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The College Football Czar Week 12 Week eleven in review: Alabama was bounced from the #1 position in the BCS, though not out of the national championship picture, in a 29-24 loss to Texas A&M. The Crimson Tide spotted the Conjunction Boys a 20-0 lead, before pulling within a field goal in the third quarter. A&M, defying well-founded expectations, opted not to choke this time. Although the SEC now dominates the BCS ratings, that league would not currently have a representative in the national championship game. This week’s ratings place Kansas State #1, followed by the only other eligible unbeatens,...

The College Football Czar Week 11 Week ten in review: For the second time this season, the College Football Czar must issue a retraction. A few dozen more, and he may find himself writing for the New York Times. Last week, he wrote that Air Force was looking to clinch the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy against Army, when in fact, they were merely trying to stay in contention for it, having lost to Navy in overtime earlier this season. Army’s 41-21 shocker over the AFA means that possession of the trophy will be decided in the season-ending Army-Navy game. All the undefeated...

The College Football Czar Week 10 Week nine in review: As this issue goes to print, there remain massive power outages on the Eastern seaboard due to Hurricane Sandy. Naturally, this poses the potential for some of this weekend’s games to be postponed or canceled, although there is no known instance of such at this time. Honestly, the College Football Czar had fully intended to pick Oklahoma over Notre Dame, and he has no idea what possessed him to type in Notre Dame as the winner, but the published pick is the published pick, and the clairvoyant Broward County canvassing...

The College Football Czar Week 9 Week eight in review: It was another above-average week for the College Football Czar, who went 14-4, improving his overall record to 106-50 and his winning percentage to .679. Among his better picks were the demise of the then-undefeated but badly inflated Cincinnati Bearcats, and Louisiana-Monroe’s 43-42 overtime win over Western Kentucky (predicted score 33-32). Although week eight certainly had its share of excitement, it did very little to shake up the rankings. The highest-ranked team to lose to a lower-ranked or unranked opponent was the #21 Bearcats, whose defeat is referenced above. #24...

The president of Clemson University is chastising those who booed President Barack Obama during the college’s Military Appreciation Day at last weekend's game. During the university’s annual event that was held this year during the Clemson vs. Virginia Tech game on Saturday, a ceremony was held to induct ROTC cadets into the military. The ceremony was disrupted by booing from some fans in the stands. In an email with the subject line, “Dear Clemson Family: Focus on Positive Dialogue and a Civil Discourse,” Clemson University president James Barker addressed the behavior at the football game.

The College Football Czar Week 8 Week seven in review: The College Football Czar missed out on an opportunity to add to his win total by not reiterating his week one prediction of Texas A&M over Louisiana Tech. The Aggies held on to beat LTU 59-57 after bolting out to an early 27-0 lead, in a zany game whose margin of victory was provided by a defensive safety on a blocked extra point return. Because the variables change week to week, the Czar would have had to make his pick over again in week seven, but he neglected to do...

Friday Night LiesCapitalist PreservationForward– During a campaign stop in Athens, Ohio, on Saturday September 8, Vice President Joe Biden said the last time he was in the town, playing against the Ohio University football team on October 19, 1963, he almost got arrested for walking into a girls’ dormitory. It’s a good story. It’s just not true… at all. Shawn at Free Republic discovered that Joe Biden did not play football at the University of Delaware in 1961, 1962, 1963, or 1964, according to past yearbooks.The 1984 University of Delaware yearbook included an interview with Joe Biden. It’s Biden first...

Beano Cook, a longtime staple of the Pittsburgh sports scene and an ESPN college football studio commentator since 1986, has died. He was 81. Cook, a 1954 University of Pittsburgh grad, began his career as a sports publicist for the school from 1956-66. He later worked with a number of organizations, including the Pittsburgh Civic Arena. Beano Cook's breadth of knowledge of the history of the college game earned him the moniker, the "Cardinal of College Football." Cook was a studio commentator for ABC from 1982-85 before joining ESPN. He also worked as ABC's press director from 1966-74, and for...

The College Football Czar Week 6 Week five in review: The College Football Czar declined to pad his record by including any of last week’s mismatches involving highly-ranked teams, but still managed to compile his best record to this point in the season, at 15-4. For the season, he is now 70-32, for a .686 winning percentage. The Czar noticed several linemen around the country last week who were wearing very wide black belts that appeared to be some kind of protective device for their backs. The odd thing was that they were wearing them over their uniforms. If you...

Vanity: Baylor 63 West Virginia 7 (3:02 in 4Q) 1400 yards of offense combined.

The College Football Czar Week 5 Week four in review: It was another tough week for the Big Ten, which is starting to look like a second-echelon BCS-AQ conference, alongside the ACC and the Big East. Michigan proved the Alabama debacle was no fluke, while Iowa fell at home to Central Michigan. Ohio State, Wisconsin and Michigan State struggled mightily in games that looked like total mismatches on paper, while Illinois looked like a tune-up opponent for Louisiana Tech. Happily, the College Football Czar fared considerably better, following up his worst week to this point of the season with a...

As college football nears the midpoint of its 143rd season, Lou Holtz is among the many taking it in. The 75-year-old ESPN analyst has seen more than his share of games, mostly from the sidelines as a head coach. He has coached a total of 388 games at six Division I schools. Holtz is best known for his years at the University of Notre Dame, between 1986 and 1996, which include an undefeated national championship season in 1988. What is less known, but no less important to him, are the experiences that prepared him for the Notre Dame years. One...

Did Biden really play college football? I think Ohio would be mad if they found out Biden never played college football after bragging his team beat them in 1963. The year Biden said he was almost arrested in Ohio. Biden was never there in 1963. Truth is Biden never played for University of Deleware football. All them Biden college football stories were just Biden folklore made up by Biden. There is only one mention of Biden at the University web site and it's a quote by Biden coming in and playing for Scotty Duncan his freshman year in 1961. Link...

The College Football Czar Week 4 Week three in review: The College Football Czar barely averted a losing record last week, clawing out a dismal record of 9-8. For the season, his record stands at 41-24, for a .631 winning percentage. When the Czar has blown the big games, he’s been really thorough about it, as evidenced by his upset pick of Wake Forest against Florida State. It turned out that FSU had every bit as easy a time in its ACC opener as it had in its first two games against lower-division competition, as it walloped Wake 52-0. USC’s...

<p>It’s football time in Tennessee where longtime gridiron traditions are cherished – from Rocky Top to the Pride of the Southland Marching Band. At the start of every game inside the colossal Neyland Stadium, thousands of the football faithful rise to their feet, remove their hats and pause for the pre-game prayer.</p>

The College Football Czar Week 3 Week two in review: The College Football Czar stumbled to a 12-9 finish after dropping three one-point games on Saturday afternoon. For the season, his record stands at 32-16, for a .667 winning percentage. Four ranked teams were upset over the course of the day, most notably #8 Arkansas, which was toppled by the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks in overtime. Almost as shocking was #13 Wisconsin falling to Oregon State, 10-7, which resulted in the firing of Badgers’ offensive line coach Mike Markuson. That OSU-Wisconsin result was one of three home victories for Pac 12 teams...

ATLANTA -- Investigators say a 20-year-old Tennessee man had been drinking before he died in a fall at the Georgia Dome. Police Lt. Chad Hurston said Saturday that authorities need to review results from the medical examiner's office to determine how much of a role alcohol played in the accident. Isaac Grubb fell about 45 feet inside the Dome while celebrating a Tennessee touchdown against North Carolina State during a Friday night game. He struck and injured a 34-year-old man from Fort Mill, S.C., who suffered minor injuries. Hurston said that Grubb had started drinking around 5 p.m. before he...

Exhibit A that college football teams do need exhibition games? In Kent State’s season opener against Towson, both teams committed stupendously boneheaded acts on the same play. Late in the first half, the Golden Flashes were forced to punt. The ball became live after it grazed the Tigers return man, whereupon Kent State sophomore Andre Parker eagerly scooped up the pigskin inside the Towson 10-yard line … and proceeded to run toward his own end of the field.

Thursday, August 30 TIME (ET) MATCHUP 7:00 PM No. 9 South Carolina at Vanderbilt 7:00 PM UCF at Akron 7:00 PM Eastern Michigan at Ball State 7:00 PM Southeast Missouri State at Central Michigan 7:00 PM Towson at Kent State 7:15 PM Northern Colorado at Utah 7:30 PM Massachusetts at Connecticut 7:30 PM UCLA at Rice Postponed Texas A&M at Louisiana Tech 7:30 PM McNeese State at Middle Tennessee 8:00 PM Sacramento State at New Mexico State 8:00 PM Southern Utah at Utah State 9:00 PM Eastern Washington at Idaho 10:15 PM Washington State at Brigham Young 10:30 PM Northern...

The College Football Czar: Week 1 If you're reading the week one picks by the College Football Czar, that must mean that yet another long summer of terrible TV is about to come to a merciful end. So -- if you’ve found yourself taking a knee, not to mimic Tim Tebow, but to psych yourself up for the countless thrilling touchbacks that are in store this season; if you’ve become so football-starved that you’ve recorded Jerry Maguire and edited out all the crappy non-footbally parts, so that only the crappy parts having to do with football remain; if you inflicted...