Traditions

With all the craziness that has been surrounding college football in the past year, I can't help but think about all the traditions that so many of us are accustomed to just vanishing.  A tradition like the Oklahoma/Nebraska game that even if they played it, the game would never mean as much as it did when they were in the same conference. A tradition that must be started between Colorado and Utah rather than the bitter rivalry of mascots between Ralphie from Colorado and Bevo from Texas.  As much as I don't really care about either of those teams, the tradition of both those animals was so fun to watch every year and now we only see it every now and then.  And to think, now Syracuse and Pitt will have to form new rivalries on the football field against foes such as Florida State and Wake Forest?  I think the thing that bothers me most in a conference like the Big East where they lose Syracuse and Pitt, it's not the football programs that take the hit of traditions, but it's basketball.  The passion of basketball in the Big East is one of the best and to see football cause those rivalries to mean less is just sad.  I guess it's hard to watch new rivalries attempting to be formed in football, old rivalries lost in football, and all the other sports having to deal with this just for money.

The irony of all of this is that for the past few years I have been complaining about the BCS system and how they will never go to the playoff system, one of their biggest arguments is the "tradition" of the bowl games.  I absolutely LOVE bowl season.  January 1st is like Christmas to me when football is on from 11am until midnight.  But I also realize that it IS UNFAIR to teams like Boise State who go undefeated even if their schedule is weaker that they don't even get a chance.  I can tell you coming from someone who played in a playoff system, it isn't always the best team all year that wins the tournament, it's the best team playing at that point in the season that wins.  It just annoys me that because of traditions and money, the BCS system won't change, yet all the conferences will realign and take away what little tradition was left in the eyes of the students and alumni of that particular school.

What I don't understand is that I come from a generation where we are constantly changing.  Social media is the best outlet for breaking news and the news feed on your home page is completely different 20 minutes later.  I come from a generation where tradition is something we frown upon because we think it keeps us from ever being innovators and creating a better country to live in; so we keep moving forward.  Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook is from my generation.  Food trucks are run by 20 and 30 somethings and are the new rage for a restaurant because as soon as a neighborhood is "so five minutes ago," you just pack up and move to the next trendy place.  We don't like to stay in one place and I truly believe that my generation along with a few others will truly change the world(and that goes way beyond college football).  It's just interesting that we want to change college football to a playoff system to seem progressive, yet all this conference realignment just makes us cringe.  We see it all as a play on money and taking more steps backward rather than forward because the people who run these conferences just want the money.  It's plain and simple to me and my generation, yet everyone is afraid to talk about it(ironically probably because they get more money not to say anything...). 

I just love college football tradition.  That's why I love college football so much.  You play with an added passion for the sake of your school and the rivalry that has been formed for decades.  Alumni go back to school to look at pictures of them playing their arch rival while cheering on the new generation to beat the same school they played 45 years ago.  Where has that passion gone? Will it return? I sure hope so.  I can adjust, I don't particularly like to change, but I can.  I just hope college football(and all the other sports affected by this) will do the same.

OK, enough venting.  Hopefully I didn't overstep any boundaries ;)  I made up for the last time I picked with an 11-2 record.  Let's hope I keep that up!  It's gonna be a fun Saturday

UNC vs GT-UNC
ND at Pitt-ND
Ark vs Alabama-Bama
Ok State vs TAM-TAM
Florida St vs Clemson-Clemson(without EJ I just dont think FSU can do it, maybe he will play?)
Vandy vs S. Carolina-Vandy
UF vs UK-UF
Florida Atlantic vs Auburn-Auburn
Missouri vs Oklahoma-Oklahoma
LSU vs W.VA-LSU
USC vs Arizona St-Arizona St
UGA vs Ole Miss-UGA
San Diego St vs Mich-Mich

Early Season Guesses/Remarks

Now that we are two weeks into the season, it has been fun to listen to some of the critics go ahead and put their Heisman front runners out there.  Robert Griffin III from Baylor, Denard Robinson from Michigan, and Landry Jones of Oklahoma have been the players that I hear the most.  Well, what about Andrew Luck from Stanford and Trent Richardson from Alabama?  You could even put a Kellen Moore in there from Boise State which I am guessing most people will by the end of the season.  While I heard those three names I mentioned first be put in the Heisman frontrunner position so soon in the year, I thought I could make some outlandish and quick remarks that with only two weeks of judgement, I will allow myself to feel like a real critic. 

Now all of this is based JUST on the first two weeks of the season...just wanted to remind you of this...
-Mark Richt is fired
-Brian Kelly is fired
-Based on how Auburn won the national championship last year, Michigan will win the national championship this year
-Boise State will get locked out of the national championship again
-Florida State leaves the ACC
-Texas becomes this year's Ohio State
-The argument of whether the Big East should get an automatic bid will push more teams into super conferences
-Miami may not have a football program...
-It's LSU vs Oklahoma in the national championship game
-Robert Griffin III wins the Heisman and Baylor wins the Big 12 or whatever that conference is...
-Arkansas wins the SEC
-Arizona St wins the Pac 12
-Wisconsin wins the Big 10
-Florida State wins the ACC
-Notre Dame doesn't make a bowl
-West Virginia wins the Big East

So how close do you think this will be by the end of the season???

Now on to the picks...I was an abysmal 6-4 last week so I need to make up for that!

West Virginia vs Maryland-Maryland
Auburn vs Clemson-Auburn
Coastal Carolina vs UGA-UGA
Washington vs Nebraska-Nebraska
Michigan St vs Notre Dame-Notre Dame
Tennessee vs Florida-FLORIDA
Texas vs UCLA-Texas
Virginia vs UNC-UNC
Arizona St vs Illinois-Illinois
North Texas vs Alabama-Alabama
Ohio St vs Miami-Miami
Oklahoma vs Florida St-Oklahoma
Stanford vs Arizona-Stanford

Herschel

So last night I sat down to watch the new series on ESPNU called SEC: Storied.  It was on one of my favorite athletes and one of the greatest college football players of all time, Herschel Walker.  The man was and still is a beast.  Most of us know all about how when he was younger he would do around 5000 push ups and 5000 sit ups a day.  There have even been rumors that he lived on 12 snicker bars a day.  He still to this day does 1500-2500 push ups and sit ups a day and most recently ran a 4.39 40 yard dash as a 49 year old.  Can we say comeback??

What I didn't know, and I bet most people didn't realize this either, was that Herschel suffered from multiple personalities disorder.  When he was younger, he was bullied and he vowed it would never happen to him again.  As a sort of coping mechanism, he imagined himself becoming a sort of "superhero" type person.  When he was young, he figured it was a normal kid thing to do to imagine that you could one day be superman.  But when he grew up, he began to realize that becoming superman wasn't a fairy tale to him, but reality.  He was able to fuel his anger and aggression through football, but as soon as football was over for him, life became difficult as his anger became dangerous.

I have been thinking a lot about this as I have reflected on this amazing story of a man that overcame psychological issues to become such an gifted athlete.  I can only imagine that something like this was very difficult to deal with everyday.  So many athletes talk about how physically prepared they are because of all the hard work they put into practice, but what separates the good from the great is the mental toughness.  To hear about this unbelievable young athlete to succeed at such a high level with this disorder is nothing short than amazing.  It was really cool to watch Herschel reflect on his career and see how much more he enjoys his life now since he has gotten complete control of his psychological disorder.  I really admire a man like him to come forward and talk about it, but also to embrace his problems and make the most out of life.  It was also really nice to watch a Georgia team win and get to the national championship three straight years.  Where has that team been these past two decades??

Now on to picks!  I was 11-2 last week which is probably my best week ever! It's going to be another fun week

Missouri vs Ariz St- Missouri
Oregon St vs Wisc-Wisc
Miss St vs Auburn-sorry auburn...Miss St
Rutgers vs UNC-UNC!
Alabama vs Penn St- Bama(accidentally put penn st but I def DID NOT mean to)
South Carolina vs UGA-UGA! i beg you to win please!
Charleston South vs FSU-FSU
BYU vs Texas-upset special-BYU
UAB vs Florida-UF!
Notre Dame vs Michigan- Michigan

GAMEDAY!!

It is finally here.  A day I have been looking forward to since Auburn held up the National Championship trophy in January.  It's a brand new year.  It's a brand new season for my favorite teams and I must ask myself some questions before it all begins.  Will part of my season be over on Saturday night when Georgia faces Boise State? I always walk into a new season with high hopes that Georgia or Florida will make it at least to the SEC championship, much less the national championship and if UGA loses to Boise, part of my excitement will flicker.  Even with a #19 ranking, can they show that a lower ranked SEC team can still beat a team like Boise State or will BSU finally make some noise to the BCS analysts?  If they lose to BSU and the following week lose to South Carolina, will Mark Richt get fired mid season?  If they win one of these games does this mean he has saved his job one more year?  Do UGA fans still want him as coach? I know I do, but I haven't heard many good rumblings down in Athens....Is the freshman phenom running back, Isaiah Crowell, going to pull in numbers like Lattimore of South Carolina?

Will Muschamp and the Gators surprise people? Will Brantley finally get his due?  How different will UF look with Weiss, Brantley, and a genius defensive minded head coach? Will Gator nation like the change?  How soon will Urban pull a Spurrier and find a new team to coach?

Can Everett Withers pull the Heels together? Since we still have Butch's recruits, can we still win?  How good/bad will the ACC be this year?  Will the UNC students still come to the games since the last few years we all bought into the Butch Davis regime?  Will I look at the first date of basketball season before the third week?

And lastly...why is it every year the college football analysts pick a Big 12/ Pac 12/ Big 10 team to win the national championship while the SEC keeps on winning?  Is it because they are just tired of the SEC winning all the time or do they truly believe it? Oh and can the conferences please stay the same...if college football is all about tradition, i.e BCS/Bowl games, then why do we take away the tradition of the conferences and put teams in new ones?  I guess there isn't such a purity with tradition in college football after all. Maybe we should try a small playoff at the end of the year since tradition has just been thrown out the window.

Now it's time for me to start a brand new season of my picks.  Once again my dad beat me in our college football picks so I will try and do better.  So now it's time to grab my nachos, grab a seat in the middle of my couch, turn on Beth Mowins doing the defending national champions first game(with a Briarwood alum at QB!) and enjoy my day of sitting in front of the tv all day and only  getting up to cheer!

Thurs game:
Wisconsin vs UNLV-Wisc
Fri game:
TCU vs Baylor-upset special...Baylor
Sat games:
Akron vs OSU-OSU...but barely...
Utah St vs Auburn-Aub
Kent St vs Bama-Bama
South Florida vs ND-ND
Minn vs USC-USC
James Madison vs UNC-UNC!
Florida Atlantic vs Florida-FLORIDA!
Richmond vs Duke-Richmond
Oregon vs LSU-LSU
Boise St vs Georgia-GEORGIA!
Mon game:
Maryland vs Miami-Maryland

disclosure-i know i havent included all games but these seemed the most interesting to me...

Awww...college football

I guess it is that time again folks. I have been out of commission with soccer and broadcasting where I haven't said much about the college football season. Here I am again though, hopefully not annoying you with my love for college football. The problem with my love for college football is the fact that right now, I barely know who is in the top ten. I barely know the heisman candidates. All I know right now is how corrupt college football has become. And who do we blame for that?? Do we blame the media? Do we blame the NCAA? Do we blame the colleges? To be frank, it's hard to blame one person. The media obviously wants the "drama." The NCAA wants the power. The colleges want to win. Is there a way that we can combine all three in a manner that is civilized? Would this mean the teams of yesteryear, like Army and Navy, finally get back into the National Championship scene? Or would this mean we resort to paying these so called college athletes, yet by paying them we make them professional athletes on a much smaller scale? I have heard so many arguments one way or the other, yet I am a purist(except when it comes to the playoffs). I want to see the best athletes coming out of high school, play the game of football and appreciate a free education(a type of payment if you look between the lines...). I guess I would hate to see these specific college athletes getting paid when basketball has yet to be paid and of course no other athlete gets paid in college. I know, I know, you can make the case that college football brings in all the money, but it is just sad that all the money goes to the athletes, yet all the scholars are told they must pay more to the college so "athletes" can make more....


Ok, OK...I am done with that, I just want the games to begin. Who will finish #1? Is Florida State is the real deal? Will Oklahoma actually make it out of the easiest conference and win a BCS bowl game? Will the SEC win again?? Is Auburn really a #3/4 pick in their division? Will the PAC 16 truly be a competitive conference? Legends and Leaders, really?? Does the Big East deserve an automatic bid? Which coaches will get fired? Which coaches will get fired from more NCAA violations? Which athletes will pull a "Terrell Pryor" and leave early because they broke NCAA rules? Will there be a non BCS conference national champion? So many questions, and there may be even more to come, but what excites me most is on September 1st, college football begins. We can put away the drama that all of us hate and we can finally get between the lines and play football. This is the only part the NCAA, the universities, and the media can come together and be at peace.