Pretty salty weekend

As some more conference play got underway (BANG I should get paid for this stuff), we got a picture of what should shape up to be pretty a pretty interesting season in a few conferences.

First and foremost, the BigXII and SEC are in a complete and utterly different class than the rest of the league right now. Seriously.



SEC/Big XII top 25

2. Oklahoma 3-0 1,484

3. Georgia (2) 4-0 1,475

4. Florida (1) 3-0 1,442

5. LSU 3-0 1,363

6. Missouri 4-0 1,360

7. Texas 3-0 1,174

8. Alabama 4-0 1,132

10. Texas Tech 4-0 962

15. Auburn 3-1 785

18. Kansas 3-1 555

21. Vanderbilt 4-0 242

What's more, I submit that the MWC or WAC may be the third or fourth best conference in the land

11. Brigham Young 4-0 919

17. Utah 4-0 574

19. Boise State 3-0 363

24. TCU 4-0 117

25. Fresno State 2-1 105

At this point, the Big Ten has a boost (with PSU and Wisky playing good ball right now) over both conferences, but it's not by much.


And now for some nice smackalacks courtesy of Miami:

Wow.

We couldn't get a good clip of it... but this is a recent interview w/ Bob Costas, Braylon Edwards, Buzz Bissinger, and Will Liech (of Deadspin). I'll go as far as to say that each of these men are some of the greatest in each of their respective fields. The discussion gets real heated real quick. Bissinger goes off on a tangent on Will and blogs in general.

I agree to an extent. There is a lot of anonymity in blogging. We can say a lot of things behind the cloak of TCP/IP. But we get to do it for fun. We're not trying to make money here. Outside of Perez Hilton, Orson, Liech, and a few others, we'll never make money at this. We do it because we love it. We're trying not to practice real journalism. We want to make jokes about Jim Delaney cussing out Jim Swofford. We want to do a montage of Tommy T. taking out guys knees.

We know we're not the professionals. We know that we're the bunch of 30 year olds playing flag football with bad looking spin moves and cuts. We act way more ridiculous when we score than an NFL player. We know that. You guys are the NFL players.

We get it.

Going on a tirade against the lead blogger doesn't prove your point. It just makes you sound like a profane, angry professional. But still a "professional."

The Audacity of Hope.

Things are hard now, my fellow Americans. There is no hope on the horizon. The BCS season has left us jaded and angry. Les Miles and his gorillas with chainsaws have pillaged the College Football world and left you with no passion. Ohio State has left you wanting again.

You've been fooled too long by the Hawaii's of this world. All cupcakes and no substance. You've been deceived by SEC speed. You're bitter that you've been left again with a top heavy Big East. You've failed to make a bowl despite the preseason ranking one time to many.

You've been lied to by the BCS and promised a true champion that you can believe in. Instead year in and year out you get controversy at every turn.

Small town colleges like West Virginia are clinging to their couch-burnings, internet fodder, coach suings to ease the pain.

Rules committees have gone on too long taking game time away from you, the deserving fans.

College football fans suffer while the rest of the world sits on their chaise lounges enjoying NBA Playoffs and baseball.

We do not have to live like this.

Where are the people that will stand for the rights of you, college football fans? Where is your champion? Where is your defender?

Let me tell you something, my friends.

Change is coming. Your champion is on his way.

Hope is on the horizon

In less than 130 days I promise you a change. A change we can all believe in.

I promise you that your Saturdays will not be empty voids any more.

I promise you that the fire in your heart that burns will be rekindled. The likes of Pete Carroll will be stoked to be on your screens again soon.

I promise that forty year old men will soon be on the sideline again defending players.

I promise you that Tim Tebow will rock the swamps of Florida and it will be heard throughout all the SEC.

I promise that Joe Paterno will continue to roam to and fro' in Happy Valley.

I promise that you will no longer have to assume what Lou Holtz will say, but that you will in fact hear him in his locker room talks.

I promise that Erin Andrews will be there to bring insight from half-time talks and adjustments.

I promise you that come August 30th we will have sweet victory.

I promise you that these games are coming on that day:

Michigan State at California
Illinois vs. Missouri (St. Louis)
USC at Virginia
Oklahoma State vs. Washington State
Tennessee at UCLA
Utah at Michigan
Kentucky at Louisville
Fresno State at Rutgers
Alabama vs. Clemson
Hawaii at Florida

When we win those games we'll move on to the next week and the next and then on to the next.

Come November the people will have spoken and new hope and change will have arisen.

I can promise that we will work together with ABC, CBS, ESPN, Fox Sports, B10N, VS. and CSTV to bring you the best Saturdays in America that we can bring.

My fellow Americans...

Hope is on the way.

We believe.
We believe.
We believe.

A Tale of Two Programs

We're trying to cover quite a few of the spring games this year as there's always some good storylines and interesting tidbits of info.

Two stood out this morning.

One was a overview of Kansas spring game

Another was an article discussing the upcoming Nebraska spring game

The Kansas article was nothing to special. Todd Reesing struggled a bit in the spring game and quite a few of their starters are gone. Nothing special. One thing stood out though

7,500.

That's how many people attended the spring game for the Jayhawks football team. The team that is 4 months removed from the greatest season in school history.

On the flipside, Nebraska is coming off one of the worst, most embarrassing seasons in school history. Across the board, it was just a disappointing year, pesonified by the complete and utter schalacking at the hand of the aforementioned Jayhawks (73-31... and we ain't talking B-Ball)

How many tickets did Nebraska sell? All of 'em. 65,000 seats were sold by April 9th.

Is it the whole football school/basketball school thing?

Even if that's the case, you have to imagine that more than 7,500 people care enough to come to the games. It's a great time to be a Jayhawks fan. Your football team just had the best year ever. Your hoops team just won the National Championship!

Why is a school that didn't get a bowl bid or a tournament invite is beating your attendance by almost 10x ?

Culture, my friends. Culture.


Case in point:

Texas and Texas A&M have just come into having legitimate hoops teams this last decade. Before Rick Barnes and Billy Gillespie showed up in Texas, attendance was low and people didn't care. Barnes started winning and the people started coming. Gillespie started winning in College Station and people started coming. Building a culture for a sport takes time. What makes it harder is when people come along and steal your coaches (thanks Kentucky) and don't really let a program get going. Both Texas teams were well into their 3rd years of success before near sellouts were regular.

Mark Mangino seems like he wants to stay. Here's hoping he does, and that the preseason game can start being an exciting event in Lawrence, Kansas.

Predicting the BCS Bowls.... in March.

CFN isn't my favorite site in the world but the keep us up to date on CFB year round and churn out something to whet our appetite during the harsh months of May, June, and July where there is nothing to be hopeful for.

They've been running a fairly decent preview here.

On the same page is their early picks for the BCS Bowls.

I don't agree w/ all of them but it's worth a look:



Rose Bowl

Them: Wisconsin vs. USC
Me: OSU vs. USC

I really think that voters will actively choose not to have somebody in a MNC game again this year, like with Michigan (or even where they willed LSU into the championship.) I really think the media will shoot down OSU at every chance they get this year.

Even though these teams will be playing each other early in the season, I don't think either team will reach the MNC this year. I think OSU is going to drop one or two to USC, Wisconsin, Michigan, MSU, PSU, or Illinois (likelihood in appropriate order.) Whereas I only think USC will drop maybe one game out of OSU, Oregon, Cal, Virginia, Oregon State, Washington, or UCLA. I think both teams won't end up in MNC game this year. But if I had to have a backup plan to who I think it'll be in that game... You're looking at it here.

Second Guess: Wisconsin vs. Oregon


Orange Bowl

Them: Boston College vs. Pitt
Me: Clemson vs. WVU/USF

Fiu gives this pick the benefit of the doubt of WVU and USF being interchangeable here for Pitt. I'm not sold on Pitt being as good as the nation is gearing up for them to be, but I could be wrong. It's happened once. I'm not really sold on anybody in the Big East as the dominant team. I could see it going the way of a three-way tie with two losses each.

While I think BC will continue to rise to be a stronger power in the ACC, I think this has to be Clemson's year. Virginia Tech could contend here as well, but it just seems like Clemson has so much going for it right now in some strong recruiting classes as well as having some talent this year. The ACC needs somebody to step up have a dominant season. Now

Second Guess: Va Tech vs. Louisville/UConn


Fiesta Bowl

Them: Mizzou vs. BYU
Me: Texas Tech vs. Mid-major
Pick your flavor of the week for the mid-major. Some say BYU, some Fresno State, and some that Boise will be right back. The mid-majors are becoming a mainstay in the BCS picture and rightfully so (we've wiped out last years Sugar Bowl debacle from our minds entirely) TCU is always an early favorite to show up in this group as well.

Tech is returning everybody but one receiver. And because it's Tech... that doesn't matter much. The defense has improved slowly throughout the years and if Leach is going to have a year to show up this is it. By the way Crabtree is going to rock it regardless of BCS bowl or not. The rumors swirling are that he would have been a top 10 pick this year if he were elligible or not.

Second Guess: Mizzou/Oklahoma vs. Mid Major

Sugar Bowl

Them: Georgia vs. Oklahoma
Me: Florida vs. Wisconsin
Fiu had a good call pitting these teams against each other here... it's just the wrong game for them. I think Oklahoma will be good enough to get here, but they can do more.

I think a strong Wisky doesn't drop more than 2 games this year and earns one of the at-large bids to pull this out.

If bowls are able, they try to stick to their appropriate teams, and baring total disaster, two SEC teams will be eligible for this one. It's just that the other one I have picked will be in the MNC as well. Florida should bring a very balanced offense with Tebow, Harvin, and (finally) a group of capable RBs. The secondary has cost them in the past

Second Guess: Georgia vs Mizzou

MNC

Them: Florida vs. Ohio State
Me: Georgia vs. Oklahoma

I think both of these teams arrive with one loss. No idea who. But 2 losses between them. Oklahoma has one loss that they shouldn't in October or November and Georgia just has to go down to somebody... anybody really. The teams have never met so this would make for an interesting one.

Second guess: OSU vs. USC




Legit Teams that have a shot at BCS Bids:

Pac 10
USC
Oregon
ASU

ACC
Va Tech
Clemson
Boston College

Big Ten
OSU
Wisconsin
Michigan
Illinois

SEC
Florida
LSU
Georgia

Big XII
Texas
Oklahoma
Mizzou
Texas Tech

Big East
West Virginia
Louisville
UConn
USF

Mid-Major
TCU
FSU
BSU
BYU

Stuff College FootBloggers Like

In honor of the Stuff white people like and the other stuff people are liking in their respective colors...

I present stuff college football bloggers like


Profanity: Profanity is what separates bloggers from the Professionals. Why you ask? Because we can say whatever the &%#$ is on our minds.

For instance....

Team A is down at the half and Erin Andrews says "this team came out the locker room calm and seems like they've settled down and are ready to play." Whereas I can say "Team A pulled their head out of their @*# and decided to play." Which do you think is more accurate?


Perfect Example:


That's quality right there folks. Would it been nearly as funny if he had said "Boom! Head shot sucker?"

Not at all. Sportscenter won't show you that. But we will. Repetitively.

Girl Scout Thin Mints: The early months of the year when those pesky little uniformed girls bug us at every major retail store does have one perk: the crack cocaine known as thin mints. You think a sleeve will last you a good few days... Hah!!! Try a few seconds, serf. The Girl Scouts of America have been owning us since before Al Gore invented this thing.

Cliches: Some things just don't ever get old. i.e. the Auburn chop block.

I don't think I'll ever not think an Auburn Chop Block joke is funny

Or the A&M nut squeeze


You see as a result of this... all aggies grab their junk. It's a proven fact.


or here

All Red Raiders.... well you know... with a bell.

Cliches are only old when they're against your team. And that's probably because they're true.


Erin Andrews: Because bloggers the only people who actually appreciate her for her sideline reporting.*


Cheap Bad Beer: Whether it's Orson and Kanu throwing down the Icehouse, or references to Old English, bloggers know all about cheap beer. We like to remember back to the times where we couldn't afford real beer (you know, like keystone) and went for quantity instead of quality. Of course we'd justify it by saying we really like it despite the fact we threw up the first swig of every bottle or can. Cheap alcohol was our friend through the toughest losses in college and was always there for us when that wainch dumped us.



Lou Houlthz: Lou is a constant in our life. When the week has been long and we need some relief, Lou is there. Not only does he remind us of our childhood cartoon favorite, Sylvester the Cat he comes into our living rooms every Thursday with his Locker Room Talk bringing a message of hope that puts Obama to shame.






How can that not just sent shivers down your spine? Let me tell you something. After one of those talks I feel like I could knock Kimbo Slice out in under 30 seconds. Or at least live after the encounter. One or the other. Regardless, bloggers love Lou almost as much as we love...


Lee Corso: Whether it's checking out Lee's current skin color, or guessing if today is Merkin day, Lee's a constant mainstay of blogging materials. I don't think we could blog about anything if that goofy schmuck didn't stick something on his head ever single Saturday. Heck I wouldn't even wake up before noon if it wasn't for Corso or the fact that I live in the CST and games start at 11 here. Stinking Daywalkers.


Jorts: They're just comfortable. We don't need all the pocket space of cargos. Just leave us alone.




Photoshop and MS Paint: Photoshop does what movies could never do to books. For instance what if I said " Hey, it would be hilarious if I drew a picture of a Spartan kicking Charlie Weis into a pit like in 300, " after MSU beat ND? You'd say "man that would be funny."

But it's nowhere near as funny as actually seeing it.

Or "Dude, Phil Fulmer and Mark Mangino should wrestle. That would be awesome."


Boom.

Infinitely funnier than me describing it. Thank God for people like LSUFreek that make said things come true.



*That's a lie.

Spring Practice. Serious Business. Part I

Spring Questions?

1. Who's the new supermodel? And by that I mean who's the starting QB at USC going to be? Mitch Mustain or Mark Sanchez. Please God, let it be Sanchez. I will only refer to him as the "Dirty Sanchez" the entire football season even if he never gets slightly, moderately soiled.

2. What the heck is Paul Johnson going to do at Georgia Tech? We pray for the triple option.

3. Will Stephen McGee be able to win back his starting job at QB at A&M? Playmaker Jerrod Johnson will get a chance to shine in spring practice while McGee recovers from shoulder surgery. The surgery has nothing to do with Fran running the option numerous times.

4. Was 2007 just a fluke for ND or were 2005-2006 the flukes for Charlie Weis? Rebuilding an offensive line is a must

5. Can somebody in the Big XII and Pac 10 step it up this spring? Just a little bit? USC, Oklahoma, and Texas have had a deathgrip on the top of these conferences for 5+ years and it's getting really old.

6. What is Bama going to do with all those recruits?

7. Can somebody sack up and dominate the ACC? Spring ball doesn't tell you every thing... but somebody somewhere needs to start putting it together now. There hasn't been a dominant team since .... well.... Miami and Va. Tech were in the Big East and I can't even count that.

Crap.

8. How will the spread fare in Ann Arbor? Does RichRod have a QB?

9. Is Pitt really ranked??? Who votes in this stuff???

Preseason Sexiness.

Nostradamus does not look kindly on failures

Despite the fact that spring practices are underway ... it's an incredibly slow month for college football.

Outside of FulmerCup activities all we really have going on is scheduling comments and random weird activities by coaches. Like this. Or Stadium changes.

Real news makers there.

We're offering our first sexy picks of the year instead of random driveby fill-in-the-blank news. This isn't just our picks for rankings but just picks on things that will happen this year.

1. Nobody in the SEC will go undefeated.

- I took the easy one first. It just ain't happening. In a league where you honest to God have to worry about Vanderbilt as much as you do about LSU or Florida it just can't happen. I'm not trying to jump on the "SEC is greatest single combination of teams ever and all deserve top 10 rankings" bandwagon. Over the last three years the SEC has won me over by a solid out-of-conference win/loss record as well as their presence in Bowl games. Their perennial bottom-dwellers could probably beat most other bottom-dwelling teams as well.

/cliche

2. Ohio State will probably end up towards the top of the pack again.

- Even after laying eggs on a national stage two years in a row, you can't keep OSU off your charts. They're just too good, too consistently to do it. Sweater-vest keeps good teams year in and year out and this year will be no different. Expect the Buckeyes to continue to struggle with the spread offense unless something changes dramatically. OSU has sent it's secondary coach to talk to USF defensive coordinator Wally Burnham about containing Rich Rodriguez's spread offense. The Big 10 isn't as bad as people want you to think and OSU is better than the last two MNCs imply.

3. Mike Leach's make or break year is here

- This will finally be the year that we find out if Mike Leach can be more than a coach that just passes a lot and knocks off the occasional conference rival or if they are a real title contender. The Pirates of the Plains have showed they can light up even the best defenses scoreboard when they have to, but Ruffin McNeil has to stop other teams from doing it to Tech. Texas Tech returns virtually every starter from last year. Notably, Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree will return to pick up right where they left off. If there was ever a year where Tech can rise out of the middle of the pack and grab the Big XII South title, this is the year.

4. One of these guys won't be here at years end

Kirk Ferentz
Tyrone Willingham
Greg Robinson
Mike Stoops
Ralph Friedgren

Sexier bolder Prediction: One of these two ain't back in '09.

JoePa
Big Daddy Bowden

Personally I pray to the football gods that the following scenario works out. I would forfeit all football watching for the next year if somehow it happened. OK, not really. But it would rule all things sacred to football.

Please God, let Bobby Bowden and JoePa pull into a tie for most wins at the end of the season and somehow have them play in a bowl game again. If you are truly gracious and merciful... let it be for the MNC.


4. Instant replay will epically screw somebody down the road. Again.

- Just consider it a promise. I give it 5 games maximum before we have some coach tearing the officiating crew a new one over a huge miss. No matter how much more sophisticated the technology gets... it's still a judgment call half the time and your opinion of that judgment is strongly based upon the color of your shirt that day.

5. Tebow won't repeat for the Heisman this year

- Florida's addition of RB Emanuel Moody (transfer from USC) will take away the need for Tebow to take a a beating in the running game this year. Tebow's a solid passer, but the reason why we loved him last year was his headfirst runs into linebackers and secondaries last year. Moody will take away the need for him to put his body on the line, thus taking away his gaudy statistics. He'll still be a force in the SEC (first team All-SEC surely), but take away his running last year and he's probably looking at D-Mac on stage from a chair last year. Don't worry, he's still a stud with whom we have a man crush on.

2007 Season Review (The Upsets)

The Upsets

The first Saturday of the season is always the toughest day of the season for me. Hunting season and Opening Saturday always seem to pull me in two directions.

This year one score in particular kept me at home that Saturday afternoon. For some reason I kept seeing ASU (who?) on top of #5 Michigan.

Thanks, to the wonderful marketing machine that is the Big Ten Network, only a certain few people were getting to watch the seemingly greatest upset of all time as it happened.

I continued watching some game I had no concern about (that's a lie, I have concern about all of them) just to watch the ticker hoping and praying that this Appalachian State, whoever they were would pull off the upset. It didn't seem possible. A should-be dominant Michigan seemed to awaken from its sleepwalking first half and pull back within striking range. They finally did pull ahead.

Predictably, of course.

Then Armanti Edwards somehow drove the Mountaineers back down for a field goal to go up 34-32.

It was too quick. Surely they wouldn't hold on. This doesn't happen.

It's never happened.

No 1-AA has ever beaten a ranked team, nonetheless against a top 5 team. It wouldn't happen, especially against Michigan, the winningest team in College Football.

Then it happened.

A block. Appy state did it. The 1-AA from the hills in North Carolina rolled into the Big House and knocked off the #5 team in the nation. Greatest upset of all time? Maybe. Maybe not. Only time will tell.




What we do know is that it began the craziest season of upsets in recent memory.

Over 20 teams cycled through the top 10 including Rutgers, Boston College, South Florida, Arizona State, South Carolina, and Illinois.

Oh, yeah, Kentucky and Kansas made it up there. No, I didn't switch to talking about basketball there (see what I did there?).

Not exactly the murder's row of teams. Each of the above teams pulled off some upsets that shocked the country at the time.

Notably:

Kentucky and Arkansas pulling off OT wins over LSU.
Kansas beating VT in the Orange Bowl
South Florida taking out WVU early in the season.
Illinois knocking off top ranked OSU


It was even argued that the two greatest upsets of all time came in the same season. The first being the aforementioned Appalachian State. Then Stanford pulled off the improvable upset of 40 pt. favorite USC. It wasn't that Stanford was that horrible (they were), but that USC was supposed to be THAT good. The combined stars on Stanford's sideline during a time out didn't add up to the USC second string backfield. But in a hard fought game the Cardinal did just enough to pull off what would be the upset of the century in any other century.



The season seemed to calm down on the home stretch to lead to nice finish. Ohio State was ranked #1 with several teams foaming at the mouth for the #2 spot. Then the spread came to Columbus and ruined the perfect season. Boston College beat Virginia Tech only to lose the next week to a struggling Florida State. LSU was outlasted by Kentucky.

A Big XII team seemingly guaranteed themselves a spot in the big dance. Mizzou, and Kansas had both secured top 5 spots with only each other to finish out the season. #4 Oklahoma had a trip to Lubbock to take on the Red Raiders before Bedlam with Oklahoma State. They had won the south regardless of the outcome of the final two games. Again, in the year of sheer randomness, Mike Leach and his pirates of the South Plains pulled off another upset.

Now somehow, a Big XII team could end up outside the MNC game. The winner of Mizzou and Kansas would earn a game with the Sooners in the Big XII championship game. Mizzou beat Kansas to earn a chance to face the Sooners for the second time this season.

Mizzou defeated Kansas and earned a #1 spot after climbing back up the charts after a tough loss to Oklahoma. Mizzou had improved significantly since that loss and headed to San Antonio to avenge that loss in the conference championship game. #2 WVU, which lost all hope after a loss against USF earlier in the season, just had to beat a lowly Pittsburg to earn a trip to New Orleans. Both of them fell short.

Somehow against all odds. Ohio State and LSU had moved back up to #1 and #2 respectively. Somehow in the most unpredictable season in recent memory, something predictable happened. Good grief that was cliche.

Go figure.

Some of the more entertaining games (not necessarily upsets):


Texas A&M over Texas


Kentucky over Louisville


Cal over Oregon (not an upset... but heck of a game)


Arkie over LSU


Illinois vs. OSU


Up Next: The Players

CFB Sportscaster Offseason (part 2)

We left off the previous installment of the Offseason after learning of Brent's search for a new boy toy, Mark's root searching extravaganza, and Kirk's victory lap.

Today we bring you more


Lee Corso

Lee, Lee.... Gosh I miss your smiling face hidden by the mascot of the week. Lee usually disappears after the thing where they invite graduating seniors to some sort of combinesque event where the winners of each event get a free TV.

After that you don't see the man until College Football Live begins in late July. What does he do in that time?

He tans the bejeezus out of himself according to EDSBS. You've got to imagine that Corso heads off to some remote location and watches Dickie V the entire off-season. The two get together after the B-Ball tournament to practice and create brand new shtick as well as find a new team to bandwagon upon. Well not Dickie. He's impermanently attached to Duke and their nether regions. The rest of the offseason with those two involve merkins, Hooters, and head gear. We can't get to into it as we're a PG-13 site.



Desmond Howard

We don't really know what Desmond does to be honest. We'd like to think that he practices sweet moves to show us whenever they roll out the huge mini-field (you see what we did there?) to show us, the common fan, how teams run plays. Personally this is my favorite part of GameDay. Tons of fans that know nothing about football other than their team rules and that your team sucks. Will scream and cheer like anything Howard makes sense to them.

Most likely the offseason is spent grumbling and sulking because he still has to listen to that ***** Herbstreit. He secretly waits for the chance to clothesline him someday when Herbie lines up opposite of him. They have both said that rivalry has to be put on the side when doing commentary. But we know they're both full of poop and would kill each other in a heartbeat.


Trev Alberts
Usually doesn't talk to much as he continues to heal his face each off season. Continually sticking a foot in your mouth will do that. Also getting b-slapped by Brian Jones on each and every Crystal Ball.

After an epic fail at the hands of the gameday crew he continues hoping and waiting for CSTV to overtake all things ESPN. Hope has grown dim as Fire Mark May is now down for the count.





He also has apparently an issue with Lord Swindle.



More to come

The blame game.

Since the NCAA last week announced that they had planned a few change of rules the CFB Blogosphere has been pretty adamant against it.

SMQ
The Wizard of Odds
EDSBS

The main thing talked about was the clock issues. The other things are fairly inconsequential except for maybe the facemask rule.

Here are the new rulings involving time:

The first is the implementation of a 40/25-second play clock, similar to that of the
NFL. At the end of every play, the 40-second clock will start, which is the rule in the NFL. The old college rules featured a 25-second clock that did not start until the officials marked the ball ready for play. On a change of possession, the first play will be run on a 25-second clock.

and

After a player runs out of bounds and the ball is made ready to play, the official will start the game clock. Under the old rules the game clock would not start until the ball was snapped. This new rule will not apply in the final two minutes of the first half and the final two minutes of the game.

You know the NCAA doesn't give a flying flip about if a game goes to long. It affects them in no way, whatsoever. The only people that are raising heck about this are the networks. We mean the big ones. What's going to happen to ESPN? They have to push back the repeat of Sports Center for 45 minutes?

What you have is the larger networks that want to get their three to three and a half hour games done and through in time to get to your reruns of Grey's Anatomy and evening news. I don't want those people to be denied their shows either. Personally, there hasn't been anything worth cutting away to on a Saturday night on network television since CBS dropped Walker, Texas Ranger. I digress.... (that's a whole other article)

That leads us to the elephant standing in the room that nobody wants to look at or talk about. Well at least the networks don't.

Our problem is that the networks wants to have their cake and eat it too. They want to have the millions tune in to see the big game see, all of their advertisements pop up on the field, get in all of the contractually-obligated commercials, have Grissom from CSI come up from the bottom and let me know that CSI has changed nights, hear the announcers tell us about how great Samantha Who? is going to be, get a great game in, spend 45 seconds on an intro coming back from the commercials telling us who this game was brought to us by (after having seen their commercials just 20 seconds ago, and hopefully end the game exactly in time to get us to our regularly scheduled program.

It just doesn't work that way. College football is the only television program where I can actually tell that they haven't run the new Dodge Nitro Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robots enough times during the three hours. I swear, I've seen them cut away just to show it one more time (and only that commercial) just to make sure we saw how tough that new SUV is supposed to be. I can say with a straight face that I have seen that commercial 4 times in 5 minutes of commercials.

Now the networks want to point a finger at college football and tell them to shorten game times?

How about this if you really want to speed up the game:

- don't spend the first 30 seconds back from a commercial break telling me that the game was just brought to me by the same companies that I just saw the commercial of.

- don't tell me about the new soon-to-be Emmy winning 5 times in 3 hours. Let me decide if it's a hit new show.

- don't feel the need to cut away to commercials every time there's a fumble, time out, score, interception, big 3rd down coming up, punt, big first down play, or coach scratching his butt.

About this point in the post you should be thinking "That's true, but these games aren't shown for the passion of the fans and goodwill of the networks bringing it to us."

You would be right. It's about money and it always will be. I don't expect differently from a
sport that has a PapaJohns.com Bowl or a Jones SBC AT&T Stadium, or even the Rose Bowl... you know... presented by Citi. The blow to me is that every time I heard the MNC game referenced it was the Allstate BCS National Championship Game.

Money is why we have sports teams and that's OK. I know that we can't have the games on TV for free and that free tickets don't keep pads on the players.

The problem is that you can't regulate a game. You can't stop a QB from spiking the ball on a 2nd and 10 on the 15 with 20 seconds left. You can't stop a team from delaying to the last possible second to run a play when they hold the marginal lead with five minutes to play. Do you think the running back streaking down the sideline is going to think, "I'd better not step out... CBS needs to get to their next show?" Teams are going to do everything possible to get the win and if that involves making the game last an extra twenty-five minutes they are going to do it.

People have to make their money, but the networks are going to have to stop whoring themselves and the marketing department out to everything under the sun for extra pennies.

If the networks want this fixed they need to realize the same hand that is pointing the finger at the NCAA has four more pointing back at themselves.

How far they fall.

The last we saw of Dennis Franchione was his resigning after beating the Aggies' arch rival Texas.

What's been happening since then?

The Kansas City had an interesting write up on the fallen star here

I think the article is a bit more scathing that necessary but it's interesting. I was never a Fran hater. The guy tried and it wasn't like he didn't deserve the reputation as a program rebuilder. He had moderate success at New Mexico which built into huge momentum at TCU. If anything he deserves some credit for allowing the little guys to get credit by having some great success at TCU. You can't blame a guy for taking a higher salary at a more prestigious school (Let it go WVU... Let it go.) So when Alabama came calling you can't blame a guy for taking the option.

Fran after a Tide win


After some serious NCAA sanctions Fran decided to head to Texas A&M which was where he stated several times that "he wanted that to be the last stop."

He was handed an undisciplined, less than talented team upon arriving in College Station (a 77-0 walloping by OU testified to that.) In year three it got better. They beat some good teams Oklahoma State and Clemson but left you scratching your head with a loss to Baylor and blowouts to Utah and Tennessee. Year four was underwhelming but ended on a high note as backup and future QB Stephen McGee had a spirited performance against eventual National Champion Texas.

Year five rolled around and it appeared to be now or never time. After a good year but not great at 8-3, Fran and the Aggies pulled of a miracle for the coach's future by upsetting a ranked Texas team. A 9-3 regular wasn't fireable, despite another butt kicking in the Holiday Bowl by California.

2007 opened up optimistically as the Ags were ranked and supposedly stocked up with talent on a Senior laden team. A Thursday night date with Miami was supposed to be a coming out party, but was instead a flub to the tune of 34-17.

The next week was the beginning of the end. Fran was caught selling a $1,200 secret newsletters to elite alums that wanted recruiting and practice inside info. In actuality, this wasn't a big deal. Boneheaded, but not a big deal. Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech has done similar things for years without it being mentioned.

For the most part, the newsletter was swept under the rug, as it should have been. It wasn't a big deal and it was fairly innocent. Just win and people will forget.

Well Fran didn't win. He got blown out by Texas Tech. Kansas won at Kyle Field. Oklahoma stomped them again. Mizzou beat them soundly. It seemed no matter what the outcome was of the Texas game he was done.

Unfortunately for Fran, a big win in the Aggies most complete game over Texas didn't do it. He resigned immediately after the game. To add salt in an open wound, proverbial toolbait, Jack Arute asked him if he was fired less than thirty seconds after the game in the post-game on the field interview. You could see pain in his eyes as he couldn't even answer some of the questions.

You knew he was done.

Was the firing fair?

Yes. He had 5 years at a school with big money and the record wasn't what it should have been.

Could it have worked out?

Maybe. It really seemed the last two years that Fran didn't want to lose this job and tried his heart out to keep it. Insiders say that he was at work early and left late every day. He gave almost a year's salary to the indoor practice facilty. They also say he was passionate. Outside of his first year, Fran kept the program clean. While Texas, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State players were out having legal escapades and NCAA infractions, Fran kept the Aggies in a good light for the better part of 4 years.

Those didn't equate to wins. Unfortunately that's all people want to see in this business.

Le inaugural post, wainches.

This is the first post of, hopefully, many to come. Three N Out exists to cover college sports (mainly football) from a true fan of the game's perspective. We'll try not to cater to particular teams or conferences, but the entire gamut of college teams out there.

We'll also try to avoid gimmicky, tasteless crap.

Well.... as much as possible. Some stuff is just funny no matter how you slice it. We'll also link to some other great sites like EDSBS, Wizard of Odds and SI.com's Campus Clicks. The Fulmer Cup, my favorite off season activity, is in full swing over at EDSBS.

Signing Day is coming up and some big recruits haven't made commitments yet so that will be interesting to follow.

I hope you enjoy Three 'N Out and it's posts. Hopefully they'll be funny as well as insightful for fans of all college athletics