It's BCS time...don't get excited

Why oh why was this system ever created? I have been told that it was a true effort to try and make college football as equal as possible, but when you review the criteria for the BCS, I just can't seem to find the "good" in the system. I could give you stats, stories, and reasons the BCS doesn't work, but I'm guessing you have heard them all. If you are from a small conference, you are screaming for Boise State to finally get in as you cheer for Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Arkansas this weekend. If you are from the SEC, you are still wondering how an undefeated Auburn didn't get in over Oklahoma when they got decimatted by USC(plus a SEC team has won the last three championships which proves it definitely would have been a better game!). If you are from the Big East you are even cheering for Cincinnati so they can finally get a team in the championship game. Why is there more cheering against the team ahead of you in the polls than actually cheering for your own team?

This blog entry will be short and simple... create playoffs! Top eight playoff? Why is it that every other sport figured out that a playoff would be the simplest way to find a champion? I appreciate tradition, and I would love to keep the bowls, but I also would love it if there wasn't arguments against the national champion. Of course, people would argue for that ninth spot, but wouldn't we rather an argument for the ninth best team rather than the third? I know we all want a playoff...let's try and get it one!

Here are the picks for the weekend. I went 7-5, but had I not picked Florida State and Michigan for my husband's sake, I would have been 9-3. He told me that I just shouldn't pick them at all anymore(needless to say he is frustrated with this football season). So here we go...

Okla vs Texas- Texas
Wake vs Clemson- Clemson
UGA vs Vandy-go DAWGS!(please win...)
Ark vs UF-Go GATORS!
USC vs ND- USC
NC State vs BC-BC
UVA vs Maryland-UVA
Va Tech vs Ga Tech-Va Tech
Kent vs Auburn-Auburn
So Carolina vs Bama-Bama
Missouri vs Ok State-Missouri
Texas Tech vs Nebraska-Nebraska

Pet Peeve #1

For those of you that know me, you know how many crazy pet peeves I have in my life. Leaving the blinker on, smacking of gum, crunching of ice right in my ear, any kind of tick, and of course the "barely touching" are just to name a few. After this week of football, a few more pet peeves have been added to my list. I know that these two stories are already being run into the ground but frankly I want to add to the fire. When it comes to pet peeves, the only way to get rid of them is to tell everyone you know about them!

The first pet peeve has to do with everything surrounding Bobby Bowden. This peeve comes in the fact that the "big" donors are the ones asking for the retirement of Bowden, when the people who have the control are the ones trying to put out all the fire. When the president of your school and your athletic director are backing the coach, then I personally believe that everyone else should also leave it alone. I understand that people are entitled to their opinions(as I am doing right now), but when you think that your opinion will sway the people in charge to fire one of the greatest coaches of all time, then I find that a little annoying. I come from a position as a Florida fan who has never enjoyed the Bowden victories(especially the 31-31 tie, even though it wasnt considered a victory it sure did get under my skin!), yet as a person who appreciates how hard it must be to get as many wins as Bowden. Bobby should be able to retire whenever he wants to and he has obviously earned that right. Who's to say that one day soon Bobby does exactly what Joe Paterno has done-have some pretty subpar seasons and now at 83, he is leading a top 15 Penn State football team. It seems to me like Bobby has relinquished a lot of his duties on offense and defense, yet the team seems to do worse with lesser input. When I watched him step into the huddle right before the last play of the Miami game, it looked to me he made the play call which gave FSU it's best opportunity in the end zone. The guy just didn't catch it.

So for this pet peeve...let's just let the powers do their job, talk to our friends about our real opinions, and let one of the greatest football coaches of all time finish out his legacy when he so chooses.

Pet Peeve #2

Now for my second pet peeve. REFEREES! My dad always told me that his lease favorite thing about soccer was how the referees could change the game. With one blow of the whistle and a signal to the penalty spot, the momentum of the game changes and normally so does the outcome. As a former football player himself, he always knew the refs had some control, but he knew it was good control. Not until this weekend did he realize, and I am right with him, that the refs had WAY too much control. Of course there have been games before this past weekend where we all wanted to blame the refs, but knew the actual outcome of the game was not dictated by their calls. When the referees decided to call an unsportsmanlike penalty on AJ Green which was put on the kickoff and two plays later LSU runs in the winning touchdown, the refs had actually decided the outcome of the game.

When it comes to SEC football, every play matters. When it came down to last Saturday between the hedges, the tension was constantly mounting as the first half was a full defensive battle, but the fourth quarter was all about the offense. When 90,000 people are screaming at the top of their lungs, you just made one of the best catches of the season, and possibly the winning touchdown over a top 5 team, are you not supposed to celebrate? I have watched the replay over and over again in hopes that I find someone who tried to draw attention to himself or someone who just celebrated too long, but I just haven't found that someone. LSU fans can even argue that they also got the same call against them after they scored, but it never affected the outcome and we all know that the first call was the one that took all the momentum away from Georgia and it was just too late to get it back.

I feel bad for Georgia and all the players and coaches involved. I appreciate that the SEC is reprimanding these refs for the blatant bad call, but unfortunately it won't change the score. I feel bad for my dad as he realized that the one thing he hated about soccer has now come true to his first sports passion, college football. It was a sad day for all dawgs fans and I just hope it doesn't completely ruin this season.

So for this pet peeve...refs, try and call the game properly and don't leave your mark. No one remembers the refs UNLESS they make a bad call.

OK now for the picks and let me tell you I HAVE to make up for last week. I was 4-8, YIKES! That's really bad. I am letting myself go! Here we go for a better effort!

Neb vs Mizzou-Missouri
BC vs Va Tech- Va Tech
Aub vs Ark- Aub
UGA vs UT- Go DAWGS
Kent vs South Carolina- S. Carolina
Bama vs Ole Miss-Bama
Oregon vs UCLA-Oregon
Georgia Southern vs UNC-Go HEELS
Maryland vs Wake Forest-Wake
UF vs LSU-GO GATORS
GT vs FSU-FSU
Mich vs Iowa- Mich

Please Come Back!

For those of you that know me really well and for those that have been paying attention to my blog, you all know that I have been paying a lot of attention to the recent headline in college football. My favorite player in college football now and probably my favorite athlete ever is Tim Tebow, and when he fell down lifeless I was like any college football fan when I held my breath until he was able to lift his head on his own. With my experience as a soccer player, we deal with a lot of concussions, so once I heard that was his only diagnosis, I was very relieved. I know concussions are a very dangerous injury, especially when you have a lot of them(and probably even more dangerous in football), but with the proper care, concussions are injuries that allow you to come back and play again. My bigger worry to this injury is the fact that with Tebow going down last week and Sam Bradford going down with a shoulder injury the first game of the season, young college football players and highly recruited high school players will look at these heisman trophy winners and opt to leave school early for the NFL in fear that they would also get injured.
I totally understand why players who are highly touted would want to go to the NFL early, but there is so much about the college life that these players would miss. It's not just the pride of playing for your school, but one more year of college means one more year of maturation and one more year learning what not to do when you sign a contract worth millions of dollars. There are almost more stories of young professional athletes who receive major contract deals that end up bankrupt than stories of players who keep signing lucrative deals and stay out of debt. There are also a lot of stories of players who come out in the first round and don't actually play until years later because they still need to work on their weaknesses that they could have worked on with one more year of college football. It's more of a rarity to see someone like Mark Sanchez in the NFL and more common to see someone like Ryan Leaf(ok, maybe not as dramatic as Leaf, but a highly touted athlete who ends up with a below average career). I don't even need to go into why another year of actual learning will help just about anyone! That's pretty obvious!
My point to this whole entry is to say to these athletes please come back to school! I know that you can finish your college degree anytime you want, but as someone who had to come back to finish just ONE semester, it is not nearly as easy as it sounds! I look at players like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady who played all four years and now look at their careers. They were able to experience everything a college education gives you along with how staying in college football can truly help your NFL growth, on and off the field. I truly hope that Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy, and Tim Tebow have wonderful NFL careers. I also hope that the media will stop questioning the players and the coaches as to why these players decided to come back. I saw a quote from Bob Stoops on espn.com and he responded well to the annoying questions the media were asking him.

"Everybody's entitled to their opinion, but for me to force a guy to go out and then what if it isn't the right decision? I don't need to tell you how things can always go in the draft," Stoops said."In the end, it's not my job to force a guy to come out. It's my job to educate my players on all the possibilities and then it's up to the individual and his family to make that decision."

In the end, no one can predict what will happen, but why take the chance of failing in the NFL so early? Enjoy all the experiences life gives you, and never stop learning. I admire these athletes and their desire to just be better people.

OK, so last weekend was a pretty bad weekend for me. With all the random upsets that I just didn't see coming, I wound up 6-6. Here's hoping for a better week!

UNC vs UVA- Go Heels!

Mich vs Mich St-Mich

Clemson vs Maryland-Clemson

Bama vs Kent-Bama

LSU vs UGA- Go Dawgs!

Washington vs ND-ND

FSU vs BC-FSU

Wake vs NC State-State

GT vs Miss St-Miss St

Auburn vs Tenn-Auburn

USC vs Cal-USC

Okla vs Miami-Okla

Will the real Lane Kiffin please shut up?

After another wonderful weekend of college football where Georgia, Florida, North Carolina won, plus Florida State and Michigan won (to make my husband happy), I was still quite annoyed at the end of the day and into this week. Why would I be disappointed, I ask myself? With the UNC and Georgia offense finally producing and Florida getting its first SEC win, how could I even consider not enjoying my whole day? First of all, it started when Tennessee decided to hire Lane Kiffin. He is a man with very little on his resume besides being the offensive coordinator to USC when we all know that Pete Carroll is the mastermind. Plus his miserable stint as the Oakland Raiders head coach where he blamed everyone but himself for his pathetic effort. Then, as we all heard about 100 times on ESPN last week, he made the infamous speech where he said he was going to be singing Rocky Top all night long after beating Florida. He also accused Urban Meyer of cheating when he himself has been reprimanded too many times to count AND he was dumb enough to be on ESPN breaking rules when he decided to talk to recruits on the air..."smart guy." Even worse, he accused Mark Richt of cheating...really? An incredible Christian man is going to be accused of cheating by a man with that track record? Let's be serious.
After all of this, plus losing to UCLA(again), he was still in the state of mind that he was going to beat Florida. While most of the experts were saying the spread was over 25 points(and with my expertise hoping for something like 35), he still believed he could win. I totally understand why he would want his team to believe they could win, plus in the SEC anything can happen, but he just got plain annoying. So when UF didn't beat them by a whole lot, I was a little disappointed, but even more disappointed by what has happened since the game. First of all, no sideline reporter in their right mind should ask a coach whether he is happy that the team did better than expected even though they lost(another reason I should be on the sidelines). Secondly, why does Kiffin keep talking? He claims that Urban Meyer didn't talk about the flu his players had until after they didn't play as well as they wanted. Would any coach tell another team they were playing before the game that their players were sick? Not too smart of a coach to tell the other team that some of their best players are weak? So why does Lane Kiffin keep jabbing his mouth and digging deeper holes? Do Tennessee fans like all of this talk? Do they think this is good for the university just to have a little flare? Is breaking NCAA rules the only way to catch up to the other SEC schools? Is he inspiring his team? I truly want to know the method to his madness as I would hope he is smarter than what keeps flying out of his mouth!
This is the reason I can't wait for this weekend. I mean, we have already had an upset with the overrated Ole Miss team losing to South Carolina, UNC has a chance to start its bid at winning the ACC, Georgia has yet another tough game against a PAC 10 team, and Florida can't rest while visiting Kentucky. No more drama. No more talking. Just regular, PURE college football where everything is decided on the field instead of in front of the tv camera. My only worry is that I am sitting on the west coast without my husband and doggies, where I may miss some games because I will be stuck watching PAC 10 games. What a bother, but at least it's football. Another fun week in the fall so either way I am going to enjoy and make the most of every Saturday!
My picks last Saturday were only ok with me going 9-5, so I hope to make the most of this weekend.

SoFla vs FSU-FSU
UNC vs GT-Go Heels!
IND vs Mich-Mich
LSU vs Miss St- LSU
CAL vs ORE- CAL
TCU vs Clem- Clemson
MIA vs VT- Miami
ARK vs BAMA-BAMA
UF vs Kent-Go Gators!
ASU vs UGA- Go Dawgs!
Iowa vs Penn St- PSU
Wake vs BC- BC