Boise St. vs. OU, high school version

Wonder what this play is called.

Is Urban Meyer the Next Barry Switzer?

Now that the Gators are national champions once again, the media is turning its spotlight on all corners of the program. Including the corner cell at the Alachua County jail. How much more of this before Florida gets a cute pun nickname like the "CrimiNoles"?

Fan for a Day II

I have to agree with Raul. On that list, it's UT-Austin, then UT-Knoxville. Going off the list, I'd say Harvard at The Game (check out Harvard's recruiting class; Plano East and New Trier represented).

Clem Haskins, where have you gone?

Don't suppose Minnesotans imagined themselves longing for the days of Clem Haskins and simple academic fraud. If true, this is ugly. One hopes Mike's brother Geoffrey Nifong isn't prosecuting the case.

This is what slays me: AD Joel Maturi had this to say in a statement. "The conduct alleged in this case does not reflect the expectations and aspirations that the University has for its student-athletes or any of its students."

This is the best the guy can come up with for prepared remarks? Not one in two trillion people would assume the university expects or aspires its students to such behavior.

Fan for a day ...

Okay, saw this on a PSU blog, but if you had to suck it up and be fan for a day for one of the following teams (sit amongst the faithful, wear the jersey, sing the fight songs, i.e., you won't be allowed to mail it in), which of these teams would you choose?

• Ohio State
• Notre Dame
• Texas
• Tennessee (or your other least favorite SEC school)

Still, ain't no one got nothin' on the sweaters

SEC just flat out does it better

Check out Darren McFadden's phat ride which will have everything to do with him winning the heisman. He didn't have this when Arkansas played Wisco in the capital one but if he did, he would have outran those slow white boys to the end zone .

The Laguna Beach Crowd needs to calm down

I don't buy the "we have nothing in common with our conference" argument. The same argument could be made about Florida not being southern enough for the SEC. Every conference has a school or two that doesn't fit in with the rest of the conference. UC-Boulder seems to think its too good for the conference b/c it attracts so many students from wealthy out-of-state suburbs. Well, so does Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas, Arizona State or any state school that promises a good time. I don't hear Michigan or Wisonsin claiming they should join the IVY league(actually, I hear this all the time) or Kansas claiming they should join the Big Ten. At the end of the day, 70% of UC-Boulder's student body comes from Colorado. Why not coddle to the masses.

I'm also not buying the we would get more fans in Pasedena and South Central than we would in lincoln or manhattan. The new conference honeymoon would wear off after a few years and fans would stop traveling. Just ask Miami: trips to Atlanta and Chapel Hill are fun and intriguing the first time but the second and third time? The buffs need a win over FSU to put all this conference re-alignment talk to rest.

Realignment

Raul and I were just talking about this: how to realign the conferences. Not that long ago, CU declined to join the Pac-10. This article, and the following comment to it by some poster, address it. The writer for the Boulder Daily Camera is taking a lot of heat from the "flyover state" complex crowd ("we belong with the Huskers and Sooners, not a bunch of pretty boy surfers"), but I'm open to the idea. Nobody ever goes to road games in Ames, Manhattan, Stillwater, Norman, Lincoln, etc.; why not have them in L.A., Seattle, the Bay Area, and so on? Another poster pointed out that CU has the highest percentage of out-of-state students of any state u in the country, most of them from the left coast. Any thoughts on this? Any other realignment proposals?


Posted by buffalo_flyer on July 12, 2007 at 6:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The Pac-10 has rivalries down the board. They should invite both CU and CSU to the mix. Twelve schools, split into divisions, add conference game and additional multi mil payoff, great setup.The west has tons of people with ties to this state. Attendance at every away game but especially the Rose Bowl and Colisseum would blow away current numbers.We could still play CSU first weekend at Invesco every year for an early firstplace conference lead. Hows that opening College Football to the nation?

They must have read my post.

CBS ranks the most corrupt college football programs of all time and the state of Alabama takes the cake but who can forget that dynamic duo from "Harvard of the Southwest."

Even High School programs in Alabama are selling their soul to the devil

I never knew Chris Webber had a graduate degree...

Yet another program forced to erase wins and take down banners...oh wait...they only went 8-4 that year? Well nevermind then. Is anyone else here just completely shocked at the leniency granted to Oklahoma regarding the no-show job situation? They lose two scholarships and have to vacate wins from a season any diehard Sooner fan will insist never happened anyway. The penalty to Oklahoma is barely greater than that of what Colorado is suffering for discount school lunches. Yet again, Myles Brand and friends show their true colors, which in this case seems to indicate that Mr. Brand still has a soft spot for a certain deep shade of red...

The Southwest conference called...they want their corruption back.

Seriously, want happened to the good ole day when Texas schools spied on each other. When coaches left death threats for recruits who went else wear at the last minute. The days when boosters would only buy the athlete merely to keep them playing for their rivals or the days when financial aid offices forged documents to bolster pell grants. When coaches payed their running backs child support. These sissy-minor violations were never a part of the collge football i grew to love. Lets go back to the days of Luther Cambell and Danny Ford and lets stop punishing schools for undercharging a walk-on athletes meal.

And the NFL fully expects him to be at training camp...

...while hoping he might stick out an entire season before returning to another college program intent on overpaying him.

Nick Saban is already in peak performance mode at Alabama. It never hurts to get an early jump on recruiting violations. You don't want your opponents to have an edge in news clippings. Saban is obviously feeling the pressure to keep up with Les Miles in the race for most words authored on their respective programs before an actual kickoff. http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=234218

No word if the self-reporting of violations is a strategy by Saban to get Alabama to void his contract so that he can take over as manager of the Cincinnati Reds.

Because of the minor nature of the recruiting violations, I suspect the NCAA will be rather lenient in this instance and only take away one or two scholarships from Colorado...

Les is Not More

In case you weren't sick enough of the "SEC cross to bear" song, as Raul pointed out, this year Les Miles is at it earlier than the presidential primary candidates. Miles' innacurate braying and pandering aside, USC plays the following teams on the road this season: Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oregon, Cal, and Arizona State. LSU's road games are Mississippi State, Tulane (do they even have a stadium anymore, or will this be an "away" game for LSU in the Superdome?), Kentucky, 'Bama, and Ole Miss. Hmmm. The rest of their games, at home, are VaTech, Middle Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida, Auburn, Louisiana Tech (what, no Monroe this year to complete the LA State Title?), and Auburn. Really, the big challenges are Va Tech (not an SEC team), Florida, and Auburn. Other than that, their "path," as Miles put it, doesn't look all that bad. UCLA and Oregon State are easily as good as Ole Miss and South Carolina, and while Washington is down, so is Alabama. Thanks to Miles, we'll never hear the end of useless conference comparisons this season. But, being in the SEC is an enviable position to be in. If LSU loses it's opener at Miss State, Miles can just say how dern tough the SEC is. If USC gets upset by UCLA again, he can marvel at how SC lost to such a weak opponent. He really can't lose.

Berry Oakley and Duane Allman just turned in their graves.

I don't know what's going on in Athens this off-season but I do know this isn't what national championship off-seasons look like.
That's starting Quaterback Matt Stafford on the right having a moment with backup Joe Cox.

John Ameche's 27th B-day party?

*I would like to thank our friends at Deepsouthsports.net for providing the pics.

Further proof that they are just faster in SEC country:

Be sure to check the part about disappearing for about 5 minutes after the ceremony...

http://deepsouthsports.blogspot.com/2007/06/bama-fan-of-week_27.html

I really have nothing more to add here that could top what the author of the original post has already put to print.

The Award goes to

The Award for first SEC coach to spout off about how hard it is to navigate through an SEC schedule goes to Les Miles. This award, usually reserved for Tommy Tuberville, goes to the SEC coach that exemplifies excellence in the field of whining. Usually, the award isn't handed out until mid-october. Look, if the SEC is so damn hard then drop out and join the Sun Belt. Believe me, the USC/ND loving media understand that going to Gainesville, Knoxville and Athens is no walk through Peidmont Park but, please, don't attack other conferences. I challenge anyone in the SEC to venture up to Seattle or Eugene and come out alive. Just ask Miami, Michigan and Oklahoma about those trips.

Top 5 Games of the Century

Every now and then the College football world is blessed with an overhyped classic referred to as the "Game of the Century." Here is my list of top 5 "Games of the Century"

5. Oklahoma 17 Nebraska 7: The Big 12 destroyed what was arguably college football's greatest rivalry. This 1 vs 2 decided who got to go to the Orange Bowl to be Miami's whipping boy. Also, lets not forget that Ohio State was not the first school to loose a football and basketball national championship game in the same academic year. In 87-88, Oklahoma lost to Miami in the Orange Bowl and then lost Kansas in the basketball national championship game. To their credit, the Sooners played two defacto road games: Miami in the OrangeBowl and Kansas in Kansas City.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m813Ccd09GA&mode=related&search=

3. (tied) Michigan 39 Ohio State 42 2006: No Comment.

3. (tied) Florida 21 Florida State 24 1996: A week after this game all hell broke loose(Nebraska-Texas) and the two schools met five weeks later in the sugar bowl. The hype was all for not as the rematch yielded a 52-20 gator victory. Thank you Ohio State, Texas and Michigan for making Florida's first national title a reality. More importantly, thank you Georgia for making Florida look so fast and athletic the last 17 years.

2. Miami 17 Florida State 16 1991: Wide Right I. Bowden ran on the field thinking Gerry Thomas hit the game-winning FG only to realize a minute later it sailed wide right. Maybe he should have noticed Sebastien the IBIS running on the field, taunting his players, before attempting to congratulate his kicker. 91 was the first year of the Big East football conference who somehow took credit for this national championship despite the fact that Miami only played two big east schools. But hey, if Delaney and his posse of academically superior universities want to take credit for Penn State's 82 and 86 championships, then the Big East can do whatever it wants.

1. Florida State 24 Notre Dame 31 1993: This game was so big that ESPN College Gameday left its studio in Bristol for the first time to broadcast from a college campus. The storylines were unbelievable: O.J. Simpson as a sideline reporter, Blue Blood football vs. speedy Nouveau Riche football and midwestern Irish Catholics vs. southern baptist rednecks from Florida. What's the best way to celebrate a "game of the century" victory--a loss to Boston College seven days later.

Nothing says "new south" like steve spurrier

http://deadspin.com/sports/peeing-at-augusta/ah-the-sweet-relief-of-augusta-261636.php

After single-handedly turning Georgia into a second-tier football program, the "evil genius" relieves himself on the state's most sacred ground. What's next, going into in Athens and throwing a bomb with 1:29 left when you're already up by 28. Oh Wait, he already did that back in '95. By the way Reggie, don't tell anyone down there UGA is second tier. They'll be quick to point out 2 SEC Championships in 27 years, REM and Widespread PANIC.

Another SEC Advantage

A friend of mine is studying for the Louisiana Bar, and sent this, directly off the Feb 07 Louisiana bar exam wills and trusts section.

"Boudreaux wrote the following on the back of a cocktail napkin on Jan 4 2007: 'I am THRILLED that LSU beat Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl last night 41-14. I hereby bequeath 10 thousand dollars to the LSU Football Program.'"

In Louisiana, it is indeed an enforceable holographic codicile. Maybe the non-enforceability of holographic wills in Illinois is the reason the Illini football program doesn't get as much money left to it by boosters.

The 'Hawk is Out: UNC Decides to "Go Play Intramurals, Brother!"

Well, despite going 2-10 in his debut campaign, Coach 'Hawk has instilled some fear into the ACC. An exaggeration, yes, but as 'Sheed likes to say: "The ball don't lie!" Butch Davis has just "opted out" of UNC's home-and-home with the Buffs, which requires the 'Heels to pay CU $100k in liquidated damages (for you others studying for the bar, the contract must have provided for liquidated damages as the 'exclusive' remedy in the event of a breach, precluding CU from seeking specific performance or injunctive relief). There's your fine, Myles Brand. Turns out CU didn't have to pay it after all. Anyway, Colorado has replaced UNC with West Virginia, which will be the Buffs' first meeting with the Mountaineers in CU's 117 year history.

Daily Delany Pile on ... bit part in "Next Generation?"