Fortuna Files: Can everyone chill?
A reminder: First-round football games usually aren't that competitive, and that's never going to change.
Why is everyone so mad? It’s the holidays, Charlie Brown.
1. A quick refresher, since apparently everyone has come down with memory loss: Last year’s first-round Playoff games were decided by 10, 28, 14 and 25 points. The losing teams were Indiana, SMU, Clemson and Tennessee, respectively. And that 10-point Indiana loss, by the way, was a 27-3 game with two minutes left.
2. Good thing the Playoff banned the Hoosiers from ever competing again after that showing, right? Clearly, that’s a fraudulent program. Thankfully, everybody got their wish and will never be subjected to them in a big football game again.
3. Now that we got that piece of sarcasm out of the way: For the love of all things holy, can we collectively stop whining about the inclusion of Group of 5 teams in the 12-team field? No, Tulane and JMU weren’t particularly competitive in their Saturday losses. But were any of last year’s first-round losers? This year we got two competitive games out of four, with the road team winning those two close contests. Both of those numbers are two more than we had last year. That’s progress.
