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The 3 Surprises after every has played 8 games:
This list needs to start with the Saints. Sure Drew Brees is good and Reggie Bush will be a superstar, but the Saints biggest improvement has been the play of their defense.
Same goes for the Baltimore Ravens. It helps that the AFC North isn't the grinder this year that it was last year, but the Ravens haven't slipped up and have come back when down against my Browns.
The final surprise is how well the Vikings have played. There are other teams, sure, but no one truly challenged the Bears last year for the NFC North, but the Vikings are right there this year.
The 3 Disappointments are:
The Steelers. Sure some teams unload after they win a Super Bowl, but that isn't truly the case here. A slew of injuries and off-field problems have hurt this team more than anyone could've guessed. 2-6 and looking to be out of the playoffs altogether isn't what anyone had envisioned back in August for this team.
The Bengals. What happened to that offense? Carson Palmer looks tentative, especially when there are players by his legs. That's to be expected, but the struggles of this team are almost solely because the offense is only a shadow of the unit from last year.
The NFC East. The Eagles are a good team that has no luck, the Cowboys are a decent team that is a strange mix of "win right now" and "build for the future" and the Redskins, until this past weekend, looked like a team headed for a top 10 pick in the draft. This was supposedly the strongest divison, but it hasn't played like it.
Revised Playoff teams in the AFC: 1 - Indy 2 - Pats 3 - Denver 4 - Ravens WC 1 - San Diego WC 2 - Kansas City
Other possible WC teams: Jacksonville/Cincy/NY Jets
NFC teams:
1 - Chicago 2 - NY Giants 3 - Seattle 4 - Atlanta WC 1 - New Orleans WC 2 - Philadelphia
Other possible WC teams: Carolina/Minnesota/Washington/Dallas/St. Louis
Projected Super Bowl:
New England over NY Giants
=====================================================
Onto the College Game:
The story of the year:
The Big East has DRASTICALLY improved as a league. With Louisville in charge, an always dangerous West Virginia team that is still very explosive, and a vastly improved Rutgers have balanced out a league that was absolutely left for dead as little as 18 months ago. This league deserves to be watched as there is a TON of young talent to be found here.
The Big Ten is the big 2 and the mediocre 9. Ohio State and Michigan have run away from the rest of the Big Ten. Nationally there are some rumblings that one or both may be over-rated, but we will find out which one will be in the NC game on November 18th. Slight edge to Ohio State because the game is in Columbus. Wisconsin has shown that although their coach has changed, the program hasn't. This is the same dominant running game that Barry Alvarez had for his 20 something years at the helm.
As a side note, it appears that Joe Paterno will be on the sidelines in some capacity this week against Temple. He's a tough SOB and I'm pretty sure his actions in the next 3 weeks will be used nationwide by coaches looking to motivated slightly injured athletes.
The ACC is having a serious down year. Miami and Florida State aren't anywhere near the conference title game, when teams like Wake Forest and Maryland are. Parity has found the ACC.
The SEC is a conference with 5 good to great teams (Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, LSU, Auburn) but it lacks that one DOMINANT team that the SEC usually provides the nation. Look for the winner of the SEC championship game to have a say in the National title hunt before it's all said and done.
For the first time in nearly 4 years, USC looks vulnerable in the Pac-10. Sure they graduated two of the best players ever in Matt Lienart and Reggie Bush, but that's also because Cal and Oregon have caught up a bit for the time being. USC still plays Cal and ND so it still has a very good chance to be in Glendale on the 8th of January.
The Big XII is still a one dog race. Texas has survived the transition from the great Vince Young to Colt McCoy and althoug he took his lumps against Ohio State, he has rebounded and is starting to get some Heisman love. Now if they could only shore up their pass defense. Oklahoma has done a hell of a job to stay in the race without Rhett Bomar OR Adrian Peterson. Nebraska is improving, but they aren't quite there yet.
As a side note, Boise State is nearly a lock for the BCS. They have 2 challenging games left, against San Jose St and against Nevada, but if they win those both, they will be in Glendale on January 1st, likely playing Texas.
3 Surprises:
Rutgers - Without a doubt.
The Big East - They aren't anywhere near being the worst BCS conference anymore. That would be the ACC.
The Buildup for The Game - Everyone knew Ohio State would be good this year. But Michigan has rebounded nicely from a 7-5 season to add some spice to an already chippy rivalry.
Disappointments:
The ACC - For a conference that has quite a lot of talent, the ACC title game looks to be Maryland/Wake Forest vs. Georgia Tech. No one had both teams and only a few had Georgia Tech in there.
The Big XII - Without Texas or Oklahoma, the best team in this conferece is either Texas Tech or Nebraska. Kind of like the Big Ten in a way. That said, this conference is another that was hugely affected by graduations/drafts.
Iowa: They started out 4-0, but have stuggled down the stretch with injury. Then the bottom fell out last week when they lost to NOrthwestern at HOME 21-7. They may have been due for a down year, but this is becoming a collapse.
BCS predictions:
BCS title game:
Ohio State v. Louisville (BCS 1 & 2)
Sugar Bowl:
Florida v. USC (SEC champion v. BCS at large)
Orange Bowl:
Georgia Tech v. Auburn (ACC Champion v. BCS at-large)
Fiesta Bowl:
Texas v. Boise State (Big XII Champ v. BCS at-large)
Rose Bowl:
Cal v. Michigan (Pac-10 champ v. BCS At Large)
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Have at it everyone.
Medicore 9? Wisconsin's only loss was a close one to Michigan in the Big House. If that game had been in Camp Randall, Michigan would not be undefeated.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you referencing here? Has something happened to Joe Pa?
The ACC is having a serious down year. Miami and Florida State aren't anywhere near the conference title game, when teams like Wake Forest and Maryland are. Parity has found the ACC.
The Big East Rawks.
Loved the Shalala shuck 'n' jive excuse why Miami cut and ran from the Big East to the ACC a few years back.
I'd like to see hoop member Notre Dame partner up with the Big East in football as well.
Good topic.
I think college so far has rather been a lackluster year compared to last year. We have no seemingly unbeatable teams, like last years Texas and USC.
Being a Big 12 fan I am rather dissapointed in the conference as a whole this year, but next year I feel we will be the conference to beat.
Surprise teams for me are Wake Forest and Rutgers, although I felt last year Rutgers would start to turn into a force I never felt they would be undefeated this late in the year.
Title Game will be OSU vs Florida. Texas will lose to Nebraska in the Big XII title game :)
....the wrong side of the record, that is.
Worst offense I've ever seen. Finally they get a decent drive going by running the football, so what do they do? Straight back to the passing game for three and out deep in Seahawk territory, of course. .....and straight out of FG range.
Score: 13 - 0 'Hawks with 11:00 remaining.
My most pleasant surprises are the Bears, of course, the meatheads who pretent to be experts had them at .500 or a little better and it looks as thought the record will be better than last year with great prospects to go all the way.
The next two months will be brutal with 5 road games and two of the home games being division in which records are irrelevant.
Steelers were not that good last year. They got hot for a month and won it all so I am not surprised by their fall. I don't see Seattle beating New Orleans out for the division.
Nor do I see Minn with a playoff berth. Bengals would have won it all last year had Palmer not been hurt and such an injury has got to take time to get over mentally. They could still turn it on the next two months and take the division. Super Bowl: Bears-Colts.
College: I am really happy with the progress the Razorbacks
have made this year and did not expect them to challenge for the SE championship. But they have a real good shot with a great coach, great defense, great running game and good improving qbs. Should wind up in the top ten. I agree about the Big East it has provided some very entertaining games and if it can monopolize New Jersey talent will stay good. Those kids have been going all over the country rather than stay close to home because the teams were bad.
The Ohio State University should win it all even though it has shown some weak spots. I get the feeling that it pretty much coasts through most games so good that there is little challenge. Michigan probably won't beat them. So OSU/Louisville or even Rutgers is a possibility for the big game.
The Steelers just aren't hungry anymore. I think Roethlisberger is just collecting a paycheck at this point. Charlie Batch cares more about winning than he does. They played up to their level of talent in the season opener, then just disappeared.
I don't think the Vikings are as good as advertised, and they're definitely going to acquire a QB in the offseason. They might sign Matt Schaub, or might pull a wacky draft trade move to get Brohm or Quinn. Given that Rick Spielman is their GM, I'm leaning towards the "wacky" option.
The Jets are playing better than I thought they would. It's either a testament to Mangini or a statement about Edwards that they're 4-4. They are definitely looking for a running back in the draft. Mangini probably has dreams about playing the Dolphins with Adrian Peterson in the backfield.
I really want to say the Giants are going to the Super Bowl, but I'm just not sure about Eli Manning. Also, Sean Salisbury changed his Super Bowl pick to Colts-Giants, and I don't want to agree with Salisbury, especially after he drooled over the whole "Manning Bowl Redux in the Super Bowl" thing.
haven't they lost their last 2 games? San Francisco? Yea the Bears lost to Miami but they still have a 3 game lead because the Queens are such morons.
Boise State is currently the class of the WAC, have been for at least the past 5 seasons. I say this even though Hawai'i is probably playing slightly better right now than BSU. Not knocking Boise State though, they should consider themselves fortunate that the ACC is having a very down year, otherwise they probably wouldn't even be close to the top 12 in the BCS.
Nevada, San Jose State and Hawaii are going to bowl games. Idaho is fading and the rest are...well, hoping to see some windfall from Boise State's Fiesta payday.
Oh, hey, you may think your conference sucks, but it's nothing compared to the Mountain West. Here's a timeline of what's happened since the end of last football season:
-ESPN wants to renew their contract w/ the MWC, but they want to have them play on Wednesday and Sunday nights and at goofy start times (the same thing they're doing with the WAC).
-So the league signs a long-term deal with CSTV, the new college sports network that's owned by Viacom. Okay, fine. You have to buy a seperate package to get it on Dish Network or DirecTV, but at least you get to see the games.
-"Not so fast my friend." Instead of getting all the televised glory that CSTV has to offer, Comcast steps in and creates "The Mtn.", the network totally dedicated to the Mountain West Conference. Uhhhhh, okay...
-There's only one problem. Comcast being a cable company and looking for any way to torque off the satellite providers strongarms them and prevents Dish and DirectTV from putting "The Mtn." on the satellite providers (I know negotiations are still ongoing, but that doesn't change anything for this season.) IOW, if you don't live in the states of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, or New Mexico, odds are you are likely SOL if you're a fan of one of the MWC schools.
To make matters worse, that parochial stench from Provo (BYU to you non-Westerners) is atop the league. If you'll forgive the cliche, "in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king". And that one eyed man right now is BYU. They have a ton of talent offensively and the rest of the league frankly isn't that good right now. Last year's champion (TCU) is struggling. Wyoming has a solid defense and a very talented QB in Karsten Sween, but I think next year is probably their year. Colorado State has been mediocre for the most part. Air Force started out strong but looks as though they're going to run out of steam the last month of the year. New Mexico is decent, and probably a little better than their record indicates. San Diego State and UNLV are awful. UTAH has a lot of internal turmoil and from my vantage point is probably still "hung over" from the wildly successful Urban Meyer era.
To make matters even worse, the MWC bowl games (Las Vegas, Poinsettia, New Mexico, Fort Worth) not only aren't being played outside of a MWC city, but not a single bowl game is being played after Christmas day.
Well, there it is. Comments, questions and donations are always appreciated. :)
Hi Mike. My observation is that the NFL is boring and that college is much more exciting. I'm not sure why.
Already voted this morning, straight Repulican ticket.
ANYONE: Who is the most underrated winless team in College football?
The Bengals are killing me. The O-Line is porous as our Southern Border and Palmer's not planting his leg and following throw. And Chad "Ocho Cinco" Johnson can't run routes or catch anymore. Not looking good. Clearly the team was overrated in preseason, and add a bunch of injuries at crucial positions and you have a mediocre team.
Oh, and I've had Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" stuck in my head for the last week.
ff