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The College Football Czar: Week 1 If you're reading the College Football Czar’s week one picks, that must mean that yet another long summer of terrible TV is about to come to a merciful end. So – if you’ve become so starved for anything remotely sportslike that you’ve resorted to watching ESPN’s Nine for IX series, and pretended to like it ... If you’ve actually found yourself engaged in discussions about whether it’s fair for Wigan Athletic to be relegated after winning the FA Cup ... If you not only managed to sit through the entire Tennessee Orange-White Game, but...

The College Football Czar 2013 Season Preview a sports publication from The Shinbone by Daniel Clark Welcome to the 2013 season preview issue of The College Football Czar, a seasonal sports publication by the author and editor of The Shinbone. In the coming months, you will find weekly analyses of upcoming college football action posted at this site. To find out more, please see the Ground Rules. This issue contains conference preview capsules, potential upsets to watch for, bowl projections, and a guide to help you locate head coaches on the move. Most importantly, it includes early nominees for the...

Madison – Speaking on his monthly radio show Tuesday night, Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez shared a nugget of information that should cheer football fans who long for better nonleague games. According to Alvarez, Big Ten officials recently agreed to stop scheduling nonconference games against FCS programs. “The nonconference schedule in our league is ridiculous,” Alvarez said on WIBA-AM. “It’s not very appealing… “So we’ve made an agreement that our future games will all be Division I schools. It will not be FCS schools.”

On Tuesday morning, commentary on the broadcast of the Bowl Championship Series national title game between Alabama and Notre Dame included words like “creepy,” “awkward,” “uncomfortable” and “heteronormative.” The subject was not Alabama’s 42-14 victory, but comments made during the game by the ESPN play-by-play announcer Brent Musburger regarding the girlfriend of Alabama quarterback A J McCarron. In the first quarter, ESPN showed McCarron’s girlfriend, Katherine Webb, who was sitting near his parents. Musburger called the 23-year-old Webb, a former Miss Alabama, a “lovely lady” and “beautiful,” and said to his broadcast partner, Kirk Herbstreit, a former quarterback at Ohio...

As often happens during boring, blowout bowl games, the cameras and commentary shifted tonight from the action on the field to the stands and Alabama QB A.J. McCarron's girlfriend Katherine Webb. Okay, sure, mention she goes to Auburn and how scandalous that is—that's normal. ESPN announcer Brent Musberger, though, couldn't leave it at that.

Alabama Wins National Championship Cork GainesJanuary 7, 2013 In the end, it wasn't even close. Alabama blew out Notre Dame 42-14 and Nick Saban has now won three national titles in four years. Here are the final moments...(Click to the site to see the video)

BCS Championship Game thread - Alabama (2) at Notre Dame (1) (+9, O/U 40.5), ESPN 830pm EST. Miami Gardens, Fl. Weather, temperature around 73 degrees, chance of showers 10 percent.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The images will be vivid, history will be haunting, ghosts will be everywhere.This is Knute Rockne versus Bear Bryant, Touchdown Jesus versus Dreamland Bar-B-Que, Four Horsemen versus Lynyrd Skynyrd, Joe Montana versus Joe Namath, and, of course, in the battle of the little guys, Rudy versus Nick.It will be a football game bathed in a complicated mess of legend, religion and roughhousing, but most folks think Monday's BCS national championship heavyweight fight between Alabama and Notre Dame can be symbolized by a single disparity.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Jeremy Pike is a 37-year-old native and resident of Tuscaloosa, Ala. Like all proper fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide, he maintains an abiding hatred of Southeastern Conference rivals Auburn and Tennessee. But there is a third member of his unholy fan trinity, and always has been. "Oh, I hate Notre Dame," Pike said. "I never pull for them." On Nov. 3, Pike and about 50 other Alabama fans were in Louisiana getting ready to watch the Tide play LSU – the most anticipated game of the year. But before the game, they were glued to...

Does it seem that almost every bowl game is on ESPN?  That’s because almost every bowl game *is* on ESPN. There are 35 bowl games.  32 will be on an ESPN network whereas CBS, FOX, and ABC will have one each.  Given that ABC and ESPN have the same parent company, Disney, Disney will have 33 of 35 games on one of its networks.  For industrial organization fans, that’s a Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index of  8384 if ABC and ESPN are considered separate firms and 8906 if they are considered the same firm.  An HHI of 10,000 is 100% monopolized.  Dang.HT Craig...

I searched and didn't find a thread already underway, so...the Heisman will be presented within the hour. FReepers' thoughts/reactions?

The 2012-13 bowl season starts in Albuquerque, N.M., and ends in Miami. Here's a look at the schedule from the Gildan New Mexico Bowl on Dec. 15 to the Discover BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 7 in Miami's Sun Life Stadium.

Just saw Johnny Football take down #1 Alabama. This little guy is another Doug Flutie. If he stays four years and he might because he'll too small to play in the NFL, he might win four Heisman Awards. He's that good. It's too bad Texas A&M lost two close games to LSU and Florida. For my money they are the best team in the country.

TIME (ET) MATCHUP TV 12:00 PM No. 11 Oklahoma at TCU 12:00 PM No. 23 Oklahoma State at Baylor FX 12:00 PM UCF at Tulsa 2:30 PM Nicholls State at No. 15 Oregon State Pac-12 Network 2:30 PM Kansas at West Virginia 3:00 PM Middle Tennessee at Arkansas State 3:00 PM Louisiana-Lafayette at Florida Atlantic 3:30 PM No. 20 Boise State at Nevada 3:30 PM Cincinnati at Connecticut 4:00 PM No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 3 Georgia* CBS 4:00 PM New Mexico State at Texas State 7:00 PM Pittsburgh at South Florida 8:00 PM No. 18 Texas at No. 6...

The College Football Czar Week 14 Week thirteen in review: Notre Dame did what it had to do, by defeating another diminished opponent to finish the regular season at 12-0. The Fighting Irish defense stuffed the USC ground game on a late goal-line stand, and harassed freshman QB Max Wittek into two interceptions in a 22-13 victory. That presumably advances them to the BCS championship game in Miami, where they will face the winner of the SEC title game. Alabama and Georgia both dominated their rivalry games, which eliminated all other contending teams from the chase. The college football czar...

At this point of the college football season, with some crucial games still on tap for this weekend, the frontrunners in the Heisman race are A&M's sensational freshman QB Johnny Manziel and game-changer Manti Te'o of Notre Dame. Still in the hunt was once heavily-favored Colin Klein of Kansas State. Vanishing completely after an impressive start is West Virginia's Geno Smith. I'd personally like to see Johnny Manziel win the trophy this year and the odds are evidently in his favor. But, to play the part of a contrarian, here's what could derail the hopes of those backing him for...

Each year, the Grambling State University Tigers and the Southern University Jaguars get together to compete in the State Farm Bayou Classic. On Saturday, the 39th annual football game unfolded, with Southern winning 38-33. While the game likely exited a great many, it was the halftime show that distinguished itself as particularly memorable. The victorious school’s marching band coordinated themselves to spell out “Obama” on the field — an action that was noted by both supporters and critics of the president, alike.

To the Auburn Family: I am very grateful for the opportunity that I had during the last four seasons to serve as the head football coach at Auburn University. I’m extremely disappointed with the way this season turned out and I apologize to the Auburn family and our team for what they have had to endure. In my 27 years of coaching, I have gained an understanding of the high expectations in this profession. When expectations are not met, I understand changes must be made. While we experienced a tremendous low in 2012, I will always be proud of the...

The College Football Czar Week 13 Week twelve in review: The top two teams in the BCS ratings were upset, which, according to the media template, has thrown the championship picture into “chaos.” Top-ranked Kansas State should now be out of the running altogether, after getting the phlegm beaten out of them by ninth-place Baylor, 52-24. Oregon, having lost to Stanford 17-14 in overtime, still has a chance, although they need help from a couple conference rivals. Not only did Oregon lose a much better game to a much better opponent than K-State did, but the human polls are bound...

Baylor beating Kansas State 28-14; A&M beat Alabama last week when they were ranked #1. Go Bears, Gig'em Aggies.