A Week Off

It’s exam week here at the University of Cincinnati, that means that I have better, and probably, more important things to be getting on with. I will be back sometime next week to provide a brief look back at all of the conferences. Maybe not all of them, but at least the BCS conferences. Bowl look ahead to come the week after.

Out Till Friday

Its Thanksgiving, enjoy!

Sunday Musings: November 3rd

Ohio State:
If I am an Ohio State fan, I would be ecstatic today, for a couple of very disparate reasons, both of them being equally valid. The first being that, for the first time all season Ohio State was tested, I mean really and legitimately challenged. And they passed the test on the legs of Chris Wells, which, if your losing, is a great place to go. The defense was phenomenal, again, merely what you would expect of them. Allowing 12 yards on 37 carries for the Badgers. However, there is a little chink in the armor, one that hasn’t shown to this point in the season. It is one thing for Purdue to approach 300 yards passing because, well, it is Purdue, and that is what Purdue does, they throw, a lot. It is a completely different thing for Wisconsin to put up 269 yards on you. The crucial thing is, for people like me ,who still have that little cautionary voice whispering 2006 whenever OSU is brought up, is that Jim Tressell was able adjust on the fly in the 3rd quarter after two drives of sustained excellence by the Badgers, two drives put almost exclusively on the arm of Tyler Donovan . After those two drives the longest Badgers drive was 10 plays for 43 yards in the 4th quarter, the last drive the Badgers would have. That is huge in my mind because, as noted earlier, this season reminded me of last season for the Buckeyes, and last season the first time OSU faced true and sustained adversity, in the form of the Florida Gators, Jim Tressell couldn’t adjust, and the team imploded. Last afternoons performance went a long way to striking that memory from the collective psyche of the nation, even if no one watched it, thanks Jim Delany, so maybe not. Is there any question that OSU is the best team in the country right now? Not in my mind, and there shouldn’t be any in your mind.

Oregon:
I would like to thank Phil Knight for providing the option for Oregon to wear this last night:

For those keeping track at home, I throughly believe that Oregon is attempting to wear all 2,000 possible uniform combinations in one season, they have donned a different set every week I thin. On to pertinent information from that clash of Titans. Oregon is for real, and they are one Cameron Colvin non-stretch away from winning that Cal game, on a related note, this is by far the best impersonated photo of the season. Oregon was in through and complete control from the onset of that game. Dennis Dixon looked the part, and is now the headliner in the Heisman race, even if his numbers weren’t anything spectacular, OK 13 of 22 for 189 yards and 4 TD’s with an additional 57 yards on the ground is fairly spectacular. The bottom line is that Oregon has a very favorable schedule to wrap up the season and should be able to win out, but given the tenor of the season to this point lets not assume anything. Agreed? And the magic of Arizona State has come to an end, and will likely burn in the coming weeks.

LSU:
LSU really and truly is starting to take on that team of destiny feel. Matt Flynn tried his very best to let the game get away from LSU in the form of his 3 INT’s, but it wasn’t just Matt Damon, errr Flynn who made some questionable decisions, Les Miles displayed his typical ballsiness when trying to get a cheap 1st down with a line shift, trying to draw Bama offsides, but that resulted in an LSU penalty for simulating the snap count, and then led to Javier Arenas punt return for a touchdown. The thing to take away from this is, that LSU won a game on the road in one of the most emotionally charged atmosphere’s you will see. They had their worst performance of the season by far. Gary Danielson summed it up perfectly in 3rd or 4th quarter as LSU was trying to make a push back into the game. He said that greatness was not making spectacular plays, greatness was making the easy plays over and over. For most of the game LSU could do little right on offense, but towards the end of the game they started to execute when it mattered most.

Boston College:
It was going to end at some point, had to really, singular players can only carry teams for so long, and only Vince Young can carry one the whole way. Matt Ryan is still one hell of a player, and yes, he is for real. His team mates, while every bit as tangible as Ryan, are no where near the talent that he is, that fact was going to come up and bite this team in the ass at some point this season. It would have done just that last week, save 4 minutes of frenetic Football that saved the season. The luck ran out this week, and that creates a new question.

Question of the Day:
Who should be #2, LSU or Oregon. Discuss among your friends.

Darren McFadden:

Seriously, thats what Robin told Batman while they watched the Arkansas and South Carolina game last night. Darren McFadden won’t win the Heisman, but he probably should.

Myles Brand, what a winner

Before you continue on reading this post it is imperative for you to read this article. If you know me, have talked at length with me about College Sports or read some of my posts on a certain message board you have undoubtedly come to the conclusion that I am not the biggest fan of the NCAA. There are plenty of objections that I have for the boys in from Indy, and I will undoubtedly cover the majority of them at some point, probably in the mass of downtime between the end of real Football on January 8th and the start of the season again in the first week of the September 2007. This particular article really rubbed me the wrong way. The NCAA has no right to to determine what is an appropriate salary for a university to pay a Football coach. This is a capitalistic economy and university’s are no different. If a university wants to make a commitment to Football and pay a coach to put them on the map that is their prerogative. Schools are faced with a simple decision when it comes to paying coaches; show a commitment to the program or let coaches move onto greener pastures, which will happen regardless of salary. How athletic departments and university’s are run in terms of spending money is none of the NCAA’s business. The NCAA has billions of dollars in TV contracts flowing into its coffers every year, mostly from Football and Basketball contracts. They pass out 12 Billion dollars to NCAA member institutions to be used on scholarships. Not equally to all institutions as most would think but according to how many NCAA sanctioned sports they compete in at the varsity level. But they want to tell university’s how to spend there own money? Anyone else find this slightly ridiculous.