Let's just wait and see what happens

Now that the College Football Playoff has begun its new phase as a twelve-team affair, I decided to go ahead and check out the four first-round games that took place this past weekend. Had the CFP still been a four-team event, my answer would've been a resounding "NO!"

I wasn't really surprised at how the first four games turned out...but quite a few people who commented online, from casual fans to NCAA experts, were ticked off at how easily Notre Dame took Indiana down (27-17) and how Penn State exposed SMU (38-10). Texas' 38-24 win over Clemson and Ohio State's 42-17 humiliation of Tennessee rounded out the weekend.

Some called the results- the first CFP games ever played on college campuses- lackluster. Others labeled the whole thing disappointing. And then came the calls denouncing the CFP committee for letting the Hoosiers (11-1 before meeting the Fighting Irish) and the Mustangs (11-2 coming into their date with the Nittany Lions) in there.

To those critics, Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina (each team 9-3 on the eve of the 2024 bowl season) would've been better off in this year's CFP than SMU and Indiana.

I don't agree with those critics...and I don't care if the Crimson Tide, Rebels, and Gamecocks are all part of the same SEC that Georgia and newcomers (and ex-Big 12 foes) Texas and Oklahoma are in.

Rhett Lashlee's Mustangs (the 2023 AAC champs before joining the ACC and almost beating Clemson in this year's conference title game) deserved to get in. So did Curt Cignetti's Hoosiers...a team that went 3-9 last year under Tom Allen, now Penn State's defensive coordinator.

The two clubs did what teams are called on to do. They won...even if the naysayers are troubled with the lack of pedigree.

While Penn State gets ready to take on Boise State on 12-31-2024, Notre Dame prepares to play Georgia on 1-1-2025, Texas bones up for its 1-1-2025 date with Arizona State, and Ohio State works to iron out the kinks in a 1-1-2025 rematch with Oregon, lots of people (fans and pundits alike) are proposing solutions to tailor the next CFP to their liking. Some want to see reseeding happen after the first round...some want to eliminate giving the four biggest conference champs first-round byes...others want the CFP knocked back down to four squads (or even two!).

Know what I'd like to see?

I'd like to see the NCAA take control of the CFP...and then make it either a sixteen-team event or a twenty-four-team tilt. [With two dozen clubs in there, maybe all Division 1-A (okay, FBS) leagues can get an automatic bid for their champions.]

Now...it's your turn. What changes would you like to see to make the current format better?

In the meantime, let's just let this year's historic version unfold.

Too close to call...well, I like to think so!

Screenwriting has kept me away from posting more blogs all this time.

Speaking of screenwriting...you can't really write a better script than the way this season's two NCAA Division 1 basketball tournaments have been turning out.

Okay...I'm cheating...I'm typing this during the third quarter of the North Carolina State-South Carolina women's basketball game. But I'm still going to go out on a limb and make predictions for how college hoops' final six games of 2023-24 will turn out.

Here goes: WOMEN: South Carolina over North Carolina State, Connecticut over Iowa (but I smell a Hawkeye victory tonight over the Huskies), then the Gamecocks staying unbeaten at the expense of the Huskies...whose 2015-16 team was the last D-1 squad, men's or women's, to get through unscathed.

MEN: Connecticut over Alabama, North Carolina State over Purdue...followed by the Huskies taking the Wolfpack down on 4-8-2024 for a second consecutive title (something not done in D-1 men's hoops since Florida doubled up in 2005-06 and 2006-07).

But what a season it's been...especially with Iowa's Caitlin Clark breaking records left and right and Purdue's Zach Edey picking up where he left off.

And we're at a point in the season where any of those eight teams could win it all.

Well...time for me to get back to the South Carolina-NC State game. But before I go...I can't help but ask:

Which teams do YOU think will win it all here in 2023-24?

And the champion is...

Well, I finally got around to it.

I wanted to get this done way back in January, but lots of circumstances (including my joining the creative community Stage 32) took precedence.

So did a change from using Lance Haffner Games' old 3-in-1 Football to Dave Koch Sports' Action! PC Football. (Don't worry...all the games I played using 3-in-1 still count.)

Folks, without further ado, this is how the coulda-shoulda-woulda 2018 NCAA Division 1-A football playoffs shook out (seeding in parentheses):

FIRST ROUND: Appalachian State (9) 20, Northern Illinois (24) 14; Boise State (16) 38, UAB (17) 21; Louisiana State (20) 38, Army (13) 28; Cincinnati (12) 26, Kentucky (21) 14; Utah State (14) 28, Penn State (19) 21; Syracuse (22) 42, Fresno State (11) 34; Washington (15) 28, Buffalo (18) 14; Washington State (10) 35, North Carolina State (23) 30

SECOND ROUND: Clemson (1) 44, Appalachian State 38; Michigan (8) 45, Boise State 10; Oklahoma (5) 42, Louisiana State 31; Cincinnati 24, Central Florida (4) 21; Ohio State (6) 21, Utah State 16; Notre Dame (3) 33, Syracuse 17; Washington 31, Georgia (7) 28; Alabama (2) 31, Washington State 17

QUARTERFINAL ROUND: Michigan 28, Clemson 27; Oklahoma 38, Cincinnati 21; Ohio State 38, Notre Dame 17; Alabama 31, Washington 3

SEMIFINAL ROUND: Oklahoma 33, Michigan 7; Alabama 16, Ohio State 14

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Alabama 31, Oklahoma 24

This set of playoffs resulted in the second straight season with an SEC team in the driver's seat...and just the second shoulda-coulda-woulda title for the Crimson Tide (the first one took place in, surprisingly, 2014).

And it made an MVP out of the Tide's field general, Tua Tagovailoa.

Well, that's it. Time to go back and see how the current season shakes out...so that a 24-team field for 2019 can be determined.

I'm Jim Boston, and thanks for reading this blog!

The Powerhouse from Alabaster, Alabama (Part 3)

Wendy Holcombe's effort to become an all-around entertainer hit a couple of huge bumps in 1981-82.

First of all, in the summer of 1981, the pilot the Alabaster, AL native did for NBC, the sitcom Wendy Hooper, US Army, didn't get picked up (America's TV viewers hitched their wagons to another Army-based comedy, CBS' Private Benjamin, which presented Lorna Patterson in the role made famous by Goldie Hawn in the previous year's big-screen hit of that name). 

Had Wendy Hooper caught on, Holcombe (then 18 years old) would've been one of the youngest to ever get top billing on a prime-time sitcom on American television. (Jay North was just seven in 1959, the year he landed the show that gave him his fame: Dennis the Menace.)

Bill's and Helen's multiinstrumentalist-singer-comic daughter got a sitcom anyway when, on 10-29-1981, Lewis & Clark premiered on NBC.

The same viewers who kept WHUSA from joining the Peacock Network's 1981-82 schedule stayed with L&C's biggest Thursday-night competition, CBS' Magnum, P.I. (That crime drama- the one that made a household name out of Tom Selleck- survived its rookie campaign, the 1980-81 season.)

Not even a pair of time-slot changes could save Lewis & Clark, where Holcombe played a server (okay, waitress) in the Luckenback, TX nightclub run by Gabe Kaplan and Guich Koock.

Even if many people couldn't get into Wendy Holcombe the actor, they still fell head over heels in love with Wendy Holcombe the musician. And some extra proof of that came in 1983, when Wendy, her hubby Tom Blosser, and their band traveled to Israel to play alongside bluegrass legends Bill Monroe and Mac Wiseman.

Not long after that, Tom and Wendy turned their 1983 travels into a world tour, focusing on Australia, New Zealand, and several Asian countries.

The closing act on that international tour: None other than Perry Como. 

Meanwhile, back in the United States, the banjo-playing wife and her bass-playing husband set up shop in Florida, only to move to North Carolina...to get closer to relatives. 

And a year or so before WLH and TYB set out for their overseas tour, Wendy Lou started performing alongside fellow banjoist Buck Trent.

Their performances set that twosome up for a 1982 Music City News Bluegrass Act of the Year award nomination. Later on, the Country Music Association nominated them for Instrumentalists of the Year.  

All this time, Wendy was performing despite a degenerative heart condition (first diagnosed at an early age). 

By the middle 1980s, that heart condition (technically known as cardiomyopathy; in lay terms, enlargement of the heart) wasn't improving. 

Several times, an ambulance would arrive at the Holcombe-Blosser house to pick Wendy up...but she'd beat the odds whenever they were stacked against her recovery. 

Then came that ill-fated Saturday...the seventh Saturday of 1987.

Country music's much the poorer because of Wendy's 2-14-1987 death. The Alabaster Kid strove for perfection in everything she did...including in her musical endeavors. And that pursuit of perfection showed whenever she appeared in front of any kind of live audience or whenever Wendy appeared in front of a set of TV cameras. 

Even if you and I can't go online and find Holcombe's acting performances (you'll strike out on www.youtube.com if you're looking for Lewis & Clark episodes), there's plenty of audio evidence (the posthumously-released CD "Memories of Wendy" is finally available...on www.cdbaby.com as well as www.amazon.com) and plenty of video evidence right here on the Internet that Cindy's and "Muley's" sister was a powerful musician.

And a powerful, energetic, enthusiastic influence.

Wendy, I'm glad you came along...and I'm glad you brought so many great things.

The Powerhouse from Alabaster, Alabama (Part 2)

It was 1980, and Nashville on the Road's Wendy Holcombe was knockin' 'em dead...not only on that syndicated TV show, but also as a guest on other series (as well as that 1979 ABC special, "Merry Christmas from the Grand Ole Opry," cohosted by WKRP in Cincinnati's Loni Anderson and Vega$' Bob Urich).

And then there were the personal appearances the Alabaster Kid made, where audiences got a chance- up close and personal- to check out her infectious brand of banjo pickin', fiddlin', guitar playing, and vocalizing.

One thing was still missing: A recording contract with a major or not-so-major label.

All Wendy's NOTR partners were cutting sides. I mean, Jim Ed Brown was still recording for RCA (he was heading for 25 years with the label...going back to when Jim Ed and his sisters Maxine and Bonnie were a trio, the Browns). Helen Cornelius joined RCA in 1976 and immediately teamed up with Jim Ed; the next year (same one in which the label's biggest star passed away at age 42), Helen became a regular on Nashville on the Road. 

Jerry Clower's comedy albums (on MCA) were selling pretty well, too.

But you still couldn't go to your favorite record store and pick up Holcombe's latest LP/8-track cartridge/cassette.

There was no such thing (unless you were into bootlegging).

But you could still watch WLH on TV...not only on NOTR,

but also on shows like Hee Haw. 

About the time Wendy started doing guest shots on Roy Clark's and Buck Owens' biggest gig, she met a bass player named Thomas Yoshiro Blosser (he turned 29 in 1980). Not long after that initial Hee Haw taping, Tom started playing bass in Wendy's band. 

Tom already had a pedigree in country music, backing up some of the music's biggest names (such as Louise Mandrell).

TYB (born Yoshiro Sudo) came into the world 11-3-1951 in Muroran, Japan; in 1957, a Mennonite missionary couple named Eugene and Louella Blosser adopted him...and changed the little boy's name. 

In Muroran, Tom had a biological brother and a biological sister...and they were all raised by their grandmother once the children's parents passed out of the picture. 

Toward the end of '57, Louella and Eugene (whose biological children were Philip and Rachel), living and parenting- to say nothing of doing missionary work- in Japan at the time, got the chance to add another child to their family (a prospect that lighted little Philip's fire).

Enter Yoshiro/Tom.

And he and Phil hit it off immediately.

By 1959, the Blossers of Sapporo started making regular trips to the United States...and on one of those, Thomas became a naturalized American citizen. 

Back in Japan, Phil and Tom eventually attended middle school in Sapporo before going on to high school in Tokyo.

In Tokyo, they found out that Tom had chops- he could play a mean guitar. In fact, he and his older adopted brother finished off a talent show at the high school by singing "Mrs. Robinson."

The fundamentalists in the audience weren't looking for that.

Phil and Tom next went to college...here in the US. Tom chose a two-year institution, Hesston College (in Hesston, KS). 

It didn't really work out.

TYB's heart was in music, and he spent most of the 1970s playing guitar and bass (mostly bass) in all sorts of bands- rock, R&B, and country. 

It all stood him in good stead by the time he and Wendy got together.

And it wasn't long before Blosser's and Holcombe's musical relationship became a marital one, too.

But first...Wendy had a chance to fulfill her dream of becoming a complete entertainer.

In 1981, NBC offered Cindy's and "Muley's" sister her own TV series: Wendy Hooper, US Army. It was all about an outgoing, banjo-playing girl who thought that joining the Army would advance her country-music career.

The pilot episode aired on Friday, 8-14-1981. (I had a chance to watch it...and I didn't think Wendy Hooper was too bad.)

The show's other viewers and I were badly outnumbered. After all, the WHUSA pilot came on four months and eight days after CBS turned Goldie Hawn's 1980 romp, "Private Benjamin," into a full-fledged series. 

With Lorna Patterson (you might remember her from another 1980 movie, "Airplane!") taking over from Hawn, most of America's TV viewers didn't feel like supporting two prime-time sitcoms about young women coming in from left field to join the branch that gave Dwight Eisenhower and Colin Powell their first tastes of fame. 

And besides, "Airplane!" showed that Patterson could sing and play the guitar, too. 

Peacock Network potentates weren't done trying to turn Wendy Lou Holcombe into an actor. Her next acting try, Lewis & Clark, made it into the 1981-82 NBC schedule.

Lewis & Clark (it debuted 10-29-1981) was Gabe Kaplan's followup to Welcome Back, Kotter and the series Guich Koock did after Carter Country. In addition, the show featured a pre-Mr. Belvedere Ilene Graff (as Kaplan's wife) and an Amy Linker who, as things turned out, was one season away from teaming up with Sarah Jessica Parker on the critically-acclaimed Square Pegs. 

And David Hollander (he, too, from "Airplane!") was along to play Linker's brother.

Anyway, Kaplan played a native New Yorker who wanted to open up a country-music nightclub...but not in the Big Apple.

The club was going to be in Luckenback, TX...away from Fun City's hustle and bustle.

Well, the nitery was called the Nassau County Cafe. And Koock played its manager, while Holcombe was its sole server (okay, waitress). 

Despite a shift from Thursday nights to Saturday nights (and then one to Friday nights), L&C never caught on...probably because viewers thought Gabe needed better "Sweathogs" than Wendy, Guich, Clifton James (the show's town drunk), and Michael McManus (the bartender).

To top it off, Julie Kotter (played by Marcia Strassman) never had kids!

So it was back to playing and singing country and bluegrass for Wendy Holcombe...with her new hubby, Thomas Blosser, by her side on bass.

When we come back, we'll look at how Wendy's last years turned out. 

The Powerhouse from Alabaster, Alabama (Part 1)

For the last week and a half, I'd been thinking about a young performer who was a regular on a syndicated TV series called Nashville on the Road. She was a regular on this country music show from its debut in 1975 to 1981 (NOTR limped along for another two years afterwards). 

At first, the show's cohosts were singer Jim Ed Brown and comic Jerry Clower; every week, they'd introduce a guest or two (as well as the show's two regular acts).

That's right...I like almost all forms of music, and that includes country. 

One late Saturday night in 1976, I was flipping channels...and ran into Nashville on the Road, which, at that time, was locally (the Des Moines/Ames area) on WOI-TV, the Des Moines/Ames area's ABC station. 

I noticed this thirteen-year-old girl who was picking a mean, mean banjo and moving along to her own (and her bandmates') beat.

She hooked me...and things got to the point where, every Saturday night at 10:30 PM (Central time), I'd flip the station over to "ABC5" and check out Jim Ed, Jerry, the Cates Sisters (their successors, the Fairchilds, were replaced in 1977 by singer Helen Cornelius), and that young instrumentalist-singer-comic.

Instead of getting ready to blow out 53 candles this coming 4-19-2016, Wendy Lou Holcombe passed away on 2-14-1987.

At age 23.

Of a heart attack. 

At the time Wendy died, I was into my first stint of living here in Omaha...and working two jobs (I was an inventory specialist and a pizza-delivery driver at this time in 1987). I was coming back from my job at Domino's (that's right, THAT Domino's) when I turned on my TV, started flipping through channels, and I stopped at The Nashville Network...the forerunner of today's Spike.

When the news came on about the death of the most famous performer to ever come out of Alabaster, AL, I was completely flabbergasted.

Wendy Holcombe- that total bundle of energy- dead? At 23? Of heart failure? How'd that happen?  

Then I got to thinking about the fact that not one single sizable recording company offered her a contract. 

What stopped the record industry's Billy Sherrills, Owen Bradleys, and Chet Atkinses from having Holcombe sign her John Hancock to a recording contract? If not age, what? 

I still, to this very day, feel it all came down to dirty rotten, filthy sexism.

I mean, at a time when Dolly Parton, Barbara Mandrell, and Roni Stoneman (she of Hee Haw fame) were showing what they could do with five strings, the thinking in corporate boardrooms was (and, in too many cases, still is) that a banjo is a man's instrument. After all, Uncle Dave Macon, Grandpa Jones, and Earl Scruggs led the way. (Oops...I should've mentioned Earl first!)

A man's instrument.

That was the way it was supposed to work out in the house where Bill and Helen Holcombe were raising their three children when, sometime in 1974, Bill brought a used banjo home (it even came with an instruction booklet and an instruction record). 

Bill struggled for two months to be the next Roy Clark or, well, Earl Scruggs...but, in the end, he couldn't even get one tune down. Wendy begged for the chance to see what she could do with that banjo, only to get turned down by her father: "This banjo is too expensive for you to fool around with."

Wendy found an ally in her mother.

Helen let the then eleven-year-old pick around with Bill's pride-and-joy while Bill was off at his nine-to-five. By the time that afternoon session came to end, Wendy mastered "Mountain Dew" and other numbers her dad tried to learn.

And when Bill came home from his job, he was so impressed with Wendy's version of "Dew" that he let her keep the same banjo he'd struggled with.

Helen's and Bill's little daughter practiced on that banjo day and night; she'd take it out to the Holcombes' barn and try her music out on her cows, goats, and horses. 

It paid off, because Wendy went on to win $50 at a county fair talent show...and that led to her going to nearby Birmingham to appear on TV's The Country Boy Eddie Show. 

WLH's big break was just up the road...Interstate 65, that is.

After seven months of pickin', Wendy wanted to go to Nashville's Grand Ole Opry to celebrate her twelfth birthday.

Bill and Wendy couldn't get tickets (you needed- and still need- to get those ducats in advance), so father and daughter decided to hang around Music City for a few hours. At the first music shop they ran into, WLH saw a snazzy-looking banjo and asked for permission to test it out.

Holcombe's version of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" attracted the bass player in Stoneman's band. He then took the young picker and her dad to a nightclub, where she played a few songs onstage...while "Billy Jack" met a promoter who said he could get the Two Holcombes backstage at Opryland.

That's where Wendy Holcombe met Roy Acuff.

Next thing she knew, she ended up backstage playing alongside his Smoky Mountain Boys, Jones, and several other Opry regulars. And that led to an appearance the next night at the "Midnight Jamboree" at Ernest Tubb's Record Shop.

And that spawned appearances on two other TV shows: The Porter Wagoner Show and Pop! Goes the Country. 

And then...and then...in the fall of '75: NOTR, put out by the same production company that came up with Pop! Goes the Country. 

Because of Nashville on the Road, Wendy Lou closed out 1975 by fulfilling her lifelong wish.

She performed at the Grand Ole Opry. 

On the main stage this time.

And what's more, Wendy Lou worked alongside Jim Ed at the Opry that night.

With Nashville on the Road becoming a hit, things continued to look up for "Muley's" and Cindy's kid sister, who went on to master the fiddle, the guitar, the mandolin, and the dobro...and topped that off by playing trumpet in her school's band back in Alabaster. 

All of that from a teenager who, at first, took piano lessons.

And as the 1970s started to morph into the 1980s, Wendy wanted to become a total entertainer. (She wanted to try acting...and in the process, follow Johnny Cash.)

Non-NOTR TV appearances began to mount up for the Alabaster Kid; they included turns on shows like Big Blue Marble, The Mike Douglas Show, and The New Mickey Mouse Club. And in 1979, she appeared on a Christmas special on ABC; the show was hosted by none other than Loni Anderson, of WKRP in Cincinnati fame; and Robert Urich, who was knocking 'em dead on that network's (ABC's) Vega$.  

Well, a guest shot on Hee Haw took Wendy's life in another direction...and we're going to look at that direction when we come back.

SHOUT-OUT TIME: A lot of this information came from an excellent Website, www.wendyholcombe.com. (Check it out whenever you get a chance!) 

No Repeat...No Repeat

As things turned out with this "shoulda/coulda/woulda" version of the 2015 NCAA Division 1-A football playoffs, it all came down to two teams looking for a second playoff championship...one of them going after a second consecutive title in this version of a big-school playoff. 

Time to just cut to the chase and show you just what happened:

FIRST ROUND (seeding in parentheses): Western Kentucky (9) 38, Arkansas State (24) 6; TCU (16) 28, Appalachian State (17) 14; Florida State (13) 14, Florida (20) 10; Northwestern (12) 10, Temple (21) 0; Oklahoma State (14) 63, Bowling Green State (19) 42; Notre Dame (11) 21, San Diego State (22) 7; Navy (15) 24, Toledo (18) 0; North Carolina (10) 21, Michigan (23) 3

SECOND ROUND: Clemson (1) 35, Western Kentucky 31; Stanford (8) 35, TCU 21; Florida State 22, Houston (5) 21; Iowa (4) 21, Northwestern 7; Oklahoma (6) 42, Oklahoma State 28; Michigan State (3) 14, Notre Dame 0; Ohio State (7) 21, Navy 7; Alabama (2) 28, North Carolina 0

QUARTERFINAL ROUND: Clemson 19, Stanford 14; Iowa 21, Florida State 14; Oklahoma 28, Michigan State 7; Alabama 21, Ohio State 7

SEMIFINAL ROUND: Iowa 20, Clemson 14; Alabama 24, Oklahoma 7

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Iowa 14, Alabama 7 (1 OT) 

Now...it's time for some highlights!

FIRST ROUND: Brandon Doughty completed 30 of 37 passes for 357 and four TDs to key the Hilltoppers (favorite target Taywan Taylor caught six balls for 134 yards and two TDs)...Trevone Boykin's 80-yard scoring toss to Kolby Listenbee 3:17 into the game set the tone for the Horned Frogs...Wildcats outgained Owls, 268-256...Gators couldn't capitalize on their two first-quarter safeties (for a 4-0 lead), and went on to be held to 186 total yards (25 of 'em on the ground in 36 tries) while Seminoles' Dalvin Cook scampered for 125 yards in 23 trips (scored a TD, too)...Fighting Irish outgained Aztecs, 463-207 and held the Mountain West kingpins to just 40 passing yards (on 3-for-17 throwing)...Keenan Reynolds (26-134 with a pair of scores) led a Midshipmen attack that got 323 rushing yards in 69 totes...Cowboys outgained Falcons in a barnburner in Stillwater, 590-560; OSU's Mason Rudolph (29-42-523-6 TDs-1 INT)

and BGSU's Matt Johnson (31-57-521-% TDs-1 INT)

put on quite a show, while winners' James Washington snared three scoring tosses in a four-catch, 154-yard showing- to waste Roger Lewis' six-catch, 210-yard, two-TD effort for Bowling Green State...Wolverines got more yards than Tar Heels, 399-358, but lost because they committed 13 penalties for 71 yards.

SECOND ROUND: Cougars coughed up a 21-7 lead, then with 41 ticks to go in regulation, couldn't stop Cook from scoring the winning two-point conversion (after Seminoles' Everett Golson fired a three-yard scoring strike to Ermon Lane)...J.T. Barrett's 80-yard TD run on the first play of the game set things up for the Buckeyes...Wildcats' Solomon Vault took the opening kickoff back 100 yards for the game's first score, but all it did was lead to 21 unanswered Hawkeye points in a rematch of a regular-season game...in another rematch, Baker Mayfield matched Rudolph in touchdown throws (four)- but the Sooners picked off three Rudolph aerials...Irish outgained Spartans, 419-310 (with C.J. Prosise getting 138 yards in 16 rushes), but just couldn't find the end zone...Christian McCaffrey's 225 all-purpose yards (134 on the ground, 41 on catches, and 50 on returns) helped Cardinal sideline Frogs in a game where TCU once led, 14-7...Derrick Henry put on a 26-144-3 TD show

as Crimson Tide held Tar Heels to 52 ground yards...Wayne Gallman's one-yard scoring run with 1:17 to play in fourth quarter saved Tigers' bacon (and made Deshaun Watson's 368 total yards- 216 by air, 152 by land- stand up). 

QUARTERFINAL ROUND: Cook still got his yards (18-134-1 TD), but Derrick Mitchell scored from four yards out with 8:38 to play in the fourth stanza to lift the Hawkeyes (Iowa had trailed, 14-7)...Sooners erased a 7-7 tie by reeling off 21 unanswered points...Tide and Buckeyes got involved in a bitter, sloppy game marked by 23 penalties (13 by Ohio State, 10 by Alabama); Heisman winner Henry outrushed the Bucks, 103-94- and scored twice...Tigers won it on C.J. Fuller's five-yard run with 1:40 to go in regulation; what's more, Clemson limited McCaffrey to 34 yards in 19 attempts.

SEMIFINAL ROUND:

Playoff MVP Desmond King swiped four Watson passes and helped Hawkeyes force him into a 13-for-27-for 165 yards outing (and helped thwart Tigers' furious fourth-quarter rally)...Henry scored twice in a 27-121 effort that drew 102,354 to Bryant-Denny Stadium.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: At University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ, Henry was held to 99 yards in 22 carries. On top of that, Hawkeyes outgained Tide, 264-263...with the difference coming from Jordan Canzeri's game-winning TD with 12:52 to play in overtime.

With that, instead of Alabama getting its second straight D-1-A playoff championship, Iowa gained its second playoff title- and first since 2002.

Another thing Kirk Ferentz' team did by retaking the top was end a four-year period in which a team that had never won these Division 1-A playoffs before triumphed.

Who knows how the 2016 Division 1-A football playoffs (at least this version) will shape up? Stay tuned!

There's a First Time for Everything

And the 2014 version of the shoulda-coulda-woulda NCAA Division 1-A football playoffs offers some proof to that. 

Aw, what the heck...let's just cut to the chase and show you what happened:

FIRST ROUND (seeding in parentheses): Northern Illinois (9) 35, Louisiana-Lafayette (24) 14; Missouri (16) 35, UCLA (17) 7; Arizona (13) 35, Arizona State (20) 21; Kansas State (21) 35, Colorado State (12) 33; Wisconsin (14) 14, Clemson (19) 7; Mississippi State (11) 28, Cincinnati (22) 20; Mississippi (18) 37, Georgia Tech (15) 7; Michigan State (10) 28, Central Florida (23) 7

SECOND ROUND: Florida State (1) 42, Northern Illinois 17; Boise State (8) 24, Missouri 6; TCU (5) 56, Arizona 7; Oregon (4) 17, Kansas State 7; Baylor (6) 21, Wisconsin 19; Alabama (3) 21, Mississippi State 2; Marshall (7) 21, Mississippi 17; Ohio State (2) 14, Michigan State 7

QUARTERFINAL ROUND: Boise State 22, Florida State 21; Oregon 49, TCU 28, Alabama 40, Baylor 7; Marshall 31, Ohio State 28

SEMIFINAL ROUND: Oregon 21, Boise State 7; Alabama 21, Marshall 14

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Alabama 49, Oregon 21

For starters, it was the fourth straight year a team that had never won these playoffs before went all the way (something Oregon did in 2011, followed by Notre Dame in 2012 and Baylor one season later; the Bears relinquished their title in this season's quarterfinals). 

It was just the second time a Southeastern Conference club won it all in these playoffs...and, inexplicably, the very first time an SEC champion turned the trick. (Florida's 2009 D-1-A playoff champion was an at-large squad...in a year where the Crimson Tide ruled the most popular league in college football.) 

Not only did Arizona and Marshall post playoff wins for the first time, but Northern Illinois did it, too...after five failures, starting in 1983 and then every campaign since 2010. 

This year's MVP: Alabama QB Blake Sims, who fired three air scores in the title game, where he went 24-for-41 for 318 yards (in addition to running for 67 yards on nine tries against the Ducks; scored a TD, too).

Who knows...maybe the trend of a first-time champion winning this version of a major-college football playoff will continue.

Let's just stay tuned and see.