Good morning. LEADOFF has today’s early buzz in Atlanta sports.
For the 17th consecutive season, the World Series will commence tonight without the Braves.
Which got us to wondering: How many different franchises have reached the World Series since the Braves were last there in 1999?
The answer is: 18.
Eighteen teams — nine from each league — have reached the World Series at least once since the Braves were swept by the Yankees in 1999.
The nine National League teams to reach the World Series in 2000-16: the Giants (four times), Cardinals (four times), Mets (twice), Phillies (twice), Rockies, Astros (in the NL at the time), Marlins, Diamondbacks and Cubs.
And the nine American League teams to reach the World Series in 2000-16: the Yankees (four times), Red Sox (three times), Royals (twice), Tigers (twice), Rangers (twice), Rays, White Sox, Angels and Indians.
Not that 17 seasons is a particularly long drought from reaching the World Series, Braves fans.
Just ask Cubs fans.
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As you know, neither Georgia nor Georgia Tech is ranked in the Top 25. But where do they rank in the college football landscape right now?
Well, according to USA Today's ranking this week of all 128 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, Georgia is No. 53 (one spot behind Middle Tennessee and one spot ahead of Southern Mississippi) while Tech is No. 63 (sandwiched between California and Duke).
Georgia Southern is No. 70, and Georgia State is No. 117.
No. 128? Rice.
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One week from tonight,the College Football Playoff selection committee will release its first rankings of the season, providing an early glimpse of how the committee sees the road to the Peach and Fiesta bowls. Those bowls are this season's playoff semifinal sites.
Of course, outside the committee, others aren’t waiting to project the playoff.
At cbssports.com, Jerry Palm this week projects a Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl matchup of No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 Ohio State, reasoning that the Buckeyes will reach the four-team playoff as the Big Ten champion despite Saturday's loss to Penn State. Palm sees a Fiesta pairing of No. 2 Clemson vs. No. 3 Washington.
At espn.com, both Mark Schlabach and Brett McMurphy this week project Alabama vs. Washington in the Peach and Clemson vs. Michigan in the Fiesta.
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The Falcons' next opponent has more than 360,000 owners, none of whom can make money on their stake in the team.
The Green Bay Packers have a unique ownership model that dates to the 1920s and makes them the only team in U.S. sports owned by the fans.
The Packers have sold stock on five occasions over the past 93 years, most recently in 2011-12, and now have more than 5 million shares outstanding. But the shares aren’t traded on any stock exchange, don’t pay a dividend, can’t be resold (except back to the team for a fraction of the original price) and can be transferred only to family members.
This stock is not the same thing as, say, the stock issued this year in the Braves.
