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In reviewing this week’s sports news, there were a few stories which have drawn my attention. Let’s cover a few of them today.
Do Dallas Cowboys fans really want Deion Sanders to become their next coach?
If the media has its way, this deal will happen in a few months!
The former Dallas Cowboys defensive back is now in his second year as head coach of the 7-2 Colorado Buffaloes.
The Buffs have a chance to win the Big 12 title this year. They must defeat 4-5 Utah at home this Saturday, win at 3-7 Kansas, and finish the regular season with a win over 3-8 Oklahoma State in Boulder.
After a less-than-stellar 4-8 2023 rookie season as head coach at Colorado, Deion Sanders’ 2024 Buffaloes team is already assured of posting the school’s first regular season winning record since 2016.
Meanwhile in Dallas, Texas, Cowboys franchise owner Jerry Jones has a team which is sinking fast. The Dallas Cowboys are now a disappointing 3-6 with their $60 million/year quarterback Dak Prescott out for the season with a hamstring injury.
The current head coach in Dallas (Mike McCarthy) is on the final year of his current contract. After two successive 12-5 seasons which ended with early playoff losses, McCarthy is likely to be shown the door after five years in Big D unless the team rallies down the stretch.
Though the “Deion to Dallas” idea is largely a media-driven creation, remember that Deion Sanders’ coaching career has closely followed his sons’ football careers. He started coaching his sons’ football team in high school. Then, he became the head coach at Jackson State to coach them again in college.
After great success at Jackson State, the Colorado Buffaloes hired Deion Sanders two years ago to turn around their program. Yes, he brought his football-playing sons along with him to Colorado as well.
Mission accomplished in 2024!
Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shadeur Sanders is considered one of the top college quarterback prospects in next spring’s NFL draft. If the Dallas Cowboys “tanked” for the rest of this season to obtain one of the top five draft picks, there is a chance that they might lure Daddy Sanders to coach his son in Dallas.
Of course, Dallas would need to find a trading party willing to take $60 million/year quarterback Dak Prescott off their hands. In all likelihood, Dallas would need to chip-in a sizable portion of Prescott’s remaining contract in order to make that deal happen.
Crazier things have happened. Jerry Jones recently turned 82. Most Dallas Cowboys fans would like nothing better than to see ol’ Jer finally retire and leave the team’s operations to others.
Once a meddler, always a meddler.
It wouldn’t surprise me that spotlight seeking Jerry Jones might be willing to give the Dallas Cowboys coaching job to Deion Sanders after the upcoming college football bowl season.
The Tampa Bay Rays are looking for a home in 2025
In October, Hurricane Milton ripped the roof off the St. Petersburg, Florida domed stadium home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team. Repairs are expected to take most of 2025 to complete.
Where will the Major League Baseball franchise play ball next season?
There are several options in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, but none of the facilities hold more than 11,000 fans. Then again, the Rays have been one of the worst draws in baseball for several years and have been rumored to be moving to another city for two decades.
In 2024, the Tampa Bay Rays had the 28th worst home attendance (16,500/game) among the league’s thirty teams. Only the woeful Miami Marlins and Oakland A’s drew fewer fans.
The New York Yankees spring training facility is located in Tampa.
George M. Steinbrenner Field has a seating capacity of about 11,000 and is home to the Class A minor league Tampa Tarpons.
Those two teams might be able to work a suitable arrangement to avoid conflicts on the same day. For example, one team could play during midday and the other at night.
A smaller venue in St. Petersburg called Al Lang Stadium might also be utilized. Currently home to the Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer team, the stadium (built in 1947) was formerly the site of a minor league baseball team. This facility only holds 7,000 fans but could be utilized in 2025 for the Rays baseball team.
The Tampa Bay Rays own a spring training facility located in Port Charlotte (located 82 miles south of St. Petersburg). The Port Charlotte Sports Park is available for the Rays but only holds 7,600 fans.
A popular idea is to utilize the ESPN (Disney) Wide World of Sports baseball complex at Disney World in Orlando.
However, baseball players living in Tampa would need to travel 100 miles up Interstate 4 to play home games in this 10,000 seat facility in Orlando.
Has anyone noticed that the NBA Cup started play this week?
Me, either.
Since virtually no one cares about the NBA’s lengthy 82-game regular season, the league invented an in-season tournament last year called the NBA Cup. It’s time to test your NBA knowledge!
Q: Who was the winner of the inaugural NBA Cup in December, 2023?
A: The Los Angeles Lakers
This week, the second NBA Cup tournament began with the first of seven “Cup Nights” being played through Tuesday, December 3.
The top eight teams will play in the quarterfinals on Tuesday and Wednesday, December 10 and 11. The semifinals are on Saturday, December 14. The 2024 NBA Cup winner will be crowned on Tuesday, December 14.
What does the winning team receive? A prize pool will be awarded to each team depending on how far each squad advances. Each player on a quarterfinalist team will receive $50,000 with the championship players receiving a bonus of $500,000 apiece.
While that may motivate many players, the top 25 players in the NBA already receive regular season pay of more than $500,000 per game.
Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors is #1 earning nearly $56 million this season. That calculates to more than $682,000 per regular season game!
Nice work if you can get it!
SwampSwami vs. the College Football Playoff Rankings – Round 2
The howls from around the nation increased after Tuesday night’s release of the College Football Playoff Top 25 teams and its projected 12-team playoff field. Everyone needs to relax as there are several weeks prior to the selection of the final playoff teams.
These CFP rankings are simply used to generate more viewer interest for ESPN’s playoff games. They paid a fortune for the TV rights to the 12-team playoffs starting in late December.
This week, four of the top five teams in the CFP rankings came from the Big Ten Conference.
Oregon (now 10-0) led the way followed by #2 Ohio State (9-1), #4 Penn State (9-1), and #5 Indiana (10-0). Texas (now in the SEC) broke up the Big Ten cartel. They came in at #3 with a 9-1 record through last weekend’s play.
This week’s Top 25 was comprised of:
SEC – 9 teams (Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Ole Miss, Georgia, Texas A&M, South Carolina, LSU, and Missouri)
Big Ten – 4 (Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, and Indiana)
ACC – 4 (Miami, SMU, Louisville, and Clemson)
Big 12 – 3 (BYU, Kansas State, and Colorado)
American – 2 (Army and Tulane)
There was one spot each for independent Notre Dame, the Mountain West (Boise State), and Pac-2 (Washington State).
Just like last week, there were no representatives from Conference USA, the Mid-American, and the Sunbelt Conference (despite UL-Lafayette’s impressive 8-1 record).
About those Boo birds…
The catcalls about the Big Ten getting four of the top five rankings have some merit. Those four teams have (generally) not played very difficult schedules when compared to this year’s expanded 16-team SEC.
In particular, the CFP #4 team (Penn State) flunked its biggest test thus far with a 20-13 home loss to Ohio State. The 9-1 Nittany Lions’ best win came against 6-3 (and fading fast) Illinois.
It’s also possible that the SEC whiners might be wrong, too. They believe that 7-2 Georgia’s ranking is too low.
I disagree.
The Bulldogs have lost road games at Alabama and Ole Miss.
Georgia’s #12 CFP ranking would leave them out of the new 12-team playoff mix. That’s because one of the Group of Five Conference teams must receive a spot in the playoff field. #13 ranked Boise State would get the 12th spot and squeeze Georgia out of the playoff mix.
In fairness to the College Football Playoff committee, Georgia was dominated by Ole Miss last Saturday in their 28-10 loss in Oxford. The Bulldogs’ offense has struggled at times this season, and their usual tough defense has allowed more yardage and points than in recent years.
Your SwampSwami has Georgia ranked at #18 this week.
If the Dawgs should win Saturday night’s big home game against 8-1 Tennessee, Georgia will move up in the rankings next week.
Here’s how the CFP 12-team playoff teams would look this week:
Compare that to the SwampSwamiSports.com 12-team playoff teams:
Let’s see how the teams and playoff positions change after this weekend’s college football games.