Irony and the 2025 FBS season and the illuminating brilliance and public service provided by hot take people (where would we be without them?)

Sunday 12/7/25

I stayed up late last night--given when I get up--thinking, planning, reading, listening to "Dark Star" (Wembley 4/8/72), watching The Wizard Oz and football. I say, "Okay, this is very bad." I feel how bad it is. I shut it down. I tourniquet the day. Then usually I'll start to build back up and ready myself to keep going. I guess I wasn't doing anything, but I was as well.

Woke up at four today and got back to it. I'm finishing a piece now here just before six--been watching a film, too, that I'll write about--and swung by here to jot down a few sports-related thoughts. Current sports. A sports history post will follow soon.

What a great achievement for Indiana defeating Ohio State and winning the Big Ten. The players deserve a lot of great, but that doesn't happen without some phenomenal coaching. A team can play above its head and knock off a better team. But to do what Indiana has done last year and this--it's as though they've willed and made themselves into a permanent version of that "best self" team. They're more than the sum of their talents, but that's legitimately who they are. Can they win this? I wouldn't think so...but I wouldn't exactly not think so either.

I don't want to see Alabama in this playoff. They weren't competitive in that game against Georgia yesterday. You never thought Alabama could win. They were locked down and handled. George controlled the game from start to finish. Alabama couldn't breathe, couldn't move. They were all but pinned to the mat the entire time.

Why do I think there's a better than fifty percent chance they get in?

Duke won the ACC. Duke. You're telling me that Boston College can't be at Duke's level in football? I know Duke had five losses overall (with just one of them coming in conference), but ironically, what this season has suggested is that you can find a way to win, even with the NIL landscape. We have Indiana as the number one team in the country. No one else should receive any first place votes later today. Duke won the ACC. James Madison has made a run at the playoff. So has Tulane.

Will there be an ACC team? Ah, the sorry state of the ACC. Miami could get in. I'd rather have Miami than Alabama.

For me, Notre Dame--despite the reservations I expressed about them in these pages, around the time they played and struggled with Boston College--is a no-brainer to be in. I think Notre Dame can make more noise than Miami. I still think Ohio State has the best shot, though.

What do you do with BYU who lost to Texas Tech yesterday? Well, people like to say that you don't punish a team for making their conference title game. That is, if they get drilled in that game, and BYU was drilled by a score of 34-7. The thinking is that this shouldn't make some other team look better just because they didn't make their conference championship game and get drilled.

Yeah...it's hard to unsee something, though, once it's made an impression on you. BYU gets left out.

Th Ole Miss situation is deplorable. Those players were screwed over by Lane Kiffin, but also by the system. You shouldn't be able to hire someone while the season is going on. There it is--fixed. I don't think the idea of a coach finishing his season with one team after being hired by another is much better either. He's going to be divided at best, unless he's some truly honorable man with a gift for compartmentalization, which is basically nobody.

For anyone whose school isn't in the playoff, you'd imagine that Indiana is the team those people would root for. I am. I have to confess, being a fan of a college team that represents a school one didn't attend is strange to me. I said being a fan of--not a team you root for in a given year out of the teams that are left. That's a very light form of rooting. A "Well, if I had to pick a preference..." type of rooting. I think Indiana would make a nice story. They already are a nice story. But they can take that story all the way to a championship.

The Bruins beat the struggling Devils, who have now lost five in a row. Pastrnak remains out, but Geekie--having the year of his life--potted another. Swayman had one of his better game of the season, if not the best.

Wasn't that long ago when I talked about the given odds of the Ravens making the playoffs. They had a dismal record. And here they are today, with a game against the Steelers for first place in that division. The Ravens probably will get in. The oddsmakers were on to something. I didn't think that they couldn't get in. I knew that was a weak division and the Steelers were mediocre. But I was still surprised that the "official" odds were that high at the time.

Turned on local sports radio the other day. Guy calls in with a "hot take," which I love, because only smart people have those and they just open your eyes and allow you to see the world and this particular thing about the world in a clearer way than ever could have on your own. Where would you be with people who excel at hot takes? You wouldn't really know anything, would you?

His hot take was that the Chiefs were the team to beat right now. This year. Heading into this week. For the Super Bowl.

It's as if it's so important for us to be as stupid as possible, and share with as many people as possible just how stupid we are. No? It doesn't seem like that? Are you doing a hot take?

"Yeah, my takes are like Hot Pockets right out of the microwave when there's steam on the inside of the door."

I don't think I've had a Hot Pocket since I stopped drinking. Not that I'm aligning Hot Pockets--or hot takes--with drinking. Then again, there could be a correlation.