Week 1 Day 1

I won't be naked. Promise.

Wake Forest at Baylor
Battle of the Baptist


The matchup is intriguing to me for more than just the political affiliation. Wake Forrest overcame the small private school curse and became more than decent. Good almost, capped by Grobe winning the ACC two years ago and putting together a good year involving a bowl win over a surging UConn.

Baylor, on the other hand, hasn't had a decent win since they went for two against A&M in overtime back in 2004. Art Briles plans to change things in Waco. A lot of people think that this job is career suicide more than a jumping board. The sentiment is that Baylor just can't win consistently enough to become better. There's a reason that Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and Wake don't have a great history of football.




(Interesting note is that my in-laws lived in a town just down the road from Briles in his high school days. Small world.)

Charlie, It's Not That We Hate You Because You're That Good,

it's that your school pulls crap like this on a regular basis.

Notre Dame continues to try and schedule teams without giving them the benefit of home games.

Instead of bending over and taking it, Rutgers politely told the Irish where they could stick their home and not-home series.

Personally, I'm glad. Teams need to have some pride and demand that the big boys come to their house.

It's ridiculous and insulting that ND would make that offer to a team that is in the same conference for every other sport. Schiano has changed things at Rutgers and I'm glad that this has been a part of it.

SEC Schedule Sexiness

Week 1
Alabama vs. Clemson(Atlanta) - Should be very telling for both teams. Both had solid recruiting classes and are looking to start off the season right
Hawaii at Florida - While Colt Brennan isn't slinging the balls any more, the Hawaii offense should still be competitive.
Kentucky at Louisville - Does Kragthorpe have the Cards back on top this year? Brooks has come a long way at Kentucky to make this team competitive. Should be a better game than most years.

Week 2

Miami at Florida - Florida starts off the season with two competitive games that are going to be very telling of the Gator offense and defense. The Canes will see how the spread will fare this year against some deep south speed

UCLA vs Tenn. - Tennessee and Fulmer are looking to go the easier Cali route with UCLA this time around. Slick Rick should still be getting things in place and this would be a great chance for Tenn to grab a big win at the beginning of the year

Southern Miss at Auburn - This will be a good week to see the new fancy, smancy high flying Auburn offense at work. SMU will be without Jeff Bower for the first time in 2 decades.

Week 3

Arkansas at Texas - Renewing the rivalry baby.
Auburn at Mississippi State - Mississippi State won in an upset last year. Look for some vindication from Auburn here.
Georgia at SoCar - Another upset from last year revisited.

Week 4

LSU at Auburn - This game could be for the West.
Alabama at Arkansas - An early conference test for Alabama against what should be a good offense.
Florida at Tennessee - Always a good rivalry game early in the year
Georgia at Arizona State - Georgia's only real OOC test. The Sun Devil's offense should be a good test for the Bulldogs.

Week 5
Tennessee at Auburn - Are both teams middle of the pack or above this year?
Mississippi State at LSU - Mississippi State was embarrassed to the tune of 6 INTs and 45-0 last year. Same results, or has MSU improved as much as they

Week 6
Florida at Arkansas - Curious to see the Petrino led offense against Urban Meyer's defense this year. Rematch of the 2006 SEC championship game

Week 7

LSU at Florida - This game has been pretty competitive over the years. Expect similar results. The Tigers may have some holes to fill but if they plan to stay on top this is a game to do it
Tennessee at Georgia - Another game that can be a deciding factor in the East this season. The obvious picks are Florida and Georgia, but don't count Fulmer out just yet.

Week 8
Mississippi State at Tennessee - Croom has put this team in a place to win some big games. Taking out Tennessee in a big mid-season game here would be crucial.

Week 9
Georgia at LSU - Another possible preview to the conference championship
Duke at Vanderbilt - Bayfordukandywestern. The saga continues
Auburn at West Virginia - Great midseason OOC game for both schools. It'll hurt the losers overall national ranking, but the winner will come away with a huge midseason boost

Week 10
Florida vs. Georgia (Jacksonville) - Will evil Mark Richt come out again and do mean things and get penalties. Several punditlike folks consider this one the early MNC game. Can't say that I disagree too much.
Tulane at LSU - Tulane at one point was the dominant one in this rivalry. It's good to see them keep it going.

Week 11
Alabama at LSU - I like this one for the West Division. I think Alabama improves and LSU doesn't get much worse than last year.
Florida at Vanderbilt - For some reason Vandy tends to give Florida more trouble than they should.
Georgia at Kentucky - If Ke

Week 12
Georgia at Auburn - Late season game for two strong programs. Should be a good matchup
South Carolina at Florida - Always love this game. No matter how long it's been it seems like Spurrier ignites a lot of passion in Gainesville when the Gators play him.

Week 13
Arkansas at Mississippi State - This one intrigues me and I don't know why. For some reason I think that one of these two will have a decent year.
Tennessee at Vanderbilt - Always a good in-state rivalry. Vandy has improved over the course of the last few years. If they want to separate themselves from the Bayfordandydukewestern's of the world, this year is as good as any.

Week 14
LSU at Arkansas (Little Rock) - The situation here reminds me of the Texas A&M/OU game a few years back. OU was #1 and prepared to slide into the MNC Game when a very mediocre Texas A&M knocked them off. Coach left, New stud coach comes in and pissed off former #1 team drums mediocre team into a pulp to the tune of 77-0. Gosh that was an ugly day for Aggieland.
Mississippi State at Ole Miss - Houston Nutt will bring some new blood to the egg bowl and hopefully bring a more competitive Ole Miss with him.
Auburn at Alabama - Probably my favorite rivalry in the SEC. Most in state rivalries are pretty heated but at the end of the day we're all Americans and all love college football. Not this one. These people hate each other with the passion of a thousand yaks.
Florida at Florida State - Another in-state rivalry crossing conference lines*. This really depends on whether FSU is actually any good this year.
Georgia Tech at Georgia - * but substitute FSU for GaTech
Kentucky at Tennessee - Good East division game that went for over a 100 last year.
South Carolina at Clemson * see above. but this time SoCar

Week 15
SEC Championship Game (Atlanta)

LSU vs.Georgia - Boom goodnight everybody.

Aggies, Hogs to Meet in Jerry-World in '09

Texas A&M and Arkansas have decided to renew their SWC rivalry in Dallas' new stadium. Surely this isn't any sort of way for Arkansas to woo away recruits from the state of Texas.

I wouldn't expect that from an Arkie alum. Ever.

Top non-conference games from CFN

Pete Fiutak (over at CFN) highlights some of the top non-conference games coming up this year.

A few pique our interest:




41. SMU at Texas Tech, Sept. 13
Gear it up. June Jones and SMU will have a little bit of time to warm up the engines for a game that should be one of the biggest displays of offensive fireworks this season. One thing to note: SMU was 116th in the nation in pass defense last year and gave up 473 passing yards and four touchdown passes in last year's 49-9 loss




31. USC at Virginia. Aug. 30
USC needs to use this as a tune-up before the showdown against Ohio State. In their last six road openers (Colorado in 2002, Auburn in 2003, Virginia Tech in 2004, Hawaii in 2005, Arkansas in 2006, and Nebraska in 2007), the Trojans are 6-0 against the highly-ranked teams by a combined score of 249 to 78 (41.5 to 13). This is the first meeting between the two programs.


28. Oklahoma at Washington, Sept. 13
Oklahoma's last venture into the Pacific Northwest didn't exactly go well, losing to Oregon 34-33 in one of the most controversial games in college football history. The week before the fiasco, the Sooners beat Washington in Norman.


27. Fresno State at UCLA, Aug. 30
For those of you desperate to see a sequel to the 2003 Silicon Valley Bowl, a scintillating 17-9 Bulldog win, your wish has come true. Fresno State has a good enough team to be a BCS at-large sleeper, while UCLA will be looking to come out roaring in Rick Neuheisel's opener.


19. Miami at Texas A&M, Sept. 20
Last year's showdown between the two big names was supposed to be among the biggest non-conference games of the season, but Texas A&M decided to blow off its running game in a strange 34-17 loss. Yeah, the Canes really got revenge for that 70-14 1944 loss.


12. Virginia Tech at Nebraska, Sept. 27
A rematch of the 1997 Orange Bowl, a 41-21 Husker win, it's also the first real test for Bo Pelini after starting out with Western Michigan, San Jose State and New Mexico State. With Missouri and at Texas Tech to follow, the Huskers can't afford a loss. This is the second road trip for Tech in a nasty stretch of four road games in five dates.


11. Arkansas at Texas, Sept. 13
Bobby Petrino, welcome to the old Southwest Conference days and your first really, really big game since leaving Louisville. He'll get a chance to tune up against Western Illinois and UL Monroe, and then reality sets in against the Longhorns, Alabama, Florida, at Auburn and at Kentucky, making this almost a must-win to get a little momentum going. A win for Mack Brown and Texas would likely mean a 4-0 start before dealing with the Big 12 season.


9. Tennessee at UCLA, Sept. 6
If the hoops teams play in March, will the showdown on the football field take a back seat? Tennessee got blasted at Cal in last year's opener in the first road trip against a Pac 10 team since a 30-24 win over UCLA in 1997. The Vols get a tune-up against UAB while UCLA has to get by a nasty first game against Fresno State. Beating the Bulldogs will be better than it might appear, if Rick Neuheisel can pull it off, but a win over Tennessee would really get the Bruin crowd moving. These two used to play all the time in the mid-80s and early 90s, but this battle will have even more intrigue than some of those classics.


5. Alabama vs. Clemson (in Atlanta), Aug. 30
Every once in a while, a non-conference game is just plain interesting. If Clemson is the power team it's supposed to be, it keeps the Alabama four-game regular season losing streak going. If Nick Saban's Tide program is ready to turn a corner, this would be a nice time to do it. The fan base is already nuts after one of the nation's best recruiting classes, and a win over the Tigers would send expectations through the roof. The Tide won the last meeting between the two 56-0 in 1975 and has won the last 11.


3. Auburn at West Virginia, Oct. 13
One team has mastered the spread attack, and the other is just starting to figure it out. If Auburn had Pat White, where would it be ranked? As is, West Virginia head coach Bill Stewart gets a shot to come up with a big, big win that would prove his program is among the elite of the elite. This is Auburn's toughest road test by far until ending the year at Alabama.



2. Illinois vs. Missouri (in St. Louis), Aug. 30
Who could've ever guessed that last year's 40-34 Missouri win over the Illini, with Illinois coming up with a big late comeback to make it close, would've been a battle between two teams that would've combined for 21 wins? As strange as it still might seem for the long time basketball rivals, this football showdown is far, far bigger with BCS implications.


1. Ohio State at USC, Sept. 13
It's the epic matchup of superpowers you really wanted to see over the last few seasons, and it could've been the 2007 BCS Championship game if the Trojans hadn't gagged against UCLA. These two have played each other in a slew of recent Rose Bowls, right? The last game between the two was in 1990, with USC winning 35-26. The last Rose Bowl matchup was in 1985, and the last Buckeye win over the Trojans came in the 1974 Rose Bowl. The winner will likely be the nation's No. 1 team, or at least No. 2, with full control of its national title destiny.


All quotes from Fiutak

ESPN Has the First Part of the Fall Lineup Out

ESPN has released its tenative schedule for the fall here.

If you're like us, weekday football keeps us hungry for weekend football. So it's a must, of course.

Games of note bolded

Thu., Aug. 28	NC State at South Carolina	8 p.m.	ESPN
Thu., Aug. 28	Oregon State at Stanford	9 p.m.	ESPN2
Thu., Sept. 4	South Carolina at Vanderbilt	TBD	ESPN
Fri., Sept. 5	South Florida at UCF	7 p.m.	ESPN
Thu., Sept. 11	North Carolina at Rutgers	TBD	ESPN
Wed., Sept. 17	Kansas State at Louisville	8 p.m.	ESPN2
Thu., Sept. 18	West Virginia at Colorado	8:30 p.m.	ESPN
Fri., Sept. 19	Baylor at Connecticut	8 p.m.	ESPN2
Thu., Sept. 25	USC at Oregon State	9 p.m.	ESPN
Thu., Oct. 2	Pittsburgh at South Florida	TBD	ESPN
Fri., Oct. 3	Cincinnati at Marshall	8 p.m.	ESPN
Thu., Oct. 9	Clemson at Wake Forest	TBD	ESPN
Fri., Oct. 10	Louisville at Memphis	8 p.m.	ESPN
Thu., Oct. 16	Florida State at NC State	TBD	ESPN
Thu., Oct. 23	Auburn at West Virginia	TBD	ESPN
Thu., Oct. 30	South Florida at Cincinnati	TBD	ESPN
Thu., Nov. 6	Maryland at Virginia Tech	TBD	ESPN
Thu., Nov. 13	Virginia Tech at Miami	TBD	ESPN
Fri., Nov. 4	Cincinnati at Louisville	8 p.m.	ESPN2
Thu., Nov. 20	Miami at Georgia Tech	TBD	ESPN
Thu., Nov. 27	Texas A&M at Texas	8 p.m.	ESPN
Fri., Nov. 28	West Virginia at Pittsburgh	Noon	ABC
Fri., Nov. 28	UCLA at Arizona State	9:30 p.m.	ESPN2
Thu., Dec. 4	Louisville at Rutgers	TBD	ESPN
Sat., Dec. 6	Pittsburgh at Connecticut	TBD	ESPN or ESPN2
Sat., Dec. 6	South Florida at West Virginia	TBD	ESPN or ESPN2

USF-UCF: USF showed some flashes of greatness last season reaching #2 early in the season. UCF won the Conference USA behind the running of Kevin Smith, who bolted for the draft. USF won this in a wash last year, but UCF keeps getting better.

KSU-Louisville: KSU started out hot last year almost knocking off Auburn as well as taking out a top 10 Texas. The season soon went into the tank after that. Louisville also started off hot with some huge offensive performances. Kragthorpe soon learned that high octane offense with out some defense doesn't win much. This will be a big game for each team to get a foot on the ground before conference races get hot and heavy.

WVU-Colo: Dan Hawkins and Colorado's non-conference slate has been pretty rough lately (FSU, Georgia, ASU.) They may be a glutton for punishment as they get Pat White, Noel Devine, and the 'Neers early in the season. I think this really might be Colorado's break out year.

Baylor-UConn: Only noted in that I can't remember the last time Baylor was on national TV.
Clemson-Wake Forrest: Grobe has got Wake Forrest not just decent,but borderline good. Clemson has got to start doing something in the ACC other than getting second in their division.

Auburn-WVU: Same story w/ WVU. Should be good but we'll have to see how the new coach turns out. Auburn will be Auburn. Of note, WVU better hope they don't come in this one ranked, because Tuberville's record vs. top 10 teams is phenomenal.

VaTech-Miami: VT looks to be good ol' VT this year with solid defense and a slightly lacking offense. Miami had an amazing recruiting class but Shannon needs wins now. The question is if Miami can start doing something on offense for the first time since their last BCS appearance.


Texas A&M at Texas: There have been some hard fought games the last four years and I don't expect anything to change in this rivalry. Mike Sherman will make his Lone Star Showdown debut. The small town duel between McGee and McCoy is also an interesting note.

Louisville-Rutgers: This has been a pretty exciting conference game the last few years. Expect similar results this year, but with some new blood.

USF-WVU: WVU will come out hungry after being embarrassed here last year. Leavitt also won't let this team get down after a slightly disappointing finish to end last season

A Commentary if I May

He is big and rich. But he's not coming to your city.

News sources are reporting that Notre Dame and UConn have agreed to a 10 year deal to play games between them. Sounds good. UConn just had a good year with 9 wins and secured Randy Edsall for a few more years after some other schools (Georgia Tech in particular) tried to lure him away.

Most anybody would love to schedule Notre Dame at any point in any season. It's a good deal. Their a national team with national exposure. You're guaranteed to be on TV to boot.

A 10 year deal with them is even better. You're guaranteed a game each year (scheduling just got easier), money (you'll get a good cut or bring in a good crowd), and it's Notre Dame.

Scratch that. How about you just get to play there, but they won't come to your house? It makes the deal bittersweet. Yes you get the game and the money, but your fans and players don't get the game in their stadium.

I've never understood the fascination with Notre Dame. Yes, they're the nation's Catholic school. Yes, they are in the top five teams in all-time wins. What I don't get is why the nation and the nation's teams feel the need to jump all over the chance to play them.

I'm sure most AD's would fall out of their chairs in order to get that deal. If I'm an AD, I'd normally say something witty and clever like "Don't let the door hit 'ya where the good Lord split 'ya." But I would hope the door did hit them where the Lord did split them. So as to make more room for noses to be stuck up there.

A deal like that is disrespectful and insulting to your fans and players. They deserve better than to have a 10 year deal with another school that will never come to your stadium (but demands you come to theirs.) What makes this worse is that UConn is a BCS school. It's not even a mid-major and they're being treated like it or even a 1-AA.

I hope UConn shows some cajones, stops kissing Notre Dame's butt and rejects this proposal. I actually wish nobody in the Big East would play them for the time being, just to make a point. If the idea of a playoff or a plus-one system gets kicked around long enough it just might happen and I would love it if the the Bigs (Televen, XII, and East) tell them to go kiss a pig when they come running for a conference to join.


[/rant]