Tramel's ScissorTales: Lincoln Riley can do college football a big favor this week
Lieutenant James Gordon said it of Batman in “The Dark Knight”: “He’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.”
Oklahomans should feel the opposite of Lincoln Riley. He’s not the hero Soonerville deserves, but he’s the one it needs right now.
Soonerville and all of college football.
Riley, the villain of all villains in OU lore, can do college football a major solid Friday night in the Pac-12 Championship Game against Utah.
Riley and Southern Cal can help keep Ohio State and Alabama out of the College Football Playoff.
Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, and the bitterness over Riley’s exodus from OU — 366 days ago, but who’s counting? — could be tempered a tad if it brings some much-needed parity to college football.
Of course, parity was not a Sooner priority in Riley’s days. The playoff was a closed system. Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and OU were regulars.
More:OU football rewind: Why did Texas Tech's tempo give Sooners' defense trouble?
Bama has been involved in seven of the eight playoffs of the four-team era. Clemson in six of the eight. Ohio State and OU in four of the eight. Sooner fans can close their eyes and see Caleb Williams leading OU to the 2022 playoffs.
Instead, the Sooners just finished off a 6-6 season, and Brent Venables seems as likely to turn into Batman as he does the next Dabo Swinney. Not that Clemson is a contender, either, the Tigers about to miss the playoff for a second straight year.
But Alabama and Ohio State? They loiter near the gate, waiting for some unsuspecting caretaker to forget the lock.
Should USC trip up against Utah in Las Vegas on Friday night, or Kansas State upset Texas Christian in the Big 12 Championship Game in Arlington on Saturday, the Buckeyes and the Crimson Tide will start howling for inclusion.
And the playoff committee will listen. The playoff committee loves bluebloods the way the Joker loves face paint.
Alabama was left for dead after losing at Tennessee and Louisiana State in a three-game span. Ohio State was left for dead on the Ohio Stadium turf last Saturday, Michigan administering a 45-23 whipping that left the Buckeyes begging for mercy.
But riddle me this. If USC (or TCU, or God forbid both) lose this weekend, where does the committee turn?
Maybe the Horned Frogs, currently 12-0, still get in? They would have a better record than either Alabama or Ohio State, both 11-1, but TCU wouldn’t have the conference-title boost that is supposed to mean something.
USC would be 11-2 and also without a title. The Trojans would have better wins than Ohio State has, but the Buckeyes would have just one loss, and no matter what the committee says, it always punishes losses more than it rewards victories.
And while SC’s schedule matches up to Bama’s, the committee just can’t quit the Crimson Tide.
More:OSU football rewind: Jason Taylor II's Thorpe Award goal, top players & redshirt tracker
No other contenders await. Clemson, Kansas State, LSU and Utah could win league title games this weekend, but none rise to the level of Ohio State or Alabama, either in deed or in committee reverence.
Nope. It’s Ohio State or Alabama, unless Riley’s Trojans come through.
USC in the playoff would be quite exasperating for an OU fan base that swore an oath of vengeance after Riley absconded to LA and invited his quarterback to join him. Williams said yes.
Darrell Royal. Les Miles. Every Golden Domer. None compare to Riley in Sooner scoundrel status.
But this is Game of Thrones stuff. Sometimes you have to make unholy alliances. Sometimes Batman has to play nice with the Penguin.
The College Football Playoff needs new blood the way Mister Freeze needs a thaw. And not just the new blood created by the coming expansion to 12 teams. New blood that can crack even the four-team code.
A year ago, we got some. Michigan and Cincinnati. This year, TCU and USC are on the cusp, and while Georgia and Michigan are automatics for the field, win or lose Saturday in their respective title games, they aren’t playoff regulars. This would be Michigan’s second appearance and Georgia’s third.
College football needs more TCU, less Alabama. Needs more Pac-12 representation, less Ohio State.
As you’ve seen repeatedly in Gotham City, desperate times call for desperate measures. This is a weekend to hold your noise and wish Lincoln Riley well.
More:Tramel's ScissorTales: 6-6 Sooners not as bad as you think, the opposite of 2021 Sooners
Let’s get to my weekly rankings – the committee’s penultimate rankings will be released Tuesday night:
1. Georgia 12-0: You can make a case for Michigan No. 1, but I’ll go with the Bulldogs.
2. Michigan 12-0: Why Georgia over Michigan? Sure, the Wolverines have the best win (at Ohio State). But the Bulldogs have more good wins, and it’s not close. Tennessee, Oregon, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Kentucky. Michigan’s good wins are Ohio State, Penn State, Illinois, Iowa and Maryland. Gets thin fast.
3. TCU 12-0: Here’s why TCU might not make it at 12-1 – the Frogs’ number of good wins has shriveled. TCU’s Power Five opponents that finished with a winning record are limited to Kansas State, Texas, OSU and Texas Tech.
4. Southern Cal 11-1: A problem for USC is that it played all five of the Pac-12 rumdums – Stanford, Arizona State, Arizona, California and Colorado. Plus Rice. Don’t lose, Trojans.
5. Ohio State 11-1: The Buckeyes’ good-win list includes Penn State, Notre Dame, Maryland and Iowa. Gets thin faster.
6. Tennessee 10-2: That’s right. I’ve got the Volunteers over Bama. First off, Tennessee won head-to-head. Second, Tennessee’s second-best win – at LSU – trumps Alabama’s best win. And the Vols’ loss at South Carolina, while stunning and one-sided, looks a little better after the Gamecocks won at Clemson.
7. Alabama 11-1: The Tide’s best win is dealer’s choice – at Texas, at Ole Miss or Mississippi State.
8. LSU 9-3: The Tigers totally flopped, losing at Texas A&M. An 11-2 LSU with a victory over Georgia in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game would have trumped a 12-1 USC.
9. Utah 9-3: Why the Utes ahead of the other cluster of good Pac-12 teams. Utah beat USC, and the Utes played only four of those Pac-12 rumdums.
10. Clemson 10-2: Not a terrible resume’, but the Tigers are lacking in great wins. Clemson’s best win was what? Wake Forest? Florida State? North Carolina State?
11. Washington 10-2: Why UW lower than Utah? The Huskies didn’t have to play USC or Utah, and they not only played all five Pac-12 rumdums, they lost to Arizona State.
12. Oregon 9-3: Strange team. Some good wins (UCLA, Utah) and solid losses (Georgia, Washington, Oregon State).
13. Oregon State 9-3: Solid schedule by the Beavers. They played all the good Pac-12 teams except UCLA, and they played only four of the five rumdums.
14. UCLA 9-3: Came mightly close to beating USC, a week after losing to Arizona.
15. Kansas State 9-3: It’s hard to compare Big 12 teams to others, because the Big 12 was so packed in the middle. One outstanding team (TCU) and no really bad teams.
More:OU football: 5 under-the-radar plays that turned the tide in Sooners' loss to Texas Tech
Mailbag: Mike Gundy’s program
OSU’s disappointing season – the Cowboys fell to 7-5 after a 6-1 start that had them in the AP top 10 – has rustled some fans.
Lacey: “Can you please report on the fact that Mike Gundy always underdelivers but there is never any talk of him in the hot seat? We as a fanbase are dying over here week after week, season after season with mediocrity. Gundy has clearly peaked and is not able to take the program any higher. We need to clean house and regroup. Check out any social media platform and see how the OSU faithful are commenting on every post. Ryan Day lost to Michigan twice in a row but has a stellar record otherwise, and even his job is in question. EVERY OTHER Power 5 program has this discussion but us! (Well, Iowa and K-State don’t count.) We want accountability from the Oklahoma State athletic department. There has to be a reason Gundy is able to cash his insane checks every year without delivering. After our loss to WVU this past weekend, Gundy was asked if his was disappointed in the game and he said ‘No.’ WTH! He has no emotion on the sidelines, doesn’t talk to his players, doesn’t fight for calls, NEVER uses timeouts. Again, WTH!
This is a story worth reporting on and I am calling on you to lead the charge.”
Tramel: Sorry. I decline the commission. On a variety of counts.
Gundy always underdelivers? Eleven months ago, his Cowboys beat Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl and finished No. 7 in the nation. Over the last 12 seasons, the Cowboys have the second-most successful program in Big 12 football, at a school that historically struggled to find its footing.
Yes, OSU football has some mediocrity on its ledger. Mostly in its history books, not when Gundy has been in charge.
As for never any talk of him on the hot seat, we had extensive talk of Gundy on the hot seat in summer 2020, after the players dang near revolted when Gundy endorsed a goofy cable news channel that mocked Black Lives Matter. And by we, I mean me. I thought Gundy was getting fired, and I didn’t have a problem with it, considering how detached from the players he had gotten.
If the OSU fan base is dying week after week, season after season, it’s because they have the memory of bees (2.5 seconds recall duration, scientists say).
People are whining on social media because that’s what people do and what social media provides, while the adults have their feet in reality and make decisions so that society functions. Yes, Ohio State goobers are calling for Ryan Day’s head. And Buckeye decision-makers pat the goobers on the head and tell them to run along and go play.
Every other Power Five program does not entertain firing coaches after one disappointing season. The successful Power Five programs see past the end of their nose. OSU’s success over the last 12-15 years is based on its stability, and you want the Cowboys to scrap the stability?
And be what? Nebraska? Texas Tech? Auburn?
If OSU made a coaching change, odds are the next coach would be less successful, not more.
If you wrote me and asked me to lead a charge urging Gundy to quit being so goofy, OK. He says some things that make no sense.
But until OSU starts sliding down the Big 12 food chain, who really cares? And OSU is not yet sliding down the Big 12 food chain.
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Fickell departure a bummer for Big 12
Luke Fickell has left the University of Cincinnati for Wisconsin, and that’s a bummer for the Bearcats.
It’s an even bigger bummer for the Big 12.
Fickell turned UC into a national brand, going to back-to-back major bowls, including the College Football Playoff last December.
The Bearcats were 53-10 under Fickell after his maiden, 4-8 season in 2017. UC’s uprising, along with the school’s economic commitment to football and a fan base that made venerable Nippert Stadium the place to be, drew the attention of the Big 12.
But Cincinnati football will be fine. Because it always has been.
In the last two decades, UC has lost Mark Dantonio to Michigan State, Brian Kelly to Notre Dame, Butch Jones to Tennessee and now Fickell to Wisconsin. Mixed in there, Cincinnati hired away Tommy Tuberville from Texas Tech.
So attracting quality coaches is not a Cincinnati problem. Heck, Kelly was the original Fickell, coaching the Bearcats to back-to-back major bowls (2008, 2009), and UC soon enough again found its footing.
But it would have been nice had Fickell stayed through the transition to the Big 12, which will be a major step up for the Bearcats.
Cincinnati was in the Big East from 2005-12, when that league was a virtual power conference. Not on the level of the SEC, Big Ten, Pac-10/12, Atlantic Coast or Big 12, but the Big East had annual access to a major bowl and had schools like West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Louisville.
But now Cincinnati is coming from the American Conference, and the step up in competition will be more drastic.
UC coming into the Big 12 with Fickell-provided stability would have made the Bearcats a seemingly upper-division program. You never know, especially in the Big 12 of the last couple of years, but that would have been the Cincinnati expectation.
Now? Who knows? None of the incoming members have the status they had a year ago, not even Central Florida, which is ranked 22nd in the AP poll, but mostly by default.
Still, there is no cause for alarm. Cincinnati is a solid program with a solid pedigree. UC has a history of hiring good coaches, and some strong names have emerged as potential candidates. Former Texas coach Tom Herman, Jackson State coach Deion Sanders and Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson (a former Sooner assistant and Indiana head coach) among them.
I figured that trio would get your attention.
Or maybe UC will go for someone with a little less profile. Kelly and Jones were Central Michigan head coaches when hired by UC. Fickell and Dantonio were Ohio State defensive coordinators.
You don’t have to make a splash when you hire. You just have to hire someone who can swim in deep waters, and Cincinnati traditionally has.
More:Oklahoma State vs. Prairie View A&M men's basketball: Three takeaways from Cowboys' rout
The List: NCAA championship odds
Kelvin Sampson’s Houston Cougars have ascended to No. 1 in The Associated Press basketball poll. And UofH is the favorite to win the NCAA championship, according to SportsBetting.ag.
Here are the top 25 favorites, according to the website:
1. Houston 8/1
2. Texas 12/1
3. Baylor 14/1
4. Gonzaga 16/1
4. Kentucky 16/1
6. Arizona 18/1
7. North Carolina 18/1
8. Creighton 20/1
8. Purdue 20/1
10. Arkansas 22/1
10. Connecticut 22/1
10. Duke 22/1
10. Kansas 22/1
10. UCLA 22/1
10. Virginia 22/1
16. Illinois 25/1
16. Indiana 25/1
18. Alabama 28/1
18. Tennessee 28/1
20. Michigan State 40/1
21. Texas Tech 50/1
22. San Diego State 60/1
23. Auburn 66/1
23. Dayton 66/1
25. Maryland 80/1
Rose Bowl faces deadline
The Rose Bowl apparently has pushed college football decision-makers to the limit.
A Big 12 source told me over the weekend that conference commissioners have finally had their fill of Rose Bowl demands as it pertains to the upcoming College Football Playoff expansion, and ESPN reported Tuesday that CFP executives have issued an ultimatum to the venerable game, with a deadline of Wednesday.
The Playoff wants to expand starting in 2024, two seasons before the current bowl and television contracts expire. But all parties — conferences and bowls — must sign off on early expansion.
The Rose Bowl is asking for guarantees that its traditional time slot — New Year’s Day, 2 p.m. California time kickoff — be preserved going forward, with exclusivity. ESPN reported that the playoff board of managers is willing to work toward that goal but could make no guarantees, since television networks would have ultimate say.
Without the Rose Bowl’s agreement, the expanded playoff will not start until 2026. But sources all over say the playoff’s Board of Managers (commissioners) are resolute in excluding the Rose Bowl from the expanded playoff, if it torpedoes expansion for 2024.
The solution seems clear. In the new 12-team format, the quarterfinals and semifinals (six games total) will be played in bowl games. Turns out, the system already has six major bowls — Rose, Orange, Sugar, Cotton, Fiesta and Peach.
The quarterfinals would be played over the New Year’s holiday, with the semifinals a week or so beyond that.
On a rotational basis, each bowl would get two quarterfinals and one semifinal every three years. However, if that New Year’s time slot is so important to the Rose Bowl, it could be given a quarterfinal every year, which would mean more semifinals for the other bowls on a rotational basis.
Some have reported that the Rose wants to keep its January 1 date annually and be in the semifinal rotation.
That’s nonsense. It will be quite disappointing if the commissioners capitulate to the Rose’s demands.
An ultimatum sounds good to me. If the Rose Bowl keeps us from two years of an expanded playoff, move the Las Vegas Bowl or the LA Bowl into the rotation and let the Rose knock itself out with what most years would be the second- or third-place finisher in the Pac-12 against the third- or fourth-place finisher in the Big Ten.
The Rose Bowl is full of history, and I respect that. It has tradition — real tradition — and I respect that. But the Rose’s belief in its exalted status is too much.
The single wing and pep squads and weekly 1:30 p.m. kickoffs were cool, too. They went the way of the wind. The Rose Bowl will, too, if it doesn’t start cooperating.
"We want the Rose Bowl," a CFP source told ESPN. "We have a good partnership with the six bowls we are affiliated with. We do. And we want to continue with that. I hope the Rose Bowl will be part of that, but there's no guarantee in any of that. None."
The expanded playoff is expected to create $450 million in gross revenue. That’s what has everyone’s attention. And we’re 24½ months away from kickoff of what would be an expanded playoff. These things can’t be created with the snap of a finger.
The clock is ticking.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Lincoln Riley, USC Trojans can invigorate College Football Playoff
