— Texas A&M’s football team is 6-4 this year, 4-3 in SEC; in 5+ years under Jimbo Fisher, they went 45-25, 27-21 in SEC games, winning their last game 51-10 over Mississippi State. That wasn’t good enough for whoever calls the shots in College Station- over the weekend, they told Fisher to take a hike, but Fisher has to be laughing all the way to the bank.
In the next 60 days, A&M has to pay Fisher $19.3M; in the 60 days after that, A&M owes Fisher another $7.2M. Thats million, with an M.
From 2025-31, Texas A&M will pay Fisher another $7.2M a year- from this point on, they have to pay him a total of $77M. Whoever is writing those checks must really hate being 6-4.
— By the way, Mississippi State also fired their coach Monday; Zach Arnett had a 4-6 record in his first full year as head coach, replacing the late Mike Leach, who died suddenly last year. Arnett’s buyout is around $4M; he figures to land somewhere as a defensive coordinator in ’24.
— San Diego State football coach Brady Hoke will retire at the end of the season; Aztecs are 3-7 this season, their first losing season since 2009. San Diego State is 26-19 since Hoke returned as head coach in 2020.
Overall, he is 104-90 as a head coach.
— Penn State lost 24-15 to Michigan Saturday; the next day, they fired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich. In their losses to Ohio State/Michigan this year, Nittany Lions gained 240-238 total yards.
— Broncos 24, Bills 22
Denver kicked a 36-yard FG at the gun for the win.
Denver missed a 41-yard FG on prior play; Bills had 12 guys on the field.
Broncos win despite missing two extra points.
Third straight win for the Broncos.
Bills ran ball 26 times for 192 yards (7.4 yards/carry).
Buffalo turned ball over four times, including their first two drives.
Bills are 5-0 giving up 20 or less points, 0-5 giving up more than 20.
Buffalo lost four of its last six games (0-6 ATS) SU.
— College football conference trends:
Favorites are 31-16 ATS in SEC games.
Underdogs are 24-19 ATS in Sun Belt games.
Pac-12 home underdogs are 12-4 ATS
Mountain West home underdogs are 6-10 ATS
Favorites are 25-15 ATS in MAC games.
AAC home favorites are 7-16 ATS
ACC home underdogs are 13-6 ATS
Big X home underdogs are 13-5 ATS
Big 14 home underdogs are 6-15 ATS
Conference USA favorites are 18-11 ATS
— NFL divisional trends:
NFC East teams are 9-14 ATS outside the division
NFC North home favorites are 10-2-1 ATS outside the division
NFC South home underdogs are 6-2 ATS outside the division
NFC West underdogs are 1-6 ATS outside the division
AFC East home favorites are 5-3-1 ATS
AFC North road underdogs are 3-8-1 ATS outside the division
AFC South home teams are 4-10-1 ATS outside the division
AFC West home teams are 7-4 ATS outside the division
— Word of the Day: assume- to take for granted that something is true, without proof.
— Arizona Wildcats alum, former big league manager Terry Francona was behind the Arizona bench when the Wildcats beat Duke in basketball the other day in Durham.
— Over the last four seasons, LA Chargers are 10-13 in games decided by 3 or less points, 0-4 this season.
— College football QB’s with most plays of 20+ yards this season:
76- Jayden Daniels, LSU
57- Michael Penix, Washington
55- Caleb Williams, USC
— Dallas Cowboys won/covered all four home games this year; they’ve won 12 home games in a row overall, the longest home winning streak in franchise history.
— This stat is from NFL Research:
Over the last 40 years, these teams spent the least time trailing in a game, over the first 10 games of their season:
14:46- 1984 Dolphins (started season 10-0, lost Super Bowl)
27:07- 1998 Broncos (started season 10-0, won Super Bowl)
28:46- 2023 Ravens (started season 7-3)
43:42- 1990 Giants (started season 10-0, won Super Bowl)
51:03- 2007 Patriots (started season 10-0, lost Super Bowl)
— Penn 76, Villanova 72
Quakers shot 56.7% inside arc, made only 21-34 on foul line.
Villanova was 9-33 on the arc.
Bad loss for Villanova team starting four seniors.
— Michigan 89, St John’s 73
Michigan led 48-38 at half, shot 58% inside arc, scored 1.24 ppp.
St John’s shot 37.5% inside the arc.
— Raptors 111, Wizards 107
Washington led 106-90 with 7:20 left in game.
Siakam scored 39 points; Raptors were +18 with him on court.
