NCAA College Sports Blog

On Tuesday reports began to surface that West Virginia was being offered a spot in the Big 12, which it would undoubtedly accept. Prior to the Big 12’s offer, the Mountaineers previously requested to join both the SEC and ACC in an attempt to desperately abandon the sinking ship that is known as the Big East. Joining brief Big East member TCU as the latest school to defect from the Big East to the Big 12, the conference looks to be as vulnerable and desperate as ever. Today new reports are coming in that West Virginia has been put on hold for the Big 12. Another Big East school, Louisville, is one of the front runners to join the Big 12. Either way it appears that another school will be poached from the conference.

Prior to the start of the 2011 season, the Big East looked to be as robust as ever. New member TCU had just scored one of the biggest upsets in the BCS era with a win over the Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl. 11 of the 16 teams (not including TCU) received a bid to the annual March Madness tournament with the Connecticut ending up as the national champion.

All of that momentum has been squashed as the conference hangs on dearly for survival. In September it was announced that the ACC was moving to a 14-team league with the additions of Syracuse and Pittsburgh, two of the “founding fathers” of the Big East. Just a couple of weeks later, TCU also left the Big East without ever competing in a single conference game. The newest loss of either Louisville or West Virginia would bring the number of football schools down to a paltry 5. The biggest issue is that the conference would lose its Automatic Qualifying status for a BCS bowl game and the millions of dollars of revenue that come with it. Losing its most successful members would all but ensure that of becoming a reality.

Who is to blame for the entire debacle and downfall of the Big East? The answer falls squarely on John Marinatto’s shoulders. Marinatto is the commissioner of the Big East, but represents a small Catholic school in Providence that has very little relevance in either of the major money-producing sports. Providence does not compete in football at all and you could argue the same for basketball as they have been bottom dwellers in the conference for most of the last decade.

Instead of building on their momentum and continuing expansion, Marinatto and the rest of the Big East brass chose to twiddle their thumbs while the other BCS conferences examined which schools to poach to their liking. This whole mess could have been avoided if the conference had taken the proper time and avenues to add 1 to 3 more schools among Central Florida, Southern Methodist, Boise State, East Carolina, Houston, East Carolina, Navy, Air Force, Temple, or Memphis. It seemed as though Marinatto did not want to disrupt or taint the reputation of Big East’s basketball-only contingent which was comprised of smaller, academic, religious institutions.

Now with conference on life support, Marinatto has been making bold statements with little to back them up. He has declared on several occasions that the Big East will hike its exit fee to 10 million dollars, keep Pittsburgh and Syracuse in the Big East for 27 months, look to send invitations to 6 additional schools, establish a conference championship game for football played in New York, and retain their AQ status. Other rumored options are the combining of the remaining Big East Schools, Conference USA, and the Mountain West to form a 28-32 team super-conference. These ideas seems pretty farfetched and a last ditch effort for Marinatto to save face publicly.

The most realistic and likely scenario to play out would be for the remaining schools in the Big East (Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville/West Virginia, Rutgers, and South Florida) to be absorbed by the other BCS conferences with the possibility that one or two of the schools will be left out in the cold. It is less clear what will happen to the basketball-only schools, but it is possible that they would stick together and keep the basketball version of the Big East alive amongst themselves.A lot of what will play out in the future depends on what Notre Dame decides to do.

While a member of the Big East for all sports minus football, they hold the most leverage in the situation and have the choice of joining whatever conference they’d prefer, if they join one at all. The Irish have a television deal with NBC that pays them about 15 million dollars annually. For Notre Dame to join a conference they would likely have to give that up to join another conference.

If Marinatto was truly concerned about saving the conference he would have given Notre Dame an ultimatum. Join the Big East for all sports or get out entirely. This would force Notre Dame’s and other conference’s hand. If the Irish joined the Big East for football, credibility to the conference would have been instantly restored. If they chose to left they would have had to find another conference to join for their remaining sports. Instead of putting himself in a position of power, Marinatto relinquished that ability to Notre Dame and it will ultimately cost him his conference.

In its darkest days, the Big East will need both football and basketball schools to come together in agreement on what the future of the conference will be. Right now both sides have their own agendas and are set on accomplishing them. This has greatly hampered the ability to move the Big East forward in these troubling times. If both sides to do not come together to form a clear-cut plan, the conference will most likely be extinct on the football landscape.

Major college football news broke in Miami yesterday. Busted ponzi-schemer and former Miami football booster Nevin Shapiro came out with allegations of several dozen, seventy two in fact, current and former Miami football players accepting improper benefits during their collegiate careers. These improper benefits included accepting money for food, booze, jewelry, women, electronics and appliances, housing, putting out hits on players, abortions, or “whatever the players needed.  Is anyone shocked by this though? The university is located in what some people call “Vice City.” The U has long struggled with an image problem over the course of the past twenty-five years and has even promoted their role as the bad boys of college football. They played in a game against Notre Dame that later became known as “Catholics vs. Convicts” with Miami starring as the latter. Initially this was not a problem for the school as its popularity soared nationwide with tremendous on-field success and an abundance of talent landing in the NFL, but the school has scuffled a bit in recent years. Lack of discipline has led to poorer records than the team was used to in recent years culminating with the firing of head coach Randy Shannon who rose through the ranks to claim the job. Former Temple University head coach Al Golden, a strict disciplinarian, was brought in to get the team under control. His efforts may come too late with the accusations from Shapiro have stirred rumors of Miami receiving the “death penalty” (ending the university’s program for at least 1 year). Southern Methodist University was the last school to receive said penalty has struggled mightily to return to their past levels of success. While rumors of the death penalty falling on Miami may be overblown with several other prominent schools receiving similar accusations, something must be done to rectify this problem that is consuming college football.

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Everyone who watches sports knows some games are more special than others. I’ve always been a basketball fan but the Syracuse-UConn 6OT game made me a college basketball fan. There are just so many things special about this game. The venue (sold out Madison Square Garden), its timing (last game of the day starting at 9:30), the legendary coaches, the players, the teams (two of the Big Easts most decorated teams), the tournament (the Big East was indisputably the best conference that year), and of course the fact that it was the longest college basketball game in the post-shot clock era. The average game usually comes down to a win or loss but some games have meaning far beyond that.

Every time I watch the game I get a new thought about what the game meant. The most recent time I watched it, about a week ago, I focused in on Kemba Walker. Then only a freshman, getting playing time because of an injury to UConn’s starting shooting guard, Kemba ends up playing 53 minutes; the only freshman to start and play over 15 minutes. While he shot only 4-18 and committed four turnovers compared to 2 measly assists, Walker made the game tying shot that would eventually lead to the first overtime. Walker’s basket wasn’t really what his coach had in mind instead the play breaks down. After a series of misses and tipped rebounds from the big guys under the rim the ball lands in Walker’s hands to the left of the basket(1:23-1:45 in the video). After Walker makes a contested lay-up his face is full of pure elation when he finally talks after making the shot it’s to A.J. Price and Craig Austrie, both of whom are seniors. It seems like he’s saying tired generic basketball phrases like “let’s go” or “we got this” but the look on his face is wanting of acceptance. Both seniors are more reserved, there’s still 1.1 seconds and presumably overtime to win the game but they may have known at that moment that Walker was in store for big things, at very least he could hang with the big boys.

Staying with the last 10 seconds of regulation the second epic shot, whether it counted or not, was Eric Devendorf’s three with time expiring. I have to admit this is one of greatest shots I’ve ever seen. Its off a full court pass that is tipped lands in Devendorf’s hands as he’s jumping but then Devendorf proceeds to hang in the air over 6-9 Gavin Edward’s outstretched arm and shoot all in one motion a perfect swish. His reaction to the shot is to go crazy. Eric jumps on top of the scoring table and starts shouting “this is my house” just like Dwayne Wade did exactly 2 days before (near the end of the video). Devendorf as much as any player on the court thought he was the best. To this point he had a rough time at Syracuse; clashing with his coach on the court and getting in trouble off it. The previous Halloween he had been arrested for hitting a woman while he was drunk. Devendorf was already a father as well. Still he thought he could play in the NBA (despite being a junior he ended up declaring for the draft after the NCAA tournament about two weeks after this game) and probably had made up his mind he was going to declare at this point. At that moment as the shot went in it must have made sense for Devendorf, he knew he was going to make it.

The powers that be weren’t having it though. Later that spring it would be the executives and general managers who would shoot down Devendorf’s NBA dreams (he would go undrafted eventually ending up playing in New Zealand) but now it was the referees. The perfect shot was a tenth of a second too late. For such a close shot the replay is amazingly clear as it shows one figure touching the ball at 0.00. When just looking at Walker’s shot versus Devendorf’s its strange how different the player’s fates would be. One was a little bit of hustle and a lot of being in the right place, the other a nearly impossible 30 foot contested jumper. Freshman Kemba just wanted to fit in and Devendorf wanted nothing more than to stand out.

Kemba Walker would go on to achieve nearly every accolade one could achieve in college. Kemba would lead the Huskies to a Big East tournament victory two years later before going on to win the NCAA tournament. Walker was named an All-American and came in second in the national player of the year voting. He was selected ninth overall in the draft by the Charlotte Bobcats and has a chance to compete for the starting point guard job right off the bat. While Walker remained on campus, Devendorf has been across the world playing basketball. First in New Zealand but later in Australia and Turkey, Devendorf’s talent has been on display, he scored 49 points in his New Zealand league debut and averages 22 points per game in Turkey. But his issues have been on display as well; a bar fight in New Zealand got him released, the second of four times he has been waived in the past two years.

All of this I got from watching the game and this isn’t from overtime at all. In fact what I’ve talked about took place in about 10 seconds game time of a game that lasted for 70 minutes of game time. I may not know Kemba Walker or Eric Devendorf but every time I watch this game they will be like old friends. Kemba Walker will always been the freshman trying to prove he fits in; Devendorf will be a tragic figure coming so close to his dream but coming up short by a finger. When a court or field with lines becomes a stage and the player’s actors, you know you have found a special game.

I’m going to start off by saving us all five precious minutes of our time and not listing the handful of recent events and names that have made the conversation surrounding college sports (especially college football) and its financial issues, problems, flaws, injustices, and whatever else you want to call it as relevant as ever. We all know and have heard about what happened to Jim Tressel and Terrell Prior, to Ohio State, to Cam Newton and USC before that, and to the countless other programs and athletes that broke NCAA violations and/or lied about it and/or tried to cover it up and/or got caught. Instead of beating these stories dead or proclaiming how evil Tressel is or how stupid Prior is, it seems more interesting to think about what can be done (if anything) to avoid these things from happening again (or at least less), or if significant changes should or need to be made to college sports and how it treats and rewards its student-athletes.

Am I talking about paying college athletes? Maybe. Many view this as an impossibility. They say it wouldn’t fix college sports, it would end them. To a lot of those same people, the problems surrounding college sports can’t be fixed. Enforce the rules harder. Make punishments harsher. Schools and athletes will either get the message and play fair or pay the price. Violations will continue but at least the risks involved in committing one will be higher. I don’t completely disagree with this way of thinking. If punishments are severe enough, if sanctions are important and debilitating enough to the point that results on the field/court are severely affected, perhaps schools will think twice about committing or allowing violations and make it more of an emphasis to educate their athletes about the risks involved in breaking the rules.

This doesn’t address what is at the heart of the issue, however. And we’ve all heard the argument. How can schools and coaches be making millions of dollars off the backs of their student-athletes (read athletes-students) without them not making a single dollar? Back to square one. So what are some of the possible solutions? Pay college athletes per game or per season? Put money in a fund they can reach after graduating? What if they don’t graduate? What about athletes at institutions that don’t make money from their athletic programs? I was a Division I athlete, should I have been paid? (Absolutely not. It was scary enough to think about the fact that someone was being paid to coach me and to some degree that their job security depended on my performances and mediocre athletic ability. But that’s for another story.)

For these reasons — and many, many more — these issue are extremely complicated, and I am not crazy enough to think that I am in any position to offer some great solutions, nor do I claim to know everything involved in this discussion. One thing that should be kept in mind, however, is that to some degree, many of the student-athletes relevant here do in fact get paid, in the form of athletic scholarships (4 years at USC for example will cost you approximately $140,000, and that’s not counting room, board, and books). Obviously, a few of these athletes will also get paid if and when they are drafted and play professionally. Why this is not enough for individuals like Terrell Pryor, why this doesn’t serve as enough motivation to abide by the rules and stay out of trouble for a year or two before signing lucrative contracts and selling all the sports memorabilia he wants is a great mystery.

What seems also clear, however, is that the NCAA could be a lot more creative in the ways it seeks to handle and reward its student athletes. In this very good read, for example, former Penn basketball player Stephen Danley suggests taking a portion of the profits made by institutions and putting it towards a “fifth-year option to athletic scholarships,” which would allow athletes to return to school for an extra year to accomplish the things they couldn’t or didn’t have time to while they competed in their sport. Again, how this would work on a large scale and at what schools it could apply to or work at is not exactly clear. It is a start, however, and represents a vastly more productive approach than simply allowing a potentially flawed system to continue to grow and expand while acting outraged whenever individuals are caught bending its rules or taking advantage of its weaknesses.

Now with baseball season over(can’t wait to see the ratings for the World Series) we can shift our focus strictly to football, although I’m sure many of you already have. The landscape of the BCS is beginning to take shape in college football as the pretenders will soon exit the shadows and the contender’s will enter into the light. Prior to last week, Alabama and Ohio State, the two previous number one ranked teams fell to its opponents(South Carolina defeated Alabama; Ohio State lost to Wisconsin the week after). Auburn, after wins over Florida and LSU, moved up to capture the No.1 spot, only to lose it despite winning by twenty points. The Tigers defeated Ole Miss, 51-31, and have scored 140 points in their last three games- all against SEC opponents. Just so happens the Oregon Ducks victory against USC, a game in which they hung 53 in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, was impressive enough to bump Auburn down one spot to No. 2 and slide the quack attack to Numero Uno because of their win against a quality opponent.

It continues to be an issue and topic of discussion as to why college football cannot have a playoff system. It makes no sense to bump a team down to number 2 after a twenty point win on the road. Now, obviously, Oregon did the same, and USC is a much better quality opponent than Ole Miss. But let’s not forget, that a win is a win, and to stay ranked, you must win, and Auburn did just that, which means they deserve to sit in the throne until someone dethrones them. How simple is that. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that in the FBS, and as they say, it is what it is. However, there has been much talk about a non-AQ team leaping over the barrier and landing in the national championship game. Two of those teams go toe to toe Saturday in the most intriguing matchup this week.

The game between TCU and Utah features two teams ranked in the Top 5. Both teams have become two of the best programs in College Football, appearing in three BCS bowl games since 2005. It doesn’t sound like much, but considering both schools play in non-AQ conferences, it shows the level of competition spread throughout the country.

These are two well coached, evenly matched teams. Gary Patterson, once the defensive coordinator at TCU, has turned this program around after taking over as head coach. He has become a hot commidity for other schools trying to lure him away from Fort Worth, Texas and into the national spotlight. But the only spotlight Patterson wants is on his team, specifically a defense ranked number one in total defense.

According to Andrea Adelson of ESPN.com, TCU leads the nation in scoring defense, pass defense, and fewest first downs allowed per game. Not only that, TCU has held each opponent under 200 yards passing. Not bad for a team that lost six defensive starters, including star players, Jerry Hughes and Daryl Washington, to the NFL Draft one year ago. The Horned Frogs have given up sixteen points in their last five games and have shown no effect this season from losing those six starters.

Not to mention, TCU does arrive with a pretty good offense too.

Andy Dalton has had a tremendous season thus far. He has picked up right where he left off last year after deciding to return for his senior season. That decision has paid dividends for Dalton. He has thrown for sixteen touchdowns and only five interceptions. His 158.7 passer rating is good for 17th in the nation. The Horned Frogs offense ranks 5th in the nation in total offense with 40.6 and have scored 162 points in their last four games. Ed Wesley leads a rushing attack ranked ninth in the nation(270.9) and currently leads the Mountain West in rushing. This will be the toughest defense TCU has yet to face and must not abandon the run. They have shown no signs of doing so throughout the season and I don’t expect them to in this game.

On the flip side, Utah’s defense deserves some recognition too. Their defense forced five turnovers in their last game against Air Force, leading them to a 28-23 victory. Kyle Whittingham has transformed Utah into a defensive minded team, after being offensively bred under one Urban Meyer. Whittingham’s ability to maintain a winning tradition at Utah after Meyer’s departure has not gone unnoticed. It has not happened very often but Whittingham is one exception to that short list. It is a credit to him and his players that believe in his mentality.

Utah’s defense ranks sixth in the nation in scoring defense(14.1). They have given up 35 points in their last three games. The Utes have a knack of getting to the quarterback. They rank first in sacks in the Mountain West. Because of their ability to get to the quarterback, they are able to create turnovers and take advantage of the offense’s mistakes. It is imperative that TCU protect Andy Dalton in this game. Utah will do all they can to throw off the rhythm of Dalton and the Horned Frogs offense and not allow TCU to beat them through the air.

Despite his mind for defense, Whittingham understands that with a good defense comes a good offense. Utah ranks first in the Mountain West in total offense(46.0 ppg), second in passing (258.7 ypg), and third in rushing(191.5 ypg), one behind TCU. The Utes have scored less than thirty points in one game all year- last week against Air Force. They have scored 185 points in their last four games and rank third in the nation in points per game. This will be much a better defense then the one they faced last week and must stick to their game plan. Some of that Utah-big play magic wouldn’t hurt either. They will need some of that in this game.

So, there you have it. The two best teams in the Mountain West squaring off in the center of the ring on Saturday. It is the first time in the history of the MWC that two teams ranked in the top ten have played each other. I have given you all the stats and analysis. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that both teams are mirror images of each other on both sides of the ball. It has the chance to be either a shoot-out or a defensive battle. What this game will come down to is who wants it more. And it doesn’t get any better then that.

The winner inches one step closer to cracking the code and reaching the national title game. The loser will have to settle for another appearance in the BCS. Mark this game down as something to do on your To-Do list for Saturday. Maybe you’ll agree that college football could use a playoff.

There are seven undefeated teams left in major college football left. They occupy seven of the top eight spots in the BCS standings. That number is sure to decrease after this weekend. As I’ve stated in numerous college football articles, I’m rooting for a Boise State-TCU national championship game. For that to happen, the other undefeateds have to bite the dust. I think it is definitely in the realm of possibility for these two teams to be the last undefeated teams left. So without further ado, let the upsets flow!

USC over No. 2 Oregon
USC quarterback Matt Barkley has been talking smack all week on Twitter. I love it. Here’s what he said following Cain Valesquez’s victory over Brock Lesnar: “Wow, Brock just got rocked! Lesnar is to Oregon as Velasquez is to SC. Lezgo.”

This is USC’s championship game since they are not bowl eligible. I like Barkley’s confidence, and I like their chances at upsetting the Ducks. The Pac-10 was touted as a bad conference at the beginning of the year, yet there are two others in the top 25 right now (Stanford and Arizona). Still, the rest of the conference is lackluster.

USC’s two losses were to Washington and Stanford by a combined three points. They are that close to being undefeated. The Trojans are no slouch. They are very motivated coming into this game. It gives them a chance to knock off a team that is widely considered to be number one in the nation, and I like their chances.

No. 18 Iowa over No. 5 Michigan State
The Spartans narrowly escaped defeat last week against Northwestern in a game I thought the Wildcats would win. Instead, Kirk Cousins orchestrated an inspired fourth quarter comeback to steal the game. I don’t think Cousins and Co. will be so lucky this time around.

Iowa is 5-2. Two of their losses were to Arizona (34-27) and Wisconsin (31-30). They are without a doubt one of the best, if not the best, two-loss team in the nation. Quarterback Ricky Stanzi and the Hawkeyes can and will get the job done against an overachieving Michigan State team.

No. 14 Nebraska over No. 6 Missouri
The Tigers are fresh off a 36-27 victory over last week’s number one team in Oklahoma. Now they travel to Lincoln to take on a Nebraska team who gave Oklahoma State their first loss last week. Nebraska’s only loss came at the hands of Garrett Gilbert and the Texas Longhorns (20-13). I think Nebraska can hand another undefeated team their first loss.

Missouri, like Michigan State, has overachieved this year. Sixth in the nation is the highest they’ve been ranked since 2007 when Chase Daniel was their quarterback. I don’t see any reason why the Cornhuskers of Nebraska can’t knock the Tigers of Missouri from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Washington over No. 13 Stanford
Jake Locker and the Huskies have been mediocre and disappointing this season with a 3-4 record thus far. Considering Locker’s reputation and potential draft stock in the NFL, his 2010 senior campaign has been a letdown. This team leaves much to be desired as a whole.

The Cardinal’s sole loss came at the hands of Oregon in a 52-31 annihilation. They have been a pleasant surprise in the shallow Pac-10 this year. However, I think they are in for a rude awakening this weekend. It should be a close game, but I think the Locker and the Huskies get the job done to get back to .500.

Minnesota over No. 11 Ohio State
Haha, just kidding! The 1-7 Golden Gophers couldn’t beat their practice squad!

So there are my upsets on Halloween weekend. Three of them include unbeaten squads. I can say I’m pretty confident in all four of these picks. If there is one thing that college football has taught us, it’s that anything can happen on a week-to-week basis. Momentum is hard to come by. I anticipate a good week in college football this week as the field of unbeatens gets smaller and smaller.

By Josh Delp of the Sports Fan Blog Network

The initial BS… I mean BCS poll rankings were released Sunday with the Sooners from Oklahoma topping the list followed by the idle Ducks of Oregon at number two. The Sooners were number six in the AP poll last week, but were catapulted to number one as a result of Wisconsin’s defeat of the previously undefeated Ohio State Buckeyes. Terrelle Pryor and the Bucks managed to stay atop the polls for one measly week. Another contributing factor was the Sooners’ 52-0 massacre of Iowa State.

Three undefeated teams bit the dust this week, putting the magic number of undefeated teams left at 10. The teams to go down this week were Nebraska at the hands of Texas (20-13), Nevada to Hawaii (27-21), and aforementioned Ohio State to Wisconsin (31-18). The pawns are slowly and surely being moved off the board as the weeks wear on.

The first BCS top 10 looks like this through week 7:
1. Oklahoma
2. Oregon
3. Boise State
4. Auburn
5. TCU
6. LSU
7. Michigan State
8. Alabama
9. Utah
10. Ohio State

The two mid-majors in Boise State and TCU will be hanging around in the top three through seven spots until the Goliaths fall. Utah is also climbing the ranks as well. Auburn, Alabama, and LSU will beat up each other in the SEC. I seriously doubt any of these teams go undefeated. The question becomes then: should those theoretical one-loss teams play in the title game even if Oklahoma and Oregon win out? It’s an intriguing debate.

Oklahoma’s meddle will surely be tested with games against undefeated Missouri and Oklahoma State in the coming weeks. Oregon has a mildly challenging schedule with UCLA, probation mired USC, one-loss Arizona, and stumbling Oregon State. Michigan State has a toughie against Iowa which could halt their perfect season bid.

Auburn hasn’t been quite this high in the standings in quite some time. They don’t really have a marquee talent on their team. They just have an overall solid bunch. In previous years, they would be on the cusp of greatness but would stumble in the talent-drenched SEC. It’s good to see them flourish. Hopefully they can keep it up.

I’m still drinking the Boise State-TCU Kool-Aid. There is a realistic shot that they could be the last undefeated teams standing by season’s end as the undefeateds start playing one another. What happens next? Probably a one or two-loss SEC or Big 12 team playing for it all come January, but a guy can dream, can’t he?

By Josh Delp of the Sports Fan Blog Network

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. If you follow college football, you know it revolves around the Alabama Crimson Tide. Gone is the 19-game winning streak that resulted in a 2009 National Championship and a 5-0 start in 2010. Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina Gamecocks have knocked off the defending national champions, beating them by two touchdowns (35-21). As a result of the loss, Alabama fell to #8 in the AP Top 25 rankings. It was their first loss, and it likely will prove fatal to their repeat hopes.

Not many people saw this defeat coming. However, the Gamecocks are no pushover. With the win on Saturday, South Carolina has a 4-1 record and are ranked 19th in the nation. Their only loss came a week prior to their Alabama upset against a gritty Auburn team.

Tis the season for upsets. The middle of the college football season is where the top teams will begin to falter against tougher competition. This holds especially true in the SEC. By season’s end, I seriously doubt there will be an undefeated team in that conference.

Another upset which occurred was Oregon State besting the ninth ranked Arizona Wildcats. Although it did not have the same impact, it is another previously unbeaten team in the top 10 that has been moved off the board, so to speak.

Two other upsets, if you want to call them that, was LSU beating Florida in The Swamp to hand them their second consecutive loss and Florida State trouncing Miami at home 45-17. Another undefeated team in Michigan also lost to its state rivals in Michigan State. The Spartans did an honorable job of limiting Heisman hopeful Denard Robinson to 86 yards and one touchdown. That’s a decent line for the average running back, but for Robinson that is under-performing. They also forced him into three interceptions.

The top 10 ranked teams are all no longer undefeated. There are 13 undefeated teams in the top 25. That number can only shrink as we move closer to the end of the season. The new number one is Ohio State, but one has to wonder how long that will last with a tough remaining schedule in which they face Michigan, Iowa, Penn State, and Wisconsin, among others. Number two Oregon seems to have the easiest road in the Pac-10, but anything can happen.

In other news, Boise State and TCU destroyed their oppositions with victories against Toledo (57-14) and Wyoming (45-0) respectively. Despite these teams breezing through their schedules, they will hover in between the three through seven spots as long as the “big boys” stay undefeated. For these school’s sake I hope every major conference team loses a game, resulting in a Boise State-TCU championship game in a rematch of last year’s Fiesta Bowl. How epic would that be? Two mid-major squads that were given no respect are the last two standing. Then again, a one-loss team would still probably make the title game. I’ve given up rooting for a playoff system, so I’m just going to start rooting for the “mid-major” schools that have a fraction of a shot to compete for the ultimate prize just because they’re in the wrong division and don’t feed the BCS enough of their precious greenbacks.

But I digress… this week was a great week in college football. I’m looking forward to more powerhouse missteps in the future. I’m staying hopeful for another year like 2007 in which an 11-2 LSU team played for the national title. Only this time I hope the rightful team is in their position, should that happen again.

So here’s to upsets, the only good thing left about college football. Oh, and school spirit…

By Josh Delp of the Sports Fan Blog Network

Oh, yes, my friends, today is Friday, which means it’s one more day until Saturday. I don’t need to tell you what happens on Saturdays. You should already know that. But, in case you don’t, I’ll remind you anyway because it’s very important; more important then the presentation or exam you will prepare for over the weekend. Saturday means college football returns, and if you already have plans tomorrow afternoon, scrap them, because you’re missing out on a weekend that may outline the beginning stages of the BCS landscape. What could you have planned that is better than watching an old-school conference matchup?

Maybe this game will help with your decision. Michigan State travels 50 miles to the Big House to take on their in-state rival Michigan Wolverines. It is a game with instant classic potential and just a good ‘ole fashion Big Ten conference game. Except this will not be a game. It will be a heavyweight fight. It’s not Ali-Frazier. A better comparison would be Ali-Foreman and this fight between rivals will surely go to the last round. Both teams sit atop the Big Ten Standings. The winner will continue to keep pace and stay undefeated in the Big Ten marathon, while the loser will have to sprint their way to the finish line.
This is a matchup of two of the better teams in the Big Ten. Both teams are evenly matched, and, ultimately, it will be a battle of who wants it more that will determine the outcome.

Saying Michigan State has their hands full is not an undertstatement. It’s a fact. The defense must find a way to slow down Heisman favorite Denard Robinson. It is an assignment that Michigan’s five previous opponents could not complete. Robinson leads the Big Ten and nation in rushing and is second in quarterback rating. Michigan leads the nation in total offense with 565.5 ypg, third in rushing with 324.4 ypg., and ranks ninth in points per game with 41.4. Greg Jones and the rest of the Spartan defense cannot allow Robinson to gash them big play after big play. The defense must have an eye of where Robinson is at all times. If he breaks loose, they must swarm to the football and keep him from taking it to the house. Michigan State was victimized for 178 yards against the run last week in a victory over Wisconsin. Denard Robinson averages 181 yards rushing. Michigan State’s defense better triple knot their shoelaces.

However, this game isn’t all about Mr. Robinson and his shoelaces. The Spartan offense has scored 30 or more points in all five contests this season. Kirk Cousins is having a breakout year as a quarterback. Cousins has completed 67.5 percent of his passes and has a QB rating of 164.8, twenty five points higher than his rating at the end of 2009. The duo of Edwin Baker and Le’Veon Bell have helped create a balanced offense for Michigan State. The Spartans rank fourth in the conference with 220.2 rushing yards per game. Just like Michigan State’s defense must slow down Robinson, Michigan’s defense must find a way to stop both Bell and Baker, and then come up with a way to create pressure on Cousins. The Wolverines have given up 25.0 points per game and allowed bottom feeder Indiana to ring up 35 points in a game that never should have been close. If given the time, Kirk Cousins could torch this defense and light up the Big House scoreboard.

It will be a great battle of unbeatens. Michigan State is looking for its third consecutive win over the Wolverines, which has not been done since 1965-67. Michigan looks to end a four game losing streak against ranked opponents. Mark Dantonio will coach from the booth in his first game back since having a mild heart attack in an overtime victory against Notre Dame. He said in a press conference, “You can’t keep me down Michigan week.”

Indeed, this will undoubtedly be a heavyweight fight.