Free Republic

With one week to go before the BCS rankings leave us forever, an undefeated Big Ten power missing out on the national championship is somehow an actual worry. Meanwhile, Florida State's sitting pretty. Full standings below. It doesn't matter that Ohio State went 12-0 last year. It doesn't matter that an unbeaten Auburn was shut out of the BCS National Championship in 2004. It doesn't matter that Ohio State has lost two national title games against SEC teams in recent years. It doesn't matter that the SEC has won seven straight championships. Or at least it shouldn't. What will matter,...

Im not a football guy but I do notice when something as note worthy as this occurs. Conservatives need to show they are not one dimensional... There is more to hate than Obama..Auburn or Alabama for instance :)

With only a second left on the clock, Chris Davis caught a 57-yard field-goal attempt that fell short, got up the left side and returned it 100 yards to give the No. 4 Tigers a 34-28 win over No. 1 Alabama and the SEC West title. Now, Auburn (11-1, 7-1 SEC) has a shot at the SEC title and possibly a national championship all left on the table. For the second straight game, the clock was running down, and the Tigers had little time left. That's when Nick Marshall came up with another play. After a drive spent handing the...

The College Football Czar: Week 14 Week thirteen in review: Before we get to last week’s events, you’ve probably already noticed that this week’s installment of picks is being released two days early. That’s so that they can be available to College Football Czar’s readers at work, on the last day before Thanksgiving weekend. This, of course, leaves the Czar a condensed time frame in which to make a larger-than-usual number of picks, so please excuse their relative brevity and semi-literacy. The number of undefeated national contenders has been whittled to three, with Oklahoma State’s 49-17 blowout of Baylor. The...

The College Football Czar: Week 13 Week twelve in review: The sexual assault investigation involving Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston has taken an especially disturbing turn this week, with his accuser now saying that she had not voluntarily dropped the charges as previously reported, but that she was intimidated into silence. Perhaps the worst part of the story is that whatever the outcome, it is bound to be a miscarriage of justice. If Winston is innocent, he’ll still have suffered great damage to his reputation, and possibly to his career, depending on how he lets the attention affect him on...

A New Jersey family is calling for an investigation of a Rutgers University football coach over an alleged bullying incident in which the coach berated a scholarship player during a study hall and threatened to head-butt him. NJ.com reports Mark and Clarice Tyree say Rutgers Defensive Coordinator Dave Cohen established a pattern of verbally abusing their son, Jevon Tyree – a defensive back – during practices and team functions before their relationship escalated into threats of violence during a study hall in the spring. “He was just trying to really make me feel as if I was soft,” Jevon Tyree...

A Virginia State football player faces assault charges after a bathroom fight left Winston-Salem State's starting quarterback badly beaten during a luncheon for both teams on the eve of their championship game. Both Division II schools say the CIAA canceled the title game set for Saturday in Winston-Salem.

The College Football Czar: Week 12 Week eleven in review: The College Football Czar has finally seen ESPN’s new Saturday night intro featuring Eminem’s “Berzerk.” In case you haven’t yet had the misfortune of experiencing it, Mr. Em liberally samples (i.e., steals) parts of Billy Squier’s 1981 hit, “The Stroke.” Memo to ESPN: You can’t have it both ways. You must now either pretend that Billy Squier is cool, or admit that Eminem is not. So which is it? The BCS picture cleared up very slightly last Thursday, with Oregon’s 26-20 loss at Stanford, a game whose tone was set...

The College Football Czar: Week 11 Week ten in review: Florida State’s big win over Miami pushed them back up to #2 in the BCS ratings, but there was otherwise very little movement, what with unbeaten Alabama, Oregon and Baylor all being idle. Since taking over as head coach at Grambling, former Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker Dirt Winston is 1-1, with an overtime loss to Texas Southern, and a 47-40 victory over Mississippi Valley State, which snapped an 18-game losing streak against NCAA opponents. Granted, those are not two of their better opponents in the SWAC, but the results are enough...

Football uniform creativity has been taken to the next level, as Northwestern will shed its familiar purple to go red, white and blue for its Nov. 16 game against Michigan. The uniforms, designed by Under Armour, will raise awareness for the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to empower servicemen wounded in battle.

COLUMBIA — The mention of the U.S. president elicited booing during a halftime ceremony at the Missouri-Tennessee game. During halftime, new members of the Missouri National Guard were being sworn in on the field of Memorial Stadium, said team spokesman Chad Moller. Part of the oath the service members took reads, "I will obey the orders of the president of the United States." During a pause after that line was read, members of the crowd could clearly be heard booing and jeering, said LeMari Porter, an MU student present at the game. MU student Julia Bosley was sitting in the...

The College Football Czar: Week 10 Week nine in review: The horse race is on for the #2 BCS rating, with Oregon pulling ahead of Florida State on the strength of their 42-14 win over UCLA. They will likely trade places again this week, while the Ducks are idle, and the Noles face undefeated arch rival Miami. The College Football Czar takes back what he said about doubting Ohio State’s #4 rating in light of last week’s games. There has now developed a bold line of demarcation between the top four teams and everyone else. The most recent nominees for...

The College Football Czar: Week 9 Week eight in review: Despite the large percentage of teams that were idle, it proved to be the most consequential week to this point of the season, with eight ranked teams being upset by lower-ranked or unranked opponents. Many of the most surprising results were in the SEC, where LSU, Texas A&M and South Carolina were all beaten, and thus all but officially eliminated from the national championship picture. The first BCS ratings of the season are out, and as expected, Alabama is on top. Florida State is rated second, very slightly ahead of...

The College Football Czar: Week 8 Week seven in review: The NCAA officially released its appointments to next year’s playoff selection committee, although the names had been leaked almost a week earlier. The only thing in the world that makes the committee a less awful idea than it might otherwise be is the fact that the list of committee members does not include Mark Cuban, who voiced interest in running a college football playoff last year. Just because a guy’s not guilty of insider trading doesn’t mean he isn’t still a buffoon. If the NCAA ever lets Cuban anywhere near...

The College Football Czar: Week 7 Week six in review: The NCAA has proceeded with its disastrous decision to appoint a college football playoff selection committee, and already, you can foresee the fabric of the game coming unraveled. Among the committee members who have been appointed to select the four semifinalists for the 2014 season is former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. Immediately, there came protests that Rice is unqualified, but then, what qualifications are there, really? If the idea is to make sure that the best team gets a shot at the national championship, then just about any fan...

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to be named to the College Football Playoff’s selection committee, a source told the Associated Press on Friday. Rice is the latest in a string of reported members of the upcoming committee, which will select the four teams to participate in the College Football Playoff that kicks off after the 2014 season. Earlier this week, CBSSports.com reported that West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck, Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez and USC athletic director Pat Haden are all expected to be named to the 12- to 18-member committee. On Friday ESPN reported that...

The following is a correction to the Czar's pick on the Arizona State-Notre Dame game, which is being played in Arlington, and not in San Antonio, as is indicated in his original pick. Arizona State vs. Notre Dame The 3-1 Sun Devils stuck a fork in USC coach Lane Kiffin in a 62-41 runaway. Quarterback Taylor Kelly led the team in rushing with 79 yards on four carries, while also passing for 351 yards and three TDs. At 3-2, the Fighting Irish have lost to their first two ranked opponents: Michigan (41-30) and Oklahoma (34-20). Last week against OU, quarterback...

The College Football Czar: Week 6 Week five in review: Although the 2013 season has really just now gotten underway in earnest, there have already been two head coaches fired, and rightly so. USC finally tired of Lane Kiffin’s poor results and abrasive personality during his fourth season with the Trojans. The only reason Kiffin’s record at Southern Cal was as good as 28-15 was that he was fortunate enough to inherit QB Matt Barkley from his predecessor, Pete Carroll. It’s not just that Kiffin has only gone 10-8 since the start of the 2012 season, but the fact that...

The College Football Czar: Week 5 Week four in review: Predictably, the NCAA has wussed out and scaled back its penalties against Penn State, which will now be allowed to add five scholarships each year until its full complement of 85 is restored in 2016. Under the original sanctions, PSU’s scholarships would have been capped at 65 until then. The Powers That Be Stupid say that they made this decision in recognition of the Nittany Lions’ “continued progress toward ensuring athletics integrity.” … But wait a minute, the punishment was only contingent upon the university’s good behavior insofar as that...

According to an ESPN.com report, a number of players from Georgia, Georgia Tech and Northwestern staged a peaceful, but visible protest of the NCAA's alleged treatment of student-athletes — donning equipment marked with the initials "APU," as in All Players United. The National College Players Association, which is seemingly co-opting this movement with a number of players from various schools throughout the country, has the following message posted on its Web site.