Mark Byron

Dogs versus Human

We're in mad-dogs-and-Englishmen weather in Lexington today, but it's my between-terms break and Eileen's between jobs, so we're at the library this Friday afternoon after a late lunch.

However, that's not the dogs in the title; it's the dogs Michael Vick and his Bad Newz posse killed off and got Vick two years at Club Fed. He's finishing up his time under house arrest and working a $10/hour construction job until he's freed up in late July. At that point, the NFL will have to figure out whether two years in prison and away from football is punishment enough or whether he will continue to be barred from the NFL.

The human in the title is the Mario Reyes, the Miami man that Cleveland wideout Donte Stallworth killed while driving home drunk from a party. Stallworth got merely a one-month jail term and a truckload of community service and a lifetime driving ban for his transgressions. That seems rather low, since the other sports-related killer DUI that comes to mind, that of Olympic diver Bruce Kimball, had Kimball getting a 17-year sentence (of which he served five) for the DUI-accident killing of two kids in 1988.

What's worse, killing a man by accident or killing dogs by design? Of course, you won't have PETH (People for the Ethical Treatment of Humans) protesting in front of the Dawgpound in Cleveland if Stallworth is back in uniform later this year or in 2010, but heaven help the team who has the grace and guts to give Michael Vick a job; PETA will be on them like white on rice. They're even ticked about President Obama swatting a fly during an interview. MADD might make a mild stink over Stallworth, but nowhere near the wrath that Vick's new team will get.

Both Vick and Stallworth are indefinitely suspended, but if Stallworth is back in uniform before Vick is, it shows where the league values human life versus canine life.

Note that I think both should be allowed back into the league if they've learned their lesson and are willing and able to be good citizens, but our justice system is a bit out of whack with this pair. There are plenty of other pairs you can use, like the casual drug user getting umpteen years while the rapist who gets a few months, but this is one that is front and center on the sports page.

Pirate Radio

"Bucs to Release Brooks and Dunn." Even Tampa Bay has gone country, getting into the Nashville scene in a big way.

Oh, they're letting go of Warrick Dunn and Derrick Brooks, not releasing a country-pop album? I guess Brooks and Dunn will be singing Life is a Highway as they make their way through Malfunction Junction on their way out of town, even though it was Rascall Flatts that did the Cars cover version.

"I See Your Schwartz is as Big as Mine"

Now let's see how the Lions handle their Schwartz. Jim Schwartz, that is; the Titan defensive coordinator just got the top job.

Of course, if we're doing a Spaceballs shtick, we've need to discuss MegaMaid and the operation has been in effect in Detroit for years..."Suck, suck, suck."

Well, he has nowhere to go but up and has a #1 draft pick to play with, as well as Dallas' #20 pick overall. That will give them three of the top 33 picks overall.

Detroit needs a good QB, but I don't see the crop of available QBs this year to be #1 overall good. I'm not all that impressed with Matthew Stafford or Mark Sanchez at that level, although either would look good in Honolulu blue and silver if the pulled a Brady Quinn and stayed on the board at #20. Otherwise, they might be able to snag Javon Ringer with that #20 pick and see who's on the board at the top of the second round for a QB prospect.

Of course, this is the area where the non-ball-handling (a.k.a. "non-skill" as if linemen don't have any) positions come to play where the casual fan is at a loss to critique offensive linemen and most defensive players. I'm not a draftnik and don't have the time to become one.

Sanchez seems to be making the right move. The 2010 draft will be loaded at QB, with McCoy, Bradford and Tebow all in the mix along with any other QBs finishing their junior or senior year that might make a move up the pecking order. He's probably be the fourth or fifth QB on the board next year, while he'll be #2 or so this year.

Plus, he'll be done with his undergrad work in May. He'll get a better football education as a pro QB than with another year at USC, not to mention one that pays better. He can work on an MBA online if we wants another year of school.

18-1

I don't think that it was the greatest Super Bowl game ever. There have been better games; the Tennessee-St Louis SB36 that had the Titans coming up just short on a last-minute drive, or San Francisco-Cincy SB23 when Joe Montana engineered a classic last-minute drive come quickly to my mind. The Giants-Bills SB25, where Buffalo's Scott Norwood just missed what would have been a game-winner, was another classic.

Even though it was a blowout, the Bears-Pats SB20 game was neat, crowning a great 18-1 Super Bowl Shuffle Bear team that included a lot a characters, including a Refrigerator Perry TD at short-yardage fullback. I recall the following year's Bud Bowl, where the bottle team brought out a quart-size short-yardage fullback, "the Appliance of Defiance, the... Freezer!"

As a game, this would filter down to about #5 in my mind. As a definitional game, it may be one of the most important; the Jet's win in SB3 was about the only one that was more iconic. It brought the 18-0 Patriots, on target to be the Best Team Ever^TM, down a notch; Belichick didn't win his fourth Super Bowl, denying both he and Tom Brady fully iconic status.

It's not that New England isn't a good team, but there merely a good team. They caught lighting in a bottle on offense, rolling the dice to bring in Randy Moss at fire-sale prices and found possession receiver Wes Welker cheap as well. Take those two away and New England is likely 13-3 and one of many possible AFC title contenders.

Last night, the Giant front four played like the terrorizing LT-led teams of the late 80s-early 90s (run by a young defensive coordinator named Bill Belichick), sacking Brady five times. Eli Manning played well enough to win, joining Phil Simms and Jeff Hostetler as underwealming Giant QBs to manage their way to a title.

The better team doesn't always win and the best players don't always carry the day. David Tyree came out of nowhere to catch a TD pass and grab a key jump ball reception on the final drive; he was their #4 WR at best, more of a special teams maniac than a receiver.

I'll get to the ads later.

January Madness

UGA president Michael Adams has come out in favor of an eight-team playoff. I think 8 would be the right number, especially if it would placate the four current BCS bowls by having them host the quarterfinals. He could get his brother Douglas in the act and have him write The Hitchhikers' Guide to January Madness ;-).

You could go with 16 teams, with all eleven I-A conference champs and five at-larges getting bids, but there would be quite a bit of road kill in the first round. Central Michigan-LSU, Troy-Ohio State and Central Florida-Virginia Tech  (the 2-15, 1-16 and 3-14 match ups if we did it this year) could get decided really quick, although UCF did give Texas all they wanted in September.

You'd also have a glut of eight first-round games; do you play four on Friday night and four on Saturday? Two on Thursday, two on Friday and four on Saturday?

Here's my original proposal from 2002. It looks pretty good and could be taken as a model.

(1) Turn the four BCS bowls into the quarterfinals of a national tournament. Keep the remaining bowls, since they don't play into the national title anyway. They're the NIT for football.

(2) Seed the teams 1-8,2-7,3-6,4-5. Where possible given the seeding, place the teams in their traditional bowl spot (i.e. placing the Southeast Champ in the Sugar Bowl, the PAC 10 or Big 10 champ in the Rose).

That looks good, but I might offer an addendum that a lower seed shouldn't be allowed to have a home or proto-home game in the first round. For instance, if a 9-3 Miami is the seventh seed, it shouldn't be allowed to play #2 Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl, or a #6 seeded LSU shouldn't be allowed to play #3 Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.

(3) Seeding will be based on something like the current BCS model. I'm open to tweaking, but the general model's OK.

(4) The six power-conference (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big Twelve, Pac 10, Southeast) champs get automatic bids and the two highest ranked remaining teams get the at-large bids. The bowls don't get to choose a 11th ranked Notre Dame over a 7th ranked Directional State for the ratings and good-traveling alumni.

(5) An exception to #4-any undefeated team gets an automatic bid. Call this the Marshall-Tulane rule. OK, I have degrees from two MAC schools (BS CMU, Ph.D. Kent State); I have a soft spot for the mid-majors.  If there are three undefeated teams outside of the power conferences, the top two ranked ones go.

I have an update to #5; I want to change that to use the current BCS rule where a mid-major in the top 12 (or the top 16 but better than one of the automatic bids) gets an automatic bid. This year, Georgia and Hawaii would get the two at-large spots. Utah and Boise State showed in past years that they could win a first round game in our tournament, even though Hawaii got plastered by Georgia this year.

Here's how the seeding would look for 2007-

Rose Bowl (1) Ohio State vs (8) Hawaii
Fiesta Bowl (4) Oklahoma vs (5) Georgia
Sugar Bowl (2) LSU vs (7) West Virginia
Orange Bowl (3) Virginia Tech vs (6) USC

(6) Play three of the four bowls on New Years Day as a triple-header (Fiesta 1PM, Rose 4:30PM, Orange 8PM) and put the fourth (I'll suggest the Sugar) on New Years Eve.
All the other New Years Day bowls will move to other days.

That makes New Year's Day's real "Must See TV" for the sports fan, and makes it a major event.

I don't care for the new method, where they dribble out the BCS bowls, with the Rose and another bowl on New Years, another on the 2nd and another on the 3rd. That, along with the overdose of games in the early part of New Years Day, where things feel like a good Saturday afternoon during the season rather than a major event, need to be overhauled.

The old-school New Years Day had the Cotton Bowl go about 1PM, the Rose about 5 and the Orange and Sugar about 8:30. Time for some retro, except the Fiesta becomes the new Cotton.

(7) Play the semifinals the Saturday of the NFL conference finals, usually the third Saturday in January, at two pre-determined neutral sites. Tampa and St. Louis for starters?

(8) Play the finals the next Saturday at a pre-determined neutral site. RCA Dome in Indy for starters?

This will raise revenue, since sports fans will lean towards watching all seven of the games. The bowls will have more revenue than the old system ,since each of the four games is a factor in the national title. Right now, the typical fan might watch the title game and the game that his favorite conference champ is in, but the other two games will have lower ratings since they're just a football game.

The plan gives a clear champion. It changes the bubble equation so that teams #9 and #10 are griping about being left out, not teams #3 and #4.

The one downside is that it will extend the season a game for four teams and by two games for a pair of teams. This is happening at the beginning of a semester rather than at towards the end where the Final Four play five or six games over three weeks. That seems a reasonable price to pay for the advantages of the tourney.

The NCAA Football tournament will have more viewership than the current BCS, for every game will mean something. It won't detract from other bowls, since they don't have any bearing on the title anyway. It will extend the season a bit for four teams, but that is a reasonable price to pay to get a champion.

Cradle of Coaches 2.0?

Last year, MSU went and raided Cincinnati's Mark Dantonio. Cincy then took it out on the Great Lake State by raiding Central Michigan coach Brian Kelly.

This year, it's Michigan's turn, snagging Rich Rodriguez from West Virginia. West Virginia then takes it out on the state of Michigan by potentially snagging Central Michigan coach Butch Jones.

Can you guys let my alma mater have a decent coach for a while?

You want to coach in the Big East? Mount Pleasant seems to be a good place to start these days. Miami used to be the MAC's "cradle of coaches" seeing former head coaches Woody Hayes (Ohio State), Bo Schembechler (Michigan), Ara Parseghian (Notre Dame) and Sid Gilman (LA Rams and SD Chargers) move on to fame elsewhere. However, CMU seems to be starting to get that status as of late.

If Jones does get the WV gig, he left town after a doozy; the Chippewas gave Purdue all they wanted, coming back from a 41-20 deficit with three unanswered TDs to tie it at 41-41. After a Purdue TD, CMU came back to tie it again at 48-48 with a minute left, only to have Purdue march down to win it 51-48.

CMU will be interesting next year; QB Dan LeFevour just missed matching Tim Tebow's 20-20 season, ending with only 19 rushing TDs and 27 passing TDs; he also became only the second quarterback to have 3000 yards passing and 1000 yards rushing in a season. A 14-game season doesn't hurt, but those are still impressive stats.

LeFevour's just a sophomore. If CMU goes 11-1 or so next year with those kind of numbers (I haven't seen their 2008 sked, but that might be feasible) he might have a shot at getting an invite to the Heisman show next year.

He might have to break in yet another head coach in the process, though.

Tigers and Hawgs

I got a Clemson fan with the nom-de-cyber of "withheld" out of the woodwork to take issue with my take that "Arkansas may have a better football pedigree than Clemson"

Arkansas has a better pedigree than Clemson? Same number of NCAA championships (ark '64) but Clemson ('81) won theirs more recently.

I may recall the Frank Broyles era and give it a tad too much weight. I don't remember '64 but I do remember a "Game of the Century" match in 1969 where Texas and Arkansas came in 1-2 and both undefeated in the last game of the regular season, not unlike last year's Michigan-Ohio State. Texas came out on top, but Arkansas-UT was the Southwest's Michigan-OSU analog for this Big Ten area kid in the 70s.

For some reason, Clemson's one good year seemed more of an outlier, a great year from a good program. My quick take was that that Arkansas has had a higher average poll rating that Clemson over the last quarter-century; at least that's what my mind assumes.

Here's the data since 1981, using the AP's final poll results-

 

Final AP Rating	Clemson	Arkansas
1981	1
1982	8	9
1983	11
1984
1985		12
1986	17	15
1987	12
1988	9	12
1989	12	13
1990	9
1991	18
1992
1993	23
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998		16
1999		17
2000	16
2001
2002
2003	22
2004
2005	21
2006		15

Clemson actually had a good run in the late 80s and early 90s, having top-20 showings from '86 to '91. Since then, Clemson has been in the top 25 4 times and Arkansas 3. That would put them roughly on par.

It might be that I have a cold spot towards South Carolina, which with the possible exception of Mississippi, seems to be the most regressive state in the country, where nativism and protectionism seems to be the coin of the realm. It might be Yankee bias, but I had a hard time feeling at home in SC when I've visited, more so than other places in the south; there just seemed to be a sense of darkness that I found uncomfortable.

It also could be that Florida State has so owned the ACC until recently that the clubs behind them like Clemson looked like chumps in comparison, whereas Arkansas has frequently been in the hunt for the SEC West title.

What it is, is College Football

I don't think I've ever seen quite the pile-up we have at the top of the college football rankings. We've never seen any team with two losses win a national title. The closest in myh lifetime was a 11-1-1 Colorado, who was co-champ with a 11-0-1 Georgia Tech in 1990.

However, there's a doggone good chance that that will happen in 2007 after yet another Saturday Night Massacre of top-ranked teams. Both #1 Missouri and #2 West Virginia lost last night, leaving Ohio State, 11-1 "in the clubhouse" to back into to a trip to New Orleans for the title game; it didn't look like OSU would have a shot of filtering back up to the top after losing to Illinois in their next-to-last game.

11-1 Kansas would be a traditional pick for the other spot in the title game if the voters are allergic of voting for an X-and-2 team into the title game. However, they had a cupcake out-conference schedule (not that cupcakey-they beat MAC champ Central Michigan) and didn't get to play in their title game.

After that, you pick your poison. 11-2 LSU would be a lock for the title game if they didn't have overtime; they'd be 11-0-2 and still #1 were that the case. The AP has them in as the #2 team, with Oklahoma and Georgia in a near-dead heat for third. One brave soul cast a first-place vote for Hawaii, who managed to get through their cream puff slate undefeated with a come-from-behind win over Washington.

There's going to be a lot of scheming by the various bowls.

Georgia might get an automatic bid; if you're in the top 4, you get an automatic bid and they're #4 in the AP. Since you can't get three bids from the same conference, Florida might get stuck playing Michigan or Illinois in the What's-in-your-wallet Bowl.

Does the Rose Bowl go traditional and nab #13 Illinois to replace OSU? Or do they go for a good national draw and pick West Virginia? Pat White (if his hand's good to go) versus the Trojans would get my attention on New Year's day. Georgia is rated #4, but they aren't that compelling a story to get to watch; plus, the Sugar would want Georgia to replace LSU and the Rose can't snag an SEC team without the Sugar's consent, since the SEC is their conference tie-in.

My guesses

Title Game-OSU-LSU
Rose-Illinois-USC
Sugar-Georgia-Hawaii
Fiesta-Oklahoma-Kansas
Orange-Virginia Tech-West Virginia

The Fiesta might like to have either Kansas, to make an all-Big 12 match that never happened, or Arizona State, but there is only two unspoken for spots if Georgia finishes #4 and LSU finishes #2. Hawaii gets one if they're in the top 12, which looks likely, so that leaves two slots unspoken for. Illinois would be the first, and if the Orange goes with Kansas, the Fiesta would be stuck choosing between West Virginia and Hawaii.

If the Orange went with Kansas, the Fiesta could go with ASU for a local draw but not a lot of tourism, or Kansas,  bringing enough Rock Chalk to line the Cactus League fields for years.

A Little Wild Hog After the Turkey

An interesting news day. Let's start with the fun stuff; I just caught the tail-end of a doozy, where Arkansas managed to get past #1 LSU in Baton Rouge, 50-48 in 3OT. Book Darren McFadden into New York for the Heisman ceremony (he may not win it, but he should be in the top 3-5 that they bring in), with a 200 yard rushing day, 3 rushing TDs and a passing TD coming out of the "Wild Hog" single wing set with Mac-F at QB.

I'm not old enough to remember the single wing as a going offense, but a lot of the shotgun option sets (WV, Oregon when Dixon was healthy, Arkansas' Wild Hog) that are the current rage look a lot like the old single wing from pre-WWII.

It was before my time, but the 49ers introduced the shotgun as a running set in 1961, trading away an immobile Y.A. Tittle to have a young Billy Kilmer (he of the wounded duck passes for the 70s Redskins) run things. As I recall the story, San Francisco gave the league fits trying to defend this new beast, until they had to play Chicago and their owner-coach George Halas, who goes so far back, he had the record for longest fumble return, running back a Jim Thorpe drop in 1923.

Halas was so old, he noted that the new-fangled shotgun was nothing more than a modified single wing. He got out his old defensive playbooks and proceeded to shut out the 49ers in their meeting, 31-0. By 1962, the league had caught up and the 49er QBs were too hurt to run that offense, so the shotgun got shelved until Dallas brought it back in the early 70s as a passing-down set.

Now we have college programs bringing back that shotgun-single-wing set. I think Halas would have had his hands full dealing with McFadden or WV's Pat White. However, I'm not sure if a QB could survive NFL-level defenses for a full season running a Wild Hog set.

Big Easy Island Warriors

Here's an interesting dilemma that the college football folks are in; Hawaii may back into a BSC bid if they make the top 14, not the top 12 that people generally site. Here's a rundown of the BSC rules.

Discussion of Hawaii's BCS chances generally flow around the mid-major rule-

3. The champion of Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, or the Western Athletic Conference will earn an automatic berth in a BCS bowl game if either:  
A. Such team is ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS Standings, or,
B. Such team is ranked in the top 16 of the final BCS Standings and its ranking in the final BCS Standings is higher than that of a champion of a conference that has an annual automatic berth in one of the BCS bowls.

Currently, Hawaii is 15th in the BCS and all the projected conference champs are ahead of it in the rankings. UConn (currently #20) could change that if they beat West Virginia, but the other conference leaders are all in the top 14.

However, one of the rules that people forget could come into play; only two teams per conference can get a BCS bid. Here's the current BCS ratings and my projections of who'll be playing in what bowl. For sake of argument, we'll have the favored teams win out, as West Virginia gets the Big East tile and LSU, Kansas and VT win their conference title games.

BCS Ranking	School	Projected Bowl
1	LSU	Title Game
2	Kansas	Title Game
3	West Virginia	Fiesta as Replacement choice
4	Missouri	Orange as at large
5	Ohio State	Rose
6	Arizona State	Rose
7	Georgia	Sugar as Replacement choice
8	Virginia Tech	Orange
9	Oregon	(3rd Pac 10)-Holiday Bowl
10	Oklahoma	(3rd Big 12)-Cotton Bowl
11	USC	Fiesta as at large
12	Florida	(3rd SEC)-Citrus (a.k.a. Cap1) Bowl
13	Texas	(4th Big 12)-Sun Bowl
14	Boston College	Sugar as at Large
15	Hawaii
16	Virginia
17	Illinois

Firstly, the top two teams automatically get to go to the championship game. Next, the Orange Bowl gets the ACC champ, the Sugar gets the SEC champ, the Fiesta gets the Big 12 champ and, as traditional since the 40s, the Rose gets the Big 10 and Pac 10 champs.

However, the Sugar and Fiesta will have been raided by the championship game. The bowl that got the #1 team raided gets first pick of replacements; the Sugar will be likely to keep an SEC tie-in and pick Georgia. Tennessee might be the conference runner-up if they can beat UK up here in Lexington Saturday for the SEC East title, but a 9-4 Vol team would likely be outside of the top 14; they're currently 18th and would require a win over LSU to crack the top 14.

The Sugar could ruffle some Bulldog feathers by picking Florida instead of Georgia; in this crazy year where the leading teams have no clear Heisman candidates, Tim Tebow might back into the trophy with his stat-sheet-stuffing season. The Gators would make more compelling TV than Georgia.

Next, the Fiesta would get second pick, replacing Kansas. I don't know how strong the Fiesta-Big 12 tie is, but if I were picking for the Fiesta, I'd snag West Virgina and their high-powered offense as my first pick rather than Missouri or Oklahoma. That would make for better TV than Missouri.

Then, the three bowls with at-large slots will pick. This year, it goes Orange, Fiesta and Sugar. The Orange would likely take Missouri. They're currently #4 but could slide to #6 after losing to Kansas, but they would be a stronger pick than the alternatives on the board; plus, the Orange used to have a Big 8 tie in and this would bring back an old Big 8 team. Don't be surprised if they opt for USC instead, however.

The Fiesta gets the next pick. #9 Oregon is the highest team on the board, but with lame Duck QB Dennis Dixon out with a blown ACL, #11 USC looks to be a better pick. You get the Trojan mythos, good traveling fans from just down the road in LA and a more compelling matchup than WV-Oregon.

At this point, Oregon, Oklahoma, Florida and Texas are off limits, since their conferences have already gotten their two-team quota. It then falls to #14 Boston College to fill the Sugar Bowl spot. They're the only choice, since bowls can only choose from the top 14.

Big question... will BC still be #14 if they lose to Virginia Tech in the ACC title game?

If not, the boys from the islands are sitting at #15 and likely to move up a spot, especially when they dispatch the Smurf Turfers from #19 Boise State and get a boost in the computer rankings. Then, Hawaii would be #14 and the only game in town for the Sugar Bowl.

Otherwise, bring on Sulik's suggestion "Texas Tech v. Hawai'i: a.k.a. the Paul Westhead Bowl." First one to 100 wins, kicking the extra points left-footed in honor of Hank Gathers.

Tiger, Tiger

This is one of the weirdest college football seasons on record. In the recent past, it was the Nebraska-Colorado game on Black Friday that would determine the Big 12 north champ, being a decent methadone for losing the Nebraska-Oklahoma Big 8 season-ender via expansion. If you told us in August that Missouri-Kansas would be the game of the year, and not just the week, we'd want to get the name of your supplier, for that's some potent weed you were knocking down.

However, we've got #2 and undefeated Kansas going up against 10-1 and #3 Mizzou on Friday. If the winner of that game can get past the Southern division champ, they have their ticket punched for the national title game. If Missouri wins the Big 12, there is an excellent chance that the Tigers will win the national title. It could be the Missouri Tigers or the LSU Tigers, but things will look good for feline mascots.

#5 Ohio State is even still in the mix. A Oklahoma or Texas win in the Big 12 final will take out both Missouri and Kansas from consideration, although a 12-1 Kansas might have a case for a slot in the final.

#1 LSU still has to get past a dangerous Arkansas team with Darren McFadden making one last bid for Heisman consideration and the SEC title game against either Tennessee or Georgia, so the guys from Baton Rouge might think twice before planning to head down to NOLA for the title game. Top 5 teams have been beat by unranked foes 11 times, from Appy State to Texas Tech's win over Oklahoma yesterday; the Hogs would be happy to make that an even dozen this weekend.

#4 West Virgina gets both UConn and Pitt coming to Morgantown, neither of which are pushovers, especially when the Huskies can pull of one of the great out-of-nowhere years in college football history with a win. A UConn-Hawaii Orange Bowl? That's one that would have required multiple bong hits to predict this summer.

One of the teams ahead of OSU has to lose in the Kansas City Rumble Friday. If three of them do, OSU will likely be skipping the Rose Bowl.

"Orange Bowl? Looks Yellow to Me"

They're planning to tear down the Orange Bowl after the football season; Miami U is going to be playing at the Dolphins' stadium next year and the namesake bowl is already out there. Here's a bracing paragraph-

The city is soliciting offers for the demolition and sale of memorabilia, Gilbert Cabrera, Hernandez' chief of staff, told the Herald. Memorabilia from the OB -- including the urinals -- is expected to go on sale early in 2008 and help defray the cost of demolition, estimated between $5 million and $7 million.

Old stadium seats are major memorabilia; The Corner's John Millers recent acquisition of two Tiger Stadium seats came quickly to mind.

That being said, what twisted soul is going to buy an Orange Bowl urinal? A conversation piece, to be sure, but I'm not sure I want to be part of that conversation.

Futbol Sabado

An interesting day in college football. A little history was done a few miles up US-27, as UK took out #9 Louisville in a 40-34 thriller. It broke a four game winning streak for UL over UK and was the first time in three decades that Kentucky beat a top-10 club. This may be the first time in a while that UK has a better football team than a basketball team; they're 3-0 and could be a factor in the SEC.

Another big thud came out in Salt Lake City, as Utah beat up on #11 UCLA, 44-6. After losing to Oregon State and Air Force, this wasn't looking like the Ute team that made the BCS dance a few years back.

However, anything can happen on any given Saturday, ask Michigan. Or Texas, who went in to dedicate Central Florida's new on-campus stadium, and came out by the skin of their teeth, 35-32; the former central Floridian in me was happy to see UCF give Texas a game, and also see USF go into Auburn and win last week.

Speaking of Michigan, it was hardly the Maize and Blow Chunks that showed up the last two Saturdays. They looked like a classic Michigan team, taking care of business by shutting out Notre Dame, 38-0. I goofed earlier in the week; the game was in Ann Arbor, but Touchdown Jesus might have smelled it from South Bend. If they did college football like they do European soccer, Appalachian State would move up to I-A and the 0-3 "Fighting" Irish would be in danger of being relegated to I-AA and taking on Delaware and Youngstown State next year.

Michigan State managed to move to an unimpressive 3-0, but at least they're 3-0. Iowa lost to Iowa State; Kent State managed to beat ISU earlier in the year. Speaking of my most recent alma mater, it felt weird driving around Frankfort this afternoon and passing Kentucky State University, an impostor KSU. Of course, the Kansas State fans in the crowd (Baggy-slims, take a bow if you're lurking) can claim that both Kent State and Kentucky State are squatters on the KSU turf.

Beware the Twinkies. Michigan had Appy State reach up and bite them, and Minnesota fell to Florida Atlantic. At least the Gophers got a nice trip to Miami, losing to a school whose previous football claim to fame was a big brawl with U of Miami last year.

Applalachian Fall

OK, Aaron Copeland's rolling over in his grave, but I had to use something along those lines after Appalachian sprung an upset on Michigan last weekend.

Michigan proceeded to plummet from #5 all the way out of the top 25. As the defending I-AA (or Championship Subdivision as rechristened by the NCAA) champion, ASU isn't eligible for votes in the big poll, but are a unanimous #1 in the I-AA poll.

What does that bode for the Maize and Blow Chunks Blue? They're out of the national title hunt. 11-1 (or even 10-2 or 9-3 with the right tie-breakers) would get them a Rose Bowl bid, but there are likely going to be two teams that are undefeated or have a more compelling 11-1 or 12-1 record come December. A 12-1 SEC champ would be one that would trump an 11-1 Michigan, as likely would a 12-1 ACC or Big 12 champ.

However, there is hope for the Wolverines. They've suffered early losses to Notre Dame in the past and made it to the Rose Bowl. Yes, Appalachian State isn't Notre Dame, but it might be Miami... of Ohio.

Hop into the Wayback Machine if you would. Sherman, set the timer for 1995.

Football, Footise and Forgiveness

The old saw is that there are no atheists in foxholes. Or in the defendant's chair, it seems. Michael Vick seems to have drawn close to the Lord in his current travail. Or at least, that his stand in public.

I'm remembering a scene from the last Indiana Jones movie, where Indy is making his way through numerous booby traps to get to the Grail. One marker on the wall mentions something to the effect that "only a penitent man will pass." Indy says something like "penitent, penitent... on your knees" and then drops to the floor, just before blades slice through about normal chest-height above him.

For some folks, like Indy, dropping to your knees isn't about devotion to God, but survival. The only way they see to get out of their predicament is to at least appear holier than they were before everything hit the fan.

Turning to God in their time of need is sometimes also a honest answer to the problem, since folks with a church background know what they need to do, but were unwilling to do so when things were going good. Now that they have their back to the wall, devotion to a God who can help seems like a good plan.

We'll see if Vick walks the walk over the next few years, through his stint in Club Fed and afterwards. If bling-infested characters like Deion Sanders can find the Lord; there's hope for Michael Vick....

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...and Larry Craig as well. My new Senator, Mitch McConnell, has his theology screwed up. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, he has Craig's behavior down as "unforgivable."

Last I checked, the one unforgivable sin is blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Playing footsie with the guy in the stall next to you, even with the intent of illicit sex, is forgivable. Maybe not politically forgivable, but spiritually at least.

McConnell doesn't have the ability to Mitch-slap you into eternal damnation; he might help get Craig expelled from the Senate, but he doesn't have the power to deny forgiveness. He lost that power back when the Democrats took over :-).

Bad Newz Baron

Is Michael Vick on the verge of being the Pete Rose of the NFL? The way I'm reading Goodell's letter to the Bad Newz baron, he might have trod the field of an NFL stadium for the last time after his plea of yesterday. The new commissioner has been a hanging judge, giving Pacman Jones a year off for merely getting into multiple brushes with the law without a conviction; this could well mimic Rose's lifetime ban with the possibility of parole down the line.

Vick will likely be a guest of Club Fed for the 2007 and 2008 seasons, and possibly 2009, depending on how harsh the judge is and when his sentence starts. If he starts a 18 month sentence sometime this fall, he'll be a free man early in 2009.

Forget about the CFL. He'll be a convicted felon on probation, so the folks in the Great White North are unlikely to bring him on board as a "landed immigrant," even if his running style would fit in well for the wide-field format. Red Wing enforcer Bob Probert had difficulty getting back into the NHL after a drug bust; it's hard for a felon to get permission to travel internationally, which made it hard for Probert to make Canadian away games.

Does the NFL bring him back? If he's been a model citizen, possibly. He'll need 2009 to prove that, and be in position to be reinstated for the 2010 season. One of the things that keeps Charlie Hustle from getting back in MLB's good graces is that he hasn't really been fully repentant of his gambling days. If Vick turns his back to the Bad Newz (which was the nickname for the area of Newport News he grew up in) attitude and does a lot of good works once he's out of the slammer, he might get Goodell, or whoever's sitting in that chair in the spring of 2010, to give him a second chance.

He'll likely be a free agent, since Goddell has given Atlanta the green light to go after a pro-rated share of his signing bonus for breech of contract, then release him. However, he'll be 30 and away from football for three years, and he wasn't the greatest QB on the planet to begin with; the most athletic, to be sure, but not the greatest.  He'll also have the baggage of having the dog lovers and animal-rights protesters camping out at his new team, assuming Vick hasn't repented enough for their tastes.

However, that level of talent is hard to ignore, especially at the fire-sale price he'll likely work for after his stint in gaol. If he's a good citizen and has convinced Goodell that he's no longer a threat to the league's integrity, some team will give him a chance.

Who Let The Dogs In?

After his co-defendants made plea deals, it seemed only a matter of time before Michael Vick bit the bullet and pleaded himself.

I don't have a good link to the piece, but their was a sports op-ed in today's dead tree Herald-Leader that tried to point the finger at society at large for not raising Vick right and giving him the long leash that allowed him to apply the nasty leash to his dawgs. That seemed a bit trite, but there is a little bit that resonates in that charge.

Part of the appeal of football is the hard contact; nothing makes a highlight reel faster than a good "decleater." Stepping further down the violence scale is boxing. A notch further is the mixed-martial-arts few-holds-barred brawls that are a growth industry on cable TV. However, when humans are involved, we're limited to only beating the other guy to a pulp.

If you want to see real gore, you're going to have to get animals involved, since killing people tends to draw the local constabulary real quick.

No, not every football fan is three steps away from enjoying canine snuff films, but a bit of that taste for violence coupled with a lack of empathy for others can lead folks in that direction. Thankfully, things like Vick's endeavors aren't all that easy to find.

How to Make a Small Fortune in Alternative Pro Football

Start with a big fortune like Mark Cuban's; it will get small in a hurry.

UFL. Wasn't that a Weird Al movie? No, it's a proposed football league slated to start in the fall of '08, with Cuban set to own a Vegas franchise. The last three tries to have a second league haven't worked.

The WFL of the 70s did take advantage of the lack of free agency in the NFL and lured stars like Larry Czonka, but lacked the revenues to pay the big salaries. The USFL of the 80s made a run at survivability, looking at first to work on a budget, but their desire to go toe-to-toe with the NFL rather than stick with a spring-summer schedule spelled their demise; they gave us quite a few future stars like Reggie White, Steve Young, Doug Flutie, and Michigan Panther QB Bobby Hebert. The WWF-flavored XFL was all sizzle and little steak, remembered more for Jesse Ventura's color commentary and Rod "He Hate Me" Smart than for anything on the field.

The UFL is heading to virgin (or at least NFL-unattached) territory, with proposed teams in LA, Las Vegas and Mexico City. There are a number of other big cities that could support a pro team. San Antonio had a trial run as the home of the Saints post-Katrina and could support a pro football team. Memphis would be another place that could do well; they didn't do too well as the temporary home of the Oilers/Titans, but might shine to an UFL club. Orlando, Columbus, something in the northeast, and possibly a couple of Canadian cities might be other prospects. That might be enough, for 8-10 teams might do just fine for starters.

There's always folks available after the season starts that are quality players. The Fox piece has UFL co-founder Bill Hambrecht stating that "Bill Walsh used to tell me that the last 20 players cut from every team were almost interchangeable with the last 20 players to make the team." If that's true, you have about 600 NFL-quality players unemployed when the Turk comes a-calling in late August.

That would be enough to staff a 10-team UFL, and the Turk would have to be cutting more marginal NFL players, since some of the second stringers would be candidates for the UFL.

We've had three bombs of alternative leagues in the last 30 years, but the previous two major tries, the AAFC and the AFL, were successful. The AFL fully merged with the NFL and the AAFC had a few of its better clubs, including the 49ers and the original Browns, absorbed by the NFL.

Will the UFL give us Marion Motley and Lou Groza or He Hate Me? I think it'll be more the latter, but Mark Cuban is a smart guy and I wouldn't be too quick to bet against him.

[Update 12:30AM 5/31-Here's an ESPN piece from this evening; the UFL is shooting for a 8-team start. The piece almost looks like it was cribbing from my post, talking about Larry Czonka and the WFL, Jim Kelly, Reggie White and Steve Young (I missed Kelly and added Flutie and Hebert) for the USFL and He Hate Me for the XFL.

They got the history wrong prior to that-"There have been numerous leagues that have tried to compete with the NFL and a few that actually played games, starting with the AFL, which began in 1960 and fully merged with the NFL a decade later." They missed the AAFC. That shows that they weren't cribbing, just drawing upon the same general thoughts of the alternative leagues of the past.]

[Update 1:15AM 5/31-An Orlando-area guy has already started up a UFL news blog. Ain't the quickness of blogs grand? He links to this post, agreeing with my San Antonio take. I'd be surprised if Orlando didn't get a team, for it's the best non-NFL city in the southeast and has a NFL-caliber stadium in the Citrus Bowl; they were third on my list of additional cities behind San Antonio and Memphis.]

SEC Supremacy

I'm packing it in a bit early, but as I go to press, Florida is beating up on OSU, 34-14 and knocking on the door for another score early in the fourth quarter. Urban warfare seems to be hard to stop, but what was the most impressive was how they shut down Troy Smith and the Buckeye offense.

Is there something to the saw that the SEC is so strong, Florida didn't look as good as they are. Well, when it got started, they brought Joe Kennedy on board, since he knew every trick in the financial book and wrote a few of the chapters. An old MSU finance prof of mine quipped that when Kennedy took on financial partners, they had money and he had experience; when they were done, he had money and they had an experience.

However, even after decades of figuring out how to slow down insider trading and other shenanigans, we're still seeing the sharpies stay one step ahead of the SEC. The problem with that is that I'm still figuring out how Urban Meyer's offense relates to the stock market.

Oh, the Southeastern Conference, that SEC. With powerhouse programs at LSU, Auburn, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida, each side of the SEC goes three deep. Alabama and South Carolina are tough outs and even some of the bottom-rung schools like Kentucky and Ole Miss can reach up and bite the big boys on any given Saturday. That's even going to get tougher with Saban's move to Bama.

Yes, it's going to be rather hard for anyone to go 13-0 through that brier patch. However, whoever gets out and wins the SEC title these days will be the nastiest 12-1 in college football and the odds-on favorite for the #2 slot barring two big-conference undefeateds.

Michigan proved to be all hat and no cattle when they left the Big Ten confines; even LSU, who didn't even win their division, handed the Irish their hat. OSU may well have been overrated; either that, or Tressel got his coaching head handed to him tonight. Those boys down south can play.

Don't get too cocky, my good southern friends. You can't schedule the Pittsburgh Steelers to beef up your out-conference sked; it's not fair to beat up on coaches who are making less than you are.

Smurfy

I didn't stay up to see the end of the Oklahoma-Boise State Fiesta Bowl game last night, but it was a doozy. A pair of retro plays were the highlights. If you haven't seen the highlights, follow the link above and put up with the 0:15 truck ad to see them.

A hook-and-ladder play with 0:07 got BSU into OT. I haven't seen anything like it in a quarter-century; it was 25 years ago today that Miami finished the fist half by scoring on a variant of the hook-and-ladder in a classic playoff game with San Diego.

Then, after the Sooners scored first in OT, a TD pass from a wide receiver set up in the shotgun got them within one. BSU went old school, going for two, and scoring on a Statue of Liberty play, faking a right flanker screen and slipping the ball behind the back to the halfback, who scooted untouched to the left for the game winner.

My mind's doing a flashback to a Jetsons episode featuring a robot football game, where one team runs the Statue of Liberty; the robo-QB pulls a lit torch out of its torso for flourish.

This is an advertisement for a playoff system. A 13-0 BSU should have a chance to win a national title, but there's little way, baring a major out-conference upset early in a season, that a mid-major's going to be in the top 2. 1984's BYU team was the only team to do that in modern history; they knocked off a well-regarded Pitt team (who wasn't that good, but was thought to be going in) in September and rolled to a 12-0 mark.

21st Century Golden Boy

LaDainian Tomlinson broke the NFL single-season touchdown record with 29 last weekend with three games left to play.

What's scary is that he's a two-point conversion away from a seemingly untouchable record, that of Paul Horning's 176 points in a season, set in 1960. Horning played back before we had specialists for kicking; one of the team's star players generally doubled as the place-kicker back then. He had 15 touchdowns, 41 extra points and 15 field goals in only a 12-game season.

Without robbing place-kicker Nate Kaeding of his job, LT is within shouting distance in only one extra game.

No pure kicker is ever likely to endanger the record; it would take a 42 field goal and 50 extra point year to get to 176, and the current record for field goals is 40.

Not that long ago, the idea of a running back or wideout putting up a 30-TD season seemed almost as far-fetched. Shaun Alexander found the end zone 28 times last year, establishing the record that lasted less than a year. LT has three games to get himself in the end-zone one more time to break the record.

Maize and Blue Blues

I'm in an interesting spot to see the BCS fallout as a Michigander working in Florida; the news of the morning is that I'll work today and head home. The folks here in Florida are pleased that justice was done to their Gators, but the folks in Michigan feel that dey wus robbed.

Someone has to come in #3, and you have two teams with equivalent cases to make. Florida had a tougher sked, but Michigan's only loss came at OSU by only three; given that you normally allot 3-5 points for home-field advantage when doing point-spreads, that would make Michigan the equal of OSU on a neutral field.

This reminds me of the figure skating match in the '94 Olympics between Oksana Baiul and Nancy Kerrigan. To my untrained eye, Kerrigan had a notch-cleaner program, but Baiul had a notch-more artistic program; a dead heat. Baiul won by a thread, 5-4, with the final judge, a former German skater (IIRC), seeing things my way, giving Kerrigan a 5.9-5.8 edge on technical issues and Baiul a 5.8-5.7 edge on presentation; by the rules of the day, the presentation winner won such a tie.

Americans were upset that their gal lost, but that's the way the rules broke. Michigan was on the short end of a similar squeaker, but the rules have it down that way.

The dispassionate computers made the two co-#2s, with the humans siding for Florida; the margin may well have come from folks not wanting to see a rematch of Michigan-OSU. Were there a playoff, and the voters were merely setting up who would be the second seed in a four or eight-team playoff, I'd expect that Michigan would have ended up #2. However, there is only a two-team playoff, and the voters opted for a fresh pairing.

Michigan has gotten bowl bids better than their record in the past mainly because their the Maize and Blue; this time, they got the short end of the stick in a bang-bang decision.

We'll get an entertaining championship game and a fun Rose Bowl. Maybe sometime in the future, this situation would be resolved by having Michigan and Florida play in a Sugar Bowl semifinal matchup, but it won't be this year.

Why Not a Playoff?

We've got a classic BCS dilemma; one undefeated major-conference team and three 11-1's that have a legit shot at claiming the #2 slot. Sometimes, we get two undefeated teams and the 1 vs. 2 is a no-brainer. Other times, we get three undefeated teams and one gets the shaft. However, this year is the norm, where there's a scuffle for #2.

I'll trot out my 2002 post on a BCS tournament, which still stands as a good model. Take the six big-conference winners and the top two at-larges and put them in an eight-team tourney, using the traditional BCS quartet as the quarterfinals.

I'd modify my undefeated mid-major rule to the current top-12 or top-16-but-better than the weakest Big-6 champ; that will keep someone in a mid-major from setting up a Twinkie out-conference sked that would help them to 12-0 . In that model, Michigan and Boise State would be the at-large picks.

Here would be my first-round match-ups, assuming that the favorites win their conference title games

Orange Bowl-#1 Ohio State vs. #8 Wake Forest
Fiesta Bowl=#2 USC vs. #7 Oklahoma
Sugar Bowl=#4 Florida vs. #5 Louisville
Rose Bowl=#3 Michigan vs. #6 Boise State

The seeds could be debated; 2-3-4 is close, as is 5-6. However, they'd all be settling it on the field. This format keeps a 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 format, while trying to keep at least one traditional bowl feed in. The Fiesta gets the Big 12, the Sugar gets the SEC, the Orange gets the ACC and the Rose gets a Big Ten team, albeit the conference runner up.

You'd then have the Fiesta and Rose winners in one semifinal game and the Sugar and Orange winners in another on the Saturday before the NFL conference finals in two neutral sites, then play the title game a week later on a Saturday night at a third neutral site.

The revenue would be higher than the current model, since all of the games will be must-see football. As is, the four BCS bowls that aren't the championship games are nice, but not that important. For instance, I'm about footballed out after the Rose Bowl and often pass on watching whatever is on in that 8PM slot on New Years Day, especially when there are two Big Ten clubs going at it in the noonish slots and another Big Ten club in the Rose bowl.

It still looks like a good plan four years removed. Eventually, the NCAA folks will come around to it.

 

One Down, Two to Go

Coming into this weekend, three teams had a realistic shot at edging Michigan out of their #2 spot; Arkansas, Florida and USC. After yesterday, it's down to two, as LSU knocked off the Razorbacks. The Tigers may have put themselves in position to snag the last BCS at-large spot, although West Virginia and Wisconsin would have some consideration.

Twelfth-ranked Boise State may well be ahead of not one but two big-six conference champs after the Aggies upset of Texas yesterday; Oklahoma becomes the highest ranked Big 12 team at 13 (assuming that Texas will drop back into the teens from its #11 slot), while Georgia Tech at 16 heads up the ACC pack. A&M had been on a six-game losing streak to the boys from Austin; that's good for that classic rivalry game and for my Aggie sister-in-law.

Miami got past BC to limp into a 6-6 bowl-eligible slot, but Larry Coker will be on the street after the bowl game. He won a national title in 2001, but two Peach Bowls and a Weed-Whacker Bowl in the last three years aren't going to hunt in Miami. The rumor mill has Rutgers' Greg Schiano high on the list, but that might well be a lateral move right now, given that Rutgers is the toast of the NY media and that a Miami job would be top-ten or bust.

Newly retired Barry Alvarez might be a candidate; Miami president Donna Shalala was president at Wisconsin before her Clinton HHS gig and might bring her old coach south.

Football Musings

Here's what I wrote Friday on the BCS-

If Michigan loses close tomorrow, and is competing with the SEC champ and the USC-Notre Dame winner, the resulting vote will be very tightly split, even more so if Rutgers is undefeated. Since the computers seem to love Michigan (they’re currently #1 there) and the poll share goes on percentage of the vote, not your numeric ranking, Michigan can finish a close third or even fourth in the polls and get into the title game with a strong #2 in the computer.

Michigan is a close #3 in the human polls behind USC, but #2 in the computers, getting them #2 in the BCS, giving fans outside of Big Ten territory indigestion. If form holds, we'll be seeing a rematch of yesterday's game in Glendale in January.

Michigan didn't quite deserve to be as close as they were, as three turnovers and an overruled interception made the 42-39 score closer than it should have been. OSU has one heck of an offense, and Troy Smith didn't have to run much to do it.

Arkansas clinched a spot in the SEC title game with a win yesterday. I just caught their quarterback's name-Casey Dick. He'd be unlikely to go into the military; if he enlisted, he'd be a Private Dick and if he went through ROTC, he'd eventually become a Major Dick or even a General Dick. The guy probably gets far more grief than he should.

Speaking of fun football names, my current favorite for 2006 is Boston College corner-back DeJuan Tribble, who ran back an interception for a TD against Maryland. Maybe NFL wideouts will have trouble with Tribble in the future.

Western Michigan visited Tallahassee, and almost beat Florida State, losing 28-20. FSU needed that win to clinch a bowl bid; they're now 6-5 going into their season-ender with Florida. It would have been a big win for the Broncos, but not that big, since FSU is having their lamest season in memory. I hope they don't have the long knives out for Bobby Bowden; he deserves better than to go out on a 6-6 year.

One Cindy bites the dust in Cincy; Rutgers got clawed by the Bearcats, 30-11, ending their undefeated season and ending West Virginia's hopes at a three-way tie for the Big East title. The best WV can hope for now is to beat Rutgers and go 11-1 into BCS selection day as a potential at-large.

Given that Michigan, Boise State and Notre Dame are likely guaranteed at-large spots (Michigan has one if they're in the top four, ND has one if they're in the top 8 and Boise has one if they're either in the top 12 or better than the ACC champ), they'd have to get past an 11-1 Wisconsin for the last wild-card spot.

The Rose Bowl would get first pick, since they had OSU raided from them for the championship game. They'd have a choice of Boise State, the ACC Champ, Notre Dame and someone else. Since USC will have just played Notre Dame, the Irish wouldn't make sense; they'd be a no-brainer if they hadn't just played USC. A 11-2 ACC champ that isn't Miami or Florida State has little cache and the boys from Boise aren't going to be the first pick of the little old men from Pasadena.

That leaves 11-1 West Virginia as the likely Big East runner up and 11-1 Wisconsin as the two most likely picks. A 11-2 Florida might be feasible, but and 11-2 Arkansas would have the same problem as Notre Dame; they already played USC in the regular season and had their head handed to them.

West Virginia has the most exciting offense that isn't based in Columbus, but the Rose Bowl would be likely to pick the bigger and better-traveling Badger alumni and keep the Big Ten ties. That will make one very fun Gator Bowl, although White and Slaton deserve far better.
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Quick unrelated joke-Eileen had a Blizzard hankering, but since the BQ we have's in the mall's food court, she settled for a McFlurry. A Reece's McFlurry, eaten with a Reece Flurryspoon.

Who's #2?

Once the dust settles in a few weeks, we'll have four teams vying for the #2 spot. Of course, the winner of tomorrow's Michigan-OSU game will have the #1 spot, but four teams could make a case for joining the Big Ten champ in Glendale-

Michigan-OSU loser
USC-Norte Dame Winner
Florida-Arkansas Winner
Rutgers-West Virginia Winner

One of the factors to keep in mind is that Michigan whupped the Irish in South Bend, so that will be a factor if Norte Dame is in contention. If the Michigan-OSU game is close, the loser will trump Notre Dame. The loser may well trump USC if they just scoot by Notre Dame.

Arkansas will have a hard time getting to #3, since they got beaten handily by USC early in the season. Their only hope is to have Cal beat USC tomorrow, then have USC beat Notre Dame. Then, they’ll get a clean comparison with the Big Ten runner-up.

Rutgers will be hard-pressed to get to #2 even if they run the table. It’s not fair, since they started the year unranked and had to earn their way up the polls; had they been in West Virginia or Louisville’s spot at the beginning of the year, they’d be #3 right now and ready to move up to #2 after tomorrow’s game. However, wouldas, couldas and shouldas will take four to five strokes off your golf game and do little for your rankings.

Even so, that may well be moot, since Rutgers has to run up against that superb West Virginia offence; if form holds, we’ll have a three-way tie for first in the Big East and at least one, if not two, BCS at-larges.

Florida, if they run the table, would have a serious claim at #2. However, their case will be more difficult if Rutgers is underfeated and the USC-Notre Dame winner comes in 11-1.

If Michigan loses close tomorrow, and is competing with the SEC champ and the USC-Notre Dame winner, the resulting vote will be very tightly split, even more so if Rutgers is undefeated. Since the computers seem to love Michigan (they’re currently #1 there) and the poll share goes on percentage of the vote, not your numeric ranking, Michigan can finish a close third or even fourth in the polls and get into the title game with a strong #2 in the computer.

We’ll know a lot more tomorrow night.

Bo

The news of the day, if you're from Big Ten territory, is the passing of legendary Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler earlier today at 77, a day before his old team was due to play the regular-season Game of the Century against Ohio State. He collapsed while taping an interview for a Detroit TV station's pre-game coverage.

He was the Maize and Blue's coach from 1969-89, putting the program into perennial top-20 status. The Michigan-OSU game was a big rivalry before he arrived, but the next decade saw it rise to epic proportions, as he and his OSU mentor Woody Hayes would routinely decide the Big Ten title in their end-of-the-season matchup; it became so routine that the standard joke of the era was that conference should be renamed the Big Two and the Little Eight.

I cut my college football teeth on the Bo and Woody wars of the 70s. Bo had been an assistant of Woody's at OSU before taking the head coaching job at Miami U; he then moved up to Ann Arbor after a successful stint there. There was typically a Rose Bowl bid on the line when they met, not to mention bragging rights, as well as a teacher-pupil vibe, so things were particularly heated.

The rivalry cooled a bit in the 80s after Woody was forced out; Hayes punched out a Clemson linebacker in the '78 Gator Bowl after he intercepted a key pass and was forced out of bounds on the OSU sidelines. Beating Earl Bruce or John Cooper wasn't quite as fun as sticking it to Woody.

Bo was old school; I used to joke that the Bo in pig Latin is Obey. He didn't get violent like Woody would from time to time, but he was a disciplinarian. He never bagged a national title, but came close a number of times; his teams tended to underperform in bowl games, even though he got them to bowl games consistently.

After stepping aside as football coach, he served a stint as athletic director and a stint as president of the Detroit Tigers at the request of Ann Arbor native and then-Tiger owner Tom Monoghan. As AD, he was in position to relieve basketball coach Bill Frieder of duty just before the Big Dance after Frieder had signed on to coach Arizona State the following season; interim coach Steve Fisher proceeded to win the tourney.

Other schools have their iconic larger-than-life coaches; Bo was that if you were from Michigan. He will be missed.

Bob and Ernie

Interesting ESPN piece on Bob Ufer, UofM's radio voice from 1945-81.  I can remember the calls of  Michigan touchdowns "He's at the five, the four, three, two, one.  HONK, HONK, HONK. Touchdown Meeeeee-sheee-gan!" We're clued in to the factoid that Ufer's horn (three honks for a touchdown {unless it's against Ohio State or a game-winner, in which case all bets are off} and one for field goals and extra points, IIRC) came off of Patton's WWII Jeep.

It's interesting that Ufer left this mortal coil days after calling his last game in 1981, for that's about the time that radio as a way to experience college football died, with the birth of ESPN and the ending of the ABC college football monopoly. Back in that day, each team was limited to two or three broadcasts on ABC. So, for Michigan fans, you'd get to see on ABC the Ohio State game, the Michigan State game and maybe a key out-conference matchup. For the other eight games, you either had to make your way to the stadium or listen to Ufer.

A similar story would be true of baseball in the 60s and 70s. You'd get to see about 40 games on local TV, a Saturday afternoon NBC package and (during the summer) a Monday night ABC package. This was before ESPN and the regional sport cable channels. For the other 120 games, you had to listen to radio; the radio broadcasters were the voice of the team.

If you were watching the coverage of the Tiger's World Series run this year, you might have got to hear Ernie Harwell, the Tigers' voice from the 60s through the 90s, call some play-by-play; my grandma liked Ernie so well, she'd even listen to him when the game was on TV, turning down the volume on the TV broadcast and listening to Ernie call the game.

I was mildly surprised that it's been 25 years since Ufer died, but I'm now 45 and time can tend to fly. I can recall his shtick on mid-70s option QB Rick Leach, "the guts and glue of the Maize and Blue" just as I can recall some of the Ernieisms like the called third strike "he stood there like the house by the side of the road and watched that one go by" or the foul in the stands "...and a man from [fill in local city] got to take that one home with him."

When you get to see virtually all Michigan games on TV, scattered across ESPN, ABC, syndicated ESPN-plus and NBC, you don't get to relate to one voice. The days of the Bob Ufers are gone.

With the Score 25-25

With severe apologies to Zager and Evans...

With the score 25-25
Judge Ito misses left wide
But the Cards were caught offside
we may find...

...that Rutgers is still unbeaten. They came back from 25-7 down to beat Louisville with a few seconds left, 28-25; after getting a mulligan courtesy of an offside call, Jeremy Ito knocked home the game winner. The 25-25 was 3TD and a FG, but with a two-point conversion each; the Cards had an extra point blocked, but managed to run the block in, then Rutgers had a conventional two-pointer later on.

That will likely give some one-loss team a shot at the national title, since it's unlikely that the Scarlet Knights (Scarlet Knight? Is that Batman going metrosexual?) will make it to the top two. Michigan-OSU rematch, anyone?

That was the first time Rutgers was ranked and played a ranked team. It won't be the last. They have two very good sophomores in QB Mike Teel and RB Ray Rice; 2008 should have a lot of media heading to Tony Soprano's alma mater.

BCS Musings

Normally, a game featuring Rutgers wouldn't get anyone attention, most likely being a September non-conference game you'd channel-surf into about 12:45 on a lazy September afternoon. If you were rooting for the team playing against them or the other games on were blowouts, you'd watch.

Tonight, they host Louisville with the winner having the inside track to the Big East title. A Louisville win would solidify their claim on at least a #3 national ranking and a good case for a shot at being in the title game. This year starts a new formats where they'll have a extra title game on top of the four semi-traditional BCS bowls, hosted in rotation between the four bowl sites; Glendale's new football stadium (replacing ASU's stadium in Tempe for the Fiesta Bowl) gets the first one.

The problem for the Cardinals is that Michigan and Ohio State are 1 and 2. They're both undefeated and play each other next Saturday.

That's one of the great traditional grudge matches in college football. Fans of other parts of the country can make a case for their grudge match (Auburn-Alabama, Texas versus A&M, USC-UCLA, Army-Navy are a few good ones) but you'd be hard pressed to find a better one than Michigan-OSU; Texas-A&M, when they still had the UT Sh--house on top of the bonfire, might trump it by a notch, but the bonfire tragedy of a few years ago knocked it down a peg. Here a good Wikipedia write up on the Michigan-OSU rivalry.

This year brings back memories of 1973, where they both came in undefeated and played to a 10-10 tie; OSU got voted into the Rose Bowl. Since they have overtime now, they won't repeat that result, but if it's that close, voters would be hard pressed to knock the loser of the game down to #3. That would lead to the possibility of a 12-0 Louisville getting "shafted" in favor of a 11-1 Michigan or OSU, having metro Phoenix host a rematch for the national title.

A rematch isn't unheard of. Back in 1979, Nebraska locked up the Big 8's Orange Bowl bid with their then-season-ending traditional match against Oklahoma; now that they're in different divisions in the Big 12, they only play every-other year now. The Sooners were the best at-large team available, so they had a rematch, with Oklahoma winning.

Just because you're undefeated doesn't mean you're better than a one-loss team. Boise State is undefeated, but will need new BCS rules to get a bowl spot. The new rules give mid-major clubs an automatic slot if their in the top 12, or in the top 16 but better than one of the big-6 conference automatic bid-winners; they're 14th right now, but well ahead of Wake Forest, the highest ranked ACC club. BSU will be fortunate to grab a Orange Bowl bid even if they go 12-0.

Louisville has a potent offense that was more potent at the beginning of the year, where NFL-bound Michael Bush broke his leg; QB Brian Brohm should be playing on Sundays next year as well, and they managed to have some good running backs to replace Bush. If they can get past Rutgers and Pittsburgh, they'll stand ready to make a case to be #2 after the Rumble in the Horseshoe next weekend.

However, Rutgers could render the whole thing moot by winning tonight. They're unlikely to make it to #2 even if they beat "the 'Ville" and WV later on; that latter is going to be tough, since WV has one of the most scary-good offenses I've seen in years. Folks in the Great Lakes will likely be rooting for the Scarlet Knights, if they know that's what Rutgers' nickname is.