College football - Week One

ESPN.com Scoreboard ^ | For the week of August 28th to September 4th

[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

[aft_lizard]

Obviously teams like OSU and Penn State and even Michigan have the homefield advantage in each state but I also add the Noerth East as part of there recruiing grounds, the closer to home a student stay with a top notch program the better everybody feels, there are exceptions like the New Jersey to Nebraska pipeline, but I think if Rutgers is for real, and maintains program consistency we may soon see them become a top ten power, especially after JoePa leaves at PSU, Rutgers would be able to recruit heavily in the Philly area or most of Eastern Pennsylvania. Rutgers is on my programs to watch list this year, possible top twenty.

[aft_lizard]

my god my spelling sucks, my 150 dollar keyboard is broken so I must use this 8.99 radio shack reject until its fixed, that and I dont proofread.

So apoligies to all.

[MikefromOhio]

well it was more ND and Michigan getting the best Ohio people when Cooper was here, but this was also during a downtime in Notre Dame's history as well, so that's really how FSU and Florida got into the state (Kiewan Ratliff being a prime example who I actually played against in high school).

Anyway, how do you think Mack Brown returned Texas to glory? He was able to keep the biggest blue chippers in the state, instead of losing them to Nebraska and Colorado and A&M and the SEC.

There are states like Nebraska and Washington and Oregon who have to rely on getting 3 or 4 big recruits from out of state every couple years to keep their programs going, but even that is evening out a bit and they are able to homegrow a bit more than they used to....

[MikefromOhio]

oh yeah, especially for Penn State.

Penn State has or has had quite a few players from New Jersey and New York.

Ohio State tries, but they have a tendency to try to stay at home as much as possible.

[aft_lizard]

Nebraska also has traditionally pulled studs from NJ. But I always forget(freudian?) about Notre Dame. Notre Dame doesnt need a recruiter, even when they sucked they get praise from the Media and they get a few 5 stars knocking at there door. It seems if ND is down the stars want to be known as the athlete that brings them back, or ifd ND is good the stars want to be known as that next big thing at ND, all because of the media.

[MikefromOhio]

ND is college football's version of the Yankees.

Hell ND has it's own TV deal. That should tell you something.

While I'm an Ohio State fan, I will watch Notre Dame and Nebraska and even to a certain extent, Michigan.

Because as much as I love to watch the smaller schools, college football is always better when the bellwether programs are strong.

[MikefromOhio]

Hey....

I had the points difference right on....

:)

[Richard Kimball]

Last year, Texas and USC were the only undefeated teams. In previous years, Auburn got screwed, as did LSU the year before. One of the biggest practical problems is having teams play too many games. If a team isn't in the top eight, they generally don't have much of an argument. They could go to sixteen teams, with #1 playing #16, etc., but that still puts teams playing four post-season games. I think the top eight teams, with the top four bowl games rotating would be good. That would still leave plenty of good teams for the other bowl games, and the top teams would only have to play three post season games.

[Troublemaker]

Montana State's win is huge for their program

It's the biggest win for MSU in over 20 years and it was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone associated w/ the team - (huge understatement) :o).

[Michael.SF.]

If a team isn't in the top eight, they generally don't have much of an argument.

As long as the teams are selected by anything other then head to head competition someone will be unhappy. The top eight? Then number 9 is unhappy.

Going back to the system I outlined you would have:

2 preseason games
7 League games
----
9 games total for all schools.

At the end of the season teams could opt to play one more game (a non championship bowl game), or they could have also scheduled to play three preseason games. Giving all schools a ten game schedule.

1 Conference championship game Meaning 32 teams would have a regular schedule of 10 (or 11 games)

16 teams move into the championship round. Adding a maximum of four games to the regular season, but that would only be for two teams. That then would mean the following:

two teams play maximum 14 games (only one more game then is now played)
two teams play maximum 13 games
Four teams play maximum 12 games( This matches current schedules)
All teams could play 11 games.
Some teams would play 10 games.

Under this plan the total number of games played would decrease, but at the cost of two teams playing one more game then is currently scheduled.

The possibility would exist that a team could play 15 games, if they scheduled three preseason games and then moved to the championship round. However, I am sure they could devise a method to off set this or keep it from occurring. For example penalize the team by restricting them the next season to only one preseason game or requiring that the favored teams (say those that made it to the conference finals) be allowed only two preseason games in the following season.

[BookmanTheJanitor]

Here's the Hawaii team doing their "warrior dance" prior to the Alabama game. Needless to say, it's pretty classless for some of the Hawaii players to use the opportunity to "flip off" the Alabama crowd. Given their past history of penalty- filled games and fights with other teams, I hope June Jones shows the team some discipline. I won't hold my breath.

PS - Just to add, it's nice to see the white guy in the background/middle "enjoying"? the dance.

[Roccus]

Just stopped by before the race. Good job on the WVU-Marshall prediction, Mike! I thought that 1stQ would never end. Same officials as the Boston game last year. They like to throw the flags, though the game was chippy there for a bit. Slayton is going to be awesome this season if he can stay healthy. White looked like he played the whole time on cruise control. Lotta poise in that lad.

[scott says]

Mississippi wins a close won.
Baylor is up 7-0 on TCU. 2nd half just started. Looks like TCU is about to score.

[mainepatsfan]

That was a pretty entertaining game. Somehow I don't think the UK-LOU game will be nearly as close.

[scott says]

It was a good game.I got the TCU game on now.
Baylor up 7-3.
UL will blowout Kentucky as usual.

[MikefromOhio]

7-3

I want to see the Kentucky - Louisville game :)

[MikefromOhio]

Thank you.

There was more chippiness and minor fights yesterday than I ever remember in College Football...

[mainepatsfan]

I know Kentucky is a basketball school but so is Louisville and they have built a damn good football team. Why can't the Wildcats?

[mainepatsfan]

You think ESPN just might be going a little overboard in their coverage of FSU-Miami tomorrow night?!

[MikefromOhio]

LOL

just a bit

Hey it's either that or actually pay attention to the WNBA LOL