THE WAGON WHEEL STAYS IN KENT.

We aren’t going to talk about my Super Contest numbers. I’ll save that for Thursday afternoon.

But remember when I told you the Broncos could be 5-2 hosting Kansas City on November 1. Well, here we are. It’s Chiefs hate week!

The Chiefs were embarrassed in Seattle on Sunday night, meaning they will be on a mission heading into Denver. I know how Patrick Mahomes is, and more importantly I know how good of a coach Andy Reid is. This is going to be THE game of the week.

With a Broncos win, they’ll be tied atop the division with KC. And all you Chiefers reading this, watch out. I’m going to be on some next level Mahomes narrative talk if he can’t win in Denver on Sunday.

“Did Matt Nagy actually have a Patrick Mahomes problem in KC?”

It’s one of the biggest games of the season for both teams as well as myself. The Broncos can’t get swept by Kansas City. My friends and girlfriend plus probably all the Swifties will destroy me. Bo Nix has to continue to improve alongside the offense as a whole. Getting rookie RB Jonah Coleman back was a huge lift to the offense, as he outsnapped both RJ Harvey and JK Dobbins in his first game back off IR.

I’ll dive more into the biggest NFL rivalry in my life later this week along with recapping Week 7.

For now, let’s talk college football.

So many teams lost this week that I almost don’t even want to rank anyone this week. With this being the last week before the College Football Playoff, I thought it would be a good time to understand how this committee will rank the teams come Sunday, November 1 when the first iteration of the CFP Rankings is revealed.

There are multiple layers to look at. Let’s start with this week’s upcoming schedule and run through a couple different scenarios.

Big 12 Teams: Texas Tech OR Arizona; BYU and Utah (with wins)

I feel pretty confident the Big 12 could see three teams in the playoff in its first rendition. Texas Tech is ranked #13 and Arizona is #22. They play in Lubbock on Saturday, and the winner has a chance to jump into the top 12. If Tech and Arizona didn’t have this ranked matchup this week, we’d be getting a fifth SEC team in the first CFP bracket. Even if Arizona wins, I could see LSU or Ole Miss or Notre Dame making it in over the Wildcats.

Big 10 Teams: Indiana, Ohio State, UCLA (with wins)

No real drama here in the Big 10 at this stage. Oregon just suffered its third lost, eliminating them in all likelihood from a playoff appearance. The Ducks had a very disappointing season. I think there’s a chance Ohio State and Indiana end up 2/3 in the first rankings.

ACC Teams: Miami (with win)

I don’t see a world where No. 14 Wake Forest jumps two spots when the rankings are released. Nobody outside of Miami has emerged as a national threat, so as long as Miami takes care of business on the road against North Carolina they will be the number one team in the committee’s first rankings.

SEC Teams: Georgia (with win), Kentucky, Alabama, Texas (with win)

It’s going to get murky in the SEC with LSU, Ole Miss, Texas and potentially Florida all battling for these spots. Both Kentucky and Alabama are on bye this week so they can’t lose. If Florida can upset Georgia, the committee is going to have a dilemma. Everyone has beat everyone in the SEC… are there really four teams that deserve a playoff spot? If I have to pick between LSU, Texas and Ole Miss right now, I’m taking Texas to be included in the opening rankings. I do believe Texas has the biggest win, coming from behind against Ohio State. They just beat Ole Miss who already beat LSU earlier this year. The Tigers and Longhorns will battle on November 14 in Baton Rouge and we’ll find out on the football field.

Group of Five Team: Boise State

Right now, Boise State is the only group of five (G5) team in the top 25 of the AP Poll. They aren’t the only G5 team in my rankings though. Oregon State was ranked last week for me, and they are moving up this week. The Beavers and Broncos will play in Boise on November 14 in a pivotal game in determining the G5 representative. There is one team that has emerged out of the American Conference. UTSA sits at 7-1 with the only loss being on the road against Texas. But the rest of their schedule hasn’t been strong, and here’s the kicker. They have a 6.0% chance to win out according to CFPPredictor.com - Boise State has a 38.0% chance. It’s an uphill battle. New Mexico isn’t far behind after a huge win over North Dakota State, but they only have an 8.0% chance to win out. It’s Boise’s race to lose, and if I may smoke this blunt-ly, it isn’t particularly close.

Notre Dame note: I think the committee will probably include Notre Dame, but if we’re being honest they haven’t played ANYONE. The only tough game they’ve played was at BYU and they lost. But the AP Poll has Notre Dame #5. I get they only have one loss and I also have them inside my top 10, but I’m wondering how the committee will view their resume. I don’t think they’ve done enough to be in the playoff, but ranking them sets up a potential top 5 matchup against Miami on November 7. And ratings are all that matters.

College Football Playoff Initial Bracket Prediction:

Game of the Week: No. 20 Florida at No. 3 Georgia — Georgia will be fresh off a bye week after losing to Auburn. This is going to be a great test for both sides. If Florida can pull off the upset, the SEC is going to get a whole lot more interesting to sort out. If Georgia wins, they put themselves at the top of the conference for now. Bulldogs’ QB Gunnar Stockton is going to have to bounce back after his multiple turnover performance two weeks ago.

Game of the Week 2: No. 23 Arizona at No. 10 Texas Tech — If you want the best story of the weekend check out Arizona’s 5’7 edge rusher, Dash Fifita.

Fifita led the Wildcats’ defense with 6 tackles, 2.0 sacks and 2.5 tackles for loss in Arizona’s 39-3 win over Iowa State. His brother, Noah Fifita, is the starting QB for the Wildcats. He’s one of the best and most underrated QBs in the entire country. Much like Dash, Noah is undersized. He stands at 5’10 but he’s a gamer. He’s completing 74% of his passes this season, and he’s thrown for 18 touchdowns to just 4 interceptions. Most impressive of all, he has Arizona in the thick of a Big 12 race with a 6-1 record. Meanwhile Tech is coming off a beatdown of a loss on the road at Cincinnati. The loser of this game is going to face an uphill battle to the CFP.

Game of the Week 3: Florida Atlantic at North Texas — ESPN’s matchup indicator has UNT with an 88.7% chance to win this one, but I can see a world in which FAU battles. This game will feature two top 10 passing offenses in the country, and you’ve heard me mention FAU QB Caden Veltkamp before. I believe the 6’5 QB will be drafted come April. The issue I can see here is the matchup of North Texas’s offense against FAU’s defense. The Mean Green rank 2nd in the country in total offense, while the Owls’ defense ranks 134th in yards per game. UNT’s QB Tayven Jackson is another potential late round QB prospect, though he’s likely an undrafted rookie signee. He’s thrown for 3+ touchdowns in five of his last six games.

The WNBA. Commonly referred to as “the W”

The Women’s National Basketball Association, for long. (Wouldn’t the NWBA make more sense, grammatically?)

The Golden State Valkyries are currently leading the Atlanta Dream, 3-2, in the WNBA Finals. Its the second season of the franchise, and they are facing Angel Reese, who has arguably become the second-most popular player in the sport.

Name three WNBA players playing in the Finals. Reese would be at the top of that list, if you can even name any. LOL look at you trying to name three. You can’t do it.

The reason you and most casual fans of sports can’t is because the W gets overshadowed by the World Series, the NBA and all of football season. It’s also overshadowed by Bravo, Traitors, DWTS and Love Is Blind. We live in a world so overloaded with content that almost nobody cares enough to be fully invested in one thing, let alone multiple.

And no individual has the time to be fully invested in everything going on.

There’s simply too much of it.

There are only so many hours each day people get for entertainment (roughly 5-7 hours, if that). Most people work “9-5” jobs or some form of it. Business tends to happen during the day. By the time you eat, shower, maybe “get a work out in” 😉 that number shrinks by half.

Add in the fact that some women prefer reality TV and most men prefer men’s sports, the league is left with a conundrum. How do they get eyeballs when both men and women would rather be watching other things?

The W has the solution. And for the first time ever, they listened to me.

They won’t be competing with NFL Sunday. They won’t be competing with the World Series. They won’t be competing with the NBA or college football.

The W won’t be competing with any other sports.

“How did they pull that off in a prime time spot on such short notice?

…

They did get a prime time spot right?

…

Right?”

No. No they did not. Nothing like a little lunch time WNBA to make you want to crank out the rest of your shift on an empty stomach. Jokes, jokes.

_{“All good jokes contain true shit” - J. Cole}

This is another in a long line of mishaps regarding the WNBA and how they manage their schedule.

First off, the season is too long and getting longer. The league expands to a 50-game regular season in 2027. But the league has to wait until the college hoops season ends so they can hold the draft, usually in April. Without being able to move the season up and still adding more games, this crossover with other sports is inevitable. We're going to have WNBA during the holidays.

It’s inevitable.

Future me will be sat for a pivotal WNBA Finals game on Thanksgiving Day at 2:30 in the afternoon on USA Network.

I’ve been screaming into the void for years talking about how the W needs to schedule its product around other sports. Not all the time, and not exclusively, but when they can make it work.

This game was never scheduled, so they had a choice. Of all the options, this is what they chose. 12:30pm Eastern on a Thursday.

YOU CAN’T PUT A WNBA FINALS GAME ON A THURSDAY AFTERNOON.

Afternoon is applied loosely here as the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones will still be experiencing coffee breath.

You can’t schedule any championship series match in any team sport (other than soccer because its night time in Europe) during lunch time in the middle of a work day. What purpose does that serve? Who is asking for that?

The league clearly doesn’t care about the fans, the teams, or the players if this is what they thought was best for the product.

It’s ridiculous. It’s asinine. It’s fucking moronic, not to mention entirely preventable, that the Valkyries are going to be popping champagne at 3:00pm eastern on Thursday.