We’re getting into the downhill stretch for the season and it’s time for the frontrunners to clear out the pack. We’ve got it in the BCS but not so much in the Pick It and Stick It. The weekend’s events made it clear that if two teams win out, it’s all theirs, with others waiting in the wings. On the pick side of thing, I still don’t know what the hell is going on with the scoring system. It’s almost like the BCS. Let’s take a look at both.
The Big 12 used to be known for high scoring shoot outs. This year sees a return to defense as either the stars moved away to the NFL or schools coached up their kids. The only two top 10 offenses in college football this year that come from the Big 12 are Baylor and Oklahoma State. Guess who happens to play each other tomorrow? That game will be a shootout and is for the top spot in the Big 12 South. This year is turning out to be majorly weird. Don’t let that vex you as we set you up for this week’s Pick It and Stick It.
In the wake of one of the most massive events in history ever yesterday, not the election but the reintroduction to the McRib, I have yielded time to this week’s Crib Sheet introduction. Ronald McDonald Bless America:
With the historic win over Oklahoma, Missouri gets the coveted Peace Pipe. You know, the somewhat annual trophy given to the winner? Welp, apparently even the two teams forgot about it and lost it. You know a rivalry is lopsided when that happens.
Oklahoma State wide receiver Justin Blackmon ended up with a suspension for the Kansas State game last Saturday. That’s what happens when you drink and drive, kids. It didn’t really stop the Cowboys, though, as they throttled the Wildcats.
Notre Dame student Declan Sullivan died after injuries received from a blown over video tower. Look for the school to either ban it or put in a more permanent solution.
Will Ferrell said on ESPN College GameDay that, “It’s scientific law that Baylor cannot beat Texas at Texas.” Baylor ended up winning that game. I’m betting Ferrell picked USC to win over Oregon as well. Those are some funny pics.
Expansion, as we have learned, is never done. The Big East will get on the expansion bandwagon as they voted to expand to 10 teams at board of director’s meeting Tuesday. Who will they grab? Notre Dame of course.
Yesterday was the first Halloween at the new place and I have to say that the trick or treater representation was mega weak. Me and my lovely lady had two big ole bags of variety candy and we only about 5 kids show up. As of right now, we are through one bag. I’m not sure I can make much more as the thought of gnawing down another Charleston Chew is starting to make me sick. There was plenty to be sick about for college football around the Kansas City area as well as the Pick It and Stick It sets so let’s bring a glass water for this
The BCS Standings are out and it’s time to start wiping away the competition. Oklahoma and Missouri will lock horns tomorrow to find out who will be worthy from the Big 12. We also have LSU battling Auburn for SEC worthiness. The pretenders are wiping away and it’s all downhill for the road to the BCS Championship Game. The pretenders will also start wiping away in our Pick It and Stick It challenge. Let’s take a look at what’s on the windshield for this week.
It looks as though the NFL cracked down on concussions and big time hits, doling out suspensions for head on collisions now. What does this mean for college football? Probably the same type of suspension. I’m not sure they will completely lock down like they do in the NFL. I’m guessing that this sport may be going away in the next 15 years, or at least it will turn into more of an arena style of play. Even for the colleges. Now check out the Crib Sheet:
Looks like Kansas State’s leading receiver Brandon Smith is out for the year with a broken leg suffered from last week’s Nebraska schilacking. Chris Harper will have to step up to fill the role. We’re going to wait and see about the Oregon trasnfer.
We’ve heard of backups on the field, but backups for mascots? That’s what Georgia had with “Russ” when UGA VII died unexpectedly. Welp last Saturday saw the return of the starter in UGA VIII. He’s officially registered as “Big Bad Bruce” but he’ll be UGA VII for everyone here on out.
Right before his potential start in the NFL, Colt McCoy will have his jersey retired at Texas. He’s the sixth player from Longhorn country to get his jersey retired and it may be the last one for awhile. Even though the guy never won a national championship, he has won more games in 4 years than any other in college football history. That deserves the rub.
Your new Ole Miss mascot is: The Rebel Black Bear. Okay, so it was from a William Faulkner story and he went there so it makes sense. We can’t help but think that Admiral Ackbars would’ve been a better fit. Oh, and there is some controversy with the name still.
Another coach banned Twitter for his football players. This time it’s Butch Davis and North Carolina. He needs to ban them from talking to sports agents. While he’s at it, he needs to ban assistants from talking to sports agents, too.
Get your claws ready, Missouri Tigers fans, ESPN College GameDay is heading to Columbia. Did you know it’s the first time they’ve been there? It’s about time, too, as I think they’ve been to Manhattan and Lawrence before.
Rutgers defensive tackle Eric LeGrand was left paralyzed from the neck down due to a tackle he made against Army last Saturday. It really sucks when this happens but players have walked again from this kind of injury. Let’s hope he can get up off the chair real soon.
Pace University football player Danoy Henry was killed by the police in a freakish accident. The police were saying that Henry tried to escape the police and ran into another officer, which led to officers firing into the car and killing him. The other side says that the cop jumped on the hood and fired. We may not know whatever happened and this is certainly a tragedy.
It’s that time of the year people! No, not when we break our backs raking leaves, but the time when the BCS Stadings start coming out! For those of you that follow the blog religiously know that we like to take some time out of the heated Pick It and Stick It Standings to go over the BCS fight as well. We’re in week 7 of the picks and there’s a large gap between #2 and #3. Will it grow or shrink in the weeks to come? Meanwhile, the first BCS Standings show that computers are way smarter than people and they also like surprises too.
This week’s standings are in and we are still figuring out just how to work the angles. Starting out, it made sense that we made the picks a little more hardcore. Picking just one team over the other seemed way to simple to the kind of fans that lurk around these parts. Oh, we’re glad we set it up the way we did, but we sure are reminded today that we can’t fall asleep at the wheel. The weekly picks by design are supposed to affect the overall but it doesn’t seem that way. Much like Les Miles crazy fake field goal that eventually put LSU over Florida. Pick It and Stick is part design, part luck.
The big game last night didn’t end up so well for this Kansas State fan. Hey, that’s okay. We tooled to Aggiveille and hit up the Hibachi Hit, which later lead to the vaunted Hibachi Butt. Maybe it was the mixture of great cajun food and the Carbomb we had at O’Malley’s Alley. Who knows? But it was great to see the old stomping grounds, even though the Wildcats were run over by Taylor Martinez and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. More on that with Monday’s post. Until then, we have some picks for the weekend we need to go through. The healing process begins with pickens.
Okay so this will be a lil weird. Barspotting found me outside of Kansas City again Saturday for the second week in a row. This time, I was in Minnesota. Minneapolis to be exact. So prior obligations held me up north and by some crazy chance I was able to stumble into a sports bar up there to catch at least one football game. Among the lessons learned on this trip was that regional football coverage can sometimes cramp your football watching style. Well that and onion rings alone can be pretty tasty.
Okay so in case you’ve heard we are heading up north. Yup, it’s gonna be chilly but hopefully not as chilly as some of the picks we have this week. There’s only 25, our lowest of the year so far, and we’re feeling the pinch of lower confidence points. Pick well, every one. Dig down deep and go for more. You’ll need to be spot on for this set and probably the rest of the sets.
You know, I don’t know what it is with the travelling all of the sudden, but here we go again on our own. Going down that only road that, well, leads straight from Kansas City to Minneapolis/St. Paul. Otherwise I-35. I’ve been (unofficially) down I-35 to Austin, Texas and now I’m heading up north to check out Minnesota. Prior obligations find myself out there and I’m hoping to get some football down while I do it. A little birdie told me that Minnesota is hosting Northwestern for homecoming so I might check it out. Otherwise, it might be a great sports bar in town or more than likely Hooters at the Great Mall of America. God I hope it’s the homecoming game.
It’s the year of FCS upsets so far. The first week saw North Dakota State upsetting Kansas and Jacksonville State putting one on Ole Miss. Then last weekend, James Madison beat ranked Virginia Tech. It just goes to show you that the competition can be heated on any given Saturday. If a team gets too big for itself, it may overlook another opponent. That’s just enough to tilt the victory meter away from them. We are always humble with our conference powerhouse that is the Crib Sheet, so check it out:
We’re heard of strange injuries before but having a ‘bowel injury’ takes the cakes. That’s what Arkansas Razorback Dennis Johnson had that left him out of Saturday’s game against Georgia. We hope he can plug it up for next week.
What two better teams to play in Jerry Jones’ Cowboys Stadium to kickoff the season than LSU and Oregon. Huh? That’s right, the ‘Cowboys Classic’ will be held by two teams not in the Big 12. Doesn’t make sense at all.
Oh by the way. The lawsuit between former K-State coach Ron Prince and the university will be moving back to the courtroom. It looks as though both sides want an immediate judgement. Not sure if it’s gonna happen. We’ll keep you posted.
All signs are pointing to Colorado joining the Pac 12 in 2012. They wanted to move earlier, but the stars couldn’t align just right. Maybe after the California whupping put on the Buffaloes pushed them back a year.
The plane carrying McNeese State had to make an emergency landing on the way to the Missouri game. Apparently, a tire blew out on take off. That would scare the heck out of me. No wonder those kids didn’t fare to well against the Tigers.
The New York Times points out that the Big 1o makes its money because of the fans. And the fans who would pay a massive premium to see the Big 10 games. So the Times points out what we know already: control the college sports in the conference and you can make some major bank.
It looks like Villanova is looking over an invitation to the Big East. This would be an upgrade in the football program as they were FCS last year. They are a part of the Big East in virtually every other sport. We hope this helps keep the conference together for a little bit longer.
One of our favorite football people, former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach, will get his own radio show on Sirius. He’s doing that and CBS. Will he ever be back to the sidelines? Maybe after these gigs pay off his lawyer fees for his suit against Texas Tech.
A bunch of Missouri football players formed a rap group. The Kentucky Boulevard Boys look to take over the scene like they take over the football field. Yeah, whatever. Call me when they get a recording contract. Oh, and try to focus on the playbook and not your lyric book for the next couple of weeks. We know it’s a cakewalk schedule but you need to be getting better now, not in a month.
Michigan’s Denard Robinson is your Heisman leader after two weeks and it makes real sense. He single-handedly carried the Wolverines past Notre Dame last Saturday. If he gets his wheel injured, the whole season is over for Michigan.
Reggie Bush, on the other hand, will forfeit his Heisman. It seems the pressure and guilt for playing with a bunch of ineligible players in 2005 was just too much. Vince Young, the runner-up, tweeted that he will be happy leaving it vacant, even though he said he wanted it earlier this week.
Speaking of Twitter, Miami of Florida’s head coach Randy Shannon just banned it for his players. It seems the beat down Oklahoma gave the Hurricanes was enough to warrant this punishment. Maybe the team can play their way back into getting access?
The new NCAA President Mark Emmert wants to get tougher on the rule breakers. Yet, he wants to make sure the pro sports leagues and players’ unions are happy. Let’s face it. The NCAA is irrelevant. It seems all they do is choke the players from making money so they can make more money. A free education is great for these athletes, but they are stopping adults from making adult business decisions. Someone needs to stop these guys, they are like cassette tapes.
And it looks like the WAC is suing Nevada and Fresno State so they can stay in the WAC for the 2011-2012 season. You know, with the way expansion has been handled in the offseason, wouldn’t the WAC have some sort of contingency in place? Instead of suing, why not invite a couple of Big Sky schools in? Nope, because they are a sub par conference, they will sue their way around things. This conference will die a slow burning death.
Alrighty, I’m about halfway through my scotch and water, I blasted out another Crib Sheet, and I’m jacked up for some football tomorrow night. It’s prediction time! The offseason sucked. Period. Being in Big 12 land was not easy on this college football lovin’ Yeti and especially not easy on Kansas City. We weathered the storm and now we are here ready for some pigskin play. What will we see in this year’s volume of football? Let’s take a look in our crystal ball shaped glass full of scotch and water.
Mike Leach will lose his CBS announcing job for making Gus Johnson stand in the bathroom with no light.
Mark Ingram will not be a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, thanks to the fresh knee injury.
The Oregon Ducks will win the Pac 10, both for best dressed and actual gold.
Colorado loses a bunch of games and Dan Hawkins stays on because the school is too broke to fire him out of his contract.
Caoch Brian Kelly will talk NBC into going into commerical breaks for opposing teams’ offensive drives only. Oh and the Fighting Irish will make a bowl.
Missouri will win the North, only because Nebraska’s ego and farewell tour will fall flat.
Daniel Thomas will be a Heisman finalist, thanks to a solid offensive line and the fact that he will get his yards with the whole defense keying on him. Thanks, Carson Coffman.
Boise State will go undefeated and not make the dance. People are saying its the weak schedule, but it will be because of an undefeated team in the Big 10 and one other conference. Look for Orrin Hatch to have an aneurism over this one.
This will be Lee Corso’s last season for ESPN College GameDay. It’s been a hell of a ride, Lee, just please don’t put on the Grim Reaper’s head when it’s your time to go.
This will be the fastest season ever for the Kansas Jayhawks. By fast, we mean the fans will be ready for basketball season about 2 games in. Turner Gill’s rebuilding starts this year, he’s got at least 3 before some magic happens.
Iowa State will be in the bottom of the league again, but they will get an upset some big team because of a massive rain storm. Hey their practice field flooded over the summer, they should be ready.
Texas just missed the mark in the Big 12 South. Not because of the competition, but for the cliffhanger they want to leave for next season’s Longhorns Network debut. Stay Tuned! Same horn time! Same horn channel!
Big Game Bob goes to a BCS game but will not be game as the Sooners bob and weave from some other big team beaming game time bashings. Probably against Virginia Tech and Frank BEAMER.
The Big East has a seasson. No one really cares.
RichRod makes a valiant effort and gets the Wolverines into a bowl game. It will be the weakest one from the Big 10 and it will be enough to get him fired. He will then go on and make real estate deals with everyone in the Ann Arbor region.
USC doesn’t get close to a Pac 10 championship and Lane Kiffin leaves after just one season. The Kiffin world tour moves on!
Florida misses Tim Tebow and will miss being in the running for the SEC. Urban Meyer gets sick and dies from the piss poor play on the field.
Kansas City sports bars will stay the same this year. No one will get 3D TVs because the mixture of 3D and beer will make everyone puke. Some new bars will crop up and the KCCGD crew will eventually puke in those anyway.
We’re going back to our 2008 prediction about Joe Paterno dieing on the field. Now that Bobby Bowden is out, this one should get much easier. Or will he be in the booth this year?
Okay, we called the BCS National Championship game two years ago with Florida and Oklahoma, we were halfway right with Texas last year in the big game. What will happen this year? Well, the trend says we will get it all wrong so there’s nothing to lose. I’m thinking the offseason hype for the Big 10 will lead a team to a title contention. Since the only team that’s worth a damn up there is Ohio State, then that’s our pick. Chances are the SEC will be mega tough again this year and barring any late push by an Oregon or a Big 12 team, we are going the easy route and picking SEC. Whose turn is it? Let’s go LSU. Why not. Can you say 2007 rematch?
The beating heat of the summer is getting to us. We’re producing an inordinate amount of swass underneath while compiling this week’s very beefy Crib Sheet. We’re going for some lemonade and to air our sweat regions. Here’s the Crib Sheet:
It’s official, via text message, that Bryce Brown will not be coming back to Tennessee. Will he land at Kansas State? The way Daniel Thomas is looking might draw the Wichita, Kansas native back home to the Wildcats. Tennessee will not release him from his scholarship so that will slow him down.
Big 12 Media Days for Kansas was all about Turner Gill. He landed a great hire at offensive coordinator and Chuck Long. It’s a rebuilding year and they are trying to stay focused on the field and not with all the crap that happened off of it.
Colorado’s Big 12 media day was not as exciting as leat year’s. Oh, they’re stoked this year but we got the sense that they are distracted about moving to the Pac 10. One thing is for sure, if Cody Hawkins starts for the Buffaloes, they will lose every time.
Oklahoma, on the other hand, spent the day talking about the huge expectations they have. Yes, they had a ton of injuries last year. That means that the younger kids have more experience and more time with each other. They should be tough, but we’re not sold yet on national title tough.
Texas A&M’s media day was unheard of. You’d think the cash they got in the expansion deal means that they command more respect at the podium but apparently not.
Texas Big 12 media days was alot like just hanging out. Coach Mack Brown handled the alignment talk well and also took care of the Nebraska contigent in a subdued kind of way.
The assistant coach who took a punch from head coach Mike Locksley sued both him and New Mexico for the fight. We’re thinking he lost the actual fight and is now taking it to the courts.
So assistant coach Mark Nelson of East Carolina resigned because of NCAA allegations that he evaluated players in off-season workout and conditioning drills. Huh? Coaches evaluate all the time. That’s what they do. The NCAA is beginning to be irrelevant and completely out of touch.
Oklahoma running back Mossis Madu got a DUI. He’ll probably be benched for the half of the first game.
ESPN is going 3d! They will broadcast a couple of college football games in the new tech as well. Check out the list here.
IMG bought ISP Sports and now is the mega daddy of all agencies that license pro and college sports media to outlets. These guys will have some major pull when it comes to bringing in more bucks from the supposed holy grail of television deals for college athletics.
Former Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli is walking on to Ole Miss in the hopes of still playing football. He was booted off the Ducks for burglary and weed smoking. We all believe in second chances right? This second chance will have a short leash.
Iowa State defender David Simms plead guilty to credit card fraud that he originally denied. It looks like his career might be over up there.
Bill Snyder 2.0 goes old school with his scheduling philosophy for the Kansas State Wildcats. They had Oregon on the schedule, but now they are off. The excuse was the new 9 team schedule for the conference coming up. It was also mutual. So will Miami be next off the list?
