f13.net

64 Days to go...

Also, the UGA Atheletic Director just got picked up for DUI this week. Here's the kickers:

- He had a public service announcement on the Jumbotron after every Georgia home game reminding people not to drive drunk.
- He's 40 years old and was driving drunk with a 28 year old woman at 1AM.
- He's married and she wasn't his wife.

This last year has literally had the most random controversy I've seen in a long while with Massoli's robbery, Oregon's complete meltdown off the field, the Tennessee robbery, Mike Leach's firing over the shed incident, the USC bitchslapping, it just went on and on.

Let's get ready for some football!

Amen... this year will be all about Michigan's Roddy, USC's problems, and realignment. That said, let's get it on.

As for the UGA thing... so he got a DUI in Georgia, now he fits in. The rest is just filler.

60 days left...

The UGA Athletic Director has resigned in the wake of the scandal. It all seems fairly ironic given that his PSA said, "You drink, you drive, you lose." Indeed.

The Bleacher Report issued their Top Ten Most Overhyped Players in 2010. I agree with most of their selections, with the exception of probably Ricky Stanzi out of Iowa. That guy was the difference maker, and when he went down Iowa was lost. Here's the list:

1 - Kellen Moore, QB, Boise State
2 - Garrett Gilbert, QB, Texas
3 - Marcus Lattimore, RB, South Carolina
4 - Even Royster, RB, Penn State
5 - BJ Daniels, QB, South Florida
6 - Ricky Stanzi, QB, Iowa
7 - Jordan Jefferson, QB, LSU
8 - Julio Jones, WR, Alabama
9 - Jacory Harris, QB, Miami
10 - Terelle Pryor, QB, Ohio State

I think Pryor is finally going to have a break out year. 

Maybe his upper leg... Possibly the hip.

60 loooong days until kickoff...I need a college football fix in a bad way.  Watching re-runs on CSS just isn't cutting it.  Don't see Bama running the table again this year.  Brutal road schedule (@ Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennesse, and LSU).  Arkansas is going to be the tone setter for the year, IMHO.  Plus, we lost too much pure irreplaceable talent on defense (10 of 11 starters).  Offense should be stacked, though.  Returning the best two RBs in the nation, a good, solid core of WRs, all but one of the OL, and a QB that's never (ever) lost a football game.

Julio Jones is about 5 spots too low on that list, btw.

What's a good preseason top five? 

Florida, Bama, OSU, Tejas, Nebraska in no particular order would be mine.

I think the Boise States and TCUs are interesting, but I don't want to put them in the top ten just yet. 

My top five would include Alabama, Wisconsin, Iowa, Texas, and Boise State.

I snub Ohio State because I simply don't believe in them as an offensive program. They can be top 10 with their defense, but they will have tough games against Wisconsin, Iowa, and Penn State this year, where they will lose at least one. I don't expect them to beat Wisconsin simply because the Badgers will not again shoot themselves in the foot by coughing up 3 TDs on interceptions or returns. That's the only reason OSU won that game; other than that their offense was anemic and hasn't improved. Also, Wisconsin plays OSU in Wisconsin. That will be one of the marquee matchups early on for the Big whatever-they-call-it-now.

No love for Florida here either, and not just because of the bias. I don't buy into the fact Florida can mount the same kind of dominance when they lost their QB, their Center, best receiver, and the majority of their defense. Also, who knows if they have a running game without Tebow? We haven't seen one in years.

TCU needs to prove they can beat the other BCS busters before they get a shot.

My bias lies in the Hurricanes and LSU... but I think the ACC is going to do well this year. My top 5:

Florida St.
Miami
Oklahoma
LSU
Arkansas

and yes, I been drinking heavily.

I think John Brantley will be a very, very good SEC QB.  The kid is a major stud.  

Also, OSU's season hinges on whether Tressel can stop the Dean Smith act and let Pryor play some football.  I hate to see good talent squashed by crappy coaching.

Edit: 

Dooley could prove to awesome at UT. (http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2010/07/06/college-footballs-cold-war-southern-california-vs-tennessee/)

52 days...

Bobby Johnson is planning to step down as the Vandy head coach (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5379454) Everyone else in the SEC laments: Wow, I didn't know Vandy had a head coach!

Also, the Volunteers can't seem to stop getting arrested, this time for a bar fight. (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5378061) The "kicker" is that they stomped an off-duty policeman unconscious while he lay on the ground. Don't they know that once the guy is down, the fight is over? Apparently not. Two players are susepended, and one was tossed off the team.

They're not taking any risks with that list at all.  Those are all high profile position players which are incredibly difficult to assess accurately.  I could name 10 QB's from high profile programs as being overhyped and I'd be right 80% of the time.  Programs hype their marquis players to put fans in the seats and get donors to give money.  Most of the programs for college football list their players as being 20 lbs heavier and 2 inches taller.  It's all hype. 

Joe Montana's kid got arrested for underage drinking.  While this is certainly I may have partaken of myself in my youth, it certainly doesn't hurt my feelings to see the Irish suffering.

Story (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5388648)

Apparently to play for the Irish you have to be cursed with a horrible name. Yikes.

Also, any predictions for the Heisman?  I'm going to go with Ryan Mallett for Arky.  He's a heck of a talent and finally has a decent coach in Petrino. 

Here's my predictions for the Heisman:

Ryan Mallet (AK) - a good choice given that Arkansas is going to have a much better chance this year to win the West, but they have to do that for him to have a shot and that requires beating...

Mark Ingram (AL) - the chance of him repeating is pretty high is he has a similar season and Alabama is just as competitive.

Jake Locker (Washington) - he's a sleeper pick, but given that Oregon and USC have major issues, the time is ripe for this kid to take a shot at the PAC-10 title. He went under the radar because Washington was so mediocre last year, but he carries 2,800 passing yards and an almost 130 QB rating from last season in a BAD year.

Terrelle Pryor (OSU) and Kellen Moore (Boise) will also be in the running, but I don't think Pryor will have the kind of production in that system to win it. Kellen gets hurt by the fact that he has to go undefeated to have a remote shot.

Ingram won't be in the running for the Heisman this year.  Hell, he's not even going to be the primary ball carrier if things keep up.

I almost think that the Heisman voters are so insistent that it is impossible to win two in a row that they won't let it happen.  It's a self fulfilling prophecy.  I think Tebow had a very good argument that he deserved the second in a row. 

Anyway, I think Ingram will have a better season than you're expecting, Charmer. 

Bet you a game on steam that he ranks third on the team in number of carries by the end of the season ;)

Okay.  That's fair.  Under 15 bucks?

Edit:  To be clear-  he is #1 or #2, I win, #3 or worse you win.  And injury should nullify the bet. 

Sure, sounds good.

I was actually coming back here to post that an injury would make the bet void since it takes coaching decisions out of the equation.  Does ANY injury count?  Or just one that knocks him out of X number of games?  Problem is, and just being honest here, unless it's something season ending or something that would cause him to miss significant game time, Saban won't allow comment on it.  They don't comment unless it's 100 percent for sure he's going to miss X games or rest of the season.  Makes it a bit tricky, so I suppose we're just going to have to come to some sort of agreement when/if it happens.

I think any injury that costs him to lose games. 

If UW's defense can unfuck itself enough to keep scoring below 25 points a game or so, Locker should have a real shot. The offense is fucking stacked (OL is still a question mark, but not as bad as past years), even if most of the country has never heard of most of the kids. Polk, Kearse, Middleton, Polk (there are two!) are all older and more experienced, and there are a couple of hot shit freshman too. Locker should also get better, which is pretty amazing. He is the best running QB I have ever seen (if you don't count glorified running backs who almost never throw), has a ++ arm, and has finally gotten some decent coaching.

 He is also an amazing kid- humble, competitive, and kind. My wife works with a woman whose nephew had a brain tumor- his MAW request was to meet Jake Locker. They hung out for a day at Husky Stadium throwing the ball around, grabassing, and just having fun. A few weeks later there was a charity event to help raise money for the kid. Locker showed up unexpectedly and brought a few teammates with him. He pointed to him after he scored his first collegiate touchdown (yep- he did all this before he played a down). He maintained a relationship with Kyle (http://kyleroger.blogspot.com/) until he died, and continues to work for his charity. If you google 'kyle roger' and Jake Locker you should be able to find more info. Warning- dry eyes will be a distant memory, especially if you have kids.

Sarkisian was a very underrated part of USC's staff.  I would rate him way above the Tennessee Turdburglar.

That's a good one. I like Runaway Lane as well.

Sarkisian has the stink of BYU on him though so expect disappointment.

I'm still in shock at the NCAA ruling against USC. 

47 days?

I know most people hate USC, but if you read the NCAA report on the whole deal I think they got the shaft a little bit.  And this recent issue with the Florida guy is the same way.  The NCAA has reached a point where their laws are basically unenforceable.  How is Florida to keep that kid from taking money between the end of the season and a bowl game?  Do they have to put these guys in prison cells?  It's a bunch of crap and quite hypocritical by the NCAA.

It's hypocritical, but it's also a felony in many states to offer money to a kid before he is draft eligible. That's why nobody ever sues the kids for taking the money and running, because to bring the suit you have to admit to commiting a felony yourself. The only reason it came up with Bush is because the agent was so pissed off, he just said fuck it and went for broke.

The question is who are these laws supposed to protect? The kids? The school? The Agents? If it's the Agents, that doesn't work because they have to admit to a crime just to get restitution. If it's the schools, that isn't working because the kids and agents can make deals without their knowledge and they are the ones facing suspensions. If it's the kids, I'd say they would be stupid not to take the money. You never have to give it back, you're not under contract to do a damn thing since it was illegal in the first place, you're not subject to the rules of the NCAA when you leave, and the NFL doesn't give a damn.

It's not who, but what:  The NCAA Money Train.

The NCAA is totally selective in its enforcement, has zero oversight, isn't bound by any legal document(s), and basically does what it wants to who it wants when it wants to. 

If the laws protect the NCAA, they don't work either. They have no ability to do anything but punish schools after the fact, regardless of what they did to stop it. Although, I do agree that the NCAA is making entirely too much money of these kids for absolutely no reward to them. Everyone who says, "They are getting paid; they are getting a free education, and they just need to make the most of it," is a flaming idiot. Athletes have ridiculous demands on their time, even when they aren't football players on the national stage. You have morning practices, mandatory workouts, mandatory film sessions, travel on the weekends, a full load of classes, mandatory study halls, afternoon practices and you have to find time to eat/sleep/poop as well, while studying some in your "free time". That's what it takes to get an education while being a regular collegiate athelete.

You think the football program is letting their starters worry about class when they could be prepping for this weeks game? Hell no.

The NCAA really needs to evaluate their methods, that is for sure.....or someone needs to investigate them.  I wonder how they would like that?

The sport has simply outgrown the foundation. When the NCAA was founded over a century ago in 1906, college athletics were something totally different than they are today. Back then, they were simple club teams, and playing as a professional athelete was rare outside of baseball. Those rules that were set up to glorify the amateur athlete simply don't apply in today's economy. The college football we know commands almost as much revenue and air time as the professional league.

I would be more than happy to see the whole college athletics thing take a back seat for a tiered minor league system for each sport with promotion and relegation. The 'student athlete' is pretty much dead, if in fact it ever really existed on a large scale. Of course, there is so much money in college sports that they will never go away. Pity.

What really needs to happen is for the top 5 money making football programs (Alabama, Texas, Notre Dame, USC, Florida, etc) and basketball programs (Duke, UK, UNC, etc) need to say 'Fuck this, I'm outta here' and form their own 'association' for governance.  The rest would follow and the NCAA would crumble.  Hell, if the SEC just decided to leave the NCAA it would take care of its self.

You'd probably need the Big 10 to go as well, but yeah. If the two biggest money making conferences told the NCAA to go fuck itself, that would cause it's downfall.

Big 10 or old Big 12?  Seems to me that Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and whoever else would be worth more than Ohio State and whoever else is in their conference.

Anyway, the ace in the SEC's pocket is the ESPN contract worth gazillions of dollars.

Big 12 (UT & OU) doesn't draw the TV dollars that the Big 10 does. It's not even close. The Big 10 made 3x the TV money in 2009 that the Big 12 made. You just don't think about it because they play a brand of football that puts most fans to sleep, but they eat that shit up in the North.

Yeah, the Big Ten is a huge gorilla compared to the Big 12, which is funny because you're right-  the Ohio State plus 11 league doesn't seem as if it would be that powerful when you compare to the Okie/Texas/Aggy triangle of evil.

Dismissing Michigan, Penn State, and Nebraska as "plus 11" is pretty  :uhrr:.

Frankly, I think they should just say forget the whole college thing and make it a minor leagues for football, keep playing on saturdays.  Thats all it is anyway, and we can stop the charade of the "student athlete."   Then we could do away with worrying about the joke that are all these violations anyway, we all know its all about the money to begin with.

Most of the money ultimately comes from people who are into it precisely BECAUSE it is associated with their colleges, though. I'd certainly stop paying attention instantly if you took the Cal out of Cal Football. You'd lose a lot of traditions and trappings that are really important to people.

Also, the reason they can't do it is because the majority of atheletes do use their scholarships to get an education, and most of that money is funded by the football program in many major state schools. I know friends and members of my family got a free ride to their universities for other sports, and have parlayed that into successful careers. Sports like baseball, soccer, hockey, volleyball, track, swimming, gymnastics actually do produce the mythical "student athelete."

It's just that football doesn't because it's such a cash cow. Frankly, the way it is right now is a win-win for people that couldn't get by on intelligence but are great at football, and the thousands of other atheletes in less-popular sports who get to go to college that maybe couldn't afford it. The only downside is that not all the money gets distributed like that, and the schools themselves siphon it off to other bullshit projects, let alone the merchandizing whores making a killing off of kid's names that can't get a dime for it legally.

Even football does, honestly. Most of the guys on those teams don't go anywhere in the NFL or even play much in college and are just like that gymast or swimmer. Even sometimes the guys your school catches flak for over bringing them with bad academics or whatever turn out well, like Russell White did for us.

Well, to be fair, Michigan and Penn State have been a bit of an afterthought lately in the polls and Nebraska hasn't existed in the Big Ten until now.  But my point wasn't to down the Big Ten, but more to show surprise at the relative lack of power that the Big 12 has. 

The Big 12 has two nationally marketable teams. Texas and Oklahoma. That's it. When they play each other, it's a freaking showcase. When they play Baylor, Colorado State, Iowa State, Kansas, K State, or Missouri, nobody on the national scale gives a shit. Texas playing A&M is a big game because it's rivalry, just like OU and OKSt. Texas Tech was relevant for a couple years, and now they aren't, but the vestiges of that relevence are worth something until they really go tits up in the rankings. Nebraska left. So lets run down the games that actually mean something in the Big 12:

1 - Texas v. OU - almost always decides the South Champion.
2 - Texas v. A&M - rivalry week
3 - OU v. OK St. - rivalry week
4 - Texas v. Texas Tech - shootout factor / previous losses
5 - OU v. Texas Tech - has been big for tiebreaker purposes

That's five games in the entire season you could show on TV that would post a national appeal and/or have a major effect on the Big 12 championship. You simply can't sell the rest of the conference like you can the SEC or the Big 12 matchups given the rabid territory and national product.

For fucks sake...

Alabama's Marcell Dareus, he of the awesome spin move stiff arm touchdown scoring goodness in the BCS game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=insLuoYsDXw), is under investigation by UA's compliance staff for attending a party (http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/07/probe_reaches_dareus.html) this summer put on by an agent.

Welp.

One of the guys I tagged for a breakout season just got kicked off the team (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskies/2012405925_uwfb21.html). All the talent in the world, but too fucking stupid and immature to take advantage of it.

Was this one of those Ricky Williams type situations where he was incredibly talented but just couldn't stop smoking dope constantly?

But coach, they tied the bong to my head with duct tape.  I couldn't get away!   :why_so_serious:

He has been in battling for playing time his whole career even though he is obviously the most athletically gifted TE on the roster, so his motivation has been in question. This is the first I have heard about drugs, but it doesn't surprise me, I guess.

It sucks, but I doubt this hurts Washington in a real place where they needed production. With their QB and receiving core, the only question should be whether the defense can hang. If they can hold teams to 21 a game, they will win the conference hands down.

God I hope so. Seattle sports needs a winner like you can't believe.

Cleveland much?  :grin:

At least you guys were in the running a few years back.

Come now, you still have the Marin...oh wait. Well, it's almost football season. There's no way the Cardinals can win that division again without Warner.

Cleveland lost LeBron. We lost an entire NBA franchise  :ye_gods:

Of course, Cleveland also had Modell fuck off to Baltimore and win a Super Bowl, so they definitely deserve some sympathy.

Mike Slive on the offensive.

Slive (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=5399481)

"Slive's call for new ideas includes at least a discussion of simply deregulating the agent situation and allowing players to have agents while in college. He did not endorse the idea, but endorsed discussing it."

This is probably the best action.  They'll never be able to regulate things the way it is set up now.

All that does is move the problem further up the line. Instead of having agents pestering kids in college, you'll have them pestering kids in high school.

Slive may be right, though.  It may not be tenable to try to prevent these kids from dealing with agents.  So make it a free for all.  It will be a self-limiting market as there's only so much money to go around.  Let the parents police it.  Or let the law enforcement agencies police it, where it is illegal.

The simple truth is that there are too many agents and too few kids with real talent. The agents are 80% of the problem, and the NFL doesn't seem to care. The parents are the other 20%, because a lot of times this kid is their meal-ticket. Until the NFL decides to establish a code of conduct for agents dealing with these kids and enforces it, all the NCAA rules won't matter.

Right.  Which is why the NCAA should just wash their hands of it and let whatever happens happen.

That could potentially work if the state and/or federal law enforcement gets involved to make it illegal.  Saban, when he was at LSU, was able to help get a law pushed through that made it illegal for agents to have contact with athletes.  There's one on the books for the state of Alabama, but in so far hasn't been pushed yet.  If you make it illegal and punishable by law, and actually enforce it, some good may come.  You have to hit these agents where it hurts ($$$).  Take away their ability to do business legitimately, and you'll see progress.   The problem is, most agents use runners to distance themselves from the athletes - in which case you then need the runner to turncoat on the agents themselves.

The main problem for me is that these kids are essentially endentured servants for a few years while coaches and universities make these highly publicized amounts of money off their play, and then criticize them for considering taking any money in return. But they get this mystical education that will somehow benefit them greatly in the NFL.

Kids that are great should be paid, I'm to the point where I just say let the chips fall where they may as well. Even though I know there's a huge downside to that.

The only rule I think should be in place to prevent a player from taking money is from a signed marketing deal with a company, say Coke or Nike.  If an agent or booster wants to give money to a player then let them have at it.  It wouldn't be too much different from the '70s and '80s, which produced a lot of good football and not a lot of problems. 

What gets me is when you go to games and you see Georgia Jerseys with David Pollack's name on it. The kid was a stud defensive player for 4 years, got a deal in the NFL, broke his neck, and that was it. He's never going to see dime one from all the copious amounts of cash they made off of him because it happened under the guise of student athlete.

I think it's unethical to attach a person's name to something, sell it for a profit, and then think it's totally ok to completely cut them out of the deal. It happens in other places besides college athletics, but rarely do the offenders try to rationalize it like they are doing the victim a favor.

I forgot about Pollack.  That was a shame.  He was a good guy.

Don't feel too bad for him, he hosts a radio show on sports talk here in Atlanta, and he does numerous real estate developments with other UGA players. He isn't going to go hungry and pretty much jokes about the injury. He's married, fully mobile, happy, and doesn't seem to give a damn. Still, it could have made a lot of folks pretty bitter about the situation.

Um, Miami.

Hey, I loved watching Miami in the 80s  :why_so_serious:

Also Oklahoma in the 70s and 80s.  

Edit:  In other news, Lame Kiffin is a huge douche (http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/news/story?id=5407023)

Most college football players are already paid thousands of dollars a year in the form of a free education.

Giving most of those kids a "free education" is like giving me a free Ford Mustang.  They don't want the education and I certainly don't want a Ford Mustang.

Most are. There are 100 potential players each year who are good enough to start in the NFL tomorrow. How those players are diivied up amongst the 100+ FBS colleges ain't equal. The current NCAA system completely ignores the fact that they are there, draw thousands upon thousands more fans wherever they are, and often when placed on the same team contribute to national championships and conference championships.

Recruiting doesn't ignore that fact, nor do agents, nor do boosters, nor do runners, nor do the media, nor pretty much anybody with half a brain.

Yeah, I understand that not a lot of guys actually go to the NFL or the NBA (and those are the two sports we're primarily talking about here) but when you look at the dismal graduation rates of some of the high profile programs that theory doesn't completely add up.  I understand that people use the scholarships for just that, scholarship, but until the NCAA gets serious about the "Collegiate" part of their name they are simply hypocritical.

The NCAA won't change anything until the cash stops. To do that, all fans pretty much have to start boycotting bowls as the starting point. Most fans just accept that their guys are probably on the payroll, and they trust the coaching staff to do everything they can to cover it up. Notice how when people are caught, nobody at that school is outraged. They just shrug and go, well we got sloppy.

And see, I don't really have a problem with that stuff either.  I guess I get more irritated by the NCAA trying to enforce their rules which are pretty much bogus.  I loved football in the 80s and it was probably dirtier then than now, from the colleges' standpoint at least.  They certainly didn't have all this agent crap going on, which to me is a worse option.

That's a great statement.  Very true, particularly during my playing days back in the mid 80's.  When I was trying to decide where to play, the quality of education NEVER entered into the equation and I was a national merit scholar.  I still remember tossing materials from Dartmouth and Yale in the trash.  I wish I could have that decision back. 

Nearly every person I played with could care less about education and most saw it as a barrier to their athletic success.  This is a primary reason why I feel that things need to change toward an NFL farm system.  Those kids wanting to play need to maximize play and training time to become NFL caliber athletes.  They should be financially compensated in a meaningful way on the path toward that end.

Get real, the NFL doesn't want a farm system. It would cost them money instead of just siting back and using the college game for free. The NBA is the exact same way, as they are the ones who had to force kids to go back to school. Remember, that's an NBA rule (not an NCAA rule) because it benefitted the NBA so much to do it.

I want to make sure this is very clear, The NFL isn't the problem here. The problem is totally on the NCAA, their application of their own rules, and the fact that they are now a billion dollar industry in their own right.

I know this.  I'm not stupid.  I want a farm system because it would benefit the players, not because I think it would ever happen.  The current model is so entrenched that I doubt it will ever change.  I just fail to understand why the NCAA continues to pretend to follow their fantasy rules.  The best players at competitive programs are already violating nearly every rule you could imagine.  The only reason the rules exist is as a smokescreen for the public and those parents deluded enough to believe their child wants an education. 

If you put a farm system in place though, I don't think it would benefit anyone except the players. The schools would lose money and scholarships, and the fans would lose out on a good brand of football.

It would basically become the equivilent of Ivy League football mixed with college baseball.

That word does not mean what you think it means  :grin:

Kiffin continues to win friends and infuence people.

To be honest, athletics are a zero sum game for universities in every regard except marketing.  The money that comes from the sports goes back into athletics.  The greatest benefit comes to the women athletes, most of which genuinely do care about education.  I guess in that sense, having the big college programs does have a little merit.

True, and my female relatives have gotten a few scholarships based on that principle. Still, we shouldn't downplay the marketing side that a great football program can garner. The University of Georgia (due in large part to the HOPE scholarship, which offers free college to all in-state students) has had to raise standards to ridiculously high levels. Everyone wants to come to UGA for the atmosphere, the fact that it's the biggest non-tech institution, and the sports.

Most of the scholarships go to out-of-state participants for athletics, for that reason.

European universities seem to do very well without having huge sports programs. 

I certainly don't think we should get rid of college football or anything like that, but it would be nice to keep it all in perspective.  I just think the NCAA needs to figure things out and realize that most of this is about making money and entertainment, not education. 

More Tennessee turdburglar (http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/38435092/ns/sports-college_football/)

I'll cut Kiffin some slack on this one, because if it happened anywhere else to anybody else, nobody would care. That's pretty much the yardstick I use to determine if something is a pretty bad coaching decision. This boils down to the Titans getting butthurt over him not making a phone call. That's it. Obviously, the contract the Titans gave their RB coach sucked, or he wouldn't bail out of a job in the NFL for a college gig. Most guys are trying to get into the NFL, not out of it. Oh, and the outrage from the Titans?

Didn't they just fire their previous RB coach to get this new guy? Fired a runningback coach, I might add, when they had the best rushing game in the whole NFL. Yeah, that made sense.  :oh_i_see:

Well, maybe if he wasn't such a jackass they wouldn't have gotten a case of the ass.  Seriously, Jeff Fisher is a USC alum and a fan, so why wouldn't you call him?  This stinks of jackassery.

And yes, the lawsuit is completely frivolous, in  my opinion.

Because Jeff Fisher would have told him to either cram it, or he would have told them that if he let him steal away his coach, the already pissed off Tennessee fans would turn on Fisher. Either way, Kiffin wasn't going to get the go-ahead, and they both knew it.

I mean really, they had just hired the guy. They weren't going to let him voluntarily be poached before he'd even coached a game. He would have had better luck asking to have unprotected sex with Fisher's daughter.

36 days...

PAC-10 media days started, and the media is still projecting Oregon to be the front-runner, despite the fact that they have no QB. Last time I checked, the QB was probably the single most important thing to have in the PAC-10, but then again the media hasn't ever had an original thought in it's collective head. They won last year, so they must be good!

UCLA is switching to the pistol offense, which is that odd variation on the shotgun promoted by Nevada last year. The idea would be to put more pressure on the defense by running the ball a lot more, and that would require a very deft read by your QB and/or RB in the slots. Personally, I think it's a niche offense like the triple-option. You can certainly win with it because other teams just can't plan for it correctly. However, anybody coming off a bye week is going to smoke your ass given two weeks to prepare.

Oregon State seems to be piling it's hopes on their running back, Jacquizz Rodgers. I think that's a terrible idea in a QB dominated conference, but I will still root for them because I love yelling "GO BEAVERS!"

The guy's a stud though.  There are worse people to pin your hopes to.

Great read on the NCAA that sums up my feelings on the matter.
Gene Wojciechowski (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?id=5420728)

The bureaucracy is expanding to meets the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.

Opening Week Schedule (http://espn.go.com/college-football/schedule)

Looks pretty dismal.  It's pretty sad when Ky-Louisville is one of the headliners.

Other games of merit:
1.  LSU-North Carolina
2.  Oregon State-TCU
3.  Purdue- Notre Dame
 

KY is such an appropriate abbreviation with Pitino coaching basketball there.

Have you been reading the trial stuff?  It makes Pitino look fairly pathetic.  He should just hang it up.

The opening of the college season is always tempered by the fact that 95% of the matchups are wretched. If the NCAA wanted to make the game better, they would quit headhunting for kids taking money, and they should bitchslap every university that pays a girl's charity school to play them during two-three games a year. This year UGA plays Louisana Lafayette from the Sun Belt Conference, and Idaho State who plays in the AA championship league. Both are home games that are shitting up my season tickets. I'm not even going to the home opener since I don't want to waste my entire Labor Day weekend by staying in Georgia.

Here is a smattering of the national contenders and some of the non-conference shit they play this year:

Florida - Miami of Ohio, Appalachian State (forget the Michigan thing, that ain't this team)
Alabama - San Jose State, Duke, and Georgia State (btw, Georgia State is starting their football program THIS YEAR)
Ohio State - Marshall, Ohio, Eastern Michigan
Texas - Rice, Wyoming, Florida Atlantic
Penn State - Youngstown State, Kent State, Temple
Virginia Tech - East Carolina, James Madison, Central Michigan

Eh, I wouldn't really get too pissed off about Texas playing Rice, that's a pretty traditional matchup, even if Rice does always suck. SJSU and Duke are bad teams certainly but they're still Division I, those games count for bowl purposes etc.

The ones that really annoy me are the games against I-AA teams or whatever they call that now (football championship league or something?) or division II teams.

Usually they are homecoming games. Typical throw away weekends.

Throwaway weekends are fine when it's middle of the season and your team needs a break. There's no reason we should all have to put up with the first game of the season being a pattycake for everyone.

Speaking as an ex Big 10 player, easy early games helped a lot in the preparation for conference play.  It's not all that different from NFL preseason in as far as shaking out a few last positional battles.

I don't have a problem with a game or two being a snoozer.  It seems as if Texas, Ohio State, Notre Dame and USC are the only big-name schools that are ready to man up and go after real teams.  Texas just signed a 4 year deal with Notre Dame and has had a home and home with OSU.  Of course they play a relatively weak conference schedule.  USC seems like they will traditionally play anyone anywhere.  I just wish we could see a little more of this.  This first weekend is a total turd.

East Carolina is a rivalry game for VT, one which the Pirates won a couple of years ago.

The Pirates aren't terrible, and I hesitated for a second putting them on the list. However, facts are facts and while Conference USA is "getting better" in terms of having some respectable bowl games, they still got beat when they played a team from a real conference. I will give East Carolina props for making it close against Arkansas, but that team had NO defense and they couldn't score more than 17 points.

I don't think Temple is going to be a walk in the park. Of course, with my history of picks and what not, just saying that means they'll not only lose, but it will be a laugher.

The solution is to let Ty Willingham take over the big programs for a few years each. By the time he is done, those tomato cans on the early schedule start to look like dangerous opponents.

Preseason AP poll is out. Let the WTF begin on some of the teams in the top 25!

I'll go first:

8. Oklahoma 8-5 1,035 NR

WTF?  :ye_gods:

That was the most glaring one on my list. The second was Virginia Tech at #6. Really? Are we actually going to pretend that the ACC is that relevant in the national scale? Part of me hopes they get trounced by Boise State. The other part of me realizes that if Boise wins that game, they won't shut up about belonging in the national title game when they rout the rest of their pussy conference.

Also, Oregon at 11 is a joke. They have no QB. The entire PAC-10 will get no respect this year, and the rankings bear that out so far.

That's actually the USA Today coaches poll rather than the AP poll.

Yeah, good point, I typed the wrong name. The AP poll will probably be the same with a few shifts.

Oklahoma has a lot of talent.  That doesn't surprise me.

OU doesn't impress me. Their QB Landry Jones padded his stats against shitty teams as a freshman, but he was a question mark lots of games. Losing 10-3 to Nebraska? Getting blown out by Texas Tech? Losses to Miami and BYU didn't show much either. They have two real threats, Demarco Murray as a dual run/catch threat at RB, and Ryan Broyles. A good defensive team will key on the run, put their best corners on Broyles, and force them to become a one-dimensional passing team while bringing the heat.

Nebraska was a good example. They keyed on Murray and took him completely out of the game, forcing Jones to pass. I think they have a shot against Texas if their defense and special teams step up, but in a slog, I would count on OU blinking first.

I'm not saying they are the best team in the country.  I do think OU is a top ten team though. 

Now that Pitt has shown its actually viable again, Joe Pa needs to reinstate the rivalry game again. Especially with both teams sitting at 14 and 15.

Perhaps, but I would have moved them down near Wisconsin. I think they a fairly similar chance to win their conference, except Wisconsin had a better finish to the last season. I think OU could be dangerous if they can sort out their inconsistencies. Time will tell.

As for the rest of the field, my predictions for conference champion go as follows:

SEC : Likely winner - Alabama, Dark Horse - Arkansas
ACC : Likely winner - Miami, Dark Horse - Florida State
Big 12: Likely winner - Texas, Dark Horse - Oklahoma State
PAC 10 - Likely winner - Oregon State, Dark Horse - Stanford
Big 10 - Likely winner - Ohio State, Dark Horse - Iowa

Oh I think you put too much faith in Miami. I see them falling fast this year. Now I say this as a huge Hurricanes fan...but I just don't see it. ACC I would put more stock into Va Tech with the Tarheels being a dark horse. Fla St maybe...only if they can gel without Bowden.

Va Tech is too easy of a choice, and I don't like their QB. Tyrod Taylor just has to be good enough to get out of the way, and hope that Ryan Williams can grind down the opponent. Miami can handle that better this year because the suck-ass players from last year on D-line are gone, and the freshman playing on D-line are now sophomores with a year under their belt. They are young, but it can't get worse.

Also, Jacory Harris is the real deal, and probably the best QB in the ACC. He's had time to mature, and will get even more time before he has to face a real conference test against Clemson in October. Let's face it, their schedule was murderously hard early on last year, with 4 games against top 25 opponents in a row, and they still only dropped one of those games to Va Tech. This year, they play Va Tech in November at home.

I don't believe for a second Miami will be undefeated, in fact I expect them to lose to Ohio State and have a hard-fought match with Pitt. However, I do believe they can go 7-1 in conference play and get a shot at the title game.

Don't rule out Florida.  That Brantley kid they have coming in at QB is a stud and has a great line protecting him.  Brantley may even prove to be a better QB for the team than Tebow was, as he offers more of a passing threat. 

The question for Florida is, who is Brantley throwing to and who is running between the tackles? Nobody has done any kind of interior running on that team except for Tebow. Hernandez and Cooper are gone, and I would be amazed if anybody outside of the Florida program or sports announcer could name both starting wide receivers, let alone the fact that none of their TE's have ever taken a snap in a college game.

They are severely overranked at #3, and hell I'm giving them credit that they CAN replace most of their defense.

Florida's backfield is stacked.  We have the fastest man in college football in Jeff Demps, an experienced JR; we have red shirt senior Emmanuel Moody, a very experienced and talented back that has been plagued by injuries, but looks to be fit this year; the explosive sophomore Mike Gillislee (had brilliant runs every chance he got to touch the ball last year); a highly rated freshman in Mack Brown who we will have to see about; and then we still have JR Chris Rainey who has moved to slot receiver, but is an experienced back and nearly as fast as Demps.  On top of all that we have slot receiver Andre Debose who was one of our most heralded recruits last season (figured to replace Percy Harvin) that sat out last season because of injury, but is healthy now.  You can expect both Rainey and Debose to get some carries out of the back.

Rainey and Debose will be stand outs at receiver and they'll have a strong supporting cast behind them.  I won't argue they'll need to prove themselves though.

Jordan Reed and Desmond Parks will be stand outs at TE.  Jordan Reed was a dual threat QB in high school so expect to see some shenanigans from him (sliding over to QB for some spread option plays) and probably some trick plays here and there running and/or passing out of the backfield.  As you said, they and the other TEs are all Freshmen, so won't argue that they'll need to prove themselves as well.

The Defense still has some solid players/leaders returning and some ridiculous new talent coming in, but it is definitely the biggest question mark.  How they come together over the course of the season will be a big factor in how successful the team is.

I think Florida is a solid #3, but of course I'm biased!  GO GATORS!

I think one national title spot will be sewed up by Florida versus Alabama in the SEC title game, just like last year.  I think Florida may even improve a little on offense, compared to Tebow.  Tebowball had gotten stale.  People could predict what he was going to do to easily.  That didn't mean they could stop him, but it was much tougher on him as he finished his career. 

As for Florida, I think their ranking is a bit high. 

The offensive line will have a tough job in replacing Maurkice Pouncey.  This problem is compounded by the fact that the line already gave up 30 sacks in 2009.

The defense should remain strong but could take a hit with the losses of defensive leaders Joe Haden and Brandon Spikes.

I grant you that Florida will be a very talented team in 2010, but it will also be full of inexperience.  This inexperience could cost them as many as 3 or 4 games while having to face more experienced squads such as Alabama, LSU, Georgia, and Florida State. 

Florida will still be one of the better teams in the nation, but a number three ranking seems like a bit of a stretch for such an unproven quantity.

True.  However, defenses had absolutely no fear of Tebow throwing the ball by the time he was a senior.  That pumped that sack number up. 

Good point.  To be honest, I'm just a Florida hater and tried to disguise it by being semi-objective.  I similarly think that Ohio State is overrated, but like the potential that they have.  Ohio State will have a tough time with the other 3 high quality teams in the Big 10 (though I think Wisconsin is also a tad overrated as well). 

Oh, I absolutely despise Florida, but I don't kid myself about how good they could be.  I'm thinking tOSU may have a breakout year, if Tressel can get his head out of his ass and play Pryor the way he ought to be played.  My wife's sister and her husband are huge OSU fans, and they drive me absolutely bonkers.  I just like good college football.  There's nothing else like it. 

Florida could be good, but let's not kid ourselves. Their entire ranking is based off last year's success and the potential they have in their recruits. Nobody really knows anything about any of their skill positions on offense. You're talking about brand new QB, RBs, WRs, and TEs, not to mention replacements on the line.

Would any other team in the nation get that kind of respect when they were wholesale replacing their entire offense? Hell no.

EDIT: Well maybe Notre Dame.

Interesting little blurb about agents in College Football:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2010/08/urban-meyer-loved-conference-call-with-coaches-nfl-commish-about-agents/1


It's encouraging that there's at least some talks going on.

My lord Meyer sounds like a total mouthbreather in that quote.

Good on them for talking, but I don't see how the NFL ownership has anything to gain by punishing kids who deal with agents. Still, I'd think the players union would be hugely in favor of punishing them.

Holy crap, did he ever. 

Why would the players Union care?  I don't see why it would matter to them, either.

Rogue agents cause problems for them in their collective bargaining.

Bingo.

I don't know if this is getting much play out there in the larger universe but there are serious lulz afoot concerning BYU and the MWC and WAC.

No way in hell Bama repeats.  I'm not even sure we get back to the SEC Championship. 

Defense is going to be shaky as there's no way in hell you can replace 13 major contributors and expect the kind of defense we had last year; I don't care how well Saban and Co recruited.  Offense is back, but it's not like it was a stellar offense last year to begin with, despite Ingam winning the Heisman.  To top it off?  Both the place kicker and punter are gone. 

We won't get the breaks we got last year that's necessary to have that kind of run.  Will be lucky to go 9-4. 

I realize you are playing the role of the fan here, but that is just crazy talk.  I think 1-2 losses at most for this Bama team. 

That being said, I think Arkansas will surprise some folks this year.  They have a top notch quarterback and a coach that is going to use him appropriately.  Auburn is overrated by most (Herbstreit said they would win the division, guffaw) and that is really the only competition Bama has for the division, in my opinion.  The Florida game will be tough, but it is in Tuscaloosa.

I honestly see a loss to Arkansas, Florida, and (gasp) Auburn, plus one other along the way (or maybe the bowl game).  Defense and special teams are the weak points.  The offense showed a tendency to go into the tank a few times last year only to be saved by the aforementioned decimated defense and special teams.  Their road schedule has them at Arkasas, South Carolina, Tennessee, and LSU.  And every single SEC team has a bye week before playing Bama (except maybe one).  Arkansas isn't exactly a brutal place to play, but SC, UT, and LSU are definately hostile places to play.  They've got a tough road ahead of them.

Arkansas is going to light some people up this year.
Florida is going to surprise EVERYONE.
Auburn is coming on really freaking strong.

Don't underestimate Saban.  The guy is a hell of a coach.   I'm sure special teams and defense will be fine. 

I'm just glad my Bulldogs don't play Bama this year. We actually have a very cupcake schedule. The hard games are going to be SC on the road, Arkansas at home, Florida on the road, and Auburn on the road. We don't have to face LSU or Alabama, we don't have to worry too much about a decimated Tennessee team at home (unless we are really shitty, and if that's the case, who cares about the rest of the matchups), and the rest of our road games are against sub-25 opponents (Colorado, Miss State, Kentucky).

Win against South Carolina and Arkansas, and Georgia will be a guaranteed 5-0 in time for the Tennessee home game. If we're rolling past Tennessee at 6-0, it's a guaranteed 8-0 in time for Florida. If that's the case, that game decides the division. I can only dream about being 8-0 at that point, but we'll see.  :awesome_for_real:

I'm guessing this is a typo? The bulldogs can't play themselves.  I also expect Arkansas to be better than their ranking suggests if the new QB from Michigan turns out to be as good as my sources tell me.

Just backwards wording. We will be undefeated 5-0 if we beat Arkansas and South Carolina. The other teams are pushovers.

My bad. I see it now. 

We'll have to have a gentleman's bet on the Arkansas v. Georgia game.  Should be a good one.

Got my Texas tix in the mail today.  It's another reasonably crappy lineup, although I'll relish watching them beat UCLA to a bloody pulp.

That game scares me more than the SC game. Actually, if I'm ranking most terrifying SEC games on the UGA schedule this year, it goes like this:

1 - Florida (duh), 2 - Auburn, 3 - Arkansas, 4 - SC. Auburn edges out Arkansas because it's on the road.

You Georgia people seem to have a knack of losing to Kentucky lately, too........  :grin:

We've had a shitty defense for the last three years. We lost to the KY jelly last year because our offense left as well.

This year, we dumped the fail coordinator for one of my Dallas Cowboy coaches, so if we lose it won't be 34-27.

It might be 14-6.  :awesome_for_real:

When I was a kid I remember watching an Indiana-Kentucky football game with a final score of 3-0.  It was cold a shit, raining and generally crappy.  That pretty much sums up football for the two schools. 

9 days 19 hrs 40 minutes.

7 days 18 hours 30 minutes for me!

Hey Ab- how good is BYU expected to be this year? UW could really use a big win out of the game. Would also love to see the new freshman QB get some playing time and get destroyed by a blitz for spurning his hometown school for his kooky religion.

I'm not sure Heaps is actually going to play unless Bronco has been pulling a big fake out (possible) as Nelson has been getting more practice reps and is the likely starter.  Maybe they'll rotate them.

Overall they are a bit of a mystery as they have a new QB, lost both good TEs to the draft and their good RB got thrown out for having the seks.  Their D backfield is always suspect particularly to fast teams, but they have a good O line, D line and scheme.  They are also tough at home.   I'd say it all comes down to the QB as they don't have a great running game unless they found someone under a rock or coming back from a mission that I haven't heard of yet.  I think if W's defense can disrupt the passing flow/get a couple int's early then they have a good shot as BYU tends to fall apart if they encounter significant problems early.

Washington's defense is definitely their Achilles heel, but their secondary is probably the best overall unit on D, so hopefully they can get some turnovers. Senior safety and a pair of sophomore CBs who started as freshmen. OL may have some trouble if BYU's DL is good, but the rest of the offense is fucking LOADED. They should be entertaining, even if they lose some games 42-41.

U Dub is going to win the Pac 10

That would be the surprise of the year. Washington's D line is awful. And they won't be able to outscore all the teams in the conference.

Mark it down.    :grin:

Karma dictates you lose to the UofA.

I can't imagine what you mean by that. They dominated that game last year and didn't get completely lucky AT ALL. No sir.


So pissed I missed the end of that- was down in Oregon visiting relatives and watching it at the party. Looked dire, so we left. Heard 2 TDs on the radio on the way back to the hotel room  :oh_i_see:

Bronco just announced BYU will play a "two quarterback system" this season so Dub will see both guys apparently.

If that fucker shreds UW I am going to be SO PISSED.

I'd still be more worried about Stanford and Oregon State this year than Washington, although I do like their offensive play.

Stanford, Oregon State and Oregon will be big competition, sure.  Don't count out USC though, even though Kiffin will probably find a way to fuck them up.

As Wisconsin is ranked 12th this year (and because I'm a Big 10 guy), UW may only be used to refer to Wisconsin! Sorry Washington.  :why_so_serious:

Flyover country only counts during election years.

You're just bitter because my UW could crush your UW.

Good article.
Tuesday morning QB (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/100831_tuesday_morning_quarterback&sportCat=nfl)


However, if he had been to a UT/OU game in Dallas he certainly wouldn't have chalked it up as a "home" game for UT. 

I bet it would be a lot closer than it seems at first glance. The Big 10 is famous for putting up paper tigers with gaudy poll spots that utterly shit the bed when they face the slightest opposition (see Ohio State University, The).

It's officially here for me! I just put in my picks for my two college football pools today. I'll start a running weekly post where I go over the top three to five interesting games of the week, and how I pick them against the spead. I'll also keep a running tally on my picks week-to-week to see if I'm sucking or not. Here's Week 1: Only 3 games this week because most of them suck ass.

Game 1 : San Jose State @ Alabama, Saturday, 7PM EDT; Bama -38.5

This game only gets a nod because it's the hugest spread of the week, and Mark Ingram just came out today that he's had knee surgery and won't be playing for a good while. Alabama won't care, they won't be able to just toss the ball all over the field, and they won't put up a score of 40-0 without their Heisman runningback despite all the Bama fan talk about Richardson being better. PICK: SJ State

Game 2 : LSU @ North Carolina, Saturday, 8PM EDT; LSU -4.5

LSU is the a decent team with an average QB and a really shitty coach. The main problem they will have to face here is that both Jefferson and Les Miles could do something potentially stupid to cost them the game. That being said, in an ACC vs. SEC matchup I typically give the nod to the SEC, and couple in the fact that UNC is currently dealing with a possible investigation that could hold out key players, PICK: LSU

Game 3: Boise State @ Virginia Tech, Monday, 8PM EDT; Boise -2.5

I hate this game for many reasons. First, Boise wins and they can almost walk to an undefeated season and scream about a title shot. Two, Virginia Tech has a habit of being wildly inconsistent on offense. I like Virginia Tech in this game because Boise is tough at home but average on the road. Also, Virginia Tech's defense only let one team put more than 30 on them the entire last year and that team won the National Title. I have a feeling if it's played right, Virginia Tech wins by a field goal. PICK: Virginia Tech

BYU is under the impression they are Notre Dame and have declared that they will go independent in football and park the rest of their sports in the West Coast Conference. 

Oh, the sweet, sweet schadenfreude of watching BYU have a tizzy over watching Utah leave for the PAC-12.

Well, Mormonism is basically Catholicism under a different name.

And localized in Utah.

That being said, it's pretty hilarious to watch BYU lose it. I really really dislike their program.

Not even remotely, but religion aside they don't have anywhere near the national football program and won't get a TV contract in the same universe. On top of that Notre Dame has basically gone down the tubes since it became indy so it's just funny all the way around.

'Twas a joke.  Their similarity in religion mirrors their football prowess.

Indeed.

Joined the local sportsradio CFB survivor pool. 36 teams to choose from, can only use each team once, and one of the them is Washington State  :awesome_for_real:

Was looking for a mediocre team with an easy matchup, and decided on Clemson (-21 or 21.5 over someone...North Texas State or something). So feel free to get rich betting on the underdog.

T-minus 9 hours.  This day is going to take forever.

Hawaii just got robbed on that play...

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

A paradoxical game in which the Utes both completely outplayed Pitt and also didn't deserve to win the game.  They tried every means they could to basically gift the game to them but pulled it out in the end.  Shades of 2008 where two of their tough games were basically exercises in cardiac arrest so things could be good this year.


WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

A pretty badly played game all around, but extremely entertaining (even from a Pitt fan's perspective).  The game made me wish they still had ties, since neither team really deserved to win (though Pitt deserved it even less, so the right outcome was reached). The tie would also have drawn more attention to the pre-snap field goal timeout hilarity.  They had their chances to take a significant lead in the first quarter, and tons of great opportunities from Utah mistakes throughout the game, and didn't convert. When you block a punt to get first-and-goal at the 7, and the drive ends in a 37-yard field goal attempt, something has gone terribly wrong with your build order.

I had flashbacks to the Kordell-era Steelers - it doesn't take very long for the other team to figure out that you are never going to throw the ball unless it's 3rd and 8+, and no matter how good your backs and line are, you aren't going to have success rushing against 9-man fronts all game.  
I don't know when they scheduled this game, but it seemed like a pretty horrible idea to open your season on the road against a very good team when your QB is a sophomore starting his first game since high school.  You gotta give the kid some warmup games against teams where his mistakes won't hurt you because you know Dion Lewis will run for 5,000 yards.  I have no idea what the kid has shown in practice, but he looked terrified last night despite having good protection, a stud wideout, and a defense selling out against the run.  The INT in overtime was the archetypal tentative-new-QB mistake.  With any kind of competent QB play, Pitt could win the conference this year.

His late touchdown was freaking hilarious though, the thing looked like a punt. I can only assume the Utah corner thought he had safety help. Even with the blown coverage, I thought a Ute would get over to break it up in time; that pass had a hang time that would make Ray Guy jealous *rimshot*

Whilest I do not fully believe Miami has a chance in hell next week, there is a glimmer of hope. Should be a good game...please?

As for Pitt...  :uhrr:

This UConn-Michigan game could be one to watch.  Connecticut has been decent at times over the past few years and Michigan, well...........yuck.

I'm really looking forward to Boise State / VT and Oregon / TCU.  I'll catch Bama v SJS on Sunday.

That's the game I'm most looking forward to.  I want to see if Boise State is the real deal.  I hope that they are.

Boise very likely could be playing for the title if they win this game, given their schedule and preseason ranking.

I awoke this morning and walked outside with a cup of coffee.  The air was pleasantly crisp and cool, and then I realized...

IT'S MOTHER FUCKING GAME DAY.

The wife and kids are gone to Ono Island for the weekend.  Just me, the dog, a few friends, lots of beer, steak, wings, and football.  YES.

I have a little less than 5 hours to go before UW kicks off...I am desperately trying to find ways to occupy my brain to make the time pass more quickly. Arrgh.

I'll be rooting for them from down here!

Good luck to UW.  I like Locker and would like to see them do well this year.

Also, Florida is looking pretty weak.  That is terribly disappointing........ :awesome_for_real:

Man, why did we even schedule UC Davis, that was just unfair.

Great start by U-Dub.   That BYU D looks like butta!

Well don't GIVE them the game UW!

4th and 2 go for it call down six in field goal range was moronic.


EDIT: For a supposed Heisman frontrunner, Locker can't seem to throw for shit.

On the plus side for you UW fans-  it looks like you will probably beat Washington State again. 

Bama looked good....scary good, and even better, looked good as they went deep into the roster.  They went more conservative than Limbaugh at a Southern Baptist revival midway through the second and still hung 48 on SJS.  Could have put up alot more. 

Defense is going to have some growing pains, but special teams looked very solid for what little time they had on the field.  Offense looked as good as advertised.

I told you they would be good.  Are you a worry wart? 

I swear to god, LSU just seems to repeat the same bullshit every year. Good first half, grab some kids off the street and play them in the second half while the team plays Euchre. I mean what the fuck ... I actually had to turn the game off after UNC's 97 yard pass considering I went blind in my left eye. Les Miles is going to fuck this season up - I can just feel it...they might have won, but certainly didn't convince me they are any better than last year's record. Oh well... bring on the 'Canes and Bucks.

I was screaming at my TV when he went for it. And again when they were in FG range again that would have tied it had they kicked it earlier. /facepalm

Special teams and shit playcalling killed them. How many times did they run the little half-counter to the right side that got stuffed every time? It just seemed like they had no ideas/adjustments in the 2nd half. Sneaking suspicion that Sark got outcoached.

Gators just uhhh didn't want to ummm show their hand errr too early in the season, yeah...that's it...   :ye_gods:

Heisman? Hadn't heard that.  Pro prospect?  He may have gone first round if not #1 if he came out last year. 

The really looked horrible yesterday.  You can bet Pouncy is going to be practicing the shotgun snap from now until USF.  Texas didn't exactly light it up either. 

Houston Nutt would gladly trade performances with Urban Meyer   :awesome_for_real:

Georgia looked really potent in our cupcake match, winning 55-7. I liked our defensive intensity, and how our new D coordinator looked like he was going to rip someone's head off for giving up the shutout. We need that kind of leader.

The SEC East is going to be a big scrum this year.  Only Vandy seems completely inept.

Whew. Boise is for real, yo.

VT is very one-dimensional on offense.  Handle their running game and you have a chance to beat them soundly.  Granted, a blocked punt and a turnover don't hurt either.

Looks like to me that Boise State is doing a better VT impression than VT is.  Solid on defense, solid on special teams, and taking advantage of the other teams mistakes.

Yeah.  It doesn't appear that this VT team is very good at the things Beamer's teams typically are known for-  special teams in particular.  Plus I think Tyrod Taylor is horribly overrated.  Never been a big fan.  

Edit:  It seems as if VT is picking it up.  I guess Beamer heard me. 

I have to eat my words.  That was a nice pass by VT.  Pleasant surprise.

That last BSU drive was ridiculously easy.

That was some seriously terribad playcalling by VT on that drive.  2 timeouts and only about 50-60 yards to get into field goal range?  Absolutely no need to go for the home run 4 straight times.

Good game though. 

Kellen Moore has presence.  When they got it back with two  minutes left, it didn't even seem like tense viewing.  I just assumed Boise had it in the bag.

BSU really loves those yellow flags...  :uhrr:

The late hit call on the final drive was a bad call, but I don't think it made any sort of difference whatsoever with how Moore tore those guys up.

That game was a nice salvage to a super shitty first weekend.  Now next weekend.................can't wait until Miamuh versus tOSU.

This weekend is going to be  :heart:

Alabama vs Penn State
Florida State vs Oklahama
Georgia vs South Carolina
Michigan vs Notre Dame
Miami vs Ohio State
Oregon vs Tennessee

You forgot to mention Syracuse at Washington  :awesome_for_real:

That is an amazing slate of games for this early in the season.

Syracuse at Washington could be a good game. 

If nothing else, Washington is infinitely watchable. 

The list:

1.  Georgia at USC-  should be spectacular.  USC may be better than advertised (finally)
2.  Floriduh State at Oklahoma-  WOW.  Gonna be fun.
3.  Miamuh at tOSU-  makes my pants excited.
4.  Penn State at Alabama-  who says Joe Pa is a pussy? 
5.  Oregon at Tennessee-  I hope the orange pay dearly for their insolence.
6.  UVa at tUSC-  UVa looked good in their opener. 

I really think JoePa will actually die during a game. That is the only way you are going to get him to retire.

Watching the AU v Miss State game...Is it just me or does Jessie Palmer sound an awful lot like Cotton from the movie Dodgeball?

That was a lousy offensive effort by both Auburn and MSt. I was expecting more fire from the cowbells, and it just wasn't there.

1-2 last week in the picks, all because VA Tech couldn't make a first down with 2 minutes left in the game. Freaking idiots. Anyway, on to bigger and better things this week.

There are five bigtime games this week, and I'll go with them in order. I'm refraining from picking the GA/SC game because I'm a Georgia fan, and emotion gets in the way:

1) Florida State v. Oklahoma @ 3:30 EDT OU -8.5

The question here is if Florida State, after whomping an easy squad last week, is for real. Their team looked very very potent in all facets of the game, but you have to temper the results against a team like Samford. However, OU had to really hash it out against Utah State, and their defense was positively wretched. PICK: Florida State

2) Michigan v. Notre Dame @ 3:30 EDT ND -4.5

This one is tough to call. Michigan and ND both had decent showings in their openers. However, Michigan easily covered against a supposed tough matchup with UCONN, while ND did not against a weaker Purdue team. When ND can only manage 23 against a bottom echelon Big 10 team at home, I'm leaning against them. PICK: Michigan

3) Miami v. Ohio State @ 3:40 EDT OSU -9.5

Supposedly Lebron is going to show up at this game. I hope he shows up in a U jersey and gets his ass booed unmercifully. Other than that, this game is tight. I would avoid it if you weren't forced to pick in a pool, because I'm not a big fan of that spread. However, I think it's tight enough that OSU won't wander away with it even at home. Expect a grinder to the end. PICK: Miami

4) Oregon v. Tennessee @ 7 EDT Oregon -12.5

Oregon by 12.5 on the road? Really? I know this ain't your daddy's orange playing out there, but damn. Can the Ducks really come into Neyland and lay a two TD+ asswhomping on the home crowd? There's no doubt they had the offensive prowess at home laying a ridiculous 72 points on New Mexico. Tennessee's rushing game is good though, and they can keep the ball away from Oregon better than New Mexico. They will also be hearing about how some PAC-10 pussies are supposed to come into town and run them out of their own stadium. I don't think that will happen. Oregon wins, but doesn't cover. PICK: Tennessee

5) Penn State v. Alabama @ 7 EDT Bama -11.5

I didn't expect the Bama offense to do as well as they did sans Ingram. They proved me wrong last week, and looked just as potent on defense doing it. Penn State whomped Youngstown by 30, but let them hang two TDs on their team. I expect the Bama defense will step it up at home and cause some turnovers by a rather overblown Penn State freshman QB. I've gone with mostly dogs, but I'm taking the favorite here. PICK: Alabama

Marshall is laying a beat down on WVU.  That makes me feel terrible.

Edit:  Wow, what a pathetic finish by the Thundering herd.  Ouch.

Regardless of anything else that happens in the game, putting together a 17 play, 96 yard, 10 minute drive on Florida's defense is pretty impressive.

Edit: Now that's more like what I expected.  Bulls are way too young, have nothing in the way of wideouts and BJ may be talented but he's still way too easy to rattle, as we can see by all the turnovers.

What the fuck, Chuck?

VT just lost to James Madison.

James.  Freaking.  Madison.

That just killed Boise State's title hopes right there. No way they play for it now, even running the table.

Jacory Harris is going playing better than Pryor... for tOSU. Swear to god 4 ints and say everything is ok? Ugh. Really surprised tOSU is not up 41-7 at this point.  :oh_i_see:

edit: ok two of those picks were not necessarily Harris' fault... but still.

Early welcome to the Pac-10, Colorado.  :grin:

Bama's defense is going to get torched by Arkansas...

I'm unthrilled about OSU's performance.  Pryor threw a couple good balls, but OSU cannot get a touchdown in the redzone.  Settling for FGs when you start with the ball on the 50 or the opponent's 35 does NOT get it done against a team that doesn't throw four picks.   That kind of shit lost the USC and Texas games.  

Florida State is not for real. Miami defense needs to kick their QB's ass, because he cost them that game. Michigan looked sort of like Michigan. Alabama looked amazing on the ground game. Tennessee really really tried to hang with Oregon and looked great, but their inexperience showed up when they got hit in the mouth hard.

No.

Yeah.  

A good offense is going to shred us.  Penn State basically beat themselves with turnovers.  If Mallet gets his shit together by the time we roll into Little Rock, it's going to be a shootout.  Our DBs and LBs routinely found themselves out of position or taking bad angles, and our DL isn't getting the push they need to be getting.  They blew containment and overpursued on more than one occasion, showing a propensity to bite hard on misdirection. 

Granted, Penn States offensive line is probably above average, and Marcel Darius is coming back, but I'm not sure he makes the difference on the DL that is necessary.

No way.  Alabama is going to roll Pig Sooie.  I think they win by 3 touchdowns, but probably give up 14-21 points.  Arkie's defense isn't as good as PSU's.

I didnt say the Razorbacks were going to win, I just said they were going to torch our defense.

e:  actually I did say we might lose in an earlier post, but that was before seeing the offense in action.

Watching both games this weekend taught me something.

1) Mallet is an NFL quality QB.  The guy has a cannon for an arm and was held back primarily by his receivers in the first half. 

2) Alabama has a more balanced offense. 

3) Both teams will need to outscore their opponents to win.  The Arkansas defense is terrible.  They had to play over their heads to hold LMU down.  That's pathetic.

I am going to the Georgia-Arkansas game this coming weekend. I'm planning on having the car gassed up for a quick trip out of town if I have to leave in the 3rd quarter.

Cal sneaked into the Top 25 this week, prematurely. This road game at Nevada on Friday night is extremely lose-able. Pac-10 is looking generally like it is going to be a bit tougher for Oregon than predicted, to me. Iowa-Arizona game this weekend will tell us a lot more about that.

I'll be there.  I have a bad feeling we (Arizona) is going to get beaten badly.  Our first two games were against total cupcakes.  It's funny how you manage to look "not that good" after winning your first two games by a combined 85 points.

Oh, we're in the same boat. 104-10 combined score for us so far, but one of those was a I-AA team and the other one was an apparently awful Colorado team. At least if you lose to Iowa it won't be an upset - I can easily see us losing to Nevada, who has been putting up a good fight against Boise St. for the last few years. We're only favored by 3.5 right now so I think the odds makers are on to us too.

I believe Iowa is for real. I think Stanzi should have taken them to a Big 10 championship easily last year, but we all know how that ended up.

I thought that until they looked shaky for 3 quarters against Arkansas State University (a lousy Sun Belt team).  I think that they are improved this year but still not quite up to the level of Ohio State.  I think that's because Ohio State still pays their players more!  :why_so_serious:

I don't know who Ohio State is yet. Anybody in the top 25 could have beaten a Miami team that tosses 4 interceptions in a game. In many cases they would have run them out of the building, which Ohio State never really did.

No love for Michigan's Denard Robinson? The guy is a beast. I mean, when you rush the ball 57 times in two games , as a QB, I imagine you gotta expect him to get hurt though. He made a nice game-winning drive and improved the Wolverines to 2-0 pretty much singlehandedly.

Wisconsin at 11?  Really?  I love the Big 10 (or 12 or 14), but 11?  I don't buy it. 

Wisconsin makes some sense. Here are the WTF ones for me.

Miami at 17? Wow, that must be a different Miami than the one who threw 4 picks in a game and looked like dogshit. Those picks weren't because of great defense there muchachos.

Penn State at 22? I'm sorry but they got totally exposed. The offense is a sham, and they will lose at least 4 games this year. Iowa, Ohio State, and probably Michigan at this rate.

Oregon State in the top 25??? Fuckers haven't won a damn game.

The funny thing is that's the AP poll.  The USA Today was even more  :uhrr:

I think they had to keep Miami in the top 25, or they would have to admit that the ACC is not a BCS conference when they tossed all their sorry asses out of the polls.

BTW, big kudos to James Madison and Kansas. You get my  :heart: of the week for being supposed cupcakes who did us all big favors. The triple option continues to be a pathetic gimmick that couldn't win anywhere but the ACC, and James Madison effectively kicks Boise State squaw in the nuts.

Let's also send some love to LMU.  Not many defensive coordinators have the stones to use a 3-3-5 defense.  It really messed with Arkansas for 3 quarters. 

I prefer the coaches' poll.  :awesome_for_real:

 :ye_gods: :ye_gods: :ye_gods: :ye_gods:

This isn't good.  Lower the goddamn expectations, we can't take being ranked.

That's a good defense for the spread, or any offense that likes to throw the ball in 3 or 4 WR sets with a decent threat to run it.  It's especially good if you have a free safety / Will LB hybrid that can shadow the RB or the QB (if he has the wheels to take off).

3-5 in the picks so far. Florida State and Miami cost me last week by being totally shitty. I won't make that mistake again. Only a few games jump out at me this week, because there aren't a lot of big ones. I'll keep this short and simple:

Nebraska @ Washington, -3.5 Nebraska : PICK - Nebraska. I'm backing solid defense over good offense in this match.
Texas @ Texas Tech, -3.5 Texas: PICK - Texas. I have to believe Texas remembers and wants revenage for the 2008 meeting that cost them a title shot.
Utah @ New Mexico, -23.5 Utah: PICK - Utah. New Mexico is 0-2 ATS and given up 124 points in two games. Gotta go with the fav here.

That number for Nebraska-Washington looks low.  I expect Nebraska to destroy UW. 

UW has a chance with their offense and homefield advantage, but a comfortable Nebraska win is definitely the most likely outcome. I am gonna guess 37-21.

Only thing to worry about on the Utah line is that we are already starting our 2nd string in a few key places because of injury and will likely have in 3rd stringers by the second half so they might give up some garbage scores.

 :oh_i_see:

:ye_gods:

I saw this and figured Cal blew them out. Just watched the recap, I am sad now.

Gives me hope for them beating up BYU next week.

It's upset weekend...

5 picks for the day:
Texas Tech beats Texas
Arizona beats Iowa
Georgia beats Arkansas
Miss State beats LSU
Nebraska beats Washington

This can't possibly be an upset. 

OSU is blowing out OU, BUT

(1)  99 yard kickoff return by OU (that was called back for block in the back),

(2) OU blocked a punt.

They've given up a punt TD, kickoff TD, and blocked FG TD already in the first two games. 


When OSU actually plays someone good (that doesn't throw four INTS per game) they are going to be majorly boned if they don't fix this shit.

On the other hand, Michigan is looking pretty weak against UMass.

This is quite a collapse by Arkansas going on right now.

EDIT: Wow, what a turnaround. Great game.

And a great big fuck you, Georgia, for blowing it in the last 30 seconds of the game...

Ingram with 150 plus yards on 8 carries........

Edit:  And Nebraska is beating the shit out of Washington.   :why_so_serious:

I hate our team.

Clemson / Auburn game was one of the hardest hitting games I've seen in a looong time. 

It felt cheap that it came down to a shanked kick after a made kick that was called back by a stupid penalty. Not to mention the blown wide-open receiver on 3rd down. Clemson really had a complete meltdown to lose.

Holy crap does Dantonio have giant brass balls.

AHAHAHA! That was the best up-yours call he could have made against ND.

That was a really tough loss for Arizona State, too.  Missed out on a TD to end the first half by inches and then had that extra point near the end blocked.

This is goddamn funny.


The Quotable Les Miles (http://www.thequotablelesmiles.com/quotelist.php)

Edit:  A little savory snippet for you-  "I couldn't be happier with the style of men that took the field for LSU last Saturday. - LSUSports.net, Nov 14, 2005"

Also, any predictions on the Arkie/Bama game, Snakecharmer?  I'm going with 31-17, Alabama.

I really don't know.  Honestly?  All that has to happen is for Bama's offense to have an off day, because the defense just isn't there yet.  Which is an odd thing to say about a team that has given up a total of 22 points through 3 games or some such.  The opposing defense doesn't have to be that good, the O just has to get out of kilter, and they're going to be in trouble.  This is an O that went into the tank for the better part of 3 games last year, and relied on the D and special teams play to pull their ass out of the fire.  Who is to say they won't do it again, but without that other world defense and special teams to pick up the slack?

The D spent alot of time on the field against Duke because the offense scored so damn quick.  They got tired early.  If Vlachos (center) is back full speed, I look for Bama to grind it out on the ground using three, possibly four running backs.  And that depends on how far into the doghouse Eddie Lacy is in.  They may put Jalston Fowler ahead of him because he's a huge, brusing running back.  And special teams is actually looking pretty good - coverage has been great, and the punter has a leg on him.  The jury is still out on the place kicking by committee thing they have going on.

If the offense plays the way it's capable of playing and if the defense continues to play the way they have, Bama wins - 35ish-40ish to 17ish-20ish.
If the offense has an off day and the defense plays like they have, Arkansas wins in a tight one...

You'd have to play like shit to lose the game outright, honestly. Not saying that you can't or that your defense is superior to all comers, but Arkansas' D is one step shy of flat-lining. Georgia stormed back on them with a rookie QB, no running game, and no star receivers.

I'm still debating the spread atm.

I love Mallett, but I'd still have to take Alabama in that game by 10 points or so.

Jacory Harris needs to lock it up. He's going to set a record for interceptions at this rate. If Pitt had any kind of functioning team, they should be kicking Miami's ass.

I'm now starting to believe that we will have 3 BCS conferences this year that are a complete joke.

The ACC's only top 25 team is Miami, and they look extremely suspect at the QB spot.

The Big East looks dreadful, and only has West Virginia as their "shining light"

The Pac-10 still has to prove that it can beat a down, broken, and ineligible USC team. If they don't, picking a "winner" will be a national punchline for the Rose Bowl. I'm still not sold on Oregon or Arizona, and Stanford needs to prove it's mettle against ND this weekend.

Unfortunately, it almost killed him.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100919/SPORTS07/100919016/Full-MSU-statement-on-Mark-Dantonio-heart-attack

Damn, coaches shouldn't be having heart attacks at his age.

It was a heart stopping play!

 :rimshot:

I agree with you 100%.

Inconsistency of the Arkansas defense and their WR's overshadows a good performance by Mallett. 

I get a bad feeling Bama is going to blow Ar-Kansas right out of the water in a laffer. However, I think the LSU-WVU is going to be a close one, especially given how Les Miles likes to fuck things up.

(odd note, Les Miles is actually from my hometown. Being an LSU fan for better than a decade, I am shocked I am just finding this out.)

2 plays for Arkansas- touchdown.  Where was the coverage on the second play?

^^ Busted coverages on the Bama D

Aaaand that is not how you start the game, Bama...

Damnit! I was walking from my bedroom downstairs to my office and missed the whole drive!

Dang, Alabama, Texas, and Penn State all looking very shaky.  What is going on?  :uhrr:

I'd like to gloat about the Bruins looking to knock off two ranked opponents in a row but... Texas is just punching themselves in the dick, repeatedly.

I stand corrected... Arkansas and Bama are putting on a hell of a show.

edit: WTF TX?

A weak secondary and some really terrible calls by the SEC officials is what's going on.

I need a drink...

Not only did Mallet cost Arkansas the game, he is probably out of the Heisman race.  Way to keep your composure, Alabama. 

WTF UGA.

I'M GOING TO HAVE A FUCKING STROKE!

EDIT: For those of you at home, nobody under the age of 36 remembers losing to Mississippi State, because it hasn't happened since they were born.

The amount of penalties called on us is fucking ridiculous.


Cal games are the worst. Gawd.

Just finished watching the (recorded) Texas - UCLA game, and Jesus Christ was that painful.  UT went down like a $5 hooker.  I'll be off slashing my wrists if anyone needs me.

After reading a recap I'm glad Ingmar didn't watch it, as it would've driven him to an early grave.

Coming off the Iowa game, I almost fell asleep in the Zona Zoo until the last minute... I'm just glad that SOMEONE scored a goddamn TD.

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12082922/neau4z.gif)   (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12082922/2922vio.gif)

That was just amazing to watch.  God, I hope the huskers shape up for Oct 7, they barely played better than UT.

If we hadn't gotten our ass kicked so hard by MS State, I'd be able to laugh harder at Texas getting run out of their own building by UCLA who got bitchslapped by Kansas State and Stanford. Hell, I can still laugh at it, but just not as much.

I was already pretty :awesome_for_real: about the UCLA game but those two shots of despairing Texas fans make it even more awesome somehow. It's the total "what the fuck, it's fucking UCLA, WHAT THE FUCK" vibe I'm getting, it makes me laugh. <3

I LOVE LOVE LOVE it.  The sense of entitlement with Texas fans makes me  :uhrr:  Every tear is like a sweet drop of honey. 

Texas fans have their moments, sure, but overall they are pretty nice folks compared to some of the other schools.  And you won't go to a tailgate that is more fun than at UT.

Observations and ruminations after the game- 

1.  Neuheisel is a better coach than people give him credit for.
2.  Mack Brown is a worse coach than his reputation would imply, and the coordinators are quite suspect.
3.  Garrett Gilbert is terribly overrated.
4.  Texas is staring down the barrel of a four loss season right now, so they better pick it up.

I still expect them to beat Oklahoma, but Nebraska is going to kick their ass.

Well now that part is debatable. Not saying you are wrong, having never got a chance to hit up a TX tailgate, but having done LSU, Georgia, Florida, tOSU, Michigan and Miami - I'd say the South rules tailgating, and the SEC knows how to throw a party.

Back on topic, TX losing at least just those few AP voters up that kept throwing them first place votes. Hate when a few people do that, and it seems always with TX.

Ole Miss is probably the best tailgating experience anywhere.

I've been to Ole Miss to tailgate.  It's great, too.  All SEC tailgating is great for the most part.  Michigan, Ohio State and Southern California were all serious disappointments.  Actually, one of the better tailgate experiences I've had was at South Carolina.  Texas tailgating is certainly different due to the semi-urban location to the stadium.  And there's something about short shorts and cowboy boots on hot chicks that makes the difference in tailgating..... :grin:  I plan on hitting as many places as I can before I die to try out all the big venues.   

Texas, if they play like they did this weekend, is no better than a #20-25 ranked team. 

*cough* A&M *cough*

I grew up in Texas for 14 years, and I've been to several college and NFL tailgates in the state. I went to UGA, so obviously I tailgate there for every home game now. It's night and day different. Compare the two biggest games that Georgia and Texas play, for example, on their neutral sites. What do you think is the better tailgating experience: Texas v. OU, or Georgia v. Florida.

Hint: One is called the world's largest outdoor cocktail party, the other has kicked off at 11AM in the past.  :oh_i_see:

The marquee rivalry games are always a pretty good tailgating experience. Wouldn't Georgia/Georgia Tech be a better comparison?

 :ye_gods:

Dear lord no. UGA and FL have that silly cocktail party which is more a costume party. Fuck that, if there are not dead animals on the spit and kegs on ice, it ain't tailgatin'! Then again, I did have a bowl of crawfish etouffee @ many an LSU home game, on a Friday afternoon after class walking to my car which was coincidently surrounded by motor homes that were there a day before.

edit: for clarity and misquoted the wrong post.

If you didn't see kegs or dead animals at the Georgia Florida game, you were obviously in the wrong place, but then again if crazy ass cooking is your bag you will always side with the LSU cajuns. I personally thought tailgating in SC was awful. It's wide open, next to what looks like a fairground, and it's a shitty shitty town.

I think they do the OU/UT game at 11 so that more people don't die.  Holy shit it was a clusterfuck last year.  It was tons of fun though.  On the plus side, I sold my UT/OU tix this year for 3K.  :grin:

The UGA / UF is a blast even if you don't have tickets.  It's a social event more than anything, much like Ole Miss (except Ole Miss is like that every home game).  As good as Bama tailgating is, and even as biased as I am, Ole Miss trumps it.

Death Valley is a blast before the game and after, but only if LSU wins.  Otherwise?  Get the hell out of dodge with a quickness and/or take off your Bama/UGA/UF/whoever jersey or hat or shirt before those crazy coonass cajuns decide to put you on the spit. 

(http://www.cineol.net/images/noticias/Cameos/Waterboy.jpg)

Snake, and anyone else interested in chiming in, what's your analysis of the impending Florida vs Alabama game?  Before last weekend I was dreading this game figuring Alabama was going to annihilate Florida, but after watching the Bama vs Arkansas game and the FL vs KY game I have a bit more hope that Florida can make it an interesting game.  Trey Burton stepping it up for the Gators was huge and the offense in general finding some rhythm was encouraging.  I don't think Burton will have anywhere near the game he had against KY going up against Bama (especially now that they'll be ready for him), but hopefully the Gators have gained enough confidence now to score some points.  Trying to find some good in the bad, I think Florida's struggle to find an identity may actually help them in this game as Bama won't know what to expect from us.  I can't wait to batten down the hatches and settle in Saturday for what will be an exciting game.  If I was betting on this game and could overcome my loyalty to Florida (would never happen!) I'd probably pick Bama by a touchdown, but the Orange and Blue blood in my veins says GO GATORS!

I gotta figure Bama to have the edge here on discipline alone. The Arkansas game proved that Bama doesn't completely fall apart when they are down. I don't think FL is there yet and I think they'll get exposed, esp at QB.

This is another game I think is solidly Alabama, but the spread is wholly questionable.

I'm going to go with Florida.  They looked better against Kentucky, which is more terrible competition than Arkansas, but they looked very fast.  


Also, that UW loss to BYU is looking absolutely fucking terrible right now.

BYU just got dickstomped by Utah State. Wow.

Come join me and my Bulldogs in WTF land for this season UW supporters.

Heh.  My analysis is usually colored with doom and gloom that we're going to do terrible, but I'll give as honest a shot as I can.

Bama will put some points up; the offense is too good and too balanced not to.   UF has a good defense, but Bama's offense is better.  I really don't think UF going with a 52 Heavy defense is going to matter.  They may try it in the early goings, but I expect Bama to come out tossing the ball around to make UF play a little more honestly.  If, and this is a big IF, McElroy comes out hot and on time with his passes, UF goes back to their base defense and Bama puts up serious points.  BUT, McElroy has shown a tendency this year to be a little late and a little high with his passes and it causes his WRs to not catch the ball in space/on the move, or they get smashed.  And he gives up coverage sacks pretty regularly.  THAT said, even if they stick with the 52, Bama can still run on it - Ingram and Richardson can always get the tough yards.

The Bama D is going to be key.  Marcel Darius is nursing a sore ankle from a blatant, late chop block from the Arky game (that wasn't called).  At 80 percent, he's still as good as anyone else on the D line (which is still freaking good), but I don't expect to get the pass rush we need.  They moved Dont'a Hightower back to his Will LB spot, and put Nico Johnson at Mike.  I am going to assume that the D is still going to run by Hightower on the field as he has the most experience in Saban's system, despite being hurt last year.  He just knows it.  It's were he needs to be anyway - he's got the size to put his hand in the dirt like a DE, but also has the speed to play LB.  This is wildcard number 1.  Wildcard number 2 is the Bama secondary which continually overpursues and takes bad angles on tackles, especially no. 21, Dre Kirkpatrick on the left side corner.  He got absolutely TORCHED by Ark last week in the first half.  He (and the entire D) settled down in the 2nd half, which is a really good sign. 

UF just hasn’t impressed me this year.  I am HOPEFUL that the D turned a huge corner in ‘getting it’ against Arkansas last week.  Rumors are Bama has had a great week of practice, fully focused, and ready to go.  If Bama can keep the momentum up from the Arkansas game, I think the 7 point spread in a neutral site would be about right.

But it’s not at a neutral site.  It’s at newly renovated, expanded Bryant Denny Stadium.  BDS is going to be LOUD.  101,000plus screaming fans.  HUGE.  And I think it is worth 7 points by itself.

Bama by 14.

This doesn't really have anything to do with anything, but Florida Atlantic has a freshman linebacker by the name of...  Yourhighness Morgan.   :awesome_for_real:

I think Bama will roll easily if McElroy doesn't make the turnover mistakes he made at Arkansas.

Missed last week on my picks, because the games were blah and I forgot. The week before I finally turned things around and went 3-0, so my total is up to 6-5 on the season so far. Let's go for 4 games, and I'm intentionally not picking Texas/OU because nobody knows how Texas will respond:

Virginia Tech @ NC State - VA Tech -3.5, VA Tech played better in their match last week against BC by shutting them out, but that was a shitty BC team. The NC State Wolfpack is 4-0 against the spread and they are a 3.5 point dog at home. I think they could win the game outright. PICK: NC State

Michigan @ Indiana - Michigan -10.5, Michigan has finally come back to playing like they did a decade ago by putting away inferior oppenents with ease. They have an incredibly gifted QB in Denard Robinson, who is just as dangerous on the run as he is through the air. At 4-0 ATS, I'm learning to the Wolverines. PICK: Michigan

Stanford @ Oregon - Oregon -6.5, Oregon has blown teams to bits, but they've done it against pattycake opponents. Stanford has blown teams to bits, but they did it against some actual competition, notably the 35-0 shutout of a UCLA who later upset a floundering Texas. Stanford's 2-0 ATS on the road against UCLA and Notre Dame, and last season they spanked Oregon 51-42 as a 5.5 point dog. I like the Cardinal. PICK: Stanford

Florida @ Alabama - Bama -9.5, Florida is completely schizophrenic against the spread this year, going LWLW up to this match. If they follow the pattern, they are due for a letdown against the Tide, but this is also the first time they have been an underdog all season. Bama's 3-1 ATS, but they dropped the ball against Arkansas and kept that game close. Frankly, this spread sucks. If it's 6.5 you go Bama all day, if it's 10.5 you go with Florida not letting them get away. In that middle done of a TD&FG being enough, but 1 TD losing, you have to make some tough calls. For me, it comes down to the kicking game, and Florida's kicker is injured and out. I'm going with the Tide. PICK: Alabama

I think Jacory Harris is becoming the next coming of Vinny Testaverde. Fuckin hell that guy gives up way too many picks.

edit: oh yeah... fuck you Les. Seriously, does any head coach clusterskullfuck end game time management as superbly as Miles? He best be in bed with Satan after getting that call. Granted, that was all on Tenn defense, but still - I am a huge LSU fan and even I think they should have lost - well did lose, at least at first. Glad my roommate calmed me down enough to watch the end of that game because it turned out to be one of those things you had to see to believe.

Wow.

Looks like my initial feelings were right on.  Total annihilation. :uhrr:

The difference between Alabama's defense in everything first half Arkansas and now is absolutely astounding.

Not happy with the 2nd half, as Saban went more conservative than a grey suit from Sears in offensive approach - although UF had something to do with that with some clock eating drives and spectacular punts.  Great win.

Colorado just stormed the field after beating a now 1-4 Georgia team. I want to burn something to the ground.

I wanted to post another WTF, UGA, but thought better of it :smugface:

It's pretty clear Richt has lost this team.  And they don't have the horses necessary to run the 3-4.

Funny thing is, we had the game won. We're on Colorado's 30, first down, 1:56 left in the game, down by 2. Our kicker can easily chip shot a win if we go 3 plays, burn some clock and get 5 yards.

And then our RB fumbled the ball. Game over.

SC lost a nail biter to Washington.  Good lord Washington's receivers look like they have no hands.  If they dropped only half of those passes it is a 14 point win for W.

When I lived in the South, people tried to console me, "Well, Atlanta is the Chicago of the South!" Clearly, your Bulldogs are taking lessons from my Cubs.

I came here expecting jokes about Tennessee not being able to count to 11.

That whole game was fucking retarded, and you DON'T make fun of the retarded... no matter how they count, or count down.

Les Miles continues to make the same mistakes in new and exciting ways.

So.......Paelos.....what the fuck is wrong with Georgia.  You guys might lose to Kentucky yet again. :grin:

I gotta say, Oregon woke my ass up this weekend. Stanford was looking like they were going to breeze through after the first quarter... But holy shit the Ducks put on a scoring clinic on a top 10 team after that.

Where to begin? For starters what we thought was our biggest strength has turned out to be our biggest problem (the offensive line). Our coach doesn't really seem to have a handle on the team in terms of discipline either on or off the field. Our defense has been completely converted, and we don't have the right recruits in place yet to perform consistently in that scheme. We just got back our best offensive weapon, but he got cramps mid-way through the game because he's not in game shape after the suspension. Our QB is a freshman, and he makes mistakes. Our running backs will not stop fumbling the fucking ball in the most ridiculous places. We take so many stupid penalties it's laughable. We don't pressure the QB on defense ever.

We haven't lost 4 games in a row since 1990. We're also setting records for shitty which haven't been reached since the 50s. Short and dirty, Kentucky should ROFLstomp UGA in our current state.

I've got a lot of good friends that are UGA fans.  I think Georgia is generally a class act in both academics and sports and it certainly hurts the SEC for them to suck.  How long til Richt gets canned?

As an aside, Mike Adams, the current president of UGA, was the president of the school I graduated from prior to coming to Georgia, Centre College.  I was in the same fraternity as his kid, David.  Several interesting stories stemmed from that......

I find it hilarious that his kid was in a fraternity, considering how much Mike hates them. I used to agree with you about being a class act on and off the field, but our kids just aren't anymore. We're just as bad as Florida in terms of fuckups and stupid arrests. Tennessee is a make or break game for me personally right now. I think we should be able to dominate a team that had to be taught to shower correctly, and can't seem to put down teams like UAB without OT, or count to 11.

However, if we lose that game (and you can bet I will be in attendence) that's officially it for me. I'll go to Florida because I have the trip scheduled, but I don't know how I can get excited about playing Idaho State, Vandy, or Georgia Tech at home after that.

Mike basically shut down the fraternity scene at Centre, which is funny because those were the folks that tended to give the most money back to the school.  Mike's all about the money, so this didn't add up.  Whatever. 

I hope you guys beat Tennessee.  Anytime Tennessee loses it is a win for humanity. 

He continued that trend at Georgia. He stole all the houses from the best part of campus to build more dorms, ours included. Then, he relocated all them to a "Greek Park" because he couldn't legally throw them off campus or take their land without replacing it in-kind. That way he can keep an eye on them. What he neglected to realize is that putting a bunch of frat boys in one place does nothing but make it party central, and the drug trade go through the roof.

He's a moron, and I will never give any money back to that school ever because of him. My father who was also a rather sizable donor in the past, also stopped giving anything at all. Thing is, he knows he doesn't need the donations as much anymore because people are falling all over themselves to get into the school due to the HOPE scholarship.

Paelos, no matter how bad it gets....

At least you haven't had to weather a Mike "I'm bangin' my secretary!" Dubose Dennis "I'm leeeeeeeavin', oooon a jet aiiiirplane!!!' Fanchione Mike "IT'S ROLLIN', BABY!!!!!" Price Mike "With that package" Shula Rich "I'll take the job oh wait no I don't" Rodriguez Hi we're the NCAA and we're interested in making your our bitch humiliation that spanned the better part of 15 years

I've learned never to say it can't get any worse. It certainly can. However, if we lose to Tennessee, my tickets are going into the fire and 2010 goes into a dead zone in my sports knowledge. People will ask, what happened then? I don't know I wasn't there. But you had season tick...I WASN'T THERE, WE WERE ON VACATION FOR 4 MONTHS!

Wow, I can't remember a more fun Michigan team to watch. Who needs defense with a QB like that! (famous last words)

Spartans and Wolverines both undefeated, can't wait for this one.

I'm guessing that you're a Michigan fan.  That game was painful to watch.  The Indiana LB's were terrible in terms of containment and the level of tackling was horrible. 

Matter of taste I guess.  I prefer stronger defensive games. 

I mean, they'll never beat really good teams but seriously...after decades of the same "run the rock up the gut" football this is a fresh change for me.

And yes, I am a Wolverine fan.

How is a game that goes back and forth down to the last drive painful to watch? I'm guessing you're an IU fan :P You can't contain Robinson. When they try to someone is open and he finds them. That will be the case until next week, when he gets hurt from all these rushes catching up with him.

I played for Minnesota so I hate them both  :grin:

Watching one player rack up 500 yds of stats doesn't tell me anything but the Indiana defense sucked.  Yes, the score fluctuated but it was more like a homerun derby than a pitching/defensive duel.  I prefer the latter.  

I think it's a taste thing.  You like shootouts.  I like a low scoring, defensive game. 

Can you imagine Ray Lewis getting a hit on Robinson?  :ye_gods:

I like them both. I would take a 35-28 game decided in the last minute over a 14-7 game, that is true. I don't much like baseball, either.

And watching one player rack up those stats week in and week out is pretty impressive. The guy has raw talent, most QB's that run like that can't throw to save their ass. It seems Rich Rod is starting to get this team firing as expected, after a couple years of recruiting the type of players he wanted. Bummer they must have forgot about defensive recruits :) It does have to be hard on Michigan's D, when the time of possession is so lopsided. Not the O's fault they keep making big plays.

Finished watching Alabama - Florida finally.  The game was nowhere near as lopsided as the final score would suggest, it could pretty easily have been 31-24 or 31-28 without those spectacular self inflicted cockpunches by Florida on offense.  Fact remains that Florida did screw up, and Alabama made them pay for it.  Pretty impressive from 'Bama overall, very solid #1 team.

Oregon - Stanford was the other recording I had.  Andrew Luck really needs to work on his deep throws, especially with how much play action they're running.  Both offenses looked pretty good.

I work on the weekends, these blast from the past posts are probably going to keep coming.  :oh_i_see:

Bama completely shut it down after the pick 6 in the 3rd.  They went completely base defense with a few blitzs mixed in and nothing but run plays (and 1 pass) the rest of the game.  Had Bama kept their foot on the gas, it would have been ugly.

That's always been my biggest criticism of Saban. He shuts the game down way too early, and one day it's going to cost him. You can't regain momentum once it's been lost if you desperately need it. Tennessee last year jumps to mind as a game that was an eyelash from fucking him over.

Well, to be fair, when he does start shutting things down he starts rotating young players in to their base stuff to get invaluable game experience.  There were a bunch of names I'd never heard of making plays on D from about midway in the 3rd on.   Those youngins getting big game experience now will be huge down the road.

Plus it gives him something to bitch about in post game interviews.

But yeah, one day it will cost him.

e:  Even without winning a NC at Bama, I would still love that man just for moments like these (http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/10/is_former_unc_assistant_coach.html).

Nice finish to the drive there Bama :awesome_for_real:

WTF, Bama?

Had to do it, Snake  :ye_gods:

No really... WTF BAMA? I was wondering why people were screaming in the neighborhood and shooting off fireworks (read: guns). Well, at least Clemson lost.

Now, if LSU survives FLA and Miami somehow turns Jacory Testaverte around, it might be a good evening for me.

Les Miles is the craziest stupidest most ridiculous son of a bitch in college football. The man is Forrest Gump.

While he is the coach of my team and hails from my hometown, I could not agree more. I'd venture to say that the man hears the calls for his head and figures, "what the hell - let's just do some shit here and see."

And just for humor's sake...
http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/2010/10/6/1734272/why-lsu-is-the-frontrunner-for-national-championship

Totally outplayed.  

Garcia had the game of his life, Alshon Jeffery caught everything thrown his way (even with absolute perfect coverage), and the D couldn't tackle anybody.  USC exploited every possible weakness of the D:  bad tackling, bad angles, over pursuit.  

Weird gameplan by the OC.  Our O has just looked....lazy.  No urgency, no real fire.  And McElroy did what he always does:  Gives up coverage sacks (8 of them tonight, I think).  He telegraphs his receivers, goes from his 1st read to his safety valve and skips everyone else.  Ingram and Richardson looked very tenative, as I thought they have all year - they weren't running with the same authority and pissed off attitude they usually do.

This was honestly the scariest game on the schedule so far.  USC is a really balanced football team with a good defense.  How they respond to this will determine the rest of the year.  Win out?  They go to the SEC CG, then the BCS NCG.  Doable, but not likely.

No way in hell any SEC team makes the National Championship game.  Alabama will probably only drop to 5 or 6 or so, but they need all but one of Boise, OSU, Oregon, TCU, and maybe Nebraska to lose.  Not happening. 

Knowing how college football works in this country, watch for Auburn or LSU to rocket up into the top 4 in short order.

A one loss SEC team usually competes with undefeated teams from other conferences in terms of bowl votes, but we'll see.

I agree with Snake as to the game.  South Carolina's offense played the best game of their lives, Alabama was completely pedestrian.  I think being down early really hurt Alabama's usual run heavy attack, and USC's defense did a very solid job all game long of shutting down plays over ten yards.

I could easily see Boise St. losing to Nevada, they're very very good.

Utah had a combined 917 offensive and return yards today against Iowa State (plus 109 yards in INT return):  :awesome_for_real:

A 1, even a possibly 2 loss, SEC team will make it to the BCS NCG over most of the teams you listed - even if they go undefeated.  History has shown that. 

Boise is not getting to the show. People need to get that in their heads right now. Their marquee matchup games were VA Tech and Oregon State, and both of those programs have taken huge tumbles from their supposed top 25 preseason clout.

Ohio State will go if they win out. They play in a Big Ten that's a resurgent conference with a lot of good teams. Oregon will be the biggest question mark. If they win out, it's likely they will have only played one top 25 team all year in Stanford, if Arizona continues to falter. I believed at the beginning of the year that the PAC-10 would be much stronger, but it has been very lackluster this season outside of Oregon and Stanford. Auburn or LSU have the most realistic shot if they can navigate each other and Alabama. If they all end up with one loss, I think Oregon goes in ahead of them to play OSU. South Carolina has no shot. Utah and TCU have no shot even if undefeated.

If OSU and Nebraska win out?  That's your BCS championship game.  Maybe.  Otherwise it's a OSU vs SEC Champion (undefeated or 1 loss).  NO WAY does Oregon, TCU, or Boise go ahead of a/the SEC champion for the BCS.  I like Oregon, and think they would probably beat OSU because The Vest would do what he always does which is to play 'not to lose' football'.  But, they won't beat an SEC team.

HurfdurfSEChomer, I know.

If the OregonsBoisesTCUs of the world want to be taken seriously, they need to play a more serious schedule.  They can't help that their conference sucks, but they CAN do themselves some favors and schedule some better noncon games.

Why is it that "playing in the SEC" is always a "tougher schedule" by default than the ones played by other conferences? Oh wait. That is because the algorithm says that the SEC conference is "better teams" even if they don't prove it on the field because they barely play outside their conference (just like every other conference).

Football needs a playoff instead of a beauty contest.

Because the SEC is the toughest conference in the NCAA.


This makes zero sense.  You're basically saying the SEC only plays SEC schools and don't play any noncons?  SEC teams don't need tough noncons because their league schedules are brutal enough as it is.


It is a playoff.  It just lasts 12-13 games.  A playoff would favor the SEC even more.  Nobody really wants that.

Because they win bowl games, win recruits, win in the big non-cons, and are undefeated any time they have been given a chance to play for the national title game? I'll put it this way, when the SEC champion starts losing in the national championship, all the other conferences can start complaining that the conference isn't worthy to play there.

The SEC East is an unmitigated disaster this year. Most of the teams lost their starting QBs and in the case of Tennessee they lost their coach. The only standout is South Carolina, which features a balanced if rather average offensive attack, but a stout defense who holds opponents to less than 20 a game. The West is dramatically stronger with 4 teams and a combined 2 losses (both to opponents in the top 15). LSU, Auburn, Alabama, and Arkansas are all amazing programs that feature very different winning styles. Arkansas is 3rd in the nation in overall passing yardage. Auburn is 8th in the nation is rushing yards. Bama is 5th in defense, holding opponents to an average 13 points. LSU is without a doubt the luckiest, weirdest team in the country. Also, in the non-cons Bama beat Penn State, LSU beat West Virginia.

Auburn looks very, very good.  They played a tough game last night and pulled it out and also beat South Carolina.  They've got a lot of tough games left, but I think they have a very good shot at the title game. 

An undefeated Big Ten, SEC, or even Pac 10 or Big 12 team should go ahead of Boise State or TCU.  I'm just tired of hearing about those teams. 

I don't disagree that the SEC has generally very good teams and is likely the best conference in the country, but this statement is tautological.  The only real way to measure them is against good non-conference opponents. They have a pretty good record on that score, but just playing yourselves and pre-conference patsies doesn't justify them being considered "the best" conference in and of itself.  The flip side is just as true as the only way to tell how good midmajor teams are is to see them against good non-conference schools.

It's not a playoff.  If it were, Alabama's season would be done and they wouldn't be able to ride their SEC pixie magic to a 1-loss national championship berth over an undefeated team.  It's a regular season with a beauty contest at the end.

That's not to say that Alabama isn't a really good team or the SEC a very solid conference but "playing in the SEC" isn't any different from any other regular season in every other sport known to man.

Furthermore, I'm really sick of hearing "Schedule better non-conference games."

A consistently good team from an automatic qualifier conference has zero incentive to schedule a good non-automatic qualifier.  So, all they get are middle-of-the-pack teams which are sometimes pretty good, and other times not so good.  Add on to that how far in advance these schedules are worked out and a non-automatic qualifier faces a total crap shoot for its two non-conference games.

But the SEC is better, see. And they are ALWAYS winning the title game, see. And they don't need to prove it because Craig James and his pals at ESPN say so, see.

That's the thing, we all know outside of the south that ESPN is the kingmaker here and all this other shit is just that. Shit.

Pretty sure Carroll's USC in its prime could have crushed the SEC champion more times than not in the NCG but somehow that didn't magically make the Pac-10 the best conference in the nation.

We all know that the SEC is the best conference right now but the current system means that even when that isn't true they always have a stranglehold on the top 15 because they only lose to other amazing SEC teams so those loses don't count as loses because the SEC is so brutal and tough and look the team that won is now top 15 so it really is understandable that it was a loss.

I'd also like to point out that unlike anyone in the SEC, The Ohio State University has scheduled home and aways against Texas followed by USC and now Miami (FL) and frankly I'd like to see a lot more of that.

Top of the polls were a procession as Alabama went down to eight and everyone above that moved up a place.  First place votes got distributed around a bit more, but I just can't see a undefeated Ohio State losing No. 1 now that they have it.

Inertia is strong with the polls.

Regardless which side of the bowl/playoff fence you fall on, there is no quicker path to a playoff than to have a Boise State/TCU BCS title game.

Which will never happen because the BCS is set up to keep the entrenched "powers" on top.

I hope they do.  I don't want to see all these crappy teams playing for a title.  I'm so sick of hearing about Boise State. 

Boise has certainly been over-hyped in the past few years, but calling either them or TCU "crappy" is completely overshooting the mark.  They're both legitimately among the 15 best teams in the country at the moment, weak schedules or not.

Then leave. Join up with a real conference. There are more than enough chances to move around in the coming years as conferences inevitably have to deal with realignment talks. You cannot be a big fish in a small pond and have a shot at playing in the magically computer designed national title.

Also, the fans don't want that. Having Boise in the final wouldn't be any better than putting Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl was three years ago. At best, they get beat down and people say they should have known their place. At worst, they actually win the thing, and people will give them no credit because they got to relax for 11 weeks before they got there.

Or putting Utah in the Sugar Bowl two years ago. Oh wait...

I know the AP isn't a factor anymore, but anyone who thinks a one-loss SEC team gets in before an undefeated Big 12 or Pac 10 team is smoking some mighty fine crack.  Has a one-loss team EVER gotten to the BCS championship before an undefeated major conference champ?

I think it would be very unlikely for a major conference team with one loss to get picked ahead of another major conference team that is undefeated.  The computerized portion of the BCS is supposed to control for that, I believe.  Unless it's the Big 12 this year, which blows ass.

Edit:  and FYI, the Boise State-TCU bowl game last year was pretty miserable in viewership.  There's a reason that the BCS doesn't want these small time teams to play-  they bring no money to the table and nobody cares other than the people that went to school there. 

Doesn't look like it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_Championship_Series

Hehehe... I had that up after he asked that question also. Prolly the most striking is the 2 loss LSU team.

Not the same, I actually respect Utah. I don't respect TCU or Boise.

There's a reason Utah is going to the Pac 10 and the other two are not. 

TCU and Boise State routinely beat Utah.

And yet, something about that program gives me more confidence than the others. Also, the fact that Urban Meyer was there.

Since 1980-  

Utah versus TCU-  5-2
Utah versus Boise State-  1-4

Maybe that's regularly beating, but it's not as if these are year in-year out opponents.  Anyway, looking at Utah's record prior to 2000 (modern era only) is a bit futile, because they were not nearly as consistently good prior to Urban Meyer.  Utah has a lot more potential than the other two schools, which is part of why the PAC 10 took them in.



And there's this (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/ncaa/gameflash/2010/10/09/42285_recap.html).  I think Utah would beat Boise pretty handily this year.  November 6 versus TCU should be a good game. 

Utah and tcu have been in the same conference for a while so they do play every year but won't any more obviously. Some of those wins were very tight and tcu really should have beat them in utah the year the utes beat up alabama.  I was at the last bsu/utah game and bsu totally outclassed them. They are both very good programs.

I remember in 2001 when the Utes beat a bad Pete Carroll coached USC team. I remember the distruction of Pitt that the Utes delivered in the Fiesta Bowl. I remember them next year demolishing the Yellow Jackets (in-state rival here) and loving every second of it. I remember them capping it all off with the win against Bama.

You know what I remember about Boise State? The OU game. That's it. Granted it's a great memory and really cool, but they haven't been involved against other programs in bowl games that I respected, feared, or hated.

Because nobody wants to schedule them, because nobody wants to lose to a program that nobody "respects", and because there's no money in it. It is a vicious circle. I guarantee the reason they're not joining the Pac 10 is mostly that nobody wants a team to join the conference that would bring in no real TV revenue, large markets, or large amounts of fans, and would kick all our asses to boot.

If they lose to Nevada everyone will draw the wrong conclusion too. "See, we said they weren't that good." The right conclusion is "Nevada is a really damn good team" but nobody who didn't get their heads handed to them by Nevada ( :why_so_serious:) will realize it.

I think scheduling creates a nice feedback loop with regard to strength of schedule arguments.  Teams like Boise State will always have problems with being ranked #1 due to the fact that they are limited in their out of conference games.  Most major teams stand to gain nothing by playing Boise State and have much to lose.  Yet another reason why I want to throw out the bowl games an institute a playoff.

Anyone notice that Denard Robinson (QB, Michigan) looks a wee bit less impressive playing a good defense?  It's much easier looking like a stud against the Connecticut, Notre Dame, Massachusetts, Bowling Green, or Indiana defenses. 

See, that's part of it. Utah is going to grab a share of the SLC market which is 32nd in the nation, while Boise is like 100+. However, if the team is good, they want the national money. That's where the ticket is, not just the local markets. PAC-10 wants the CBS/ESPN/ABC money they can get by having a conference that has watchable matchups every week in 2 different timeslots. I'm not sure they believe that Boise can dance with the rest of the schools on a week to week basis, and that their national cred will get demolished if that's the case. Right now the PAC-10 isn't even close to that national mark that they desire. Only the Big 10 and SEC are commanding that kind of attention, and to knock them off the mountain you have to win bowl games, win titles, and win in the BCS.

You know who the last team besides USC was to win the Rose Bowl in the PAC-10? Washington in 1992. You know how many PAC-10 teams have won the national title besides USC? Two, Washington in 1991, and UCLA in 1954. You can't be that much of a lopsided conference and hope to win the same respect as everyone else. All the other conferences have more titles total, and more teams that have won than the PAC-10. They need to fix that thing.

You left off Cal from 1921-1923.   :awesome_for_real:

And they'll soon be able to count Colorado. 

I believe that Boise State does not qualify for the PAC-10 due to the academic requirements of the conference.  I remember reading that, last year maybe, when the conference switching rumor-mill started up. 

That blue field is bullshit too, it's the equivalent of 'Bama painting their field maroon; you'd hear some real screaming if that happened.  What other "national caliber" team does such a thing?

Boise State's astroturf has been blue since they put it in decades ago. It was one of the color options from the manufacturer. I saw some high school fields with that color when I was visiting a friend in Colorado.

None. Boise is the only team in FBS out of 120 that has a non-green field. However, a few other non-FBS programs have non-green fields, and the NCAA has no regulation against it (despite several rumors to the contrary). Here's a hideous example that solidifies why it's such a shitty idea to go with red. I give you...Eastern Washington University Football!

(http://www.djc.com/stories/images/20100922/ewu_turf_big.jpg)

I hope every year that someone with sense comes in and rips that blue shit up so that I don't have to look at it ever again.  It never happens.

Eastern Washington should be ashamed.   :ye_gods:

Rebel Black Bear?  Really?  This is the fucking stupidest thing in football, next to Stanford's tree.  

Rebel "Black" Bear (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5684400)

I find it interesting that they chose the "black" bear, as they are obviously trying to get away from racist overtones in their mascot.  How many black bears are actually in Mississippi?  Ten (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:American_Black_bear_map.png)?  


Edit-  My Longhorns are going to get absolutely massacred (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=maisel_ivan&id=5687147) this weekend. 

There are no black bears in Mississippi. The only population I've ever seen are in Colorado and California.

It's the dumbest mascot choice in a while. I would have gone with the Ole Miss Rebel Catfish.

There aren't any grizzly bears left in California either, but that's still our mascot. The historical range for black bears definitely includes Mississippi:

http://www.bear.org/website/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37&Itemid=38

That said, I'm down with the catfish idea.

What's wrong with a crawfish or a shrimp?  Those are pretty fearsome mascots.

Really though, I'd be fine with a catfish too.

The Ole Miss Oily Shrimp?

To me it's on the same level of stupidity that the current level of whining is about the current mascot. 

I'm in a bad goddamn mood so that's about as nice as I can be about that and leaving it alone.

At least bears are a real mascot. Stanford bailed on the most awesome mascot idea ever (the Robber Barons, you can't tell me that isn't goddamn rad ass) and are still paying for it with that fucking tree.

Funny part I found was my roommate who is not into college ball asking me wtf that was when a shot of the tree flashed on the screen during the Oregon game. I told her it was a horrible joke that went too far and she persisted to ask what exactly it was. I told her a tree and then things got quiet for a few minutes and she sheepishly asked, can a mascot be a tree? I told her no and to never speak of this again.

Standford's weird on two fronts because they're the Cardinal (i.e. the color red) and their unofficial mascot is the tree.

Honestly, that makes more sense then the Crimson Tide/Elephant combo from Alabama, mainly because Palo Alto means "tall tree" whereas I'm unaware of any elephant populations near Tuscaloosa.

Clearly you're not a patron of Walmart.

Looks like Arkansas is getting jobbed already. Touchdown with the ball knocked out before the endzone? really?  :uhrr:

Mallet's also out for the day. To which I say HA! because he's always such a whiny bitch who fakes injuries to get calls. Welcome to actual pain, fucker.

Technically the tree is the band's mascot. The reason they picked it is the tree on the university seal.

Also, fucking Texas.  :oh_i_see:

Foles just got Brady'd.

Holy shit what a nice college weekend. FL loses to Miss St again? lmao... the Buckeyes can't stand that number 1 spot. Kentucky are you shittin' me? Nebraska wtf? Arkansas and Auburn dropping 100+ between them? Great weekend games.

LSU - Auburn next week is either going to be Auburn crushing the Tigers or a Les Miles roadkill classic.

(http://fleshymeninpolyester.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/angry-badger.jpg)

I'm just going to leave this right here. It's great...to be...a Florida hater!  :grin:

I would have LOVED to be in Madison last night.  Go Badgers!

Have to love the polls. Utah destroys Iowa State and they drop a place, Oklahoma destroys Iowa State and they leapfrog TCU.

Because "OMG we can't let teams without "tradition" be acknowledged."

Oh and my prior prediction is well on the way to fruition in that Auburn and LSU are knocking on the top 4 (despite LSU playing McNese State(!) in mid-October and only beating them by 22).

The SEC is the best conference ever, don't you know that already?

Well in all reality, this is an LSU team that plays to the competition. Besides, all their games are close due to having a high school level offense. 22 is actually a ton. But they'll get beat next week because their offense will not put up enough to compensate for what their defense will allow.

If they have any hope next week, they will put a dedicated defensive back on Cam all game. I kept wondering why the fuck Arkansas didn't have a person cover him and basically let him run roughshod all over the place, but then figured it was Arkansas so yeah... Seriously, if you let a single player put that kinda offensive output on you, your def coordinator should be fired. Make someone else on that offense beat you - my assumption is it will hurt less then letting Cam give you the finger as he runs by every play. LSU def is certainly better than ARK but not enough to hold them below the handfull of field goals they'll get.

Best conference ever is certainly debatable, but the SEC has owned the last decade and it isn't even close.  

And the SEC leads (by a significant margin) the number of national titles by active conference members with 18 as compared to the Big Tens' 13.  When you look at titles ever won by a team in a conference (i.e., Oklahoma won a bunch of titles while not in the Big 12) the Big 12 and SEC are tied at 18 each. 

Oklahoma at #1 in the BCS is a joke.

Agreed.  I'm not sure how they outpaced Oregon. 

At this point I'm actually hoping the Gators lose 2-3 more games and fucking Addazio gets sacked (needs to at least be demoted back to O-Line coach only).  Then I can at least be content knowing something good came out of this season.

The computers love Oklahoma. Actually the computers love everybody *but* Oregon who has an average comp ranking of #8. LSU is #2 in the computer rankings :awesome_for_real: :oh_i_see:

Let's see if I can decipher some of the inevitable bullshit we always have in some of the initial BCS polls:

1 - OU - This week was a clusterfuck. My only guess is that they leapfrog Oregon because they have two ranked wins while Oregon only has one.
2 - Oregon - I think they are here because of predictive scheduling. OU's closing out schedule is harder than Oregon's, but Oregon's is harder than Boise's.
3 - Boise St. - Outside looking in, as usual. Nobody wants them up there if we have any other option. PANSY PANSY schedule.
4 - Auburn - They are here because Cam Newton might be the best player in college football. If you haven't watched him, cue up some tape. It's amazing.
5 - TCU - Undefeated but they've played nobody ranked. I'm not counting Oregon State.
6 - LSU - Bitch if you must, but LSU is getting jobbed by being this low. They hold 3 ranked wins, but all those teams have gone AWOL in the rankings afterwards.
7 - Mich St. - Again, they are getting jobbed as well. They should be higher than Boise, TCU, and LSU due to their ranked wins.
8 - Alabama - Blatantly retarded that they are even in the top 10. I am not sure they are any better than Wisconsin or Ohio State.
9 - Utah - Love you Utah, but if you are hanging your hat on a ranked win against Pitt, we need to talk about a reality check. Let's talk after TCU.
10 - Ohio St. - WTF? Why is there an undefeated team behind them? What OHST win should impress me? Miami? Yeah that interception machine ain't doing it.

Here's my personal rankings:

1 - Oregon
2 - Auburn
3 - Oklahoma
4 - Michigan St.
5 - LSU
6 - Boise St.
7 - TCU
8 - Utah
9 - Missouri
10 - Wisconsin

Was reading this article:

BCS is still rigged after all these years (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101018/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_jim_litke101810)

which quoted this gem from http://www.bcsfootball.org/


:awesome_for_real:

As a hater of the BCS, I would be routing heavily for only Utah and Boise to be the lone teams standing undefeated at the end of the day, with a whole slew of one loss powerhouses. Then, watch the impending fallout as one of the undefeated teams gets trumped by a one-loss school, and we put the whole freaking system on trial.

I pray it's Utah that gets snubbed, because they will lawyer up the fastest and make this into a crusade.

If you really hate the BCS you should hope that Boise and TCU make the final game, shutting out all the big conference players.  That will get them to a playoff quite quickly, I would think.  And the BCS picture won't change unless the big conference schools go for it. 

If you actually believe that would happen, you're nuts. They would never put two undefeated teams in there from non-BCS conferences.

There reaches a point where they would have to.  For instance, if you threw Boise and TCU into the mix the year LSU won the whole shebang despite having two losses.......then you have a situation.

The only thing the NCAA has to do is make money.  They will justify any action to ensure that this happens.  I don't see any reason that they have to put two non-BCS conference teams in a title game.  They will just use a strength of schedule argument to deny them access like they always have. 

I personally love the bowl system.  I don't want it to change.  I have no desire to see Boise State, Cincinnati or TCU play in a major bowl or even in the playoffs (if they were ever instituted). 

That being said, you are right, Nebu, in that you will not see change from the BCS system unless something happens to drain money from the NCAA.  The only other potential push for change is if the big conference players lose their "foothold" on the BCS, e.g. something happens like TCU and Boise State making it to the title game or even lots of "gate crashers" in the BCS bowl lineup.  The way the BCS formula is set up we certainly could see Boise State in the title game, given the right circumstances. 

Fuck bowls. I want to see the best teams play against each other and determine a championship.

They usually do.  In fact, I would bet that the best teams more often play each other in football than in the finals of the NCAA basketball tournament. 

I would completely and respectfully disagree with that.

In NCAAB, the two best teams on paper almost never make it to the finals. In NCAAF the two best teams on paper always make it to the final. I don't think best on paper equates to best in reality however.

Why would you think otherwise?  In basketball you regularly get 2 through 4 seeds winning the title.  A tournament is largely luck oriented. 

You're assuming the first seed is always worthy of that spot.  DERP.

That's a circular argument, Rasix.  It's easy to say that a number one seed wasn't worthy of their seed if they lose, even if they would win 90% of the time. 


Really the only legitimate way to have a tournament that will have the very best team standing at the end is what MLB or the NBA do-  a series playoff.  It may not be right absolutely 100% of the time, but it is the best option.

In basketball a team has to win 6 consecutive games against other tournament teams. In football you can beat up on shitty D2 teams and a weak conference and waltz into a bowl game. Rankings don't mean shit in basketball after the tournament gets started.

You can't play a shitty schedule and waltz into the BCS, man.  

Okay.  So I've got a question for all you "tournament" guys.  How are you going to handle the logistics of it?  With 8 teams you would probably have a three to four week tournament to give the teams time to prepare, which is critical for football.  If the TV guys fuck with the timing it could even be worse.  Are the sites going to be neutral sites, like the basketball tournament, or will it be at the home of the top ranked team thus introducing a very high level of bias to the final result?  Are teams with even rabid fans, like Ohio State, going to drive all the way across the country for three games?  How does this fit into scheduling?  Are you going to have three less regular season games, thus driving down revenue for the individual schools?  I just don't think it will work, even if you assume that the end result is the best team for the year. 

Ohio State has had, overall, a pretty "easy" schedule for them for the last 5 years as most of the big ten teams have been mediocre at best.

But they are in a BCS bowl every year.

Yes, the Big Ten has traditionally been a better conference than say, the WAC, but that does not mean that they are uber good top to bottom every year.

Is it time for my yearly post about wanting to go back to the way bowls were before the BCS existed? I honestly could not care less about whether we have a 'legitimate' national championship in college football, because (SPOILER ALERT) it isn't actually possible to do it. You can't even come close without asking these kids to play a bunch more games, which means more injuries, etc., and I think we're really already pushing the boundaries of acceptable there with some teams playing as many as 13 regular season games.

I'd much rather just see the Rose Bowl go back to matching up the Pac 10 and Big 10 champions and everything else can go hang, basically.

8 teams get in. The winners of the SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, PAC-10, WAC, and Mt. West. Cry me a fucking river if you think your conference is better and deserves more slots, win your division or GTFO. Seed them accordingly to poll rankings. First round is played at the home site of the top 4 seeds, on Dec. 18th. Then, you take a week off. Next two games are played on January 1st, at neutral traditional predesignated bowl game sites. Then you play the final on Monday night, January 10th (the current time for the Championship game).

All those timings coincide directly with all the other bowl games going on, and we have a break in there for Christmas. The champion plays two extra games instead of taking 40 days off between the regular season and the final match. Done. I'll cash my check now.

I'd modify it.  Top 6 teams get in from the BCS rankings.  4 others play for the last two spots (wildcard).  That gives the top 6 teams a week of rest (for finals the first week of December because these are... laugh... students)

The BCS top 10 isn't a bad metric for picking the best 10 teams.  We see a weakness in the BCS when we start to worry about specific ranks. 

Conference champions are better though because it takes all the human element out of deciding who gets in. All the human element decides at that point is where.

You need the human element for financial reasons.  You want the 10 perceived top teams to be involved for financial reasons.

Of course, all of this would be meaningless in my ideal world.  I think that high dollar sports need to be removed from the college educational system.  Almost none of the top men's collegiate athletes in big money sports could care less about their education.  If they did, the ivy league would have the top athletic programs.  

There still will be arguments from the folks that didn't get in. 

I disagree. Most of Here's how it would have looked in 2009. The only team that would have been screwed out of the playoff was Florida, and they deserved it.

Game 1: #1 Alabama v. #8 Georgia Tech - Alabama easily moves on in this one. Still, in Alabama this game draws massive attention and dollars.
Game 2: #2 Texas v. #7 Ohio State - Huge matchup, solid game, huge dollars.
Game 3: #3 Cincinnati v. #6 Oregon - Cincy had no coach, and Oregon probably wouldn't travel well to Cincy so this is a wash.
Game 4: #4 TCU v. #5 Boise State - we saw this one, Boise won. It was also a freaking snoozer for most of the game.

Game 5: #1 Alabama v. #5 Boise State - They had trouble with TCU's defense, I don't see how they would have beaten Bama's that year. Still they get a shot.
Game 6: #2 OHSt./Texas v. #6 Oregon - Huge ratings draw, I don't think Oregon gets past this point, but againt OHSt. it would be possible.

Game 7: #1 Alabama v. #2 Texas/Oregon/OHSt. - at least at this point we have a chance at seeing something different. Money rains down as usual.

And we saw Texas versus Alabama. 

Yep, in one of the 3 options possible there. Who knows how the others go, and also can you imagine how much more money these games rack up when they are meaningful?

They already rack up a ton of money. 

The other issue that hasn't been addressed is injury.  Obviously McCoy's injury hurt Texas pretty badly.  More games = more injuries. 

It's a tradeoff. Longer downtime between the season and the championship game leads to worse play and worse gameday conditioning. Sure there's a risk on every play, but I believe that with 40+ days of delay in the current format, you're not even seeing the national championship teams compete at their best.

When they quit adding regular season games you can play this card. Until then it is absolutely meaningless.

I'm old school.  I want them to go back to 11 games so we don't have 80 plus teams bowl eligible. 

I'm all tingley after the PAC-12 news conference about alignment.  I foresee many roadies in the future.

The Oregon schools are a lot of fun to watch games at, so I hear. 

Losing the UCLA/USC v. Berkley games is annoying.  How will I sate my generic dislike of the Bay Area outside of baseball season now?

I thought they were working on a way to keep them in-  some kind of 5-2-2 bullshit. 

Yeah, the ESPN story from a bit ago made it seem like they weren't sure about 5-2-2 with a quote from the USC AD, but now I can't seem to find it.

The SI article I read said Stanford and Cal will still both play USC and UCLA every year.

Yes.  The California schools will all play each other, the rest of their division, and two of the four remaining out-of-division schools.  I assume the other schools won't have fixed out-of-division games and will just have five division games and four rotating out-of-division games.

It's a bit clunky, but it works.

Well, Oregon looks to be the real deal.  What a smackdown of a team that beat Texas (who is down, but still good). 

There's a lot of good games on this weekend-

LSU-Auburn
Oklahoma- Missouri
Air Force-TCU
Wisconsin-Iowa
Nebraska-Okie State
Washington-Arizona


Just for posterities sake here's a quote from Les Miles


"For all the right reasons, we encourage to be a great team, encourage playing four quarters of quality football and encourage to improve."
- LSUSports.net Nov 12, 2008 :why_so_serious:

First round in Seattle is on me.

Sweet! The reverse its certainty true if you journey down to SLC.

The Arizona game this weekend is going to physically kill me.  Our offense has been dogshit for 3 weeks and now we have our second string running QB (who throws a pretty decent ball) at the helm.

I imagine we'll do 2 series of some sort of pseudo-Rich Rod offense before ditching it and going back to the standard sets with a less accurate guy trying to emulate what Foles can do. OSU's win pretty much shat all over my expectations for this season.  We've still got the talent, it just seems like we can't get any sort of cohesive offensive plan together, and you need to score points when your secondary can be a bit vulnerable at times.

Alright Paelos.  We're back to Ky-UGa.  What is your prediction? 

I'm going with UGa 42-17. 

Wisconsin-Iowa - how football was meant to be played. Damn fine game there, save for the wtf at the end.

It looked like they were lining up to spike it, and then they inexplicably burned their last time out. I guess the Iowa coach borrowed Les Miles' hat.

At the Utes game today (I didn't take this, my seats are better  :awesome_for_real:):

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y222/Abagadro/5108840661_9d1cdd04e9_z.jpg)

I'm struggling to figure out why Utah is considered "worse" than TCU and Boise State. 

Pretty close. Actually I wouldn't have predicted 38-34 UGA, and I would have been wrong.

Utah suffers from the fact that they haven't played anyone. The only ranked team that they've defeated was Pitt and I don't think they're even ranked anymore.  TCU did a better job on a team both they and Utah played (Wyoming).  Boise State is the only of the three teams to have defeated two top 25 opponents. 
 

The Utes beat Iowa State by hanging 68 on them at their place and Iowa State just went down to Austin and beat Texas. Pitt is now leading the Big East.  Don't put much stock in the Wyoming game as the Utes were on the road and TCU was home, plus our coach is buddies with Wyoming's coach so we didn't run it up on them.  I will agree that our schedule hasn't been particularly tough, but will ramp up significantly over the next month. We play TCU in two weeks so it will be pretty easy to tell who is better at that point and I think the winner of that game will certainly jump BSU (or they should anyways).

Just to be clear, I wasn't saying that TCU was the better team.  I am predicting Utah in their matchup.  I was just stating why many have TCU ranked higher for the moment. 

Ya, plus you have jokers like John Wilner voting the Utes at #16.

Absolutely. 

Also, Auburn looks like a monster.  Cam Newton is what Tim Tebow would have been if he was 6-6 and fast. 

As it stands now, I'd love to see if he could keep up with the machine that is Oregon. If LSU had an offense or even a QB, that game would have been different though. The Iron Bowl will be fun to watch.

Oregon v. Auburn is officially my current vote for the best national title game matchup. Of course, as a UGA fan, I wouldn't mind wrecking Auburn's dreams!  :grin:

Here's the thing, though. We all know Boise ain't losing. We all know TCU and Utah are going to knock one or the other out. Whichever wins that game is going to be undefeated. If Michigan State gets by Iowa they have an unranked path to get undefeated. If Mizzou gets by Nebraska, they too have an unranked path to undefeated. Oregon has a weak Arizona team left as their ranked opponent. Auburn has Alabama. Everybody outside of Boise has one ranked test left on their schedule.

Except, Mizzou and Auburn have to play championship games if they win out. That's a minor issue for Auburn given that the SEC East is total shit right now, but it's a huge deal for Mizzou, who could easily end up facing OU for a rematch. The odds that Auburn gets past Alabama and Mizzou gets past whatever is left are probably non-existent. Michigan State could easily fall apart against Iowa or frankly anybody as Northwestern proved.

I still think we're looking at Boise v. Oregon as the realistic ending to this year.

I think Auburn's defense will prove to be stronger than Oregon's, and the offenses look to be about the same.  It would be a hell of a game.

I agree on defense, but I think Oregon's offense is way more prolific. It's just madness!

I'm curious why you would pick Boise to go over the winner of TCU - Utah (particularly if it's TCU) given what you've pointed out about schedules and the current state of the polls.  It seems inevitable to me that if TCU wins out, they will jump over Boise in the BCS rankings.

Boise is the AP poll media darling. I don't think the polls would give Utah enough credit for beating TCU, or vice versa even given their rankings. The computers might sort that out better, but the polls are still large part of the computer formulas.

TCU can jump BSU by beating Utah, but Utah will not jump BSU by beating TCU. Makes no sense, but neither does the ranking system.

I certainly agree with the Utah part. I'm not certain on the TCU part in the math.

TCU is only .0013 behind BSU and would get a decent bump in the computer rankings from a win over Utah while BSU's computer ranking will sink with each game they play except for the Nevada game.

Also, the computers are a joke. They have Missouri at #2 despite the fact that without a blown call they lose to San Diego State. The whole system is fucked.

Agreed. Still, Utah is bound for better things. Just not this year.

EDIT: Also, an Oregon/TCU final would have the ESPN cocksuckers hating the system when their ratings go in the shitter, HA!

Yes, the only way a non-AQ gets near the top of the polls is if they're undefeated.  Even though TCU and Utah are both top-10 at the moment, the loser is going to drop like a lead weight and the winner probably won't go any higher than whatever place the higher ranked team was before the game.

Also, Boise isn't getting near the NCG unless we start seeing multiple two-loss AQ conference champions.  Get ready for another Consolation Prize Bowl with Boise and the winner of TCU/Utah.

Of course, I hope I'm wrong and the voters get it through their heads that the MWC is actually pretty good and TCU/Utah are both very very good teams, but that's rather unlikely.

Does anyone think Michigan State or Missouri can stay solid and take their respective conferences undefeated? 

Those two, Auburn either undefeated or with one close loss and the SEC title, Alabama with an impressive win over Auburn to close out and the SEC title, or of course Oregon undefeated are the teams I could see going ahead of TCU and Boise in the polls.  Missing anyone?  I see no chance of a one loss conference champ from anywhere except the SEC jumping them.

However this shakes out, I pray we don't end up with another bowl pitting the two top non-AQ teams.  If they go in and wreck two legitimate big conference opponents they would at least gain some credibility for next season.

The SOS from this win will likely put TCU ahead of Boise State in the BCS poll. 

If AU wins out (including the SECCG), they're in the NCG.
If Bama wins out (including the SECCG), they're in the NCG.

Bama's SoS is going to SKYROCKET as it finishes the season.  If they beat a top 15 ranked LSU, top 25 ranked Miss State, and top 3 ranked AU?  In like Flynn, baby.  We finally got an offweek to get healthy for stretch and work on some fundamentals.

Michigan State, yes. We'll know after Saturday. If they can beat Iowa, they just have to keep their heads on straight for 3 unranked opponents with the biggest mental hurdle being Penn State.

Missouri? No chance. They have to face Nebraska. This Nebraska team has two strengths that could crush Mizzou. First, they are fantastic at controlling the ball on the ground, and keeping the other team's offense off the field. Second, they outscore opponents 51-28 in the 4th quarter. They finish strong when it counts. Outside of the OU game, Mizzou has had problems this season putting up numbers in the 4th. If Nebraska controls the clock and makes keeps the game close to the last quarter, they will win.

Even if Mizzou gets past Nebraska, they get a face-full of OU all over again. I don't think they can pull that rabbit out of the hat twice.

I think the stars should align and watch LSU crush Bama and Bama in turn destroy Auburn. A man can dream.  :why_so_serious:

I honestly can't figure out who would go to the SECCG if that happened.  Makes my head asplode.

That's easy. Bama has 2 SEC losses if they lose to LSU, and they are out. Auburn would have 1 SEC loss to Bama. LSU would have one SEC loss to Auburn. Auburn has head-to-head on LSU and wins. Auburn goes to the title game.

Yeah.  For some reason I had forgotten the SC loss counted as an SEC W loss.  Or maybe it was my brain's way of washing the memory.

Have you gotten your Iron Bowl tickets, Snakecharmer?  This is going to be a hell of a year to be at the game.

No, and I probably won't.  4 weeks before the game, and tickets at the 40 yd line are in the $800 range.  For one ticket.  I wouldn't want to watch it from the nosebleeds.  Besides, it's Thanksgiving weekend, and I'd rather spend 1600 plus on a kick ass, fully catered party at my house and watch it in 65" hi-def goodness from the comfort of my lazy boy.  And if Bama ends up getting blown out by the Newtontrain, I can take a couple extra shots of whiskey and go pass out.

Well, looks like we'll really see what Oregon is made of this weekend when they play USC. 

Other fantastic games to look forward to with my picks to win.

Iowa versus MSU-  Iowa
Missouri versus Nebraska-  Nebraska
Stanford versus Washington-  UW
Arizona versus UCLA-  Arizona


I also think Texas is going to bounce back and mow down Baylor.

I have seen a few picks of UW over Stanford. I haven't seen Stanford much this year, but if they can run any kind of offense they should run away from UW. Their defense is just unbelievably incompetent. My favorite trick of theirs is when their corners play literally 8-10 yards off the receivers at the line of scrimmage, apparently to avoid being beat deep for big plays. Which is a decent strategy until you see the other team completing short-ish wide open passes which then result in huge plays because the defense not only can't cover, they can't fucking tackle.

UW's defense is one of the worst I've seen live.  Soft is the word for it.  Your corners play soft.  Your D line gets almost zero push.  Our second string quarterback completed something like 80% of his passes, threw for 200+ yard 2 tds, and ran for another 70 yards.  He was rarely under any pressure.  The tackling was a goddamn joke.

The offense didn't look much better. Locker played scared.  Once it was obvious he didn't want to run for fear of getting hit, it was open season.  He would have gotten killed if the refs didn't feel like it was OK on every play for your left tackle to commit blatant holding.  The biggest threat is your starting tailback, who is a beast. Your utility back is pretty decent also, but his name pronouced by the PA guys sounds like a local tea party canidate. It just felt like an easy offense to contain once our DBs stopped acting like morons.

UCLA is a trap game.  TRAAAAAP.  On paper and by our recent performances, Arizona should kill them.  Running first attacks without a credible passing game to back them up are something that normally we have no problem with at all.  Just can't let their defense or special teams let them get easy scores. 

Is AZ's quarterback healthy, Rasix?

They think Foles might be OK for Stanford.  He actually threw warm up for the Washington game.  I have a feeling they'll stick to plan and he won't see any touches against UCLA.

Luckily he just has a minor knee sprain apparently.  He was lucky in that the WSU defender rolled up the back of his leg instead of pulling a Brady/Carson type manuver.  He was holding his leg like his season was over when it happened, however.  

Scott is a very good backup.  Even with the glut of good QBs in the Pac 10, he'd start at half the colleges easy. They must have worked with him a lot, because he throws a much better ball over just a year ago.  

Does he want to transfer?  :oh_i_see:

UCLA is all sorts of fucked up.  They go down to Texas and beat the hell out of them and then get beaten by Cal.  That doesn't make any sense. 

Hell, Cal doesn't make any sense. We blow people out or get blown out seemingly at random.

I gave up trying to predict who will actually win any given game in week three, this year.

That win versus Iowa is damned impressive, but good lord the end of AZs schedule is murder. 

Anyone else laff at Fla St's loss? I know I did.  :why_so_serious:

I laugh at every Florida State loss. 

@Stanford
USC
@Oregon

Blarrrrrrrrrg.  If we win two of those, I'll be overjoyed. 

Stanford, we can beat, but it's on the road. USC is pretty dangerous this year, they've got nothing to play for and that offense can just be killer.  Barkley is playing really well.  And Oregon is just Oregon.  We could put 50 points on them and lose, because they just hung 60 on us.

As a consolation, we should absolutely obliterate ASU.  But, rivalry game.  Their D at times has been good.

Been poking around the upcoming schedules and had to laugh at how the top teams in the "best conference in the country" are all playing teams like La-Monroe, Chattanooga and Georgia State in November.

Gotta make sure you are rested for that all important championship game, am I right?

And yet their supporters say their schedules are harder.

I'm sure you guys can find a way to convince everyone Boise State plays a tougher schedule than Auburn.   :oh_i_see:

(Big Ten guy here) I think the SEC is the best conference I just don't like it when they're all in your face about it.

The Big Ten, SEC and PAC 10 are all a significant step ahead of the other conferences.  Who's "best" is really academic, even though the SEC has won a bunch of titles recently.  What matters is that the competition is extremely tough, in conference, from top to bottom.  The next tier includes the Big 12, ACC, Big East and MWC.  The MWC better enjoy it while they can though, because once Utah leaves they'll be hurt bad.  I wouldn't be surprised at all to see TCU go to the Big 12 after this season, either.

Utah's being replaced with Boise State and Nevada's joining the year after.  It's the WAC that's going to be hurt more than anything, although that's how these things go since the Southwest Conference blew up.

God I hate playing Air Force. Complete pain in the ass. I'll take the ugly W though. Epic game next weekend.

Lost in a savage beating, must be an even week.

This is a bad sign. I'm already distracted and geeked up for next Sat. This is going to be a looooooooooooooong week at work.

Now I just need an Oregon down week for them to take a loss, and a win by either Georgia or Alabama against Auburn, and suddenly we get what we've all been waiting for...The WAC v. Mountain West National Championship.

I really really really want this to happen so I can hear ESPN valiantly defend the BCS system as they watch their viewer numbers totally tank for the game they bought.

If they would just give the Mountain West Conference an automatic BCS bid then everyone could calm down and quit bitching.  Or maybe just give them the Big East's automatic. 

They will find a way to get alabama, lsu, nebraska, wisconsin or oklahoma up into the top two before that happens.

If Utah or TCU finishes undefeated and Auburn and/or Oregon lose you can bet that Utah or TCU will be one of the two teams in the BCS title game.  Boise is just shit out of luck. 

I would not stop bitching. I believe there shouldn't be automatic bids, period. There are frankly some years where nobody from a certain conference deserves to play in a BCS bowl. Let's stroll down memory lane, shall we?

1998-99: Shitty Orange Bowl - Florida destroys an 8-3 Syracuse Big East Champion 31-10.
1999-2000: Shitty Rose Bowl - A #22 8-3 Stanford team is the PAC-10 Champ, gets beat by Wisconsin, doesn't score a point in the second half.
2000-01: Shitty Rose Bowl - A #17 8-3 Purdue team is the Big Ten Champ, gets beat by Washington going on a 17 point streak in the second half.
2002-03: Shitty Orange Bowl - Georgia beats a 9-4 ACC Champ Florida State team. Texas gets passed over in the BCS.
2004-05: Shitty Fiesta Bowl - Utah destroys 8-3 Big East Champ Pitt 35-7. Louisville gets passed over because they are C-USA at this point.
2005-06: Shitty Orange Bowl - 8-4 Florida State ACC Champ gets beat in 3OT by an overrated Penn State team. Great game, but VA Tech would have won.
2007-08: Shitty Rose Bowl - USC forced to crush 9-3 Illinois 49-17 due to "tradition", Georgia sacrifices Hawaii 41-10, instead of playing each other.

I'm just tired of the bad bowls every other year because we have some dumbass team getting some automatic bid due to the rules that you can't have more than 2 teams in a conference represented.

This would be fine, in my opinion, but it will never happen.  We will see a playoff before there are no automatic bids.  And you can be guaranteed that there will be automatic league bids with a playoff, which kind of mucks up the reasoning for doing a playoff in the first place. 

Meh, removing automatic bids wouldn't make it any harder for people to keep out the teams that don't pass the magical 'legitimate program' test.

Boise is not a legitimate program. I think that's pretty much the only one I would ever take issue with in the BCS system.

Of course, as we know, college football is a closed system, and no team that hasn't had success in the past can ever break in.

I know that's sarcasm, but Utah is proving that statement wrong. You can be good at what you do and be recognized, you can break out of the comfort zone of playing in a shitty conference, and you can move on to better things in today's system. When Utah joins the PAC-10 they will have just as much a right to play for the national championship as anyone else if they continue to go undefeated.

Hey, the Illinois loss to USC in the Rose Bowl was because Ron Zook is a terrible coach who ran the exact same play with no success for the entire first half. And that USC team was as good or better than the teams in the title game that year.

And that is not about an "automatic" bid. The Rose Bowl was a Big Ten vs Pac 10 bowl, but to get those two conferences into the BCS stupidity, they had to make the fucked up "the rose bowl is champ game 1 year out of however many, and if the big ten champ is in the title game and it is not the rose bowl, number 2 goes."


How is Boise State not a legitimate program?

They are a Division I school with a football team. They play games every week. Is this just because you are still whining about the blue astroturf?

New Mexico State is a Division I school with a football team. That doesn't make them a legitimate program, either.

There's a lot of steps you have to take to be a legitimate football program. To be a legitimate program, you have to be able to support your own program without relying on being paid to lose to the bigger schools in the nation. To be a legitimate program, you have to have fans that are willing to travel and support your team in away games, bowls, and television. To be a legitimate program, you have to play in a conference that actually competes within itself. To be a legitimate program, you have to pay your dues by agreeing to play the established teams on their terms, not yours.

Boise State has the first two, but they don't have the second two. Once they get the hell out of the smaller conferences who get paid to lose, or agree to play other teams without demanding home and home scheduling, they will get recognized. If they continue to steamroll a meaningless schedule and crow about how they beat a team who lost to James Madison, they will get no respect from anyone.

IMO if anyone is made to look bad by this, it is the teams who refuse the home and home.

Not really, considering nobody wants to fly all the way to Boise, play on their shitty field in their shitty stadium that holds less than half of the people that would show up to major conference game, and make absolutely nothing out of the deal. The national contenders have nothing to prove. Why in the world would they agree to anything Boise wanted to do in the middle of nowhere?

Exactly, in order to possibly get to start down the road to not being considered a second-class citizen, Boise State has to agree to be treated like... a second-class citizen. It is basically bullshit, and it makes the big programs look like they're scared to play them.

The Pac-10 seems to almost always do home-and-away games with non FCS schools, at least. Moral high ground yay?

Well Lincoln is not exactly a hub of activity...just sayin'.

It is basically the exact same argument that people make when they say a World Series is a bad one if it doesn't have the Yankees in it. Somehow two 11-0 teams playing each other is 'better' if they're the same teams every year than if new people show up.

Those people are Yankees fans and the media. Nobody else says that, but at least the Yankees earn it when they get there.

Fans don't like Boise because they don't prove anything. In a sport where "every game matters" none of their games really matter. As soon as they beat Boise State, everyone in the country knew they were undefeated. They honestly could have just sat out the rest of the games and waited for the bowl season. It's a farce, and nobody believes they are worth a damn as a team until they grind it out with the big boys.

To the people that say it's not a fair situation, tough shit. Strap on your helmet, STFU, go play on someone's green turf, and kick their asses.

I believe that Nebraska offered to play Boise in a home-and-home but was refused (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/329732-nebraska-offers-boise-state-2-for-1-deal-why-wont-bsu-accept). 

I really don't want to hear any more whining about how Boise is getting screwed. 

Because Boise wants a home and home, not a 2 for 1. They think they've earned it.  :oh_i_see:

Texas played a game in Wyoming.  Ohio State will pretty much play anyone anywhere and so will Southern California.  I don't see Boise calling those schools up. 

That's because Boise doesn't want to take more than one risk a season, and they want to get it out of the way early.

If you don't want them treated fairly, bitching when they object to being treated unfairly is fucking retarded.

But THEY HAVE A BLUE FIELD! That alone proves they don't deserve to play at the top level.

You are correct.  A blue field puts them completely out of contention for any shred of respect. 

Yes, because the players and coaches obviously chose that field.  :uhrr:

Why? They should realize that a 2 for 1 is fair. Hell, that's MORE than fair. Nebraska has an 81,000 person stadium that has the longest streak of sellouts in the country. They lose massive amounts of money when they agree to a road game in a podunk town with a division 2 capacity.

This anyone, anytime, anywhere bullshit Boise likes to espouse typically falls apart when anywhere means at home, and anyone means only those teams that agree to some form of tradeoff. Also, there are the circulating rumors that the deal collapsed when Boise wanted a $1M appearance fee to show up in Lincoln.  :oh_i_see:

 :awesome_for_real:

Face it, they have the inferior product. They need to offer up more to get the right value.

How is their product inferior? They beat everyone on their schedule, but don't want to disadvantage themselves by taking the short end of the stick from 'major' teams? That is fucking bulllshit. I am not even a fan of BSU- I am just of fan of pointing out the blatent hypocrisy and institutional advantages built into the system.

Why is hypocrisy to expect that a team actually has to take on a challenge before it declares itself ready for the national championship game?

How is a home and away series not taking on a challenge? They can only play the schools that will schedule with them. I can't blame them for refusing to be held to a higher standard than everyone else.

Again, they had a very nice offer from Nebraska that they turned down.  And you don't hear about Boise trying to schedule with other bigger schools.  Paelos is right-  the onus is on Boise, not the BCS conference schools. 

A 2 for 1 is not a "very nice" offer.

It is for a school from a crappy conference with little history behind them.  Most schools from that conference wouldn't get the "for 1" part of the deal.

And no one really seems to have an answer for why we don't hear about Boise trying to schedule with other BCS schools.  I suspect it has never happened.  Again, Ohio State, Texas and USC seem up for playing just about anywhere.  Where are the offers from Boise? 

Seriously, what the fuck should they expect? They play in the WAC, and they've been an FBS school for 14 years. They expect teams like Nebraska that have had a football program since 1890 to treat them like equals?

Are they high or just that obtuse/arrogant?

If they are in the same division, they should be treated as equals. Otherwise why have the other divisions?

Those teams are in the division to support the now 35  :oh_i_see: bowls we have.

I will just say that Utah was willing to go play in places like Michigan with no return game at all in its climb up to respectability. The system is rigged but sometimes you need to just grit your teeth and pay the unfair dues.

And you move up, while Boise whines about fairness. Frankly, I'm glad. I think Utah is a hell of a program with a better tradition, better attitude, and a history of producing fine players and coaches at the NFL level.

Right, it may not be fair, but it's the way things go.  The current BCS conference schools really  have no reason to do a home-and-home with anyone outside their conference.  That's why it's so cool when we see Texas go to Wyoming or Ohio State.  Ohio State gets a bad rap, but it had a home and home with USC, Texas and they played Miami this year.

One thing to keep in mind though is that doing that takes lots of money and so it is more difficult for smaller dollar programs to do it even if they want to.

They usually get reimbursed pretty handsomely for doing those games.  That is why the state of Ohio "encourages" Ohio State to play all the little schools like Akron and Kent and Bowling Green because it keeps that money in-state.  Payouts of $500k to a million are numbers I've read before, which is more than a lot of those schools will pull down in a single game at home. 

There is really no financial way that Boise State can maintain a competitive program.  I think this situation will resolve itself soon enough when Boise State stops being competitive in a couple of years.

They're going to join the MWC, which will give them a huge leg up.  That is unless TCU goes to the Big East or the Big 12, either of which seems pretty likely at this point. 

Those are called guarantee games and they are negotiated, not something that happens automatically. Big schools are willing to pay that much because the schools are usually patsies so its a "pay for an easy win" situation. They won't do that for Boise State and would look at it as a favor to them to have them play there so won't pay much.   It also costs a good chunk to take a team to a road game and they get no TV rights money unlike what they would get with a home game.  Playing on the road is a money losing proposition for a type of program like Boise State unless they get the return trip (where the money is in the TV rights, not the attendance)

That's all true, except that the WAC's TV deal with ESPN is paltry. I can't imagine Boise is making so much on TV dollars that they can't make up the difference by spending the money to get more national cred.

Hey, I hate Boise State. We Utes fans call them the "Tater Zoobs" (BYU are the Zoobs so they are nearly equivalent in disdain among Utes) because they are unduly arrogant and general pains in the ass. I just don't think it is as easy as some people seem to think to just "schedule up" for a team like BSU. It's actually very, very difficult.

You act as if they get absolutely nothing out of the situation, which is not true.  Boise gets the opportunity to "show their stuff", if you will.  The traditional power is risking a lot to bring in a school like Boise, but Boise gets a shot a kicking them in the nuts.  Sure, it's a gamble, but it is a gamble that Boise will have to be willing to take to make it to the next level

Of course they get benefits but athletic departments run off of budgets.  If you can't afford to go do something it won't matter how great it would be.

Boise State's entire Athletic budget in 2009 was ~$25.6M, $7.8M of which came from student fees and subsidies.

For comparison, the U of Minnesota is about the worst team in the Big 10 this year and they have a budget near $70 million.  The Ohio State athletic department operates on over $100 million. 

Goes back to what I said a few posts ago.  Boise State is an outlier right now.  They'll never be able to recruit and maintain a team of this caliber on their budget.  

Not in their current conference, no. In the Mountain West, they have a better shot if they continue to go undefeated.

They need to be in the PAC-10 to be a legitimate program though, and they will fizzle out if they don't press their bets by taking on bigger matches.

Unless TCU moves on, and they appear to be actively shopping themselves at least to the Big East.  The MWC right now deserves to be an automatic BCS qualifier right now, but without TCU and Utah they aren't much stronger than the WAC. 

In the Mountain West, Boise state becomes another Wyoming or, at best, Colorado State.  You just can't recruit and maintain a competitive team with a university in the middle of nowhere.  Utah had at least some chance being in a metropolitan area.  

Once this current group of all stars is gone from Boise they probably will fall back into being just a very good MWC team.

There are certainly football teams that do well in towns in the middle of nowhere. Have you ever been to Lincoln, or State College? Iowa City doesn't look like a happening place either.

I've played in Lincoln and at Kinnick stadium.  

Lincoln is a large city near Omaha with major commerce (beef, insurance, etc.).  Iowa City is 2h to Des Moines and 3h to chicago.  Iowa City also has one of the largest teaching hospitals in the country (i.e. big $$$).  

Boise?  Tell me a major metropolitan area near Boise?  Moscow?  Pullman? As for commerce, do potatoes count?

We don't even need to mention that Nebraska and Lincoln have been contributors to the NCAA for a LONG time.  Especially in sports.  How many olympians have come from Boise State?

Hey, Boise is the third largest city in the Northwest United States at 205,000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boise,_Idaho)  :why_so_serious:

The Boise metropolitan area is ~500k, or about twice the size of Lincoln. Also, I really doubt "2 hours to Des Moines" is a recruiting plus. I mean, that's kind of like saying proximity to Los Angeles is a plus for Fresno State.

It certainly IS in the middle of nowhere, but so are a lot of places. ~5 hours to Salt Lake City is the closest thing I think.

It is funny you mention Pullman, though, now that is REALLY a shitty little town in the middle of nowhere (2 hours to Spokane, recruiting plus!), and yet there they are in the Pac 10, and have been to the Rose Bowl twice in the last 15 years, more than anyone but SC or Oregon (and they're tied with Oregon).

Sure, Wazzou isn't consistently successful, but that means nothing when it comes to deciding if a program should be in the championship game in a given year.

I'm not saying anything about whether Boise should be in the championship or not.  If they're the best team, they should have a shot.  My point is that their current quality of football isn't sustainable.  

I support a fair playoff system 100%.  I also support getting big money athletics out of the NCAA and into NFL farm systems where they belong. I about fell off my chair laughing when one of the games showed a starter as being an academic all american with a 2.8 GPA. 

Nebraska and Oklahoma have a long history behind them that newcomers do not.  They could be located on an island in Lake Erie and still get troops.  And Iowa is one of the most well rounded and well respected universities in the country in one of the top 3 athletic conferences.  Those are all big differences as compared to a Boise.


Edit:

Looks like Newton may get Auburn in trouble (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5765214)......

Rumor of asking for a large sum of money for his services.

I'm going to bump this for Newton discussion.  I'm thinking this entire deal is BS.  It smacks of Floriduh, Urban Meyer and Dan Mullen getting involved. 


This sounds like some bush league stuff.  I seriously doubt that the lack of subtlety displayed here could be real. 

It's probably not BS, but it's probably no where near what they are purporting.

Oh, we all know that money changes hands for players.  That is common knowledge and can be seen in the $75,000 cars some of these guys suddenly start driving. 

But this particular claim reeks of treachery and incompetence.  We're actually going to see more and more of this type of stuff as internet networking gets more well established into every day life.  Another factor is that the more the NCAA tries to crack down on external payments, the more we are going to see foes try to use it as a leverage point to try and get people in trouble. 

I was worthless all week at work. This game is going to be epic. I really hope the Utes can pull it off. They actually feed on being an underdog and written off and the crowd will be completely nuts.  It will be on CBS College which is a station that is giving a free preview on most systems this weekend so look for it if you want to.

Rather watch a real game, like Bama @ LSU  :why_so_serious:

TCU / Utah is probably going to be a pretty exciting game, whereas the Bama/LSU is going to be a bunch of 3 down and outs.  Until the last 3 minutes of the game and The Cat In The Hat makes it as entertaining as any game ever.

Thankfully, since some idiots decided to make the games at the same time, you'll get to make that choice. 

If you're not able to watch teh TCU Ute game, here's a stream:  http://www.firstrow.net/watch/35755/1/watch-utah-vs-tcu.html

Go mighty Rainbow Warriors!   :awesome_for_real:

MICH/ILLI game was fun to watch. It was my don't-give-a-shit game and turned out to be nice, from an offensive perspective of course.

wtf utes?

TCU is pretty good.  They have a strong argument for being in the title game, unlike Boise.  

Edit:  Is it just me, or has Saban developed an interesting faux Southern accent? 

I am a sad panda.

I expected more out of Utah.   :oh_i_see:

Also, Les Miles is awesome.  Who else would run a reverse on 4th and 1 at the 50 yard line?

 :oh_i_see:

A crazy Elyria boy, that's who. Now then... I shall become a UGA fan for a weekend and then a Bama fan. no?

This puts a bit of a damper on my trip to South Bend next week.

Why?  You guys should rebound and beat the shit out of the mighty Cathols. 

Just the lost opportunity of it all. Things were set up for us to make a real charge. It will still be fun to go stomp on Notre Dame but the buzz won't quite be the same.

The Utah game was ugly on a level I haven't seen in a while. Lose by 40? WTF?

The Michigan was awesome in a ridiculous way I haven't seen in a while. 67-65 in the Big Ten? This was a basketball score!

The LSU game was fantastic because I loved how the Hat actually out-coached Saban for one day instead of falling into his normal retarded way of winning.

Who were those people on the field and where did the real Utah football team go?  Way more lopsided than I ever would have imagined.

Still not going to be enough to push ahead of Oregon or Auburn, though.  Come on Bama, get your shit together for that last game of the season, I'm counting on you.

The dude is ballsy as fuck.  I love that. 

So, I went to ESPN.com to see some scores....saw that Joe Paterno won his 400th game today.

Decided to read his bio on wikipedia as I know the dude is ancient and all. One tidbit I found that was  :ye_gods: :

Nevada is beating the shit out of Idaho.  They very likely could give Boise a tough time this year as the game is in Reno. 

I watched the Nevada-Cal game earlier this year and Nevada is a very solid team, despite the road loss to Hawaii (it kind of sucks to play on the road at Hawaii, though). I can't believe we didn't recruit their QB, he is very very good.

Texas may be in the biggest free-fall I've ever seen from a team who was in the National Championship Game the year before.

Down 39-0 to Kansas State, and at one point Texas blocked the extra point on one of K State's TDs, only to have the kicker pick it up and run it in for 2 points instead of 1.

 :awesome_for_real:

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.

One of the announcers for the USC v. ASU game sounds like Roger from American Dad.

Jessie Palmer sounds like this guy:

(http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l7loatCkjR1qcjqeb.jpg)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHltCzuwlOs (1 minute in)

Bama game?  There was no Bama game tonight.  Didn't happen.  Nope.

WTF BAMA?

Didn't Oklahoma get hammered, too?  That Big Texas conference sure is looking good!

Yep. Front Runners for the Big 12 Championship are Oklahoma State and Nebraska.

As far as I'm concerned it was a global bye week.

Out coached, out played, 3 defensive breakdowns at the most inopportune times, two stud runningbacks that seem to be playing not to get hurt, a terribad qb, an OL that has failed to live up to expectations, an OC who is married to call about 4 plays out of the about 5 formations (which took defensive coordinators 2 years to figure out, but they finally did), a DC that is very distracted by discreet job HC job offers from several SEC schools, and finally - terribad special teams.

That is, if a game actually took place last night.

Sooo, hypothetically, what happens if LSU wins out, Auburn loses to Bama and then goes and loses the SEC championship to whoever the fuck is still breathing in the east?

More yardage, Les Miles.  :grin:

Auburn still goes by virtue of a tie breaker by beating LSU earlier in the year.  For LSU to go, Auburn would have to lose to Georgia and Bama.

e:  Ah nevermind.  I thought you were asking who went to the SEC CG if Bama beat Auburn. 

Assuming Auburn beats UGA, they go to the SEC Championship no matter what else happens. If they lose to the SC/Florida winner, or Bama before they get to the Championship, they get knocked out of the running. For LSU to go, UGA has to come up with a miracle win against Auburn and Bama has to win.

In those scenarios, your NCG would be Oregon v. TCU

Texas really needs to replace Greg Davis.  He was carried by Colt McCoy and Vince Young.  The guy is a joke as an OC. 

I get my LSU tigers are out of the running unless UGA somehow gets away with sacrificing a goat and Bama goes back to being Bama. My point is, once Auburn gets into the SEC championship game, assuming a loss to Bama, if Auburn loses to whomever they are playing, the SEC would have at least a 3 loss champion. I find that hilarious and sad and would love to know where teams would drop into which bowls. Theoretically, a 4 loss South Carolina team could actually win the SEC since they may win against FL but will fuck up the Clemson game.

The SEC champion defaults to the Sugar Bowl if they don't play in the NCG.  As for the rest, Wikipedia says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeastern_Conference#Bowl_selection_procedures):

So what you are saying is that the system is rigged to make the SEC > everyone else?

That's a weak troll, even from you.

Actually, the conference more equal then the others is the Big Ten (or next year, the Big 12-2).  Both (will) have eight automatic bowl berths (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_bids_to_college_bowl_games#Order_of_selection) for a ten school conference.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Pac-12 will have six berths and an expanded Big East would be in the same boat.

I hear black helicopters.  Do you hear black helicopters?  Get the tin foil out quick!

The whole "national championship" thing is a pile of bullshit and they should just stop trying. THERE I SAID IT.

Go away woman, this is about penis waving!

That's exactly why the bowl system is so great.  It allows for excessive penis waving. 

Don't you see? There would be MORE penis waving without it! Without this silly attempt at answering the "who is the bestest" question, you'd have people cockslapping each other over who was REALLY the best team even more!

The Cam Newton thing is getting ridiculous. Florida is now stooping to leaking Federally protected academic records in order to smear this kid? WTF?

Urban Meyer says neither he or the Florida staff leaked the records. Right. The records just happened to end up at Fox News on the heels of Cam being up for the Heisman and leaving Florida. The academic violation was having someone else write his paper for him. Do you really think that top players actually write any of their own stuff?

I hate Auburn, and if they paid off someone $200k to recruit this kid, I hope they get skullfucked by the NCAA. However, this academic bullshit Florida is intentionally going out of their way to toss out is a candy-ass, sour-grapes move.

Florida, and more specifically Rick Pitino, Jr., was at the heart of the Eric Bledsoe smear job that went on last year too.  I would love to see the Gaytors fall hard.  

And this is interesting.  Players overwhelmingly prefer the current BCS system over a proposed 16 team playoff.  
BCS Story Link (http://www.bcsfootball.org/news/story?id=5461778)

Well if it gets him suspended for the SEC championship and IF FL beats SC, then it might be a hell of a chess move to win that and get into a huge bowl game with 3 losses  :uhrr:

But yeah...where was all this shit during with first 10 weeks?

A - Consider the source
B - Of course they do, they get ridiculous swag and benefits at the bowls for one game
C - Nobody cares what they want

I would think ESPN would be for a playoff. 

ESPN loves them some BCS. If only because the SEC loves them some BCS and the SEC has a huge TV deal with ESPN.

Also, 135 college players is what, two and a half teams worth?

Big programs carry up to 105, per DI limits. They can't all travel though.

The sample size doesn't matter as long as it is big enough to accurately represent the whole population.  If taken randomly enough this could be just fine, particularly considering the difference found in the sample.  

I honestly don't care if they surveyed 10,000 football players. Ask college students if they prefer doing more work. I'm not saying football players are lazy, but even NFL players balk at adding more games to the season. Couple that with all the gifts and parties, and of course they love the current system. It's easy, no pressure, and the one time they can take gifts.

Assuming 105 players on 120 D1 programs the MOE would be just over  plus or minus 8 percent. Sampling methodology would also be critical.

Having been a player, no one cares what players want.  It has never been about the players.  None of it. 

If a playoff made schools more money, they'd do it.  Until a playoff does that, schools will prefer a bowl system where more of them get a piece of the pie.

And considering they added 3 bowls this year, it's up to 70 pieces now.

 :facepalm:

Maybe we should just have enough bowls for every Division I team.  They could make the worst bowl the "Toilet Bowl" and give them special jerseys to wear the following year for a reward. 

I want the English League football system.  The worst Division I teams get relegated to Division II.

That's not a bad idea, really.  I guess the lowest division would get relegated to high school ball?

Shit, we're not far off. 70/120 means almost 60% of the teams are going to bowl games. We're getting close to not having enough 6-6 or better teams to cover the games.

This article details how that could happen during this season. (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5630271)

Long and short, the NCAA doesn't care and will adjust the rules to fit their needs. Unless those rules involve agents. That's wrong.  :roll:

Okay.  There are a ton of good games this weekend.  Here are some to watch:

Ohio State vs. Penn State-  Penn State plays very, very well with the qb they are starting.  I'm going to predict an upset
Georgia vs. Auburn-  Auburn by 21
Stanford vs. ASU-  ASU, because I hate Stanford with the heat of a million blazing suns
Okie State vs. Texas-  Texas gets another huge hole pounded in their ass.  Pretty soon they are going to make Sasha Gray look like the poster child of rectal continence
Miss St. vs. Alabama-  I think Bama is going to win this one, but not by much.
Iowa vs. Northwestern-  does anyone care who wins this one?  I think Iowa loses because NW has been tough at home
Utah vs. ND-  can I pick Utah by 100?  Okay, how about 48 to 13?
Kansas St. vs. Missouri-  this is a snoozer. 
USC at Arizona-  Zona by a touchdown
South Carolina vs. Fla-  Florida
Nevada vs. Fresno State-  this is a tough one.  I think Nevada loses
Aggies vs. Baylor-  Baylor

Penn State stays close for the first half and loses by 10.
Georgia loses to Auburn by a TD
Stanford crushes ASU by 20
Okie State beats up on Texas by 17
MS State upsets Alabama in Bama, fans curse God.
Northwestern wins at home against Iowa
Utah cruises past ND by at least 20
Missouri covers the 12.5 against K State
Arizona wins by at least 2 scores against USC
Florida beats the shit out of an overranked South Carolina team 30-7
Nevada wins by a late FG against Fresno State
Texas A&M eeks one out against Baylor

I just realized that no Big East team is bowl eligible yet.  I think that, instead of discussing whether or not the polls are biased toward the SEC, we should be discussing how absolutely shitty the Big East and ACC are in football.  Those conferences don't deserve an automatic bid.  Fuck, Boise could win either of those leagues this year. 

Greetings from Notre Dame Stadium.

Cold and rainy in South Bend.  Hope the game is good.  I'm hoping Notre Dame gets destroyed!

You guys need to get your shit together.  I fucking hate ND. 

So do you.  He's a Utah fan.  You'd know that from reading his posts.

Maybe you need to re-read my post.  I was clearly aware of that.  I was implying that I wanted Utah to do better, my man.  


Here you go, Nebu:


I have been aware of Ab's affiliation with Utah for quite some time.  Of course you might know that from reading my posts ;)

Beaten to it.

This is going to be a great day for football.  TCU is losing, tOSU is losing, and Auburn is getting everything they want from Georgia.  Wow.   

Just checked ESPN for some scores...Ab being in South Bend must be bad luck or something.

Also, my god did Wisconsin trounce the Hoosiers.

And I am definitely keen on seeing if Georgia can take Auburn down.

Utah is certainly not doing TCU any favors with this deal, nor is it helping any of the other "little guys".  It's pretty ballsy to go into South Bend though.  Even though they are going to the Pac 10 next year and will suddenly be in a power conference.

Iowa just lost to Northwestern.  Sad day for the Big 10.

My apologies ghost.  I blew that one. 

No worries.

It's not a total loss for the Big Ten-  Wisconsin is going to look mighty good in the polls, even though IU isn't that tough. 

I know you played in the Big Ten.  Who did you play for?  I know you've probably put it on here before but I guess I haven't seen it.   

:ye_gods:

I'm embarrassed to say this season... I played for Minnesota.  We were better then and I got to play in a bowl game. 

Bonus points if you know your NCAA football history.  You'll understand my special hatred for Notre Dame.  

Would that have anything to do with the 1977 Notre Dame national championship from the #5 ranking? (I am guessing through some wiki-pedia-fu)

Take a look at Notre Dame coaches in the 80's.

Ahh did not know that asshat coached the Gophers.

You got me.  Of course I didn't know anyone needed a special reason to hate Notre Dame   :grin:

It must be Lou Holtz.  Again, no special reason needed to hate him, but I get it now. 

As an aside, my wife's family are huge Southern California fans, so they also hate ND and Holtz and she went to college at the other USC-  South Carolina.  It was pretty much hell when he was coaching there. 

I'm still crushed that you think I'm old enough to have played in 77. 

Damnit!

Well I didn't see anything special about Notre Dame during the two seasons I had originally figured you might have played that they went to bowl games. And the Gopher page on wikipedia doesn't really mention Holz at all in any way so I was confused.