College Football Week 11

I already gave Notre Dame is own special post, so now its just time to clean up some loose ends from the weekend. We are coming down to the end of the season, with many teams only have 2 games left on their schedule. It is pretty amazing at how fast the season has gone this year and not to mention how disappointing...

SEC Championship Battle: For the first time in a few years, the SEC Championship game won't have Alabama, Florida or LSU. South Carolina got the big win over a struggling Florida team, which doesn't surprise me. I had my doubts that the 3-headed quarterback system would end up working out in the long run for the Gators. Auburn took the west with its win over Georgia, and as long as Cam Newton can play, they should be able to repeat another victory over South Carolina. I won't say its a lock but Auburn plays much better on a weekly basis than South Carolina.

Northwestern's upset of Iowa: For whatever reason, Iowa just can't beat Northwestern. In what had to be the best game in the Big Ten, the Wildcats score a late TD drive to once again knock off the Hawkeyes. The QB for Northwestern, Persa, injured his Achilles with his winning touchdown throw and is most likely out for the rest of the season. So it has to be a bitter sweet win for the Wildcats, but that is how it goes in sports some times.

Wisconsin's Big Blowout: A score of 83 to 20 is eye popping, especially when its one FBS school against another one.Wisconsin rolled and rolled and rolled some more over Indiana, and has started a controversy about running up scores and gamesmanship. Its very weird to see the that kind of score in the Big Ten which is noted more for its slow, physical style than offensive shoot outs. Between this game and last weeks shoot out with Michigan and Illinois, there might be a steady change to one of the oldest conferences in sports. The conference is definitely scoring up more points than it used too, but so are all the other conferences. It has a lot to do with style points argument in the BCS while a win is a win, a 30 point win is better than a 10 point win.

Escape: Many of the top ranked teams had to escape their lesser opponents to keep their BCS hopes a live. Oregon got back an unranked Cal by two points, TCU won just by 5 over San Deigo ST, Stanford over Arizona St by 4. I have my doubts that Oregon will be able to beat Auburn in a BCS championship, since they have their most problems with physical and aggressive teams.

Big East is the Big Least: The Big East is having a terrible season. Cincinnati, the champion of the past two years, has fallen into the bottom of the conference's rankings. The two teams, Pitt and UConn, thought to be big break outs have both under performed. I wouldn't want to just beat on the conference for no reason but one of its teams will go to a BCS bowl game. You could have an unranked team playing in a national bowl game while much better teams like Boise St, TCU, Standford, etc, will go to lesser bowl games. This is actually unfair but its not uncommon either, it happens in the NFL. The terrible NFC West will get a team into the play offs that might not be better than 8 and 8 while better record teams in better conferences won't get in at all. So yes while the BCS sucks to some people, nothing is perfect.

Texas saves the Big 12...or something

So it was just a few days ago, I and most of the sports world were pronouncing the death of the Big 12. The conference has sent a team to the BSC championship game almost every year. In this year's Draft, the first four picks were all from the Big 12. But as Colorado and Nebraska left for greener pasture, it seemed that the end was upon the conference. Then all of the sudden, the Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe came up with a plan to keep the conference together. He went right to Texas and basically offered UT what it wanted, more money. A new Big 12 (or whatever it is going to be) tv network contract will be drawn up and Texas will also be able to pursue the creation of the Longhorn Network.

I will give massive credit and lots of respect to Dan Beebe. The Big 12 was on the verge of dying just yesterday and he manages to save his conference. After seemingly outplayed by the Pac-10 and Big Ten, he managed to hold it together. He knew what to do in the end, he had to give Texas more money. For all the talking about wanting to be apart of higher academic standards and research institutions of the Pac-10, Texas really was happy with just getting more money.

So what could this possibly mean for the future?

The Big 12 might as well call itself the Longhorn Conference or the Big Texas Conference, cause its obvious that there is only one star in the conference, the Lone Star. Hook'm Horns!

The Big 12 is now at 10, and will have to add at least two teams to have a championship game. I'm not really sure who they would add, since coming in sort of means you agree to play second banana to Texas. Arkansas used to play with Texas and other schools when the SWC existed, and its a regionally good fit. The problem is Arkansas is in the SEC and it seems unlikely a school would want to leave that conference. Utah is possible but it might be courted by the Pac-10.

Pac-10, who looked the winner at the start of this, comes off not looking so good with just picking off Colorado. They do gain the Denver market but Colorado is not a national player in really any sport. If they can't add Utah or some high level school to bump them up into 12 schools, it seems like more of a bust than an achievement.

And unless something else happens, we all look kind of stupid for suddenly proclaiming the end of little conferences and the beginning of mega-conferences. As much as mega-conferences seem like the future, but it might not be in the best interest of each college. As long as some schools, like Texas and Notre Dame, can make far more money and leverage power on their own, they have no need for mega-conferences.

Kind sucks it all ended so anti-climatically.

A professional source.

And it has begun, Conference Realignment!

Well when I talked about it before, Conference Realignment in sports seemed to be something that would be a slow, evolving process that would take some years. The Big Ten was the first to speak about it openly and it seemed like they would make the first moves in expanding out. The Big East or the ACC seemed to the be the most likely conference that would be raided and then fall apart. How things change in a few months.

Today, Colorado has announced it will leave the Big 12 and go to the Pac-10. It might not be the only announcement we get either, as Nebraska is poised to also leave the Big 12 and head over to the Big Ten conference. The Pac-10 has become extremely aggressive in recent weeks and has also made a play for the six major schools in the Big 12, including Texas and Oklahoma. This could end up creating a "mega-conference" which would turn the west and south west into basically a huge Pac-10 market. It would arguably put it on the top of the conference standing as it would have; USC, Texas, Oklahoma, who have all either won or be in the BSC championship game each year in recent history.

Like I stated earlier, I honestly didn't think the Big 12 would become the conference that would be raided. They had two powerhouse teams in Texas and Oklahoma, which would have anchored it into the college world. Now the Big 12 could survive but it would only happen if it could hold on to either Texas or Oklahoma. And there is no guarantee that the Pac-10 will woo those schools in, I can't see the SEC sitting back any longer. Everyone wants Texas, Go Longhorns!

The political aspect of this is fascinating, because college sports is huge business and has lots of social influence. Governor Perry is apparently trying to broker a deal that will make sure that wherever Texas goes, A&M and Tech will also go to the same conference. The Governor of Missouri was, or still is, trying to sell Missouri to the Big Ten Conference. With so much money at play, no one wants to miss out.

Notre Dame still holding out....come to the Big Ten...

Fall of Troy

Well the mighty walls of the college power came tumbling down today, the NCAA sanctions against USC finally came out. It doesn't look good for a program that was definitely on a decline this year and Carroll hasty exit to the NFL. And with the looming possibility of a Pac-10 super conference that includes Texas and Oklahoma, it looks like it might be the end of its domination of the west coast.

The major sanctions that came out were a 2 year ban on post season play, so no bowl games. They will mostly be playing spoiler for schools I guess, they have nothing to lose which might make them a more dangerous team. Kiffin still has to have a high win to lose ratio, but I'm not sure people can expect for him to keep his team motivated since there is nothing for them at the end of the season road.

They will also have scholarship reduction and recruiting limitations put on the program, so you basically inflicting a talent drain on the program. Considering how competitive it will be now that you are in a conference, possibly anyway, with Texas and Oklahoma; seems like USC's future continues to become dim. Kiffin, if he can whether the next couple of years and its not like any of this is his fault, will have quite a challenge on his hands to rebuild the program. He did a great job of making Tennessee better and he has the personality to do it, but it will be daunting. They will no longer be the big fish in a conference but possible a second tier school with Texas looming over all.