Here is a list of all of Fresno State's non conference games since 2006:
9/9/06 vs Oregon 24-31 L
9/16/06 @ Washington 20-21 L
10/21/06 @ LSU 6-38 L
9/1/07 vs Sacramento St 24-3 W
9/8/07 @ Texas A&M 45-47 L
9/15/07 @ Oregon 21-52 L
11/24/07 vs Kansas St 45-29 W
12/31/07 vs Georgia Tech 40-28 W (Humanitarian Bowl)
9/1/08 @ Rutgers 24-7 W
9/13/08 vs Wisconsin 10-13 L
9/27/08 @ UCLA 36-31 W
12/20/08 vs Colorado State 35-40 L (New Mexico Bowl)
9 /5/09 vs UC Davis 51-0 W
9/12/09 @ Wisconsin 31-34 L
9/26/09 @ Cincinnati 20-28 L
12/5/09 @ Illinois 53-52 W
12/19/09 @ Wyoming 28-35 L (New Mexico Bowl)
9/4/10 vs Cincinnati 28-14 W
9/25/10 @ Mississippi 38-55 L
10/2/10 vs Cal Poly 38-17 W
12/3/10 vs Illinois 25-23 W
12/18/10 vs Northern Illinois 17-40 L (Humanitarian Bowl)
That's 4 games against the Pac-10, 2 against the SEC, 2 against the Big 12, 1 against the ACC, 3 against the Big East, 4 against the Big Ten.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
5 Bowls I'm Not At All Excited About...
... but will probably end up watching anyways.
1) Fiesta Bowl: #7 Oklahoma vs Connecticut: You know, I may actually start feeling sorry for Tostitos chips and the Fiesta Bowl soon. For years, they have been biting the bullet and taking the challenging, un-popular bowl choices - choices such as Boise State vs. TCU last year, or that epic Boise State-Oklahoma game in 2007 - and this year it seemed like they might get rewarded for their risks in the past. They get to host the BCS Championship game and the Rose Bowl agreed to select the highest non-AQ team. So what does the Fiesta Bowl get rewarded with? 8-4 Big East champion Connecticut, who get to travel more than 2,500 miles to get sacrificed to the Oklahoma Sooners. I bet that they sure wish now that they could match up Oklahoma against #3 TCU this year, or even a way to pick #4 Stanford, who at least makes more geographic sense than the Huskies.
2) Holiday Bowl: #18 Nebraska vs Washington: Normally, I am all for watching games with Pac-10 teams in them, and I usually like the Holiday Bowl, especially since it hosted the Ducks three times between 2000 and 2008. But not very many people are excited about seeing a rematch from a game played earlier this season, one where the Cornhuskers demolished UW 56-21 in Seattle. At the very least, this game should give me one more reason to hate Mel Kiper Jr.
3) Sun Bowl: Miami (FL) vs Notre Dame: The Sun Bowl, meanwhile, is thanking their lucky stars that they were able to replace their missing Pac-10 team with Notre Dame, thus setting up a rematch of the "Convicts vs Catholics" games of the late 80's. Screw that, says I. Both of these programs are bloated and overly grandiose. I hope they both lose.
4) GoDaddy.com Bowl: Miami (OH) vs Middle Tennessee: Those commercials are terrible.
5) Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl: Southern Miss vs Louisville: I needed a fifth meaningless bowl game. And this one just sounds gross.
1) Fiesta Bowl: #7 Oklahoma vs Connecticut: You know, I may actually start feeling sorry for Tostitos chips and the Fiesta Bowl soon. For years, they have been biting the bullet and taking the challenging, un-popular bowl choices - choices such as Boise State vs. TCU last year, or that epic Boise State-Oklahoma game in 2007 - and this year it seemed like they might get rewarded for their risks in the past. They get to host the BCS Championship game and the Rose Bowl agreed to select the highest non-AQ team. So what does the Fiesta Bowl get rewarded with? 8-4 Big East champion Connecticut, who get to travel more than 2,500 miles to get sacrificed to the Oklahoma Sooners. I bet that they sure wish now that they could match up Oklahoma against #3 TCU this year, or even a way to pick #4 Stanford, who at least makes more geographic sense than the Huskies.
2) Holiday Bowl: #18 Nebraska vs Washington: Normally, I am all for watching games with Pac-10 teams in them, and I usually like the Holiday Bowl, especially since it hosted the Ducks three times between 2000 and 2008. But not very many people are excited about seeing a rematch from a game played earlier this season, one where the Cornhuskers demolished UW 56-21 in Seattle. At the very least, this game should give me one more reason to hate Mel Kiper Jr.
3) Sun Bowl: Miami (FL) vs Notre Dame: The Sun Bowl, meanwhile, is thanking their lucky stars that they were able to replace their missing Pac-10 team with Notre Dame, thus setting up a rematch of the "Convicts vs Catholics" games of the late 80's. Screw that, says I. Both of these programs are bloated and overly grandiose. I hope they both lose.
4) GoDaddy.com Bowl: Miami (OH) vs Middle Tennessee: Those commercials are terrible.
5) Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl: Southern Miss vs Louisville: I needed a fifth meaningless bowl game. And this one just sounds gross.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Let's Go Zips!
The University of Akron has won its first ever NCAA championship. The Zips defeated Louisville 1-0 in the men's soccer final earlier today in Santa Barbara. This is a huge boon to Akron's sports program. When I visited Akron over Thanksgiving, their American football team was the only winless team in the FBS division - they went on to finish 1-11. In addition, the university recently opened brand new, $300 million InfoCision stadium, a 27,000 seat venue whose construction required that "several dormitories had to be demolished and the properties of local tenants were acquired using eminent domain. In order to house the displaced students, the University spent $22.6 million to purchase Quaker Square, a former Quaker Oats Company oat silo that was converted into a hotel."
It's hard to fill that stadium with a 1-11 football team. Maybe they can with a national champion futbol team?
Also, when I was in Akron, someone told me about a time that they were talking to a native Arabic speaker, who was confused why anyone would call their university team the "Zips," because "Zip" is a slang word for "cock" in Arabic.
Go Zips.
It's hard to fill that stadium with a 1-11 football team. Maybe they can with a national champion futbol team?
Also, when I was in Akron, someone told me about a time that they were talking to a native Arabic speaker, who was confused why anyone would call their university team the "Zips," because "Zip" is a slang word for "cock" in Arabic.
Go Zips.
5 Bowl Games I'm Actually Excited About Watching...
... other than the BCS game, I mean.
With the dearth of exciting match-ups this bowl season, it's getting harder and harder for me to be looking forward to New Year's Day. But, always the optimist, I think I'll list five bowl games that I plan to go out of my way to watch. (Other than the BCS game, I mean. Go Ducks.) Maybe later I will post five games that I will go out of my way to avoid. Like Miami, OH vs Middle Tennessee in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. Yeah, don't need to see that one.
1) Rose Bowl - No. 3 TCU vs No. 5 Wisconsin, Jan. 1: Would I be happier if either Stanford or Boise State were in the Rose Bowl? Yes, of course. But if the Grand Daddy of Them All had to pick a year to host a non-AQ team, this is a good one. No one has been better than the Badgers the last four weeks, beating Northwestern 70-23 and Indiana 83-20! Wisconsin has done this damage mostly behind an absurdly good running trio of James White (1,029 yds, 14TDs), John Clay (936 YDs, 13 TDs), and Montee Ball (864 YDs, 17TDs). TCU's defense is no slouch, though; they've held seven of their 12 opponents to seven points or less, and that includes BYU, Air Force, and No. 19 Utah.
2) Las Vegas Bowl - No. 10 Boise State vs No. 19 Utah, Dec. 22: I'm actually sad because I believe that I will be in flight from Chicago to Portland, Oregon while this game is on. Still, I'm glad that the Broncos were able to cut a deal letting them get out of playing in the Kraft Hungry Bowl. This will be a match-up of the two original BCS busters, and Utah's final game before joining the Pac-12. There is some talk about a conspiracy to prevent Boise State from ever getting to play an AQ team in a bowl game, but really, this is a better venue for them than beating up on 7-5 Boston College from the ACC would be.
3) Orange Bowl - No. 4 Stanford vs No. 13 Virginia Tech, Jan. 3: Pac-10 teams are 3-0 all time in the Orange Bowl, and this will be Stanford's first ever trip to this game. (Although this will change next season, because Colorado is 2-3 all time in the Orange Bowl.) Virginia Tech, meanwhile, is going to their third Orange Bowl in four years. They will be trying to extend their winning streak to 11 after opening the season with losses against Boise State and James Madison. No matter who wins, the real loser will be Discover Credit Cards and the city of Miami. If Stanford had finished one spot lower in the final BCS rankings, they could have picked Ohio State or maybe Nebraska instead and really filled the seats of Sun Life Stadium. Go Cardinal.
4) Capital One Bowl - No. 9 Michigan State vs No. 16 Alabama, Jan. 1: Ah, the credit card wars continue. Score one for Capital One, as this game should get higher TV ratings than any of the BCS games. It will be an interesting match-up of the overachieving Michigan State, who won a share of the Big Ten title and yet still got shut-out of the BCS, and under achieving Alabama, who was picked by everyone to be in the National Championship, but managed to finish 9-3 and in 4th place in the SEC. Go Spartans.
5) Texas Bowl - Baylor vs Illinois, Dec. 29: OK, so maybe nobody cares about this game outside of Ft. Worth and Champaign-Urbana. But guess what? The Baylor Bears were one of the feel good stories of the season, beating Texas before dropping their last three games of the season and finishing 7-5. Still, they will be going to their first bowl game since 1994. The Illini, meanwhile, can have some kind of closure on a heart-wrenching season that included losing 65-67 in triple OT to Michigan, a 34-38 loss to Minnesota on a last second touchdown, and a 23-25 loss to Fresno State to end the season. Still, it's a lot better than their 3-9 record last year. Go Illini.
With the dearth of exciting match-ups this bowl season, it's getting harder and harder for me to be looking forward to New Year's Day. But, always the optimist, I think I'll list five bowl games that I plan to go out of my way to watch. (Other than the BCS game, I mean. Go Ducks.) Maybe later I will post five games that I will go out of my way to avoid. Like Miami, OH vs Middle Tennessee in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. Yeah, don't need to see that one.
1) Rose Bowl - No. 3 TCU vs No. 5 Wisconsin, Jan. 1: Would I be happier if either Stanford or Boise State were in the Rose Bowl? Yes, of course. But if the Grand Daddy of Them All had to pick a year to host a non-AQ team, this is a good one. No one has been better than the Badgers the last four weeks, beating Northwestern 70-23 and Indiana 83-20! Wisconsin has done this damage mostly behind an absurdly good running trio of James White (1,029 yds, 14TDs), John Clay (936 YDs, 13 TDs), and Montee Ball (864 YDs, 17TDs). TCU's defense is no slouch, though; they've held seven of their 12 opponents to seven points or less, and that includes BYU, Air Force, and No. 19 Utah.
2) Las Vegas Bowl - No. 10 Boise State vs No. 19 Utah, Dec. 22: I'm actually sad because I believe that I will be in flight from Chicago to Portland, Oregon while this game is on. Still, I'm glad that the Broncos were able to cut a deal letting them get out of playing in the Kraft Hungry Bowl. This will be a match-up of the two original BCS busters, and Utah's final game before joining the Pac-12. There is some talk about a conspiracy to prevent Boise State from ever getting to play an AQ team in a bowl game, but really, this is a better venue for them than beating up on 7-5 Boston College from the ACC would be.
3) Orange Bowl - No. 4 Stanford vs No. 13 Virginia Tech, Jan. 3: Pac-10 teams are 3-0 all time in the Orange Bowl, and this will be Stanford's first ever trip to this game. (Although this will change next season, because Colorado is 2-3 all time in the Orange Bowl.) Virginia Tech, meanwhile, is going to their third Orange Bowl in four years. They will be trying to extend their winning streak to 11 after opening the season with losses against Boise State and James Madison. No matter who wins, the real loser will be Discover Credit Cards and the city of Miami. If Stanford had finished one spot lower in the final BCS rankings, they could have picked Ohio State or maybe Nebraska instead and really filled the seats of Sun Life Stadium. Go Cardinal.
4) Capital One Bowl - No. 9 Michigan State vs No. 16 Alabama, Jan. 1: Ah, the credit card wars continue. Score one for Capital One, as this game should get higher TV ratings than any of the BCS games. It will be an interesting match-up of the overachieving Michigan State, who won a share of the Big Ten title and yet still got shut-out of the BCS, and under achieving Alabama, who was picked by everyone to be in the National Championship, but managed to finish 9-3 and in 4th place in the SEC. Go Spartans.
5) Texas Bowl - Baylor vs Illinois, Dec. 29: OK, so maybe nobody cares about this game outside of Ft. Worth and Champaign-Urbana. But guess what? The Baylor Bears were one of the feel good stories of the season, beating Texas before dropping their last three games of the season and finishing 7-5. Still, they will be going to their first bowl game since 1994. The Illini, meanwhile, can have some kind of closure on a heart-wrenching season that included losing 65-67 in triple OT to Michigan, a 34-38 loss to Minnesota on a last second touchdown, and a 23-25 loss to Fresno State to end the season. Still, it's a lot better than their 3-9 record last year. Go Illini.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
5 Reasons Why Auburn Will Win the BCS Championship
1) Cam Newton is the most dominant player in the country - This is not exactly a revelation. Newton leads the SEC in passing efficiency, rushing yards per game, total offense per game, and points. In the SEC Championship game, South Carolina's defense sold out to try and stop Newton running, and got burned in the air to the tune of 355 yards and four touchdowns. He's big and he's fast, and will be able to go around, over, and through anyone on Oregon's defense.
2) Auburn's offensive line will control the game - The average weight for an Auburn offensive line man is 301 lbs., compared to 246 lbs. for the average Oregon defensive line man. Behind this line, Newton will be able to maintain possession and control the tempo of the game. The blueprint for beating the Ducks is simple enough: Keep their offense off of the field. Auburn can and will do that.
3) Auburn's defense will contain the Ducks running game - The big question mark for Auburn going to the championship game is their defense, which has given up more than 30 points four times this season, not including 26 to lowly Arkansas State and 24 to even lowlier Chattanooga. But the Tigers' defensive backs are faster than anyone else the Ducks have faced this season. They will be fast enough to meet the Ducks' running backs at the ends, and will force to Oregon to become a passing team to generate any offense. And that's when Oregon will start making mistakes.
4) The Ducks will make mistakes - Oregon is 48th in the nation in turnovers, with 22, and 17th in penalties, with 95 for a total of 815 yards. In addition, Auburn's defense is one of the best at causing turnovers, forcing an opponent's turnover in 12.5 percent of all possessions this season. Against weaker teams, Oregon was able to compensate for those mistakes and make comebacks in the second half. They won't be able to do that against Auburn.
5) It's the SEC, Jack - There's a reason why Les Miles said that the SEC champion should automatically get to go to the BCS Championship game. In the last four games, the SEC has outscored their opponents 160-73. The conference simply plays better football than anyone else in the country, and that trend will continue this year once again.
(Next Time... 5 Reasons Why Oregon Will Win)
2) Auburn's offensive line will control the game - The average weight for an Auburn offensive line man is 301 lbs., compared to 246 lbs. for the average Oregon defensive line man. Behind this line, Newton will be able to maintain possession and control the tempo of the game. The blueprint for beating the Ducks is simple enough: Keep their offense off of the field. Auburn can and will do that.
3) Auburn's defense will contain the Ducks running game - The big question mark for Auburn going to the championship game is their defense, which has given up more than 30 points four times this season, not including 26 to lowly Arkansas State and 24 to even lowlier Chattanooga. But the Tigers' defensive backs are faster than anyone else the Ducks have faced this season. They will be fast enough to meet the Ducks' running backs at the ends, and will force to Oregon to become a passing team to generate any offense. And that's when Oregon will start making mistakes.
4) The Ducks will make mistakes - Oregon is 48th in the nation in turnovers, with 22, and 17th in penalties, with 95 for a total of 815 yards. In addition, Auburn's defense is one of the best at causing turnovers, forcing an opponent's turnover in 12.5 percent of all possessions this season. Against weaker teams, Oregon was able to compensate for those mistakes and make comebacks in the second half. They won't be able to do that against Auburn.
5) It's the SEC, Jack - There's a reason why Les Miles said that the SEC champion should automatically get to go to the BCS Championship game. In the last four games, the SEC has outscored their opponents 160-73. The conference simply plays better football than anyone else in the country, and that trend will continue this year once again.
(Next Time... 5 Reasons Why Oregon Will Win)
Thursday, December 9, 2010
The Bankers Bowl?
SCENE: Joel is watching the Auburn-South Carolina football game on TV. The large, blue and gold SEC logo is on the screen. Robyn enters.
Robyn: SEC? The Securities and Exchange Commission?
Joel: Haha, no. The Southeastern Conference.
Robyn: Oh. Cause I was wondering what the SEC had to do with college football.
Joel: Yeah, I always get it confused the other way around. I'll be reading the Times, and will be like, "Why is the SEC trying to regulate Wall Street? Will Lehman Brothers be playing Merrill Lynch in the Sugar Bowl?" and then I'm all, "Well, no duh we're in an economic depression! We left a football conference in charge of our financial industry!" and so forth.
Robyn: Actually, now I am thinking of financiers playing football for our pleasure, as some form of Mad Max-style punishment. The next step in reality programming.
Joel: Like "Blood Bowl"?
Robyn: I don't know what that is. But we could make them wear their suits and ties, and they could carry their suitcases, and they would be allowed to hit each other with their suitcases during the game.
Joel: I would pay to see that.
Robyn: SEC? The Securities and Exchange Commission?
Joel: Haha, no. The Southeastern Conference.
Robyn: Oh. Cause I was wondering what the SEC had to do with college football.
Joel: Yeah, I always get it confused the other way around. I'll be reading the Times, and will be like, "Why is the SEC trying to regulate Wall Street? Will Lehman Brothers be playing Merrill Lynch in the Sugar Bowl?" and then I'm all, "Well, no duh we're in an economic depression! We left a football conference in charge of our financial industry!" and so forth.
Robyn: Actually, now I am thinking of financiers playing football for our pleasure, as some form of Mad Max-style punishment. The next step in reality programming.
Joel: Like "Blood Bowl"?
Robyn: I don't know what that is. But we could make them wear their suits and ties, and they could carry their suitcases, and they would be allowed to hit each other with their suitcases during the game.
Joel: I would pay to see that.
Robyn: A lot of people would. If someone had brought that up in the Senate hearings, they probably would have made it mandatory. And then in the next season you could have the survivors play the cast of Jersey Shore.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Bowl Predictor - Dec. 5
BCS National Championship - No. 1 Auburn vs No. 2 Oregon
Rose Bowl - No. 3 TCU vs No. 5 Wisconsin
Fiesta Bowl - No. 9 Oklahoma vs Connecticut
Sugar Bowl - No. 6 Ohio State vs No. 7 Arkansas
Orange Bowl - No. 4 Stanford vs No. 15 Virginia Tech
Cotton Bowl - No. 18 Texas A&M vs No. 10 LSU
Capital One Bowl - No. 8 Michigan State vs. No. 16 Alabama
Chik-fil-A Bowl - No. 19 South Carolina vs. No. 21 Florida State
Outback Bowl - No. 22 Mississippi State vs. Iowa
Gator Bowl - Penn State vs Florida
Holiday Bowl - No. 13 Nebraska vs No. 23 Arizona
Sun Bowl - No. 11 Boise State vs Maryland
Insight Bowl - No. 14 Oklahoma State vs Illinois
Alamo Bowl - No. 12 Missouri vs Washington
Dallas Football Classic - Northwestern vs Baylor
Liberty Bowl - Georgia vs UCF
Meineke Car Care Bowl - No. 24 West Virginia vs Miami (FL)
Pinstripe Bowl - Kansas State vs Syracuse
Armed Forces Bowl - SMU vs Army
Champs Sports Bowl - North Carolina State vs Pittsburgh
Music City Bowl - Boston College vs Tennessee
Poinsettia Bowl - San Diego State vs Navy
Texas Bowl - No. 18 Texas A&M vs Michigan
New Mexico Bowl - Brigham Young vs UTEP
Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl - Texas Tech vs Miami (OH)
Humanitarian Bowl - No. 25 Northern Illinois vs Fresno State
Hawaii Bowl - Hawaii vs Tulsa
New Orleans Bowl - Middle Tennessee vs Clemson
Independence Bowl - Air Force vs Kentucky
Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl - South Florida vs Southern Mississippi
Las Vegas Bowl - No. 20 Utah vs Idaho
Military Bowl - Georgia Tech vs Notre Dame
GoDaddy.com Bowl - Ohio vs Troy
BBVA Compass Bowl - Louisville vs Temple
Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl - Nevada vs North Carolina
Rose Bowl - No. 3 TCU vs No. 5 Wisconsin
Fiesta Bowl - No. 9 Oklahoma vs Connecticut
Sugar Bowl - No. 6 Ohio State vs No. 7 Arkansas
Orange Bowl - No. 4 Stanford vs No. 15 Virginia Tech
Cotton Bowl - No. 18 Texas A&M vs No. 10 LSU
Capital One Bowl - No. 8 Michigan State vs. No. 16 Alabama
Chik-fil-A Bowl - No. 19 South Carolina vs. No. 21 Florida State
Outback Bowl - No. 22 Mississippi State vs. Iowa
Gator Bowl - Penn State vs Florida
Holiday Bowl - No. 13 Nebraska vs No. 23 Arizona
Sun Bowl - No. 11 Boise State vs Maryland
Insight Bowl - No. 14 Oklahoma State vs Illinois
Alamo Bowl - No. 12 Missouri vs Washington
Dallas Football Classic - Northwestern vs Baylor
Liberty Bowl - Georgia vs UCF
Meineke Car Care Bowl - No. 24 West Virginia vs Miami (FL)
Pinstripe Bowl - Kansas State vs Syracuse
Armed Forces Bowl - SMU vs Army
Champs Sports Bowl - North Carolina State vs Pittsburgh
Music City Bowl - Boston College vs Tennessee
Poinsettia Bowl - San Diego State vs Navy
Texas Bowl - No. 18 Texas A&M vs Michigan
New Mexico Bowl - Brigham Young vs UTEP
Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl - Texas Tech vs Miami (OH)
Humanitarian Bowl - No. 25 Northern Illinois vs Fresno State
Hawaii Bowl - Hawaii vs Tulsa
New Orleans Bowl - Middle Tennessee vs Clemson
Independence Bowl - Air Force vs Kentucky
Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl - South Florida vs Southern Mississippi
Las Vegas Bowl - No. 20 Utah vs Idaho
Military Bowl - Georgia Tech vs Notre Dame
GoDaddy.com Bowl - Ohio vs Troy
BBVA Compass Bowl - Louisville vs Temple
Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl - Nevada vs North Carolina
Oregon-Oregon St: Second Half
4:43 pm - Oregon 23, Oregon St. 7.
I love it when I go to the bathroom and come back to find that the Ducks have scored.
4:52 pm - Oregon 23, Oregon St. 10.
Another big defensive stand by the Ducks. My TV screen just went black - I may have killed it. (It's an old TV). I hate irony. (Actually, it's not ironic. It just sucks.)
5:18 pm - Well, shit. The TV screen is dead. I'm gonna wait a few minutes to see if it decides to change it's mind; if not, oh well, what the hell. The Ducks are up 30-13. I would be OK with the universe if I have to sacrifice a television to the football gods in exchange for a victory today.
5:34 pm -I'm listening to the TV right now, like it's a, um, what's that thing, with the dials, you know... FDR... a radio! The Ducks just got another interception. If they hold on to win, the defense should get the game ball. Meanwhile, Auburn 28, South Carolina 14. That Pac-10 vs SEC championship game is getting closer and closer.
First and goal, Ducks.
Oregon 37, Oregon St. 13. Four minutes and twenty-seven seconds left!
5:50 pm - The gatorade has spilled! They're in! Final! 37-20! Go Ducks!
Also, it's not ironic that both Chip Kelly and Gene Chizik are second-year coaches.
I love it when I go to the bathroom and come back to find that the Ducks have scored.
4:52 pm - Oregon 23, Oregon St. 10.
Another big defensive stand by the Ducks. My TV screen just went black - I may have killed it. (It's an old TV). I hate irony. (Actually, it's not ironic. It just sucks.)
5:18 pm - Well, shit. The TV screen is dead. I'm gonna wait a few minutes to see if it decides to change it's mind; if not, oh well, what the hell. The Ducks are up 30-13. I would be OK with the universe if I have to sacrifice a television to the football gods in exchange for a victory today.
5:34 pm -I'm listening to the TV right now, like it's a, um, what's that thing, with the dials, you know... FDR... a radio! The Ducks just got another interception. If they hold on to win, the defense should get the game ball. Meanwhile, Auburn 28, South Carolina 14. That Pac-10 vs SEC championship game is getting closer and closer.
First and goal, Ducks.
Oregon 37, Oregon St. 13. Four minutes and twenty-seven seconds left!
5:50 pm - The gatorade has spilled! They're in! Final! 37-20! Go Ducks!
Also, it's not ironic that both Chip Kelly and Gene Chizik are second-year coaches.
The Civil War Continues...
3:23 pm - Oregon's defense is carrying the team against the Beavers right now. They just intercepted Katz again, and ran the ball back to the seven or eight yard line. Now if only the offense could settle down and put some points on the board...
9-7 Ducks. Meanwhile, South Carolina just tied Auburn 7-7 in the SEC Championship game. If both Auburn and Oregon survive, I would love to see the Ducks have a go at this Tiger secondary.
3:34 pm - Another big stop for the Ducks defense on 4th and 6. People don't think about how good their defense is, but it's improvement is probably the biggest reason why the Ducks are better this year than last. Linebacker Casey Matthews is a finalist for defensive player of the year.
"A lot of people probably thought the score would be 30-20 by now." Yeah. A lot of people who haven't watched the Ducks all season.
Touchdown, LaMichael James. 16-7 Ducks.
Touchdown, Cam Newton. 14-7 Tigers.
3:52 pm - "The Ducks don't need to fly, they're doing it on the ground." Again, a statement tat shows ignorance of Oregon's style of play. All for the sake of a bad pun. Fortunately, the color commentator corrected him.
Missed field goal, another missed opportunity for the Ducks, 16-7 at halftime. Huge stop for the Beavers. Meanwhile, Auburn looks like their pulling away from the Gamecocks, leading 21-7 in the 1st quarter.
9-7 Ducks. Meanwhile, South Carolina just tied Auburn 7-7 in the SEC Championship game. If both Auburn and Oregon survive, I would love to see the Ducks have a go at this Tiger secondary.
3:34 pm - Another big stop for the Ducks defense on 4th and 6. People don't think about how good their defense is, but it's improvement is probably the biggest reason why the Ducks are better this year than last. Linebacker Casey Matthews is a finalist for defensive player of the year.
"A lot of people probably thought the score would be 30-20 by now." Yeah. A lot of people who haven't watched the Ducks all season.
Touchdown, LaMichael James. 16-7 Ducks.
Touchdown, Cam Newton. 14-7 Tigers.
3:52 pm - "The Ducks don't need to fly, they're doing it on the ground." Again, a statement tat shows ignorance of Oregon's style of play. All for the sake of a bad pun. Fortunately, the color commentator corrected him.
Missed field goal, another missed opportunity for the Ducks, 16-7 at halftime. Huge stop for the Beavers. Meanwhile, Auburn looks like their pulling away from the Gamecocks, leading 21-7 in the 1st quarter.
It's The Final Countdown!
2:00 pm - It's still snowing here in central Illinois. I slept in today and, um, have a headache. Also, my clothes are all soaked from slipping around in the slush last night. Right now we're watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Let me check on some of the games going on - and, then, 30 minutes to the biggest Civil War Game of all time! Let's go Ducks!
2:05 pm - Oh no! The Illini lost to Fresno State last night! ("Fresno fucking State," says Robyn, "Go back to your orange groves.") Fortunately, Illinois already has secured a bowl game for themselves. Meanwhile, it looks like West Virginia has taken care of business against Rutgers, up 35-7 in the 4th quarter. (Whoops! 35-14... maybe I spoke too soon?) If they hold on to win, then the pressure will be on Connecticut to win tonight against South Florida with a BCS bowl - likely the Fiesta Bowl - on the line.
2:25 pm - The first bowls are being set. Brigham Young from the Mountain West will play UTEP from C-USA in the New Mexico Bowl, and Kansas State from the Big 12 will play Syracuse from the Big East in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.
2:30 pm - Game time! ("Hey!" says Robyn, "I like the spider scene!")
2:40 pm - Ooooh... Katz is down. Bad auspices for the Beavers. Also, is it just me, or does OSU's uniforms make them look like the Cleveland Browns? Casey Matthews is awesome.
2:43 pm - D'oh! Oregon fumble on the punt return. Those turnovers can be killer. And why is Oregon-Oregon State The Civil War game? Interception!
2:53 pm - Another fumble! Dammit Ducks. I'm going back to Harry Potter.
2:58 pm - Oregon State just converted a huge 4th and 1.
My point is that every intrastate rivalry has an equal claim to the title "Civil War Game." Why Oregon-Oregon State?
The Beavers are in the Red Zone. Also, Harry Potter is fighting the basilisk.
3:04 pm - Touchdown Beavers. My Uncle John sent me this link about the Ducks in the New York time. The basilisk is dead.
3:14 pm - 7-6 Oregon State. The Beavers are making all of those hustle plays, recovering fumbles and blocking extra points.
I just got a close-up of Oregon's helmets. Those stripes are crazy. I like them.
Here is a game-by-game history of the Civil War Game from the Oregonian. My favorite passage, from 1896:
2:05 pm - Oh no! The Illini lost to Fresno State last night! ("Fresno fucking State," says Robyn, "Go back to your orange groves.") Fortunately, Illinois already has secured a bowl game for themselves. Meanwhile, it looks like West Virginia has taken care of business against Rutgers, up 35-7 in the 4th quarter. (Whoops! 35-14... maybe I spoke too soon?) If they hold on to win, then the pressure will be on Connecticut to win tonight against South Florida with a BCS bowl - likely the Fiesta Bowl - on the line.
2:25 pm - The first bowls are being set. Brigham Young from the Mountain West will play UTEP from C-USA in the New Mexico Bowl, and Kansas State from the Big 12 will play Syracuse from the Big East in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.
2:30 pm - Game time! ("Hey!" says Robyn, "I like the spider scene!")
2:40 pm - Ooooh... Katz is down. Bad auspices for the Beavers. Also, is it just me, or does OSU's uniforms make them look like the Cleveland Browns? Casey Matthews is awesome.
2:43 pm - D'oh! Oregon fumble on the punt return. Those turnovers can be killer. And why is Oregon-Oregon State The Civil War game? Interception!
2:53 pm - Another fumble! Dammit Ducks. I'm going back to Harry Potter.
2:58 pm - Oregon State just converted a huge 4th and 1.
My point is that every intrastate rivalry has an equal claim to the title "Civil War Game." Why Oregon-Oregon State?
The Beavers are in the Red Zone. Also, Harry Potter is fighting the basilisk.
3:04 pm - Touchdown Beavers. My Uncle John sent me this link about the Ducks in the New York time. The basilisk is dead.
3:14 pm - 7-6 Oregon State. The Beavers are making all of those hustle plays, recovering fumbles and blocking extra points.
I just got a close-up of Oregon's helmets. Those stripes are crazy. I like them.
Here is a game-by-game history of the Civil War Game from the Oregonian. My favorite passage, from 1896:
With the game tied a 4-4 (touchdowns were four points then), an Oregon ball carrier, H.S. Templeton, fumbles near the goal line. Charles Osburn apparently recovers for OAC, but referee F.O. Burckhard changes his mind and returns the ball to Oregon. According to the Corvallis Times, an OAC substitute, Pat Kelsey "told Buckhard it was a peculiar decision. Burckhard replied, 'The man who don't like the decision is a s-- of a b--.' Kelsey thought it proper to resent the insult and struck at the referee, but missed, whereupon the latter rushed at Kelsey with several blows, when he received a blow in the face from Kelsey." The two were quickly separated and Kelsey was ejected. Oregon scored and won 12-8.I bet that H.S. Templeton had a bangin' waxed moustache.
Friday, December 3, 2010
BCS Bowl Predictor
BCS Championship Game - No. 1 Auburn vs No. 2 Oregon
A lot of my Duck friends complained this week when Auburn jumped Oregon in the BCS standings. Assuming that both teams win tomorrow - and my high school math teacher always toold me that "assuming makes an ass of you and me" - then Auburn's lead in the BCS standings will widen, because the Tigers will get more credit for a win over No. 19 South Carolina than the Ducks will over undranked Oregon State.
Rose Bowl - No. 3 TCU vs No. 5 Wisconsin
The Badgers will get the Big Ten's automatic Rose Bowl berth based on being higher in the BCS rankings than either Ohio State or Michigan State. TCU will be Oregon's replacement, because of the Rose Bowl's "one time only" rule of selecting the highest non-AQ team to replace someone who is in the national championship game. This should be an awesome game; can TCU's hyperspeed defense slow down Wisconsin's White Clay Ball?
Fiesta Bowl - No. 13 Nebraska vs Connecticut
The Fiesta Bowl gets last pick among the BCS bowls this year because they are the "host" for the NC game played a week later. Nebraska has to beat no. 9 Oklahoma tomorrow in the Big 12 Championship to get in, and UConn has to win at South Florida to become the first unranked BCS team. If they lose, then no. 24 West Virginia will be in with a win at Rutgers. If both the Huskies and the Mountaineers lose, then Pitt will get in with a Cincinnati. If all three lose, then UConn gets in. Stranger things have happened.
Sugar Bowl - No. 6 Ohio State vs No. 7 Arkansas
This is a tough one to predict. The Sugar Bowl is set to lose Auburn to the BCS game, and probably will want to replace them with the next highest SEC team, which is Arkansas. The Sugar Bowl doesn't like ths; they would make a lot more bling hosting no. 10 LSU or no. 16 Alabama. To compensate, they will probably give Ohio State an at-large berth. The Buckeyes have a much larger fan base than any of the other BCS teams this year. Of course, all of this is moot if South Carolina upsets Auburn and gets the SEC's automatic berth.
Orange Bowl - No. 4 Stanford vs No. 15 Virginia Tech
If Stanford ends in the top 4 in the BCS - and they should at this point because they've finished their season - then they must go to a BCS game. The Orange Bowl should then be faced with the unenviable task of choosing between Stanford and Connecticut for their at-large selection. In football. Men's football. The Orange would be much happier if no. 21 Florida State manages to upset the Hokies to win the ACC and fill up the stands in Miami. They might also pick West Virginia over Stanford if UConn loses, thereby sending the Cardinal to the Fiesta Bowl - which would attract way more Pac-10 fans because it is played in Arizona - to play the Big 12 Champions.
A lot of my Duck friends complained this week when Auburn jumped Oregon in the BCS standings. Assuming that both teams win tomorrow - and my high school math teacher always toold me that "assuming makes an ass of you and me" - then Auburn's lead in the BCS standings will widen, because the Tigers will get more credit for a win over No. 19 South Carolina than the Ducks will over undranked Oregon State.
Rose Bowl - No. 3 TCU vs No. 5 Wisconsin
The Badgers will get the Big Ten's automatic Rose Bowl berth based on being higher in the BCS rankings than either Ohio State or Michigan State. TCU will be Oregon's replacement, because of the Rose Bowl's "one time only" rule of selecting the highest non-AQ team to replace someone who is in the national championship game. This should be an awesome game; can TCU's hyperspeed defense slow down Wisconsin's White Clay Ball?
Fiesta Bowl - No. 13 Nebraska vs Connecticut
The Fiesta Bowl gets last pick among the BCS bowls this year because they are the "host" for the NC game played a week later. Nebraska has to beat no. 9 Oklahoma tomorrow in the Big 12 Championship to get in, and UConn has to win at South Florida to become the first unranked BCS team. If they lose, then no. 24 West Virginia will be in with a win at Rutgers. If both the Huskies and the Mountaineers lose, then Pitt will get in with a Cincinnati. If all three lose, then UConn gets in. Stranger things have happened.
Sugar Bowl - No. 6 Ohio State vs No. 7 Arkansas
This is a tough one to predict. The Sugar Bowl is set to lose Auburn to the BCS game, and probably will want to replace them with the next highest SEC team, which is Arkansas. The Sugar Bowl doesn't like ths; they would make a lot more bling hosting no. 10 LSU or no. 16 Alabama. To compensate, they will probably give Ohio State an at-large berth. The Buckeyes have a much larger fan base than any of the other BCS teams this year. Of course, all of this is moot if South Carolina upsets Auburn and gets the SEC's automatic berth.
Orange Bowl - No. 4 Stanford vs No. 15 Virginia Tech
If Stanford ends in the top 4 in the BCS - and they should at this point because they've finished their season - then they must go to a BCS game. The Orange Bowl should then be faced with the unenviable task of choosing between Stanford and Connecticut for their at-large selection. In football. Men's football. The Orange would be much happier if no. 21 Florida State manages to upset the Hokies to win the ACC and fill up the stands in Miami. They might also pick West Virginia over Stanford if UConn loses, thereby sending the Cardinal to the Fiesta Bowl - which would attract way more Pac-10 fans because it is played in Arizona - to play the Big 12 Champions.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Why the Pac-10 Has No Bowls
I hate to admit this, as someone who has grown up in the Pac-10, as someone with close familial ties to seven different Pac-10 schools, as someone who generally gets more excited each year about the Rose Bowl than any ol' "BCS" game, but it may just be time to come out and say it:
Maybe the Pac-10 just isn't very good.
This nagging thought arose within me last year in Manhattan, on the day before New Year's Eve, when I was at a restaurant in Midtown, watching Arizona just get crushed 33-0 by Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl. This was part of a dismal 1-5 Bowl Season for the Pac-10, which essentially spent any and all of the goodwill that the conference had been able to build up across the country for the past two or three seasons.
But that was last year, right? Not this year, when the conference is being led by 11-0 Oregon, who is No. 2 in the BCS, and No. 1 in all three of the human polls? When the conference could possibly have two BCS berths for the first time since 2001? Right?
Well, I guess so. But not really.
The biggest concern for the Pac-10 is this: Going into the final weekend of the regular season, the conference has only three - yes, three - bowl eligible teams: No. 2 Oregon (11-0), No. 4 Stanford (11-1), and No. 23 Arizona (7-4). By comparison, six of the eight Big East teams - the very essence of mediocrity - are already bowl eligible. The Pac-10 currently has contracts with six different bowls (Rose, Alamo, Sun, Maaco [nee Las Vegas], Holiday, and Kraft Hungry). But if Oregon goes to the NC, and if Stanford gets selected by a different BCS game, then it is possible that only one of those games would actually end up hosting a team from the Pac-10.
Now, of course, there are many big caveats to this situation. The first, obviously, is the bowl ban on USC, who would otherwise already be eligible with a record of 7-5. The second, nobly, is that the Pac-10 schedules harder non-conference games than any of the other major conferences. The obvious example is 5-6 Oregon State, who had to play both Boise State and TCU this year. Switch either of those teams for, say, Wyoming or Utah State, and the Beavers have six wins and are going to the Maaco Bowl. A similar story could be said for Arizona State, who came within a field goal of beating No. 5 Wisconsin, but are now instead 5-6, and will not be going to a bowl game. On the flip side of this is the fact that the Pac-10 has had more marquee wins than any other conference: UCLA beat Texas, Arizona beat Iowa, Stanford beat Notre Dame, Oregon beat Tennessee. However, the other teams were punished for their ambition and are now going to suffer.
So there are at least some asterixes to the Pac-10's woeful win-loss percentages and lack of bowl invitations. But the simple fact is that the vast majority of teams underperformed this season, and that no one outside of Oregon and Stanford were able to gain anything resembling consistency. The Beavers would already be bowl eligible if they hadn't lost by 17 at home to Washington State. Meanwhile, Wazzu was the only road win for Cal all season long; as a result, they'll be ending up one win short of a bowl. And Arizona State would have gone bowling, too, if it were not for having an extra point blocked by USC in the fourth quarter of a game they lost by one point. However, none of these teams managed to come up big when they needed to. Four teams in the Pac-10 finished with conference records of 4-4; in fact, only Oregon and Stanford have winning records within the conference.
Coming in to this weekend, two Pac-10 teams will still have a chance to become bowl eligible: Oregon State and Washington. While I'd bet that everyone from Spokane to Pasadena will be rooting for the Beavers to pull off the upset this Saturday, I'm certain that Larry Scott, the Pac-10 commissioner, will be wearing green. That leaves the Huskies as the conference's great purple hope, and their last chance to salvage Jake Locker's senior season, and to secure a fourth bowl birth for the conference.
Addendum: For a more positive outlook, read Stewart Mandel's column here. I still don't think that he addresses the issue of none of the Pac-10's 4th through 8th teams being able to show any kind of consistency through the season.
Coming in to this weekend, two Pac-10 teams will still have a chance to become bowl eligible: Oregon State and Washington. While I'd bet that everyone from Spokane to Pasadena will be rooting for the Beavers to pull off the upset this Saturday, I'm certain that Larry Scott, the Pac-10 commissioner, will be wearing green. That leaves the Huskies as the conference's great purple hope, and their last chance to salvage Jake Locker's senior season, and to secure a fourth bowl birth for the conference.
Addendum: For a more positive outlook, read Stewart Mandel's column here. I still don't think that he addresses the issue of none of the Pac-10's 4th through 8th teams being able to show any kind of consistency through the season.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Good Ol' Shaq
I was out of town and -gasp! - out of reach of the internet over Thanksgiving. And, yes, I have lots of thoughts about Boise State. But in the meantime, and because apparantly I have to go to work, here is a fact:
Everybody Loves Shaq
Kevin Garnett Waxes Poetic About Shaq
Shaq Shows He Can Still Dominate Around a Basket of Fries
Everybody Loves Shaq
Kevin Garnett Waxes Poetic About Shaq
Shaq Shows He Can Still Dominate Around a Basket of Fries
Sunday, November 21, 2010
My Top 25
1) Auburn
2) Oregon
3) Boise State
4) TCU
5) Wisconsin
6) Stanford
7) Ohio State
8) LSU
9) Michigan State
10) Oklahoma State
11) Alabama
12) Nebraska
13) Oklahoma
14) Virginia Tech
15) Arkansas
16) Missouri
17) Nevada
18) Arizona
19) South Carolina
20) Texas A&M
21) Utah
22) North Carolina State
23) Florida State
24) Navy
25) Hawaii
2) Oregon
3) Boise State
4) TCU
5) Wisconsin
6) Stanford
7) Ohio State
8) LSU
9) Michigan State
10) Oklahoma State
11) Alabama
12) Nebraska
13) Oklahoma
14) Virginia Tech
15) Arkansas
16) Missouri
17) Nevada
18) Arizona
19) South Carolina
20) Texas A&M
21) Utah
22) North Carolina State
23) Florida State
24) Navy
25) Hawaii
Saturday, November 20, 2010
My Cat Rooted for the Wildcats
5:57 pm - Ole Miss 36, LSU 35. The announcer for CBS just argued that, because 4-6 Ole Miss is playing tough against 9-1 Lucky State University, a one-loss SEC team should get to play for the national title. That's a terrible argument. Even though I do agree that the SEC is the best conference, Ole Miss is not a good 4-6 team. Not that I'm biased or anything, but I would take 4-5 Oregon State, 5-6 California, and 4-6 Arizona State over Ole Miss.
But not 4-6 Washington.
"This is the great thing about football: It teaches you all you need to know about life." - Houston Nutt
That's a lie.
6:12 pm - Final: LSU 43, Ole Miss 36. Final: Stanford 48, Cal 14.
Bad news for Boise State and TCU. Both LSU and Stanford now have only one loss each, and each have only one game remaining; Stanford vs Oregon State, LSU at Arkansas. If they both win out, it means that it will be very tough for both Boise and TCU to get to a BCS Bowl. The Sugar Bowl will most likely use their first pick on LSU. Then their second pick will probably be between the #2 Pac-10 team (Stanford), the #2 Big 12 team, or the #2 non-AQ team. Of those options, the non-AQ would probably bring in the least amount of revenue, especially if it's Boise. That would mean that a 12-0, #4 Boise State could fall all the way to the New Mexico Bowl.
In other, unrelated news, #16 Virginia Tech defeated #24 Miami, 31-17. One more win and they will get to play in the Orange Bowl.
8:17 pm - It's almost dinnertime, so I'm going to stop blogging for a while. Oregon State is up on USC 17-0 in the 2nd quarter. I would love for them to win this game...
But not 4-6 Washington.
"This is the great thing about football: It teaches you all you need to know about life." - Houston Nutt
That's a lie.
6:12 pm - Final: LSU 43, Ole Miss 36. Final: Stanford 48, Cal 14.
Bad news for Boise State and TCU. Both LSU and Stanford now have only one loss each, and each have only one game remaining; Stanford vs Oregon State, LSU at Arkansas. If they both win out, it means that it will be very tough for both Boise and TCU to get to a BCS Bowl. The Sugar Bowl will most likely use their first pick on LSU. Then their second pick will probably be between the #2 Pac-10 team (Stanford), the #2 Big 12 team, or the #2 non-AQ team. Of those options, the non-AQ would probably bring in the least amount of revenue, especially if it's Boise. That would mean that a 12-0, #4 Boise State could fall all the way to the New Mexico Bowl.
In other, unrelated news, #16 Virginia Tech defeated #24 Miami, 31-17. One more win and they will get to play in the Orange Bowl.
8:17 pm - It's almost dinnertime, so I'm going to stop blogging for a while. Oregon State is up on USC 17-0 in the 2nd quarter. I would love for them to win this game...
More Football
Something weird's going on with Blogger. I dunno what.
2:06 pm - Michigan State is making a furious comeback against Purdue. They lead 35-31 with 4:24 left in the game after a blocked punt and recovering a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown. It's a game of inches.
2:15 pm - Michigan State escapes with a 35-31 win over Purdue, and with Wisconsin's win, they are guaranteed to lead the Big Ten for at least another week. And it was a great game - upset potential, Rose Bowl implications, a comeback, blocked punt, turnovers, and finally a defensive stand to win the game. Is it bad taste to call them the Heart Attack Kids? Probably, yes. Win at Penn State next week, and they'll be going to some BCS bowl, but not necessarily the Rose.
As for Purdue, they've lost their fifth in a row, and are now ineligible for a bowl game. Tough break, Boilermakers.
2:32 pm - Final: Harvard 28, Yale 21. This game was on the Versus Network. I would've watched it if I had known.
2:39 pm - Holy shit! They're playing football in Wrigley Field! Illinois 7, Northwestern 0. "There will be no wind advantage in this game." And I have to watch the game on my laptop, because ABC had Ohio State-Iowa on. In Urbana, Illinois. Douchebags.
Recovery Illinois! Go Illini!
Some friends from work are at this game. I thought about going for a minute, but then was like,"What? Wear my Oregon shirt and White Sox cap? Don't need a blackeye today, thank you kindly."
2:50 pm - Illinois 14, Northwestern 0. Win, and the Illini get a bowl bid. They're playing like it, too. In other news, Stanford 3, Cal 0. Big Game. A Cal win guarantees the Ducks win the Pac-10. Go Cal.
3:07 pm - Illinois 21, Northwestern 7. I am loving this game. I hope that they can figure out more ways to have games at Wrigley. This may not have any importance or impact outside of Chicagoland, but inside, this is cool. And where did this dominant Illini o-line come from?
4:02 pm - Stanford 31, Cal 0. Ouch - sorry Bears. Their schizophrenia continues; after playing Oregon tough, they're getting crushed at home in the Big Game. Barring an historic second half comeback - and this is the Big Game, so I'm not ready to rule anything out yet - California will need a big win against Washington in order to become bowl eligible. If I were the Huskies, I would be very nervous.
Illinois 27, Northwestern 24, Halftime. It's messy, sloppy, bad defense, lots of mistakes. But damn, this game is exciting! In the first half, the two teams have combined for 51 points, 514 total yards, and 5 interceptions. Big Ten football!
4:33 pm - On ESPN.com, there's this little statistic: "The Illinois-Northwestern game featured 35 points in the first quarter alone. It took the Chicago Cubs nine games to get to 35 runs this season." Yes. Because football and baseball are different games.
We're watching The Fifth Element on TV right now. I love this movie.
4:56 pm - Iowa 17, Ohio St. 10. 4th Quarter. Lots of time left.
5:15 pm - How are we supposed to rank the one-loss teams?
#7 Wisconsin: W @ Michigan, 48-28
#6 Stanford: Leading @ California, 48-7, 4th Q
#5 LSU: Trailing vs. Mississippi 23-24, 3rd Q
Just being in the SEC should not give your team an automatic edge in the rankings.
5:45 pm - Speaking of one-loss teams... #9 Ohio State just came back to beat #20 Iowa 20-17. I really like Jim Tressel and his no-nonsense, no drama style. On the other hand, LSU just took a 35-30 lead over Ole Miss. How much do you wanna bet that Les Miles pulls out the win in a much more mad-cap style then Tressel did?
Final: Illinois 48- Northwestern 27. Big game for the Illini, even though it came with NU's starting quarterback hurt. Illinois is now bowl eligible - they could be headed to the Texas Bowl against a Big 12 team, or possibly take one of the Pac-10's unfulfilled bowls, like the Maaco Bowl or the Kraft Hungry Bowl.
2:06 pm - Michigan State is making a furious comeback against Purdue. They lead 35-31 with 4:24 left in the game after a blocked punt and recovering a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown. It's a game of inches.
2:15 pm - Michigan State escapes with a 35-31 win over Purdue, and with Wisconsin's win, they are guaranteed to lead the Big Ten for at least another week. And it was a great game - upset potential, Rose Bowl implications, a comeback, blocked punt, turnovers, and finally a defensive stand to win the game. Is it bad taste to call them the Heart Attack Kids? Probably, yes. Win at Penn State next week, and they'll be going to some BCS bowl, but not necessarily the Rose.
As for Purdue, they've lost their fifth in a row, and are now ineligible for a bowl game. Tough break, Boilermakers.
2:32 pm - Final: Harvard 28, Yale 21. This game was on the Versus Network. I would've watched it if I had known.
2:39 pm - Holy shit! They're playing football in Wrigley Field! Illinois 7, Northwestern 0. "There will be no wind advantage in this game." And I have to watch the game on my laptop, because ABC had Ohio State-Iowa on. In Urbana, Illinois. Douchebags.
Recovery Illinois! Go Illini!
Some friends from work are at this game. I thought about going for a minute, but then was like,"What? Wear my Oregon shirt and White Sox cap? Don't need a blackeye today, thank you kindly."
2:50 pm - Illinois 14, Northwestern 0. Win, and the Illini get a bowl bid. They're playing like it, too. In other news, Stanford 3, Cal 0. Big Game. A Cal win guarantees the Ducks win the Pac-10. Go Cal.
3:07 pm - Illinois 21, Northwestern 7. I am loving this game. I hope that they can figure out more ways to have games at Wrigley. This may not have any importance or impact outside of Chicagoland, but inside, this is cool. And where did this dominant Illini o-line come from?
4:02 pm - Stanford 31, Cal 0. Ouch - sorry Bears. Their schizophrenia continues; after playing Oregon tough, they're getting crushed at home in the Big Game. Barring an historic second half comeback - and this is the Big Game, so I'm not ready to rule anything out yet - California will need a big win against Washington in order to become bowl eligible. If I were the Huskies, I would be very nervous.
Illinois 27, Northwestern 24, Halftime. It's messy, sloppy, bad defense, lots of mistakes. But damn, this game is exciting! In the first half, the two teams have combined for 51 points, 514 total yards, and 5 interceptions. Big Ten football!
4:33 pm - On ESPN.com, there's this little statistic: "The Illinois-Northwestern game featured 35 points in the first quarter alone. It took the Chicago Cubs nine games to get to 35 runs this season." Yes. Because football and baseball are different games.
We're watching The Fifth Element on TV right now. I love this movie.
4:56 pm - Iowa 17, Ohio St. 10. 4th Quarter. Lots of time left.
5:15 pm - How are we supposed to rank the one-loss teams?
#7 Wisconsin: W @ Michigan, 48-28
#6 Stanford: Leading @ California, 48-7, 4th Q
#5 LSU: Trailing vs. Mississippi 23-24, 3rd Q
Just being in the SEC should not give your team an automatic edge in the rankings.
5:45 pm - Speaking of one-loss teams... #9 Ohio State just came back to beat #20 Iowa 20-17. I really like Jim Tressel and his no-nonsense, no drama style. On the other hand, LSU just took a 35-30 lead over Ole Miss. How much do you wanna bet that Les Miles pulls out the win in a much more mad-cap style then Tressel did?
Final: Illinois 48- Northwestern 27. Big game for the Illini, even though it came with NU's starting quarterback hurt. Illinois is now bowl eligible - they could be headed to the Texas Bowl against a Big 12 team, or possibly take one of the Pac-10's unfulfilled bowls, like the Maaco Bowl or the Kraft Hungry Bowl.
College Football Saturday!
12: 50 pm: Dearth. Dearthdearthdearthdearthdearth. Sometimes I just like to say it. Like the word, "smock."
So without any of the top BCS teams playing today, let's focus on the conference races. First, the Big Ten.
As I said, there is currently a three-way tie for first place in the Big Ten between Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State. As of right now, Michigan State has the tie-breaker based on their win over Wisconsin. Wisconsin beat Ohio State, and Ohio State doesn't play Michigan State. But the Spartans are in trouble right now, trailing Purdue 21-13. And what was looking like a blowout in Ann Arbor suddenly got close, with Wisconsin leading 24-14. If the Spartans can't make a comeback, then Wisconsin moves into the lead for the Rose Bowl. But they have to beat Michigan. And in the wings waits Iowa, who has two Big Ten losses, and can get back into the race with some luck and a win today against Ohio State.
Who says that the BCS has made the conference races meaningless? Not I.
1:11 pm: Oh, man. If Purdue holds on to win this game, the sixth grade math teacher where I work is going to give the drama teacher so much grief. It will be epic.
Last week, Wisconsin needed three "Bucky Badgers" to complete all of their push-ups for their 83-20 win over Indiana. Pussies.
Northwestern and Illinois will be kicking off in about an hour for the first football game at Wrigley Field since 1938. And yesterday, the NCAA announced that the east end zone - the one pointing towards the outfield wall and Lake Michigan - is too close to said wall, and therefore unsafe for use. This is after the game has been approved for eight months by Northwestern, the Cubs, the Big Ten, and the city of Chicago. Stewart Mandel asks, "Why did it take until the day before the game to address this? And if it wasn't possible to accommodate said rule, why is the game being played at Wrigley to begin with?" I know why. Because it's Chicago. And there's money involved.
1: 57 pm - The Northern Illinois Huskies just beat Ball State 59-21 to improve to 9-2 on the season. Should the MAC leaders be considered a top 25 team? Probably not. Their two losses are to Iowa State (Big 12, 5-6) and Illinois (Big Ten, 5-5).
So without any of the top BCS teams playing today, let's focus on the conference races. First, the Big Ten.
As I said, there is currently a three-way tie for first place in the Big Ten between Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State. As of right now, Michigan State has the tie-breaker based on their win over Wisconsin. Wisconsin beat Ohio State, and Ohio State doesn't play Michigan State. But the Spartans are in trouble right now, trailing Purdue 21-13. And what was looking like a blowout in Ann Arbor suddenly got close, with Wisconsin leading 24-14. If the Spartans can't make a comeback, then Wisconsin moves into the lead for the Rose Bowl. But they have to beat Michigan. And in the wings waits Iowa, who has two Big Ten losses, and can get back into the race with some luck and a win today against Ohio State.
Who says that the BCS has made the conference races meaningless? Not I.
1:11 pm: Oh, man. If Purdue holds on to win this game, the sixth grade math teacher where I work is going to give the drama teacher so much grief. It will be epic.
Last week, Wisconsin needed three "Bucky Badgers" to complete all of their push-ups for their 83-20 win over Indiana. Pussies.
Northwestern and Illinois will be kicking off in about an hour for the first football game at Wrigley Field since 1938. And yesterday, the NCAA announced that the east end zone - the one pointing towards the outfield wall and Lake Michigan - is too close to said wall, and therefore unsafe for use. This is after the game has been approved for eight months by Northwestern, the Cubs, the Big Ten, and the city of Chicago. Stewart Mandel asks, "Why did it take until the day before the game to address this? And if it wasn't possible to accommodate said rule, why is the game being played at Wrigley to begin with?" I know why. Because it's Chicago. And there's money involved.
1: 57 pm - The Northern Illinois Huskies just beat Ball State 59-21 to improve to 9-2 on the season. Should the MAC leaders be considered a top 25 team? Probably not. Their two losses are to Iowa State (Big 12, 5-6) and Illinois (Big Ten, 5-5).
How Good Is Boise State Really?
"Dearth" is one of my favorite words. It is Old English in its origins, from dierth or deore. It is, itself, a very old word, first used in a recognizable form in the 1400s, and hasn't actually changed much since then. It is related to "dear," in the sense of something being valuable because there is a lack of it.
This week, there is a dearth of good college football games.
The top 3 BCS teams - Oregon, Auburn, and TCU - all have bye weeks this week. No. 4 Boise State (they're 3rd in the AP) crushed the Fresno State Bulldogs last night 51-0. I watched that game last night when I was out at a bar with Robyn and her library friends. At first I did really good. I sat with my back to the TV. I engaged in conversation. I listened. But then the bar started blasting salsa music. And the conversation turned to grad school departmental gossip. And I had another Manhattan. And I found myself craning my neck more and more often to watch the Broncos demolish the Bulldogs on that crazy blue field. (When I turned around, everyone had left the table to go salsa dancing.)
It's impossible to eyeball exactly how good Boise State is based on a game like they played last night. I would say that there were probably 3 plays when Kellen Moore made a pass that just made me go, "Oh my God!" But then there were probably 3 other plays when I said to myself, "Hmmm... Fresno State's defense really can't cover." That's the traditional knock against BSU: sure they're good, but they never really get challenged. However, I think that the WAC is better than a lot of people give it credit for being, and that Boise State may really just be that dominant.
Now, let's be absolutely clear: In a world where there are four undefeated teams at the end of the season, the Pac-10 and SEC champs get in before the WAC and MWC champs. But this season, against the six BCS conferences plus the Mountain West, the WAC is 11-15. That's not good, but it's respectable. This includes Boise's wins against Virginia Tech and Oregon State. It also includes Hawaii's win against Army, Nevada's wins against Cal and BYU. (And Fresno State's win against, um, Cincinnati.) It also includes Hawaii's 49-36 loss to USC, Utah State's 31-24 loss to Oklahoma, and San Jose State's 27-14 loss to Wisconsin. (Who currently leads Michigan 24-0.)
We'll know a lot more after Boise State plays #18 Nevada. But my point is this: If Auburn loses to Alabama, but then turns around to beat South Carolina and win the SEC, there is no way that they should get in to the NC ahead of an undefeated Boise State. The Broncos competition is stiff enough that, when added to their wins against Oregon State and the likely ACC champion Virginia Tech, they would be more deserving than any 1-loss SEC team.
This week, there is a dearth of good college football games.
The top 3 BCS teams - Oregon, Auburn, and TCU - all have bye weeks this week. No. 4 Boise State (they're 3rd in the AP) crushed the Fresno State Bulldogs last night 51-0. I watched that game last night when I was out at a bar with Robyn and her library friends. At first I did really good. I sat with my back to the TV. I engaged in conversation. I listened. But then the bar started blasting salsa music. And the conversation turned to grad school departmental gossip. And I had another Manhattan. And I found myself craning my neck more and more often to watch the Broncos demolish the Bulldogs on that crazy blue field. (When I turned around, everyone had left the table to go salsa dancing.)
It's impossible to eyeball exactly how good Boise State is based on a game like they played last night. I would say that there were probably 3 plays when Kellen Moore made a pass that just made me go, "Oh my God!" But then there were probably 3 other plays when I said to myself, "Hmmm... Fresno State's defense really can't cover." That's the traditional knock against BSU: sure they're good, but they never really get challenged. However, I think that the WAC is better than a lot of people give it credit for being, and that Boise State may really just be that dominant.
Now, let's be absolutely clear: In a world where there are four undefeated teams at the end of the season, the Pac-10 and SEC champs get in before the WAC and MWC champs. But this season, against the six BCS conferences plus the Mountain West, the WAC is 11-15. That's not good, but it's respectable. This includes Boise's wins against Virginia Tech and Oregon State. It also includes Hawaii's win against Army, Nevada's wins against Cal and BYU. (And Fresno State's win against, um, Cincinnati.) It also includes Hawaii's 49-36 loss to USC, Utah State's 31-24 loss to Oklahoma, and San Jose State's 27-14 loss to Wisconsin. (Who currently leads Michigan 24-0.)
We'll know a lot more after Boise State plays #18 Nevada. But my point is this: If Auburn loses to Alabama, but then turns around to beat South Carolina and win the SEC, there is no way that they should get in to the NC ahead of an undefeated Boise State. The Broncos competition is stiff enough that, when added to their wins against Oregon State and the likely ACC champion Virginia Tech, they would be more deserving than any 1-loss SEC team.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Basketball News
Kirby knows how much I hate Allen Iverson. Well, I hate him a little less now. There is something a little sad about him being exiled to Turkey to finish his career. On the other hand, there is some just desserts to it, because he is only the worst player in the history of both baskets and balls. Seriously.
I shouldn't have mentioned Greg Oden the other day. He is going to have microfracture knee surgery this week, and will be out for the entire season. Again. So who is the best center ever for the Trail Blazers? Most people would probably say Bill Walton. I've always been a big fan of Arvydas Sabonis. (And Lithuania, in general.) But you know who was really terrible? Chris Dudley.
Someone I don't feel sorry for is Tony Parker. He's divorcing Eva Longoria. But that doesn't change the fact that he's a millionaire and that the Spurs keep winning. Or that I have to explain to Robyn that, no, she isn't actually playing for Tampa Bay.
I shouldn't have mentioned Greg Oden the other day. He is going to have microfracture knee surgery this week, and will be out for the entire season. Again. So who is the best center ever for the Trail Blazers? Most people would probably say Bill Walton. I've always been a big fan of Arvydas Sabonis. (And Lithuania, in general.) But you know who was really terrible? Chris Dudley.
Someone I don't feel sorry for is Tony Parker. He's divorcing Eva Longoria. But that doesn't change the fact that he's a millionaire and that the Spurs keep winning. Or that I have to explain to Robyn that, no, she isn't actually playing for Tampa Bay.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Liveblogging: Heat versus Suns
6:12 pm - You know what I hate about the Lakers? The fact that nobody shows up to the game on time. Having said that, why the F are the stands two-thirds empty to see the Greatest Team Ever Assembled? (Shame on you, Miami.) And with Steve Nash, there are, I believe, three MVPs on the court right now. Or has Wade only won Finals MVP?
6:34 pm - Phoenix 22, Miami 21. The Suns still have a lot of good players on their team. In addition to Nash, they have Channing Frye, Hedo Turkoglu, and Grant Hill. Maybe it's an old team, but there's still a whole lot of talent on that team.
6:38 pm - Miami 27, Phoenix 24, end of the 1st quarter. Chris Bosh leads Miami with 14 points; is it just me, or has he been the only member of the Heat who has been bringing it every night so far? Also, I don't get those Adidas ads with the annoying little Chinese dude. Those shoes don't make him better at basketball.
Why is the MLS Cup between Colorado and Dallas being played in Toronto?
6:49 pm - Miami 35, Phoenix 29 - Miami has gone on a little bit of a run here with James on the bench. Has anyone ever considered actually playing with either Wade or James coming off the bench?
Wait - Juwan Howard is playing for the Heat? Maybe I want them to win a championship now...
7:01 pm Oooh! Dinner! No time for blogging...
6:34 pm - Phoenix 22, Miami 21. The Suns still have a lot of good players on their team. In addition to Nash, they have Channing Frye, Hedo Turkoglu, and Grant Hill. Maybe it's an old team, but there's still a whole lot of talent on that team.
6:38 pm - Miami 27, Phoenix 24, end of the 1st quarter. Chris Bosh leads Miami with 14 points; is it just me, or has he been the only member of the Heat who has been bringing it every night so far? Also, I don't get those Adidas ads with the annoying little Chinese dude. Those shoes don't make him better at basketball.
Why is the MLS Cup between Colorado and Dallas being played in Toronto?
6:49 pm - Miami 35, Phoenix 29 - Miami has gone on a little bit of a run here with James on the bench. Has anyone ever considered actually playing with either Wade or James coming off the bench?
Wait - Juwan Howard is playing for the Heat? Maybe I want them to win a championship now...
7:01 pm Oooh! Dinner! No time for blogging...
The BCS is Tedious, the Blazers are Clumsy
Careless Blazers Goofing Around with Basketball Shatter Greg Oden into a Thousand Pieces
Tedious BCS Debates Overshadow Great Stories
Raplh Russo thinks that the BCS is a bad system because it makes fans debate whether a victory over San Diego State or Hawaii is more important. I disagree. I think that's what is good about the BCS.
Sources confirmed that after an errant pass from Miller careened off Roy's
fingertips and hit Oden's shoulder, Oden teetered from side to side for a tense
moment—during which unbelieving players found themselves unable to move—before
toppling to the ground just out of reach of a diving Roy.
The team
reportedly stared silently at the broken pieces of Oden for several seconds
until Roy said, "We're dead. We are so dead."
Tedious BCS Debates Overshadow Great Stories
Raplh Russo thinks that the BCS is a bad system because it makes fans debate whether a victory over San Diego State or Hawaii is more important. I disagree. I think that's what is good about the BCS.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Bowl Predictor - Nov. 14
BCS Championship Game - #1 Oregon vs #2 Auburn
Rose Bowl - #5 Wisconsin vs #3 Boise State
Fiesta Bowl - #9 Nebraska vs Pittsburgh
Sugar Bowl - #7 LSU vs #4 TCU
Orange Bowl - #16 Virginia Tech vs #8 Ohio State
Cotton Bowl - #11 Oklahoma State vs #12 Alabama
Capital One Bowl - #10 Michigan State vs #18 South Carolina
Chik-fil-A Bowl - Florida State vs #14 Arkansas
Outback Bowl - #21 Iowa vs Florida
Gator Bowl - Michigan vs Mississippi State
Holiday Bowl - #24 Texas A&M vs #19 Arizona
Sun Bowl - #25 North Carolina State vs California
Insight Bowl - #15 Missouri vs Penn State
Alamo Bowl - #6 Stanford vs #13 Oklahoma
Dallas Football Classic - Northwestern vs Texas Tech
Liberty Bowl - UCF vs Kentucky
Meineke Car Care Bowl - West Virginia vs Maryland
Music City Bowl - North Carolina vs Georgia
Pinstripe Bowl - South Florida vs Baylor
Armed Forces Bowl - Tulsa vs Air Force
Texas Bowl - Illinois vs Kansas State
Champs Sports Bowl - #23 Syracuse vs Miami (FL)
Poinsettia Bowl - #20 Utah vs Navy
New Mexico Bowl - BYU vs #22 Nevada
Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl - Temple vs Iowa State
Humanitarian Bowl - Fresno State vs Northern Illinois
Hawaii Bowl - Hawaii vs Southern Miss
New Orleans Bowl - Troy vs East Carolina
Independence Bowl - San Diego State vs Georgia Tech
Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl - SMU vs Connecticut
Maaco Bowl - UCLA vs Army
Military Bowl - UTEP vs Boston College
GoDaddy.com Bowl - Ohio vs FIU
BBVA Compass Bowl - Louisville vs Miami (OH)
Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl - Arizona State vs Idaho
Rose Bowl - #5 Wisconsin vs #3 Boise State
Fiesta Bowl - #9 Nebraska vs Pittsburgh
Sugar Bowl - #7 LSU vs #4 TCU
Orange Bowl - #16 Virginia Tech vs #8 Ohio State
Cotton Bowl - #11 Oklahoma State vs #12 Alabama
Capital One Bowl - #10 Michigan State vs #18 South Carolina
Chik-fil-A Bowl - Florida State vs #14 Arkansas
Outback Bowl - #21 Iowa vs Florida
Gator Bowl - Michigan vs Mississippi State
Holiday Bowl - #24 Texas A&M vs #19 Arizona
Sun Bowl - #25 North Carolina State vs California
Insight Bowl - #15 Missouri vs Penn State
Alamo Bowl - #6 Stanford vs #13 Oklahoma
Dallas Football Classic - Northwestern vs Texas Tech
Liberty Bowl - UCF vs Kentucky
Meineke Car Care Bowl - West Virginia vs Maryland
Music City Bowl - North Carolina vs Georgia
Pinstripe Bowl - South Florida vs Baylor
Armed Forces Bowl - Tulsa vs Air Force
Texas Bowl - Illinois vs Kansas State
Champs Sports Bowl - #23 Syracuse vs Miami (FL)
Poinsettia Bowl - #20 Utah vs Navy
New Mexico Bowl - BYU vs #22 Nevada
Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl - Temple vs Iowa State
Humanitarian Bowl - Fresno State vs Northern Illinois
Hawaii Bowl - Hawaii vs Southern Miss
New Orleans Bowl - Troy vs East Carolina
Independence Bowl - San Diego State vs Georgia Tech
Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl - SMU vs Connecticut
Maaco Bowl - UCLA vs Army
Military Bowl - UTEP vs Boston College
GoDaddy.com Bowl - Ohio vs FIU
BBVA Compass Bowl - Louisville vs Miami (OH)
Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl - Arizona State vs Idaho
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Whew!
9:50 pm - Whew! A weird end to Oregon's 15-13 win over California; I have never seen the Ducks play to grind out the clock before. But they won, nevertheless, and continue to "control their own destiny." I'm watching the Versus TV postgame show, and the commentator has just said "Cal's defense really stuck it to them tonight." Excuse me? The Ducks won. That's all that matters right now.
The top teams all survive - Oregon, Auburn, and TCU all faced tough challenges tonight, and all three of them trailed at some point during their games. But all three of them won, and most likely will remain 1-2-3 in the BCS tomorrow night. Oregon still has to play Arizona and Oregon State (the best 4-5 team in the country) and Auburn has to play at Alabama and then against South Carolina in the SEC Championship. Neither are guaranteed to win out. And if they don't, both TCU and Boise State will be waiting in the wings.
SEC Championship set - It will be the Auburn Tigers against the South Carolina Gamecocks. South Carolina will be playing for their first ever SEC championship, and congratulations to them. Auburn still has to win at Alabama, but if they do, then they will be playing for the BCS championship game. However, for the first time in years, the SEC champ will not automatically get an invite to the NC game.
Who wants to win the Big East? -Nobody. Despite their loss this week to UConn, 5-4 Pittsburgh still remains in the driver's seat for the Big East championship, which carries with it an automatic BCS birth, most likely this year to the Fiesta Bowl, against the eventual Big 12 champion which, let's say, will be Nebraska. Then again, there are four Big East teams with only 2 losses: Syracuse, South Florida, Connecticut and West Virginia. The whole conference may be decided on Nov. 26, when West Virginia plays at Pitt, but the bottom line is this: Some more deserving team, such as Boise State or Stanford, is going to be shut out of the BCS in lieu of a 9-3 or 8-4 Big East champ.
My tentative 25 -
1) Oregon
2) Auburn
3) Boise State
4) TCU
5) Wisconsin
6) Stanford
7) LSU
8) Ohio State
9) Nebraska
10) Michigan State
11) Oklahoma State
12) Alabama
13) Oklahoma
14) Arkansas
15) Missouri
16) Virginia Tech
17) USC
18) South Carolina
19) Arizona
20) Utah
21) Iowa
22) Nevada
23) Syracuse
24) Texas A&M
25) North Carolina State
The top teams all survive - Oregon, Auburn, and TCU all faced tough challenges tonight, and all three of them trailed at some point during their games. But all three of them won, and most likely will remain 1-2-3 in the BCS tomorrow night. Oregon still has to play Arizona and Oregon State (the best 4-5 team in the country) and Auburn has to play at Alabama and then against South Carolina in the SEC Championship. Neither are guaranteed to win out. And if they don't, both TCU and Boise State will be waiting in the wings.
SEC Championship set - It will be the Auburn Tigers against the South Carolina Gamecocks. South Carolina will be playing for their first ever SEC championship, and congratulations to them. Auburn still has to win at Alabama, but if they do, then they will be playing for the BCS championship game. However, for the first time in years, the SEC champ will not automatically get an invite to the NC game.
Who wants to win the Big East? -Nobody. Despite their loss this week to UConn, 5-4 Pittsburgh still remains in the driver's seat for the Big East championship, which carries with it an automatic BCS birth, most likely this year to the Fiesta Bowl, against the eventual Big 12 champion which, let's say, will be Nebraska. Then again, there are four Big East teams with only 2 losses: Syracuse, South Florida, Connecticut and West Virginia. The whole conference may be decided on Nov. 26, when West Virginia plays at Pitt, but the bottom line is this: Some more deserving team, such as Boise State or Stanford, is going to be shut out of the BCS in lieu of a 9-3 or 8-4 Big East champ.
My tentative 25 -
1) Oregon
2) Auburn
3) Boise State
4) TCU
5) Wisconsin
6) Stanford
7) LSU
8) Ohio State
9) Nebraska
10) Michigan State
11) Oklahoma State
12) Alabama
13) Oklahoma
14) Arkansas
15) Missouri
16) Virginia Tech
17) USC
18) South Carolina
19) Arizona
20) Utah
21) Iowa
22) Nevada
23) Syracuse
24) Texas A&M
25) North Carolina State
Ravenclaw Is The Best House...
6:07 pm - Remember all my talk about all the upsets looming? Well, Ohio State pulled away from Penn State 38-14, TCU is up on San Diego State 40-28, and Auburn is beating Georgia 42-31, and looking for more. (Although SDSU just scored, making it 40-35 in the 4th quarter.)
Unfortunately, Washington State has gone into Corvallis and beaten the Beavers, 31-14. Congratulations to the Cougars, who got their first Pac-10 win since November 22, 2008, and their first Pac-10 road win since November 24, 2007. (Both against the Huskies.)
However, this loss makes it increasingly difficult for the Pac-10 to fill all of their bowl spots. This year the Pac-10 has 6 bowl partners: Rose, Alamo, Holiday, Sun, Maaco, and Kraft Hungry, er, Fight Hunger. As of right now, the conference has only 3 bowl eligible teams: Oregon, Stanford, and Arizona. USC would be the fourth, at 6-3, but they are banned from all bowl games this year. After that, you have Cal needing one more win, Oregon St., Arizona St., and UCLA each needing 2 wins, and Washington needing 3. Here are their remaining schedules:
Cal: vs Oregon, vs Stanford, vs Washington
OSU: vs USC, at Stanford, vs Oregon
ASU: vs Stanford, vs UCLA, at Arizona
UCLA: at Washington, at ASU, vs USC
UW: vs UCLA, at Cal, at WSU
As you can see, not everyone is getting in. The Beavers are in a particularly tight spot, needing to win 2 out of 3 against the Trojans, Cardinal, and Ducks. But I for one just don't see any reasonable way that 3 of those 5 teams get to 6 wins this year.
6:53 pm - Cal 7, Oregon 0. Once again, the Ducks are off to a slow start...
7:58 pm - Once again, everything seems to going wrong for the Ducks. They lead, 8-7.
8:21 pm - South Carolina 22, Florida 7. 3rd Quarter. Twenty minutes from your first ever SEC championship game, Gamecocks. Don't choke.
8:24 pm - 3o seconds into the second half. 15-7 Ducks.
Unfortunately, Washington State has gone into Corvallis and beaten the Beavers, 31-14. Congratulations to the Cougars, who got their first Pac-10 win since November 22, 2008, and their first Pac-10 road win since November 24, 2007. (Both against the Huskies.)
However, this loss makes it increasingly difficult for the Pac-10 to fill all of their bowl spots. This year the Pac-10 has 6 bowl partners: Rose, Alamo, Holiday, Sun, Maaco, and Kraft Hungry, er, Fight Hunger. As of right now, the conference has only 3 bowl eligible teams: Oregon, Stanford, and Arizona. USC would be the fourth, at 6-3, but they are banned from all bowl games this year. After that, you have Cal needing one more win, Oregon St., Arizona St., and UCLA each needing 2 wins, and Washington needing 3. Here are their remaining schedules:
Cal: vs Oregon, vs Stanford, vs Washington
OSU: vs USC, at Stanford, vs Oregon
ASU: vs Stanford, vs UCLA, at Arizona
UCLA: at Washington, at ASU, vs USC
UW: vs UCLA, at Cal, at WSU
As you can see, not everyone is getting in. The Beavers are in a particularly tight spot, needing to win 2 out of 3 against the Trojans, Cardinal, and Ducks. But I for one just don't see any reasonable way that 3 of those 5 teams get to 6 wins this year.
6:53 pm - Cal 7, Oregon 0. Once again, the Ducks are off to a slow start...
7:58 pm - Once again, everything seems to going wrong for the Ducks. They lead, 8-7.
8:21 pm - South Carolina 22, Florida 7. 3rd Quarter. Twenty minutes from your first ever SEC championship game, Gamecocks. Don't choke.
8:24 pm - 3o seconds into the second half. 15-7 Ducks.
Where Are the French Fries I Did Not Ask For?
Continuing liveblogging college football saturday, because Robyn will not talk to me about positives and negatives of the wildcat offense....
4:05 pm - Georgia 21, Auburn 14. A.J. Green has 113 of Georgia's 190 passing yards. They are much, much better with him in the line-up.
4:31 pm - Laundry, check. Lots of potential upsets brewing around the country:
Notre Dame 28, #15 Utah 3, 4th Quarter. This is a huge upset. Also, not good news for TCU and the rest of the Mountain West.
Georgia 21, #2 Auburn 21, Halftime. A long way from being an upset. Still, Georgia is giving Auburn a run for their money.
Penn State 14, #8 Ohio State 3, 3rd Quarter. It looks like the Nittany Lions have turned a corner, and are finally playing like Big Ten contenders.
Washington St. 14, Oregon St. 0, Halftime. The Beavers season will officially achieve nightmare status if they lose this game. But if they go into the Civil War game 5-6, then the Ducks better watch out.
4:59 pm - Whoops. Girlfriend wants to watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Maybe I'll be back when it's time for the Oregon-California game. (As a sidenote: Do you think that Hogwarts is a Top 10 team in the AP quidditch polls?)
4:05 pm - Georgia 21, Auburn 14. A.J. Green has 113 of Georgia's 190 passing yards. They are much, much better with him in the line-up.
4:31 pm - Laundry, check. Lots of potential upsets brewing around the country:
Notre Dame 28, #15 Utah 3, 4th Quarter. This is a huge upset. Also, not good news for TCU and the rest of the Mountain West.
Georgia 21, #2 Auburn 21, Halftime. A long way from being an upset. Still, Georgia is giving Auburn a run for their money.
Penn State 14, #8 Ohio State 3, 3rd Quarter. It looks like the Nittany Lions have turned a corner, and are finally playing like Big Ten contenders.
Washington St. 14, Oregon St. 0, Halftime. The Beavers season will officially achieve nightmare status if they lose this game. But if they go into the Civil War game 5-6, then the Ducks better watch out.
4:59 pm - Whoops. Girlfriend wants to watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Maybe I'll be back when it's time for the Oregon-California game. (As a sidenote: Do you think that Hogwarts is a Top 10 team in the AP quidditch polls?)
I Have a Weekly Column Called "Muse-ings"
2:08 pm - Iowa is trying to make a last minute drive, down 21-17 to Northwestern. How many passes have the Hawkeyes receiving corps dropped on this drive? At least four by my count.
Wisconsin is beating Indiana 83-20 right now. At football. That's a pretty strong case for why they should be the Big Ten's top team.
Final Score: Northwestern 21, Iowa 17. Doesn't look like Iowa's going to the Rose Bowl this year.
Earlier, the ESPN commentator said that "No team in the Big Ten controls it's own destiny." Surely that can't be right?
Minnesota just took a 38-34 lead over Illinois with 16 seconds left. This game is being played right down the street; I can hear the cheers from my living room. Another heartbreak for the Illini?
Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State each have one loss in the Big Ten. Michigan State lost to Iowa, Wisconsin lost to Michigan State, Ohio State lost to Wisconsin. The Buckeyes still have to win at Iowa. But I believe that if all three win out, Michigan State will get the Rose Bowl bid. (Of course, that also means that it's very likely that a No. 7 Wisconsin (11-1) could get shut out of a BCS game.)
Final Score: Minnesota 38, Illinois 34. So sad. Now it's looking tough for the Illini to become bowl eligible: They have to win either against Northwestern at Wrigley Field, or at Fresno State in their last game of the season.
2:30 pm - Notre Dame 14, Utah 3. Whaa--a-a-t?
2:41 pm-Cam Newton and Auburn are taking the field against Georgia. All CBS is talking about are the "allegations" against Newton. I don't care. I feel like, although I may be rooting against Auburn, I am rooting for Newton. No schadenfreude here.
Besides, I think that I really want to see an Oregon-Auburn championship. If it turns out to be Oregon-TCU or Oregon-Boise State, then even the Ducks winning won't shut up the SEC. "Sure, anyone can beat Boise, " they'll say. Even though I would love an Oregon-Boise championship, as it would be awesome to make them not just real rivals but epic rivals, in a way that I think Boise and Eugene always should have been rivals, somebody needs to play the SEC champ and beat them.
2:55 pm - Touchdown, Cam and the Newtonians. Could be a loooooong day to be a Bulldog.
2:59 pm - Penn State's starting QB today is "Matt McGloin." And he is out to slay the mighty dragon that is the Buckeye defense, that has stolen his clan's Big Ten gold and is currently hoarding it in the Lonely Mountain that is Columbus, Ohio. (Yes! Tolkien reference #1!)
And he just threw a touchdown pass.
3:10 pm Georgia 4th and 2 and... Touchdown! (I want the Ducks to take apart this Auburn defense.)
3:31 pm - San Diego St. 14, TCU 0. Georgia 21, Auburn 7. Awww sheeeiiit. I love college football. (In case you were wondering, Auburn is giving up 24.3 points per game. But that includes a 52-3 win versus UL-Monroe and a 65-43 win versus Arkansas.)
Wisconsin is beating Indiana 83-20 right now. At football. That's a pretty strong case for why they should be the Big Ten's top team.
Final Score: Northwestern 21, Iowa 17. Doesn't look like Iowa's going to the Rose Bowl this year.
Earlier, the ESPN commentator said that "No team in the Big Ten controls it's own destiny." Surely that can't be right?
Minnesota just took a 38-34 lead over Illinois with 16 seconds left. This game is being played right down the street; I can hear the cheers from my living room. Another heartbreak for the Illini?
Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State each have one loss in the Big Ten. Michigan State lost to Iowa, Wisconsin lost to Michigan State, Ohio State lost to Wisconsin. The Buckeyes still have to win at Iowa. But I believe that if all three win out, Michigan State will get the Rose Bowl bid. (Of course, that also means that it's very likely that a No. 7 Wisconsin (11-1) could get shut out of a BCS game.)
Final Score: Minnesota 38, Illinois 34. So sad. Now it's looking tough for the Illini to become bowl eligible: They have to win either against Northwestern at Wrigley Field, or at Fresno State in their last game of the season.
2:30 pm - Notre Dame 14, Utah 3. Whaa--a-a-t?
2:41 pm-Cam Newton and Auburn are taking the field against Georgia. All CBS is talking about are the "allegations" against Newton. I don't care. I feel like, although I may be rooting against Auburn, I am rooting for Newton. No schadenfreude here.
Besides, I think that I really want to see an Oregon-Auburn championship. If it turns out to be Oregon-TCU or Oregon-Boise State, then even the Ducks winning won't shut up the SEC. "Sure, anyone can beat Boise, " they'll say. Even though I would love an Oregon-Boise championship, as it would be awesome to make them not just real rivals but epic rivals, in a way that I think Boise and Eugene always should have been rivals, somebody needs to play the SEC champ and beat them.
2:55 pm - Touchdown, Cam and the Newtonians. Could be a loooooong day to be a Bulldog.
2:59 pm - Penn State's starting QB today is "Matt McGloin." And he is out to slay the mighty dragon that is the Buckeye defense, that has stolen his clan's Big Ten gold and is currently hoarding it in the Lonely Mountain that is Columbus, Ohio. (Yes! Tolkien reference #1!)
And he just threw a touchdown pass.
3:10 pm Georgia 4th and 2 and... Touchdown! (I want the Ducks to take apart this Auburn defense.)
3:31 pm - San Diego St. 14, TCU 0. Georgia 21, Auburn 7. Awww sheeeiiit. I love college football. (In case you were wondering, Auburn is giving up 24.3 points per game. But that includes a 52-3 win versus UL-Monroe and a 65-43 win versus Arkansas.)
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Whim and Fancy
The previous post isn't really based on anything, except for my own whim and fancy. As a Ducks' fan, I have been hesitant to say that they will play for the NC; my mantra all along has been "Play for the Rose Bowl." But you can't deny that they've been looking really good the last three weeks, and will play for the NC if they win out. Their last three games are at Cal, vs. Arizona, and at Oregon State. Also, with Arizona losing to Stanford and OSU losing to UCLA this weekend, the Ducks can now lose a game and still clinch the Rose Bowl. Not that I believe they will, but it's still nice to know.
It's sad that no one got to watch last night's TCU-Utah game last night. Everyone knew that Utah was a good team, and they got crushed 47-7 at home by TCU. This game, along with LSU's win over Alabama, pretty much assures us that no 1-loss AQ team (i.e., Oregon, Auburn, LSU, Nebraska, Ohio State) will be able to beat out an undefeated Horned Frogs team. Unfortunately, this pretty much guarantees that Boise State will be locked out of the BCS game once again, as I doubt that anyone would be able to stomach two non-AQ teams in the championship game.
Oregon is the AP's #1 team. But I bet that Vegas would put them as underdogs against Auburn, TCU, and Boise State. It's very likely that the Ducks' spread offense would struggle against a defense as fast as TCU's.
It'll be interesting to see which conferences will be able to fill all of their bowl games and which ones won't. The SEC has an obscene 10 bowl spots for its 12 teams. (assuming that they get a spot in BCS game.) This would mean that Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Georgia will need to find a way to win down the stretch in order to become bowl eligible. Ole Miss probably has the toughest job, needing to win 2 out of 3 against Tennessee, LSU, and Mississippi St. The Pac-10 may also struggle to fill its six bowl spots because of USC's bowl ban. UCLA and Arizona State both need to win 2 out of 3 to become bowl eligible; I give it to UCLA, with games left against Washington, ASU, and then 'SC in the Rose Bowl.
I've got Air Force, Army , and Navy all going to bowl games this year. Has that ever happened before? Also, I have Texas and Notre Dame being left out. That probably won't happen, though, as most bowl games would pick them over more deserving teams because of their huge fan bases.
It's sad that no one got to watch last night's TCU-Utah game last night. Everyone knew that Utah was a good team, and they got crushed 47-7 at home by TCU. This game, along with LSU's win over Alabama, pretty much assures us that no 1-loss AQ team (i.e., Oregon, Auburn, LSU, Nebraska, Ohio State) will be able to beat out an undefeated Horned Frogs team. Unfortunately, this pretty much guarantees that Boise State will be locked out of the BCS game once again, as I doubt that anyone would be able to stomach two non-AQ teams in the championship game.
Oregon is the AP's #1 team. But I bet that Vegas would put them as underdogs against Auburn, TCU, and Boise State. It's very likely that the Ducks' spread offense would struggle against a defense as fast as TCU's.
It'll be interesting to see which conferences will be able to fill all of their bowl games and which ones won't. The SEC has an obscene 10 bowl spots for its 12 teams. (assuming that they get a spot in BCS game.) This would mean that Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Georgia will need to find a way to win down the stretch in order to become bowl eligible. Ole Miss probably has the toughest job, needing to win 2 out of 3 against Tennessee, LSU, and Mississippi St. The Pac-10 may also struggle to fill its six bowl spots because of USC's bowl ban. UCLA and Arizona State both need to win 2 out of 3 to become bowl eligible; I give it to UCLA, with games left against Washington, ASU, and then 'SC in the Rose Bowl.
I've got Air Force, Army , and Navy all going to bowl games this year. Has that ever happened before? Also, I have Texas and Notre Dame being left out. That probably won't happen, though, as most bowl games would pick them over more deserving teams because of their huge fan bases.
Bowl Predictor - Nov. 07
BCS Championship Game - #1 Oregon vs. #2 Auburn
Rose Bowl - #3 TCU vs. #5 Wisconsin
Fiesta Bowl - #7 Nebraska vs. Pittsburgh
Sugar Bowl - #6 LSU vs. #4 Boise State
Orange Bowl - #22 Virginia Tech vs. #8 Ohio State
Cotton Bowl - #10 Oklahoma State vs. #11 Alabama
Capital One Bowl - #13 Michigan State vs. #17 Arkansas
Chik-fil-A Bowl - Florida State vs. #20 Mississippi State
Outback Bowl - #16 Iowa vs. Florida
Gator Bowl - #23 Penn State vs. South Carolina
Holiday Bowl - #15 Arizona vs. #19 Missouri
Sun Bowl - #9 Stanford vs. Miami (FL)
Insight Bowl - Illinois vs. #14 Oklahoma
Alamo Bowl - Kansas State vs. California
Papajohns.com Bowl - Syracuse vs. Georgia
Dallas Football Classic - Baylor vs. Temple
Liberty Bowl - UCF vs. Kentucky
Meineke Car Care Bowl - North Carolina vs. South Florida
Music City Bowl - North Carolina State vs. Mississippi
Pinstripe Bowl - Texas A&M vs. Louisville
Armed Forces Bowl - Houston vs. Air Force
Texas Bowl - Texas Tech vs. Northern Illinois
EagleBank Bowl - West Virginia vs. Tulsa
Champs Sports Bowl - Maryland vs. Michigan
Las Vegas Bowl - #12 Utah vs. Oregon State
Poinsettia Bowl - #24 San Diego State vs. Navy
New Mexico Bowl - #21 Nevada vs. BYU
Humanitarian Bowl - Ohio vs. #25 Hawaii
Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl - Toledo vs. Northwestern
St. Petersburg Bowl - Rutgers vs. UTEP
Hawaii Bowl - Fresno State vs. East Carolina
New Orleans Bowl - Southern Miss vs. Troy
Independence Bowl - Clemson vs. Idaho
GMAC Bowl - Miami (OH) vs. Arkansas State
Kraft Cheese Fight Hunger Bowl - UCLA vs. Army
Rose Bowl - #3 TCU vs. #5 Wisconsin
Fiesta Bowl - #7 Nebraska vs. Pittsburgh
Sugar Bowl - #6 LSU vs. #4 Boise State
Orange Bowl - #22 Virginia Tech vs. #8 Ohio State
Cotton Bowl - #10 Oklahoma State vs. #11 Alabama
Capital One Bowl - #13 Michigan State vs. #17 Arkansas
Chik-fil-A Bowl - Florida State vs. #20 Mississippi State
Outback Bowl - #16 Iowa vs. Florida
Gator Bowl - #23 Penn State vs. South Carolina
Holiday Bowl - #15 Arizona vs. #19 Missouri
Sun Bowl - #9 Stanford vs. Miami (FL)
Insight Bowl - Illinois vs. #14 Oklahoma
Alamo Bowl - Kansas State vs. California
Papajohns.com Bowl - Syracuse vs. Georgia
Dallas Football Classic - Baylor vs. Temple
Liberty Bowl - UCF vs. Kentucky
Meineke Car Care Bowl - North Carolina vs. South Florida
Music City Bowl - North Carolina State vs. Mississippi
Pinstripe Bowl - Texas A&M vs. Louisville
Armed Forces Bowl - Houston vs. Air Force
Texas Bowl - Texas Tech vs. Northern Illinois
EagleBank Bowl - West Virginia vs. Tulsa
Champs Sports Bowl - Maryland vs. Michigan
Las Vegas Bowl - #12 Utah vs. Oregon State
Poinsettia Bowl - #24 San Diego State vs. Navy
New Mexico Bowl - #21 Nevada vs. BYU
Humanitarian Bowl - Ohio vs. #25 Hawaii
Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl - Toledo vs. Northwestern
St. Petersburg Bowl - Rutgers vs. UTEP
Hawaii Bowl - Fresno State vs. East Carolina
New Orleans Bowl - Southern Miss vs. Troy
Independence Bowl - Clemson vs. Idaho
GMAC Bowl - Miami (OH) vs. Arkansas State
Kraft Cheese Fight Hunger Bowl - UCLA vs. Army
Saturday, October 30, 2010
College Football Saturday!
Some quick thoughts before the Log Lady and I go to our Halloween shindig:
1) Auburn 24, Ole Miss 14, 2nd Quarter. On the one hand, if one Duck can pick apart Auburn's defense like this, how could they possibly hope to stop 11 of them? On the other, Auburn has the same ingredients that Ohio State and Boise State had that led them to victories over Oregon: A dominant offense line that can control the tempo and keep the Ducks off the field, and an exceptional quarterback that can make the 3rd-and-long play when he has to.
2) Oregon State 35, Cal 7. Final. Is there a better 3-loss team than the Beavers? Amazingly, they still control their own destiny in the Pac-10; run the table and beat the Ducks in Corvallis, and a 9-3 OSU will be in the Rose Bowl. Conversely, is there a more schizophrenic than the Golden Bears? Their last 4 games: W vs UCLA 35-7, L @ USC 14-48, W vs Arizona St. 50-17, L @ Oregon St. 7-35. Crazy. They'll have to fix this dementia in order to get to a bowl game, though. They have to find a way to win 2 out of 3 against Oregon, Washington, and Stanford in order to become bowl eligible.
1) Auburn 24, Ole Miss 14, 2nd Quarter. On the one hand, if one Duck can pick apart Auburn's defense like this, how could they possibly hope to stop 11 of them? On the other, Auburn has the same ingredients that Ohio State and Boise State had that led them to victories over Oregon: A dominant offense line that can control the tempo and keep the Ducks off the field, and an exceptional quarterback that can make the 3rd-and-long play when he has to.
2) Oregon State 35, Cal 7. Final. Is there a better 3-loss team than the Beavers? Amazingly, they still control their own destiny in the Pac-10; run the table and beat the Ducks in Corvallis, and a 9-3 OSU will be in the Rose Bowl. Conversely, is there a more schizophrenic than the Golden Bears? Their last 4 games: W vs UCLA 35-7, L @ USC 14-48, W vs Arizona St. 50-17, L @ Oregon St. 7-35. Crazy. They'll have to fix this dementia in order to get to a bowl game, though. They have to find a way to win 2 out of 3 against Oregon, Washington, and Stanford in order to become bowl eligible.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Sports are Weird
1) The World Series no one saw coming starts tonight. And, suddenly, San Francisco is a baseball town. And even though it's clear that the NY Times is only sad that the Bronx Bombers aren't in it - even opening their Series preview with that sentiment - they do have a point. I mean, I'm pulling for the Giants. But I must say, I have way more Facebook friends who are Giants fans this week than I did last week.
2) The Miami Heat lost their season opener to Boston last night, 88-80. More importantly, however, Portland beat the Phoenix Suns, 106-92, and are undefeated for the season. Go Blazers!
3) Tennessee coach and crazy person Derek Dooley is in a bit of trouble over the following quote explaining his exasperation with his team's struggles:
2) The Miami Heat lost their season opener to Boston last night, 88-80. More importantly, however, Portland beat the Phoenix Suns, 106-92, and are undefeated for the season. Go Blazers!
3) Tennessee coach and crazy person Derek Dooley is in a bit of trouble over the following quote explaining his exasperation with his team's struggles:
"Right now we're like the Germans in World War II. Here comes the boats, they're coming. You have the binoculars, and it's like, 'Oh, my God, the invasion is coming.' That's what they did, they were in the bunkers. It's coming, they call Rommel -- they can't find Rommel. (Pretending to speak into a radio.) 'What do we do? I'm not doing anything until I get orders.' (Pretends to look through binoculars.) 'Have you gotten Rommel yet?'"A few observations: A) I love that he pantomimes speaking into a radio and looking through binoculars. B) I love how in his analogy his own team is the Wermacht. C) I love how he realizes that he may have said something inappropriate, and then makes his apology to the Germans. D) Can anyone honestly criticize him when perhaps the most popular play in all of American Football is called the "blitz"?
He continued: "I don't want the German people to get upset at me. I'm not attacking them, but that's what happened. You had one group, they weren't worried about what the plan was and orders and all that. When the war hits, things change. You've got to go. "
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Everybody Hates the SEC
Question: Should the SEC Champ automatically qualify for the BCS championship game?
A few weeks ago, I was riding in a car with three University of Illinois graduate students, on our way to the Danville Correctional Facility in Eastern Illinois. We were on our way there to work at our volunteer jobs tutoring inmates at Danville who are working towards earning either their Associate's or Bachelor's degrees. As it were, none of us really knew one another, and so the conversation covered those polite and superficial topics: college majors, grad student politics, the weather... sports. After about twenty minutes of driving through the Illinois plains - plains that were slowly turning into gently wooded hills as we approached the Indiana border - we realized that three of us were quite avid college football fans. Annie* had grown up in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and her family and taught her at an early age how to be fan of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. The Cowboys had long been a doormat of the Big Eight/Big 12 Conference, having only one winning season between 1989 and 2001, including an 0-12-1 campaign in 1991.
The weekend before, UCLA had shocked the world by waltzing into Austin and beating then #7 Texas 34-12.** And I was surprised by how excited Annie was at the Longhorns' loss. But I guess I shouldn't have been; Texas had long tormented Oklahoma State, and had dominated the Big 12 for most of this decade, even having the power to hold the entire conference hostage by threatening to bolt for the Pac-10 over the summer. I asked her how she felt about the upcoming Oklahoma-Texas showdown: surely she would be rooting against her in-state rival? She thought about it for a second, but then said, no, she thought she would rather see mighty Texas fall again.
Riding shotgun in our carpool was Brent, who had gone to Illinois as an undergrad and was now there as a grad student as well. And Brent hated Ohio State. Hated, hated, hated them. This conversation was before the Illini had played the Buckeyes, but I imagine that Brent was none too pleased that Illinois played them tough - they still lost.
Then there was kinda a lull in the conversation. Sure, I rooted against 'SC in all in-conference games, but I was always glad to see them win the Rose Bowl. I couldn't muster nearly half of the vitriol towards the Trojans as Annie could to Texas or Brent Ohio State. There was a pause. Annie complemented Oregon's offense. Another pause.
Then I said, "But boy, do I hate the SEC."
The car erupted in agreement.
It didn't matter if we came from Oregon, Illinois, or Oklahoma. It didn't matter if we were Pac-10, Big Ten, or Big 12. We all hated the SEC. We hated their pompous coaches, their protective schedules, their policy of promising more athletic scholarships than they can provide and then turning away their student-athletes at the last second. We hated their excessive media exposure and their over-representation in the AP poll.*** We hated the fact that they have two "Bulldogs" and two "Tigers." We all hated the SEC.
And now we have a new reason to hate.
In the second week of this year's BCS standings, the Auburn Tigers have leapfrogged both Oregon and Boise State into #1, following their 24-17 victory over the LSU Tigers. This is despite the fact that Auburn began the season ranked 22nd, and that Oregon and Boise State still continue to outrank them in the AP, Coaches, and Harris Polls.**** Auburn's position in the BCS is based almost entirely on their high ranking in the computer polls, which give them an average score of .9800 (out of 1.0000). Meanwhile, the computers have Oregon ranked 8th, behind not only one-loss LSU, but also behind one-loss Oklahoma.
It seems to me that the computers are dedicated to having the SEC champion in the National Championship game. And why not? After all, the last four national champions have all come from the SEC. And, during those four years, the SEC has gone 21-11 in bowl games against other BCS schools (plus the WAC and MWC), for a winning percentage of .656, second only to the Mountain West's record of 10-4, with a .714 winning percentage. By comparison, in those four years the Pac-10 has gone .565, the Big 12 .516, and the Big Ten a lowly .321.
I'm not saying that Auburn doesn't deserve to be the #1 team in the country. In fact, I highly doubt that Oregon's defense could stop Cam Newton, or be able to keep their offense on the field. (Akin to how Terrelle Pryor and the Buckeyes beat them in the Rose Bowl last year.) The simple truth is that I have no way of knowing. The same holds true for Alabama and Mark Ingram. But I don't know anyone in their right mind who would rank the LSU Tigers above the Ducks. Besides, the Tigers have lost a game; the Ducks have not. Therefore, there is no justification for the computers to judge that LSU's SEC schedule is so difficult that they deserve to be ranked higher than the Ducks.
Unfortunately, that's the system that we are stuck with. If the rest of the country - from Stillwater, OK to Champaign, IL to Eugene, OR - wants the SEC to fall, then they're going to need to beat them on the field.
* Names have been changed to protect the innocent.
** A feat that looks a lot less impressive now that Texas has lost to Oklahoma and to, ahem, Iowa State.
*** Of the 60 voters in the AP poll, 15 are from SEC states. 11 are from the Big Ten, 8 from the Big 12, and 6 from the Pac-10.
****Also, what's up with Auburn playing 8 of their 12 games at home this year?
A few weeks ago, I was riding in a car with three University of Illinois graduate students, on our way to the Danville Correctional Facility in Eastern Illinois. We were on our way there to work at our volunteer jobs tutoring inmates at Danville who are working towards earning either their Associate's or Bachelor's degrees. As it were, none of us really knew one another, and so the conversation covered those polite and superficial topics: college majors, grad student politics, the weather... sports. After about twenty minutes of driving through the Illinois plains - plains that were slowly turning into gently wooded hills as we approached the Indiana border - we realized that three of us were quite avid college football fans. Annie* had grown up in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and her family and taught her at an early age how to be fan of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. The Cowboys had long been a doormat of the Big Eight/Big 12 Conference, having only one winning season between 1989 and 2001, including an 0-12-1 campaign in 1991.
The weekend before, UCLA had shocked the world by waltzing into Austin and beating then #7 Texas 34-12.** And I was surprised by how excited Annie was at the Longhorns' loss. But I guess I shouldn't have been; Texas had long tormented Oklahoma State, and had dominated the Big 12 for most of this decade, even having the power to hold the entire conference hostage by threatening to bolt for the Pac-10 over the summer. I asked her how she felt about the upcoming Oklahoma-Texas showdown: surely she would be rooting against her in-state rival? She thought about it for a second, but then said, no, she thought she would rather see mighty Texas fall again.
Riding shotgun in our carpool was Brent, who had gone to Illinois as an undergrad and was now there as a grad student as well. And Brent hated Ohio State. Hated, hated, hated them. This conversation was before the Illini had played the Buckeyes, but I imagine that Brent was none too pleased that Illinois played them tough - they still lost.
Then there was kinda a lull in the conversation. Sure, I rooted against 'SC in all in-conference games, but I was always glad to see them win the Rose Bowl. I couldn't muster nearly half of the vitriol towards the Trojans as Annie could to Texas or Brent Ohio State. There was a pause. Annie complemented Oregon's offense. Another pause.
Then I said, "But boy, do I hate the SEC."
The car erupted in agreement.
It didn't matter if we came from Oregon, Illinois, or Oklahoma. It didn't matter if we were Pac-10, Big Ten, or Big 12. We all hated the SEC. We hated their pompous coaches, their protective schedules, their policy of promising more athletic scholarships than they can provide and then turning away their student-athletes at the last second. We hated their excessive media exposure and their over-representation in the AP poll.*** We hated the fact that they have two "Bulldogs" and two "Tigers." We all hated the SEC.
And now we have a new reason to hate.
In the second week of this year's BCS standings, the Auburn Tigers have leapfrogged both Oregon and Boise State into #1, following their 24-17 victory over the LSU Tigers. This is despite the fact that Auburn began the season ranked 22nd, and that Oregon and Boise State still continue to outrank them in the AP, Coaches, and Harris Polls.**** Auburn's position in the BCS is based almost entirely on their high ranking in the computer polls, which give them an average score of .9800 (out of 1.0000). Meanwhile, the computers have Oregon ranked 8th, behind not only one-loss LSU, but also behind one-loss Oklahoma.
It seems to me that the computers are dedicated to having the SEC champion in the National Championship game. And why not? After all, the last four national champions have all come from the SEC. And, during those four years, the SEC has gone 21-11 in bowl games against other BCS schools (plus the WAC and MWC), for a winning percentage of .656, second only to the Mountain West's record of 10-4, with a .714 winning percentage. By comparison, in those four years the Pac-10 has gone .565, the Big 12 .516, and the Big Ten a lowly .321.
I'm not saying that Auburn doesn't deserve to be the #1 team in the country. In fact, I highly doubt that Oregon's defense could stop Cam Newton, or be able to keep their offense on the field. (Akin to how Terrelle Pryor and the Buckeyes beat them in the Rose Bowl last year.) The simple truth is that I have no way of knowing. The same holds true for Alabama and Mark Ingram. But I don't know anyone in their right mind who would rank the LSU Tigers above the Ducks. Besides, the Tigers have lost a game; the Ducks have not. Therefore, there is no justification for the computers to judge that LSU's SEC schedule is so difficult that they deserve to be ranked higher than the Ducks.
Unfortunately, that's the system that we are stuck with. If the rest of the country - from Stillwater, OK to Champaign, IL to Eugene, OR - wants the SEC to fall, then they're going to need to beat them on the field.
* Names have been changed to protect the innocent.
** A feat that looks a lot less impressive now that Texas has lost to Oklahoma and to, ahem, Iowa State.
*** Of the 60 voters in the AP poll, 15 are from SEC states. 11 are from the Big Ten, 8 from the Big 12, and 6 from the Pac-10.
****Also, what's up with Auburn playing 8 of their 12 games at home this year?
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Announcing the Pac-12
On the eve of #1/2 Oregon vs. UCLA...
The Pac-12 has announced it's new divisions:
North: Washington, WSU, Oregon, OSU, Cal, Stanford
South: UCLA, USC, Arizona, ASU, Colorado, Utah
Congrats, Utah and Colorado. You are now rivals.
The Pac-12 has announced it's new divisions:
North: Washington, WSU, Oregon, OSU, Cal, Stanford
South: UCLA, USC, Arizona, ASU, Colorado, Utah
Congrats, Utah and Colorado. You are now rivals.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
There's A New #1...
It's an historic day to be a Duck.
For the first time in history, Oregon is the No. 1 ranked team in the AP Poll. I think that it says something about the dubiousness of the Poll system when the Ducks are able to become #1 by staying home and doing nothing while Ohio State loses to Wisconsin 31-18. But never look a gift horse in the mouth. Also, it would be the height of hypocrisy if I didn't add that, last night, I was at a bar in Champaign, Illinois, jumping and hooting and shouting at the television screen during the 4th quarter of the Ohio St.-Wisconsin game. So it's not like it doesn't matter to me, as a Ducks fan, that the Ducks are number one, but, as Chip Kelly said, "Whether we're No. 1 in the country or 101 it won't affect how we prepare."
Even though the Ducks are No. 1 in the AP Poll, chances are that they'll be 2 in the BCS rankings that are going to be released later tonight, behind Boise State*. (I would vote for the Broncos #1, too.) And they still have by far the toughest remaining schedule of any of the top contenders, with USC, Cal, Arizona, and Oregon State all looming. But they now can be officially considered as favorites to reach the BCS Championship in January. (But don't look past UCLA!)
* Surprisingly, they're #2 behind Oklahoma. Boise State is #3.
For the first time in history, Oregon is the No. 1 ranked team in the AP Poll. I think that it says something about the dubiousness of the Poll system when the Ducks are able to become #1 by staying home and doing nothing while Ohio State loses to Wisconsin 31-18. But never look a gift horse in the mouth. Also, it would be the height of hypocrisy if I didn't add that, last night, I was at a bar in Champaign, Illinois, jumping and hooting and shouting at the television screen during the 4th quarter of the Ohio St.-Wisconsin game. So it's not like it doesn't matter to me, as a Ducks fan, that the Ducks are number one, but, as Chip Kelly said, "Whether we're No. 1 in the country or 101 it won't affect how we prepare."
Even though the Ducks are No. 1 in the AP Poll, chances are that they'll be 2 in the BCS rankings that are going to be released later tonight, behind Boise State*. (I would vote for the Broncos #1, too.) And they still have by far the toughest remaining schedule of any of the top contenders, with USC, Cal, Arizona, and Oregon State all looming. But they now can be officially considered as favorites to reach the BCS Championship in January. (But don't look past UCLA!)
* Surprisingly, they're #2 behind Oklahoma. Boise State is #3.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Poll Watching
Here is this week's AP poll:
1) Ohio State
2) Oregon
3) Boise State
4) TCU
5) Nebraska
6) Oklahoma
7) Auburn
8) Alabama
9) LSU
10) South Carolina
11) Utah
12) Arkansas
13) Michigan State
14) Stanford
15) Iowa
16) Florida State
17) Arizona
18) Wisconsin
19) Nevada
20) Oklahoma State
21) Missouri
22) Florida
23) Air Force
24) Oregon State
25) West Virginia
Hey, do you remember that game LAST WEEK when South Carolina beat Alabama 35-21? Or how about that game three weeks ago when Arizona beat Iowa 34-27?
It's carelessness like this that makes fans angry at the AP (let alone the Coaches) Poll. We invest our time and energy into this sport. It shouldn't be too much to ask for the Press to do the same.
Here's my (pretend) ballot:
1) Ohio State
2) Boise State
3) Oregon
4) TCU
5) Oklahoma
6) Nebraska
7) Auburn
8) Utah
9) LSU
10) South Carolina
11) Alabama
12) Arkansas
13) Stanford
14) Michigan State
15) Arizona
16) Florida State
17) Missouri
18) Iowa
19) Oklahoma State
20) Wisconsin
21) Nevada
22) North Carolina State
23) Air Force
24) West Virginia
25) Michigan
1) Ohio State
2) Oregon
3) Boise State
4) TCU
5) Nebraska
6) Oklahoma
7) Auburn
8) Alabama
9) LSU
10) South Carolina
11) Utah
12) Arkansas
13) Michigan State
14) Stanford
15) Iowa
16) Florida State
17) Arizona
18) Wisconsin
19) Nevada
20) Oklahoma State
21) Missouri
22) Florida
23) Air Force
24) Oregon State
25) West Virginia
Hey, do you remember that game LAST WEEK when South Carolina beat Alabama 35-21? Or how about that game three weeks ago when Arizona beat Iowa 34-27?
It's carelessness like this that makes fans angry at the AP (let alone the Coaches) Poll. We invest our time and energy into this sport. It shouldn't be too much to ask for the Press to do the same.
Here's my (pretend) ballot:
1) Ohio State
2) Boise State
3) Oregon
4) TCU
5) Oklahoma
6) Nebraska
7) Auburn
8) Utah
9) LSU
10) South Carolina
11) Alabama
12) Arkansas
13) Stanford
14) Michigan State
15) Arizona
16) Florida State
17) Missouri
18) Iowa
19) Oklahoma State
20) Wisconsin
21) Nevada
22) North Carolina State
23) Air Force
24) West Virginia
25) Michigan
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Who Has The Clearest Road to the BCS Championship?
1) Ohio State - The Buckeyes will probably have their most difficult test of the rest of the year this Saturday at #18 Wisconsin. After that, they should get two easy wins against Minnesota and Purdue, followed by a home game against Penn State that is suddenly looking a lot less vital after Penn State's home loss to Illinois. In all likelihood, the Big Ten will be decided on Nov. 20, when Ohio State travels to #15 Iowa. However, the Hawkeyes will need to be perfect going into that game in order for it to have major BCS implications. And the bottom line is that, aside from whoever is the eventual SEC champ, Ohio State has the best chance of making it to the National Championship with one loss.
2) Oklahoma - No one's road to the National Championship game is easy. But the Sooners have already passed their toughest challenges of the year, with impressive wins over Florida State and Texas. They're at #21 Missouri on Oct. 23, and finish their year at #20 Oklahoma State. Even though both of those teams are undefeated right now, the Sooners should still be heavy favorites in both of those games. It is very possible that UO will be undefeated going into the Big 12 Championship, and a 13-0 Oklahoma team should be a lock for the National Championship. Emphasis on "should".
3) Nebraska - The only difference between Nebraska and Oklahoma right now is that the Sooners have already beaten Texas, whereas Nebraska will get that chance this weekend. That starts a tough - although not brutal - stretch for the Cornhuskers when they play at Oklahoma State and host Missouri. If they survive undefeated, a Big 12 title match with Oklahoma would be a de facto national semifinal. Lose, however, and odds are they'll be playing for the rights to the Fiesta Bowl, and the Fiesta Bowl alone.
4) Oregon - The good news for the #2 Ducks: Win and you're in. The bad news: "Winning" entails games at USC (Oct. 30), at Cal (Nov. 13), and at Oregon State (Dec. 04). The bad news, part 2: They'll probably have to run the table in order to have a shot at the National Championship. Even though the Pac-10 is probably the deepest conference in the nation this year, voters tend to not give the Pac-10 champ the benefit of the doubt when it comes time for selecting the BCS championships. A one-loss Ohio State or Oklahoma would most likely, get the nod before the Ducks, let alone the SEC champ.
5) Boise State - Of course the Broncos absolutely must win out in order to have a chance at the Championship game. But that's not going to be a problem for them, a November 26 trip to #19 Nevada notwithstanding. They'll be spending a lot of this year rooting for the other top teams in the country to lose. In a way, Boise State may have benefited the most from Alabama's loss to South Carolina. They'll still need at least three of the four teams ahead of them to lose at least once, and probably some more havoc in the SEC. Nevertheless, Boise State remains in a better position now for making it to the National Championship than they ever have before.
SEC Champ .... Nobody? South Carolina's 35-21 win over Alabama on Saturday turned the SEC on it's head. Even though the SEC is still the toughest conference in football, it's perceived weakness this year means that it's champion will not get a free pass to the BCS game. The conference's problem seems to be that no team has a clear path to the SEC title game with one or fewer losses. Auburn has Arkansas, LSU, and Alabama. South Carolina has Arkansas and Florida (and Clemson!). LSU has Auburn, Alabama, and Arkansas. And so on, and so forth. It's like football roulette. I'm not saying that we won't see an SEC team on the field in Glendale on January 10. But in a down year for the SEC, and with Boise State and TCU set to hold voters' feet to the fire, whoever wins in Atlanta this year will not automatically be booking their flights to Arizona.
2) Oklahoma - No one's road to the National Championship game is easy. But the Sooners have already passed their toughest challenges of the year, with impressive wins over Florida State and Texas. They're at #21 Missouri on Oct. 23, and finish their year at #20 Oklahoma State. Even though both of those teams are undefeated right now, the Sooners should still be heavy favorites in both of those games. It is very possible that UO will be undefeated going into the Big 12 Championship, and a 13-0 Oklahoma team should be a lock for the National Championship. Emphasis on "should".
3) Nebraska - The only difference between Nebraska and Oklahoma right now is that the Sooners have already beaten Texas, whereas Nebraska will get that chance this weekend. That starts a tough - although not brutal - stretch for the Cornhuskers when they play at Oklahoma State and host Missouri. If they survive undefeated, a Big 12 title match with Oklahoma would be a de facto national semifinal. Lose, however, and odds are they'll be playing for the rights to the Fiesta Bowl, and the Fiesta Bowl alone.
4) Oregon - The good news for the #2 Ducks: Win and you're in. The bad news: "Winning" entails games at USC (Oct. 30), at Cal (Nov. 13), and at Oregon State (Dec. 04). The bad news, part 2: They'll probably have to run the table in order to have a shot at the National Championship. Even though the Pac-10 is probably the deepest conference in the nation this year, voters tend to not give the Pac-10 champ the benefit of the doubt when it comes time for selecting the BCS championships. A one-loss Ohio State or Oklahoma would most likely, get the nod before the Ducks, let alone the SEC champ.
5) Boise State - Of course the Broncos absolutely must win out in order to have a chance at the Championship game. But that's not going to be a problem for them, a November 26 trip to #19 Nevada notwithstanding. They'll be spending a lot of this year rooting for the other top teams in the country to lose. In a way, Boise State may have benefited the most from Alabama's loss to South Carolina. They'll still need at least three of the four teams ahead of them to lose at least once, and probably some more havoc in the SEC. Nevertheless, Boise State remains in a better position now for making it to the National Championship than they ever have before.
SEC Champ .... Nobody? South Carolina's 35-21 win over Alabama on Saturday turned the SEC on it's head. Even though the SEC is still the toughest conference in football, it's perceived weakness this year means that it's champion will not get a free pass to the BCS game. The conference's problem seems to be that no team has a clear path to the SEC title game with one or fewer losses. Auburn has Arkansas, LSU, and Alabama. South Carolina has Arkansas and Florida (and Clemson!). LSU has Auburn, Alabama, and Arkansas. And so on, and so forth. It's like football roulette. I'm not saying that we won't see an SEC team on the field in Glendale on January 10. But in a down year for the SEC, and with Boise State and TCU set to hold voters' feet to the fire, whoever wins in Atlanta this year will not automatically be booking their flights to Arizona.
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