Chaos reigns in college football

Chaos. Confusion. Disarray.

College football is, in its purest sense, entropy. It tends to disorder and randomness, and every season, there is at least one weekend where all heck breaks loose.

That these things happen when they do (in November) is to be expected. That these things happen how they do, however, is nothing but entropy.

How else to explain Michigan losing to an average-at-best Iowa squad? How else to make sense of Washington’s high-powered offense sputtering at home against USC? How else to understand why Clemson’s defense couldn’t stop Pitt all day? How else to comprehend that after 112 games, Mount Union actually lost yesterday?

That’s entropy for you.

It’s the reason why Ohio State could beat Michigan and possibly make it to the College Football Playoff without even winning its own division of the Big Ten. It’s one of the reasons why, despite not enjoying the SEC’s primacy, the ACC could be the conference with two teams in the final four. It’s probably the reason why 8-1 West Virginia isn’t even in contention, but 8-2 Wisconsin still is—although there are undoubtedly other reasons too. Entropy doesn’t defeat politics, at least not always.

Where then do we stand after yesterday’s carnage? Well, weirdly, we’re probably right where we started eleven weeks ago with Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, and a Pac-12 team (still probably Washington) rounding out the top four.

But since entropy is the only constant, who knows what will happen next week?

So sit back and enjoy the ride. It will be fun while it lasts.

Football

Kansas State was off this weekend, which made it easier to watch chaos descend on college football.

But what did the Wildcats do with this late-season reprieve? Well, hopefully they tried to fix the gaping holes in the pass defense, especially with Baylor (even hamstrung and wounded) coming up (Scott Popp, K-State Collegian).

Mitch Lochbihler has taken over kickoff duties from Ian Patterson, as the latter has stepped in to kick field goals and extra point attempts for the injured Matthew McCrane. Lochbihler’s primary talent is the one you can’t teach: size. At 6’7”, 240 pounds, he dwarfs almost everyone else on the team (Kellis Robinett, Kansas City Star).

Fans are still hot under the collar about the Oklahoma State, including the one play so infamous, it now has its own convenient shorthand: The Punt. In his weekly Q&A, Kellis suggests that The Punt may not have been the worst part of that game. That’s no consolation, because it means Kansas State failed on so many other levels that day.

Among other things, the loss to Oklahoma State pushed Kansas State’s game against Baylor into that 11 AM slot we all love so much.

Basketball

Last year, the men’s basketball team finished last in the Big 12 in three-point shooting. This year, the first game revealed improvement from beyond the arc. In the victory over Western Illinois, the Wildcats hit on 10 of 14 three-point attempts, with Xavier Sneed going 4-of-5 and Barry Brown going 2-for-2 (Ken Corbitt, Topeka Capital-Journal).

Bruce Weber conceded that it’s unlikely Kansas State will be shooting 71% from the three-point range over the course of the season, but the fact that more than one player can legitimately shoot the ball is heartening.

Meanwhile, the women’s basketball squad will be going for its 300th win when the Wildcats tip off against Tulsa at Bramlage Coliseum on Monday night. Jeff Mittie will continue his march to 500 wins. He’s about 10 short of the mark right now, so it could happen this season.

Tennis

At the San Diego Fall Tennis Classic, the tennis team had a strong showing. Ana Garcia Navas qualified for the singles final in the White bracket where she will take on San Diego State’s Kennedy Davis. Meanwhile, the doubles pairing of Carolina Costmagna and Palma Juhasz will play in the Black bracket title game against North Texas’s Maria Kononova and Alexandra Heczey Sunday.

Iva Bago and Livia Cirnu teamed up to make the doubles semifinals in the Silver bracket, but did not make it to the finals. They’ll play in a third-place consolation match today.

Happy Sunday, all!