Playoff hockey is the best. After watching the St. Louis Blues’ (Let’s go Blues!) dramatic double-overtime win over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night, it’s safe to say that sport has figured out how to make playoff games pack the most punch.

I know there’s no easy fix to this, but watching that game made me think of just how anticlimactic college football overtimes are. In playoff hockey, there are no shootouts, there are no “each team gets a chance” setups — it’s simply whoever scores first.

That wouldn’t necessarily work for college football, because who knows how long it would take a team to score a touchdown (especially in that Alabama-LSU title game a few years back) and you wouldn’t want players putting their bodies in danger for longer than necessary. Still, there has to be some way to wring more drama from the end of college football games than the current setup.

Anyway, here are your questions for this week’s Mailbag:

Robert:

The NCAA Women’s Beach Volleyball Championship was in Gulf Shores, Alabama, (my parents’ neck of the woods) this past weekend. Which obscure sporting event is on your bucket list?

When I traveled to Iceland a few years ago, I thought it would be really cool to go see the national team play soccer there, but they didn’t have any games. The stadium is called Laugardalsvöllur and it is located right in the capital city of Reykjavik. It only seats 9,800 people and actually has a track circling it.

Based on Iceland’s performance in the 2016 European Championship and the 2018 World Cup, it seems like an exciting time to get in on the Iceland soccer bandwagon.

Another random event I’d love to go to is the Cape Cod Baseball League championship series. When I was visiting Cape Cod a couple of summers ago, I just happened upon a Chatham Anglers-Orleans Firebirds game by chance. I was with my wife and her friend and we stayed and watched a couple of innings from the hill in right field.

I’d love to get back up there for a whole summer and spend every night watching a game, eating fresh fish and drinking the excellent summer brews. As an added bonus, those rosters are loaded with SEC guys. In fact, current Cincinnati Red and former Tennessee Volunteer Nick Senzel played for the Brewster Whitecaps in 2015.

Great, now I want to go spend the summer on Cape Cod. Thanks a lot, Robert.

@ThatAthensGuy:

I’m glad UGA is scheduling all these home-and-home series, but it seems like the first game of all of them is at the opponent’s stadium. Is that to try and attract more teams to play us? Because the word is a lot of big-time schools are saying no after the way the fans travel so well.

The Bulldogs are clearly being very aggressive with their nonconference scheduling, which is really fun to see. They have home-and-home series scheduled against Notre Dame (finishing this year), Oklahoma (2023 and 2031), UCLA (2025 and 2026), Florida State (2027 and 2028), Texas (2028 and 2029) and Clemson (2029 and 2030, in addition to a neutral-site game in 2024).

While I think it’s odd that Georgia has the first road game in those arrangements, I don’t read too much into it. If you look at that stretch from 2027 to 2031, the Bulldogs have two games against elite Power 5 nonconference foes. Because of the way they’ve set it up, one game will be on the road and the other will be at home.

I think that’s smart on the part of Georgia AD Greg McGarity. I mean, just look at Auburn. Every other year, the Tigers complain about how unfair it is that they have to travel to both Alabama and Georgia. It’s funny, though, because you don’t hear that same complaints coming during years they host both of their rivals.

Anyway, I think it’s smart to stagger the amount of nonconference games you play at home and on the road, and McGarity seems to be doing a good job of that while also signing contracts with some impressive opponents.

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

@Dobbe8:

You mentioned this in your Mailbag last week, but you didn’t answer your own question. The people are dying to know — what SEC mascot WOULD be the best to have alongside you in a zombie apocalypse?

I didn’t expect that random question to draw such a response in the comments section, but it did. And, after reading through all of them, the most popular response seemed to be Georgia’s Hairy Dawg.

I’m inclined to agree, as Hairy Dawg looks like a Road Warrior who has already seen an apocalypse or two. However, commenter “Boxster355” had an interesting point. They said if you want to take to the sea to ride out the zombie wave, Vanderbilt’s Mr. Commodore would be the way to go.

In zombie movies, the main characters often have dogs, so that would bring Smokey, Reveille and the two Bulldogs into the mix, which would be pleasant company, no doubt. All I know is that I don’t want any sort of wild cat with me, since it would almost certainly eat me. That eliminates Kentucky, Mizzou, Auburn and LSU. A gator also seems like a bad idea, and an elephant, shark or gamecock seems useless in those circumstances.

If forced to choose, I’ll side with the people and go with Hairy Dawg. He seems to be ready for an apocalyptic event at any given time.

@HReside:

What’s an odd smell you actually like that most people don’t?

Does gasoline count? I like that smell, but I know of at least a few other people who enjoy it, too. I must admit that I don’t often talk about what smells I do and don’t like with others, so I’m not too familiar with what is popular and what’s not.

I also like the smell of mothballs, since it reminds me of my grandparents’ house when I was growing up. It’s not a particularly great smell, but the nostalgia associated with it is a plus in my book.

As for smells I don’t like that most people do, that’s a much wider range for me. I hate the smell of brownies (since I don’t like chocolate) and carving a pumpkin makes me nauseous, so I don’t like the smell of raw pumpkin insides, I guess?

Have a question for next week’s Mailbag? Tweet at us using #SDSMailbag or email me at ASpencer@SaturdayDownSouth.com.