Is there a game tonight?

Whet wants an open thread. So let it be done.

F the SEC
Hook 'em Finland.

A Girl Scouts: Little Caesars Pizza Bowl

PIZZA ! PIZZA !
Oh, if only !!! We could been contenda's !!!

But no, today's bowl game (1 pm ET) features the green and white clad Ohio Bobcats versus the similarly clad green and white Thundering Herd from (we are) Marshall. Ironical, wouldn't you say??? Two green and white teams in our Pizza Bowl? bah humbug.

This game, while interesting from a football standpoint--given the strength of the MAC--actually has more drama trauma off the field. And I'm alllllll about the drama!

In case you haven't heard, Marshall's coach Mark Snyder resigned as Head Coach the day after their final game (a 52-21 drubbing by UTEP). Bummer dude. Snyder graduated from Marshall in 1988 and over his five year tenure produced a 22-37 record. Not what the Herders are used to, alas. John "Doc" Holliday will be their Head Coach Huckleberry now. Doc has been the associate head coach at (wait for it) West Virginia this past year, and was at Florida and NC State before that.
BUT....ol' Doc won't be coaching the team today. Oh no, that task will go to the Interim-Head Coach-For-A-Day Defensive Coordinator Rick Minter.

Lemme just digress here for a minute about Rick Minter.
The guy has a long history of coaching line backers from Arkansas, La Tech, NC State, and New Mexico State before going to Ball State as the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator from 1985 to 1991. In '92-'93 he was a Domer and helped the Irish to a #2 national ranking. Then he becomes the head coach at Cincinnati before heading over to Pete Carroll's factory in 2004. He went back to ND before ending up at Marshall as their Defensive Coordinator. Are ya sensing a theme here?????
Anyone else thinking that WEEEE need a linebacker coach???????
Hmmm....lemme see, he's been in Detroit for the week, he's gonna be out of a job soon.....Hire the man !!! How sweet would that be? Stealing from West Virginny and the Domers all in one????? Diabolical !!!

The Bobcats are the MAC East Champions, racking up a 9-4 record. The boys from Marshall bring their 6-6 record in Conference USA to the table. Here's ESPNs take on the game.

And, of course there are two more games today too---
At 4 pm Eastern the Meineke Car Care Bowl pitting, well, um, Pitt against North Carolina.
And, at 8 pm Eastern the Emerald Bowl where Boston College has to face a pretty pissed of Trojan team.
Should be a great day !!!
Enjoy the football and the leftovers. Oh, and trying to figure out how to put all that Christmas shit together......

Game Day: Open Thread

Whoa Nelly !!!!
I don't know about you guys, but my day will play as follows:

Noon: Cincy v. Pitt
3:30: 'Zona v. USC with some Boise v. New Mexico State thrown in for fun
4:00: Tebow v. 'Bama like watching two trains getting ready to collide....
8:00: Texas v. Nebraska and Ga. Tech v. Clemson

put 'em alllll in the hopper and shake that BCS up !!!!

Time for a playoff ?

So... after months of playing games, who is the champion of the 2008 College Football Season ?

Florida won the BCS game, but they lost to Mississippi. Utah went undefeated, but they don't play in the right conference. USC looked like they would could beat anyone, but they lost to Oregon State. Mack Brown says Texas is the best team. I could go on and on... But quite frankly I am sick of the circular conversation.

I want to hear what you think. Let's start with this:

Online Surveys & Market Research

(You can see the number of total votes if you hit the "comments" link in the poll)

During the BCS game on Thursday Night T9 and I were texting (mostly about how Thom Brennaman makes me want to become a cricket fan) about how we should do a "playoff post" -- but neither of us got to it yesterday. And honestly, I think that neither of us wanted to jump into the details of how a playoff should be structured.

This I believe:
1) The current system stinks
2) Division I College football needs a playoff system
3) The current bowl system should be included in the structure of the playoff system
4) The structure needs to account for teams outside the "big conferences" when warranted.

Everything else are details that can be decided and/or modified.

In the comments of my Tebow wallpaper post our friend Shorty the Beachcomber took the leap and typed his ideas on a playoff system. I don't agree with some of his details (going to a playoff game in Michigan Stadium in January is a logistical nightmare to me) -- but I appreciate his effort and felt it was as good of a starting point as any.

Shorty's Playoff: We must keep bowl traditions, the importance of the bowl season, and have a playoff lead to the crowning of a real, undisputed National Champ. So here it is. The bowls are played with traditional alignments (Pac-10, Big Ten in the Rose Bowl etc). We must also take into consideration that the bowls may and should take a couple of days after the New Year so the Orange, Fiesta, and or Sugar can have primetime slots all to themselves. After the bowls are over there is a final poll and the top eight from that poll are then advanced into the playoff. 1 hosts 8, 4 hosts 5 etc. Two Saturdays after the last bowl game the playoff begins (so as to negate a serious advantage for New Year's Day or prior bowl winners who end up in the top 8 as they would have a significant rest advantage... no short week should ever lead a Sugar, Fiesta, or Orange Bowl winner into the playoffs) and continues for the next three Saturdays. That would place the title game by itself on the bye weekend before the Super Bowl at the end of January(which may become the Pro Bowl weekend) so that it does not compete with the NFL playoffs. The teams play a single elimination just like the Elite 8 in March with the top ranked team hosting in the quarter and semifinal rounds to award those with a "better" regular season/bowl performance. The National Championship will be at a neutral site and have all the built up festivities of a current title game, but this time the winner would be the undisputed champ (barring interference by refs). You keep the traditional alignments and rivalries in bowl games, and have them mean something more than before as a win or loss could be the difference between staying at home or going to the playoffs.

Discuss.

All Tebow, All the Time

I couldn't wait until Wallpaper Wednesday for this one...

Just in case you have been living under a rock -- Florida won the BCS* National Championship Game on Thursday. It was a choppy and sloppy game -- frankly both teams looked to me like they would lose to USC by 2 touchdowns. But things being what they are, Florida is your National Champ and Tim Tebow is somehow being discussed as the best college football player in history. I think the voters have already awarded the 2009 Heisman and National Championship to the Gators. At one point today I thought ESPN was going to rebrand itself "Tebow TV". I thought I would get into the Tim Tebow love fest. I still smile every time I think about Lloyd Carr's last game -- I think Terrance Taylor does too.

True story: I watched the BCS game at the house of a good friend who happens to be a Florida grad. I was polite to his wife, did not eat too many chips, and never broke it to him that I would rather see OU win than another SEC confetti party. I allowed him the appropriate space to rant when Tebow threw the ball directly into the Oklahoma defensive tackle's belly and never verbalized how stupid I thought Bob Stoops was for refusing to kick field goals in the first half. When it was over I congratulated him and humbly stated that I hope I live long enough to see my team win another one.

He smiled and replied "Thanks Andy we may have won tonight -- but you and I both know that Florida is still Michigan's bitch after last year..."

Amen Brother, Amen.

*Big Conference in the South

Actually, I am that mean. And FIERCE!!!

tUOS is a hot tranny mess.

As I said in the comment section in a previous post: "I WAS going to put up a post about all the ways that tUOS in a BCS game is just like a hot tranny mess.... you know, you see this really hot tall blonde, talk her up and she's got this way sexy voice and she's really really friendly and thinks you are funny.....and you get her all drunk and stuff. Then you get her home, round the bases and BAM--all that's really there is a big dick? there ya have tUOS in a BCS game...all dressed up, hot as all get-out from a winning season and ranked really high, but then when it gets right down to it, the Bucknuts always get EXPOSED. but, I thought that would be really really mean....."

Upon further review, I've decided that I actually am that mean. So here are some reasons why tUOS' appearance in BCS bowls is just a hot tranny mess



Bowl appearances under Sweatervest: Let's see, ol' Jimbo got to tUOS in 2001. And while he has gone 7-1 against Michigan (yeah yeah yeah we're your b#tch, whatever) let's see who got a handful of nuts.......

2002: Tostitos Fiesta Bowl OSU 31, Miami, FL 24 and the National Championship
2003: Tostitos Fiesta Bowl OSU 35, Kansas State 28
2004: Mastercard Alamo Bowl OSU 33, Oklahoma State 7
2005: Tostitos Fiesta Bowl OSU 34, Notre Dame 20
2006: 2007 BCS Championship Game OSU 14, Florida 41 (ouch)
2007: 2008 BCS Championship Game OSU 24, LSU 38 ( burn ya twice )
2008: Tostitos Fiesta Bowl OSU 21, Texas 24 (let it slip...)

So basically this graduating (?) senior class of Buckeyes will go out 1-3 in BCS Bowls, having lost back-to-back National Championships and blowing it against Texas--thereby "engendering" the global disdain of the Big Ten, and the national ridicule of the Buckeye Nation.
Tranny mess = All dressed up with no payoff, making fans sick to their stomachs.

BCS ranking with each appearance:
2002: OSU #2, Miami, FL #1 OSU Wins the Championship
2003: OSU #5, Kansas State #10
2004: OSU #25, Oklahoma State #24
2005: OSU #4, Notre Dame #6 (and on the way dooooowwwn--double entendre if you think so)
2006: OSU #1, Florida #2 (lost)
2007: OSU #1, LSU #2 (lost)
2008: OSU #10, Texas #3 (lost)
Tranny mess = Not at ALL as billed when placed under intense scrutiny. AKA serving the world a bill of goods....

While the Wolverine Nation is most definitely in a sad sad nadir, I'd rather be down and out than a not-so-hot-tranny-mess.

(and my general apologies to any transvestite individuals out there reading this. I use the term "hot-tranny-mess" as a comic instrument, because, well....I'm just that twisted and wrong and mean no specific ill towards you as an individual. sorry peeps. our humor here spares none...)

That's why they play the games

Last night's drubbing of mighty (?) Alabama by the lowly (double ?) Utes stirs up sooooo many thoughts and opportunities for analysis that I thought we all deserved a new thread to discuss things.

1) Conference Competition.
Hmmm. Let's see, the PAC 10 won all 5 of it's bowl games making them the winner of the nefarious Bowl Cup (which sounds like an oxymoron of sorts, no? bowl. cup. whatever...) Would anyone have said, Oh the PAC-10 is the strongest conference and will surely win all their games??? I think not.

2) Big Ten whiffs. Again.
The Big Ten teams who actually did show up for their games included Iowa and Northwestern. I won't even get started on MooU and have nothing but empathy for Penn State, as they were up against Andre the Giant, poor things. As for us? Well I'm just glad we weren't there to contribute to the ridicule. Best for us to sit this one out--at least this year. On the positive side, it was highly encouraging to see that the best games, with the best offenses included what sure as heck looks like RichRod's spread offense in some way shape or form. And some talking head along the way pointed out that the spread is completely dependent on a skilled QB to run it. Absent one of those (testify!) the spread gets creamed...... Hope springs eternal in A2. Book it.

3) The BCS Championship Series.

DISCUSS.....

4) The Mid-Majors.
Well that moniker just seems like a plain-old insult now doesn't it? We could talk all about the successes of Troy (who took Southern Miss to OT), Florida Atlantic over Central, Rice (soon to be new home of Sam McGuffie), or resurrected Houston--but the biggest story of them all is of course Utah. Not only was 'Bama outhustled but I submit to you that 'Bama was completely out-coached. And I mean from the git-go. From the defensive sets to the poorly cobbled-together offensive line. But the most egregious behavior came from Saban himself. How many times did the camera show him angry and frustrated with his players? Yelling at them or being overly-demonstrative with his frustrations? Dude. You are the Head Coach--don't act like a disgruntled fan on the side-lines. Show some leadership--make your kids believe that they can. Saban contributed to the tight pressured play of 'Bama all night long. This loss is all on him.
And I don't mean to take a thing away from Utah. We know from first-hand experience just what they are. I'm just saying that in response to Utah's quickness and well-coached schemes 'Bama had nothing--and that to me, is about coaching. Particularly when Alabama had been #1 in the polls for most of the season.

I could go on and on!
But, I'm really interested to hear what all of you have to say...so have at it!!!