Unverified Voracity Sets The Trap

Andrew Luck rushed for quite a bit from under center as a lumbering giant, so I don't think 1,000 yds seems preposterous.

I stood next to Denard and he's at least an inch taller than me and I'm 5'11".  IMO, he's a legit 6'0".

Denard will need to average 12 rushes a game to get to 1,000 yards, based upon his 2010 rushing average.

I don't think he's going to have a problem getting there, especially with the introduction of play-action, a genuine second rushing threat, and a reduced aversion to scrambling (where he may well be more dangerous than a designed run).

Doc Sat's idea is similar to mine, except instead of saying that certain conferences always send a team, I would say all conference champions ranked in the top 12/16 get automatic bids. That would leave UConn out, but VaTech made it back by the end of the year. Nevada would have also been in. It makes more sense to allow a 1-loss Nevada in than a 4-loss UConn.

It seems to me that the crappy games are still overpriced and the premium games are still underpriced.  Its good to see them differenatiate the ticket price, but I'd like to see more of it to highlight true market response for the MACrifice games.  For that reason, I sort of see a potential silver lining to the season ticket backlog dissappearing.

His remarks to a group in Youngstown last night:  "I sincerely apologize for what we've been through.  I apologize for the fact I wasn't able to find the ones to partner with to handle our difficult and complex situation."  Huh?  WTF does that mean?  It wasn't complex: Rule violated, players ineligible, coach mandated by contract and NCAA to report it.  Couldn't find people to "partner with"?  Did he look very hard?  He didn't forward the emails.  He didn't talk to the AD or anyone else, it seems.  He needs a partner to report a violation?  What a load of crap.  I never liked his holier-than-thou persona.  Now that it is clear it was all a fraud, he is contemptible.

Was amused yesterday on the drive home at Bill Simonson conflating the names of two scummy coaches, and calling Tennessee's basketball coach "Bruce Tressel."

I always hate the argument against a playoff..."because every game matters".   Um, no it doesn't.  Yes every game matters if you are undefeated playing the 11th game of the season and you can't afford to stub your toe, but none of the games matter for rest of the teams in your league.  In terms of winning a NC most teams are playing out the string by Mid October.  A playoff makes more games much more interesting for the average fan than does the current system.  

 Example:  it's Halloween night and  #1 Alabama is playing unranked Ole Miss @ Ole Miss on CBS.  On ESPN2 we have #10 LSU vs #15 Auburn. ABC has # 8 Wisconsin hosting #15 Penn St.

In the BCS example the Alabama game is the only thing that matters, so you tune in and hope for Ole Miss to pull the shocker, but about 80% of the time Alabama is up 14-20 at half time and you turn it off.  You got about 1 qtr of BCS implications.  If you have a playoff you have teams from 1-40 mostly  playing meaningful games trying to make the playoff.

Sure there is a very minute chance a game could be played with zero implications but with rivalries and byes and playoffs on the line the amount of games that could possibly "ruin" vs the games it could enhance it is no contest.

Does anyone know what position Cicero played at OSU? 

I have the 1983 Mich/OSU game from the big house on tape.  (24-21 win by the good guys).  And I thought I would try to look for him. 

was incredible.  He still has 2 years to make similar leaps in passing and reading of defenses.  It's too early to preclude playing QB in the NFL.  And Vick is the model, not Brees.

Sounds like we should not even watch the games next season and just let Brian tell us how things are going to happen.  How many times does Borges have to say he is going to use DR's talents?  Last I checked the offense from last year had alot of yards and points, but there is alot of room for improvement, especially in the red zone against quality opponents.  I also do not know why he dimisses the bootleg.  If they are able to run downhill, the bootleg is going to be a huge weapon by the goal line.  If nothing else Brian sets himself up to second guess anything that goes wrong next year and I am sure tell us how he would do things differently.

Chunkums FTW. I don't know how you make still images of Tressel look like he's cackling, but I like it.

I think the only way you can get the conferences to sign off on this is if the conference champions from the Big Six get autobids.  I would add one caveat to this--in order to get into the playoff, that conference champion must be in the Top 20 of the BCS standings or whatever evaluation standard is used to rank the programs and to select the two at-large teams.  In the case of last season, that would mean Connecticut wouldn't get into the playoff and that there'd be a third at-large team into the postseason setup.

I'd have all the playoff games at the home stadium of the highest ranked team with the final game at the Rose Bowl (I mean the stadium, not the Rose Bowl game).  Teams not in the playoffs would be available for the existing bowl games. 

Using the BCS rankings from last year (http://www.bcsfootball.org/), here's how the playoff first round would look like:

#8 Virginia Tech (ACC Champion) at #1 Auburn (SEC Champion)

#5 Wisconsin (Big Ten Champion) at #4 Stanford (Pac 10 At Large)

#7 Oklahoma (Big XII Champion) at #2 Oregon (Pac 10 Champion)

#6 Ohio State (Big Ten At Large) at #3 Texas Christian (MWC Champion - At Large)

The first round is played in mid-December.  Using last year's calendar, the four games of the first round would be 11 December with the second and third rounds on the 18th and 25th (yes, there would be CFB on Xmas Day).  Bowl games get played during the usual time frame (perhaps 1 January could become a big bowl game day again) with the national championship game on 8 January.

Here's a list of teams from last year that could fill in the four major bowls (currently in the BCS):  Arkansas, Michigan State, Boise State, LSU, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Alabama.  Hypothetically, those major bowls could look like this (with actual bowl matchup from last year in brackens):

Rose - Michigan State v. Boise State (Wisconsin-TCU)

Sugar - Arkansas v. Oklahoma State (Arkansas-OSU)

Fiesta - LSU v. Missouri (Oklahoma-UConn)

Orange - West Virginia or Connecticut v. Alabama (Stanford-Va Tech)

With four of the Big Six Conferences now having conference championship games, you can pretty much rest assured that those contests will have even higher stakes to them because they're usually the difference between being in the playoff or going to a bowl game.  Teams will have motivation in place to play hard throughout the season because the higher seeded teams get the home field advantage in the playoff in each of the rounds prior to the final game. 

If the Big Six Conference all go to 12-team configurations in the future, then this system will be somewhat more uniform.  That's not to say that some conferences won't be stronger than others, but it would mean they'd all get through essentially the same process to get into the playoff, i.e., win conference championship game.

Programs outside the Big Six Conferences and the independents (ND, BYU, USNA, USMA) would get in solely as an at large team.  That'd give a program like Boise State a chance to participate in the playoffs if it went undefeated (like TCU would be in the playoff last season with its perfect record).    

to make the worlds most glorious food unappetizing.  Then came the words "Bacon on Tressel."

I'll be skipping breakfast for a while....

$70 bucks to see Western and Eastern to play, seriously?  Have these guys lost their minds? 

I worked for the University in the ticket office opening PSD's and the assumption that Michigan is running out of people on the waitlist is not correct at all. I opened thousands of letters and about 1/4 of all the letters I had recieved were people on the wait list.

I thought one of the reasons behind the towers and box seats being built was to make renovations to the stadium without increasing normal ticket prices. WTF?

In a word Wow... That's near NFL prices, or more if you look at the nose bleed seats.

Well I guess that's what the market will bear, but I admit it's too much for my pocket book when you factor in gas, parking, and food. You can see the game better at home on the big screen.

I guess I'm getting old. That's cool. I'll cheer from home, somebody has to do it!

$5 per game parking increase.  I think I was paying $30 per game last year ... so add on another $240 on top of those 2 season tickets @ $960 and I'm at $150 per game.  Plus driving from Indiana ... gas ....  oh well ... best money I spend every year !!!

Go Blue !

The thing that occurred to me after reading this is that IF you take stock in what the NCAA has said recently on two of the highest profile issues they’ve confronted (Cam Newton and Tattoogate) is that in both instances, the NCAA made a HUGE deal about lack of knowledge being the main mitigating factor.  “Sure Cammy Cam can play for the crystal because there is no proof that he knew Pappa was passing the collection plate” and “Sure the Buckeye 5 can play in the Sugar because OSU didn’t know about it beforehand and/or the players didn’t know it was impermissible because they lacked the proper compliance training.”  In Tres’ case, we now know that HE KNEW.  He admitted….errrr his e-mails finally forced him to admit that he knew and at THREE crucial junctures, his knowledge didn’t deter him from going forward. 

Seriously, if the NCAA actually believes in what it’s been saying--that knowledge of the wrongdoing is the key factor--then while OSU may have thought that the NCAA “Can’t touch this” at its presser, to me, it’s looking like it’s HAMMER TIME.  Hey OOOOOOOOOO!  Besides, unlike in Cammy’s case, OSU/Tres used the supposed lack of knowledge not just as a shield to hide behind, but as a sword to get more—namely getting the NCAA to cut it a break on the Sugar Bowl.  NCAA was flat out used by a guy trying to trade on his Pat Boone rep and they are going to be PISSED.