Greetings from the sports desk located somewhere below the decks of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. Sammy the Shark and Karl the Kraken are too busy debating whether Vegas or Seattle has the best-looking jersey for this season’s Winter Classic game to do any work, so I’m handling the reporting for now.

We start with Topic A in the sports world, namely college football. As Brad Slager and Bob Hoge have reported, the CFP Barbershop … er, Championship Quartet has been selected, with Michigan, presumably with head coach Jim Harbaugh on the sidelines, and Alabama, presumably without the Wolverines knowing which play the Crimson Tide will be calling even before Nick Saban does, meeting in the Rose Bowl while Washington and Texas square off in the Sugar Bowl. This leaves out Florida State, whose only loss this year has been their starting and backup quarterback. This also leaves out Georgia, which lost to Alabama in the SEC title game. Alabama lost to Texas earlier this year, who then lost to Oklahoma. Oklahoma lost to Kansas and Oklahoma State this season.

Now, remember I’m a Cal fan; therefore, I have no dog in this fight—or elephant, cow, or wolverine. Anyway, my suspicion is the CFP committee that selected the final four snubbed the Seminoles after looking at their QB situation and fearing a potential rerun of last season’s Georgia-TCU title game on its hands. Or fear of the South rising again if it selected no SEC school. Whatever the reasoning, Georgia and Florida State will vent their frustrations on each other in the Orange Bowl. No word as to whether Florida Georgia Line will reunite for the halftime show. And yes, I am fully aware I’ll be the only one here watching Cal versus Texas Tech in the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl on Dec. 16 in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Meanwhile, in the league where at least some of the players make more money than they did in college, otherwise known as the NFL, as much as it pains me to say it, there is every indication the San Francisco 49ers are presently the league’s best team after their 42-19 dismantling of the Philadelphia Eagles in a rematch of last season’s NFC championship game. The offense is well nigh unstoppable both on the ground courtesy of Christian McCaffrey and through the air with Brock Purdy lobbing live ones to Deebo Samuel or George Kittle. The defense is equally fearsome, so barring a spate of injuries, the road to Las Vegas, home of this season’s Super Bowl, travels through Santa Clara, the 49ers’ actual home. That all said, if the Eagles can run the table they, and not the 49ers, will have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. Thus, the December 10 matchup between Philadelphia and the Dallas Cowboys in Dallas, where the Cowboys have been dominant, becomes even more intriguing than before.

Elsewhere in the NFL, congratulations to NBC for showing more of the Sunday night game between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs than shots of Taylor Swift, who was in attendance. Although, considering how abominable the officiating was, particularly as the game wound down with an embarrassingly missed pass interference call that should have gone against the Packers, perhaps they should have spent more time placating the Swifties feverishly watching.