Monthly Archives: November 2009

This Weekend in College Football: Week 12

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:

  • Ohio State @ Michigan (ABC): Bright and early, the way they like it up and Big Ten country. Or perhaps they just want to get it over with? Ohio State should be able to roll against this defense.
  • Minnesota @ Iowa (ESPN): While I’m sure we’d all like Iowa to lose again, they should manage to beat a now-hapless (but bowl eligible!) Minnesota squad. 13-9 sounds about right.
  • North Carolina @ Boston College (ESPN2): It’s been erroneously reported Clemson has already clinched the ACC Atlantic. Not quite true, as BC should win out, but they would need Clemson to lose to have a shot. I like BC’s odds of winning out, but not so much the odds of Clemson winning.
  • Duke @ University of Miami (ESPNU): After last week’s game, I’m okay with saying that this Duke team is better than years past. That’s also not saying much, but it’s a start. Miami should still win, though.
  • Mississippi State @ Arkansas (SEC/Gameplan): Speaking of improved squads, Miss State is a lot better than years past, but again it says a lot about how bad they were that they’re still 4-6 and probably going to lose to Arkansas.
  • Maryland @ Florida State (Raycom/Gameplan): FSU can get bowl eligible as long as they avoid falling to an utterly dreadful Maryland team. Since the rumors of the death of FSU’s offense seemed to be greatly exaggerated, they should be able to get it.

12:30: Oklahoma @ Texas Tech (FSN): Well, Oklahoma probably won’t win 65-21 this time around. Heck, they may even not win overall. It’s hard to tell at this point. I think I’ll take OU.

2:30: Connecticut @ Notre Dame (NBC): Ahahahahahaha. Anyway, ND should actually still win, as loathe as I am to admit. If there’s a team that deserves a break, it’s UConn.

3:30:

  • Louisiana State @ Mississippi (CBS): I’m comfortable with saying LSU is probably a little better with this defense thing than Tennessee is. I refuse to be fooled by Ole Miss’s and McCluster’s sudden display of competence, or the fact that LSU at one point was losing to Louisiana Tech. LSU.
  • Pennsylvania State @ Michigan State (ABC/ESPN): It’s pretty bad when you reasons is over because you lost to the only decent games you played. Michigan State made a late charge to bowl eligibilty, but I think PSU can pull this one out, as they have been all year.
  • Virginia @ Clemson (ESPN/ABC): If BC loses to UNC in the early game, this game is moot. Otherwise, Clemson needs only to avoid a terrible loss to clinch the ACC Atlantic and meet us for a re-match in Tampa. They should be able to take care of business.
  • North Carolina State @ Virginia Tech (ESPNU): Though VPI fans may be off the bandwagon, they should still beat NCSU.
  • Air Force @ Brigham Young (CBSCS): This is pretty much a battle for bowl pecking order in the Mountain West. It’s hard to judge because these teams have both lost to TCU and BYU will probably lose to Utah (as AF already has). I like BYU better, I think AF will give them all they can handle.
  • Wisconsin @ Northwestern (BTN): Mike Kafka says he wants the elusive 8th win, but deep inside the ennui of existence in the face of the world triumphs. Wisconsin keeps on doing what they do, which is win 9-10 games but not the Big Ten.

4:00:

  • Arizona State @ California-Los Angeles (FSN): So Arizona State’s starting their 3rd string QB this weekend. I still think both of their backups look like they stepped out of a JV high school game and onto the field, but hey, whatever works for them. Well, except it’s not working terribly well. Meanwhile, UCLA is on a 2-game roll… against the two worst teams in the conference. So this could be good, in a sad sort of way. I’ll go with UCLA at this point.
  • San Diego State @ Utah (Versus): Utah rolls.

7:00: Vanderbilt @ Tennessee (ESPNU): Sigh, I wish Vandy could win this game. It would be so great to see the calls for Kiffin’s head after a loss to Vandy. Sadly, Vandy just can’t score points this year. UT rolls.

7:30:

  • California @ Stanford (Versus): It’s the Big Game! Cal put forth a valiant effort in the win against Arizona last weekend, but how can you pick against Stanford at this point? I sure can’t.
  • Tulsa @ Southern Mississippi (CBSCS): Don’t look, but Tulsa has lost five straight. Hard to believe. But they just got absolute owned by ECU last weekend, and while USM probably won’t do the same, I have to like the dudes from Hattiesburg this weekend.

7:45

  • Kansas State @ Nebraska (ESPN): I apologize to the entirety of my Mom’s side of the family (including two cousins of mine who are alums, including one who was on K-State’s football team) and the state of my birth but I have to hope Nebraska wins this to even make the Big 12 Title Game remotely interesting. Also, if K-State loses they won’t be bowl eligible at 6-6 thanks to the Bill Synder scheduling philosophy.
  • Kentucky @ Georgia (ESPN2): I promise I won’t make any jokes about UGA VII dying. At any rate, Kentucky is on a roll, but this “roll” consists of victories over Auburn, UL-Monroe, EKU, and Vandy (and includes a loss to Miss State). Georgia’s trajectory is similar, which is pretty consistent with the rest of the mediocre center of the SEC. Also, Georgia managed to pull it out last week, which ruined the chance of us making them 5-7. So I’ll take UGA here.

8:00:

  • Kansas @ Texas (ABC/Gameplan): Texas rolls.
  • Oregon @ Arizona (Gameplan/ABC): Well, this is the de facto Pac-10 title game here. Oregon already kind of hurt their changes in that loss to Stanford but unless Masoli pulls a Dennis Dixon (sigh) they should be able to take care of business.

10:30: Nevada @ New Mexico State (ESPNU): Nevada. Now, sleep!

I Was Making Fun of the BCS Propaganda Machine Before It Was Cool

So apparently someone at the BCS office decided it’d be a great idea to get their propaganda message out there via Facebook and Twitter. Well, as various other sites have reported, it’s going about as well as you think.

So I just wanted to say I was making fun of the BCS’s original propanda machine (bcsfootball.org) as early as last year: https://sports.asimweb.org/2008/10/bcsfootballorg-means-truth.html

As for the bowl predictions and the TV guide, well, I’m really busy at work right now. Rolling a giant stone up a hill is bad enough as-is, but then I have to do something else and the damn thing rolls back down. I’ll try to get to each, though.

This Week in College Football: Week 12

Introducing “This Week in College Football”. With the proliferation of conferences desperate for ESPN’s money and exposure, we now have college ball on practically every day of the week. So each week, I’ll write up a short post about this week’s weekday games in the same vein as my weekend column.
As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Wednesday

6:00: Buffalo @ Miami University (ESPNU): This game is going on right now and I can’t see it because I’m at work. Buffalo should win, I guess?

8:00: Central Michigan @ Ball State (ESPN2): I originally made bad jokes involving the MAC and Dan LeFevour. Now you’ll just have to take my word for it. CMU should walk through this.

Thursday

7:30: Colorado @ Oklahoma State (ESPN): Oklahoma State will likely be starting their backup QB. Colorado will likely start a QB. Will it matter? No.

Friday

5:30: Akron @ Bowling Green (ESPNU): Bowling Green needs a win to get to the magical land of bowl eligibility. Akron, well, their mascot is a kangaroo.

9:30: Boise State @ Utah State (ESPN2): Four wins would match Utah State’s highest win total since 2002. Note I didn’t say “five wins”.

Also, I know bowl predictions haven’t been posted yet. They’re up but I haven’t time to do the writeup yet. Patience.

Hindsight is 20/20: An Apology to Vegas

While I was correct about the ridiculousness of the Florida-South Carolina line, Boise actually covered the 31.5 points against Idaho and TCU darn near doubled the 20 points on TCU in their 55-28 drubbing of the Utes.

Let’s see what else I was horrendously wrong about (I say “all predictions wrong” every week for a reason), along with some other observations.

  • Dexter McCluster has Ole Miss going the right way after their 42-17 drubbing of Tennessee.
  • Purdue made it interesting for awhile, but ultimately Sparty prevailed in West Lafayette.
  • FSU’s offense was pretty much not toast as Ponder’s replacement, E.J. Manuel, went 15 for 20 and 220 yards passing and the FSU ground game racked up 217 on a very deflated looking Wake squad.
  • It looked like Miami was headed right to BCS-ville for awhile today, but ultimately suffered the letdown in Chapel Hill that will likely mean the ACC’s chances of getting that elusive 2nd BCS bid are shot.
  • Oh, Stanford made it interesting all right.
  • Why do all of Arizona State’s backup quarterbacks look like they’re 15 or 16 years old? They just look so wirey and thin out there, I’m surprised they haven’t gotten snapped in half yet.

As for GT-Duke, man, I woke up and turned the game on just in time for kick off. And then I saw my worst nightmare come true – Duke came out throwing, and the defense came out flat and they scored right off the bat. Then we went 3 and out and screwed up the snap on the punt, putting the Blue Devils in great position to go up 14-0. Instead, we forced them to kick a field goal and then returned the kickoff to the Duke 1 yard line, and after that scored 49 unanswered.

The result? Well, I seem to have booked a flight to Tampa for some reason….

Bowl predictions go up later today.