Alrighty folks, it’s another year of college ball which means we have a Yahoo College Football Pick ‘Em League to setup. The rules are almost the same as last year. The big difference is that we are not counting TWO of the weeks picks. We have confidence and all this other hullabaloo so we decided to be a little more easy on everyone. It’s real easy to forget picks for Saturday when most of you are getting tanked on Friday night. So with that said, here’s the sing up info:
You know, there was talk the last two years of prizes and both years, it was ignored. So this year, I’ll just say that pride is on the line. For both weekly and the yearly. Although I will be more than happy to buy the yearly winner a Das Boot from Lew’s Grille & Bar to the yearly winner. Yeah I still owe last year’s winner but he hasn’t come into town to claim it. Get as many people as you can to sign up and good luck this year! I know I will sit comfortably at the bottom. Again.
Big Al’s in the house this week as we are one more mascot away from completing the top mascots that we have yet to cover from Phil Steele’s Preseason Top 40. The #3 Alabama Crimson Tide won the big shiny ball last year and look to repeat this year with returning Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram carrying the rock. The competition is hot in the SEC and what better hot weather animal to have around as a mascot then the elephant known as Big Al. We were just as confused as you may be as to why a team by the name of Crimson Tide employs and elephant mascot. We’ll find that out as well as how we think Alabama finishes out the season.
Apparently there’s still some fallout from the NCAA’s investigation of schools regarding sports agents and football players. Read all about it below. Our take on the whole thing? The times they are a changing and much like any other huge organization, change comes slow. This week’s Crib Sheet points out that while the NCAA is running around doing investigations, they are cutting drug testing budgets. We think the NCAA needs to lean down more and seriously reconsider just how sports are played today. On the Crib Sheet:
It looks like alot of big name players are going down at Nebraska and Missouri. Mike Smith broke a leg for the Cornhuskers and Jerrell Jackson broke his left wrist. Will this potentially blow open the Big 12 North? The bigger injuries usually happen during the season.
Well well well, it looks like Bryce Brown IS coming to Kansas State. That is, until Derek Dooley releases him from his scholarship at Tennessee. Brown’s had some trouble there and decided to bolt after Lane Kiffin did. Bill Snyder 2.0 should help clean him up after this blows over.
As more and more reports of paid trips come up, Nick Saban closes camp to scouts and then grabs some of his buddies on a call to the NFL regarding ways to stamp out the rampant sports agent issue. It’s alright that Saban is trying to clean things up now, but we’re thinking he’s getting ahead of it to take advantage of it later on down the road.
New Mexico football players can’t tweet. Now we loves the Twitter and we see no harm in kids doing the same thing socially that their peers are. If DeWayne Walker was smart, he would cryptically recruit via Twitter.
Playboy picked Ohio State to win it all. Is Playboy even relevent anymore. They used to have it big but now it just seems they are a glorified New Yorker. Even the nudity isn’t intriguing anymore.
So the media circus that was Mike Leach is now replaced with a reality show. Yup, Texas Tech decided that the pirate attention was not enough and will document the team throughout the season in a reality show. Hard Knocks this won’t be. But hey it already sounds better than Jerzey Shore.
Sprint’s Football Live app now does college football. Yes, all of you smartphone subscribers out there will now get a chance to watch ESPN college football games as well as the Notre Dame home games. Very nice indeed.
The NCAA is cutting costs related to drug testing. Gone comprehensive tests, Ephedrine, and advance notice to schools. What stays are the high risk drugs and an easier path of get away with taking performance enhancing drugs.
Welcome back to another Mascot Monday and the first official day of summer! Now that the expansion feeding frenzy is behind us, it’s time to start looking toward actual football. Guess what? College football returns in a little over two months! We are breaking the mascot post pattern and will reel off mascots we haven’t covered that are listed in Phil Steele’s Top 40 preseason rankings. Running down the list, we see our first one in the University of Central Florida. The #36 preseason ranked UCF Knights employ the auspiciously looking mascot by the name of Knightro. No, not the American Gladiators reject, but a giant knight.
This week we are going to look at the very opposite sides of mascotdom, all from one school. We like to point out either how fierce a mascot can look versus how cartoony a mascot can look. Both have its plusses and both have its minuses. But what if you’re a school that wants to cover all of the bases when it comes to mascots? Well, you do what Xavier did and have a mascot to fill each role. Let’s take a trip down to Cincinnati, Ohio and check out Xavier’s D’Artagnan and the Blue Blob.
Much ballyhoo is blowing around the college football land due to the blowhards up north in the Big 10. It seems they want to expand their television footprint or whatever it is. Part of their master plan includes penetrating the much valued market in New York. How will they do this? By going after a low hanging fruit by the name of Rutgers. So in honor of one of the teams that is part of the speculationalooza, we’ll be taking a look at Rutgers mascot, the Scarlet Knight.
Welcome to this week’s Crib Sheet where we give you wall to wall coverage of the NFL Draft! Well, maybe not. This post will be about as much as we will put into the pros and their cherry picking of primo college talent. After this weekend, college football reloads and we are one more week closer to the start of the best sport ever. No, not the National Football League, but college football! So kick back, relax, and enjoy some Crib Sheet tastiness:
No more fun for you football players out there! No more hidden shout outs on your black eye tap! No more wedge blocks? Okay, so the NCAA approved a couple of rules that tightens taunting on touchdown plays and removing points from the board, restricts players from putting messages on their black eye tape, and making the wedge block on kick offs illegal. Um, where did all of the fun go? If they were concerned about player safety or individuality like the pros, then they should pay them like a pro.
Chris Harper, the Oregon transfer, is pumped to switch to full time wide receiver for Kansas State. Back at Oregon, he tried to fulfill his dream of being quarterback and played a dual threat role. Ever since the Bill Snyder 2.0 coaches pulled him aside and said he could pull pro money if he went full time receiver, he’s been catching balls and being content. All it takes is the potential of major cash to change some one’s mind. America!
Welp, Mike Leach’s attorneys finally filed a lawsuit claiming his firing was all a big conspiracy. This was pretty much expected, unlike his firing. Isn’t he in Key West? Is he really in a hurry to get back to coaching? Maybe the pirate is trying to pilfer and plunder a couple of extra gold coins here.
Boise State will replace their beloved blue turf for ….. more blue turf! The glare from the light reflecting from the turf bothered everyone in the stands. The blue field itself still bothers us on the television. What could’ve been an advantage over opposing teams may seem like dressing for their rumored top 3 debut in the BCS Standings later this year.
Former Kansas State quarterback Dylan Meier died in a hiking accident in Arkansas. He was the quarterback from 2002-06. Our condolences go out this his family and friends.
Alrighty, we are in the 1st quarter of bowl season and fortunately we don’t have any Big 12 bowl games until next week. So we have the opportunity to preview and predict what’s coming up in the next couple of weeks for the Big 12. We’ll talk briefly about the match up and go into our expert predictions. Chew on this while you are doing your last minute shopping on Amazon. Oh and please pick us up something nice while you’re at it.
It was Bowl Season kick off over the weekend but it was hard to tell from all of the NFL action going on. That’s okay as we already are kicking up points for the Bowl Pick It and Stick series. We only have 3 games on the dockett so we’ll make this one short. Look for actual team picks on succeeding Mondays but for now, here’s where everyone stands. I Miss Manhattan has the confidence behind him and the lead at 12. Everyone else is within striking distance of each other. Some people forgot picks but if you were gonna do it, last weekend was the time to do so. We have a long ways to go and we’re just getting started. Here’s the standings:
Here we go! Bowl season starts tomorrow and we got your Bowl Pick It and Stick It ready to go! It’s the somewhat the same format as the regular season. For each of the 34 bowl games, you will need to assign confidence points. So for whoever you think will win the strongest, should get the highest confidence points and vice versa for the weakest. What’s different is the you need to pick the winner straight up. There is no spread points to play off of for the bowls. So head on over to Yahoo! Fantasy Sports and sign up! We’ll go over the bowls after break but first, here’s the info:
Welcome to the final Pick It and Stick It standings for the year of 2009. It’s been a wild year and we learned a couple of things from it. Forgetting a week is killer and next year, we’ll set it up so we can knock off the lowest scoring week. This will help out and maybe even save some things from the holidays or championship week. We also learned a little bit on how to play against the spread. Our recommendation to whoever wins the league (we’ll find out after the break) is to take that winning style to a bookie and spread out some small cash around next year. That is, if you are the gambling type. Speaking of which, we’ll also go over the prize and how we are going to deliver it (or not). Continue reading Pick It Standings: Final 2009→
The holiday weekend was rough on us and we barely made it back to Kansas City in time for some prime college football. Our hair was as greasy as the fried turkey we gobbled up for meal number two Thursday. But we made in, dropped off our stuff,, and headed to North Kansas City and Chappell’s Sports Museum and Restaurant. After running the gauntlet of food and family over the weekend it was nice to dig into the warmth and surprisingly quiet Chappell’s.
So we didn’t do a post yesterday because we were tooling around multiple cities and states for about 3 turkey dinners. We are in a massive food coma. Because of that, there’s no barspotting post. All is well, however, we’ll combine the pick it post later today. We’re kinda bummed out that we didn’t get to pick the Texas and Texas A&M games yesterday. That was the best game for pros and colleges alike. Anywho, we are actually having turkey for breakfast so we’ll check in later with stats, games, picks, and barspots. Happy Thanksgiving!
It’s a short week here at the KCCGD. We gotta pack up tonight and get ready to hit the highway big time for Turkey Day. We still have some time to get pumped for college football. Usually when you think of football and Thanksgiving, it’s the NFL games with Detroit and Dallas. But, there is even a bigger tradition for Thanksgiving and college football. Rivalries are all over the place and it’s spread out nicely across the whole weekend. So while the travel may be plentiful for us and maybe you, we are guaranteed some live college football at some point. Happy Thanksgiving and here’s the Crib Sheet:
ESPN Page 2 columnist Matthew Iles talks about some of the more goofy rivalry trophies in college football. We like the Old Brass Spittoon the best. I wonder if, at the end of the game, whether or no the winner spits in it and if it makes a ba-doing noise.
Florida State barely got bowl eligibility last weekend by edging out Maryland 29 – 26. Bobby Bowden may end up being forced out anyway at the end of the year. The guy has been getting from all sides down there.
Some Big 12 coaches are jumping to the defense of Kansas coach Mark Mangino. Mike Leech and Bob Stoops are covering for him, even though they are alot like him. The surprising one was Bill Snyder 2.0. Coaches need to look out for each other and we’re seeing a pretty good case of this right here.
Jimmy Clausen could have used some defense when he was cold cocked by a fan in front of a South Bend restaurant. Not very Catholic-like indeed. Jimmy’s out at the end of the year and heading to the NFL. This incident merely sealed the deal.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg for Notre Dame. Charlie Weis pretty much said it himself when we stated that there is no surprise if the Irish can him at the end of the year. Urban Meyer keeps telling the press he’s out, signaling the start of a new coaching search for the Domers. No more vaunted, Charlie Weis led, Notre Dame Fighthing Irish.
Taylor Potts last week wore ‘Nick’ on the back of his jersey, now we know why. Mike Leech talks about his man love former Kansas linebacker Nick Reid. He never met him but for some reason he’s always thought Reid was the ultimate football player. We’re still trying to figure this out. It did help inspire them to a win though.
The line for the BCS title is thinning as the number of undefeated teams are going down week by week. Last week it was both Iowa and Oregon that lost their ticket. Who will go down this week? We don’t know. But that question singularly defines what college football is and how unique it is to other sports. It truly is a complete playoff system. Now some others may not grasp it, but when you look at it year by year, the best teams usually bubble up. So tune in and see who goes down this weekend. Until then here’s this week’s crib sheet:
Brandon Spikes was already suspended for one half of the Florida vs Vanderbilt game, but now he went and suspended himself for the other half. It’s a good thing it’s Vanderbilt because they probably didn’t need him. Kudos to Spikes, even though it is a big PR move.
Dez Bryant’s appeal to the NCAA was rejected and now he’s going to the NFL Draft. This kid got the shaft big time. If the NCAA was to make an example out of someone, do it to someone who actually did something wrong. From now on the NCAA will be called the NC-SS.
Jahvid Best suffered a more serious concussion last weekend in a touchdown dive for California. This first one happened the week before and this lost him consciousness. Sit him for the rest of the season, coach. Let him recover.
Welp, it took being ranked 4th in the BCS Standings for TCU to sell out a home game. Granted, it’s against top 16 ranked Utah, but this is first time since 2006 that they had a sellout. This is why mid-cons don’t get respect. The fans need to show up for the games to help support their teams. Then they can get the big tv time and respect. At least they got some cool new uniforms.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz tells us that Ricky Stanzi is out until bowl season. This is a big blow to Iowa as they had BCS title chances before he went down and now they are just struggling to make a BCS bowl. At least there will be no Big 10 team in the title hunt this year.
