SI:AM | The CFP Race Got a Lot More Interesting

Plus, the Jets and Giants are keeping New Yorkers busy on Sundays again.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. My unlimited data plan has never been more useful than when I watched LSU beat Alabama on a train Saturday night.

In today’s SI:AM:

🏈 Alabama and Clemson crash out

🏆 The Astros win—with no asterisk

🏙️ Football fever in New York

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No Alabama, no Clemson

For as long as it has existed, Alabama and Clemson have basically been guaranteed spots in the College Football Playoff. Not this year.

The Tide have been invited to seven of the eight Playoffs, while the Tigers have been selected six times. The two teams have never missed the playoff in the same year. And yet, after a wild Saturday in college football, both teams appear destined to miss out on a championship opportunity.

Clemson was No. 4 in the first CFP committee rankings that were released Tuesday, mostly thanks to brand recognition. The Tigers’ résumé wasn’t particularly strong. Their best wins were a double-overtime victory over No. 21 Wake Forest and a comeback win at home over a Syracuse team that was ranked No. 14 at the time but has now lost three in a row. An undefeated but unimpressive Clemson would have posed a challenge for the committee at the end of the regular season. But we don’t have to worry about that anymore. The Tigers were thoroughly dominated in a 35–14 loss to Notre Dame on Saturday.

Alabama, meanwhile, is probably toast, too, after suffering its second loss of the season. The Tide lost an overtime thriller to LSU in Baton Rouge. It’s only the second time since 2010 that they’ve lost more than one game in the regular season and, as Pat Forde points out, it could have been worse:

For Alabama (7–2), two losses by a total of four points on the road against 8–1 Tennessee and 7–2 LSU is hardly a disaster. It could be argued that the Tide are two plays away from being undefeated. But it also could be argued that they are two plays away from being 5–4 after narrow escapes against Texas and Texas A&M. Split the difference in four 50-50 games and Bama probably has the record it deserves at this point.

Those two losses, and Tennessee’s loss to Georgia, leave the CFP field wide open. Georgia should be No. 1 when the new rankings come out tomorrow, but things get messier after that. Ohio State, Michigan and TCU are the only other undefeated teams left. Richard Johnson has the Wolverines at No. 2 and the Buckeyes at No. 3 after Michigan pasted Rutgers, and Ohio State squeaked past Northwestern in horrendous weather conditions in Evanston. The committee putting TCU at No. 7 behind a one-loss Alabama was illuminating, but it’d be impossible for them to leave the 9–0 Horned Frogs out of the top four now. (Johnson has them at No. 4.)

The rankings don’t mean much at this point, though—especially because Ohio State and Michigan still have to play each other. But this weekend’s results mean the committee is going to have to make some really tough decisions. After the Ohio State–Michigan game, there will be a maximum of three undefeated teams left at the end of the regular season.

Georgia travels this weekend to play Mississippi State. Michigan hosts 3–6 Nebraska. The Buckeyes have Indiana on deck in Columbus, losers of six in a row. But TCU will be an underdog this weekend on the road against a tough Texas team.

Who will the committee pick to round out the Playoff field? There are a bunch of one-loss teams that would be deserving choices. That’s why, even though these in-season rankings are nonbinding, it’ll be worth watching to see where the committee ranks various contenders tomorrow night. The chaotic outcome I’m rooting for, though, is for LSU (which now has the inside track to win the SEC West) to win the SEC championship game over Georgia and make the playoff with two losses.

Goliath won

The other big news Saturday night was that the Astros put away the Phillies to win their second World Series in six years. Philadelphia put up a good fight and provided fans there (and everywhere but Houston) with plenty of fun moments, but the Astros were just too good in the end. Here is some of our best coverage from the series:

• Tom Verducci: The Astros Are World Series Champions—No Asterisk Needed
• Stephanie Apstein: The Batting Cage Session That Won the Astros the World Series
• Emma Baccellieri: Destiny Denied: Phillies’ Cinderella Run Falls Short of the Finish Line
• Matt Martell: This Astros World Series Title Confirms Their Unmatched Excellence

The best of Sports Illustrated

Illustration By Andrew DeGraff

The Jets and Giants are soaring, so Conor Orr went to North Jersey in today’s Daily Cover to see how their success is impacting people in the team’s orbit:

When asked what he could do with the money specifically, [local restaurant owner John] Palsi says he could start to chip away at some of the pandemic loans he took out, which he would not have been able to do if the Jets and Giants were flailing. A home playoff game in January is the next manifestation he hopes will become a reality. Despite “this Josh Allen Banana” and the “jerky Eagles,” it feels closer than it has in years.

Orr also explained why the Jets’ win over the Bills was the franchise’s biggest in more than a decade. … Kirk Cousins spoke with Albert Breer after the Vikings’ big comeback win over the Commanders in Washington. … College basketball season starts today, and here is Kevin Sweeney’s first crack at a men’s tournament bracket. … Avi Creditor recaps LAFC’s dramatic victory in the MLS Cup.

Around the sports world

Justin Fields set a new single-game record for rushing yards by a quarterback. … Joey Logano won his second NASCAR Cup series championship. … The Mets made the first big move of the MLB offseason, re-signing closer Edwin Díaz to a five-year contract. … Diana Taurasi intends to return to the WNBA next season. … The Bruins have reversed course and will not sign a prospect accused of bullying. … Odell Beckham Jr. gave a list of four teams he could sign with.

The top five...

… things I saw this weekend:

5. IMG Academy’s 96–0 football win over West Toronto Prep. The game was called at halftime.

4. This absolutely perfect throw from Kirk Cousins while he was being hit.

3. This bullet of a throw by Cardinals prospect Masyn Winn in the Fall Stars Game.

2. The first interception of Aidan Hutchinson’s life. He said after the game he never had one at any level of football before.

1. Justin Fields’s 178 yards rushing.

SIQ

The NFL’s most recent scoreless tie occurred on this day in what year?

• 1931
• 1943
• 1956
• 1969

Friday’s SIQ: When the Diamondbacks won their first championship in 2001, defeating the Yankees in seven games, who won the World Series MVP award?

Answer: Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson. It is only the second time that multiple players were given the award in a series. Ron Cey, Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager were co-MVPs when the Dodgers won in 1981.

Schilling was masterly all throughout that postseason. He threw complete games in each of his three appearances during the first two rounds and went at least seven innings in starting Games 1, 4 and 7 of the World Series.

In the eighth inning of Game 7, though, he got into a bit of trouble. Alfonso Soriano’s leadoff home run gave the Yankees a 2–1 lead, and after Schilling allowed a pinch-hit single to David Justice, manager Bob Brenly went to the bullpen. He called on Miguel Batista to face Derek Jeter, who grounded out. Then, with lefthanded-hitting Paul O’Neill due up, Brenly brought in a lefty: Johnson.

Johnson had thrown just 104 pitches the night before in Arizona’s 15–2 win in Game 6. Now he was being called up to keep his team close in the biggest game of the year. Here’s how Tom Verducci recapped the situation in that week’s SI:

Johnson, too, was fighting fatigue. He pitched throughout the World Series with a corset around his midsection to alleviate the pain from an aching back. “Just wear and tear from the season,” he said.

When Johnson showed up for Game 7, Brenly asked him how he felt. “I feel fine,” Johnson said.

“Can you give me an inning tonight?” Brenly asked.

“Whatever you need,” Johnson said.

They devised a plan. Johnson would get one inning late in the game with plenty of warning. He watched the first three innings from the dugout before repairing to the clubhouse for the same stretching routine he uses before starts. After seven innings, with Schilling and [Roger] Clemens locked in their 1–1 duel, Johnson reported to the bullpen. Just then Soriano golfed an 0-and-2 splitter from Schilling for a tiebreaking home run. “I thought right away I had caused the bad luck,” Johnson said later.

The bullpen phone rang. Bullpen coach Glenn Sherlock answered it and shouted to Johnson, “Get ready. You’ve got O’Neill,” who was scheduled to bat four hitters later. “After one hitter [Johnson] was good to go,” Sherlock said. “I was amazed at how quickly he warmed up.”

Said Johnson, “That was all adrenaline.”

Joe Torre ended up pulling O’Neill after Johnson was introduced in favor of a righty, Chuck Knoblauch. But Johnson retired him and then got three quick outs in the top of the ninth to set the stage for the Diamondbacks’ miraculous comeback against Mariano Rivera. I’d say that was an MVP performance.

From the Vault: Nov. 7, 2005

Bob Rosato/Sports Illustrated; Peter Read Miller/Sports Illustrated

Though I may be among a shrinking group of people who believe Peyton Manning was a better quarterback than Tom Brady (Brady accomplished far more, but Manning was a superior passer), back in 2005 the number of people who agreed with me was much larger.

That season’s Week 9 Monday Night Football matchup between the Patriots and Colts was a big one. It was the only undefeated team left in the NFL (Indianapolis) against a defending Super Bowl champion (New England) in need of a win to avoid falling to 4–4. And, on top of that, it’d be a data point in the argument over whether Manning or Brady was the best quarterback in the NFL. Here’s how Michael Silver summed it up in his cover story:

[F]ans ultimately turn to quarterbacks and drive the arguments over who’s better—Montana or Marino? Marino or Elway? Elway or Young? Young or Aikman? Aikman or Favre? This era’s top dogs similarly divide the public as they conquer. Manning is the prickly perfectionist whose outrageous productivity, aided by a stellar supporting cast, makes him the darling of the fantasy-football obsessed. Brady is most emblematic of guts and poise under pressure, yet the way he blends into an offense that is otherwise without stars resonates with our commitment to the communal spirit.

To that point, Brady had won all six of his matchups with Manning. In 2004, Manning had set an NFL record with 49 touchdown passes and won the MVP award. But in a divisional-playoff matchup with Brady, the Patriots’ defense held the Colts to just a field goal in a 20–3 victory en route to their Super Bowl XXXIX title.

Manning got the better of Brady in that 2005 game, though, as the Colts won 40–21 in Foxborough. It was a point in Manning’s favor but far from a decisive blow in the rivalry. What Brady’s sister told Silver remains as true as ever.

“Everybody will probably always compare Tommy to Peyton,” Nancy Brady said. “That’s the nature of sports; it’s where great debates are made.”

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