NCAA Football Blog Headlines
Anyone else notice how the commenting system starts to lag after the posts get over 100? It appears to be order O(N^2), meaning it gets worse faster than the growth in the number of comments.
So, due to the explosive growth oflast night’s thread , I offer a new, faster thread.
What should USC be rated this week? I think about #20, but they will end up just outside the top 10.
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NCAA Football Blog Headlines
Texas A&M got its first win of the Big 12 season Saturday with a 49-35 win over Iowa State in Ames. Now, the Aggies are looking to start a winning streak as they prepare to host Colorado at Kyle Field Saturday at 1 p.m. Click here to see what A&M head coach Mike Sherman had to say about the ISU game, Colorado and the latest on injuries, Jerrod Johnson, the McCoys and more
NCAA Football Blog Headlines
On Sunday South Alabama’s first ever recruiting class just got a little bit bigger. Limebric Windham a wide receiver out of Irvington (Ala.) Alma Bryant pulled the trigger for the fledgling program over offers from other programs such as Arkansas State and Marshall
Wide receiver Carvin Powell continues to hold a handful of scholarships. The Chesapeake (Va.) Great Bridge prospect took one unofficial recently and plans to head on another very soo
NCAA Football Blog Headlines
With 9 potential BCS busters still lurking around one may ask what are the chances that 2 teams from outside the chosen leagues get in during the same year? While the rules only grant one guaranteed slot to the outsiders under certain situations, any team in the top 14 and 9 wins would be eligible for an at large bid.
Lets get one thing straight. No way is a BCS non AQ conference member getting the nod over an eligible BCS AQ conference member. This scenario considers the possibility that a second BCS non AQ conference member is the only eligible team left for the final BCS Bowl slot. While not the first time this has been brought up here at Fanblogs, the dominoes have fallen very well so far this year. Let us consider what is needed from various BCS factions.
BCS non AQ conference teams
They simply need to get 2 teams into the top 14. Most likely this would be one from the MWC and one from the WAC, but 2 MWC teams or a MWC team and Tulsa would not be surprising. This part is not unprecedented. 2004 saw both Utah and Boise State in the top 14. Without this the rest is meaningless.
SEC and Big 12
One requirement is that two BCS AQ conferences dominate the top 14. Since each can only send 2 teams to the BCS, each spot held by one of these teams is one less for the other BCS AQ conferences. These two conferences have done their part. If a team from these conferences is in the 15-25 range in the standings it is best for them to win. GO Vandy! GO Kansas! Go Oklahoma State!
Big 10+1 & Notre Dame
This section is where the biggest obstacle presents itself. First, Notre Dame needs 2 more losses to keep them from the top 14 and spoiling the situation. Second, the Big 10+1 needs to beat themselves out of the top 14. One team can be left standing their as long as they are the conference champion.
Penn State would need 3 losses to finish them. Wisconsin and Ohio State needs 2 more losses while Michigan State, Northwestern, Illinois and Michigan are done with a single additional loss. This is conservative and less losses may accomplish the job. Since they all, mostly, still play each other the odds are not overwhelming. One team can be left standing their as long as they are the conference champion.
PAC 10
The only other real threat is the PAC 10. The PAC 10 has 2 teams in the top 25, USC and Oregon. These teams play each other and one will win. If USC wins, job done. If Oregon wins then either Oregon or USC need to lose another conference game and the other emerge as the conference champion. California and Oregon State need another loss to keep them out as well.
Big East
This conference only has one way to ruin the situation. If UCONN runs the table and USF’s only loss comes to UCONN they would have two teams in the top 14. This might be the one situation where a BCS non AQ team might be able to get picked over a BCS AQ team.
ACC
The ACC has no way of getting 2 teams into the top 14. They will be lucky to get one there.
Double Edge Sword
While the BCS AQ conferences knock each other around the standings in their conference games, the BCS non AQ conferences could end up doing the same and eliminate the possibility of two BCS Bowls outright.
While certainly less likely than getting one team into a BCS Bowl, this is far from unimaginable at this time.
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Saturday, the Central Michigan Chippewas notched another closed MAC victory. This time, it was a 24-23 nail biter against the Toledo Rockets. The game was in doubt all the way up until the clock read all zeroes. Here is what some of the key members of the Chippewa football program had to say afterward
NCAA Football Blog Headlines
Jerry at The Joe Cribbs Car Washimplores Auburn fans not to boo the Tigers this weekend in their game against Arkansas.
It is my personal belief that those “fans” who boo should have their season tickets given away to orphans and their Auburn gear burned in a giant furnace to keep the season-ticket holding orphans warm, but as this is not realistic I must simply ask you to hold your tongue if–or more likely when–our Tigers struggle on Saturday.
Of course, there are two schools of thought on this issue that I will summarize woefully herein:
1 – The Boo Birds – You bought the ticket. You bought the gear. You’ve given your time, passion, and a fair degree of cash to support your team. With so much invested, you have the right to voice your displeasure.
2 – The Idealists – These kids are giving their heart and souls to the school, often at great sacrifice to their health. The deserve only your support, even when the circumstances they must fight through are less than appealing.
All this begs the question – is it OK to boo your own team?
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Tennessee again could not find success against a rival school as the Vols fell 29-9 to second-ranked Alabama Saturday night at Neyland Stadium. In so doing, the Vols fell to a very disappointing 3-5 on the season. We take a final look back at Tennessee’s second straight loss to the Tide with the Monday Morning Grade Card.
NCAA Football Blog Headlines
Jerry at The Joe Cribbs Car Washimplores Auburn fans not to boo the Tigers this weekend in their game against Arkansas.
It is my personal belief that those “fans” who boo should have their season tickets given away to orphans and their Auburn gear burned in a giant furnace to keep the season-ticket holding orphans warm, but as this is not realistic I must simply ask you to hold your tongue if–or more likely when–our Tigers struggle on Saturday.
Of course, there are two schools of thought on this issue that I will summarize woefully herein:
1 – The Boo Birds – You bought the ticket. You bought the gear. You’ve given your time, passion, and a fair degree of cash to support your team. With so much invested, you have the right to voice your displeasure.
2 – The Idealists – These kids are giving their heart and souls to the school, often at great sacrifice to their health. The deserve only your support, even when the circumstances they must fight through are less than appealing.
All this begs the question – is it OK to boo your own team?
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It was ugly one in the Superdome for the Wave. But if you have the guts to re-live it, here is a live blog from Scott Kushner who was reporting live from the press box on Poydras Stree
NCAA Football Blog Headlines
Back in July, I raised the question -is Michigan’s bowl streak in jeopardy?
Michigan holds the current mark for the consecutive bowl game appearances with 33 straight bowl games. (The Husker fans in the crowd would be upset if I didn’t mention that the record is held by Nebraska at 35 straight bowl games.)
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So… from the looks of things, the streak should be safe, but it’s not a certainty by any means. Michigan has a lot of talent, but no one can accurately predict just how quickly the team will gel. A couple of turnovers or breakdowns could turn a game I perceive to be a W into a loss.
If UM fails to make a bowl game this season — which is certainly a possibility — then the streak would likely pass to Florida State, who has an active streak of 26 straight bowl games.
So… while Rich Rod is trying to set a course for the future, he better watch his six. I know RR doesn’t want to be the coach that snapped the streak.
We all kind of had a laugh & a chuckle, deciding it was best to have a little faith in Rich Rodriguez.
Fast forward three months andCBS Sportsline is catching up to our little chat from July .
Rich Rodriguez’s debut season in Ann Arbor started shaky with a loss to Utah, looked worse after blowout losses at Notre Dame and to Illinois before sinking to new lows on Saturday because of a 13-10 loss to little-regarded Toledo (2-4).
Michigan (2-4) has its worst six-game record since 1967 — two seasons before Bo Schembechler took over — and its streak of playing in 33 consecutive bowls is looking as if it’s due to end.
“We can’t go anywhere but up — obviously,” cornerback Morgan Trent said.
Well, the Wolverines could continue to tumble. Michigan plays at No. 3 Penn State on Saturday and hosts No. 20 Michigan State next, hoping to avoid a fourth loss this season at home.
Michigan needs four more wins to be bowl eligible. Let’s look:
@ #3 Penn State
#20 MICHIGAN STATE
@ Purdue
@ Minnesota (unranked but getting votes)
Northwestern
@ #12 Ohio State
Now… I’m not the smartest football mind in the room, but I don’t see four wins. Anybody?
So… I ask you again… is Michigan’s bowl streak in jeopardy?
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NCAA Football Blog Headlines
VIDEO: RedRaiderSports.com publishers Chris Level and Robert Giovannetti discuss the Red Raiders’ big win over the Jayhawks. What did it mean? How does it set things up for the Texas game? We break it all down
NCAA Football Blog Headlines
The nation wrote off Ohio State six weeks ago. Joe Paterno was written off even earlier than that. Both have managed to come back strong, writes Ivan Maisel.
Visit ESPN.com for the complete story.
Things are getting ugly for Tommy Bowden in Clemson.
One of the biggest Bowden backers, Mickey Plyler of Tigernet and South Carolina’s sports radio 104.9 FM, hascalled for an end to the Tommy Bowden experiment.
However, this is a different time and this is a different place. My opinion might not be worth anything and I am not trying to convince you to change your mind no matter what you think on this subject. But I have concluded that now is the time to make a change.
I am tired of a divided Clemson nation. I am ready to be reunited. I just can’t see how he can escape this one. It is about to get really bad around here. I think it will be Hatfield bad. The feeling I get is that people are ticked and are not going to take it anymore.
Clemson has been more than fair to Tommy Bowden. He has had nine plus years to win a title and he may win one this year but I have lost all confidence in that happening. He may not lose again this year and go on to win multiple championships. I would love to be wrong but I can’t see that happening.
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But, Clemson fans have given Bowden nine and a half years. They have been more than fair and he has had more than enough time.
Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley once fired a coach in mid-season and rationalized it by saying, “What should be done eventually, must be done immediately.” Foley fired his great friend Ron Zook and hired Urban Meyer.
On Sunday night I made follow up calls to several coaches and informed them of my thoughts and none of them thought it was a bad idea.
So here is my opinion of what Terry Don Phillips should do:
1.Inform Tommy Bowden today that he has been released as the head coach.
2.Name Dabo Swinney as the interim head coach.
Plyler goes on to say that — in his fairly educated opinion — AD Terry Don Phillips does not believe in Bowden and he should let Bowden go mid-season to give Dabo Swinney a shot at leading the Tigers before the start of next season.
In my opinion – and this is just my opinion – the Clemson fans have been very patient with Bowden. The CU nation clearly expects a national championship contender.
Whether that is a fair expectation or not, Tommy Bowden has had almost ten years to get the Tigers to the mountain top. In that time, he has failed to win even a share of an ACC division, let alone a conference or national championship.
Bowden is a good man and a good coach, but he has failed to live up to Clemson’s expectations. Maybe it best for the Tigers to move on.
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NCAA Football Blog Headlines
While I have expounded on MWC Expansion, more than once, these were simply my thoughts, with little bearing on actual changes. I even recently shot another report of the idea down thinking it was silliness. It did come from the Idaho Statesman, which is ready to explode once the news of Boise State’s upgrade to the MWC is complete. (Notice also the change of perspective I have had since merely a year ago.) That report was quickly squashed by the Deseret News, a Salt Lake news paper partially owned by the LDS church, which fully owns BYU.
What would it take for the MWC to consider expanding? I can’t find the link but I remember a statement that, regarding adding Boise State and Fresno State, they would need to add two bowl games or BCS automatic qualifications. Boise has already brought one, and strong BCS credentials.
Interestingly, this C-USA message board is indicating reports that:
The MWC Commissioner gave a radio interview in Boise while finalizing the Humanitarian Bowl agreement and indicated that the MWC Presidents are open to revisiting the expansion questions. For a commissioner to go public on something like this, there has to be something to it. This is, without question, a new development.
And this perspective:
So, if expansion stops at BSU, then this is a positive development for CUSA. Like PAC, I don’t see MWC going beyond 10 teams because everyone wants to play BYU (and probably Utah) just like northern PAC schools want to play USC and UCLA each year so they can boost their season ticket sales and for recruiting purposes.
This radio address is echoed by that same Idaho paper mentioned above.
Meanwhile, Thompson told “Idaho Sports Talk” that Mountain West presidents have discussed expansion for the first time since selecting TCU over Boise State in January 2004 to create a nine-team league.
However, a Mountain West spokesman told the Idaho Statesman that expansion is “not an agenda item at this time.”
Now that same Deseret News posts this article.
That’s right, the MWC needs to snatch up the University of Tulsa as fast as it can.
You thought I was talking about Boise State?
I actually like Boise State and have been a proponent of the MWC adding the school in the past, despite that ghastly blue turf and an arena named after Taco Bell.
The MWC schedules have been fouled up ever since TCU came in the league, and schools could save a lot of money if they started playing two games the same weekend on the same trip, rather than making a bunch of single-game trips as they do now. Basketball could go back to a Thursday-Saturday schedule, rather than have all those Tuesday and Wednesday games.
Tulsa was ranked a Tier 1 school, 83rd in the country, ahead of every MWC school. BYU and TCU were the highest-ranked MWC schools, in a tie for 113th, just ahead of Colorado State and Utah. Boise State didn’t even make the list of Tier 3 and Tier 4 schools (UNLV and San Diego State were in the latter category).
Not exactly a flat rebuttal to expansion talks, nor a Texas team as feared by the C-USA boards. It could be much worse for C-USA than losing a Texas School. A bigger question is whether Tulsa would leave C-USA for the MWC. The MWC edge in football is less when other sports are considered.
Nothing is official, but rumors are in the wind. Everywhere Craig Thompson turns this question arises., even when the topic is the MWC’s success in its short 10 year lifespan, equal to the lifespan of the BCS.
Is a MWC expansion on the horizon? Are Boise State, Fresno State and Tulsa lined up to fill a 12 team conference?
I can only hope.
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New and notable opinions from the blogs & print:
Are the Fighting Irish BCS-bound?
North Carolina will finish no worse than 9-3.
Has the Pac10 missed the boat on expansion?
Arizona (ARIZONA?!?!?!?!) sits atop the Pac10, but the real test lies ahead.
The Razorbacks lack the heart they had when HDN was on the sidelines.
Georgia had better be ready for Tennessee.
Your next SEC East Champs? Vandy.
Where does Auburn turn now that they have lost to Vandy? Maybe it’s time for a trip to Cracker Barrel.
The Heisman may come down to an Oklahoma – Missouri matchup. (And if it does, put me in the Bradford camp.)
It’s Texas – OU week, and both teams are ranked in the top five. Historically, that has not been a good sign for the Longhorns.
Rumors are spreading at Penn State after JoPa spent another game in the press box and appeared to have trouble with his balance in his press conference. Showing up in unmatched shoes didn’t help his case, either.
FSU has three sophomores and two true freshman starting on the offensive line – and they won the game for the Noles against Miami.
Finally, Army no longer holds the nation’s longest losing streak.
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