Championship Tuesday At Grand Central

Okay, it's pretty clear that it was a first down for Josh Allen.

It's also clear that the way the officials handled the play was a bit murky. Before you get all conspiratorial on TigerBlog, though, there is a reason why the Buffalo Bills lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game — and it wasn't the officiating.

It was the play calling, specifically the short-yardage play calling, either on third or fourth and short or near the goal line. You have to be more creative than simply assuming your quarterback — even if he's 6-5, 250 — will get it for you every time. 

First of all, it's no sure thing. Second of all, that's a lot of extra pounding on your franchise player. 

As for the refs, it's really bad for the NFL that the perception only grows week-to-week that the officials are under orders to make sure Kansas City wins. Also, is it asking too much to figure out a more exact way to measure where the football should be positioned and where the first down line is? 

Hey, maybe some sort of, um, technology? Is it possible to put some sort of GPS tracker into the ball? Wouldn't that eliminate the need for the officials to figure out where to spot the ball? The officials actually get this correct way more often than not, but it's so seemingly inexact, especially on plays like the ones from the Bills-Chiefs game. How can any human see through that pile of bodies, especially from 25 yards away?

It seems like an easy fix, no? 

Meanwhile, over at the NFC game, the Eagles beat the Commanders easily. Along the way, Washington's Frankie Luvu did manage to qualify for the NCAA Zone Diving championships for his repeated launches over the line of scrimmage and into Philly quarterback Jalen Hurts near the goal line. 

TB had no idea that the officials could simply award a score if they wanted to. Who knew that? I

And now there are two weeks until the Super Bowl. That's plenty of time for the "refs are in on it" talk to skyrocket.

In championship news for today, Princeton's Zeina Zein will play Riya Navani of Stanford for the CSA Individual Squash title. Navani is a freshman from Northern California.

Oh, and it's pronounced "ZAY-nuh ZANE," if you're wondering.

The women's championship is named the Ramsay Cup, after Princeton coach Gail Ramsay, herself a four-time individual national champion.

And where is this match to be held? 

At Grand Central Station in New York City, that's where. That has to be quite a show, no?

The match starts at 1:30.

is a sophomore from Egypt who was a first-team All-American a year ago. She's won four matches in the tournament to get the final, and she has yet to lose a single game.

Beyond that, she's only give up more than four points in four of the 12 games she's played. Her semifinal win was over Cornell's Yee Xin Ying by scores of 11-4, 11-6, 11-8.

Navani's semifinal match went much longer, the full five games in fact, before she took care of Columbia's Chan Sin Yuk. Navani won the first two games by scores of 11-9 each before dropping Games 3 and 4 11-2 and 11-4. She then regrouped a took the deciding game 11-9 to reach the final.

Navani started out with a three-game win in the opening round before going five games in the next round. Her quarterfinal match was actually a default, so she never even had to step on the court. 

Now it'll be Navani against Zein for the championship. At Grand Central, of all places.

This is from the goprincetontigers.com story: 

Zein will be the first Princeton woman in 24 years to play in the national final, since Julia Beaver '01 won the last of her three national titles. A win would be the 12th individual national title in program history, and Zein would be the sixth Princeton woman to win the title, with Wendy Zaharko, Demer Holleran and Beaver winning three each, and Nancy Gengler and Katherine Johnson one each.

That's some elite company that Zein is looking to join.