Cole Tollison

Why 5-7 is Good Enough to Go Bowling

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6 Win Team Shortage, JMU is Bowling, What’s APR?

Bowl Spots

There are 41 total Bowl Games with 82 spots available. Yes, certain conferences have tie-ins to certain bowls, but 82 is the number that matters. Teams can play in bowls not associated with their conference to make everything work. They just need 82 teams that have 6+ wins.

If all the favorites win this week (because that always happens) there will be 79 teams with 6+ wins that are bowl eligible.

So there would be 3 “open” spots.

This Means JMU is Fine.

After all the bowls are filled, best to worst, then we fill those 3 left over spots. First up are teams that are in year 2 of an FCS to FBS transition (moving up a division) that have 6+ wins. Normally these teams are barred from playing in the postseason until their 3rd FBS season, but if there is a shortage of 6+ win teams, they get a pass.

JMU and Jax State would be teams 80 and 81. 

They wouldn’t have a shot at a NY6 spot, (because that would be “filled” before these schools are even considered) but …

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The Penultimate Weekend – Week 12 Picks

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SEC West Cupcake Week, My Picks For This Week, It’s Almost Over

You want game picks? Well, I’ve got game picks. I’ve got more picks than I’ve done for any week all season. I also have a short rant about some certain teams scheduling practices that I need to get off my chest. I complain every year, but nothing changes. Last week every media person out there said “Upsets are coming.” Well, they lied. This is college football; favorites win almost all the time. That’s why upsets are such a big deal. I don’t foresee much in the way of upsets this week, so picking against the spread will have to be interesting enough (for most of the games). This isn’t the greatest week of matchups, but it’s not bad either. There are a lot of oddball games that are more like setups for the epicness to come next week. 

Rivalry week, I can’t wait. But for now, these games will do. 

SEC West… WTF?

It’s cupcake week in the SEC West. Every single SEC West team is playing a Group of 5 school or an FCS team. It’s basically a glorified bye week for them heading …

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SEC Black Monday Came Early: 1 Game Played = 2 Coaches Fired

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Usually, a coach gets fired mid-season after an embarrassing loss or a train wreck string of ineptitude and obvious regression. But something strange happened last Saturday. 

2 SEC teams played; the score was 51-10, and both coaches were fired following the game. 

Put another way:
Texas A&M beat Mississippi State 51-10 and following the game both Jimbo Fisher and Zach Arnett were relieved of their head coaching duties.

Jimbo Got Paid

Jimbo Fisher got a $76.5 Million parachute to stop working. 

Jimbo Fisher had possibly the greatest contract of any head coach ever at Texas A&M. After 2020 (the COVID Season) the Aggies feared Jimbo would bolt for the LSU job. So, they gave him the mafia offer. 

10 years – 100 million (ish) – fully guaranteed. With a very important kicker, if he takes another job (after getting fired) he can double dip; his contract is still guaranteed. That’s very rare among college contracts. 

Jimbo is the only coach in the history of ever to have 3 different teams start in the AP Top 6 and finish the season unranked. One of today’s highest paid coaches went 8-4, then 5-7, and this year 6-4 before the University …

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Wisco Wednesday: Rock Bottom And Still Digging

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Is The Bowl Streak in Jeopardy? What About Nebraska Feels So Familiar? 

There has to be 1 goal at this point: save the bowl streak. That means getting 1 more win in the last 2 games. I think Bucky can do it, but I also thought he would handle Indiana and NW. The team may have thought losing to Indiana was rock bottom, but Northwestern threw them a shovel and said keep digging. I don’t know what Fickell and the players will do at practice this week to change the performance on the field. But something has to change. 

Looking Back: They Didn’t Feel Like Playing

Wisconsin 10
Northwestern 24

Hunter Wohler’s Rant

The best player on defense did not like what he saw on Saturday. Safety Hunter Wohler was made available to the media following the beatdown at the hands of the Wildcats. Wohler proceeded to trash the effort levels of his teammate for the following 7-8 minutes. He repeatedly said he thinks this should be on the players, not the coaches, and that this isn’t why he came to Wisconsin. That sounds a little entitled, but this is a kid who chose Madison over Ohio State. And …

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A Pipe Dream: The B1G West is Still Open… Barely

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We don’t say #BuckyByAMillion for nothing around here. No matter how bad it gets, if there’s a sliver of hope we’ll find it and cling to it.

Wisconsin can still win the Big Ten West.
#NotDeadYet

Well, actually no one is dead yet. (Except Purdue… sorry spoilermakers, boiler down). Yes, that means Minnesota, Nebraska, Illinois, Northwestern, and Wisconsin all have a path to winning the West, despite Iowa’s 2 game lead with 2 games to go. 

If Iowa wins Saturday at home vs. Illinois OR at Nebraska in week 13  – Iowa clinches the West. 
BUT,
If Iowa loses out – it’s a mess. 

If you’re a Badger fan, you need 3 things to happen.

  • Wisconsin wins out (a very tall task)
  • Iowa loses out (possible, but not likely)
  • Illinois wins out (who knows)

This would force a 3-way tie atop the B1G west between Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. All 3 teams involved in the tie would have the same record against each other 1-1 (it’s a good thing Bucky won in Champaign).

The next tiebreaker is their division records:

  • Iowa would have 3 division losses
  • Illinois would have 3 division losses
  • Wisconsin would have only 2
…

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3 Weeks Left – Week 11 Picks

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Just Picks, no more, no less

I didn’t have the time or energy to do a preview piece this week. That’s on me. But, I do still want to put out game picks for the week to be consistent on that front. This is a super short article that is really more of a list than an article. Obviously, the big game of the week is Michigan at Penn State, but there are some good matchups in the SEC and Pac-12 as well.

  • Odds listed refer to spreads taken from FanDuel at the time of writing

Spread Picks*:

3-4 last week, not good, but not terrible. I’m picking mostly big games (because I didn’t preview them), but I wouldn’t make a pick without a strong opinion of the game. Below are my week 11 picks against the spread for today’s games. 

Michigan at Penn State (+5.5) – Upset Pick 
Drew Allar has been leagues better at home compared to on the road. There’s too much noise around Michigan right now. Harbaugh’s squad slips up. 

Alabama at Kentucky (+11.5) 
Alabama has been bad on the road for 3 years. I think they win, but it’s a struggle win.

Maryland at Nebraska…

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Wisco Wednesday: Oh No

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Was That The Real Badgers? Am I Actually Scared of Northwestern? 

So I guess the Badgers are actually bad. How can a team that hung with Ohio State till the 4th quarter get beat by the worst team in the Big Ten. 

The short answer: Injuries and Coaching.

The coaching part stings. Everyone wanted Fickell to be successful from the jump. It appears that while everyone else in the conference is getting better week to week, Wisconsin is in neutral. Throw in some injuries, and now you’ve got full-blown regression. 

Save the bowl streak, save the winning record streak, get the Ax, and show enough improvement that I’m actually excited for next year. Sounds like a plan, right?

Looking Back: I Don’t Need Air Raid, I Just Need A Team

Wisconsin 14
Indiana 20

404 – Offense Not Found

I thought this would be an automatic win, and I guess the players did too. They looked unprepared and had no energy.

The offense was pathetic. Too many drops from the WRs. Too many tipped balls thrown by Locke. No broken tackles by Acker or Yacamelli. Just a complete and total mess.

Locke did not look like “the guy.” He played …

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Will OU and UT Leave the Big 12 On Top? – Week 10 Preview

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The Last Bedlam, SEC division races, Pac-12 Quarterback Showdown.

This is the Big 12’s week to shine. The top 6 teams in the conference all play each other, and 5 of the 6 only have 1 conference loss so far. Who is going to the Big 12 title game is likely going to be decided this weekend. OU and UT both play losable games this week. It would be total chaos in the conference (and at those schools) if one or both were to take the L. 

Elsewhere, there are some games with division implications in the SEC. The B1G has a very quiet weekend ahead. The Pac-12 has a massive QB battle in Primetime. And the ACC is… basically not in this article. 

That said…

What Will I Be Watching? 

The Badgers are on the road and I’m not going. That means I’ll be parked in front of a pair of televisions for most of Saturday watching college football. Well, one game on the TV, and one on a laptop. Whatever works. I’ll go through the TV windows talking about the game I expect to be on my screens, and list a couple of alternatives that might be decent …

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Wisco Wednesday: Moving On

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Mistakes and Bad Luck Against OSU. Some Michigan Thoughts. I Pity Wisconsin’s next Opponent. 

This is a weird Wisco Wednesday piece if I’m being honest. The meat is in the middle where I look at what’s going on around the rest of the B1G. I don’t have as many thoughts about last week’s game vs. OSU or about next week’s at Indiana. TL;DR: Ohio State is good, so we lost; Indiana is bad, so we will win. The rest of the Big Ten, now that’s interesting. What happens with Michigan? Iowa pre-fired a coach, but they get to stay with the team through the bowl game. I still have stuff to say about the Badgers though, so read the whole article if that’s what you’re here for. It is Wisco Wednesday after all.

Looking Back: Braelon Drops, Locke > McCord, WRs with Feet for Hands

Ohio State 24
Wisconsin 10

It was 10-10 in the 3rd Quarter

This was not a blowout. Wisconsin did everything wrong and was still in a  position to win this game. Imagine if the Badgers did everything right instead. 

Imagine Braelon and Dike don’t get hurt. Imagine the punting is better. Imagine Pauling gets that …

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Is it a Quiet Week? Or Will Some Big Upsets Hit? – Week 9 Preview

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A Pac-12 Elimination Game, A Possible Upset in the Big 12, and An ACC Matchup with Title Implications.

It’s not the greatest college football weekend if we’re being honest here. I’ll be watching games, but there is no national needle mover like OSU-PSU or Bama-Texas. In a normal year that game this week would be Florida-Georgia, and that game is still good this week, but Florida is down enough right now that the game doesn’t have the same weight to it. I think the same can be said for OSU-Wisco with Bucky being down for the last 2-3 years. 

Even though there aren’t massive name-brand games, there are games with postseason and long-term implications. The games I talk about this week will, or could affect multiple conference title races. And maybe some upsets happen. Upsets tend to strike when no one sees them coming (that’s why it’s an upset). I think it’s safe to say no one saw UNC blowing it to Virginia last week. Who could go down this week?

I have my picks for the week down below.  It was a little rough last week; I went 3-5, but I was 0.5 pts away from 4-4. It may …

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