Covid, basketball, basketball, covid, a little football, no baseball perhaps for a while:
The Covid Bowls
The coronavirus was the topic of bowl discourse today, with Texas A&M bowing out of the Gator Bowl due to positive tests and the College Football Playoff announcing their Covid plans, which are basically what you’d expect (forfeits can be a thing, they’ll move the games if they have to but they can’t move them very far). We’ll see how many teams go A&M’s way. My impression is that different schools, conferences, bowls, states, and municipalities all have different testing rules, so I’m not going to try to prognosticate. Your favorite team’s bowl is probably happening until it isn’t, and it’s probably in danger until it happens.
What to Make of Davidson over Alabama
Davidson beat Alabama by a point in Birmingham last night in a game in which Davidson was not the originally scheduled opponent. It’s a tough situation for the Tide, who got bit a bit by not just letting the game be canceled, but overall, it’s unlikely to be too impactful to their season. It does confirm our suspicions that Alabama is merely fine and is not a national contender right now. Could they make a run in March? Sure. But so could plenty of other teams. The bigger question is how much better they can and will get, and I guess to that I’ll just say that they could win the SEC and they could finish eighth in the SEC and neither would be surprising. Wide window, lot of teams around them.
Iowa State’s December Finale: Fine
It’s saying something that the Cyclones won by 31 to move to 12-0 and we’re just calling it a “fine” night, but it was against Chicago State and the turnovers were still an issue, so it’s just…fine. Robert Jones didn’t play for the Cyclones, and I haven’t seen why. As you may be guessing, I did not watch this game, so take this with that grain of salt.
MLB Lockout Thought
I spent a few minutes earlier looking at the durations of various recent labor stoppages in America’s big four sports leagues, and it bodes poorly for the prospects of a full 2022 MLB season. Hopefully this lockout is different, and in a good way, but it’s a tough situation.
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No concrete viewing schedule tonight, but three games to keep an eye on:
Men’s Basketball: Arizona @ Tennessee; 7:00 PM EST; ESPN2
Arizona tries to add another notch to its belt (and make a case for a number one ranking, perhaps), Tennessee tries to climb up into the ranks of the nationally relevant. So far, the Vols have lost to Villanova and Texas Tech, but they beat UNC. They’re a slight favorite tonight on KenPom. Great opportunity for one of the nation’s best defensive teams.
Football: Missouri vs. Army; 8:00 PM EST; ESPN
The Armed Forces Bowl, and honestly, I just enjoying watching the triple option. This isn’t that special of a bowl game aside from that. Interesting to see it against an SEC team, even a mediocre one from the East division.
Men’s Basketball: Virginia Tech @ Duke; 9:00 PM EST; ESPN2
Virginia Tech has turned in some awful performances and some great performances so far this year. They could win the ACC, they could miss the NCAA Tournament. It’s hard to say. They enter the game 8-4 overall and 0-1 in conference but if they upset Duke, they’re in the driver’s seat, and it’s a closer bet than it feels (that said, Duke’s quite likely to win—Duke is far and away the best team in the ACC, and is the conference’s only real contender as of now).
