and Elliott Dewey. You can get more Cardinal coverage with the two for three with a Mighty Moose Michaels. There's also City Soccer coverage with Ron Nuttle. The program is at the park.
Speaker: You can find Arlington Lane's A train covering football and some other stuff. Then there's the NCAA report where Rush Robinson and I talk about college sports and of course the Derek King show with the one and only Derek King. So until next time, have fun, stay safe and we will see you again when we are talking sports on the bleachers. Good night everybody.
