Your Daily Sports Recap: Inaugural Edition (Mint, Still in Box)

December 3, 2014

RotoBaller's Adam Sabol recaps all the biggest sports news and stories of the previous day in his daily look around the world of sports, including NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and NCAA

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the inaugural Daily Sports Recap here at RotoBaller.

Every morning, I will give you a breakdown of the biggest sports stories of the previous day so you too can look well-informed when you need a water cooler small-talk topic.  (You're on your own if someone asks about the weather though.  Best I can tell you is "That cloud looks kind of like NFL legend John Elway."  I am shockingly not great at small talk.)

Do not expect objective review of box scores.  Someone thought it was a good idea to let me spout my opinions about sports news, so I'm going to live it up here until they wise up.  If you want to get off the ride, now's the time.  If not, make sure you keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times, and buckle up.

Your First Ever Story

Brady Hoke is Fired as Michigan's Head Coach on the Same Day that Rich Rodriguez Wins Pac-12 Coach of the Year

What, you were expecting a joke here?  Was the headline not enough?

For those of you not in the know, Rich Rodriguez was the head coach of the University of Michigan's football team for three years which were largely regarded as a disaster.  The hire was unpopular from the beginning, in part due to the myth of the "Michigan Man," which science disproved in early 2008.  This seems as good a time as any to tell you that I am an Ohio State University guy, so any analysis will in fact come through my thick scarlet-colored glasses.  Michigan fans may want to look away.

After Rodriguez's firing in 2011, Brady Hoke was hired to run the Michigan football program, and things did not get better for the Wolverines. Save an overachieving debut season where their rivals either beat them or were crippled by NCAA sanctions, the wheels completely fell off the wagon, and Hoke's record dropped every season.  Meanwhile, Ohio State hired Urban Meyer and proceeded to run a 24-0 train over the Big Ten in three seasons of conference play.  If this sounds like gloating, that's because it is.

Jim Harbaugh's name will crop up about 5000 times during Michigan's coaching search, due to his success at Stanford and his ties to the university (Harbaugh played quarterback for Michigan during his college career).  People realizing that's probably not going to happen will float out Les Miles' name, but Miles seems entrenched at LSU.  I'll be keeping an eye on this situation as it develops, if only because unintentional comedy is often the best.

Your Second Story Ever

College Football Playoff Rankings!

Undefeated Florida State has fallen to fourth overall in the weekly College Football Playoff rankings, behind one-loss Alabama, Oregon and TCU.  Frustrated Florida State fans wonder aloud what they have to do to get some respect in the polls, as they run the very real risk of being leapfrogged by the last of the one-loss teams, Ohio State and Baylor.

However, the answer is very obvious to the Daily Recap: Florida State needs to drop the ACC championship to Georgia Tech and therefore pickup the last remaining piece of the championship puzzle: the Quality Loss.  All three other teams in the playoff bracket have losses to teams ranked within the selection committee's Top 15: Alabama's loss to No. 12 Ole Miss,Oregon's loss to No. 7 Arizona and TCU's loss to No. 6 Baylor.  Seminoles, if you want a shot at defending your title, you know what you need to do: let Georgia Tech take this one.

I'm sure there are also Baylor fans who are confused as to why they're on the outside looking in while TCU sits comfortably at third overall with only a game against 2-9 Iowa State left on their schedule. Unfortunately for them, the quality loss seems to be conspiring against them as well.  Baylor suffered a two-touchdown loss to West Virginia, a team that's already picked up five losses.  TCU is in a much better spot, since the only game they've lost was to...one-loss Baylor.  It makes sense if you don't think about it.

And that's officially it for your first ever Morning Recap, which is hopefully your only Morning Recap, since if I can't come up with something better by tomorrow, I'm just going to hide under a blanket and never come out again. Stay tuned for more each morning and follow me @amsabol7.