College football’s strangest undefeated team, plus the Bills’ confusing season

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Good morning! The World Series starts tonight.

Catch Up: What do we do with the Bills? TGIF. We have a lot of ground to cover.

Last night, quickly: In the NFL, the Bills looked … fine. They are this year’s mystery team, a talented offense that likes to sputter at inopportune times paired with a defense that’s suffered too many injuries. Buffalo moved to 5-3 with a 24-18 win over the 3-4 Buccaneers last night, but probably should’ve won by multiple scores. It’s a win, though. Don’t miss The Athletic Football Show’s live reaction to a weird game.

In the NBA, the Bucks are already scary. Milwaukee withstood a playoff-worthy effort from the James Harden-less Sixers and still won. Damian Lillard had 39 points and introduced himself to the home crowd in style. The Bucks look like the best team in the East, but don’t discount the Sixers if Tyrese Maxey is gonna put up 31 points regularly. Also: The Lakers bounced back. A fourth-quarter comeback gave LeBron James and LA their first win of the season, a 100-95 victory over a Suns team missing Devin Booker and Bradley Beal. It was a nice reminder that LeBron is still LeBron, even at 38, as he scored 10 of his 21 points in the fourth and even guarded Kevin Durant some down the stretch.

Hi, Our Name Is: The strangest undefeated team in college football

There are weird stories, and then there is the tale of the 2023 James Madison football team. The Dukes are undefeated and arguably the most impressive Group of 5 team (a college football term similar to “mid-major”). They’re also not allowed to win anything of substance.

Some quick background: James Madison entered FBS last year after nearly 20 years as an FCS powerhouse. From 2004 to 2021, the Dukes made 13 playoff appearances, winning two national title games. The move up made sense. Due to an NCAA rule, they are not allowed to play in any postseason game as part of their transition to FBS (more on this in a bit). It hasn’t slowed them down. They went 8-3 in their first FBS season last year and sit 7-0 right now, ranked No. 25.

Virginia legislators are making noise about fighting the NCAA over it. I turned to The Athletic’s senior college football writer Chris Vannini to help me make sense of JMU:

Chris: JMU has gone on this 15-3 start in FBS while breaking in new quarterbacks both years. This year, Jordan McCloud transferred in from Arizona and leads the Sun Belt in pass efficiency. JMU hasn’t missed a step while making such a big jump, despite major change at a key position.

Chris: The rule itself, no. It’s been around for two decades, and people know the rule. Many schools have faced this same problem. Georgia Southern went 8-0 in conference play in its second transition year in 2014 and didn’t get a bowl game. However, JMU’s situation is unique because most schools spend that first of two transition years down in FCS, but the Dukes immediately joined the Sun Belt. I was a bit surprised JMU’s waiver to shorten the transition to one year wasn’t approved, since it was a unique situation that is hard to duplicate, but the NCAA’s Board of Directors and Division I Council didn’t want to set a precedent.

Chris: Right. For New Year’s Six games, the CFP only considers teams deemed eligible by the NCAA. This also means JMU won’t be in next week’s initial CFP rankings, even if they’re top-25 in the polls.

The Dukes play Old Dominion tomorrow in a bid to remain undefeated and make the NCAA look worse.

And, wait, why are they good? As Max Olson writes, a nasty defense has propelled the Dukes thus far.

News to Know

The USWNT and Colombia played to a 0-0 tie last night in the first of two friendlies between the teams this week. The Americans slightly outplayed the Colombians, holding an edge in time of possession but missing this penalty kick: URL

The two teams play again Sunday in San Diego.

A hearing determined that former Michigan State coach Mel Tucker violated the university’s sexual harassment policy during a phone call with Brenda Tracy, the sexual violence prevention advocate who made the initial complaint against Tucker. The university fired Tucker a month ago over the incident. He plans to appeal the decision. More details here.

Oof. Our first bad weekend came at the midway point, which sounds like some hardcore coping, but here I am. Sorry for betting against my LSU Tigers. I’ll never do it again.

This week’s picks, quickly (all odds via BetMGM):

No. 13 Utah (+255) vs. No. 8 Oregon

Utah never plays a pretty version of football, but the Utes have been largely unstoppable over the last two seasons. I like them to grind out a win against a talented Ducks team. If you’re not this bold, take the Utes (+6.5) against the spread.

Kentucky (+3.5) vs. Tennessee

I cribbed this from Austin Mock’s best bets file and groaned as I did. Not because the pick is bad, but, as Austin also attests, this could be an ugly game. These are two similar teams with similarly maddening results this year. I choose the Cats.

Patriots (+9.5) vs. Dolphins

Winced again, but logic steers me here. New England has had a weird season but looked great last week against the Bills, and we forget the first meeting between these two was only a 24-17 Miami win. Give me Mac Jones and the points? Yeesh.

Jets and Giants UNDER 36.5

This might be the game of the week for none of the reasons we expected before the year. The Jets are feisty with Zach Wilson, as are the Giants with Tyrod Taylor at quarterback. What a world. I think the Jets defense clamps down.

Pulse record overall: 17-15-1

Pulse Picks

Pete Carroll is 72, and you’d never know it. He is less human being and more perpetual energy molded into a human form. The best evidence, per his players: His “circus” team meetings, which they call “the funniest sh— ever.” Michael Shawn-Dugar has a hilarious tale of the most interesting meetings in football.

This was a must-read for me: Max Olson talked to a sign-stealing college football coach and came away with 10 lessons. It might change your perception of the Michigan scandal a bit.

Get some last-minute intel with our Week 8 NFL fantasy rankings. Sam Howell? Yes, Sam Howell.

I thought Chandler Rome’s column on the retired Dusty Baker was outstanding. Baseball will miss this manager.

Wilt couldn’t do it. Neither could Kareem, Hakeem or Shaq. Jason Jones goes deep on Elmore Smith and the big-man record that still stands, 50 years later.

The Premier League is playing over Christmas. Some fans are unenthused.

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