My suspicions on this game didn't start with actually thinking Clemson was going to win, much less blow out Alabama...
There's a rather infamous "fan" on rec.sport.football.college named "mia", or Michael Anderson.
Now there's a lot of thought that he's a bandwagoner for Alabama, but he has talked a rather inordinate amount of shit about Alabama the last several seasons.
He's also infamous for posting bets he makes to FiveDimes, a foreign (I think) online sportsbook. He loses most of them, often embarrassingly.
So imagine my shock this morning when I see his play for tonight's game...
Picking Clemson to win at +200...
At this point, I spend most of my day (not at the front of my mind, mind you, but I do think about it as part of catharsis) thinking whether this guy is either trolling the group or money-laundering for somebody.
This is a game which, had Alabama won (or wanted to win!), they would probably have this year's team (who was odds-on at most Vegas casinos to win the national title a month before the season even started! -- 7/10 at the Tropicana during my August Vegas trip!) declared Greatest of All-Time.
Between that and what happened during this game:
- Two embarrassingly bad first-half interceptions by Tua, the first returned directly for six and the second returned 40 yards and led to another six.
- A complete lack of discipline on the field
- A complete lack of playcalling and awareness of game situations -- the culmination being a fake field goal that there were literally seven year-olds watching the game knowing was coming (and was stuffed!).
- A complete lack of any urgency on either side of the ball, especially as the game snowballed.
Etc.
And to top it off... The only reason Clemson didn't score on a game-ending 99-yard drive was that there were 10 minutes to go and not 12.
Everybody's going to say Clemson was That Damn Good... And they played quite well.
But if you watch the game, you realize they had a lot of help -- and NOT from the referees.
The Alabama Crimson Tide (and for the second time in the CFP title game against Clemson) took a goddamn dive on the field.
Why? I can come up with one theory right now...
Anyone who's been following ESPN for any length of recent time knows they have been hemorrhaging money for quite some time, largely due to decreasing subscriber bases and their prices being too high.
So have we gotten to the point where ESPN, with the Superteam Model in full effect in college football (this has been three of the last four title games, with the two teams meeting in the semifinal last year), had to order Alabama to lose so that the sport itself might not regionalize and no longer justify the money ESPN is putting into it, given current economic reality?
It's the only explanation I can give for this performance. And it does need an investigation...
I agree. I would add as evidence the last Alabama drive before halftime. 40 seconds left with three timeouts and Saban literaly quit and walked off the field. The poor playcalling was evident the many times Alabama was inside the red zone and no pass plays in the end zone.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your reasoning. The matchups are set to move the meter.
In the 2015 ACC Title game, N.C. State was mounting a fourth quarter comeback against an obviously gassed Clemson defenseThet had scored t easy TDs and N.C. fielded the onside kick for a chance to go ahead. The refs called N.C. Stare offside. The replay showed no N.C. player was within 5 yards of the line. The Coach wanted to know the number of the player and did not give one. The ref said later there was too many to tell.
The NCAA had its touted story line of former Alabaman Dabo vs. Saban in their first championship.
It this is incident that confirmed to me that these events are like wrrstling matches. They are "works" as they say in the biz. There are no fans only "marks".
Next year, the Dabo vs. Saban grudge match with loser having to leave the NCAA forever. And forever is a long long time.
The fake field-goal, the complete lack of urgency on offense. You gave a great example yourself, because they got the ball to start the second half. Yeah, they were down 15 -- but any score and then a TD to start the second half, and the game is either close or tied.
ReplyDeleteI'll give you another example. Try to find the 2-point conversion in overtime for Maryland to beat Ohio State this year.
Not only is the guy wide open to win the game for Maryland, he intentionally drops the ball.