Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder Matt Kemp, left, get splashed by right fielder Yasiel Puig after the Dodgers defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 in Game 2 of baseball’s NL Division Series in Los Angeles, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Saturday was one of those days where everything good about the sports world converged. We already had a great prelude Monday night with the Oakland Athletics-Kansas City Royals wild card game, while wild in almost every sense has been proven just to a run-of-the-mill in this crazy baseball postseason. Then there was second-ranked Oregon being upset at home by Arizona Thursday night. With so many ranked teams facing off against each other, it was assumed that Saturday was going to be a fun day.
Saturday was better than expected.
It started with sixth-ranked Texas A&M going to Starksville only to get spanked by the 12th-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs. Then later up the road in Oxford 11th-ranked Ole Miss just got past third-ranked Alabama making Mississippi the epicenter of college football glory for one day. It didn’t stop there.
Fourth-ranked Oklahoma lost to 25th-ranked TCU. 17th-ranked Wisconsin lost to unranked Northwestern. Perennial Big Ten powerhouse Michigan lost to Rutgers, perennial has-beens who are in their first season in the Big Ten. Arizona State beat 16th-ranked USC on a Hail Mary in the Coliseum. Preseason SEC East favorites South Carolina lost to Kentucky. Utah found a way to upset eighth-ranked UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Cal beat Washington State 60-59 to end the day despite Cougars quarterback Connor Halliday breaking the FBS passing record with 734 yards.
If that wasn’t enough, the San Francisco Giants beat the Washington Nationals 2-1 in the 18th inning on a Brandon Belt homer after Pablo Sandoval sent the game to extras on an RBI double in the ninth. And the Dodgers salvaged a game in their series against the St. Louis Cardinals on a Matt Kemp solo shot in the eighth after Matt Carpenter tied the game 2-2 in the top of eighth with his two-shot homer.
It was a day when nothing was predictable and chaos reigned supreme. And as I wrote a a couple of weeks ago, that’s when I enjoy sports the most.
Looking at the Napkin College Football Rankings, they’re really starting to resemble the picture we have in our minds. I think Notre Dame and Florida State are a bit overrated, but we’ll see.
1. NOTRE DAME (10.5 points)
2. AUBURN (10 points)
BAYLOR
MISSISSIPPI STATE
5. TEXAS A&M (9.5 points)
UCLA
7. ARIZONA (9 points)
LOUISVILLE
9. FLORIDA STATE (8.5 points)
10. BYU (8 points)
GEORGIA TECH
NEBRASKA
OKLAHOMA
