teke184

Unranked Wiconsin and #6 Michigan are tied at 10 in the 3rd quarter.

No shit... Benefits of being in a shitty conference where you're that much further above everyone else. The reason the SEC and Big Ten aren't likely to produce undefeated teams is that there's actually some form of balance to the conferences... Each has at least four teams which could win the conference title each year and it's rare for one team to take all the others from pillar to post. The Pac 10, OTOH, has USC and... USC. Oregon, Arizona State, and Cal are solid but would have trouble competing for a title in the SEC, ACC, or Big Ten.

Booty seems likable because he's winning. All of his teammates that went to college, as well as his high school coach / father, completely wigged out when they came under pressure. If Arizona State, Cal, Oregon, or Notre Dame are for real, they'll put a little pressure on him and cause him to flip-out mid-game like fellow Evangel HS product Brock Berlin did in Miami's meltdown against Virginia Tech in 2003. I know I harp on this, but there are some SERIOUS attitude problems with the players coming out of that program and he's likely to be worse than average about it because it obviously runs in his family. (His father and his two brothers both flipped out in their dealings with LSU. IIRC, Abram (the younger brother), picked a fight with a fan at an LSU game who said his brother was playing like shit.)

Illinois has had 3 winning seasons since 1998, with the 2001 season being their last big hurrah. Ever since LSU beat Illinois in the Sugar Bowl that year, their program went right back down the shitter, going 5-7 in 2002 before hitting 1-11 the next year. According to http://football.stassen.com/records/, the worst records of major-college team that's been playing for at least 30 years are Oregon State, Iowa State, Temple, Kansas State, Indiana, Northwestern, and Wake Forest. That is by winning percentage, which is 39.9% for Wake. The worst team qualifying for the rankings is Kent State with 38.8%.

... Maybe because I posted that like 4 times in 5 minutes, before you corrected it? Or because I didn't see your correction until after my posts were up and I don't feel like changing it? Specifically, that last post I had mentioning it was being composed for several minutes. Your correction went up between my starting the post and it actually being finished.

Wow... The fucking Weed-Eater Bowl (Independence) is in the top 10 of non-BCS payoffs. I guess that was a requirement to get the SEC's leftovers.

If the Holiday Bowl could raise its profile by securing the #2 Big 12 team instead of the #4 team, it would help things out there. The Hawaiian bowl games could avoid suckage if they paid over the minimum bowl payout (which makes it tough to turn a profit flying everyone out there) and cut ties with the smaller conferences in favor of the Pac 10 and either the ACC or SEC. Boise sucking in December is a no-brainer. No amount of money would get most teams to go out there and play on the Smurf Turf. The Emerald Bowl could turn out to be a good venue IF they raise the payout and secure better teams. San Fran is supposed to have mild winters and it's a major tourist city, so it would have the infrastructure to handle a large influx to see a top PAC 10 team vs. a powerhouse from the SEC or ACC. (I wouldn't want to put a Big XII or Big 10 team in there as not to screw with the dynamic of the Rose Bowl or Holiday Bowl unnecessarily.)

I think Volek's problem was along the lines of Tennessee having salary cap issues the last few years, so the remaining talent pool is pretty thin. It's hard to look good at QB if your protection sucks and you only have one good receiver.

I knew Collins had a horrible day, but I didn't know until I watched PTI that his QB rating Sunday was 1.3. He's one step away from being Aaron Brooks. At least Collins could occasionally win a game as the Raiders QB. Brooks can't even do that because he's fumbling 4 times a game.

The PAC 10's recent performance in the Holiday Bowl hasn't helped that perception. (Highly-ranked Cal and Oregon losing after missing out on BCS bids furthers the perception that the #2 team in the PAC 10 is worse than the #4 team in a shallow Big XII talent pool.) Another thing hurting them is geography, as most of the big non-BCS bowls are in Texas and the Gulf South. Bowls like the Chick-Fil-A (Peach), Capitol One (Citrus), Cotton, and Outback tend to have high-quality games. The problem is that most of the Texas bowls are tied into the Big 12 and most of the other bowls are tied into the SEC, ACC, or both. Most of the West Coast bowls tend to be crap, like the two Hawaii bowl games, the Emerald Bowl, the Las Vegas bowl, the Sun Bowl, the Humanitarian Bowl, etc.

Oh god, that was the worst. Even the ESPN guys were all "Uh, what the fuck Tom Brady. Yes you do get respect. Come on now." They took their mouth off his dick long enough to say three sentences? I think someone slapped an audio filter over it to pull out the slurping sounds and get the gist behind the statement.

I still think NO is shaky, despite NFL's insistance that Reggie Bush will resurrect the city on the power of his legs. However, if they ever leave, it's to San Antonio and not LA. (Which allows the division to still make geographic sense) Wasn't San Diego, having stadium disputes not so long ago? I thought there were some rumblings that they'd move up-state. The fanbase is there in NO, as they've sold around 50,000+ season ticket packages since Bush was drafted, which guarantees all home games will be televised. The questions really deal with corporate sponsors, as many large companies such as Ruth's Chris moved their corporate headquarters out of NO in the wake of Katrina.

Because St. Louis and Baltimore fucked up their expansion plans. Had they had their shit together maybe we wouldn't have to hear about trying to add a 33rd team for Los Angeles. Say, "Los Angeles Jaguars." I like it. Right, because Los Angeles needs another franchise they can pretend to care about for four weeks and then watch as it folds up and leaves because the fans don't give a damn. LA wants wins now and if it isn't winning the title, they aren't coming to the games. Speaking of which, one of the current rumors is that the Raiders will sell a minority partnership (about 10-15%) to some investors and move back to LA. If the town will only go see a winner, I guess it means they'll be back in Oakland about 5-10 years after the move.

Just came across the wire-

At least the Pac 10 is admitting it. The SEC is insisting that the calls to LSU-Auburn were all above-board, despite the pass interference call against LSU and the subsequent PI call waved off against Auburn.

I'd LOVE to see one particular game in the BCS bowls this year... Provided Ohio State goes to the title game, I'd want to see a Rose Bowl of USC and LSU. Given the bad blood between the programs and fans since 2003, that would be a natural for selling tickets and getting interest from TV audiences.

WHYYYYYYY?! WHHYYYYYYYYY?! Well, there WAS a punter at Northern Colorado last week who stabbed his competition in the leg...

The AFC Central looks like one hell of a fight this year... The Steelers, Bengals, and Ravens all look great right now. That could end up being the big competitive division this year instead of the NFC East.

Well, they DID draft Bethel Johnson (bust), then trade him for Jon Sullivan (bigger bust)...

Over the last several years, no 0-2 team has made the playoffs. Not even Carolina when they ended the season with 7 straight wins a few years ago. Not saying they're out of it now, but trends in recent history don't support them.

Heh. Didn't see THAT comment coming from a mile away...

Anyone else think the Saints could put together 6 more wins this year? I think they've got legitimate shots against the Bucs (twice), Carolina (one win early in the season, possible loss to end the year), and the 49ers, but the rest of their games are against stiff competition like the Steelers, Ravens, Giants, Bengals, and Eagles. They could gut out a few of those games and slink into the playoffs as the #6 seed, provided the NFC East teams beat each other up badly.

SFAJack better hope Cleveland doesn't score again... He's got the tiebreaker right now having picked Cleveland to score 17, but they have the ball late. I've got Cincy with 35, and they have 34 on the board now.

I could have picked him up from the FA pile in my keeper league but went with Phil Rivers instead because I figured Grossman didn't have as many good weapons to work with.

And the Raiders fans thought us Saints fans had a case of jealousy, thinking that they could get production out of Brooks that we couldn't... How about Stallworth?? Stallworth never spent a significant amount of time playing WR with a competent QB in New Orleans. His experience with Brees was limited to parts of this past pre-season and, for whatever reason, the coaching staff was disappointed in him and demoted him in favor of Devery Henderson and Marques Colson. While neither Colson nor Henderson has had superstar weeks like Stallworth with Philly, both have scored receiving TDs and made big plays for the Saints.