Notes of Note: 1st CFP Rankings; Does Regular Season Matter? Stanford Basketball Previews; Quotes of the Week

Tomorrow is election day, but to college football fans, it's the day when the College Football Playoff Selection Committee releases its first rankings.

This year, because the playoff is expanding from four teams to 12, there is even more interest than usual in the committee's evaluations. About 25 teams still have a realistic chance of being in the playoff, so lots of folks will be holding their breath tomorrow to see where their favorite team ranks.

Which, so far, has made the regular season seem as important as ever. Attendance and ratings are up.

Here's my best guess as to what the committee's rankings will look like tomorrow: 1. Oregon, 2. Georgia, 3. Ohio State, 4. Miami, 5. Texas, 6. BYU, 7. Indiana, 8. Penn State, 9, Notre Dame, 10. Tennessee, 11. Boise State, 12. Alabama.

(Note: It's possible the committee will rank the teams by allocating the No. 1-4 spots to the projected Power 4 conference champs, as they will do in the final seedings, in which case Miami--as the projected ACC champ--would move up to No. 3 and BYU--projected Big 12 champ--would move up to 4.)

Not in the NBA: In the NBA, by contrast, the regular season is shrinking in significance. More and more fans are checking in only occasionally and waiting for the games that really matter...the lengthy (did someone say interminable?) four-round, best-of-seven playoff.

The situation has worsened in recent years as many coaches have increasingly utilized "load management," which translates to resting their top players on a regular basis to make sure they're still healthy when the real season--the playoffs--begin. 

Load management, and the increasing use of G-league players, has had an impact on regular season TV ratings. After opening night was slightly up, the NBA saw big declines for the rest of its first week schedule. That will continue if stars keep resting and G-leaguers keep playing.

Not to mention several teams being content to just jack up threes at the expense of "old-fashioned" set plays, motion, pick and rolls, screens, back door cuts, etc.

Meanwhile, in the NFL: Unlike the NBA, the NFL regular season is flourishing.

NFL attendance and ratings have traditionally suffered every four years in the run up to a presidential election. Four years ago, it was exacerbated by the pandemic, and ratings and attendance plummeted.

But so far in 2024, NFL ratings and crowds are stronger than ever.

The season has been full of exciting games, last-second finishes, and increased parity. It's also possible that the current political climate is so toxic that people are looking to football for an escape.

I can relate.

College Hoops Begin: New Stanford men's basketball coach Kyle Smith makes his debut this afternoon when the Cardinal opens the season at home against Denver.

Smith was the Pac-12 Coach of the Year last season at Washington State when he led the Cougars to 25 wins. He brought his entire staff with him to Stanford and also added former Cardinal great Eric Reveno, who served as an assistant on the Farm from 1997-2006 and later was head coach at Portland and an assistant at Oregon State.

Smith has one of the top centers in the nation in 7-1 Maxime Raynaud, who averaged 15.5 points and 9.6 rebounds and earned Most Improved Player in the Pac-12 last year. 

But the Cardinal lost three important players to the transfer portal--soph Andrej Stojakovic (Cal), soph Kanaan Carlisle (Indiana), and senior Brandon Angel (Oregon).

Smith tried to replace those losses by dipping heavily into the portal himself, bringing in five transfers--guards Jaylen Blakes (Duke), Oziyah Sellers (USC), and Derin Saran (UC Irvine) and forwards Chisom Okpara (Harvard) and  Cole Kastner (Virginia).

Okpara, who averaged 16.5 ppg at Harvard, Blakes, 1.8 points for the Blue Devils, and Sellers, 5.8 at USC, are vying for spots in the starting lineup, along with Raynaud, junior point guard Benny Gaeler, a former walkon, and 6-10 freshman redshirt Aidan Cammann.

The Cardinal was picked last in the 17-team ACC by the attendees at ACC media day. Smith is hoping his new charges will prove them wrong.

New Look for Stanford Women: Stanford also has a new coach on the women's side, with longtime associate coach Kate Paye taking over for an icon, retired three-time NCAA champ Tara VanDerveer, the winningest coach in college basketball history.

Paye was a member of Stanford's 1992 national championship team and played professionally in both the ABL and WNBA. Her brother, John Paye, was one of the top two-sport athletes in Stanford annals, starting at point guard for the basketball team and quarterback in football.

I got to know Kate during her time playing for the ABL's Seattle Reign, and have always admired her toughness and competitiveness. She started as a walk-on at Stanford, and was originally one of the most under-rated players in the ABL, before proving herself at both levels.

I think she'll do the same as head coach at Stanford. The Cardinal open the 2024-25 season tonight against Lemoyne, unranked for the first time since 1999 and picked to finish seventh in the ACC, due to the graduation of All-American Cameron Brink and the transfer of star forward Kiki Iriafen.

Paye has re-loaded with two solid transfers--guard Tess Heal from Santa Clara and forward Mary Ashley Stevenson from Purdue--plus three talented freshmen in guard Shay Ijiwoye and forwards Harper Peterson and Kennedy Umeh.

Don't bet against her. The Cardinal doesn't have Final Four, or probably even Sweet 16 talent, but they'll surprise some people.

Quote of the Week: From Army Athletic Director Mike Buddie, whose Black Knights are undefeated and ranked 18th in the nation: 

"My colleagues often express their envy of where we are. We have our challenges--when Russia invades Ukraine, it impacts our recruiting--but we're not hiring a GM to do our payroll."

Final Campaign Quotes: My feelings about tomorrow's presidential election are well known, so I won't repeat myself today. Instead, I'd like to close with a couple quotes. 

First, this summation from Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, a lifelong conservative Republican, who opted out of the Trump cult: 

"Standing in front of the illuminated White House on the very spot where felon and former president Donald Trump summoned the mob to attack the Capitol, Kamala Harris called for unity, vowed to be an inclusive president and implored us to reject another “petty tyrant.” The contrast with Trump’s Madison Square Garden event — a grotesque and vulgar display of racism — could not have been starker. As the campaign has gone on, Harris has become more confident, eloquent and, yes, presidential; Trump has become more crass, unhinged, angry and scattered...If the Harris voters show up at the polls in numbers the campaign expects, democracy will survive a near-death experience."

And this from the Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board: “America deserves much more than an aspiring autocrat who ignores the law, is running to stay out of prison, and doesn’t care about anyone but himself.”

Amen.