Free Republic

TIME (ET) MATCHUP TV 12:00 PM No. 11 Oklahoma at TCU 12:00 PM No. 23 Oklahoma State at Baylor FX 12:00 PM UCF at Tulsa 2:30 PM Nicholls State at No. 15 Oregon State Pac-12 Network 2:30 PM Kansas at West Virginia 3:00 PM Middle Tennessee at Arkansas State 3:00 PM Louisiana-Lafayette at Florida Atlantic 3:30 PM No. 20 Boise State at Nevada 3:30 PM Cincinnati at Connecticut 4:00 PM No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 3 Georgia* CBS 4:00 PM New Mexico State at Texas State 7:00 PM Pittsburgh at South Florida 8:00 PM No. 18 Texas at No. 6...

There is a problem with the Bowl Championship Series, but it’s not the one you probably think. College football doesn’t need a playoff. A traditional playoff system – an eight-team or even four-team bracket – brings nothing in the way of advantages over the current system and probably would make things considerably worse. Don’t tell me the traditional architecture for playoffs is the only – or even most – accurate way to determine a champion. The St. Louis Cardinals just won the World Series under that system despite having fewer wins in the regular season than any other team that...

For a few unforgettable days in 1941, it seemed fate had plans for Larry Munson that had nothing to do with the Georgia Bulldogs. After all, once you’ve shared the stage with Frank Sinatra, it’s hard to dream of night games in Starkville, Miss. As a high school senior in Minneapolis, Munson was, by his own account, a “decent” piano player who loved jazz. He was in class when the phone call came. The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, in town and scheduled to play 28 shows over the next week, had lost its regular piano player to illness. “I had no...

Boise, Idaho — It's 1,838 air miles from here to Atlanta, as the Delta non-stop 737 crow flies. Dan Miller's sojourn to Sanford Stadium will last a wee bit longer. He's flying in from Baghdad, a three-day, four-country odyssey, in order to see his son Tad and his Boise State teammates open the season Sept. 3 at Georgia. And you thought game-day traffic on 316 lasts an eternity. "I would not miss it for the world!" Miller, a retired police lieutenant with the Boise Police Department, who's helping to train Iraqi police officers, wrote in an exuberant e-mail. "It will...