Author: Paul Costanzo (Page 10 of 21)

      Surprise! Cam Newton played, and — surprise! — Auburn won

      November 13, 2010 /
      AUBURN, AL - NOVEMBER 13: Quarterback Cameron Newton of the Auburn Tigers stays in bounds as he scores a touchdown against Brandon Boykin of the Georgia Bulldogs at Jordan-Hare Stadium on November 13, 2010 in Auburn, Alabama. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

      Amid rumors swirling about his eligibility and participation in a pay-to-play scandal, Cam Newton went out and did what he does best on Saturday — dominate.

      Newton had 148 yards and two touchdowns through the air, and added 151 yards and two more scores on the ground as Auburn remained undefeated with a 49-31 win against Georgia. The win clinches the SEC West Division title for the Tigers, who will enter their annual Iron Bowl showdown with Alabama at 11-0.

      What happens between now and Nov. 26 — the day of the Iron Bowl — with Newton is unknown. At the rate news breaks on the subject, I imagine things will be a lot more clear before that.

      Apparently Auburn feels safe enough with the information it has about Newton’s eligibility. Or maybe it doesn’t, and just doesn’t care. Why sit him and miss out on a national title without knowing for sure if he’s going to be ruled ineligible? Maybe he goes through the season, wins the Heisman and a national title and nothing happens.

      Or maybe they’re stripped of everything after the fact. The only thing I think we can say with any level of certainty is that without Newton on the field, none of that matters, because Auburn isn’t beating Alabama without him. Heck, it might not beat the Tide with him.

      I guess the other thing we can be certain of is that this story isn’t going away any time soon.

      College Football, External Sports

      Crazy day in the Big Ten: Wisconsin scores 83, Iowa falters on the road

      November 13, 2010 /
      IOWA CITY, IA - OCTOBER 23- Quarterback Scott Tolzien of the Wisconsin Badgers celebrates with teammates Isaac Anderson and Bradie Ewing after their the University of Iowa Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium on October 23, 2010 in Iowa City, Iowa. Wisconsin won 31-30 over Iowa. (Photo by David Purdy/Getty Images)

      I went out for the afternoon to cover a high school football game, and all hell broke loose in the Big Ten. Well, not all hell, but some, anyway.

      The big news is that Iowa, one of the four teams that came into this weekend tied for the top spot in the conference, lost on the road to Northwestern. The Wildcats came back from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit for a 21-17 win over the Hawkeyes. Dan Persa hit Demetrius Fields for a 20-yard touchdown with 1:22 remaining in the game for the winning score.

      The loss could be the end of Iowa’s conference title/BCS hopes. They can help themselves out quite a bit next week, however, by taking out Ohio State at Kinnick Stadium.

      One team they cannot stop, however, is Wisconsin, which I think just scored on Indiana again (it doesn’t matter what time you’re reading this, that still works). The Badgers won 83-20 (!) at home today, for their fifth straight win. You’d be hard-pressed to convince me any team is playing better in the Big Ten right now than Wisconsin. The Badgers finish the season with a game at Michigan and at home against Northwestern.

      After scoring 83 on Indiana, anyone want to put an over/under on what they’ll score against Michigan? I mean, the baseline has to be like 65, right? Oh, and I forgot to mention, Wisconsin did that without John Clay in the lineup. How this team looked so bad early in the season, and lost to Michigan State by 10, I’ll never know.

      College Football, External Sports

      That Utah win doesn’t look so impressive anymore for TCU

      November 13, 2010 /
      SOUTH BEND, IN - NOVEMBER 13: Tommy Rees of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish throws a pass against the Utah Utes at Notre Dame Stadium on November 13, 2010 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

      Remember that huge win that TCU picked up last week, on the road against a top-five Utah team? Yeah, that doesn’t look nearly as impressive today.

      The Utes went to South Bend today and were pounded by Notre Dame, 28-3. This is the same Notre Dame team that lost to Tulsa two weeks ago, and was routed by Navy a week before that. The same Notre Dame team that was without its starting quarterback, starting running back, starting tight end and second-leading receiver. The Irish were starting a true freshman at quarterback, and they still beat the crap out of Utah.

      This is bad for TCU, as the perception of that Utah win was huge for them. Some in the media — myself included, if I count — were calling it the biggest and most impressive win of the season for any team this year. That’s out the window now.

      The reason this matters is that it’s all about perception for the little guys trying to get into the BCS title game. Boise State was hurt by Virginia Tech losing to James Madison. The Broncos are being helped, however, by the current run the Hokies are on. Every game Virginia Tech plays is almost as important for Boise State as every game the Broncos play themselves. Utah was TCU’s Virginia Tech, and while losing to Notre Dame on the road isn’t as bad as losing to James Madison, being thoroughly dominated like Utah was is. In fact, it might be worse.

      Boise State finishes out this season with a stronger schedule than TCU, and might pass the Horned Frogs in the computer rankings. Utah’s loss today might allow Boise to pass TCU in the human polls, as well.

      College Football, External Sports

      Will Cam Newton play? Will it even matter?

      November 13, 2010 /
      AUBURN, AL - OCTOBER 23: Quarterback Cameron Newton of the Auburn Tigers reacts after scoring a touchdown against the LSU Tigers at Jordan-Hare Stadium on October 23, 2010 in Auburn, Alabama. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

      One of the beauties of getting XM radio is that I get to listen to the Paul Finebaum show on a daily basis. For those that don’t know, Finebaum’s show is technically now a national college football radio show, but it can’t get away from its southeastern roots.

      Every four out of five callers is from Alabama or Mississippi, and they’re crazy. The conspiracies they come up with on the officiating and play-calling from week to week would make Glenn Beck proud.

      But the Cam Newton scandal has sent these folks into overdrive, and forced me to spend more time inside my car while it was sitting still in my driveway than one person should. People are blaming the press, Mississippi State, the press, Florida, the press, Nike, the press, Florida and the press. One caller, minutes after ESPN’s Joe Schad hung up with Finebaum, basically threatened to beat him up. It was amazing.

      I don’t have a conspiracy theory on this, which is sad. But it will be really interesting to see how Auburn and Newton play today after having to listen to all of this over the last week.

      I’m not picking the game because I have no idea who’s taking the field, but if Newton doesn’t play, expect the Bulldogs to win. A.J. Green has made them a legit SEC team. If Newton plays, however, the Tigers will roll on. Continue reading »

      College Football, External Sports

      Boise State drops another spot in the polls as TCU moves up; Alabama plummets

      November 7, 2010 /

      No real big surprises in today’s USA Today/ESPN coaches poll, as the top two remained the same — Oregon and Auburn — and TCU moved up to No. 3 after a dismantling of Utah.

      Boise State, of course, was the victim of TCU’s rise, even after a dominating win over a pretty good Hawaii team. But that shouldn’t surprise you. Last week, Auburn jumped Boise State after a win over a bad Ole Miss team, so the fact that TCU jumped the Broncos after perhaps the most impressive performance of the season shouldn’t come as a shock. In fact, I really don’t have a problem with this jump. TCU has played a better schedule thus far than Boise State, and absolutely dominated it much in the same way Boise has dominated its schedule. This was an exclamation point win for the Horned Frogs, and if voters believed TCU was the better team, there was no better time than now to make that move.

      The top two in the BCS standings should remain the same, but I’d expect the gap between Auburn and TCU at 2 and 3 to close. First off, the Horned Frogs moved up in the coaches poll, and I’ll guess they’ll do the same in the Harris Poll. Plus the computers will likely close the gap as Auburn played Chattanooga and TCU played what was the No. 5 team in the BCS standings.

      The best news for TCU and Boise State, however, had to be Alabama’s loss. There’s a good chance that the Tide were the only one-loss team capable of jumping over them into the national title game. I don’t know all the tie-breaker rules off-hand, but I believe LSU needs Auburn to lose each of its next two games in order to get into the SEC championship game. So if Alabama beats Auburn in the Iron Bowl, that will open up a spot for either TCU or Boise State.

      I doubt a win over a three-loss SEC East champion would be enough for voters to vault Auburn back into the game. And even though it’s happened before, I can’t imagine an 11-1 LSU team that didn’t even play in its conference title game would jump the unbeatens. It wouldn’t be unprecedented — see Nebraska in 2001 — but it would be borderline criminal. Then again, that pretty much fits right in line with the BCS.

      College Football, External Sports

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