Scoreboard, and playoff odds.

With one game left to play for most teams, five of the six playoff spots are already settled in each conference:

As of Sunday, the Eagles are now favored to take the NFC East (72% likelihood), thanks to their victory over the Cowboys (now down to 28%).  It seems that nobody wants to win the final AFC Wild Card. The Steelers and Titans both lost, so the new probabilities are:

Steelers 30%
Titans 55%
Raiders 15% (!! Wouldn’t that be a pisser.)

The Titans only need to win. The Steelers need to win while the Titans lose. The Raiders can only make it if they win and the other two lose.

The Ravens have clinched the home field advantage and a first-round bye in the AFC, but the NFC is much more complicated. Four teams are still contending for the top seed (49ers, Saints, Packers, Seahawks). One will get the top seed, permanent home field edge, and a first-round bye. Another team will get the second seed and the other first-found bye. A third team (Seahawks or 49ers) will end up as a wild card team, and the fourth will have to play against a wild card team in the first round. If the season ended this minute, the Niners would get the top seed and the Saints would get the other first-round bye, but that could change dramatically based on the remaining games.

“Some of Trump’s defenders have said that if he is impeached by the House but not convicted in the Senate and removed from office, he’s eligible to run for two more terms because the impeachment itself nullifies his first term in office.”

That’s not true, of course, but if it were

1) the Democrats could run Bill Clinton!

2) since the House will probably keep impeaching Trump, he could stay in office forever, possibly even after his death.

The lesson from Saturday’s games: an undefeated record in Mountain West play don’t mean jack. Boise State got its collective ass kicked by Washington, a mediocre Pac-12 team (4-5 in conference play). The final score was 38-7.

In other news, the kids of Kent State and Liberty won the first bowl games in the history of their schools. Pretty much nobody cared except their proud parents. Kent State had started the season 3-6 and won their last three to somehow qualify for a bowl in the first place. I sound like I’m ridiculing them, but I have to give them credit for some big cojones. That 6-6 record was hard-earned because they did not play a pussy schedule. Their regular season opponents included Auburn and Wisconsin in two games they lost by 39 and 48.