The Brand New Big Ten!

So this week the Big Ten unveiled is new logo and its new divisions, since it started off this last around of college alignment by poaching Nebraska from the Big 12. And even though there is now 12 members, the conference will always be known as the Big Ten. I really doubt the conference would ever change its name, which is basically a brand and not so much just a conference. The logo isn't as creative as the old one, which had the 11 number put in the negative space, but its not bad. Its big, bold, retro, like the Big Ten.

So we have the divisions, Leaders and Legends. Right, which is basically pretentious and not that well thought out. Ohio St and Penn St are in the Leaders, even though they more known for their legendary traditions. It probably looked really good and sounded great in the flashy power point presentation but seems kinda stupid to the outsiders. The Leaders division will include, Ohio St, Penn St, Illinois, Purdue, Wisconsin, and Indiana. The Legends will be Iowa, Michigan St, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Northwestern.

The entire conference is set towards honoring the history of the Big Ten. The championship trophy is named after two great Big Ten coaches, Stagg-Paterno, and then the Big Ten Coach of yea will get the Hayes-Schembechler trophy. Basically, it is all self love for the conference and what it has done for the last hundred years.

Too bad Notre Dame missed out on joining in, they love beating off to their own history.

College Football Week 12-13

Plenty has happened in the past couple of weeks, shame on me for being lazy....just a lot easier to watch football than find time to write about it. And I love Nathan Williams, a beast for OSU defense.

Notre Dame Finishes Strong...for once: It is all about how you finish. 7-5 looks a lot better when its due to a 3 game win streak than a 3 game losing streak. ND has not had a strong November in quite a few years, Weiss' run was notorious for having his team fall apart as the season came to a close. Kelly has had a rough year, that looked like it was about to fall apart when October turned nasty, but they held together. They found a defense and managed to play tough, old school ND football. And not to be forgotten, but that 8 year losing streak to USC was finally broken with a 20-16 win in LA. They will get some eh bowl, or maybe something decent cause ND brings money, and hopefully another win. It is all about how you finish.

I wonder what Urban Meyer is thinking: Last season, Florida was an offensive juggernaut that was poised to win a 3rd National Championship. Meyer and Tebow was an unstoppable team, well not totally, Bama rolled them over but then they came back to utterly destroy Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl. It is jarring to see, this season, how incredibly inept and ineffective the Gator's offense is. Florida St is better but looked like they were in another class in the rival game and finally broke the 6 game winning streak of the Gators over Seminoles. When you see Florida's trio of QBs all doing badly, inceptions and fumbles, Urban Meyer must be thinking, "I wish Tebow was here." I think it is a rare thing for a coach and player to seem to be fundamentally link in all phases of the game. Meyer has been able to adjust and tweak his offense when it moved from Leak to Tebow but there was no answer to Brantley, Burton, or Reed. It will be interesting to see what happens in the off season and into next year, Meyer has things to change.

The Fallen Lone Star: It has to be a historic fall. Texas was really one bad throw away from winning the BCS National Championship and now they are not even ranked. They are 5-7, not going anyway to any bowl this year for the first time since the late 90s. Mac Brown is going to really look through his staff and heads will roll for whats happened. Texas has no issue with gaining talent so they will rise again but it might be harder than it was. The Big 12, or soon to be 10, has much more depth now with rising powers in Oklahoma St, Missouri, Texas A&M and possibly Texas Tech. I wouldn't be surprised if Texas reigns supreme next season over the diminished conference but its hold will be more tenuous than in past years.

The Big Ten's Big Three: Wisconsin, Ohio St, and Michigan St will all share the title of Big Ten Champions this year. Each of the teams will end with a one loss record in the conference and showed varying degrees of dominance throughout the year. Wisconsin put on another show of force and seemed to be on a totally other level than Northwestern. Ohio St and Michigan went at it again in "The Game" but its definitely not the same game. Ohio St has owned Michigan the last couple of years and the only real game of national consequence was in 2006 when the teams were ranked 1 and 2. And like last year, it wasn't competitive and Ohio St extends its winning streak. The only close game was Michigan St and Penn St where Joe Pa created a rally in the 4th quarter that ultimately failed. Wisconsin has the highest BCS rank and will then go out to the Rose Bowl and Ohio St will likely go to the Sugar Bowl.

BCS Busting Bronco's Busted: The Boise St Broncos have been always knocking on the door to get into the BCS championship game, they are the constant outsider. They had played perfect through 11 games, sometimes being challenged and sometimes just walking through weak teams. They got one final test against a ranked Neveda team but even that wasn't expected to be a loss. This is why we play the game, cause Neveda pulled off the upset mostly thanks to Boise St missing two field goals. They missed one to win the game and then missed one to win the OT, so Neveda comes out with the big win. TCU is now the only non-automatic qualifier school that can possible get into the Championship game is Oregon or Auburn loses.

Newton rolls back the Tide: I honestly thought that Alabama would beat Auburn and for the first half of the game if seemed like I was right. Alabama was rolling with offense and Auburn had no answers, so yea everything was going right. Of course there are two halves in Football and Auburn turned the game around. Cam Newton seems to have cemented himself as this year's Heisman winner, barring any real evidence coming out about a pay for play issue. I think its ironic that Alabama's starting qb gets knocked out of the game, and that ultimately is what causes them to lose. Alabama knocked out Texas' Colt McCoy in the Championship game and made that game much easier to win.

Golden Moment

Notre Dame hasn't had many Golden Moments in the past few years, and this year has definitely been up and down. Utah came in as the 14th ranked team, after getting punched in the face by TCU, and Notre Dame just lost to an FCS school with a last drive interception. Utah was at least a two touchdown favorite with its average scoring offense of 44 points and ND's defense is porous at best. Notre Dame needed two wins to get to a bowl game, though it looked like more that 6-6 would be the best they could muster. They had tons of injuries, almost all of their star players, which totaled about 400 yards of offense a game. The death of the young student due to unsafe wind conditions has only added another heavy cloud on Kelly. And of course, it was a raining and dark day over the stadium.

I considered this the game of their season, and they rose to the challenge. ND put on a dominating performance with a 28-3 win over the Utes. They played like the old school Irish, the physical line play, strong running game, and great special teams play. They played like Kelly had been pushing for them to play, and it finally paid off. They looked impressive, they looked like they were finally realizing expectations.

Now I'm not stupid, this was probably more a colossal failure on the part of Utah. They were flat and lifeless, they had no energy. The blowout loss at home to TCU still broke the spirit of the team. You basically had one team playing for its season and one team still holding on to the loss of its biggest game.

I am trying not to read too much into what the win might mean for the rest of the year. They need one more win for bowl eligibility, which seems possible against Army. It would be a nice change of pace over the past couple of seasons if they can finish strong, and not finish falling apart. If they can keep up their new identity, then they could win out the rest of the year and give USC all it can handle.

Fight Irish Fight

College Football Week 9

Well its become rather apparent this is not my season, though it really didn't take the 9th week of the season to figure it out. And well aware this cover is a season old, but its still enjoyable to look at.

I'm not sure where the luck of the Irish is but its not with Notre Dame this year. They lose a home game to Tulsa and lose their starting QB for 6 months. With a 4-5 record, the most likely outcome of the season will be 5-7, so Kelly's hopeful year has turned into a disaster.

Texas lost to Baylor, which isn't so bad considering Baylor is ranked and Texas isn't, but it does speak to the mighty big fall the team has taken. The only saving parts of this season is the big win over Nebraska at home and if they can beat A&M this year. They seem likely to make it to a bowl game at 7-5 but its definitely a far cry from last year's championship team.

Florida stopped it losing streak when an overtime win over Georgia. They are not the powerhouse of offense of the Tebow era and I'm doubtful this rotating QBs will work for the long haul. At 5-3, they still have a chance to win the SEC east and play in the Championship game at the end of the year. They have two major games with South Carolina and Florida St, but both of those teams have trouble playing well every game. If the Gators can beat SC, then they should be able to handle Fl St and end the season well.

The Big Ten Conference has become very murky with Iowa absolutely demolishing undefeated Michigan St. Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan St, and OSU all have one loss in the conference and it all come down to tie breakers. OSU and Iowa do play one another, so that will weed out one team out of the tie. And as we know, every week there is an upset so I wouldn't be surprised if another team drops. In the second tier of teams, Penn St takes care of Michigan, so Michigan's slide continues on. Michigan has only one sure win left on their schedule, Purdue, so its possible after their 4 and 0 start they end up 6-6. Penn St seems like 7-5, unless they can pull an upset over OSU, unlikely, or Michigan St, more likely.

The BCS standings, at least the most important positions 1 and 2, won't be changing. Auburn and Oregon put on great performances and truly look elite. Auburn has a harder schedule to finish, especially with defending champions, Alabama, waiting for them. Then Auburn would have to play in the SEC championship game, while Oregon just has Oregon State at the end.

In the World of Sports

Its been a rather dark day in the world of Sports, or well, it has been in the world of Tommy Sports.

All of my teams are doing rather badly...

Florida is on a losing streak that has been going on for three games now...

Texas got dropped out of the 25, then sparked to upset Nebraska, and then got beaten by Iowa State...

Notre Dame had a nice win streak and then got smashed by Navy, so at best, we are looking at a 6-6 season.

Ohio State was ranked number 1 in the nation, and then got punched by Wisconsin...

The NFL isn't going so bad, but I get more emotional about college games. The passion is higher cause every game matters and you have these kids' futures on the line.

Browns are underwhelming as always but scored a massively awesome upset in New Orleans on Sunday. This continues the streak of the Browns beating the Super Bowl Champion, somehow they always do it...Giants, Steelers, and now the Saints. Go Brownies! McCoy definitely seems to be doing well, which is a nice change from his pre-season play.

Denver has continued to slide and hit rock bottom on Sunday with a 59-17 loss at home to the Raiders. The very idea of a team losing by that margin in pro football is astounding, let alone it being the home team. I only really root for the team cause of Tebow but even I felt embarrassed. Tebow did get his first NFL regular season touchdown against the Jets, thats really cool.

Patriots keep rolling along, and managed to hold on for a road win in San Diego that was mostly due to the Charger's turn overs.

Texans were on a bye and are gearing up for their MNF with Indy, in Indy. A win there would give us fans some confidence in the team. Even if they are 4-2, they could easily be 2-4.

On a side not, I'm really tired of hearing about Big Ben, "alleged rapist", coming back to the NFL. I don't like them turning his return in some kind of redemption story, he fucked up. Can we move on and not go on about it like it some morality play?

Red all Over

This was taken after the "game" between Alabama and Florida, I think I look like some kind of Gator Grim Reaper.

It was definitely a red kind of weekend, rolling red tide and red river rivalry.

Alabama is Number 1: The lack of domination last week in Arkansas might have raised some flags that Alabama was ready to be taken down. I had thought so, and maybe they are, but it will take someone better than Florida to do it. Alabama struck hard and fast, they put the game away before half time. Florida's offense was able to make drives but they never were able to score when they got into the red-zone. The best thing to sum up the Florida offense was watching Burton try to pull off a Tebow jump pass and it totally bombed. They are definitely not the same offense without Timmy...and all of those great receivers.

Oklahoma breaks the streak: After coming off a humiliating loss, I thought Texas would be ready to go and prove themselves. They proved they are not a top 25 team when they got smashed in the face by the Sooner's offense. Texas' D looked good but the offense could never get anything going, until the final quarter when it seemed like the Longhorns might come back. OU scores, with a rather impressive rush TD, and finally wins the RR Shoot out. OU end another big steak for the Longhorns, they had the longest streak of being in the top 25. UT had a streak of like 160 something weeks and now the Buckeyes have the longest with 90 something.

Notre Dame Soars over the Eagles: This is a weird one for me to talk about, since I should be happy. Notre Dame gets its second win of the year out in Boston College, which quickly went lopsidedly in the Irish's way. I am really happy for them to snap their losing streak but it doesn't make me feel very good about the team. BC looked terrible so it was basically a cupcake game for the Irish, which all of the teams schedule. I assume Buckeyes fans feel only marginally better about a win over Eastern Michigan, since its just stat padding. Notre Dame's next game is going to be a lot harder as Pitt comes to South Bend. Pitt has underwhelmed, like all of the Big East, but Pitt has beat ND the last couple of years. Brian Kelly, on the other hand, has beaten Pitt each time while coaching Cincinnati...so one of those patterns will continue.

Massacre

Thats basically what has happened to my various sports teams over the weekend: massacred.

College

Notre Dame: Everything seemed so golden with that win over Purdue, but its just been, very disappointing since then. Kelly's Irish are now 1-3, granted those three losses are all to top 25 ranked teams that are 4-0, but they could easily be 3-1 right now. The defense could not stop Robinson of Michigan for one drive to seal the game. Michigan State won in OT with a trick play. It has always seemed so very close, so very close. Stanford was a relatively close for the most of the game, like 19-6, and then it got blown open in the 4th quarter by Standford. I have faith Notre Dame will end the skid and win at Boston College this weekend, who just changed their starting QB, and give us something positive to look at.

Texas: Really Longhorns, did you really just lose to UCLA at home....unranked UCLA...and not just lost but got manhandled? Yes, so there goes one my favorites for being national champs...though that was a wanning belief. They haven't looked super beast all season long and it finally caught up to them. And its not like its going to be easier, cause its the annual Red River Shoot Out. The biggest game, usually, of Big 12 conference that pits Texas vs Oklahoma. Oklahoma escaped being upset by Cincinnati, Bearcats made too many stupid mistakes, so they are not some juggernaut coming into this. I hope Horns get some redemption by beating the Sooners and wash away that awful game.

Rolling Tide: Arkansas really almost did something that no other team has done in about...two years now: beat Alabama. They were leading and seemed to have it all in hand...and well Alabama shows why they are the best. The Tide rolls into Florida for one is the premier match up of SEC powers, and could be repeated later in the year in the SEC championship game. Florida, which has been not the Tebow powered machine it was last year, seems to be getting it together in time for this game. Meyer is going back to his old game plan back in 2006, which is a dual QB system. Brantley is the normal passer type and now we have "mini-Tebow" Trey Burton who throws and rushes in to score TD's. Go Gators.

And speaking of massacres....

Wisconsin and Ohio State put up over 70 points on their perspective opponents, who are little no nothing schools.

Big East is 1-11 against other FBS conferences, hard to say the WAC is any worse than them.

NFL

Brown Moment: Browns lost again, 0-3, and they were actually leading the Ravens....great.

Texas One Sided Shootout: Houston Texans were suppose to beat the Dallas Cowboys, or thats how the game went in my head. Cowboys, 0-2, were desperate and played very well. They took it to the Texans and took control of the game. It wasn't even close after awhile and Texans offense only manged a few measly points...really suck. Texans go to the Raiders Sunday, I expect a lot of fantasy points Schaub and Foster!

Colts gallop past Broncos: Once again, Manning and the Colts make me hate them even more by beating a team I enjoy. Broncos, who I only really like because they have Tebow, really had that game won. They just couldn't execute when they needed too, terrible red zone performance. The running game is nill but Orton does put up big numbers and drives them up and down the field. But it doesn't matter if you can go all 100 yards down the field, it only matters if you can get points. McDaniels went for it on 4th downs a lot, which is nice to see aggression, but they didn't convert a one. And Tebow is not seeing any action, he is down to the 3rd string for some reason and not being used in any packages....so not sure what McDaniels is up to.

Just keep scoring: When you can score, almost at will, who needs a defense? Patriots managed to beat the Bills mostly by out scoring them. The defense is young and needs a lot of work and needs it soon. Tom Brady looked a lot better this week than in the Jets game but its the Bill's defense. I have hopes the defense will continue to improve as the season goes on and the young players mature and develop. It can only get better.

My fantasy team is now 1-2, but I am hopefully for a turn around this weekend. I need a turn around, and tried to make the right changes.

And blogging about my life is pretty eh, since its mostly working all the time and then football on the weekends.

Football Review 2010 1

So its Week 1 of the NFL and Week 2 of NCAA Football, so lets discuss.

My Fantasy Football team won a close game this week, all thanks to the beastness of Adrian Foster. I took him after the third pre-season game and it has paid off and the Chiefs' sudden defense helped me hold on to win 94 to 92.

NCAA Football

Heart Broken: Notre Dame lost to Michigan in another classic game, which included a Notre Dame 95 yard touchdown to come back. It might be one loss but looking at the schedule it seems likely Notre Dame will get a few more in this tough run. So I feel like the season is gone, which maybe I was too hyped.

Stomped: Alabama basically stomped all over Penn State and shows that they are still the best team in all of college football.

It's all about the....OSUUUU: Ohio State took on Miami FL in a rematch of the 2002 national championship game. OSU won though it was mostly a very sloppy game with two Miami touchdowns from kick returns. There is a really hot defensive player of the Buckeyes, that I need to learn more about, arms like wow. Update: I found out who he is, Nathan Williams.

NFL

Heart Restored: I didn't think I would be able to get over the Notre Dame loss, it was really getting to me. But lo, the next best thing happened, the Texans upset the Colts. It has only happened once in the series between the divisional rivals and could herald two big storylines for the year. Will the Texans finally get to the play offs? I really hope so. Are the Colts doomed to a post Super Bowl Loss slump? I really hope so

Dynasty Not so Declined: The Patriots had a lot of questions coming into the year, with defensive and offensive line questions. The Bengals came with Super Bowl hopes and some growing buzz. The Patriots showed what it means to be an elite team and just a good team by tearing the Bengals apart. Of course since its week 1 we can't really be sure if the Patriots are back to their high status or the Bengals were overrated.

Debut?: Tim Tebow debuted in his hometown with 2 one yard runs....real nice use of him McDaniels. Though that makes his debut only marginally better than Sanchez' awful opening against the Ravens

LOL moment: The Cowboys are first and twenty with 20 seconds at the end of the half, they aren't anywhere close to scoring. They are only down 3 so really, just take the knee and end the half. No, they decide to be real clever and do a option hand off to their running back...who fumbles and the Redskins score a touchdown. I laughed for awhile.

And Browns: My favorite team to root for began the season with a loss....another Brown's season off to a roaring state.

College Football Recap: Week 1

So we had our big opening kick off week of college football and it was all...mostly boring. Most of the big schools schedule these cake games to play at their openers, so they all turn into lopsided 45 to 0 games.

We've not had many upsets, besides 15 ranked Pitt losing to non ranked Utah...but the Big East had an awful weekend in general. West Virginia did well and will mostly like become the front runner to win that division now, not that its saying much to be the winner of the Big East...

Post Tebow Florida had a surprisingly tough game against Miami of Ohio, and it might have turned into a possible upset if Miami hadn't screwed themselves over. Florida Offense looked inept at best with several bad snaps and unable to get their rhythm together. I still believe they will make it okay out of the SEC East but it is worrying to watch them struggle against a freaking mac team that went like 1-11 last year.

Though the other big three that lost their star quarterback to the drafts, Texas and Oklahoma, also didn't play amazingly well. Oklahoma barely won their opener by a touchdown, and Jones has been playing a lot last year with Bradford injured. I feel pretty good with saying Texas wins the Big 12 South though Nebraska looked really good and probably will win the conference.

Notre Dame won and ushered in a hopeful Brian Kelly Era. Most people thought the Purdue game would be a high scoring shoot out but it turned into a defensive game with Notre Dame showing that it had a defensive for once. Next weekend is the big game with Michigan, which also had a great game against UConn. I'm not really optimistic about their chances which makes me a bad fan. I will be cautiously optimistic about their chances since Kelly knows Rich Rod's style it might be decided on who is the better coach.

So Big game tonight is BCS buster Boise State versus Virginia Tech....and I am hoping for a VT win. I'm tired of every year hearing about Boise State going undefeated with their easy schedule and then expected to go to the Championship game. I just want VT to put a smack down on them and just put them out of the picture. But Boise State has a knack for winning so, maybe this is the year for them.

Update: Game has gone back and forth, at first it looked like a Boise State blowout but VT called back and is in the lead. Its up for grabs.

The New Big Ten

Rumblings of a Big Ten Expansion have been going on for awhile but especially since the end of last season. The push has begin to move again with a meeting of various school heads will happen in May, though doubtful we will learn anything concrete. I think it will be a fascinating story to follow since the Big Ten hasn't expanded since 1990 when it added Penn State, and actually makes it 11 schools. I really wonder who the next school will be, since some interesting names have come up like Notre Dame.

Notre Dame has been chased after by the Big Ten for awhile, considering its in the perfect location regionally and its a historic program that has a lot of fans. Notre Dame is unlikely because it has no need to be in a Conference, it gets to set its own schedule and basically brings more than enough money on its own. I would like Notre Dame to join since it seems like the best possible choice overall but its incredibly unlikely. Another fun scenario could be the Big Ten poaching a team from another conference like Cincinnati from the Big East, which might lead to an intrastate rivalry for Ohio between OSU and UC. The two hardly ever plan one another considering they are like 2-3 hours a part.

A argument for expansion had to do with both money and competition. The other major conferences like SEC and Big 12 have a set championship game between their divisions, which the Big Ten doesn't. Having 12 teams would allow for an extra game, one that would be a big drawn in viewers and money. Some also were pushing that it would improve the level of competition in the Big Ten which had been on a decline in terms of Bowl Game Wins.

Though I think this year that later argument fell away, the Big Ten was 4-3 in bowl games in this year. Its not total domination by any means but OSU won the Rose Bowl and Penn State took down LSU. They did sweep their BSC Bowl games, so thats a definite improvement over last year where the Big Ten lost in both of the BSC games.

Hopefully something will come out soon...