College Football Ping.
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Hat tip to scott says, we have some football on a Sunday for you. Mississippi and Memphis just kicked off, TCU and Baylor in about an hour and then UL vs. Kentucky at 8 PM.
Posted on 08/28/2006 5:53:39 PM PDT by MikefromOhio
It's finally here!!! College football at it's best!!
The scheduled games (and my picks) are below:
Week One – College Football
Yes the season is finally here. It’s about freakin time too. Anyway, I am in several pick’em type leagues and here is how I am going to be filling my card out. Debate, criticize or whatever, but let’s remember that it’s just a game ok?
All rankings are from the ESPN.com Scoreboard page. I will also list any games of interest and any other games listed in my Public Yahoo league.
GAME(s) of the WEEK
Saturday, September 2nd, 2006
(9) California at (23) Tennessee (-1.5)
Cal faces a pretty stiff challenge going into Knoxville against a Tennessee team that everyone is expecting to rebound after a sub-par year. This is going to be a hard game to win right out of the chute and I don’t think they can do it.
Tennessee 24 – Cal 17
Monday, September 4th, 2006
(11) Florida State at (12) Miami (-3)
Now there normally won’t be two games that qualify as games of the week, but seeing that the preseason rankings aren’t exactly accurate by any stretch, I’ll go with two here. First off, last year’s defensive struggle won’t be repeated this year. FSU and Miami both lost key players on the defensive side of the ball. FSU lost more and they have more question marks on offense. Look for Miami to win a close and relatively offensive game.
Miami 32 – Florida State 28
Thursday, August 31st, 2006 – 10:00 PM ET
Northern Arizona at (24) Arizona State (NL)
ASU has an offense to hang with the big boys, but can they develop a defense? Certainly their offense will click against Northern Arizona, but how will their defense look? This game might even be close for a half or so.
The Prediction:
ASU 47 – Northern Arizona – 17
Saturday September 2nd 2006 (in ranking order)
Northern Illinois at (1) Ohio State (-18.5)
Northern Illinois isn’t a pushover by any stretch of the imagination. Although they aren’t on the caliber of Texas or Notre Dame, they can go into Columbus and sneak away with the win IF Ohio State is looking ahead. On paper this game doesn’t look like much of a contest.
The Prediction:
Ohio State 45 – Northern Illinois 10
(2) Notre Dame (-7.5) at Georgia Tech
Can Notre Dame find a defense to go along with the great offense? Calvin Johnson and GT will be a great first test. This game will go closer than many think.
ND 28 – GT 24
North Texas at (3) Texas (-41)
This game is all about getting experience for Colt McCoy. Texas will blow North Texas off of the field.
Texas 60 – North Texas 0
Washington State at (4) Auburn (-14.5)
Some people say Auburn is for real. Others don’t seem to pay much attention to them. Auburn thrives off of that type of non-hype, or at least they have in the past. This year they aren’t starting out of the top 10, they start at #4. Wazzu is improving, but they aren’t quite there yet.
Auburn 45 – Wazzu 13
Marshall at (5) West Virginia (-22)
All West Virginia has to do is win ONE game (at Louisville) and they are in the BCS title game. Marshall is a shadow of it’s former self and this is going to be another long year for the Thundering Herd.
WVU 42 – Marshall 14
(6) USC (-8) at Arkansas
USC 52 – Arkansas 20
Southern Miss at (7) Florida (-20)
Florida 44 – Southern Miss 13
Louisiana – Lafayette at (8) LSU (-30.5)
LSU 45 – LALA 7
UAB at (10) Oklahoma (-21.5)
Oklahoma 33 – UAB 13
Kentucky at (13) Louisville (-22.5)
L-ville 45 – Kentucky 10
Vandy at (14) Michigan (-26)
Michigan 33 – Vandy 9
Western Kentucky at (15) Georgia (NL)
UGA 35 – WKU 14
Montana – (16) Iowa (NL)
Iowa 52 – Montana 10
Northeastern at (17) Virginia Tech (NL)
VT 32 – Northeastern 0
Florida Atlantic – (18) Clemson (NL)
Clemson 38 – FAU 7
Akron – (19) Penn State (-16.5)
Penn State 24 – Akron 0
La Tech at (20) Nebraska (-20.5)
Nebraska 37 – La Tech 3
Stanford at (21) Oregon (-11)
Oregon 34 – Stanford 12
(22) TCU (-7.5) at Baylor
TCU 35 – Baylor 10
SMU at (25) Texas Tech (-26)
Texas Tech 59 – SMU 13
0-0 Straight UP 0-0 Against the Spread
You young whippersnappers are into poker. Give me a blackjack table or a seat in front of 50 television screens showing various sporting events.
That's what old farts like me want.
Oh I'll hit the blackjack tables too.
We went down to the boats on the Ohio River back in May and I left there with $500 that I didn't show up with :)
Okay, again I'll ask you to take me with you. ;-)
Yeah...
they have a major test next week with Oklahoma coming in.
Now if they win that, they have 2 more games that are more or less their season...
UCLA and USC.
LOL
yeah but you know, me talking about it just screwed the karma :)
I'm sorry if I led you into the Valley of Toast, karma-wise.
LOL
Nah it's ok :)
I royally screwed up the karma a couple weeks ago during a friendly game of hold'em with a bunch of friends.
I won't do that again.
Actually we have Fresno State next week and then the Sooners, but yeah we have a tough schedule with UCLA at home and SC down there. That said, this may well be our best team ever.
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
They will have to go aways to eclipse some of those teams in the 90s, but you never know.
Fresno State won't be much of a problem I don't think.
But Oklahoma has a very good defense.
I dont know how major of a test OU will be for Oregon, there defense was way over aggresive and got burned alot and there offense depended way too much on Adrian, I am eager to see how much of an adjustment they will make. If I was Stoops it should be time to look into the Power Option because Thompson just isnt a passer.
Arizona should be one of the easiest schools to recruit for, and if Mike is a half decent recruiter and coach they should become very competetive every year, as a Arizonan I miss the Desert Swarm years they were my second favorite college team after Nebraska.
It depends on what OU looks like in 2 weeks.
I won't ever count out a team after one week.
If I did, well, ND would be in trouble :)
Yep :)
Maybe I should ping the list :)
When my son was still in high school I took him with me on a business trip to Tucson, we stayed at the Marriott by the campus. We had an upper floor room overlooking the campus with the Catalina's beyond. They were snow capped at the time (briefly), yet it was 70 degrees that Feb. afternoon.
I think his decision to attend U of A was sealed that day.
Why is that? I'm not saying you're wrong but just curious because I would think it would be one of the harder schools to recruit for.
It does have nice weather but it's not a traditional power and the state does not produce a large amount of Div-1 prospects and it is far away from the hotbed talent areas of the South and the Midwest.
I would consider (in no particular order) OSU, Michigan, Notre Dame, Penn State, Miami, UF, FSU, Southern Cal, UCLA, UGA and Texas the easiest to recruit for.
UGA and Southern Cal overall are probably the easiest since both states produce immense number of Div-1 and NFL players and there really are no instate or out of state rivals capable of consistently stealing away the top recruits. Ironically U of Tennessee is the only school that has had success stealing home state recruits away from UGA and USC.
Well in the 90's they were very much a power in the Pac-10 and with that foundation they SHOULD have been able to create a constant stream of good prospects, much more so IMO than ASU which always seems to attract some top flight talent for no apparent reason other than they are a party school. Remember UF,FSU and Miami were nobodies for the longest time, it took a good coach and recruiter to sell the virtues and to keep the in state talent from leaving, and to sale the out of state talent of the virtues on playing there...the same situation was occuring at Texas for awhile...and the same thing is happening at Arizona school, but it will all change. As far as Michigan,OSU and Penn State go, well you only have the largest population base to choose from in that area, especially with New York not having any real teams.
Well that and Ohio State can get the pick of the litter in a football crazy state, being that they are the only powerhouse team here.
Michigan can't even say that, but Penn State can every so often, especially since Pitt hasn't exactly been dominating in the past 30 years or so.
LSU became a power by controlling its home state and stopping the cherry picking. Alabama, Texas, Texas A&M and FSU used to come in a raid that state of all the top recruits. Saban put a stop to that but we'll have to see if holds.
I've always wondered why Illinois hasn't been able to field a powerhouse team. Football might not be as big there as in other state, but the state is huge in population.
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