I don't know about these Miami Hurricanes, college football as oxymoron, similarities between the 2025 and 2006 New England Patriots, parsimonious Red Sox, outplaying your opponent and losing 9-0

Friday 1/9/26

It's a playoff, a tournament, so you can't really say that Miami doesn't deserve to be where they're at, but rightly or wrongly this Hurricanes team being in the national championship game feels like a result of happenstance to me rather than being indicative of the quality of the team.

I just don't think they're that strong, even relative to the field. They could very well win the national championship, though. But a team from the ACC? The weak ACC? And an ACC team that didn't even win the conference title but rather a 7-5 Duke team did? That's your national champion or national champion runner-up if you want to cal it that?

1/3 of DI college football players have entered the transfer portal. Ridiculous. "College football" is an oxymoron. It's minor football without contracts that have a term longer than a single season.

Do players go to class anymore? On broadcasts, you used to hear--or read--what a given player's major was. You almost never encounter this now when you're watching a game. Is that because the broadcast partners decided Americans are too stupid and anti-intellectual and anti-education to care about such things or even tolerate the quick mentioning of anything having to do with the dreaded idea of learning?

Could be. Or maybe the players don't have majors as players once did. If a player is going to four schools in four years, how do credits carry over? How they just set up and ready to roll come early September at their new school and then at another school the September after that and so forth?

I'd written in these pages how BC could be a decent team next year and win like seven games. I take that back. The quarterback transferred, and then Turbo Richard, the running back I thought was poised for a breakout year. Who did he "sign" with? Indiana University. Which indicates I was on to something, right, in terms of him having some skill. Too much to stay at BC, I guess.

I'd say enjoy Indiana now, because they could become insufferable. They have so much NIL money, thanks to billionaires like Mark Cuban. The plucky team that could can become the avaricious, fat cat operation that no one can stomach in time.

That's how winning worked with the Patriots. Not spending, but winning. The Krafts, in addition to being horrid people, have always been cheap. But in 2001, the Patriots were this little engine that could type of team that America, on the whole, liked and rooted for (once your team was out of it). A nice story. Those same Patriots were loathed everywhere outside of New England just a few years later.

The Red Sox are the only team in MLB that hasn't signed a single free agent. I don't mean a pricey free agent. I mean any free agent. Isn't that remarkable? Pinch that penny until you get blisters between your thumb and forefinger.

Bruins beat the Flames last night in Boston. Korpisalo was in net. Jeremy Swayman prediction: By season's end, his GAA will be at 3.00 and his save percentage under .900. People think he's had this bounce back year to some extent, but he hasn't. The difference between Swayman this year and last year is that he's had less 7-3 games with a couple goals added on late after he and everyone else quit, but what does that amount to really? It's not an indication that his play has improved. On basis. He's on that Team USA roster. There aren't a lot of great goalies out there right now. It's a bit like the 1980s in that regard.

It's possible that Jaylen Brown will finish higher in MVP voting this year than Jayson Tatum ever has.

Many people seem to think the Chargers will beat the Patriots Sunday night in Foxborough. I don't. For one thing, teams from places like that don't win playoffs games in the cold. It doesn't even need to be that cold. They don't win when the temperature is under forty.

A bigger reason is that the Patriots have, in my view, the best quarterback right now in the NFL. People are also saying that Maye has no playoff experience, so you don't know if he'll be any good now that it's the postseason. I'm not really worried about that. I don't think he'll be fazed (and no, most people who follow sports, it's not "phased") by the lights, so to speak. I think he's pretty solid in terms of composure with stuff like that and can be a clutch playoff performer. That's how I read his mentality. But of course the Patriots can lose. That wouldn't be some shock. I don't think they will though.

Maye doesn't have weapons. People want to tout Stefon Diggs, but he's not a weapon anymore. He's a nice piece if you have actual weapons, whereas I guess he's the default number one receiver on the Patriots.

People will cite his 1000 yard season. The season is seventeen games long. 1000 yards doesn't mean much. It's not an indication of a great season or a very good season. Hunter Henry is a useful player, but again, not a weapon. You know what this team's receiving corps reminds me of? That of the 2006 Patriots. This is what Maye is doing when he's not working with much. He's making these guys better than they are and the team better than it is, I guess you could say.

Lot of coaching openings in the NFL right now. The Bills job could open up, too, if they lose to Jacksonville this weekend. Will someone reach out to Bill Belichick? It only takes a single idiot and BB is an NFL HC again. I think there's a chance someone does. Ironically, I think Pete Carroll being hired last year--and yes, I know he's among the fired coaches--makes this likelier. I'm not sure why.

One of the stranger games statistically in NHL history happened the other day when the Islanders beat the Devils 9-0. That looks like the score of an Oilers v. Devils contest circa 1984, with Wayne Gretzky notching a hat trick and four assists. You won't see the likes of 9-0 these days, but this was even stranger.

For starters, the Devils tallied 44 shots on goal. That's a lot of rubber for a team to be shut out, let alone thrashed 9-0. Conversely, the Islanders only managed 24 shots on goal. Further, the Devils left their goalie, Jacob Markstrom, in for all nine goals. That's a .625 save percentage. The shot difference in a 9-0 game is the big thing. I've never seen anything like that. It begs the question if you can lose 9-0 while outplaying the opposition.