5 Things on a Friday: It’s Officially Christmas Season

I'm actually excited for Christmas this year.  I think that marks a certain amount of personal growth.

This is how I plan to commute to New York City this month.

This is why you came today, right?  Yeah, me too.
Today’s list includes:
  • Frosty the Snowman, followed by Frosty Returns (CBS) 8:00 p.m.
  • Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer (CW) 8:00 p.m.
  • Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (ABC) 8:00 p.m.
"I love Thanksgiving and unfortunately my eyes are often bigger than my stomach, and I tend to eat so much I make myself sick," Gellar wrote. "This was a joking reminder to myself not to do that."

Ms. Gellar’s job is to embody other people’s conceptions of beauty.  Now, we could maybe argue that this is a job that no one should want, but if it’s a job that you happen to have, well…  You really have to look the way other people want you to look.
Everybody loves bowl projections, right?  As we did last week, let’s give CBS Sports the prime spot since they carry most of Army’s games.

Selection Committee Bowl Games
Bowl
Date
Location
Matchup
Prediction
Sugar Bowl
Jan. 1
New Orleans, La.
SEC vs. Big 12
Georgia vs. Oklahoma
Rose Bowl
Jan. 1
Pasadena, Calif.
Big Ten vs. Pac-12
Ohio State vs. Wash. State
Fiesta Bowl
Jan. 1
Glendale, Ariz.
at-large vs. at-large
Florida vs. UCF
Peach Bowl
Dec. 29
Atlanta, Ga.
at-large vs. at-large
LSU vs. Penn State
I think this has been the general consensus of late.  However, projections for the Black Knights have been all over the place:
CBS Sports: Armed Forces Bowl (Dec. 22) vs. SMU (American vs. Big 12)
NBC Sports: Quick Lane Bowl (Dec 26) vs. Boston College (Big 10 vs. ACC)
ESPN (Bonagura): Armed Forces Bowl vs. Boise State
ESPN (Sherman): Armed Forces Bowl vs. Temple
Sports Illustrated: Cheez-It Bowl (Dec. 26) vs. Arizona State (Big 12 vs. Pac-12)
SB*Nation: Armed Forces Bowl vs. SMU
USA Today: San Francisco Bowl (Dec. 31) vs. Utah (Big 10 vs. Pac-12)

I would like to see Army play a Power 5 team.  From the list above, the Quick Lane Bowl against BC is probably the best matchup, but of course, we’re still hoping for the Independence Bowl vs. Tennessee.  Granted, that assumes the Vols beat Vandy tomorrow.
4. Pics from Thanksgiving
We went over to our friends’ Bruce and Tammy’s house.  They threw an amazing spread.  I really enjoyed it.


The spread, sans turkey.
Me & Bruce.
5. My Week in Review
Whew!
So yeah, this was a busy week.  I wound up with a little extra time because of the holiday, which I used to put together some non-Army college football stuff.  Plus, some of this is repetitive.  For example, I had to put the Option Offense Plays of the Week together for the AFF College Football Show, which was designed for YouTube but also recorded as a podcast.  I personally like the podcast version a little better, but podcast listeners need a way to see the plays that we talk about, hence the Plays of the Week post.  This is the way that I personally would consume AFF were I not involved in it.
What I don’t have a feel for, however, is what our readers / watchers / listeners want or how the audience breaks down across the various platforms.  That’s been the hardest part of working with other people.  As a solo act, I had my own metrics and could try to follow the audience.  With AFF, we’re still sort of throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.
With that said, one obvious mistake this week was giving you guys a choice as to which game to preview for this weekend.
So.  I am totally committed to trying to build the AFF audience around more than just Army Football.  Granted, that will always be the core of what we’re doing, but my personal experience on my own site has been that folks are interested and even eager for previews of selected additional games, especially games that either impact the Army Team or that involve teams that we all grew up watching.
However, you guys chose to have us preview the biggest game of the weekend, which I did, and then (seemingly) no one read our preview because that particular game was already being previewed everywhere.  So really, I should’ve stuck to my initial thought, which was to preview either Tennessee at Vandy or GT at Georgia.  No one previewed Tennessee at Vandy.  But I listened to you and wound up wasting maybe three hours this week writing a preview that no one has read.
I’m a little sore about it, honestly.  
Maybe the problem was that yesterday was Thanksgiving, so y’all were just busy.  But that’s never previously been my experience.  I’ve always gotten good response on the holiday posts in past years.  My sense is that folks are sitting around watching football, and that once the games themselves get out of hand, they start looking for something football-related to read.  This was the niche I was aiming for.  Alas, we missed it badly yesterday.  
And really, I should’ve known better.  I site like AFF is never going to succeed going head-to-head on content with ESPN or CBS Sports.
Is it too early to start talking lacrosse?
Actually, I have no idea what the Lax team’s outlook is, nor am I sure where I should look to find out.  I do know they lost a bunch of core contributors last year, but they also disappointed last year, so who knows?
Army Lax is my favorite spring sport.  Let’s hope they do a little better this year.
* * *
That’s all I’ve got.  Enjoy Black Friday and the rest of the weekend.

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