By now, you should be familiar with the drill. The morning Skull Session will give you some news items of the day to discuss among yourselves as you meander into the office, grab a cup of coffee from the pot, and try to make yourself look busy in front of the boss.
No worry. I'm sure the boss is checking out the Skull Session too.
Here's what's happening in the wide world of sports.
NEW AP AND COACHES POLLS. Since the ACC had its Monday night Labor Day ritual this week, the latest AP Poll and latest Coaches Poll were delayed by a day. They were released early Tuesday afternoon for your consideration.
For Ohio State fans, the only real move was observed in the AP Poll. AP voters bumped Ohio State down from no. 2 to no. 3 after a 40-20 victory over Buffalo that looked less impressive than Oregon's 66-3 win over Nicholls State. The Ducks are the new no. 2 in the AP.
We can obviously question the wisdom of this. Nicholls State's last game against an FBS team was December 2012, a 77-3 loss at Oregon State. Such a demolition by Oregon was expected. However, questioning the wisdom of this demotion for Ohio State in the AP Poll also entails placing substantial weight on a poll, unconnected to the BCS, in Week 2. Truly, it's a non-story.
Maybe the biggest winner in the new polls was Clemson. Previously the no. 8 team in both preseason polls, the Tigers are now no. 4 in the AP and no. 5 in the Coaches Poll. The distinction between "top 10" and "top 5" is important, qualitatively. Clemson is afforded a better opportunity to secure a top two spot in December, provided teams ahead of it fall. Clemson's schedule is just right. It has two FCS teams on the schedule, hosts Florida State in its division, but does have to travel to Columbia at the end of the regular season.
Clemson also picked up a no. 1 vote in the AP Poll. This likely came from whoever gave his or her preseason no. 1 vote to Georgia.
The other interesting movement was Texas A&M in the Coaches Poll. Texas A&M was previously the no. 6 team in the Coaches Poll, but was demoted a spot as both Clemson and South Carolina leapfrogged it. The first person to attribute such a minor movement to Manziel's taunting penalty against Rice in the fourth quarter gets blocked from life, reported for spam against the state, and deleted from history.
Despite the movement in the polls for both Texas A&M and Ohio State, both held their no. 1 votes from the preseason in both polls. Alabama is still the near consensus no. 1 team in the country.
The next highest ranked Big Ten team in both polls is Michigan (no. 17). Nebraska experienced a plunge in the AP Poll (no. 18 to no. 22), but dropped only one spot in the Coaches Poll. Northwestern moved up slightly in both polls, as did Wisconsin.
The only somewhat interesting movement in the polls involving other Big Ten teams is Michigan State. A fringe top 25 team in both polls (in the "others receiving votes" section), Michigan State hemorrhaged votes after a limp showing against Western Michigan on Friday.
BRIAN KELLY RETRACTION WATCH. In yesterday's Skull Session, Nick mentioned the fuss Brian Kelly created in trying to downplay the importance of the Michigan-Notre Dame series to Notre Dame football.
In actuality, Kelly's comments were not that dismissive.
“I really haven’t seen it as one of those historic, traditional Notre Dame rivalries,” Kelly told reporters, in a story posted on the Chicago Tribune website. “I’ve seen it as just one of those great football games that Notre Dame has played.
“For me, I’ve been in Michigan a long time, I’ve always felt the Notre Dame-Michigan game was a big regional game. But in the Notre Dame history books, this game has (been) played, but obviously there have been some years where it hasn’t been played for a number of years.”
For all intents and purposes, he's right. The Michigan Man will note that the series has its origins in the 19th century, when venerable Michigan Men rode the rails from Ann Arbor to South Bend to teach those precocious Notre Dame students the game of football that Michigan had mastered. What followed was a signature rivalry for all time... that was not played between 1943 and 1978.
It has been played continuously since, excepting two years in 1995 and 1996. Notre Dame used the interlude to schedule a series with Ohio State that you probably remember. It appears Michigan used the reprieve to continue a series with Boston College. I'm sure it had reasons at the time.
While I don't think Kelly is necessarily wrong, he ruffled every feather the Michigan Man has. It led him to walk back his comments yesterday.
"This is a great and historic rivalry that we'll be playing this Saturday," Kelly said during his weekly news conference. "So let's get that out of the way right away, so we don't have to answer any more questions about this rivalry. We're excited about the game, we're excited about playing it.
That should hopefully be the end of it, much like next year's game in South Bend will be the end of the series for the time being. I am unsure of its status as a "great and historical rivalry", but it is a series that reliably has a lot of spectator value.
I am actually not particularly sad to see it go. I am interested in seeing Michigan use the separation from Notre Dame as opportunity to schedule home-and-home series with some other programs around the country.
Games at places like Clemson, Georgia, Oklahoma, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, and USC sound very interesting on paper. Michigan already has home-and-homes scheduled with Arkansas (2018, 2019) and Virginia Tech (2020, 2021). With the Big Ten moving to a nine game schedule, it is very difficult to envision Michigan playing some of these opponents when it also has a yearly series with Notre Dame.
That said, Notre Dame walking from its series with Michigan in order to be quasi-ACC, but keeping the Purdue series, bugs me. I am not sure there is another rivalry more preposterous on paper than the Notre Dame-Purdue "rivalry". I wish Purdue would stop indulging Notre Dame as gate-keepers to national media exposure.
Mark May is not impressed.OH, MARK MAY... Mark May is not a popular person for Ohio State fans. For that matter, he is not a popular person for any college football fan. Everyone hates him.
He doesn't have the regional bastion of support of another widely panned doofus like Paul Finebaum, who is basically Southern college football's Jerry Springer. He's done more to attract animosity from fans of particular programs than some of the other polarizing figures that ESPN employs (e.g. Colin Cowherd). Perhaps Craig James exiting ESPN was the worst thing that could have happened to Mark May if it meant that May is now public enemy no. 1 of college football.
He did it again on Monday night. To this point, even his worst, ostensibly idiotic comments were disingenuous, petty, or self-aggrandizing. They were idiotic, but not necessarily stupid. In lamenting the aforementioned Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry for concluding indefinitely after 2014, he made a comment that could only be construed as stupid for stupid's sake. It was a stupid thing to serve as a source for a barefaced lie.
I can't have much doubt. I think it's a terrific rivalry. And when GameDay comes to town they know it's a big game, everybody knows it's a big game. Growing up in upstate New York, I used to watch it when I was growing up, when it was on television.
Mark May, by the way, was born in 1959. The Michigan-Notre Dame series was not played between 1943 and 1978. In 1978, Mark May was a sophomore offensive lineman for the Pitt Panthers playing against Temple. In 1979 and 1980, he was playing games against Kansas when that game was happening.
Woof, ESPN. You hired him.
MISCELLANY. One of Alabama's starting wide receivers quit the team for six hours... Adidas will not be content until it has thoroughly destroyed UCLA... Daft Punk's "Get Lucky", in Mario Paint... Northwestern's Collin Ellis named the Bronko Nagruski National Defensive Player of the Week... Tim Beckman kicks a running back off the team for an undisclosed violation of team rules, probably doing him a favor... Clemson's offensive coordinator blames his quarterback, not Georgia's stalling, for not playing faster... Arkansas football brings t-shirt gun to a college football game; predictable thing happens... @Vodka_Samm's mugshot... Illinois and South Florida announce a home-and-home series, instead of combining forces to comfortably defeat a FCS team... Not that either Michigan or Notre Dame has redeeming qualities, but this is a good story... #ScarletandRed.
