Skull Session: Justin Fields and Family Can Handle Criticism, The College Football Playoff Could Expand Past Eight Teams, Some Draft Props Are Free Money

It's NFL Draft day, and we might have an early contender for Tweet of the year.

Don't look now but Michigan could tie Ohio State (and USC) this year for most first round picks in common era of the NFL Draft. The Wolverines would just need to get all 32 picks.
— Marcus Hartman (@marcushartman) April 28, 2021

Word of the Day: Impecunious.

“WE'RE BUILT FOR THIS.” With everything that's been written, said and happened to Justin Fields these past few weeks and months, you'd think it would have been a difficult and challenging time for him and his family.

According to his father, though, you'd be completely wrong.

Pablo Fields repeated the line several times.

“We’re built for this,” Justin Fields’ father said Monday.

As the NFL draft finally arrives Thursday, no player has seemingly come under more scrutiny than the former Ohio State quarterback. But Pablo Fields said that neither he nor Justin is fazed by most of it.

...

“Friends have sent me text messages: ‘Oh, man, this is so bad how they're treating Justin. I'm praying for you guys,’” Pablo Fields said. “And I'm like, ‘You idiot. He's getting ready to be drafted, most likely in the first round and be an NFL football player and paid a king's ransom to play a kid's game. And you're saying that I'm over here depressed and crying in a pillow? I mean, come on.’ This part of the territory.”

That's an extremely refreshing perspective, and honestly, it's probably one that's going to serve Fields well the rest of his football career.

I mean, Imagine if he buckled under *this* kind of scrutiny and let it affect him before he even got into the league. Is that somebody you'd want leading your franchise?

EXPANSION IS COMING. Last week, the College Football Playoff released a statement that they were "discussing" expansion. However, the statement also included verbiage like we "support and believe in the four-team playoff as it is currently constituted," so it was tough to tell how things were actually trending.

Turns out, though, the talks of expansion are extremely real, and decision-makers might even be favoring expanding past eight teams to 12 or 16, for a variety of reasons.

Another option in a larger field is to provide an automatic bid for the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion, guaranteeing the possibility of access to five leagues that are, for all intents and purposes, shut out of the current Playoff.

...

One factor driving the exploration of a much larger bracket is a desire to avoid having to overhaul the format again in a few years.

“There’s a thought that IF you’re going to make a change and expand, you might as well do a little more than a little less,” said the source familiar with the discussions. “There’s always constant [public] pressure to keep increasing. You wouldn’t want to go through all this and realize fairly soon, you need to make more changes. So people want to think more long term.”

...

Another major factor is that interest in the bowls beneath the Playoff has waned for fans and for players. Opt-outs have become more common as draft-eligible players choose not to risk injury in games that have no stakes attached. For example, the Florida team that lost by six points to eventual national champ Alabama in the SEC Championship played in the Cotton Bowl against Oklahoma without its best player (tight end Kyle Pitts) and three other starters. The result was a lopsided Oklahoma win in a matchup that didn’t resemble what organizers hoped they’d get when the game was set.

One reason commissioners opted for a four-team Playoff after scrapping the BCS was in an effort to protect the bowl system. Multiple sources indicated they don’t expect the commissioners to fight so hard for the bowls this time.

I hate 12 teams primarily because that means four teams get byes, and if I don't trust the committee to pick the top-four teams now, I sure as hell wouldn't trust them to decide which four teams get to play one fewer game.

That said, I'd still take 12 with automatic bids over what we've got now.

The only reason I've been even a little apprehensive about expansion is that I don't want the regular season to become devalued, but the more I think about it, the more I don't really think that's an issue.

For starters, for the top teams, the regular season is often a formality, anyway. Ohio State and Clemson basically played the entire last season on a collision course with a few tune-up games on the way. Hell, we were upset that the Buckeyes didn't get to play Michigan simply because we wanted to see if they could really put up 100, not because we wanted to see a good and competitive football game.

You may as well throw in more games Ohio State could conceivably lose and make things interesting. Having more games featuring matchups USC-Oklahoma, Auburn-Oregon or Ohio State-Florida is only good for the sport

And if you're worried about the number of games, it's worth noting that the FCS national champion currently has to play 16 games.

TALKIN' ABOUT PRACTICE. Apparently, J.K. Dobbins practices like he plays, and that's extremely bad news for his trainer.

JK Dobbins just VIOLATING his trainer @Jkdobbins22 (via thenotoriousnikhix/IG) pic.twitter.com/Jy69Apvgos
— Overtime (@overtime) April 28, 2021

By the way, happy anniversary to all the teams that allowed the best running back in the 2020 NFL Draft to slip all the way to the end of the second round. Try not to do it again with the best quarterback in the draft.

FREE MONEY. It's not every day a sportsbook gives away free money with their prop lines, but that's exactly what sportsbettingdime.com appears to be doing with some of these over/under odds.

The over/under selection odds for the Ohio State prospects in this weeks draft, per @SBD: pic.twitter.com/kVgetvXhy8
— Joey Kaufman (@joeyrkaufman) April 28, 2021

If they didn't have wager limits, I would put my entire bank account on the under for Baron Browning without even blinking.

FREE MONEY. "The Man" by Aloe Blacc