The National at Midweek, 11/14/12: Discussion Thread.

It's been three days now. Three days of letting it sink in. Three days of being number one. Feels pretty good, doesn't it? Throw in a 3-0 start by the basketball team and we're 13-0 this fall and everything is roses and champagne.

Contrary to the disrespect meme, our pals at the mothership seem to have every bit of respect for the Wildcats (though the comments across the board are loaded with elemental pain complaints from the gluteal region of leprechauns). Today's regular features include looks at the BCS standings (both pre- and post-release) from Samuel Chi, bowl projections from Jason Kirk, Spencer Hall's look at the top 25, Shutdown Fullback, Troll Tuesday (wherein Andrew Sharp obnoxiously touts Notre Dame for the express purpose of riling you, yes, you up), the BlogPoll, and Bill Connelly's Numerical.

In other features, Bill examines Texas A&M's destruction of the "spread offense won't work in the SEC" meme, and also previews Stanford/Oregon. Jason looks at how the new playoff/access bowl system would have worked going back to 1998 (spoiler: K-State would have gone to seven major bowls in the last 15 seasons, including this year). Alligator Army's Andy Hutchins digs into the strange story of Sharrif Floyd, legally adopted at the age of 20, and over at Barking Carnival there's a Cormac McCarthy callout examining the career arc of one Mack Brown courtesy of Good.Shepherd.

A comment from me on the Floyd piece: this has the potential to turn into a major landmine for the NCAA, for obvious reasons. As Andy correctly notes, the NCAA can't be in the business of judging whether a legal adoption is kosher or not. At the same time, it's a loophole ripe for exploitation by wealthy boosters, at least in cases where we're talking about a "fatherless" athlete. It's a tricky situation, and I can think of no extrication plan which wouldn't bar truly legitimate adoptive parents from supporting their own adoptive children. And no, while it's certainly a bit odd for a "child" to be adopted at age 20, a hard age cap won't work. First, that's not going to stop 17-year-olds from being adopted for football purposes, and it's not weird at all for a 17-year-old to be adopted. Second, as odd as it is to adopt an adult, it's not unheard of either. People do it in order to ensure inheritances, you know. (Also, Bruce Wayne adopted Dick Grayson after Dick had already moved out of the Batcave. So, you know, there's that.)

Anyway. Enough of my opinion. Go check out the menu, and then spit out your own opinions down below.