Author: Scott Adamson

The title game of the NFL is still nine weeks away, but North America’s other major professional outdoor football league crowned its champion on Sunday.

And it’s going to be really, really hard for Super Bowl LII to match it.

The 105th Grey Cup featured the Calgary Stampeders (14-5-1) and Toronto Argonauts (10-9), the last teams standing in the Canadian Football League.

By the end of a spectacular, snowy night before 36,154 fans at TD Place in Ottawa, Toronto was 11-9 and owners of an amazing 27-24 victory.

How amazing?

Try a 100-yard pass play to account for the Argonauts’ first score of the game, and a 109-yard return of a fumble for a touchdown that flipped the contest from a sure Stampeders win to a thrilling comeback – and upset.

With Calgary leading 24-16 and threatening inside the Toronto 10, Kamar Jordan caught a pass, but fumbled while trying to squeeze his way closer to the end zone. Cassius Vaughn picked up the loose cargo at his own 1 and took it to the house.

The 2-point conversion tied the game, and then Lirim Hajrullahu kicked a 32-yard, game-winning field goal with 49 seconds to play.

I have no idea how many other people in the United States besides me watched last night, but those who didn’t missed out on something special. It was the culmination of another great year in a great league, one that receives little attention here but has my full attention once its regular season begins in the summer.

I’ll even go so far as to say I usually enjoy the Grey Cup more than the Super Bowl: this was the sixth of the last seven CFL championships decided by a touchdown or less.

And it’s significant to note that the game is played while it’s still gridiron season. Quite frankly, by the time the NFL hits the first Sunday in February, I’ve been ready for football to be over for a month. It doesn’t help matters that the Super Bowl has become an overblown TV production with far too many extended timeouts and a lengthy halftime that disrupts the flow of the game.

Of course the Grey Cup halftime was extended from the usual 14 minutes to 28 (Shania Twain was the featured performer, arriving via dogsled), but that’s OK.

The game itself, which started around 6:40 p.m. EST, clicked right along at a snappy pace, and Toronto players were awash in confetti three hours later.

For American fans tuning in for the first time, they might not have recognized a lot of the names and faces in the contest.

Calgary’s QB is Bo Levi Mitchell, who started his college career at SMU and finished at Eastern Washington. Last year’s league MVP (or Most Outstanding Player, as the CFL calls the honor), Mitchell threw for 5,073 yards and 25 touchdowns in the 2017 season.

The Stamps also had a 1,000-yard rusher in Jerome Messam (1,078 yards) and Marquay McDaniel was the top receiver on the team with 906 yards.

Toronto was led by longtime CFL signal caller Ricky Ray, who amassed 5,843 yards and tossed 29 TDs through 19 contests. His title game stat line was 19-32-0 for 297 yards and a TD in what might have been his pro football curtain call.

S.J. Green was Ray’s favorite target during the year – to the tune of 1,518 receiving yards – and James Wilder was an effective runner for the Argos with 885 yards on the ground.

On this night it was former Ohio State standout DeVier Posey who took MVP honors, catching seven balls for 175 yards and a touchdown.

Ray became the first CFL starting quarterback in history to win four Grey Cups, and he did it at the ripe young age of 38.

Successful quarterbacks in the CFL will always put up dazzling numbers, because when you have just three downs to make 10 yards, you’ll throw the ball a lot.

But I’ve already been over the rules (check out my column from Nov. 9), which are peculiar to those unfamiliar with the Canadian game but terrific once you get used to them.

Look, I get that it’s hard for some Americans to warm up to this brand of “international” football.

The NFL is the top-tier of the game, and NCAA football is wildly popular.

Just as there are people who can walk and chew gum at the same time, though, some of us can enjoy CFL, NFL and NCAA football all at once, too.

And Sunday – for me – Canadian football took center stage.

I’m already looking forward to its return next June.

While much of the American sporting world has turned its attention to the NFL today (or, in my case, the CFL’s Grey Cup), thousands and thousands of college football fans are still either celebrating rivalry wins or groaning about losses that will have to stay with them for an entire year.

And for a guy who didn’t have a stake in any of yesterday’s heavyweight battles, it was fun to just plop down at ringside and watch how things unfolded.

And what did I learn?

A lot.

For starters, Clemson (11-1) might just be the best team in the Football Bowl Subdivision – again. While the Tigers’ 34-10 win over South Carolina was expected, only those who watched saw just how dominating it was.

The Gamecocks have improved under Will Muschamp, and entered the contest with an 8-3 record, home field advantage and a real hope they could avenge last year’s 56-7 beat down.

They couldn’t.

Oh, the score line was better this time around, but there was never a moment when the defending national champions were threatened (unless you count the threat posed by some idiot fans who threw projectiles from the stands at Williams-Brice Stadium.)

You’ll likely never see a more dominating 24-point victory.

“I do think we’re starting to play our best football, I really do,” said Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who picked up his 100^th career victory last night and has led his team to four road wins over Top 25 foes this year. “And that’s where you want to be as you get to the final stretch.”

The Tigers should be ranked No. 1 in Tuesday’s College Football Playoff rankings, and a win over Miami (10-1) in Saturday’s ACC Championship Game in Charlotte will lock down the top seed in the playoffs and a Sugar Bowl berth.

On the other hand, if the Hurricanes – ranked No. 2 in the recent playoff standings but upset by Pitt on Friday – beat Clemson, they’ll be the ACC reps in the CFP.

Although Clemson was No. 3 and Oklahoma, No. 4, in last week’s playoff poll, there is a chance Oklahoma (11-1) could surge to the top of the heap come Tuesday.

It’s all subject to the whims of a selection committee, after all.

The Sooners crushed West Virginia on Saturday, 59-31, and are riding a seven-game winning streak.

All that stands in the Sooners’ way of a playoff trip is a win over TCU in the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday.

In the teams’ regular season meeting on Nov. 11 OU won, 38-20.

Meanwhile at Jordan-Hare Stadium, the Iron Bowl had the feel of a play-in contest, and in terms of the SEC Championship Game, it was exactly that.

With Auburn (10-2) beating top-ranked and previously unbeaten Alabama (11-1), the Tigers won the SEC West and will face Georgia (11-1) on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

If the Tigers defeat the Bulldogs for the second time this season, you have to figure the committee will award them one of the four available playoff spots.

“This time of year, very few teams are playing their best football and we’re doing that,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said after his team’s 26-14 win. “We must continue doing that moving forward. Playing Georgia, we know they’re going to have a chip on their shoulder. We’re playing our best football right now and we need to continue to do that.”

One of Auburn’s regular season losses was to Clemson in the second week of the season, a 14-6 defensive showcase.

“We’re a completely different team,” Malzahn said. “I’m not taking anything away from Clemson. They’re a great team, and I think everyone sees that. They were No. 2 when we played them. We’ve played two No. 1 teams now. Back in September, we were still trying to figure out our identity. We had a new quarterback, new coordinator and you saw us getting better and better.”

Shortly after the loss to AU, Alabama boss Nick Saban was already lobbying for the Crimson Tide to make the CFP.

“I think this team deserves the opportunity to get into the playoff by what they’ve been able to accomplish and what they’ve been able to do,” Saban said. “Certainly not in this game, but I think the team we played tonight is a very good football team, probably one of the best teams in the country. We’ve won 11 games, and not many teams have been able to do that.”

Another football Final Four berth for UA is possible, of course, but I’m not sure there would be much enthusiasm for it outside Tuscaloosa.

Bama’s biggest wins coming into the game were against a three-loss LSU team and a four-loss Mississippi State squad. The Tide had a chance to prove it was the best in the West and it failed to do that.

As for Georgia, which dismantled Georgia Tech, 38-7, its path to the CFP is simple.

Beat Auburn, avenging its 40-17 loss from Nov. 11, and the Dawgs are one-loss SEC champs and playoff bound.

But what about Wisconsin, 31-0 winners over Minnesota on Saturday?

The Badgers (12-0) are the last unbeaten team left in the FBS, but were on the outside looking in at the CFP coming into the final week of the regular season, ranked No. 5.

They’ll be in the top four this Tuesday, though, and will stay in if they beat Ohio State (10-2) in the Big Ten Championship Game.

A Buckeye win, though, gives another two-loss team a puncher’s chance at reaching a national semifinal.

Ranked No. 9 in the CFP, it’s unclear how much ground Urban Meyer’s charges will make up this week after a 31-20 conquest of Michigan. If they can top Wisconsin on Saturday, they’ll at least be in position to bitch and moan if they’re left out of the playoffs.

And Meyer loves to bitch and moan.

My crystal ball tells me Clemson will beat Miami and I have a feeling Georgia will edge Auburn in the rematch. I’m also counting on Oklahoma to top TCU.

If those predictions hold, three of the CFP spots will be secured.

However, I’m not sold on Wisconsin. I expect Ohio State to win that clash on Saturday, even if quarterback J.T. Barrett is forced to miss the game due to a knee injury.

If that happens – and Auburn also finishes off a two-game sweep of Georgia – would there then be a pair of two-loss teams in the playoffs?

Or, would Alabama sneak back in, denying the Buckeyes a berth and making Meyer subject to spontaneous human combustion?

Fortunately, we’ll find out a week from today.

And if Championship Saturday is anything like Rivalry Weekend, it’ll be another great day to be at ringside.