Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktBy now most teams are in survival mode–keep enough key players healthy to finish out the season where you are and make it into a bowl game, or get key players experience so that next year is better than this one was. Just four weeks to go after this. . . although there will be some grudge matches coming up.
Early games this week: UNC beat Virginia on Thursday 37 – 13, while yesterday Florida International beat Florida Atlantic 34 – 24 (what’s up with Florida, Mike, are you guys trying to rival Texas and California for number of schools with football teams?) and Air Force beat Hawaii 21 – 7. Today’s games:
Northwestern is at MSU as we try to become bowl-eligible (and avoid a losing season) (line: Northwestern, spread 6.5) I hope they’re wrong, but I’d have to go with the betting line on this one, dang it.
Iowa gets its turn in The Big House this weekend (line: UM, spread 17). Let’s Go Blue!
Indiana plays Penn State (line: PSU, spread 14). Comeback time for the Nittany Lions.
Virginia Tech is at Boston College (line: VT, spread 8.5). That doesn’t seem very realistic to me.
USF is at Miami (line: Miami, spread 7). Mike? Could they do it?
Dook is playing Georgia Tech (line: Duke, spread 11.5). Really? Duke is turning into a football school, too? Really??
Wake Forest goes up against Notre Dame (line: WF spread 22). How? What???? Wake Forest over ND in South Bend by 22? Methinks my betting line website has been hacked on this one.
Minnesota is playing Nebraska in a Big Ten battle (line: Nebraska spread 19). Brian and Paul get to duke it out this weekend!
osu is at Wisconsin (line: osu, spread 2.5). Go Badgers, Go Badgers, Go Badgers!!!!
Syracuse is playing Mizzo (line: Missouri, spread 6.5). A question here: how did this game get scheduled? Shouldn’t both of these teams be in the hunt in their conferences?
Oklahoma is at West Virginia (line: OU, spread 10.5). Boomer Sooner!
And Arizona is here in Utah (line: Arizona, spread 3). We’ll freeze them, it’s only 48 degrees here right now. Go Utes!
Texas gets to rest this week. So what are you doing with your weekend, Mark? May the right teams win, and the floor is open for commentary!
Filed under: Fall, Football, Open Thread |
All Things in Moderation 
Michi:
Hey, when you’re a hotbed of football talent, you try to get as many FBS teams as possible! The FL high school games are almost as competitive as the college games.
USF has been so disappointing this year. They keep falling behind early then can’t come back in the 4th quarter. The Bulls did play Louisville tough away, so maybe they have a shot. They’ll probably beat the spread but lose to the U.
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Mike:
At least Florida has interesting names! 🙂 Florida “International”? With what–Cuba??
You and me both. MSU should have won the Big Ten championship last year (damned Badgers!) and then they tanked this year. They’re winning right now with the ridiculous score of 5 – 3, but I think NW will take them in the end.
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Kelley, I am doing honeydews and chores. House and car. Breaking for lunch right now. Thanx for posting the weekend FB special.
TX and FL produce the most FBS football players by a lot.
From Rivals.com:
Texas is king in total number of players – though it just edges out Florida (345 to 344). California (253), Georgia (170) and Ohio (144) are the only other states with more than 100 signees.
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Although raised in Hastings, Nebraska, I was born in Emporia, Kansas and am the son of two KU graduates. Go Wildcats!
It’d be great to see Notre Dame get shut out by K-State and Oregon. Oh, the whining of the Irish. I still remember Holtz leaving Minnesota for ND after convincing the Gophers to invest in a new athletic facility. This was back when I lived in the Twin Cities.
BB
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I still remember Holtz leaving Minnesota for ND after convincing the Gophers to invest in a new athletic facility
Whoa–shades of Urban Meyer! That’s our biggest financial bitch about him here–at least it was private investment here that built the football pavilion and not public funds!
Something tells me Meyer is going to be hated here for a long, long time.
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Boy was I wrong about the Bulls/Canes!
Holtz fils has seen his honeymoon end rather abruptly here at USF. Just win, baby.
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Georgia Tech beat Duke 42-24 making them bowl eligible at 6-5. If they lose to #5 Georgia next week (What’s the Good Word? THWG!) they could be going bowling with a .500 record, a situation I consider a travesty when my alma mater isn’t involved. But I hear Boise is beautiful this time of year.
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yello:
6 – 5 is better than MSU’s 5 – 6 (although I agree with you about the bowl eligibility thing. But, hey, I’m the one who thinks we should go back to just the five original bowl games!).
Mike:
Oof!!!
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Haha, FB, I didn’t know you were a KS fan. It’s tough to be a perennial contender in two major sports, and I don’t think you’d trade football for basketball. Amirite?
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Okie, what’s your take on bedlam?
By memory, if Okie Lite beats the Land Thieves and we beat KSt there will be a 4 way tie of 2 conference loss teams in the Big 12.
I think our conference is tougher, top to #9, then the SEC. But ESPN is sure SEC rules.
OTOH, ND looks better every week. I actually hope they beat USC so that we don’t get another travesty SEC v. SEC MNC game.
Okie Lite deserved to be in that MNC game last year.
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OMGoodness, what a game, okie!
Whew!!
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Yikes, the OU game was the direct cause of excessive alcohol consumption in my house. If you like offense, this was the game to watch.
Notre Dame is looking pretty good about now with both Kansas State and Oregon going down. What a college football weekend!
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I think OU takes bedlam this year because it’s far and away the better team. That said, it’s bedlam! Anything can happen. Not sure it matters except for bragging rights.
I’m not up on the convoluted paths to Big 12 title, but concur with you about Big 12 being tougher where it counts than SEC and, especially, about ND. (And heh, I’m always up for a Lane Kiffin loss.)
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Agree about Kiffin. Sleazy.
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And we haven’t talked about potential realignment either with UMD and Rutgers potentially going to the B1G.
Boy, if the Big East loses RU, it will be a really pathetic FB conference after Pitt and Syracuse go to the ACC next year. Maybe USF can win few games ….
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USF. USF. USF.
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YJ, MD and RU have to join the B1G to offset the previous addition of two real football schools, Nebraska and Penn State.
ACC can take the loss. Big East losing BCS status is a possibility.
The Big 12 staying at ten gives everyone a brutal FB schedule with one breather, KU, which is then thrown the sop of perennial BB champion.
A 14 team B1G gives the potential of playing only 5 conference games and 7 non-conference games. MD can lose most of its conference games – they may beat RU and Indiana in many years – and stack its non-conference games against perennial losers like Tulane, Rice, Kansas, East Carolina, etc.
Catch Navy in a down year and 9-3 is possible for MD. Bowl eligible! See? It’s not so bad being the Patsy for PSU and tOSU!
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Maryland is thinking of joining them to play the role of All-Time Homecoming Patsy. They can’t even sell out their 50,000 seat half-stadium. How are they going to compete with (t)OSU and Michigan? It obviously dilutes the Big10+ even with Northwestern and Perdue in the mix.
One theory is that Maryland just wants to get out from under the four annual basketball loses having to play Dook and the TarHoles always incurs. It’s a $50M penalty to pay for the divorce. They are mortgaging the future for permanent second tier status.
Maryland has no real rivalries. They kept trying to make West Virginia or Pitt happen but nobody took it seriously. They’ve been ducking Penn State for decades. Maryland is just not a college football state. They have two pro-teams and no built-in loyalty for College Park
A friend has a theory that we will end up with four 16-team super-conferences, the increasingly inaccurately named Big 10, the Pac-however many, The SEC and the ACC. All the other conferences might as well just form a Division I- and hope for the best.
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BTW, the new NFL OT rules are just odd. HOU kicked a FG on their first possession, but play continued and JAC kicked a FG of their own, so next score wins. DAL is too inept to score on their first possession, even against CLE, so next score wins here too. But TB scored a TD on their first possession and the game is over.
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Griffin completed 14/15. Huge.
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I think it’s that if you score, but could still be beaten on the next possession play continues. It’s still better than the old sudden death OT, though.
But, yes, odd.
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Oh man. Can’t wait for that kick off Saturday night against USC.
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Hope Domers stuff Kiffin for post TG blessings.
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Re: NFL OT, it’s each team gets a possession or has the opportunity to possess the ball unless the team that has the ball first scores a touchdown on its initial possession. It’s lame. I think just put 5 or 10 mins on the clock and play the game. somebody wins at the end or its a tie.
hockey playoffs OT is the best. example — this is in the 3rd OT. so they’ve played a full game an 2 periods into a second.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtnSuoew_1E&noredirect=1
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NHL OT is much better. Heck, CFB OT is much better.
Here’s the end of the PIT/PHI 5 OT playoff game from 2000. I had gone out to the bar to watch, but they closed before the end of the game. So, I ended up watching the end at a buddy’s place, then grabbing a couple hours of sleep before my 8:30 am meeting. Ugh.
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thanks for that highlight mike. I’d just recently exorcised it from my memory.
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Sorry, nova. I probably should have posted this video instead:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcI87wRNqcY&feature=related
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Okie – I’m delighted at the prospect of UMd joining the big, umm, whatever. Tracie Hamilton, a Post columnist who was born in the same town as my folks (Lincoln, KS), calls it the Notorious B1G. The main reason for me is that Maryland has seats available and I could go see the Huskers every few years.
They’re not a football school, but they are a basketball school. Adding Maryland helps them as you need some schools to beat up on. They’ll add the DC area for TV (as will Rutgers add NYC). We’ll see what happens with the Big Easy, umm, East.
Sucks that the Wildcats choked. Again.
BB
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