Skull Session: Another Five-Star Could Be Coming to Ohio State, Michigan's Signing Day Was Not Smooth, and the BCS System Might Have Been Better

By Kevin Harrish on December 17, 2020 at 5:59 am
Mark Pantoni is working the phone in today's skull session.
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Let's check in on Columbus...

I can only assume this is my estranged father on his way back to the bottoms. If you find him, please return him. His feline children need him.

Word of the Day: Palisade.

 THE NEXT FIVE-STAR? The Buckeyes already signed five five-star #teens yesterday (which is more than double the rest of the Big Ten combined, by the way). But there's always room for one more!

I just want to make it crystal clear that if J.T. Tuimoloau signs with Ohio State, I will be firmly committed to both spelling and pronouncing his name correctly every single time. It won't be easy, but I know in my heart I can do it.

As for Ohio State's chances of landing him, it's tough to say because he really doesn't talk to anyone to give anybody information. Like, that video was the first time in my life I'd ever heard him speak.

But don't worry, y'all. Emeka Egbuka is on the case.

If he does take his talents to Columbus, I'm not sure there are words to explain how terrifying that pass rush is going to be with him and Jack Sawyer on opposite sides of a quarterback.

 MEANWHILE, UP NORTH. I want you guys to imagine for a second that Ohio State football has fallen so far that Mark Pantoni is on Twitter arguing with fans on National Signing Day.

Because that's basically what's happening at Michigan right now.

The funniest part is, three hours after that Tweet from Michigan's director of recruiting (who is a grown adult with the Twitter handle @Thee_Matty_D?) basically implying Michigan had an ace up its sleeves at the defensive tackle position, the No. 1 defensive tackle in the class cut Michigan out of his top schools.

And this comes after two of Michigan's better commits – Branden Jennings and Quintin Somerville – decided that Maryland and UCLA were better long-term options. Woof.

But hey, at least you got Donovan Edwards! Can't wait to see him run power behind a fullback for a two-yard gain 28 times a game.

 THE BCS WAS BETTER. The American Athletic Conference commissioner has just joined the rest of the world in realizing that the College Football Playoff committee is more full of shit than the penguin exhibit at the zoo.

Welcome to the club!

American Athletic Conference commissioner Michael Aresco strongly criticized the College Football Playoff selection committee for dropping undefeated Cincinnati another spot in its rankings -- behind three two-loss teams.

During an interview Wednesday on SEC Network's The Paul Finebaum Show, Aresco said the CFP selection committee needs to do some "soul searching" and is "undermining its credibility with rankings that defy logic and common sense and fairness."

"I never thought I'd say it, but if this continues, bring back the BCS and the computers because it would be a fairer system than what I'm seeing now," Aresco said. "This is the seventh year [of the CFP], and it does appear the deck is stacked against us and against other [Group of 5 teams]."

...

"If it continues to be the way it is, then you really don't have a path," Aresco said. "It looked like, at one point, Cincinnati might have had a path. We're not satisfied anymore with just playing on New Year's Day when we have teams this good."

I like that he brings up the BCS because the truth is, we as college football fans were hoodwinked and bamboozled from the start.

ESPN sold us a four-team playoff and included a selection method that everyone should have known was bullshit from the start as a surreptitious free-rider in order to make sure they always got the big-name and big-money schools in the field.

We replaced a system that ranked teams by evenly weighing the coaches poll, a poll of 150 highly-qualified people's opinions, and an average of 10 objective computers with a committee of 12 people just subjectively picking teams based on the eye test.

And we did it gladly, because all we saw was "four-team playoff!" and that sounded awesome, so we didn't even consider the methodology.

We messed up

And if you think I'm remembering the BCS ranking system just a little too fondly, go ahead and compare for yourself. 

There's no perfect way to rank teams, especially this year, but the BCS was better.

Regardless, all of this drama can be fixed with an eight-team playoff. Give an auto-bid to the winner of each Power Five conference and have three at-large spots with one required to go to a Group of Five team. This isn't hard.

 SNUB! The good news is, Haskell Garrett seems to be taking the news of his All-Big Ten snub better than I am.

Because I have actually watched football this year, I am aware that Garrett has been one of the top defensive tackles in the entire country. But he's somehow third-team all-conference on the coaches team and didn't even crack the media team? Miss me with that.

The whole list proved to me that nobody voting watched a damn game this year, especially the media's list. I mean no disrespect to Zach Harrison, but there's just no way in hell he should be getting a second-team nod ahead of Jonathon Cooper and Haskell Garrett.

And if we're being real, Shaun Wade had no business winning the Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year Award when there are two other cornerbacks tied for the national lead with *five* interceptions on the season.

It's the clearest indication that they're voting purely on name recognition, which is complete trash for the kids who actually went out there and earned it, and that sucks.

 YOU'RE WELCOME. I'm pleased to inform you that The Best Damn Band in the Land played its rendition of "You're Welcome" from Moana, and it's officially The Rock approved.

I'm now gonna need to see Dwayne Johnson perform this with TBDBITL. Make it happen.

 SONG OF THE DAY. "Silver Bells" by Pat Boone.

 NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. A ghost boat laden with cocaine washes up in the Marshall Islands... The beauty of toilets, in pictures... He sold a meteorite that hit his home, then things got weird... Why America once banned pre-sliced bread... When the Warminster 'thing' terrorized a small English town... Facebook is developing a tool to summarize articles so you don’t have to read them...

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