It’s time to go camping! The teams are gearing up and we geared up for our own camp adventure last week. :
The two biggest movers and shakers from the off season’s expansion bonanza might actually play each other. There was the talk of Notre Dame and none other than Texas will play each other in a couple of years. Good for both programs. If the Longhorns end up with an exclusive television station, this game might only be played on Longhorns TV and NBC.
Assistant coach Bruce Walker from Missouri was arrested last week on a DWI. The coaches and some of their wives were coming back from a trip to the Lake of the Ozarks. Now we’ve been down there many times and we can say that more than likely you will be coming back drunk from down there. A cab was called, he should’ve taken it. But hey, Missouri’s used to making bad choices, right?
Meanwhile, in Ames, Iowa State defensive back David Simms plead guilty to the credit card fraud charge. He sits out the first game against Northern Illinois. See kids? Crime doesn’t pay (kinda).
Not only does Kansas have to deal with Holden Tharp’s year ending injury, but now they have to change the fight song! Colorado and Nebraska are somehow featured in the song and since they are high tailing out of the conference, new words must be had.
So while Boise State’s head coach Chris Peterson banned Twitter use for players, the player who incited the haymaker from LeGarrette Blount spoke up and let us know what he said. “How ’bout that (expletive)-whuppin?” So Blount was talking smack before the game and this guy threw it in his face afterward.
The Bill Snyder 2.0 magic is in effect. The Kansas State Wildcats reported record contributions for the last year. It also helps that a very public blunder by Bob Krause fed the anxiety of said contributors.
The USA Today Top 25 pre season poll is out! Top five in order are Alabama, Ohio State, Florida, Texas, and Boise State. Yes, a mid major is up there and TCU is not far behind. Big 12 wise we have Oklahoma and Nebraska at 8 and 9 respectively. How much will this change in the next couple months? We can’t wait for the season to get here.
UCLA is falling apart right before Kansas State’s eyes. The middle game is gone with two season ending injures and an academically ineligible tag. We think Daniel Thomas is drooling just a little bit more at this rushing opportunity.
Texas saved the Big 12, or what we are going to call it: the Big 12 (10). The Pac 10 wouldn’t let Texas have its own network so the Longhorns opted to stay. When the Big 12 (10) first started years ago, it was because of TV and money. They led the way into the new television era and now they are doing it again. In the future, you will see each school have its own television network and it will start with Texas and the Big 12 (10). Okay, maybe Notre Dame. At any rate, Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M are getting more money to stay now. Apparently, it’s status quo time as no real commitment will be required and they are basing staying together by some magic coalition of insiders and outsiders. It’s a 10 team league with no potential for a championship game and more round robin type play on the field. Most importantly, Kansas City has some life in its sports scene now. So let’s all take a breath and check out this week’s Crib Sheet:
The Oregon Ducks dismissed quarterback Jeremiah Masoli for drug possession and other citations. It looks as though this is no LeGarrette Blount situation. Masoli is out for good for the Quack Attack.
Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins is cleared for any wrongdoing in the blackmail of equipment case. His job is safe for now, but he still needs to clear the hurdle on ticket scandal.
Missouri got the could shoulder big time and the local indie newspaper The Pitch talks about how hard they go the shaft. Poor Tigers. They’ve been talking smack the loudest in all of this and now they’ve been reduced to abandonment. At least they are used to it.
Chip Brown, the guy who broke most of the actual news in this expansion talk, confirmed that last Friday was the day that Nebraska went official and joined the Big 10. It’s still early to tell, but this guy has been the one who has called it so far so we’ll trust him when he says something else is up.
Boise State will now be in the Mountain West Conference. They were tired of dominating the WAC for so long and decided to up the competition by playing TCU and Utah every year. Will this be enough to put the Mountain West on the BCS map? Well, considering the Big 12 (10) is still around, they will have a much harder time getting there.
Here’s the preliminary Big 12 (10) television schedule. Interesting match ups include the UCLA at K-State, Florida State at Oklahoma, and the losers leave game with Colorado and Nebraska taking each other on.
So the Pac 10 lost out on some Big 12 powerhouses and we’ve learned that commissioner Larry Scott flew to Texas and Oklahoma, but was also scheduled to make it to Kansas City. Was Kansas a backup plan? We don’ t have to worry about it for now.
Stanley Ikenberry, interim president for Illinois, says that 12 is a good number for the Big 10. After all that’s happened so far, we think that he means that it’s good but it could get better. Don’t be surprised if the Big 10 starts going on the hunt again, maybe even real soon.
Dan Beebe in his working with keeping the Big 12 (10) alive, knocked his hometown conference’s fan allegiance. He says that they are about as fair weather as Missouri fans when it comes to athletic competitions. Man he pulled out all the punches for this one.
Speaking of Missouri, Governor Jay Nixon ran his mouth off again dissing outgoing schools Colorado and Nebraska. This guy pretty much shut out the Tigers from going to the Big 10 and now his state’s school needs to rebuild some bridges burned. That means he needs to get out of this and let the school handle it, please.
The Oklahoma Sooners are interested in a television network, too. You know, instead of conference wide networks, it makes sense to do school specific. It’s the next natural progression and would benefit each school in showing other athletic events and possibly cultural and governmental ones too.
The Senior Bowl is coming this week and the NFL Network has LIVE coverage…..of the practices. Okay, so up to the minute updates on who practiced well and who practiced crappy is fine, but non stop coverage of weigh-ins and such? You gotta be kidding me. I guess we live in a day and age where picking through a player’s stool and reporting on what he had for lunch is considered news. Plus we have enough cameras out there to film it. Please, just read the Crib Sheet:
The East beat the West last week. No, it was another exciting game of Axis and Allies, but it was the East-West Shrine Game! Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka tossed a late touchdown to help the East win. Alrighty, then.
Boise State is celebrating another undefeated season and complaining that they don’t have a shot for the top BCS honors. Never mind the fact that they turned down a 2-1 proposal from Nebraska on their scheduling. If you remember, earlier this year, Boise State complained that they could never schedule big time opponents including Nebraska. So now this time around they turn away from an invite from the Huskers? That’s small-time mentality there.
Tim Tebow’s planning on doing a pro-life commercial during the Super Bowl and, naturally, some women’s groups are urging CBS not to air. It is a very political issue but we’re thinking since organization backing Tebow’s appearance paid for the spot, CBS could use more green than urging to bump the commercial.
Okay, freshly back from a wedding in California (not MY wedding), I’m now ready to actually talk about the BCS title game and the year that was college football. We’re going to talk about the game that could’ve been, the season that was bookended by injuries, and some other interesting notes that popped up over the season. So, while this is a little late, sit back and enjoy us on your little trip through college football memory lane. Please keep your arms and head inside the windows.
It’s all over folks. The pageantry, the glory, the excitement, and yes the picks. The title game proved there are many ways to tell the story of a game and we also found out that there are many ways to tell the story of the Bowl Pick It and Stick It. In the case of the latter, it was actually pretty boring. But hey, it gives us something more to share with each other when we celebrate the spectacle that is college football. So with that in mind, let’s go over the very last pick it update of the season:
The holidays are over and we have just 4 games left to go on the Bowl Pick It and Stick It. We here at the KCCGD all feel about 10 pounds heavier after chugging through the holiday foods and drinks. So while we go map out a plan to lose the flab, check out the latest updates. Please note: there are some games left off from the results that we are saving for the last update. The final numbers will be a little off. That said, here’s the update:
…will not be discussed here. We’ve seen enough on the other websites so we are just going to say this was the best decade evar. All due to the KCCGD. Plus we’re still drying off from all of the snow that’s still dumping outside. Fortunately, there’s a bowl game on every night to keep us warm and cozy. New Year Eve and Day will be packed full of bowls as well. It’s the last huzzah of the college football season and the decade, help us celebrate in in style! Until then, here’s this week’s crib sheet:
TCU head coach Gary Patterson is your AP Head Coach of the Year. The former Kansas State alum took a mid-con team undefeated and in the top ranks of the BCS. This guy deserves it. Now only if he rides out the contract a couple of years and takes over for Bill Snyder 2.0 in a couple of years. Heck, they may be a part of the Big 12 in a couple of years anyway. Congrats, coach.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon took some pot shots at Texas Tech and Oklahoma State while trumping up support for the rumored Missouri move to the Big 10. Basically he said those schools housed dumb people. Boy if the Tigers stay in the Big 12 after all of this, look out for some revenge to be had in the next couple of seasons.
Sarah Thomas was the first female official to game a bowl Saturday at the Little Caesars Bowl. Some true ground was broken and word has it, she’s being eyeballed by the NFL. So now all we need to see are some ladies on the field competing. But not a Kathy Ireland type thing.
He’s in, he’s out, he’s somewhat both. Last weekend, Urban Meyer resigned from the team, announced he was coaching the Sugar Bowl, then announced he was coming back next year. Apparently this all was due to health issues. We think that many Florida fans and alums are experienced some heart related health issues upon hearing this set of news.
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:
We here at the KCCGD decided to split off the BCS Standings from the Pick It and Stick because of how important the BCS announcements were over the weekend. We’ll go in depth into some of the games and the final standings. Later on either this week or next, we’ll take a look at the bowls and maybe a specific Big 12 bowl post. Right now, it’s BCS time. As eveyone should know by now, the BCS Championhip game will be held in Pasadena, California at the Rose Bowl and it will be between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Texas Longhorns. It’s not without controversy, however. First, here are the final standings:
We’re getting back on the treadmill to work off last weekend’s Turkey gauntlet. The timing is perfect as he have lots to feast on this weekend with conference championships going on all over the place. Hopefully the belt won’t be too tight to enjoy the big games filling up the screens. As an appetizer to the weekend, we have a Crib Sheet spilling over with news this week. So without further ado, here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
Rivarly Week rolls up into Saturday and we want to spend some time giving homage to what could be Mark Mangino’s last football game. Rumor has it that the kids will lay down Saturday and then be up to play their last game against Kansas next weekend. Mark Mangino has been a huge butt of jokes in recent years because of his orca-fat status. Now being a former orca-fat guy myself, I can sympathize with him (no I’m not writing a Whitlock article). Being that big doesn’t excuse you from being a total jerk. If Mangino was throwing his weight around alot, then it could be very damaging. Maybe one or two incidents would be overlooked but if it’s been more and more frequent, then the whole body of work will make him more guilty. It looks as though the evidence against him is bursting at the seams and we’ll see this guy on the unemployment line next week. See you later, Mark Mangino, it was fun while it lasted and we hope to see you on The Biggest Loser soon.
Okay, so the few of you out there that actually read the blog may be wondering, why so late today? Welp doing some freelancing on the side left this guy knee deep in a bunch of cables and computer parts. No worries, however, as we are coming in close to the deadline to talk about our tiny little trip out to Paddy O’Quigley’s to watch a little football, celebrate a 30th birthday, and jam out to some peeps belting out face melters on karaoke.
This week we passed over the voting in lieu of celebrating a friends birthday. Granted some of us must work this weekend and can only squeeze in some night game, but that’s okay. Why? We are heading back to Paddy O’Quigley’s but we are doing down in south Leawood. The last O’Quigley’s was a bland and boring experience and since then it has closed down. We are hopeful that Saturday brings us a better event. It doesn’t matter really because a 30th birthday will be had. Come on out and help us celebrate!
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.
We’re packing again and heading out west again, but this time it’s a little farther. A full tank of gas and some pajammy jams are all locked up and we will be hitting the road after work. Road trips are a big deal to the KCCGD family and we’re happy to take another one for the weekend. Make sure you have good tunes, some tasty drinks, and the right company for road trips. Also, bring a camera because you’ll never know what you’ll see. Hopefully, we’ll get to pick up a pecan log from Stuckey’s on the way. Here’s the the pick set for the week: