Culture
What we learned about the College Football Playoff: Who’s in? Who’s safe? Who’s on bubble?
We have seen college football teams back into the College Football Playoff, losing their last regular-season or conference title game and still earning a spot in the four-team field.
This happened to Alabama in 2017 after losing the Iron Bowl and to Ohio State after it lost to Michigan in 2022. That was the same season TCU of the Big 12 became the first team to lose its conference championship game (to Kansas State) and still get in. In all those cases, that loss was the team’s only loss.
Now with a 12-team CFP, backing into the Playoff has a whole new meaning. Looking at you, Ohio State (10-2). Miami (10-2), too.
What we learned about the College Football Playoff in the last full weekend of the regular season is we have a pretty good idea of who will be in the College Football Playoff heading into championship weekend.
GO DEEPER
College Football Playoff 2024 projections: What now for Ohio State after Michigan upset?
Playing for a bye
No. 2 Ohio State’s faceplant against Michigan opened the door for No. 4 Penn State to reach the Big Ten Championship Game against No. 1 Oregon. Side note: Congratulations to the Ducks (12-0) for being the only FBS team to get through 12 games unscathed.
The matchup is set 🦁🦆
Early thoughts on who will win the B1G title game?#B1GFootball pic.twitter.com/F5josIsL2T
— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) November 30, 2024
The Nittany Lions (11-1) and Ducks look to be safely into the bracket, with the winner getting a bye. Worst case for the Ducks is hosting a first-round game. Penn State could fall all the way out of a hosting spot, depending on how other championship games work out.
The SEC has a similar situation with No. 7 Georgia (10-2) facing No. 3 Texas (11-1), which clinched a spot after beating rival Texas A&M. We doubt the committee will punish Georgia for reaching the championship game, though it would be in the Bulldogs’ best interest to not get blown out by the Longhorns.
GEORGIA. TEXAS.
THE REMATCH FOR A TITLE. 🏆#SECChampionship pic.twitter.com/xpIiXZ65Rk
— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) December 1, 2024
Coming off that great escape against Georgia Tech on Friday night in eight OTs, Georgia doesn’t want to give the selection committee any reason to reconsider Alabama or Mississippi, both of which beat the Bulldogs.
Winner gets in, loser goes home
A wild Big 12 race ended somewhat routinely. All the favorites won this weekend, putting No. 18 Iowa State (10-2) and No. 16 Arizona State (10-2) in the conference title game. We’ll see what the penultimate rankings say Tuesday, but the committee has not been overly kind to the Big 12, which means only the winner will make the field as one of the five highest-ranked conference champions.
Sun Devils. Cyclones.
🏆
📍 Arlington, Texas.
📅 12.7.24
📺 ABC🎟️🔗: https://t.co/O7OY7wQRck pic.twitter.com/K5FENUTn1U
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) December 1, 2024
Same goes for the Mountain West, where No. 11 Boise State hosts No. 22 UNLV on Friday night. The American Athletic Conference will argue for Army (10-1) if it beats Tulane in that title game, but the Cadets failed their Notre Dame test badly and played one of the weakest schedules in the country.
🏈 Highlights from UNLV’s 38-14 win over Nevada!#MWFB | #BEaREBEL | #MWPathToThePlayoff pic.twitter.com/gUUX1K6wBB
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) December 1, 2024
An interesting race has developed between the Mountain West and Big 12 for the No. 4 seed and bye.
Ashton Jeanty and the Broncos (11-1) have held that spot in the last two rankings, comfortably ahead of the highest-ranked Big 12 team. How much the Big 12 can close the gap — if at all — is something to watch Tuesday.
The Broncos beat Oregon State 34-18 on Friday. On Saturday, Iowa State knocked off No. 24 Kansas State 29-21 and Arizona State thumped Arizona 49-7.
UNLV also being ranked — with two victories against Big 12 teams — makes it seem unlikely that the Big 12 title game winner will slingshot past Boise State if the Broncos win. And the Rebels will probably have a good case to make a big leap forward if they win on the Blue Turf.
Bid-stealer
Clemson had a weird day.
The Tigers lost 17-14 to rival South Carolina, with Cade Klubnik throwing a brutal interception in the waning moments when Clemson (9-3) was in position to tie it with a short field goal.
South Carolina holds off Clemson for its sixth-straight win‼️ pic.twitter.com/UOTr9dGWAv
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) November 30, 2024
But the Tigers did get the help they needed to earn a spot in the ACC Championship Game when Syracuse rallied from 21-0 down in the first half to beat No. 6 Miami 42-38.
“Hey, Dabo Swinney, congrats. I got you in, baby!” Orange coach Fran Brown said.
The Tigers will face No. 9 SMU (11-1). The Mustangs appear safely in the field no matter what happens in Charlotte, N.C. Win the conference, earn a bye. Easy.
Clemson has no path with a loss but shouldn’t have a problem being one of the five highest-ranked conference champions if it wins the ACC. Whether that’s good enough to get a top-four seed and a bye is iffy.
But if Clemson is in along with SMU, then another team looking good for an at-large spot right now is getting bumped.
Safe
Ohio State’s latest loss to Michigan was the worst one yet during this four-game skid in The Game.
Still, the second-ranked Buckeyes (10-2) are in a group that looks safely into the bracket even though they won’t play championship weekend.
No. 5 Notre Dame (11-1) closed the season with 10 straight victories. The Fighting Irish can’t earn a bye because they’re not in a conference but should have no trouble getting the first-round home game that they have been pointing toward since the end of last season.
Whether the Irish are seeded No. 5, 6 or 7 will be determined by the conference title games.
No. 8 Tennessee (10-2) wiped out an early deficit and beat Vanderbilt 36-23 on Saturday, giving the Volunteers a fairly stress-free week of waiting to find out if they will go on the road or host a first-round game.
As for the Buckeyes, being in position to back into the Playoff seemed to be no consolation for losing to Michigan again.
“I’m not there right now, quite honestly,” Buckeyes coach Ryan Day said when asked about resetting for a possible playoff run. “Still trying to digest everything that just happened, and I got a locker room full of guys who are just devastated.”
GO DEEPER
Meet 2024 Ohio State, the unhappiest Playoff team in college football history
Kinda safe
As we said, if Clemson wins somebody is getting bumped.
Who will be that someone?
How about Miami? The Hurricanes already handed the Tigers their spot in the ACC title game. The Canes had several great escapes early in the season but closed the year losing two of four. On the bright side, losing one-score games to Georgia Tech (7-5) with Haynes King and at Syracuse (9-3) is nothing to be ashamed of.
The Canes don’t have a bunch of wins against highly ranked teams, but the resume looks better than expected with Tech, Louisville (8-4), Duke (9-3) and Florida (7-5) all closing well.
“This team won 10 football games against some really good teams,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal told reporters after the loss to Syracuse.
What about Indiana?
This committee seems unlikely to turn away an 11-1 team, with its only loss at Ohio State, but the fact remains that outside of the Buckeyes, the only team the Hoosiers played that finished above .500 was Michigan (7-5).
Hey, Ohio State couldn’t beat the Wolverines at home and Indiana did. So that’s something.
Both the Hoosiers and Hurricanes should become big SMU fans.
SEC on the bubble
The committee hasn’t shown much interest in giving these three-loss SEC teams the benefit of a doubt, but the company line is every week the group starts with a blank sheet of paper, so we should be open-minded to a big shift.
The hot team is No. 15 South Carolina, which closed the season with six straight victories.
“If the committee’s job is to pick the 12 best teams, you tell me?” South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said.
Ironically, South Carolina’s case gets even better if Clemson wins the ACC, but Clemson winning the ACC also clutters the list of at-large teams by adding SMU.
The other issue South Carolina has is losses to the two teams ranked directly ahead of it: No. 13 Alabama and No. 14 Mississippi.
“Well, I think everyone’s aware of our schedule, and I don’t know the exact stats, but I know we beat four Top-25 teams throughout the year. And I don’t know how many, if anyone, has done that,” Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer said.
It’s actually three since LSU dropped out. Still, victories against Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina are nice. Those losses to Oklahoma and Vanderbilt? Both finished 6-6.
Surely, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey will have something to say about it, but his opinion doesn’t count.
(Photo of South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers running the ball against Clemson’s T.J. Parker: Isaiah Vazquez / Getty Images)
A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself — or have a lasting influence on an author. With that in mind, this week’s literary geography quiz highlights the final stops for five authors after a life of writing. To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. At the end of the quiz, you’ll find links to the books if you’d like to do further reading.
Whatever you do, don’t think of a bird.
Now: What kind of bird are you not thinking about? A pigeon? A bald eagle? Something more poetic, like a skylark or a nightingale? In any case, would you say that this bird you aren’t thinking about is real?
Before you answer, read this poem, which is quite literally about not thinking of a bird.
Human consciousness is full of riddles. Neuroscientists, philosophers and dorm-room stoners argue continually about what it is and whether it even exists. For Wallace Stevens, the experience of having a mind was a perpetual source of wonder, puzzlement and delight — perfectly ordinary and utterly transcendent at the same time. He explored the mysteries and pleasures of consciousness in countless poems over the course of his long poetic career. It was arguably his great theme.
Stevens was born in 1879 and published his first book, “Harmonium,” in 1923, making him something of a late bloomer among American modernists. For much of his adult life, he worked as an executive for the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, rising to the rank of vice president. He viewed insurance less as a day job to support his poetry than as a parallel vocation. He pursued both activities with quiet diligence, spending his days at the office and composing poems in his head as he walked to and from work.
As a young man, Stevens dreamed of traveling to Europe, though he never crossed the Atlantic. In middle age he made regular trips to Florida, and his poems are frequently infused with ideas of Paris and Rome and memories of Key West. Others partake of the stringent beauty of New England. But the landscapes he explores, wintry or tropical, provincial or cosmopolitan, are above all mental landscapes, created by and in the imagination.
Are those worlds real?
Let’s return to the palm tree and its avian inhabitant, in that tranquil Key West sunset of the mind.
Until then, we find consolation in fangles.
When the director Rob Reiner cast his leads in the 1986 film “Stand by Me,” he looked for young actors who were as close as possible to the personalities of the four children they’d be playing. There was the wise beyond his years kid from a rough family (River Phoenix), the slightly dim worrywart (Jerry O’Connell), the cutup with a temper (Corey Feldman) and the sensitive, bookish boy.
Wil Wheaton was perfect for that last one, Gordie Lachance, a doe-eyed child who is ignored by his family in favor of his late older brother. Now, 40 years later, he’s traveling the country to attend anniversary screenings of the film, alongside O’Connell and Feldman, which has thrown him back into the turmoil that he felt as an adolescent.
Wheaton has channeled those emotions and his on-set memories into his latest project: narrating a new audiobook version of “The Body,” the 1982 Stephen King novella on which the film was based.
A few years ago, Wheaton started to float the idea of returning to the story that gave him his big break — that of a quartet of boys in 1959 Oregon, in their last days before high school, setting out to find a classmate’s dead body. “I’ve been telling the story of ‘Stand By Me’ since I was 12 years old,” he said.
But this time was different. Wheaton, who has narrated dozens of audiobooks, including Andy Weir’s “The Martian” and Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One,” says he has come to enjoy narration more than screen acting. “I’m safe, I’m in the booth, nobody’s looking at me and I can just tell you a story.”
The fact that he, an older man looking back on his younger years, is narrating a story about an older man looking back on his younger years, is not lost on Wheaton. King’s original story is bathed in nostalgia. Coming to terms with death and loss is one of its primary themes.
Two days after appearing on stage at the Academy Awards as part of a tribute to Reiner — who was murdered in 2025 alongside his wife, Michele — Wheaton got on the phone to talk about recording the audiobook, reliving his favorite scenes from the film and reexamining a quintessential story of childhood loss through the lens of his own.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
“I felt really close to him, and my memory of him.”
Wheaton on channeling a co-star’s performance.
There’s this wonderful scene in “Stand By Me.” Gordie and Chris are walking down the tracks talking about junior high. Chris is telling Gordie, “I wish to hell I was your dad, because I care about you, and he obviously doesn’t.”
It’s just so honest and direct, in a way that kids talk to each other that adults don’t. And I think that one of the reasons that really sticks with people, and that piece really lands on a lot of audiences, and has for 40 years, is, just too many people have been Gordie in that scene.
That scene is virtually word for word taken from the text of the book. And when I was narrating that, I made a deliberate choice to do my best to recreate what River did in that scene.
“You’re just a kid,
Gordie–”
“I wish to fuck
I was your father!”
he said angrily.
“You wouldn’t go around
talking about takin those stupid shop courses if I was!
It’s like
God gave you something,
all those stories
you can make up, and He said:
This is what we got for you, kid.
Try not to lose it.
But kids lose everything
unless somebody looks out for them and if your folks
are too fucked up to do it
then maybe I ought to.”
I watched that scene a couple of times because I really wanted — I don’t know why it was so important to me to — well, I know: because I loved him, and I miss him. And I wanted to bring him into this as best as I could, right?
So I was reading that scene, and the words are identical to the script. And I had this very powerful flashback to being on the train tracks that day in Cottage Grove, Oregon. And I could see River standing next to them. They’re shooting my side of the scene and there’s River, right next to the camera, doing his off-camera dialogue, and there’s the sound guy, and there’s the boom operator. There’s my key light.
I could hear and feel it. It was the weirdest thing. It’s like I was right back there.
I was able to really take in the emotional memory of being Gordie in all of those scenes. So when I was narrating him and I’m me and I’m old with all of this experience, I just drew on what I remembered from being that little boy and what I remember of those friendships and what they meant to me and what they mean to me today.
“Rob gave me a gift. Rob gave me a career.”
Wheaton recalls the “Stand By Me” director’s way with kids on set, as well as his recent Oscars tribute.
Rob really encouraged us to be kids.
Jerry tells the most amazing story about that scene, where we were all sitting around, and doing our bit, and he improvised. He was just goofing around — we were just playing — and he said something about spitting water at the fat kid.
We get to the end of the scene, and he hears Rob. Rob comes around from behind the thing, and he goes, “Jerry!” And Jerry thinks, “Oh no, I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble because I improvised, and I’m not supposed to improvise.”
The context for Jerry is that he had been told by the adults in his life, “Sit on your hands and shut up. Stop trying to be a cutup. Stop trying to be funny. Stop disrupting people. Just be quiet.” And Jerry thinks, “Oh my God. I didn’t shut up. I’m in trouble. I’m gonna get fired.”
Rob leans in to all of us, and Rob says, “Hey, guys, do you see that? More of that. Do that!”
The whole time when you’re a kid actor, you’re just around all these adults who are constantly telling you to grow up. They’re mad that you’re being a kid. Rob just created an environment where not only was it supported that we would be kids — and have fun, and follow those kid instincts and do what was natural — it was expected. It was encouraged. We were supposed to do it.
They chanted together:
“I don’t shut up,
I grow up.
And when I look at you I throw up.”
“Then your mother goes around the corner
and licks it up,”
I said, and hauled ass out of there,
giving them the finger over my shoulder as I went.
I never had any friends later on
like the ones I had when I was twelve.
Jesus, did you?
When we were at the Oscars, I looked at Jerry. And we looked at this remarkable assemblage of the most amazingly talented, beautiful artists and storytellers. We looked around, and Jerry leans down, and he said, “We all got our start with Rob Reiner. He trusted every single one of us.”
And to stand there for him, when I really thought that I would be standing with him to talk about this stuff — it was a lot.
“I was really really really excited — like jumping up and down.”
The scene Wheaton was most looking forward to narrating: the tale of Lard Ass Hogan.
I was so excited to narrate it. It’s a great story! It’s a funny story. It’s such a lovely break — it’s an emotional and tonal shift from what’s happening in the movie.
I know this as a writer: You work to increase and release tension throughout a narrative, and Stephen King uses humor really effectively to release that tension. But it also raises the stakes, because we have these moments of joy and these moments of things being very silly in the midst of a lot of intensity.
That’s why the story of Lard Ass Hogan is so fun for me to tell. Because in the middle of that, we stop to do something that’s very, very fun, and very silly and very celebratory.
“Will you shut up and let him tell it?”
Teddy hollered.
Vern blinked.
“Sure. Yeah.
Okay.”
“Go on, Gordie,”
Chris said. “It’s not really much—”
“Naw,
we don’t expect much from a wet end like you,”
Teddy said,
“but tell it anyway.”
I cleared my throat. “So anyway.
It’s Pioneer Days,
and on the last night
they have these three big events.
There’s an egg-roll for the little kids and a sack-race for kids that are like eight or nine,
and then there’s the pie-eating contest.
And the main guy of the story
is this fat kid nobody likes
named Davie Hogan.”
When I narrate this story — whenever there is a moment of levity or humor, whenever there are those brief little moments that are the seasoning of the meal that makes it all so real and relatable — yes, it was very important to me to capture those moments.
I’m shifting in my chair, so I can feel each of those characters. It’s something that doesn’t exist in live action. It doesn’t exist in any other media.
“I feel the loss.”
Wheaton remembers River Phoenix.
The novella “The Body” is very much about Gordie remembering Chris. It’s darker, and it’s more painful, than the movie is.
I’ve been watching the movie on this tour and seeing River a lot. I remember him as a 14- and 15-year-old kid who just seemed so much older, and so much more experienced and so much wiser than me, and I’m only a year younger than him.
What hurts me now, and what I really felt when I was narrating this, is knowing what River was going through then. We didn’t know. I still don’t know the extent of how he was mistreated, but I know that he was. I know that adults failed him. That he should have been protected in every way that matters. And he just wasn’t.
And I, like Gordie, remember a boy who was loving. So loving, and generous and cared deeply about everyone around him, all the time. Who deserved to live a full life. Who had so much to offer the world. And it’s so unfair that he’s gone and taken from us. I had to go through a decades-long grieving process to come to terms with him dying.
Near the end
of 1971,
Chris
went into a Chicken Delight in Portland
to get a three-piece Snack Bucket.
Just ahead of him,
two men started arguing
about which one had been first in line. One of them pulled a knife.
Chris,
who had always been the best of us
at making peace,
stepped between them and was stabbed in the throat.
The man with the knife had spent time in four different institutions;
he had been released from Shawshank State Prison
only the week before.
Chris died almost instantly.
It is a privilege that I was allowed to tell this story. I get to tell Gordie Lachance’s story as originally imagined by Stephen King, with all of the experience of having lived my whole adult life with the memory of spending three months in Gordie Lachance’s skin.
NFL.com proposes blockbuster Detroit Lions draft-day trade
Headlines, April 1 – Streetsblog San Francisco
Jonathan Bullard on what he brings to Dallas: ‘Smarts, toughness, physicality’
Boston celebrates first goal in club history – Equalizer Soccer
Denver Summit Acquires Land for Future Mile High City Stadium
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Indiana Members Credit Union announced as new anchor tenant at Bottleworks District
Video: Trump Says U.S. to Leave Iran ‘Very Soon’
April showdowns: 4 key races to watch this month that will test Trump, GOP grip on power
Newsletter: Energy shock has Brussels on edge
Suspension lifted for helicopter pilots who hovered near Kid Rock’s home
Hegseth’s Secret Mideast Trip; Artemis II Prepares for Liftoff | March 31
-
South-Carolina3 days agoSouth Carolina vs TCU predictions for Elite Eight game in March Madness
-
Miami, FL6 days agoJannik Sinner’s Girlfriend Laila Hasanovic Stuns in Ab-Revealing Post Amid Miami Open
-
New Mexico1 week agoClovis shooting leaves one dead, four injured
-
Culture1 week agoDo You Know the Comics That Inspired These TV Adventures?
-
Minneapolis, MN6 days agoBoy who shielded classmate during school shooting receives Medal of Honor
-
Education1 week agoVideo: Trader Joe’s Dip Head-to-Head Taste Test
-
Tennessee1 week agoTennessee Police Investigating Alleged Assault Involving ‘Reacher’ Star Alan Ritchson
-
Vermont3 days agoSkier dies after fall at Sugarbush Resort