College Football...

Hey all, Kizmet started the NFL thread so hopefully this will be the college football thread. Let's see some predictions.

I predict that for 2008 to 2009

Another SEC BCS championship win.

A tough, tough Florida Gators team where Tebow gets recognized as the real deal and not a flash in the pan. Possible '08 or '09 champs here.

Georgia being a bit more hype than substance but still tougher than a coffin nail. Possible BCS except they really need to beat the Auburn, Florida and LSU defenses. Easier said than done.

A surprising performance from LSU, Sugar Bowl at the least, possible BCS championship if the quarterback settles down. The offensive line looks unstoppable.

A weak, weak year for Notre Dame. What year isn't right? But this time they'll lose most of their stacked non-conference schedule.

I predict strong conference performances by Ohio State only to be shattered in dare I say....a possible third BCS title game? One can only hope not.

A better Michigan than we saw last year. That was dismal.

A USC with a chip on their collective shoulders and something to prove. Number #1 right now seems a bit pretentious on the BCS rankings.

Some run and gun surprises for the highlight reel from Texas Tech.

Some typical Big 12 football from Texas.

West Virginia, great conference play but if they via for the BCS had better pray to all their gods that it isn't going to be Georgia, USC, LSU or Florida on the other side of that line of scrimmage.

Penn State will have a better year than last year.

Kansas will not repeat whatever the heck it was that happened last year.

And that's it. Anyone?

 

The Sooners will lose a close game to Texas in the Red River Rivalry. They will rebound to win the Big 12 but will get blown out in their BCS bowl game.

Joe Pa will go out with a bang and take Penn State to a 11-1 and a bowl win with the only loss being to Ohio State on the road.

The SEC will knock each other off and will not have a team in the BCS championship game.

 

The biggest problem that I have with college football is that there's so many teams. You can't track them all (at least I can't). In fact, I spend most of my Saturdays working and so I don't even get to watch many games. On the other hand, there's nothing much better than packing yourself off to some little college and watching a game on a crispy autumn weekend.

There's lots of divisions and leagues. Regional rivalries and plain old home town favorites. Tracking college football takes more work. You might have a favorite team but there's no assurance that you can watch it on TV. For example, once upon a time Holy Cross was a great little team. You could drive to Worcester (pronounced "Wista") and pay just a few dollars and watch a very talented team. It's a lot like going to Pawtucket to watch the AAA Red Sox franchise. A great experience for the dollar. College football may be a better game, in some ways, but sometimes you've got to draw the line and say "I just don't have the time."

My college football prediction: The Florida Gators look good but I'm going with THE Ohio State University.

 

I try to get to at least one game for my alma mater, the Curry Colonels, each year.

It's a bit further drive, but the Portland Sea Dogs (Red Sox AA club) is a great take also.

 

Yep - We go to virtually all of the University of Central Oklahoma's (Division 2 football) home games and may make a roadtrip for an away game this year.

 

I like the Portland Sea Dogs also. They have a pretty cool little stadium my wife and I saw when we visited Maine.

 

I'm a Western Athletic Conference fan. Maybe it's a blue-collar David-and-Goliath thing, but I always enjoy watching these journeyman's teams knock off BCS bigshots.

So I definitely enjoyed this...

Here's how the bowl-division (I-A) but non-BCS conferences did against BCS conference teams in week 1 --

Western Athletic Conference -

Fresno State defeated Rutgers
Louisiana Tech defeated Mississippi State

Mountain West -

Utah defeated Michigan

C-USA -

East Carolina defeated Virginia Tech

Mid-American -

Bowling Green defeated Pittsburgh

Sun Belt -

Arkansas State defeated Texas A&M

 

I loved watching Hawaii's incredible run last year, even though it ended on a down note.

We don't get much WAC news on the east coast; what's the word with Hawaii this year?

 

Yeah, I'm still bummed by that. I'd been hoping for another Boise State/Oklahoma miracle.

Rebuilding. They lost their coach, quarterback and a whole bunch of starters. They took a big hit and the whole thing's kind of rebuilt. Hawaii's first game this season was certainly ambitious enough, traveling all the way from Hawaii to Gainesville to play #5 Florida, where they got stomped 56-10. Their next game is with Weber State at home and they should win that one. My expectation is that they will drop down into the upper middle of the WAC standings this year and how quicky they rise again depends on how the new coach turns out.

Boise State has been regrouping too, but is expected to probably do a lot better than Hawaii this year. Their first game was a good sign, when they crushed Idaho State 49-7. Next up on 8-13 is Bowling Green, who's already beaten Pittsburgh. On 8-20 they get Oregon, one of the better Pac-10 teams behind USC. (A national media game?) Boise's schedule ends up with a game against Fresno State that will likely be for the WAC championship. And... I love their crazy bright blue football field.

The WAC team that's best positioned to outperform this year is probably Fresno State. Its coach Pat Hill loves Fresno and its chip-on-the-shoulder attitude and isn't going anywhere (he gets lots of offers from higher-profile BCS schools). Most of his best players are returning from last year's successful team and with promising new additions, this year looks to be even stronger. Fresno started out #25 in the preseason rankings, then rose to #21 this week after defeating Rutgers. The big test comes 8-13, when they host #11 Wisconsin in Fresno. (That will probably be a national tv game.) It's generating lots of excitement and anticipation in the San Joaquin valley. If Fresno gets an upset win in that one, they should be rollin'. They face Toledo and the WAC schedule, and they hope that if they run the table the Fresno farm boys can crash some swanky BCS bowl party.

(Fresno's injury-riddled baseball team was the lowest seed ever to make it to the College World Series, and then they ended up winning the whole thing, so anything's possible at Fresno. That's why I love WAC sports.)

There are some other WAC teams that could make some waves. La Tech wasn't expected to do much, but they beat Miss. St. out of the gate. New Mexico State has potential. Everyone's waiting for Nevada to make a move. They are always near the top of the WAC rankings, but haven't yet made their move into the national consciousness like Boise, Hawaii and Fresno have. Even the gritty helots of back-in-the-pack San Jose State have their annual class-warfare David-and-Goliath game with Stanford's polo-playing patricians that's always entertaining to watch.

 

Tomorrow (09-06-08) UMass plays Holy Cross in Worcester. Possible rain. UMass will rule and HC will drool.

 

I was kind of disappointed when June Jones left, but I read somewhere there are issues of funding and especially facilities with Hawaii that helped ease his decision to leave.

On the bright side, I'm curious to see what Jones does with SMU, a former perennial powerhouse until the 1987 NCAA "death sentence".

 

Oh my, some of the boys seem to have been quite naughty...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/football/ncaa/09/04/pennstate.suspensions.ap/index.html?eref=si_topstories

 

UMass won but nobody thought it would be this close...a field goal as time runs out.

http://www.masslive.com/sports/index.ssf/2008/09/umass_beats_holy_cross_4542_as.html?category=College%20Sports&category=UMass%20Football

 

I always root for the underdog; remember when Northeastern (I-AA) played Boston College several years ago? NU ran a flea-flicker on their first play that was only inches past the grasp of the wide-open receiver, and they made it a game for the first half before BC rolled in the 3rd quarter.

 

Giant Killers

East Carolina continues to roll. They knocked off #8 West Virginia today, 24-3.

(The guy who put East Carolina on West Virginia's schedule was frog-marched out to the 50-yard-line and shot right after the game.)

The #11 Wisconsin at Fresno State game on 9-13 will be televised on ESPN-2, presumably starting at 4 PM EDT (check your local listings).

 

Florida is looking good. Though the win over Miami was boringly predictable those 4th qtr. drives and Tebow actually passing from the pocket shows he is maturing a bit. They had trouble with Miami's defense though. If they struggled with Miami they had better watch out when they face Georgia and LSU.

OSU barely survives Ohio. What an overrated team. The only team more hyped than OSU must be USC. Ranked #1 for reasons nobody fully understands but kind of like Notre Dame always getting tapped to appear in a bowl game, it's a given USC will always start the season as #1 and prove they don't belong there. Saturday OSU faces USC so at least one overinflated ego will be degassed. My pick? USC...but I'd love to see an OSU upset.

In Georgia vs. SC I'm going with Georgia obviously.

LSU vs. North Texas shouldn't even be televised. Murder in public is shameful entertainment.

OU at Washington. OU all the way.

Upset prediction... unranked Arkansas over UT unless the UT defense tightens up. It'll be a high scoring shootout as neither team has an especially good defense.

Auburn will pound Miss State.

Kansas is showing some flashes of brilliance again but they still haven't faced the withering fire of a ranked OU and Tech. Still a tough South Florida will go down under KU.

Alabama is looking incredible. The next 3 weeks will show if they are for real.

 

UMass plays in a little conference, mostly with local teams. Saturday they play against James Madison (Virginia). They are ranked above James Madison but since they didn't play so well against Holy Cross last week (they barely won) I'm thinking that James Madison is feeling good about their chances. Still, I've got to go with UMass. I don't think there's a way for me to watch the game but I'll be keeping track.

 

UMass plays in a little conference, mostly with local teams. Saturday they play against James Madison (Virginia). They are ranked above James Madison but since they didn't play so well against Holy Cross last week (they barely won) I'm thinking that James Madison is feeling good about their chances. Still, I've got to go with UMass. I don't think there's a way for me to watch the game but I'll be keeping track.

 

the 10 most obnoxious college football fanbases

Hey, so I'm sprinting through some websites thinking about college football because tomorrow is Saturday and Saturday mean college football and I come onto this funny article that I thought that maybe some of you would think was funny too.

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/pgStory?contentId=8541436&MSNHPHMA#sport=COLLEGE%20FOOTBALL&photo=8541106

I didn't even really read it because it's set up like a slide show deal. It's all big name football schools. We could argue about who was left out
Georgia, USC, Nebraska . . .

 

That's funny. Take the 10 biggest football powerhouse teams of all time and hate on 'em...

"Do their fans really think that changing the English language will make them better than everyone else? Geaux figure. Their so-called rivalry game is with Tulane (yawn), and they never run out of excuses for their cupcake non-conference schedule. Dare to play them in their own stadium and you'll be doused with beer and "Tiger Bait" " = HATER!!!

I think the whole Cajun thing is lost on the author. Perhaps it's the subtlety?

Also every real LSU fan knows that the biggest rivalry for LSU is between them and the hated Auburn.... nobody gives a rip about Tulane except on the day we play Tulane. Why? Well let's put it like this... it would be akin to UMass playing Harvard. Rich kids vs. the blue collar working stiffs.

As for the cupcake non-conference schedule...PULEEZ... don't hate on LSU simply because they have to play SEC games and look for a break out of conference. By comparison how many other conferences look like the SEC? I'd complain about the cupcake conference schedule of OSU, USC or pretty much anyone else. Notice every time an SEC team plays out of conference the opposing team is crapping a brick trying to get ready and hyping it up even if the SEC team is next to last in their conference. Sadly, the SEC team still usually ends up winning. Take a look at last year's bowl games. Shameful stuff.

Georgia at Hawaii I almost felt sorry for Hawaii
The Cotton Bowl wanted unranked almost in last place Arkansas because I suppose everyone else appeared too scary.
LSU against OSU was a display in brutality
Alabama beat Colorado
Kentucky beat Florida State
Auburn stomps Clemson
Tennessee owned Wisconsin
but hey...in all fairness Florida did get beat by Michigan somehow...

I suppose if teams like LSU and Georgia did decide the toughen up their out of conference schedules then teams like USC and OSU would be in deep crap. It's hard to stay #1 when playing regular season games with the big boys.