NPR’s Scott Simon and sports writer Howard Bryant discuss the NFL regular season’s halfway point and the expansion of college football’s playoff format.
Transcript
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
And now it’s the stirring tunes of BJ Leiderman, who writes our theme music. It’s time for sports.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Flights get grounded. Is the game still on? NFL football halfway point, college football playoffs. Everyone’s invited. Howard Bryant joins us now. Hi there, Howard.
HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott. How are you?
SIMON: Fine, thank you. Listen, the ground stop – did it affect some college games?
BRYANT: Yeah, Scott, you have Ole Miss, top-20 team, having to play Oklahoma. That game was moved from Saturday to Sunday, and there were threats of forfeit. Tons of chaos over in the West Coast of – the, you know, Big West games are out there as well. I think one of the things that people don’t realize is how finely tuned professional and college sports are. You’ve got a massive machine here that has to be dealt with. You’ve got referees. You’ve got the flights. You’ve got hotels. And when you have a ground stoppage like that, the entire schedule gets thrown into chaos.
SIMON: I want to ask you about the NFL regular season, ’cause we’re nine weeks down, nine to go. Buffalo Bills, San Francisco 49ers look like the best teams. But the best league is the NFC North. If the season ended today – this is amazing – every team in that division, the – da Bears…
BRYANT: (Laughter).
SIMON: …Vikings, Lions and Packers would make the playoffs, which has never happened in NFL history. What are they putting into the water in the Great Lakes?
BRYANT: Yeah. It’s great this year, and what’s kind of interesting about it is that they’re doing it all different ways. The Chicago Bears – your Chicago Bears – your…
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: …Monsters of the Midway, actually doing it with offense this year. They’re scoring a ton of…
SIMON: Right.
BRYANT: …Points in that division. And Minnesota, of course, is doing it with defense. And I think it’s been really sort of – it’s a good moment because all of these teams are in the same division, so they’re going to knock each other off, so it’s going to be pretty unlikely that they all make the playoffs. But they are the best teams.
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: And let’s also – let’s not forget, because we know you’ve got a national listenership there, you don’t want to short – Denver is very, very good. Jacksonville…
SIMON: Right.
BRYANT: …Is outstanding. San Francisco is very good. There’s a lot of good teams this year. You’re getting – the NFL is sort of getting the parity it wants. And then you’ve got a couple of sophomore slumps, as well, because the defending American Conference Patriots aren’t playing very well. They’re 5 and 4. But also, let us not forget that it’s still pre-Thanksgiving. December is when we start seeing who’s really about it.
SIMON: Starting next season, college football playoffs will expand to 24 teams.
BRYANT: (Laughter).
SIMON: Does this make the whole concept of a national championship a little less precious?
BRYANT: A lot less precious, Scott. And it really does – it speaks to the sort of chaos that we were expecting with both the NIL and the transfer portal and all the changes. And I really don’t even want to bring NIL into it because this is real – this is much more NCAA and organizational-driven. It’s really not the players so much. They just went from 12 two years ago.
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: And so now you’re going to go from 12 to 24 for – you had a little bit of stability for the first several years of the college football playoff. For, I think, the first nine years, it was four teams, and then it went from 12 to 24 in a year. And so I just think that this is – sometimes I think, Scott, and my conspiracy theories sort of run away. I sort of think that because there’s so much interest in reforming college sports from a government level, as well, that there’s an interest in making this look as chaotic as possible because there’s absolutely no stability in the – in college sports right now.
SIMON: Finally, awards week for Major League Baseball. (Shouting) PCA, PCA.
BRYANT: (Laughter).
SIMON: Pete Crow-Armstrong of – what’s that team? – the Chicago Cubs won the national…
BRYANT: A lot of Chicago in this show, Scott.
SIMON: Oh, maybe there is. National League MVP. What stood out for you in this award season?
BRYANT: Well, I think it was PCA himself. I mean, Pete Crow-Armstrong – I really enjoy when you have a player who’s a good player. And then they have a year where they become a great player. And he was a great player this year. It’ll be really interesting to see what he does going forward. But to be called a league MVP is something extremely special, and he deserved it. I mean, outstanding center field this year. And let’s also not forget Yordan Alvarez from the Houston Astros, who also won.
SIMON: When PCA hits the field, exciting things might happen.
BRYANT: (Laughter).
SIMON: He keeps your attention. Howard Bryant, thanks so much.
BRYANT: My pleasure, Scott.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEEDOMETER’S “TOMAHAWK”)
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