The College Football Playoffs national semifinal match-ups are now set.

Big 10 representatives Penn State, who will face Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl on Thursday, and Ohio State, who will meet Texas in the Cotton Bowl on Friday, are sure looking mighty good.

I feel like Texas might have gotten a gift in their Peach Bowl CFP national quarterfinal game against Arizona State.

I truly believe late in regulation that targeting should have been called on the Texas defender for the way he hit Arizona State wide receiver Melquan Stovall on a third-down play. Since it was in the final two minutes of regulation, the review booth had to request a review take place to see if a targeting penalty needed to be called. After about a 60to 90-second review, it was deemed the hit was not targeting because the helmet-to-helmet hit didn’t meet the qualifications for a targeting call.

Instead of a 15-yard penalty and a first down to put the Sun Devils into Texas territory, they had to punt. Subsequently, the game ended up going two overtimes, with Texas winning 39-31.

After going to church on New Year’s Day night, I was watching ESPN’s Sportscaster. Former Oklahoma Sooners nose guard/ defensive lineman and current ABC/ESPN analyst Dusty Dvoracek said while the targeting should have been called, he said that wasn’t what got Arizona State beat. He said you can’t assume ASU would have ended that final drive of regulation with the gamewinning score had the targeting call been made. He also said that the Sun Devils had the chance to stop Texas in the first OT when the Longhorns faced fourth-and-13 from the 28-yard line, but the ’Horns ended up scoring the game-tying TD to force the second overtimes, in which Texas got the game-winning score.

One can’t help but wonder how much ABC/ESPN’s love for the Southeastern Conference affected the booth review. Also, the Big 10 referee crew high-tailed it off the Mercedes-Benz Stadium field at the end of the game.

I hope that “wanting to keep” Texas alive in CFP didn’t factor into the non-targeting call, but … Nonetheless, Texas will meet Ohio State in Friday night’s Cotton Bowl game at Cowboys AT&T Stadium — which essentially will now be a home game for Texas. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what kind of revenue will be made in Arlington now that Texas is there.

NFL Playoffs Have Arrived

The 2024 National Football League playoffs are set to commence Saturday afternoon and end on Monday night.

On the AFC side for Wild Card Weekend, the Los Angeles Chargers will visit the Houston Texans on Saturday afternoon, followed by Pittsburgh visiting archrival Baltimore that night.

The AFC Wild Card Playoffs will end Sunday afternoon as Denver will visit Buffalo.

Then, it’s the NFC’s turn for Wild Card Weekend, which will begin with Green Bay visiting Philadelphia late Sunday afternoon, then followed by Washington facing Tampa Bay.

The final game of Wild Card Weekend will be Monday night’s game with Minnesota visiting the Los Angeles Rams.

The Kansas City Chiefs (AFC) and the Detroit Lions (NFC) got the Wild Card Weekend byes due to being their respective conference’s No. 1 seed.

You wonder about the Chiefs, since their key starters did not play in Sunday afternoon’s road loss to archrival Denver. Those guys have not played since Christmas afternoon in Pittsburgh. I know the Chiefs, and the Lions for that matter, will get well rested over these next two weeks.

However, in the case of the Chiefs’ starters, might it take a while the following weekend to get going after such a long layoff from competitive action?

Some other points to ponder:

• Will the Buffalo Bills finally get to the big one after not being in a Super Bowl since the Jim Kelly-era?

• Will we see quarterbacks have great games, such as Washington’s Jayden Daniels, Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson and Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes.

• Will the Detroit Lions finally get to a Super Bowl after never making one as their last championship game (pre-Super Bowl era) was at the end of the 1957 season.

• Will the Chiefs three-peat as Super Bowl champions? It’s never been done before. There’s been several repeats, such as the Chiefs each of the last two seasons, but never a three-peat?

If you are a football junkie, like I am, this time of the year is when you have to feel like you’re in hog heaven.

Let the CFP national semifinals and the NFL playoffs commence.

•••

R.I.P., Mr. Former President

The weekend after Christmas, we lost our 39th President of the United States with the passing of Jimmy Carter at age 100.

The 1976 election, the one in which Carter defeated the then-current president, Gerald Ford, to gain the White House, was the first true election I remember, since I was in fifth grade at Harrison Elementary School in my hometown of Enid.

For those of you who haven’t known me all my life, it was my childhood dream to become president. However, when I made a D grade in psychology — a course needed to earn one a political science degree at my college alma mater of Phillips University (now known as Northern Oklahoma College of Enid). So went my political career.

The 1976 election was one of the closest that there’s ever been. It was nip and tuck between Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter and President Gerald Ford. It wasn’t until about 2 a.m. on the Wednesday after Election Day that Carter was recognized as winning the election.

After being sworn into office on Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 1977, he, his wife and then-First Lady Rosalynn Carter and daughter Amy (at least for a portion of the trek) walked down Pennsylvania Avenue en route to the White House.

While his presidency was a shaky one to say the least, which featured the Iran Hostage Crisis and rough economic times, it was Carter’s post-presidency where he got him the most recognition. He got the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts — which included playing a part during his presidency in the peace treaty that was signed between Egypt and Israel.

The big thing Carter, who served in the United States Navy, was noted for was taking part in helping Habitat for Humanity build homes for the needy.

When his wife Rosalyn passed away on Nov. 19, 2023, and with the former president in hospice care, I didn’t think it would be long before we heard of President Carter passing. However, he lasted 13 months and 10 days after the passing of the former First Lady.

Tributes poured in for several days after former President Carter passed. Services to honor the 39th United States president began Saturday in his hometown of Plains, Ga. and will conclude with his state funeral at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday with President Joe Biden delivering the main eulogy.

Thank you, Mr. President, for your service to your country and for your humanity around the world. R.I.P., President Jimmy Carter.

••• Seeley is the sports editor of The Vian Tenkiller News. He can be reached by calling (918) 75-4433, Ext. 139 or by e-mailing him at davids@ cookson.news.