Will Alabama loss cost the the Tide (and the SEC) a shot at the national title? Posted by Paul Costanzo (10/09/2010 @ 6:27 pm) The Southeastern Conference may have lost its stranglehold on the national championship today. South Carolina shocked the world (OK, so it wasn’t exactly the biggest upset ever, but it was still pretty big) when it knocked off No. 1 Alabama 35-21 this afternoon. The win is huge for Steve Spurrier and the Gamecocks, who were showing signs of being a legitimate SEC title contender this season. It’s also vindication for Stephen Garcia, the much-maligned South Carolina quarterback who could only watch from the bench two weeks ago as his team lost to Auburn. But for the conference, it could be a big problem. In most years a one-loss SEC team makes the title game without hesitation, but this isn’t most years. This year is all about the Boise State argument, and don’t look now, but TCU is still undefeated, and Ohio State might not have anyone on its schedule that can beat it. And, oh yeah, that team in Eugene, Ore. is looking pretty good this year, too. Basically, the chances of there being two undefeated teams at the end of the season are pretty high right now, and while Alabama (or heck, South Carolina) would have played one heck of a schedule if it runs the table the rest of the way, keeping out one of the undefeated teams would start quite an uproar. I am personally of the belief that while the SEC is probably still the country’s toughest conference, you can’t keep an undefeated Boise State team out of the championship game. The Broncos have done enough over the past few years to show they’re not a fluke, and it would be high time they got their shot. What do you think? Should a one-loss Alabama (or SEC) team get a title shot over Boise? Rodgers brothers, Brian Kelly’s debut among five things to watch for on opening weekend Posted by Paul Costanzo (09/04/2010 @ 8:27 am) I’m assuming you’re excited today. I know I am. As nice as Thursday was for college football lovers, there’s nothing quite like the first full Saturday of college football. I could barely sleep last night, as thoughts of TCU’s defense, Brian Kelly’s debut in South Bend and Erin Andrews — on the set of Gameday … pervs — danced through my head. Before I get into the five things you should look out for today, a brief introduction: My name is Paul Costanzo and I’ll be guiding you through your college football Saturdays this season. I’m not a college football expert, by any means. I’m just a huge fan who happens to have a journalism degree. I’m also a good friend of Anthony’s, so if I suck at this, you can direct all your hate mail to him. You can read me daily in the Times Herald newspaper out of Port Huron, Mich. But enough about me, let’s get to the games. Read the rest of this entry » Posted in: College Football Tags: Boise State, Brian Kelly, Connecticut, Jacquizz Rodgers, Marvin Austin, Notre Dame, Purdue, Rich Rodriguez, Rich Rodriguez hot seat, TCU, Virginia Tech
Preseason Coaches Poll out: Alabama No. 1 Posted by Anthony Stalter (08/06/2010 @ 12:00 pm) No surprise here: Defending champs Alabama has the No. 1 ranking in the preseason Coaches Poll. From FOX Sports.com: Boise State will begin the season ranked No. 5. The Broncos, like Alabama, finished last season 14-0. They beat TCU in the Fiesta Bowl. The Crimson Tide got 55 of 59 possible first-place votes. The other four went to Ohio State, which is No. 2 in the newspaper’s ranking. Florida is third, followed by Texas, which lost to Alabama in the BCS title game in January. Virginia Tech is sixth, followed by TCU, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa to round out the top 10. Nos. 11 through 15 are Oregon, Wisconsin, Miami, Penn State and Pittsburgh. They are followed by LSU, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Arkansas and Florida State, which will be without Bobby Bowden as coach for the first time in 35 years.
With all that has happened in college football over the past couple of months, it’s hard to fathom that actual games will be starting in a few weeks. Football is almost upon us! Couple things that I’m interested in seeing: – How TCU bounces back from its dud in the Fiesta Bowl. – How Texas QB Garrett Gilbert fairs in his first full season after getting thrown to the wolves in the BCS title game. – What the Tim Tebow-less Gators will look like (it’s felt like an eternity since Tebow wasn’t the one taking snaps from under center). – What Mark Ingram has in store for an encore performance. – What Nebraska’s defense looks like without Ndamukong Suh, who was perhaps the most dominant defensive player in college football last year. What has your attention heading into the new college season? The Top 10 Conference Shake-Ups Posted by Anthony Stalter (06/15/2010 @ 3:00 pm)  Real Clear Sports compiled a top 10 ranking of the biggest conference shakeups in college sports. At No. 1 is the conference that has been talked about the most recently, the Big 12. The existence of the Big 12 is now in jeopardy because other conferences can offer more money through television deals. The irony is that that is why the Big 12 was formed in the first place. The Southwest Conference was in trouble due to greed and the fact that one-time power Southern Methodist University had never recovered after receiving the “Death Penalty” from the NCAA in 1986. The Big Eight saw the opportunity to swoop in and expand its television audience into the state of Texas, with huge markets in Dallas and Houston. In 1994 the Big Eight cannibalized half of the old SWC (adding Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor) and became the Big 12. But in reality it was Texas that really swooped in to form the Big 12. The headquarters for the conference not only moved from Kansas City to Dallas, with a Texan at the helm, but it considered itself a new conference, leaving all the history of the former Big Eight behind. A lopsided deal favoring the University of Texas left traditional power Nebraska feeling jilted, triggering the latest round of conference realignment that the Big 12 nearly did not survive.
You can check out the rest of the site’s top 10 here. It’s easy to forget how conferences came to be, so it’s interesting to take a walk down memory lane. How quickly we forget that Penn State and Florida State used to be independents, Miami used to be in the Big East and most of the current Mountain West used to be in the WAC (which once again was robbed by the MWC when Boise State recently decided to bolt). Speaking of the Mountain West, the addition of Boise State will only help them gain full BCS privileges soon, including an automatic bid for the conference champion and a greater share of the bowl payout. The conference has been held back due to how the average computer rank of every team in the conference at the end of the regular season has been so low. But assuming the Broncos don’t drop off the face of the earth with their play, that won’t be a problem soon enough. (TCU, Utah and BYU will also have to stay competitive too, of course.)
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Why did the Boise State Broncos finish #4? Posted by John Paulsen (01/08/2010 @ 7:45 pm) One Bronco Nation Under God put together an interesting breakdown of the final AP vote for the 2009-10 college football season. Why is it interesting? Well, Alabama finished #1, as they should. But it was Texas, not Florida, that finished #2. The Gators finished third and the Broncos finished at #4. The site points out a couple of voters who actually had the Broncos ranked lower than #4: [Craig] James was far and away the most anti-Boise AP voter of the bunch. Voting Boise State at No. 7 is inexcusable. Voting TCU at No. 14 is just as bad. The worst part is that the Broncos only finished four points behind Florida in the AP poll. Hmm, where might you find four extra points? If Craig James had voted like a rational human being, the Broncos could have at least got three more points (if James put them at No. 4).
James had Ohio State, Penn State and Iowa ahead of the Broncos. I guess he’s a big fan of the Big Ten. Then there’s the case of the only other writer in the country to put the Broncos lower than #4 — Kirk Bohls, of Austin, Texas. He dropped the Broncos below … wait for it … THE Ohio State University. We’ll laugh about this later. I swear we will. Bohls and James were the only ones with OSU in front of BSU. Had Bohls swapped the Broncos and the Buckeyes, Boise State would have picked up an extra AP point and been tied with Florida for No. 3.
In addition to James’ #7 ranking and Bohls’ #5 ranking, 22 voters had the Broncos at #2, six ranked them #3 and 30 voters had Boise State at #4, so it appears that the voters are split into two camps: 1) those that believe that the Broncos belong (ranking them #2 or #3), 2) and those that still don’t think they are as good as one-loss BCS teams like Texas and Florida (ranking them #4 or lower). The bottom line is that nothing has changed. A Colt McCoy-less Texas squad looked good enough against Alabama to stay at #2, while Florida thrashed a head coach-less Cincy squad in the Sugar Bowl. Boise State played TCU in the Fiesta Bowl, which made for a “fun” (i.e. non-BCS) matchup, but neither team got the opportunity to play against the big boys. And that’s exactly the way the BCS wanted it. If Boise State and TCU got matchups with BCS schools this bowl seasons and won (or at least made it a game), it would add more fuel to the we-need-a-playoff fire.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
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