Oh, it truly is the most wonderful time of the year.
Each Labor Day weekend, we receive college football back.
Even with all of the off the field scandals (covered in summation here), and with the drama coming from the pending implosion (again!) of the Big 12, I can't wait to spend more attention to games on the field—like the 50-48 barnburner supplied by Baylor and TCU on Friday night.
But I wanted to go on the record with my divisional, conference and national title picks before the games begin in earnest on Saturday at 9am PDT.
ACC Atlantic: Maryland
ACC Coastal: Virginia Tech
ACC Overall: Virginia Tech
Big 12: Oklahoma
Big East: West Virginia
Big Ten Leaders: Wisconsin
Big Ten Legends: Nebraska
Big Ten Overall: Wisconsin
Conference USA East: Southern Mississippi
Conference USA West: Houston
Conference USA Overall: Southern Mississippi
Mid-American East: Ohio
Mid-American West: Toledo
Mid-American Overall: Toledo
Mountain West: Boise State
Pacific 12 North: Oregon
Pacific 12 South: Utah
Pacific 12 Overall: Oregon
SEC East: South Carolina
SEC West: LSU
SEC Overall: LSU
Sun Belt: Troy
WAC: Fresno State
Independent: Notre Dame
National Title: Alabama over Wisconsin
Friday, September 2, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The 2011 College Football Season is Here. Thank Goodness
I don't know about you, but I have been waiting for this day for a long, long time.
The start of the 2011 college football season has taken forver to get here, and now that it is here, hopefully attention can be paid to the game on the field.
And this year more than ever, that has to be the case, because this was an offseason that we all should want to forget.
At first, it just seemed to be carryover from the end of last season, with the Ohio State "Tat Five" being allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl, and a little bit of hangover from Cam Newton as Auburn won the BCS Title.
But the drama never seemed to stop, as more and more information came out about Ohio State, ultimately costing Jim Tressel his job and forcing Terrelle Pryor to enter the NFL supplemental draft.
Meanwhile, Bill Stewart, who had a coach-in-waiting situation forced upon him by West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck, tried to take down said coach, Dana Holgorsen, and failed. He was given the boot after trying to leak information about Holgorsen's wild partying ways to the media.
Over in Eugene, Oregon head coach Chip Kelly tried to parse the name "Will" versus "Willie," in discussing the fact that the Ducks must have been fleeced out of $25,000 by Willie Lyles, a Texas man who serves as some sort of recruiting svengali for LSU, Oregon and some other programs as well as top rated recruits. The recruit in question was running back Lache Seastrunk, who, thanks to a vision from God, has transferred from Oregon to Baylor.
Butch Davis was ousted from North Carolina literally a couple of days after returning from ACC media days because the leadership of North Carolina thought that the best time to get rid of a coach was two weeks before the start of fall training camp. Last summer, a lot of folks thought that North Carolina was poised for greatness. Now, they appear to have lost another season thanks to their NCAA issues.
Yet all of that drama was surpassed by the atomic bomb that Yahoo! Sports investigative reporter Charles Robinson dropped on the University of Miami two weeks ago. If you haven't read it by now, you have to spend a couple of hours going through all of the player pages. It is fascinating reading.
Oh, and the expansion carousel may be spinning again thanks to the Big 12, the University of Texas, Texas A&M and ESPN. Good times, good times.
So now do you see why I am excited about kickoff?
Let the games begin.
The start of the 2011 college football season has taken forver to get here, and now that it is here, hopefully attention can be paid to the game on the field.
And this year more than ever, that has to be the case, because this was an offseason that we all should want to forget.
At first, it just seemed to be carryover from the end of last season, with the Ohio State "Tat Five" being allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl, and a little bit of hangover from Cam Newton as Auburn won the BCS Title.
But the drama never seemed to stop, as more and more information came out about Ohio State, ultimately costing Jim Tressel his job and forcing Terrelle Pryor to enter the NFL supplemental draft.
Meanwhile, Bill Stewart, who had a coach-in-waiting situation forced upon him by West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck, tried to take down said coach, Dana Holgorsen, and failed. He was given the boot after trying to leak information about Holgorsen's wild partying ways to the media.
Over in Eugene, Oregon head coach Chip Kelly tried to parse the name "Will" versus "Willie," in discussing the fact that the Ducks must have been fleeced out of $25,000 by Willie Lyles, a Texas man who serves as some sort of recruiting svengali for LSU, Oregon and some other programs as well as top rated recruits. The recruit in question was running back Lache Seastrunk, who, thanks to a vision from God, has transferred from Oregon to Baylor.
Butch Davis was ousted from North Carolina literally a couple of days after returning from ACC media days because the leadership of North Carolina thought that the best time to get rid of a coach was two weeks before the start of fall training camp. Last summer, a lot of folks thought that North Carolina was poised for greatness. Now, they appear to have lost another season thanks to their NCAA issues.
Yet all of that drama was surpassed by the atomic bomb that Yahoo! Sports investigative reporter Charles Robinson dropped on the University of Miami two weeks ago. If you haven't read it by now, you have to spend a couple of hours going through all of the player pages. It is fascinating reading.
Oh, and the expansion carousel may be spinning again thanks to the Big 12, the University of Texas, Texas A&M and ESPN. Good times, good times.
So now do you see why I am excited about kickoff?
Let the games begin.
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