3 Steps the ACC Can Take to Save Itself

Over the summer, USC and UCLA announced their plans to join the Big Ten. Since then, there have been rumors of mega-conferences and it has left conferences like the ACC, Pac-12 and Big XII scrambling to figure out what to do next to avoid being left in the dust by the SEC and Big Ten.

The BIG XII has now made a big move, announcing their new TV deal, a 6-year contract worth around $2.2B, or around $31M per school. That amount goes UP from their previous deal that included Texas and Oklahoma as members of the conference.

As a fan of a team in the ACC, it has been frustrating see moves being made by the SEC & Big Ten and deals by the Big XII get done, while the ACC sits around doing nothing. So, since the ACC leaders haven’t said much about their plans, I’ve decided to share mine for the conference moving forward.

The most important thing that the ACC needs to get done to stay relevant among the SEC and Big Ten, and possibly separate themselves from the Pac-12 & Big XII as the clear #3 conference is to get ESPN to renegotiate the conferences TV deal.  I realize that is easier said than done, but ESPN has invested A LOT in the ACC with the creation of the ACC Network and they don’t want to see the conference fall into the abyss.  So here are the three moves that ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips needs to make to save the ACC!

1) Move to 9 Conference Games

2) Get ESPN to re-work the conference Rights deal and share it with another network.

3) Add Notre Dame

The first one is simple, so we can tackle that one first. By moving to 9 nine conference games, this gives your TV partners more quality content. Live television, especially sporting events, is what draws the highest ratings nowadays. This means it makes them the most money. The more quality content to sell advertisements during, the more money they have available to pay the conference for their TV rights. More games mean more live content. More ACC games, also means less games vs Group of 5 or FCS teams. Adding one more conference game will draw more eyeballs.

With the conference moving away from divisions in 2023, playing an extra game also helps cycle every team to all of the other schools on a more regular basis and sets up for closer, more exciting races to get into the Top 2 spots to qualify for the championship game.

Now, the more complicated points.

Notre Dame will not join any conference if they don’t have to. Expanding the College Football Playoff to 12 makes it easier for Notre Dame to make the playoff, but the new format makes it more difficult for Notre Dame to have success in the playoff. The ACC can offer Notre Dame a solution. Notre Dame already plays 5 ACC opponents every year but are not considered members of the conference, therefore they cannot play in the conference championship game or earn a Top 4 seed in the new upcoming expanded playoff, which guarantees a BYE into the quarterfinals. The ACC should ask Notre Dame to play 7 ACC games a year instead of their current 5. In exchange, the ACC would allow Notre Dame a spot in the conference championship game if they finished in the top 2 in the conference based on win percentage. This could give Notre Dame a 13^th data point for the CFB Playoff Selection Committee, which they typically would not have. And it would give the Irish a way to earn a BYE and a Top 4 seed in the CFP. After Saturday's win over Clemson, Notre Dame has now won 27 regular season games in a row vs ACC opponents and hasn’t lost since November of 2017, when then #8 Miami beat #3 Notre Dame in Miami. The only ACC team to beat Notre Dame during this span is Clemson, who did it twice in postseason games, so you could see how this offer could be intriguing to the Irish.

Another reason that this deal would make sense to Notre Dame is because they get a full football share of the ACC TV Rights if they agree. Notre Dame has publicly said that they are hoping for more money from their next TV deal, their NBC deal expires after the 2024 season. Not that Notre Dame won’t get more from their next deal but giving them more from the ACC couldn’t hurt.

Speaking of NBC…

The ACC needs to get more of their games on networks that everyone can see. The ACC Network is nice and is finally available nearly nationwide. But with the ACC’s current deal with ESPN, a lot of content gets dumped onto ACCX, which is only available via streaming or to the regional networks of the teams playing. That is fine for most sports, but not football. Every ACC football game should be available on national television. This is where NBC and their partnership with Notre Dame comes into play to help all parties involved. NBC clearly wants to be a bigger part of the college football market. They just agreed to terms with the Big Ten to broadcast 1 game weekly in primetime. NBC likely will bid on at least some of the broadcast rights for the College Football Playoff when it expands. So, adding more college football content and another conference would make a lot of sense for the network. If ESPN allows the ACC to share their rights with another network, NBC should be the network that gets the call.

The ACC could offer NBC ~15 games per season to help their brand get off the ground, all while putting more ACC games in a national spotlight. A win-win for all parties involved. Notre Dame typically plays 7 games on NBC a season, out of a 13-week regular season schedule. The ACC could give NBC a lead-in to every Notre Dame broadcast with a unique 11AM kickoff. On Saturday’s that Notre Dame is not playing a home game, NBC could either schedule an ACC double-header or schedule their ACC game during their typical 2:30pm EST slot that Notre Dame plays in. 11AM kickoff give the ACC a 1-hour window that they are the only game in town, which would be a unique exposure for any conference. And because of the already existing relationship with ESPN, they could have live look-ins of that game during College GameDay, again giving the game and conference extra exposure.

The ACC Championship Game is broadcast annually on ESPN/ABC, which also helps the ACC in negotiating their new deal with ESPN. When Clemson and Notre Dame played in the ACC Championship Game during the 2020 COVID season, they drew nearly 10 million viewers, which was the highest of any conference championship game for that season. It was also nearly double the viewers that ESPN/ABC drew the year prior when Notre Dame wasn’t in the game. Considering the possibilities, ESPN would have to be crazy to not agree to renegotiate the ACC conference’s media rights deal if these other pieces were all in place.  More eyeballs equal more money and Notre Dame attracts a lot of eyeballs. Which means more eyeballs for ESPN and NBC equals more money for both the ACC and Notre Dame.

If Jim Phillips can do these 3 things, he can save the ACC.

College Football Chaos is coming... Hopefully

Why was there such surprise from college football fans when the 1^st College Football Playoff Rankings were released a few weeks back? You didn’t think a 1-loss Alabama team should be in the playoff ahead of 8 other undefeated teams?  What about Notre Dame and their resume that lacks a big win?

Guess what, it doesn’t matter what you think.  ESPN runs the College Football Playoffs.  They pick the teams and given the chance, they are picking big names like Alabama and Notre Dame.  Look at last year, #3 TCU beats Iowa State 55-3 the final week of the season and they DROP 3 spots in the standings to make room for Ohio State, who jumped up from #5 (outside the playoff) to #4 (in the playoff).  Who do you think gets more eyes on the television, Urban Meyer and Ohio State or TCU?  Who has a bigger fan base?  Who has a rich football tradition and who is still somewhat new to the national picture in college football?

Yes, Ohio State won the national championship, I realize that. But does that justify them even getting into the playoff?  TCU then went on to beat the #9 team in the nation 42-3 in their bowl game.  How do we know they don’t do the same thing to Alabama in the Playoff Semifinal?  That #9 team that TCU beat was Mississippi.  The same Mississippi team that handed Alabama their only regular season loss last season.  Last year it was Ohio State, this year it is Notre Dame.

Notre Dame brings eyes to the television.  ESPN knows this.  That is why if Notre Dame wins their last 2 games, they will be in the playoff, deserving or not.

That is also why I am hoping for mass chaos over the final few weeks of the season.  Consider these possibilities, this is what I’m rooting for.

IN THE ACC:
Clemson wins their final 2 regular season game. Finish regular season 12-0
North Carolina wins last 2 games of regular season. Finish regular season 11-1
NORTH CAROLINA WIN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP.
Both teams finish 12-1.

IN THE B1G:
Iowa wins out in regular season, finishes 12-0.
Michigan State wins out in the regular season to finish 11-1.
Ohio State loses to Michigan State, but beats Michigan. Finishes 11-1
MICHIGAN STATE BEATS IOWA IN B1G CHAMPIONSHIP.
All 3 teams from Big Ten have 1 loss. 2 coming in the final 3 weeks.

OR

Iowa wins out, going 12-0
Ohio State loses both of their final 2 games, finishing at 10-2
Michigan wins their fins 2 games, finishing 10-2
Michigan State beats Ohio State, but loses to Penn State
MICHIGAN BEATS IOWA IN B1G CHAMPIONSHIP.
2-loss Michigan gets bid over 1-loss Iowa?

OR

Iowa loses to Nebraska, finishes 11-1
Ohio State wins out. Finishes 12-0
IOWA BEATS OHIO STATE.
Both tied at 12-1

IN THE SEC:
Florida loses to Florida State, finishes the season 10-2.
Alabama wins out, going 11-1
FLORIDA BEATS ALABAMA.
Both teams from SEC have 2 losses

OR

Florida loses to Florida State, finishes the season 10-2.
Alabama loses to Auburn, finishes 10-2.
BEST 2 SEC TEAMS WITH 2-losses BEFORE THE SEC CHAMPIONSHIP

OR

Florida wins out, goes 11-1.
Alabama loses to Auburn, finishes 10-2.
Mississippi wins out and finishes 9-3.
Arkansas loses 1 of their last 2, finishes 7-5.
MISSISSIPPI BEATS FLORIDA
SEC Champ has 3 loses.

IN THE BIG XII & PAC-12
In both of these conferences there are still so many possibilities, I just checked out some of the extremes.

In the PAC-12, there are only 5 teams that can possibly play in the conference title game.  2 of the teams already have 2 losses, the other 3, each have 3 losses.  We could conceivably have conference champion that have 3 or 4 losses.

Stanford could finish 8-4, win the title game and finish at 9-4
USC could end up the same, 8-4 in the regular season, but a 9-4 conference champion.
Oregon, Utah and UCLA could all finish 9-3, meaning a 3-loss conference champion.

The Big XII at least has a possible playoff team remaining, but they also backloaded their schedule so that every team that has a chance has to play a brutal schedule down the stretch.

Here is what the Big XII schedule looks like the final 3 weeks.
#6 Oklahoma State – vs #10 Baylor, vs #7 Oklahoma
#7 Oklahoma – vs #18 TCU, @ #6Oklahoma
#10 Baylor - @ #6 Oklahoma, @ #18 TCU, vs Texas
#18 TCU - @ #7 Oklahoma, vs #10 Baylor
Sure Oklahoma State could run the table and be undefeated after this stretch and play their way into the playoff.  Or all 4 teams could end the season 10-2 in a 4-way tie.  Nice job Big XII!

We didn’t even mention Notre Dame yet.  With 2 games left, the Irish still leave plenty of questions, a lot of which sit with their opponents and schedule this season.
Notre Dame could still lose to Boston College today or Stanford next week.  But even if they win out, who is their best win (Temple, USC, Stanford, Pitt, Navy)? Tough to find one in that group.  Even worse would be for Notre Dame to win out, but Clemson loses once or maybe even twice.  They have hung their hat on having the best loss.  Well if Clemson suddenly isn’t #1, then what does Notre Dame have going for them?

What if Notre Dame wins out AND Oklahoma State wins out?  Who does the committee take, an undefeated Big XII champ or a 1-loss Independent team?

Oh yeah… What about Houston, they are still undefeated too. If chaos ensues, does a 2-loss Power 5 team get in over an undefeated Houston team? A Houston team that would have 2 wins over Power 5 schools and 2 wins over ranked opponents and the same “best win” as Notre Dame (Navy).

Lots of question still to be answered over the last 3 weeks.  I don’t know what will happen, nobody does, but I do know who I will be rooting for. 

LET’S GO CHAOS!

Week 5 Review

5 weeks into the college football season and we have complete chaos and it is FANTASTIC.

Let’s start with the Top 10 last week as 4 teams lost by a total of 73 points, and one of those losses was by just 2 points by #6 Notre Dame.  That means the other 3 lost by a combined 71.  #3 Mississippi and #8 Georgia each lost conference games by 28 points (38-10 finals in both games).  # 7 UCLA, coming off of a 26-point win on the road against a ranked Arizona team, lost by 15 at home against a then 2-2 Arizona State team.  Throw that on top of #1 Ohio State struggling against Indiana, who played without their starting QB and RB.  We also had #2 Michigan State nearly blowing a 21-point lead to hang on to beat lowly Purdue 24-21.  Basically what I am saying is that even the best teams in the country don’t look dominant.

Before we get into conference breakdowns after 5 weeks of the season, how about this little bit of food for thought, for the 1^st time since October 10, 2010 no SEC team in ranked in the Top 5 in AP Top 25.  That is 80 straight weeks.

On to my thoughts about each conference through 5 weeks.

ACC:
- Is anybody in the ACC good enough to make it to the 4-Team CFB Playoff from the ACC?  The conference only has 2 undefeated teams remaining (Clemson and FSU) and they have to play each other in 5 weeks.  And strength of schedule isn’t going to help anyone in this conference as 5 of the 14 teams already have 3 losses this year.

- As much as I enjoyed watching the Clemson/Notre Dame game on Saturday, I came away not having any idea how good Clemson really is.  Sure they beat a Top 6 Notre Dame team, but they barely beat ND.  They looked really good for 2 ½ quarters, looked decent for 1 quarter and looked flat out bad for the final 7 minutes or so.  The ACC Atlantic is pretty down, so the Tigers don’t have many chances to prove to their voters how good they really are.

- After watching Florida State sneak by teams all last season, but still make it into the playoffs because they were the undefeated defending champion, may have tainted me a bit about Jimbo Fisher and his squad.  I immediately have only seen them play twice this year, but they haven’t been very impressive if you ask me.  Yes they are undefeated, but beating up on Texas St, then struggling with South Florida, BC and Wake isn’t blowing the doors off of anyone.  I just don’t trust them to be the team we are once again being led to believe they are.  I don’t think it would really surprise anyone if they lost any of their next 3 games (vs MIA, vs LOU, @ GT) and then they still have Clemson and Florida waiting on their schedule.

- The Coastal Division is once again completely up for grabs.  The overwhelming preseason favorite and defending division champ, Georgia Tech, has started 0-2 in conference play.  The team most “experts” picked to finish 2^nd place in the division, Virginia Tech, is 0-1 and just had their worst offensive outing in 29 years.  The crazy thing is that you can’t count either of those teams out yet.  Each of the last 3 years the winner of the Coastal Division has had AT LEAST 2 losses in the conference.  Right now, both Duke and North Carolina seem to be the front-runners.  Both teams have already beat Georgia Tech, and Duke also has a win Boston College making them 2-0 just 5 weeks in.  The Blue Devils do play 3 of their next 4 and 5 of their final 7 on the road however, including a trip to Chapel Hill to take on UNC in 5 weeks.  North Carolina has 2 “should-be” wins up next and the close with a tough 5 game stretch, including 3 of those 5 on the road.  As I mentioned, this division is anyone’s for the taking.

BIG XII:
- The Top 4 teams in the Big XII (TCU, Baylor, Oklahoma & Oklahoma State) have clearly separated themselves as best in the conference.  All 4 are still undefeated, but none of the 4 have had what anyone would call a signature win to this point.  Oklahoma State is probably #4 of those 4 teams, but their schedule gives them the potential to get to 8-0 before having to face any of the other 3 top teams.  TCU also has their schedule back-loaded and doesn’t face 1 of the other top teams until November.  However, they play 2 of the 3 teams on the road.  Baylor, who hasn’t beat anyone yet, plays all the other teams in successive weeks, with the final 2 games against Oklahoma State and TCU on the road inside a 6 day window.  As with the other 3 teams, Oklahoma has their schedule back loaded and won’t face any of them until November 14^th.  It should make for an interesting next month or so as all 4 of these teams should remain undefeated.  The downfall, the Big XII still does not have a conference championship and these 4 teams beating up on each other in the final month of the season could keep all 4 out of the CFB Playoff.

- What is going on at Texas?  Since playing in the National Championship Game to conclude the 2009 season, Texas is just 37-32.  In those 32 losses 21 are by double digits and 16 (half) are by 20+ points.  Texas went to Charlie Strong, a man who made a name for himself by coaching defense, to turn things around last year.  All he has done is go 7-11 while giving up an average of 27.8 in those 18 games.  In just year 2 of his 5 year deal Charlie Strong is on the hottest of hot seats.  Next up for the Longhorns, the 10^th ranked Oklahoma Sooners, who have beaten Texas in 4 of their last 5 meetings in the Red River Rivalry Game.

- Kansas is the worst team of any P5 team in FBS football.  The real question, are they the worst P5 team EVER?  Kansas is 0-4 this season and that includes a lost an FCS team in South Dakota State.  They also have losses to Rutgers and Iowa State, both who only have 1 other win this season and those came against FCS schools too.  Memphis is the other school to beat Kansas this season, 55-23 and that was a down game for the Tigers.  Memphis had 651 yards of offense outgaining Kansas by 292 yards.  The Tigers also had 3 turnovers or that game could have been much worse.  Next up for the Jayhawks is Baylor, who very well could put up 100 if they wanted to on Saturday against Kansas.  The good news for Jayhawk fans… Midnight Madness is Friday.

Big Ten:
- Ohio State this year reminds me a whole lot like Florida State last year.  Florida State was the preseason #1 team as the defending National Champions, with a returning starting QB from that team (OSU has 2).  Sound familiar?  FSU then slept walked through the majority of their regular season schedule, and amazingly did just enough to be selected into the CFB Playoff as the #3 seed.  Ohio State is on that exact path.  Everyone knows that Ohio State has the players and talent to compete and probably beat any team in the country.  It seems like Ohio State knows this too, which is not a good thing.  The good thing for Ohio State is that the Big Ten is not good this year, so they could just coast through conference play.  The bad news is that if someone does upset them, they will be eliminated from playoff contention.  Ohio State should cruise in their next 5 games before playing games against Michigan State and Michigan in back-to-back weeks to close the season.

- Yes, I said Michigan there as I referred to a big game with Ohio State and NOT because it is a rivalry game.  Most people expected Jim Harbaugh to turn things around at Michigan, but I don’t think anyone thought it would be so soon.  Michigan is now 4-1 this year with their only loss coming in their opening game on the road against Utah, which doesn’t exactly look like a bad loss at this point, does it?  During their 4-game win streak the Wolverines have outscored their opponents 122-14, including 2 straight shutouts.  I’m not saying Michigan is back, but they are well on their way.  We will learn a lot more about Big Blue over the next 2 weeks (vs Northwestern, vs Michigan St.).  This Michigan team looks good enough to compete in the vastly overrated Big Ten East, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they beat the Buckeyes at the Big House this year.

- I mentioned that the Big Ten East is overrated, that must mean that the Big Ten West not rated at all.  The West is currently led by Iowa, Northwestern and Illinois; while typical powers like Nebraska and Wisconsin are a combined 5-5 so far this season.  Iowa, Northwestern and Illinois are a combined 14-1 this year, they combined for 18 wins total last season.  Northwestern has a tough test this weekend (@ Michigan), and Iowa has Illinois and Northwestern in back-to-back weeks coming up, but those 2 teams are in good position to really make a run at the West Division title.

- How bad does Maryland need to get before Randy Edsall is fired?  Not to kick a guy when he is down, but Edsall wasn’t even that good before he got to Maryland when he was at UCONN.  In his 12 years at UCONN before leaving for Maryland Edsall was 74-70 and UNDER .500 in conference play (22-26) in a bad Big East.  That somehow got him a promotion to the Maryland job.  Since taking over in College Park he has gone 22-33 (10-23 in ACC/Big Ten) in 4+ seasons.  So far this season the Terps have been blown out in all 3 of their losses, losing by 21 to Bowling Green, 39 to WVU and getting shutout 28-0 by Michigan Saturday.  They get #1 Ohio State this week.  Maryland probably won’t be favored in another game this season until their finale with Rutgers. 

PAC-12:
- Does anybody want to win the PAC-12?  No, seriously.  We are 5 weeks into the season and only 2 teams are undefeated and those 2 teams play each other this week!  Even crazier is that there are just 3 teams still undefeated in conference play.  7 of the 12 teams in the conference have multiple losses already.  At this rate we are going to have two 7-5 teams playing each other for the conference title.  More confusing is the complete inconsistency week in and week out by some of these teams.  UCLA went on a 3 game stretch of coming back from 10 points in the 4^th quarter to beat an average BYU team, to blowing out #16 Arizona on the road, to coming home and getting blown out by an unranked Arizona State team.  That same Arizona State team lost by 28 at home to USC last week before upsetting UCLA.  The whole conference is a mess.

- As I mentioned, the PAC-12 only has 2 undefeated teams left (which will be just 1 after Saturday) and just 3 teams with 1 loss.  If the PAC-12 hopes to get into the CFB Playoff this season they better hope 1 of those 5 teams run the table.  That is possible with the teams we are talking about (Cal, Utah, USC, UCLA, Stanford) when you look at their schedules, but is it likely considering what we have seen so far from this conference?

SEC:
- Florida is 5-0, should we be taking them serious yet?  They finally have an offense, so that is a plus considering the defense has always been there, but they have been putting up numbers against the likes of Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi.  Sure Ole Miss was ranked #3 and just beat Alabama, but they have been doing it with offense, not their D.  We have seen this before from Florida, so I am going to wait before I get on the bandwagon, although I’m willing to acknowledge that this team has the potential to be pretty good.  The good news for the Gators is you only have to be “pretty good” to win the SEC East.  The real test will be in 2 weeks when Florida plays LSU under the lights in Death Valley.

- Speaking of questioning how good teams are, has anybody snuck under the radar more than Texas A&M this season?  A&M is 5-0 and already has 2 wins against SEC West teams.  They also opened the season with a convincing win over then-ranked Arizona State.  Despite all of that they just barely snuck into the Top 10 in the rankings this week.  The Aggies have a week off before they host Alabama, which should be a match-up of Top 10 SEC teams.

- LSU is good, really good, but I’m still having a tough time buying in to any team that has yet to hold a team under 19, a team that has allowed 24 to Syracuse and 22 to Eastern Michigan.  LSU has the Heisman Trophy winner in Leonard Fournette, but they are going to need more on offense as the schedule gets tougher, because as I mentioned, that defense is not a typical LSU defense.

- In case you missed Nick Saban’s media session today, Alabama isn’t out of this thing yet.  Bama had a statement win Saturday when they smacked Georgia 38-10 in Athens and just reminded everyone that they are still the King of the SEC until further notice.  Bama still has games against Texas A&M on the road and at home versus’ LSU, but if they get past those 2, you’ll probably be seeing back in the CFB Playoff.

- I have decided that Chip Kelly has no chance at keeping his job with the Philadelphia Eagles after this season, so the next question is what college team does he end up with?  The list of 5 I came up with was Miami, Maryland, Texas, Tennessee and South Carolina.  Those 5 teams are all probably going to be in the hunt for a coach come December, so now we need to find out who are legitimate candidates.  Miami won’t want to pay what Kelly will demand, so they are out.  Maryland has the money with the backing from Kevin Plank, I just can’t see them going that big after Kelly and I’m not sure Kelly will burn his bridges with Phil Knight at Nike by going to Team Under Armour.  Texas would be by far the most entertaining prospect and something I could see happening if UT doesn’t get Saban this time around.  This leaves 2 SEC schools in Tennessee and South Carolina.  Tennessee may want to hold off on yet another coaching change, they have had 3 since Phil Fulmer left in 2008, but Butch Jones just hasn’t panned out like they had hoped.  They went for the splash hire when Fulmer retired and got burned by Lane Kiffin who left after 1 season to go to USC.  Would they be willing to try it again?  The other candidate is South Carolina who, by my guess, will be forcing long time head coach Steve Spurrier to retire after this season.  USC has always been close in the SEC and has shown that they want to take the big step into being an SEC power, but they have never quite gotten there.  Chip Kelly would change that.  Chip Kelly could make South Carolina an immediate threat in the SEC East, which means contending for SEC Championships on a regular basis.  Texas would be the more entertaining spot for Kelly, but South Carolina is the best fit for both parties.

OTHERS:
- Notre Dame is really good.  I realize they lost on Saturday to Clemson, but they showed me more in that game than in the 4 prior combined.  At the beginning of the season I thought they would be 5-2 at best after they opened with a tough 7 game stretch.  Texas hasn’t lived up to expectations and I guess they could still lose to Navy and or USC, but beating Georgia Tech they way they did and coming back and nearly beating Clemson showed me how good they really are.  Now I wonder where they will go from here.  ND has 7 games remaining and should be the favorite in all but maybe 1.  If this Notre Dame team goes 11-1 is that good enough to get into the CFB Playoff?  Is 10-2 good enough for a BCS bowl?  Personally I don’t think a 1-loss independent team gets into the playoff (another reason ND should join a conference full time), but this team might just be good enough to do so.  Do I think they are one of the top 4 teams in the country? No, but wins against USC and on the road against Stanford, as well as others losing might get them there.

- Watch the Group of 5 to make a run at one of the BCS bowls this season.  Teams like Memphis, Temple and Toledo are all undefeated with good wins.  Boise State has 1 loss, but has been very good other than their stumble to BYU in week 2.

Here are a few games to keep an eye on this Saturday:

Georgia Tech @ Clemson
Navy @ Notre Dame
Northwestern @ Michigan
Florida @ Missouri
Cal @ Utah

I know it’s not much, but hang in there for one more week.  Week 7 is loaded with great games.

Week 3 Review

I was on vacation last week, sorry there was no Week 2 Review. Family first!

Ok, so here are my thoughts both from week 3 and through the 1^st 3 weeks of the college football season.

Ohio State looks a whole lot like Florida State did last year as the defending champions.  The Buckeyes were sluggish in their opener and trailing at the half on the road against Virginia Tech.  It wasn’t until after knocking out the Hokies starting QB that Ohio State took control.  Then in week 2, the Buckeyes shutout a bad Hawaii team, but even in that game they were less than impressive.  Speaking of less than impressive, starter Cardale Jones has now thrown more interceptions than touchdowns this season and if you believe him, has been demoted.  In week 3 the Buckeyes were held to just 1 offensive touchdown against Northern Illinois.  Nothing against NIU, but even the best MAC teams shouldn’t be able to hang around with the team most think is the most talented in the country.  I hope that the pollsters are willing to look at the weak schedule and the weak conference that stands in front of Ohio State when they fill out their weekly ballots.  The defending champion Seminoles dropped to #4 last year by playing the same way as Ohio State has started this season.

Speaking of Ohio State, has Urban Meyer outsmarted himself?  He had 3 talented and experienced quarterbacks returning this season and he picked the one with the least amount of experience and the one that fits his style of offense the worst.  Not that Cardale Jones isn’t a fantastic QB, one that would probably be starting for about 80% of the schools in the country, but he should be #1 at Ohio State. Not this year.  Moving Braxton Miller to wide receiver has been a great move so far for the Buckeye offense.  But not playing JT Barrett at QB from day 1 is inexcusable.  Barrett accounted for almost 3,000 yards through the air last year and nearly 1,000 yards on the ground, scoring 45 touchdowns last year.  That after not being named starter until a week before the season, when Braxton Miller was injured.  Meyer is an outstanding coach, one of the best, but he played this one wrong.

Sticking with the Big Ten, how about Northwestern?  3-0 this season, while holding those 3 opponents to just 16 total points.  2 of those 3 teams are Stanford, who just dropped 41 on USC and Duke, who had scored 92 in their 1^st 2 games.  The last time the Wildcats started this well on defense was 1948.  That year, they went on to claim their only bowl victory in school history, beating Cal 20-14 in the Rose Bowl.

George O’Leary, you remember him, the guy who lied on his resume and was forced to resign as head coach at Notre Dame after just 5 days, yeah, now he wants to be the AD at Central Florida.  He stated at the beginning of the season that he wanted the position and that he was willing to make this be his final season as head coach at UCF.  Well, he is going to the extreme to get that AD gig.  Central Florida is now 0-3 this week after losing to Furman at home.  Furman is an FCS team that has now won just 2 of their last 13 games.  I think the administration at UCF may be hiring a new head coach this year no matter if O’Leary is the new AD or not.

Notre Dame has been bit by the injury bug as badly as anyone this season, but losing a player due to celebration makes their newest injury that much tougher.  Notre Dame defensive back Drue Tranquill will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury after breaking up a pass in the endzone during Saturday’s win over Georgia Tech.  This isn’t the 1^st time something like this has happened and it won’t be the last.  It was a completely innocent action and ended in terrible luck for Tranquill and the Irish, but it is ridiculous how national media pundits are criticizing this kid.  He is a college kid having fun, playing a game he clearly loves, let’s not take that away from college athletics.

By the way, in case you missed it, Notre Dame is now 3-0 beating three Power 5 conference teams.  Yes, Texas is no good and Virginia is one of the worst teams in the ACC, but Georgia Tech is one of the best in that conference and the Irish took it to them on Saturday.  I’m still not sold that ND is a serious playoff contender (they will need to go undefeated for that to happen), but it is still impressive.  Notre Dame gets a breather this week against UMASS before going to Clemson the following week.

What has happened to Jeremy Johnson and the Auburn offense?  After a quick start out of the gate this season in the opener against Louisville, the Auburn offense has been flat out bad.  Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn is supposed to be an offensive genius, but they have been everything but through 3 games this year.  His starting quarterback, Johnson, has thrown for just 5 touchdowns and 6 interceptions this season.  He has also run for just 59 yards, and that includes a 65 yard run Saturday (yeah, you do the math).  Things don’t get easier for the Tigers as they continue their SEC schedule this week against Mississippi State.  Don’t be surprised if you see Johnson on the bench if things don’t go the Tigers way on Saturday.  Behind Johnson on the depth chart is a very highly regarded recruit, Sean White.

Auburn wasn’t the only team from Alabama to take a tough L on Saturday, as their rival Alabama also lost their SEC opener, falling to Ole Miss for the 2^nd straight season.  The loss snapped the Tides 17 game home winning streak and completely through a wrench into the SEC West standings just 3 weeks into the season.  LSU and Mississippi seem to be the front runners after big wins on Saturday, but Texas A&M and Mississippi State have also looked good this season.  With the new playoff format, 1 more slip up for teams like Auburn, Alabama or Mississippi State and their playoff chances are gone.  Should be an interesting final 10 weeks in the SEC West.

As we look at teams from the SEC that can’t afford another loss, what should we make of the PAC-12?  Does anyone want to win that conference, and even if so, should we already eliminate them from playoff contention?  Just 3 weeks into the season and only 4 PAC-12 teams are still undefeated, and only Cal out of the PAC-12 North.  No offense to Cal, but they aren’t running the table this year.  Their 3 wins have come against Grambling, San Diego State and a 1-point win over Texas, because they missed an extra point with a minute to go in the game.  As a matter of fact, Cal could lose 5 of their next 6 and nobody would be surprised.  Arizona, Utah and UCLA are the remaining undefeated teams from the PAC-12 South.  UCLA has looked the best of those 3 teams.

As we continue to look at how strong each of the Power 5 conferences are, this past week the Big Ten and the ACC went head-to-head in 5 games.  None of the games featured top teams from their respective conference, but that might be for the better.  5 teams from the middle of each conference probably give us a better idea at how strong each conference actually is.  In those 5 games, the ACC won 3, while the Big Ten won 2.

I mentioned earlier that I thought that Notre Dame would have to go undefeated to get into the playoff this season.  That being the case, why are teams still playing as Independents with this current format?  We saw last year that the lack of a championship game hurt the Big XII.  Independents don’t only not have a championship game, they have no real base for comparison.  BYU also plays as an Independent, and I now after 3 weeks they are basically playing for nothing after their 24-23 loss to UCLA on Saturday.  Credit to BYU for scheduling such a tough slate, which included road games at Nebraska, UCLA and Michigan and a home game against Boise State to open the season.  The schedule eases up after that, but that is a brutal start for any team.  Notre Dame might be able to afford a loss more than BYU because of their challenging schedule, but even a 1-loss Irish team is not a shoe-in for the playoff.

We are 3 weeks in and should have a decent grasp on what we have seen to this point in the season, so here are my Top 4 teams as of today (and a few that are just on the outside looking in).
1. Mississippi
2. LSU
3. Ohio State
4. Oklahoma
Next 4 (in no order)… Notre Dame, Clemson, UCLA, Georgia

Week 1 Review

Some quick thoughts after the 1^st week of the college football season.

Michigan is improved, but Harbaugh still has a lot of work to do.  Last year the Wolverines lost at home to Utah 26-10, with the Utes scoring the final 16 points for the win.  Michigan lost this year, but put up a fight the whole way.  Losing 24-17 on the road and were a recovered onside kick away from making the game REAL interesting.

Utah could be really good if they found some more play makers on the offensive side of the ball.  Devontae Booker is the only threat the Utes have and he is a good one, but they need more.  Booker carried the ball 22 times and scored on the ground.  He also was their leading receiver with 7 catches in week 1 vs Michigan.

TCU got a road win versus a Power 5 team, but they didn’t look very impressive in doing so.  It is just one game, but the Horned Frogs couldn’t finish drives and had to settle for field goals on too many drives.  They certainly didn’t look like what you would expect from the 2^nd best team in the country.

Duke and David Cutcliffe have found their quarterback.  Cutcliffe has been a quarterback guru everywhere he has coached but has yet to find one at Duke, until now.  Thomas Sirk made his debut with the Blue Devils Thursday night against Tulane and the junior QB was 27-40 for 289 and 2 scores.  He also ran the ball 15 times for 68 yards.

New Baylor QB Seth Russell throws a really nice ball; he has great touch on the deep ball.  It is only a 1 game sample, but it looks like the Baylor offense won’t miss much with Russell stepping in for Bryce Petty.  Russell actually adds a little more athleticism to the quarterback position for the Bears.

Hawaii and Colorado was a perfect example of why a preseason game in college football is not a terrible idea.  The two quarterbacks combined to go 42-78 and just 360 yard.  It also had 18 punts, 14 penalties and five turnovers and was utterly unwatchable.

Stop FCS games!  Yes every year you get teams like Washington State and Kansas that lose to the FCS, but you also get games like Georgia Tech beating Alcorn State 69-6 with GT running for 476 yards and Ole Miss beating Tennessee-Martin 76-3 which included a 55-0 lead and Mississippi THROWING a touchdown pass in the 4^th quarter.  Those games need to stop.

Continue playing on the road against Group of 5 teams if you are a Power 5 team.  It creates the chance of upsets and it immediately gives these lower level FBS teams a showcase home game that the players and fans can look forward to.  In the opening week only we saw teams like Temple beat Penn State at home.  Western Michigan playing with in-state foe Michigan State into the 4^th quarter and Central Michigan leading Oklahoma State in the 2^nd half before falling short.  Those games are great for the little guys and a real challenge for the big boys.  A win-win for everybody.

Malik Zaire is fun to watch run Brian Kelly’s offense at Notre Dame.  It seems to be pretty clear why Everett Golson transferred out of Notre Dame, because he was good, but Zaire has the potential to do some special things for the Irish this season.  Zaire went 19-22 for 313 and 3 scores in the opener against Texas.

Notre Dame is either really good or Texas is absolutely awful.  It reality it is probably somewhere in between.  Charlie Strong is in year 2 of a huge rebuild at Texas, so nobody expected a CFB Playoff bid, but I would imagine that the fan-base didn’t expect the worst loss to open the season since 1988 (@BYU 47-6).

I loved watching the aggressive play and play-calling of the Temple defense against Penn State.  Temple is a team that is full of players that didn’t get recruited by Penn State and despite being overmatched at almost every position that didn’t change their style of play and it paid off, limiting Penn State to just 54 yards in their final 12 drives of the game.

The Penn State offensive line is awful.  I really like Christian Hackenberg and I would love to see what he could do if his O-Line could keep him clean, but that doesn’t look like it will happen in his time at Penn State.  Hackenberg was sacked 10 times by Temple on Saturday.  Some are thinking that Hackenberg could be the top QB selected in next year’s NFL draft.  That will only happen if he survives this season.

Oregon lost the Heisman Trophy winner and 2^nd overall pick in quarterback Marcus Mariotta, yet the Ducks didn’t miss a beat in their 61-42 win over Eastern Washington.  Oregon racked up 731 yards and 34 first downs on offense.  That includes running for 485 and 6 touchdowns.  They also didn’t lose their quick score attach either.  All of the Ducks scoring drives were under 3 minutes except their final score in the 4^th quarter, that one lasted 3:20.

Tons of stars lost for the season already in just one week.  Quarterbacks Taysom Hill (BYU) and Terrel Hunt (Syracuse), running backs Tarean Folston (Notre Dame) and James Conner (Pitt) and defensive lineman Eddie Vanderdoes (UCLA) are all highly regarded players that are done for the season already due to injuries.  We also have All-American linebacker Scooby Wright from Arizona, safety Mike Caputo from Wisconsin, wide receiver Mike Williams from Clemson and Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Brewer out for a considerable amount of time with lesser injuries.

Will Muschamp joining the coaching staff at Auburn is a very good thing.  We all know that Gus Malzahn knows offense and can put up some points, but now he has a defense behind it.  Muschamp, the former Florida head coach has always been a great defensive mind and now he able to focus on just that.  In the opener versus Louisville, Auburn scored 1 defensive touchdown on an 82 yard fumble return in the 1^st half and set up another one with a 35 yard interception return in the 2^nd half.  Auburn jumped out to a 24-0 3^rd quarter lead before Louisville final got on the scoreboard.

Alabama’s running game is crazy good.  The Tide have had guys like Eddie Lacy and Mark Ingram in recent years, but Derrick Henry might be the best of the bunch.  Henry ran for 147 on 13 carries and 3 scores against Wisconsin on Saturday.  His back up Kenyan Drake ran 10 times for 77 yards and a score.  He also had 2 catches for 48 yards.  This 1-2 punch from Alabama is as good as we have seen from the Crimson Tide.

High Octane is illegal in Houston, TX.  Arizona State and the Fighting Todd Graham’s had only 291 yards of offense (3.55 ypp) and two turnovers against Texas A&M Saturday.  Of the Fighting Todd Graham’s 1^st 12 drives, they punted 9 times, fumbled twice and scored just one touchdown.

I still love watching Todd Graham lose.  I don’t think that will change any time soon either.

I love watching Penn State lose.  I know that won’t change any time soon.

Hail Mary conversions are fun. 

West Coast teams should never be forced to play noon EST.  Stanford played Northwestern at Noon.  The players woke up at 4:30 to try to make up for the time difference and prepare for the game, it didn’t help.  The Cardinal looked sluggish from the get go.  They finished the game with just 2 field goals and only 240 yards of total offense.  They also turned the ball over twice.

Baker Mayfield showed why he was named the starter for the Oklahoma Sooners after camp.  Mayfield threw for 388 yards and 3 scores in his collegiate debut.  He also ran for another touchdown.  He unseated Trevor Knight who was the returning starter, who accounted for over 3,100 yards and 30 touchdowns in his 1^st 2 years at OU.

Josh Rosen looks to be the real thing at UCLA.  The #1 rated quarterback out of high school last year won the starting job at UCLA in fall camp and impressed in his debut.  Rosen threw for 351 and 3 touchdowns, going 28 of 35 in a 34-16 win over Virginia.

Ohio State looked pretty impressive in their opener.  After the Buckeyes got things going they looked unstoppable, and remember they were playing without 4 starters that were suspended.  I still am not sure that Cardale Jones is the best option for the Urban Meyer offense, but he also isn’t a bad option to have.  With their toughest game out of the way, if Ohio State loses at any point in the season it would be a huge upset.

The Tarnished Trophy

The Heisman Trophy will be awarded tonight for the 77^th time in its history.  According to the Heisman Trust Mission Statement, it will be presented to “the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard work. The Heisman Trophy Trust ensures the continuation and integrity of this award.”  Reading this was news to me because growing up, I always thought that the Heisman Trophy was awarded to the best player in college football.  Recently, that too has changed to giving the award to the best player on the best team in college football. 

For this reason, the Heisman Trophy, which was once the single greatest individual trophy in all of sports, has now become ordinary.

In all likelihood, Johnny Football, Johnny Manziel to those of you new to this freshman phenom, will win tonight, as he should.  I have no problem with him winning.  My problem is with the player who many think could pull the upset, Manti Te’o.  Now, maybe my issue should be with the Heisman committee and their voters instead of with Te’o himself.  As I said, the Heisman Trophy used to be awarded to the best player in college football who held those traits and qualities mentioned in the Heisman Trust Mission Statement.  Now, they give it to the best player on one of the top ranked teams.

Manti Te’o had a very nice season this year, and did it all with a heavy heart after losing his grandmother and girlfriend within a 24 hour span.  I get that.  That being said, he isn’t the best linebacker in football, let alone the best player in the nation.  He was the middle linebacker on the best defense in the country and averaged just 4.33 solo tackles a game, which does not rank in the top 100 nationally (The NCAA only ranks top 100).  Te’o also ranks 59^th in the nation in total tackles with 103.  That is 63 tackles behind the nation’s leader.  As for interceptions, yes, he does have 7 this season, which is more than any other linebacker in the nation, and only 1 other player has more.  That player is Phillip Thomas from Fresno State, who returned 3 of those 8 picks for scores.  Thomas also has more solo tackles than Te’o this year.  Why wasn’t he invited to New York?  If the trophy is given to the best player, one would think Thomas would be invited before Te’o.  No?

Let’s try this blind comparison.

PLAYER A:
Tackles - 103
Sacks - 1.5
Interceptions - 7
Tackles for Loss - 5.5 for 19 yards
QB Hurries - 4
Forced Fumbles - 0
Fumbles Recovered - 2

PLAYER B:
Tackles - 125
Sacks - 5.5
Interceptions - 2
Tackles for Loss - 10.5 for 48 yards
QB Hurries - 8
Forced Fumbles - 6
Fumbles Recovered - 2

Player A is Notre Dame LB and Heisman Finalist Manti Te’o.  Player B is the 2-time Big East Player of the Year, Khaseem Greene, a linebacker from Rutgers.  The numbers speak for themselves.  For what it’s worth, Rutgers allowed 14.25 points per game, good enough for 4^th best in the nation, and they finished with a 9-3 record and unranked.

Again, I hate the way this award is now given to the player with the most publicity who plays for a great team.  Nowhere in the Heisman mission statement does it say the “most valuable” or “leader,” yet that is the voters’ current interpretation for the award.

In 1985, Bo Jackson’s senior year at Auburn they finished 8-4 and unranked.  In 1988, Barry Sanders starred on a team outside the Top 10 at Oklahoma State.  Neither of those two players would have won the Heisman Trophy had the voters used the same mentality then, which they use now.  More recently, in one of the biggest Heisman snubs in history, Jason White, the quarterback of the #1 ranked Oklahoma Sooners, was awarded the Heisman over Larry Fitzgerald, star wide receiver of the 8-4 Pitt Panthers. I would love to go back and hear from the voters who voted for White that year over Fitzgerald.

The Heisman is a joke anymore.  It lives off its history and is no longer as prestigious as it once was.  That is unfortunate, because at one point in history, it truly meant something special to win the Heisman Trophy.

PITT HIRES HAYWOOD

Earlier today, the University of Pittsburgh will announce Michael Haywood as the football programs 34th head coach. This comes 9 days after the forced resignation of Dave Wannestedt. Many supporters of the program were glad to see Wannestedt go, but then thoroughly disappointed in the hiring process of his replacement. So let’s take a look at what has gone on over the past week plus.

Many Pitt fans were excited about the program not settling for the underachieving that Wannestedt had done over the past three. Most fans also expected the university to make a sexy pick for their next hire to take Pitt to the proverbial “next level.” Michael Haywood is by no means is a sexy pick as the new head coach.

When Wannestedt was forced to resign, the rumors began of who could be the next head coach. We heard Chris Petersen from Boise State was the first person that Steve Pederson contacted. We heard names like Mike Leach tossed around. The way-to-optimistic Pitt fans saw Urban Meyer available as the next coach after he resigned at Florida. Well, none of these guys ended up being serious contenders. The guys that were considered serious candidates included Al Golden from Temple, who took the Miami head coaching position, and Oklahoma State’s offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, who chancellor Mark Nordenberg said no to. That left fans back at square one. However, that was not the case for Pederson and the staff at Pitt. Apparently, they had in fact offered Al Golden the position and he was the schools #1 choice, but he chose Miami instead. However, the school never did offer Holgorsen and reports are showing that the school never actually talked to him directly about the job. Nordenberg did not like his background and thought he was not a “Pitt guy” (whatever that is).

What we have found out is that Michael Haywood was interviewed multiple times during this process, so apparently he was one of the schools top targets from the beginning. And why wouldn’t he be? Haywood has a solid background. Haywood, in his first head-coaching job, went 1-11 in his first season. In season two, he in 9-4 and won the conference title. On that conference title team, 43 of the 65 men on the travel roster were freshmen or sophomores. The guy cleaned house, got the players he wanted and won, what’s not to like?

Haywood has a great coaching background too. Since 1995 he worked at three programs before getting the head-coaching job at Miami. In that time he won a national championship while at LSU working with Nick Saban. He also learned from Mack Brown at Texas and was the offensive coordinator at Notre Dame with Charlie Weis. Nobody liked Charlie Weis at Notre Dame and they didn’t win much, but one thing that never lost them games was the offense, and that was run by Haywood.

Do I love the hire, no. Do I hate it though, certainly not. I like the fact that Haywood has head coaching experience. I like the fact that he has great recruiting connections. I like the fact that it is tough to find another coach in the business that has worked with him that doesn’t rave about his abilities. I get that he was not a sexy pick, but I’m willing to at least give the guy a chance. The last time Pitt fans were this upset that the school didn’t make a “sexy” hire was when the university hired a guy named Jamie Dixon, how’s that working out?

Running Blog Throughout the Days Games

I will be doing a running blog of my thoughts throughout the Big East games today. They will include little bits of information on the games that I am watching as well as the implications that each result brings throughout the day.

If you want to share your thoughts, you can email me at thereitmeyerrant@hotmail.com

Watching the Nova/WVU game on CBS, will be checking in with Georgetown/Cincy game on ESPN360.com as we go.

12:10
Not sure if I am more surprised to hear Greg Anthony doing the color to this game or the fact that he has his "bubble teams". He covers the NBA, why is he covering a big game in March?

12:18
If my math is correct through 6 minutes WVU is on pace to score ZERO points!

12:20
Villanova 10, Turkey 2

12:21
The Turkish kid has never seen a shot he didn't like, unfortunately the same can not be said about a razor!

12:24
Scottie Reynolds has now been more productive at the broadcast table than Greg Anthony!

(From by buddy Jason)
The Turkish kid shots his FT's like he is gonna try to tackle a bull

12:28
Thought about looking up the Turkish guys name, but it is more fun to just call him "the Turkish kid," it's not like everyone doesn't know who we mean!

12:36
I hate those stupid UPS commercials with the guy with the chick hair. How does UPS not realize how annoying those commercial are?

HALFTIME SCORE:
Georgetown 29, Cincinnati 26

12:55
How does a Top 10 team shoot 2-10 from the foul line? No excuse for that. That is the difference on the scoreboard right now for WVU.

HALFTIME SCORE:
Villanova 29, WVU 16

Jason- Time to ship WVU of to the Big Ten, 16 points in the 1st half!

Georgetown 41, Cincinnati 35
15:53 remaining

Diabetic Austin Freeman is a 60% 3-point shooter, has 15 points already!

Let the Austin Freeman diabetic jokes start...

Jason- Austin Freemans line, 15 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 insulin shots
Keith (from Philly)- Imagine how good Georgetown would have been all season if Freeman had Diabetes all season!

1:18
Since I get updates on my phone for the Penguins, you get them here too...Jordan Staal goal. Pens 1, other team 0

I seriously don't know who they are playing....I'll look it up.

1:21
Kevin Jones scores 2, his first two. Obviously a new strategy for this half, they are going to try to score in the first 6 minutes of the half.

1:24
The Penguins are playing the Dallas Stars

SCORE UPDATE:
Georgetown 52, Cincinnati 37
10 to play

A win secures a bye for Georgetown in the BET.

1:34
WVU already in the bonus with 14:34 left in the game, Redding has 4 fouls for Nova. The way that WVU has shot FT's today, I'm not sure this is a good thing....6-16 today.

1:35
2 point game, Villanova has scored only 5 points in 6 minutes of the second half. 34-32 Nova.

SCORE UPDATE:
Georgetown up 29 with 3:42 left, 70-41

Win clinches a bye for Georgetown. Hoyas could get to #7 with a ND loss.
Cincinnati will finish either 11th or 12th depending on the UCONN/USF game.

1:47
Butler knocks down 2 FT's and WVU has their first lead of the game...41-39

1:48
Apparently neither team wants to join the Big Ten, we've had an offensive explosion in the last two minutes.....WVU is killing Nova down low and on the boards. That is something that I think will really hurt Villanova in the Tournament (the big one, as well as the BET).

FINAL SCORE:
Georgetown 74, Cincinnati 47

Way to show up Cincy!

GEORGETOWN CLINCHES OPENING ROUND BYE
Georgetown will finish either 7 (ND loss) or 8 (ND win).
CINCINNATI will finish either 11 (UCONN loss) or 12 (UCONN win)

1:54
Freeman finished with 24 points going 4-7 from 3 for the Hoyas.

1:59
Good news is Pitino is not wearing his all-white suit, bad news is it is RED!

2:00
Huggy Bear just got T'd up....he better be careful, it looks like heart attack #2 could be right around the corner....he is fired up!

2:02
After the Technical, WVU comes out in the 1-3-1 and Nova picks it apart with some great interior passing for an easy lay-up....followed up by 2 straight 3's by WVU...game is going back and forth now, we are in for a great finish. WVU 51-50 4:18 left.

2:05
UNLV professors not happy with that one....32+5 is NOT 36 Greg!

2:10
Not sure why Nova keeps settling for 3's against this zone considering they got easy lay-ups the 1st 2 trips down against it using quick passes and their bigs.

2:11
My buddy Jason just texted me that he is thinking of betting Penn State today...I can take him cheering for WVU today since it helps PITT, but there is no reason to EVER root for Penn State, even if it does help your wallet.

2:13
Nice to see this top-notch broadcast team is paying attention, "West Virginia is now is some type of sort of zone this trip." REALLY?! They have been playing zone the last 5 minutes!

2:15
Typical Big East game, the refs are calling WAY to much. Both coaches already got T'd up for arguing and now they send Scottie Reynolds to the line after never getting touched. LET THEM PLAY!

2:16
HUGE 3 by Butler...WVU up 56-55 with 52.0 seconds left

2:17
OFFENSIVE FOUL!!!! Very VERY questionable call...WVU up 1 and with the ball, 37 seconds left.

2:20
WVU is 12-14 from the line in the 2nd half...Reynolds answers quick, WVU up 58-57...WVU ball

2:21
14-16 now

2:22
Corey Fisher hits a DEEP 3 with 7.5 left....Devin Ebanks mismanaging clock, has to settle for a half-courter for the win. OVERTIME!

2:27
FYI: Greg Anthony, there is no "NEW RULE" about the charge circle, that is just in the NBA....this guy is terrible!!! I hope he isn't doing any games in the NCAA Tournament!

2:30
46 fouls and 61 FT attempts so far....Truck Byant has now fouled out, 4 other players with 4.

2:31
Greg Anthony with bad information yet again....Pitt has the tiebreaker over WVU not the other way around.

2:35
West Virginia up 1, 64-63 with 51.3 left in OT. The WVU zone is really giving Nova problems due to their size in that zone.

2:38
WVU has now made 16-18 FT's since the halftime and 12 straight. Corey Stokes makes a BIG 3 to tie it.

2:41
Butler just did his best Ray Allen impression and hit a crazy runner it take the lead with 5.7 seconds left!

2:43
Scottie Reynolds misses a 3 from the corner (not sure it would have counted anyway, don't think he got it off in time) and WVU wins 68-66.

FINAL SCORE:
West Virginia 68, Villanova 66

Seeding for those 2 teams will be determined by the outcome of the Pitt/Rutgers game.
If Pitt wins, seeding goes, #2 Pitt, #3 WVU, #4 Villanova
If Rutgers wins seeding goes, #2 WVU, # Villanova, #4 Pitt

HALFTIME SCORE UPDATES:
South Florida 33, UCONN 31
Syracuse 35, Louisville 30
Notre Dame 26, Marquette 26

2:52
Jay Williams in studio talking about Louisville being a bubble team, "they won the games they are suppose to won." REALLY!?!?! He is a Duke guy too. "they won the games they are suppose to WON!" UNREAL!

3:19
This Syracuse-Louisville is high paced, but not really a great level of play at this point.

SCORE UPDATES:
Marquette 42, Notre Dame 33 12:12 left
South Florida 52, UCONN 42 12:15 left
Louisville 45, Syracuse 42 13:32 left

3:29
Louisville absolutely lighting it up right now....3 straight trips with 3's then a fast break basket. Louisville up 55-48.

3:33
Interesting stat...Syracuse 34 of 48 points scored in the paint, can't knock down any jumpers, while Louisville is living by the 3. Now 9-30 for the Cardinals behind the arc.

3:40
Kyle Kuric averages 3 ppg for Louisville, just hit 2 straight 3's....he has 13 today in 13 minutes.
Louisville 63-54.

PENS UPDATE:
Pens 6-3 winners, trailed 3-1. Crosby had 2 goals and 1 assist.

3:44
Syracuse with the press causes some confusion, Louisville has to waste a TO.

3:45
Wes Johnson just picked up with 4th foul, still 7:03 remaining, he is staying in the game. Louisville 64-56.

3:47
Kuric ANOTHER 3 pointer! 67-59 Louisville

SCORE UPDATE:
Marquette 46-43, Harangody has played today, but not much and is not is the game down the stretch.

Marquette 50-43 with 1:02 remaining

3:52
Louisville is up by double digits now. Kyle Kuric is now 8-9 from the field and leads all scorers with 20. Rautins on the other hand is 1-9....Louisville up 75-61

3:56
Marquette blows 50-43 lead, Scott hits a 3 at the buzzer for the Irish and we have our 2nd OT game of the day in Big East play. 51-51

SCORE UPDATE:
South Florida 68, UCONN 62 1:25 left

4:00
Louisville just eating clock now, 1 minute to go in the game Louisville 75-64.

FINAL SCORE:
Louisville 78, Syracuse 68

SYRACUSE IS #1 SEED
LOUISVILLE IS #6 SEED

4:04
UCONN down 2, 70-68 with 36.0 left

4:05
USF up 72-68 with 25.1 left and the Bulls are heading to the foul line.... This loss would REALLY hurt UCONN's chances of getting into the NCAA Tournament, they will need a long run in NYC.

FINAL SCORE:
South Florida 75, UCONN 68

UCONN IS #12 SEED
CINCINNATI now secures the #11 SEED with UCONN loss

4:10
Notre Dame up 56-53 with 48.0 seconds left

4:15
Marquette's Jimmy Butler hits a BIG 3 to cut it to 2, 22 seconds left, Marquette lets 9 seconds go off the clock before fouling ND's best foul shooter.

4:17
Acneitis hits both foul shots for ND, 13.8 left ND leads 60-56.

4:18
Whoever the moron color guy is in this game just said that he hopes that DePaul gets a win the BET because the new coach has done "such a great job" REALLY?! That 1-17 record makes me think otherwise.

4:19
Acneitis makes 1-2, Irish up 3, FOULS! GREAT CALL, why don't more coaches do that?

4:20
Marquette makes both FT's down 1 with 2.7 to go.

4:22
IRISH WIN!

FINAL SCORE:
Notre Dame 63
Marquette 60

4:25
With a little break before the Pitt-Rutgers game let's take a look at what we know now.

X**Syracuse Orange 15-3
**West Virginia Mountaineers 13-5
**Villanova Wildcats 13-5
**Pittsburgh Panthers 12-5
X*Marquette Golden Eagles 11-7
X*Louisville Cardinals 11-7
X*Notre Dame Fighting Irish 10-8
X*Georgetown Hoyas 10-8
X-South Florida Bulls 9-9
X-Seton Hall Pirates 8-9
X-Cincinnati Bearcats 7-11
X-Connecticut Huskies 7-11
St. John’s Red Storm 6-12
Rutgers Scarlet Knights 5-12
Providence Friars 4-13
X-DePaul Blue Demons 1-17

**Clinched Double-bye
*Clinched opening round bye
X-Clinched Current Seeding

5:18
This game is incredibly boring...How the hell did Rutgers win 5 games?

5:20
They could play this game for the next 5 hours and I think Pitt already has scored more than Rutgers could get in that span.

SCORE UPDATE:
Pitt 40, Rutgers 16

To be fair I think we need to use the same comment as before...
Apparently Rutgers is making a run at the Big Ten with just 16 points in the 1st half. They would be winning most games in the Big Ten with that type of offensive showing!

5:24
With some time at halftime let's take a look at the brackets as of now for the BET.

TEAMS IN BOLD ARE LOCKED INTO SEEDS
TUESDAY
March 9th:
NOON
9 – South Florida
Vs
16 – DePaul
2:00
12 – UCONN
Vs
13 – St. John's
7:00
10 – Seton Hall
Vs
15 – Providence (with loss vs Seton Hall, Rutger's with Providence win)
9:00
11 – Cincinnati
Vs
14 – Rutgers (with Seton Hall win, Providence with Seton Hall loss)

WEDNESDAY
March 10th:
NOON
8 – Georgetown
Vs
Tuesday NOON winner
2:00
5 – Marquette
Vs
Tuesday 2:00 winner
7:00
7 – Notre Dame
Vs
Tuesday 7:00 winner
9:00
6 – Louisville
Vs
Tuesday 9:00 winner

THURSDAY
March 11th:
NOON
1 – Syracuse
Vs
Wednesday NOON winner
2:00
4 – Villanova
Vs
Wednesday 2:00 winner
7:00
2 – Pitt
Vs
Wednesday 7:00 winner
9:00
3 – WVU
Vs
Wednesday 9:00 winner

5:54
I realize they are playing Rutgers, but I have seen every game that Pitt has played this year and I really think this might be the most complete performance all season. It is a nice time to be playing your best basketball game. Wonder if the coaching staff laid into them after just going through the motions and stealing one from Providence Thursday.

6:00
No wonder Dante Taylor was a McDonald's All-American, look at how well he plays against high school level talent!

6:12
Gotta love the one man press by Nasir to force the turnover, while up 28!

6:13
Gilbert Brown tried to get the media guide cover with that dunk attempt!

FINAL SCORE:
Pitt 83, Rutgers 54

PITT IS #2 SEED
Rutgers is now either #14 or #15 depending on Seton Hall/Providence outcome
ST. JOHN'S IS #13 SEED

6:35
Ok, everyone thanks for taking part in the running blog today, I am done. We know everything right now except for the #14-15 seeds. Simply put, if Providence beats Seton Hall they are the #14, if Seton Hall wins Rutgers is the #14.

Here is what the brackets look like as of now:
TUESDAY
March 9th:
NOON
9 – South Florida
Vs
16 – DePaul
2:00
12 – UCONN
Vs
13 – St. John's
7:00
10 – Seton Hall
Vs
15 – Providence (with loss vs Seton Hall, Rutger's with Providence win)
9:00
11 – Cincinnati
Vs
14 – Rutgers (with Seton Hall win, Providence with Seton Hall loss)

WEDNESDAY
March 10th:
NOON
8 – Georgetown
Vs
Tuesday NOON winner
2:00
5 – Marquette
Vs
Tuesday 2:00 winner
7:00
7 – Notre Dame
Vs
Tuesday 7:00 winner
9:00
6 – Louisville
Vs
Tuesday 9:00 winner

THURSDAY
March 11th:
NOON
1 – Syracuse
Vs
Wednesday NOON winner
2:00
4 – Villanova
Vs
Wednesday 2:00 winner
7:00
2 – Pitt
Vs
Wednesday 7:00 winner
9:00
3 – WVU
Vs
Wednesday 9:00 winner

I will be doing the same type of running blog next Tuesday and Wednesday for the Big East Tournament before I head up to NYC for Thursday and the weekend. Depending on access, I will try to be on from NYC too.

You can follow me on Twitter, click here

RANDOM RANTING

NOTRE DAME TO JOIN A CONFERENCE FOR FOOTBALL?

Much has been made over the years about Notre Dame’s affiliation with the Big East conference. In 1995, the conference allowed Notre Dame to join in all sports but football leaving them as an independent. Since that time rumors have swirled that the Big Ten would like to get Notre Dame to be its 12th team (they would probably still go by the Big Ten even with 12 teams considering all they did when Penn State joined was change the design of the logo). There has also been a strong push from Big East fans and schools to force them to join the conference in football, or to get rid of them altogether. Big East fans need to worry no more. After last Saturdays home loss to UCONN, Notre Dame officials have been told by the Big East that they are not welcome into their conference for football in fear it would hurt the conferences national perception. If you recall Temple was kicked out of the Big East in football because they could not compete at a high enough level, which seems to be the case with the Irish as well. Over the past two seasons, Notre Dame is 0-4 versus Big East teams with three of those losses coming in South Bend. Big East teams have been scheduling games recently with the Irish to try to get easy wins to help their win total in efforts to become bowl eligible. Here is a look at Big East teams with Notre Dame on their schedule trying to get easy wins:
Pitt – home and home series every year through 2015
South Florida – plays at Notre Dame in 2011
UCONN – plays 6 times in seven years between 2011 and 2017
Syracuse – plays 4 straight years in a home and home series between 2014 and 2017
Rutgers has also been trying to schedule a game in the 2011 season to be played at Yankee Stadium with the Irish.
All told, this would be 18 wins for the Big East against Notre Dame in the coming years.

Not all is bad for Irish fans though, Temple is currently 7-0 in conference play and in first place in the MAC East, I’m sure if you ask nicely the MAC would find room for you somewhere in the MAC West division.


4th AND 2

I didn’t get to put my two cents worth last week about the bonehead call made by Bill Belichick, so I will do it now, and it is really simple. HE IS NOT A GREAT COACH!

I know this will shock everyone that someone would even have the gull to utter such a phrase, but lets look at things a little closer before we put him on the Mount Rushmore of NFL Coaches. Belichick was blessed with the luck of having Tom Brady fall into his hands as a compensatory pick in the 6th round (drafted #199 overall) in 2000. Tom Brady is without a doubt a fantastic QB. He is top 3 in the NFL now and that might not be high enough. But let’s see what Billy did before this Joe Montana of this generation showed up on his doorstep.

Bill Belichick is currently in his 15th season as an NFL head coach. His career record in regular season play is 145-89. His record in the playoffs is 15-4. His record without Tom Brady as his starting QB is 51-62. Err..what?! Yes, EXACTLY! He has had two winning seasons as a head coach without Tom Brady leading the show. In his 7 years as a head coach with Tom Brady under center he has had winning seasons in all seven, in the 7 without him he has 2. He had an overall record as the Cleveland head coach (how many people forgot he coached in Cleveland?) of 36-44 in five seasons with one winning season before being fired after the 1995 season. It is also not like he had this great insight to make Brady his starting QB, he started him by default after Drew Bledsoe was bleeding internally after a hit in the 2001 season. Brady took a team that was 0-2 and they finished 11-5.

Now, let us look at the Bill Belichick coaching tree. Normally you can tell how good of a coach someone was by the success of his or her understudies. Nine coaches learned under Belichick and went on to become head coaches elsewhere. Here are their coaching numbers:
NFL COACHES:
Romeo Crennel, Cleveland Browns, 2005-08, 24-40
Al Groh, NY Jets, 2000, 9-7
Josh McDaniels, 2009, 6-4
Eric Mangini, NY Jets and Cleveland Browns, 2006-2009, 24-34
Nick Saban, Miami Dolphins, 2005-06, 15-17
Jim Schwartz, Detroit Lions, 2009, 2-8
NCAA COACHES:
Kirk Ferentz, Iowa, 1999-2009, 80-53
Al Groh, Virginia, 2001-2009, 59-52
Pat Hill, Fresno State, 1997-2009, 92-61
Charlie Weis, Notre Dame, 2005-2009, 35-26
Nick Saban, Michigan State, LSU, Alabama, 112-48-1

Of the NFL coaches not one had a winning record that coached more than a season and only two fo the six are still with their original job and those guys are both new this season. In college, he has done much better. All of these coaches have winning records and are still currently employed (both Al Groh and Charlie Weis are rumored to be fired after this season.)

So, maybe that bonehead 4th and 2 call wasn’t that much of a surprise. Tom Brady executed it, and put the throw on the money, but it just was not enough. Maybe is was just a bad play call by a bad head coach.

KINGS OF KENTUCKY

Can we please stop the National Title talk for the Kentucky Men’s Basketball team?! First of all, what is all this talk based on anyway? The fact that they where .500 in conference play last year and did not make the NCAA tournament? Or maybe it is the way the team played in their tough loss to Notre Dame in the third round of the NIT last year. Or it could be that they return their leading scored, Jodie Meeks who averaged 23.7 ppg, oh wait, he is not on this team!

So what is it that makes this team so improved? Is it the coach? Yes, John Calipari is a fantastic coach and a great recruiter, but he has never won ANYTHING in his coaching career. Is it the fact that they brought in a ton of young talent, yeah that probably does not hurt much either, but let’s be honest, this team needed a buzzer beater to beat Miami OH in the second game of the season. They are 4-0 against bad competition and struggled in three of the four games to put the teams away. That same Miami team lost to Towson by 11, Louisiana Tech by 8 and New Mexico by 25.

I’m sure given a couple of shady recruiting classes, Calipari will have Kentucky playing in Final Fours, but can we all settle down on already saving a spot for them this year in Indianapolis this year?

IF YOU AIN’T RUBBING YOU AIN’T RACING

Okay, I do not watch NASCAR. I am sorry, watching a bunch of men making left turns for 3+ hours just does not do it for me. However, I am aware of what goes on in the sporting world and all week all anyone was talking about was Jimmie Johnson winning his unprecedented 4th straight Cup Championship. All he had to do was finish 25th or better to hold off 50-year old Mark Martin. So here is my question, why did not someone on Mark Martin’s team put Johnson into the wall on the first lap of the race? Is it an unwritten rule in NASCAR that you do not wreck each other? I see guys fighting with each other for that exact reason every Sunday on SportsCenter. Maybe I am a dirty sport. Maybe I do not appreciate the sportsmanship of racing. But maybe these guys just are not as competitive as I would hope they would be. You are talking a championship for your sport being on the line, you don’t think other sports have guys doing whatever it takes to win titles? Come on guys a title is on the line, you should being laying it all on the line too!

RANDOM RANTING

VOLUNTEERED ROBBERY
As many people have heard, three Tennessee football players were arrested and charged in part with an armed robbery that occurred around 2:00 early Thursday morning at an off-campus gas station. That is not the story. That is no big deal. It is the SEC, Lane Kiffin will probably suspend them for the National Anthem.

The story is about one of the victims, Corey Zickefoose. This man had a gun stuck in his face during the robbery, but thinks the robbers should get off easy. Here is what he has to say, "I think they should still be able to play football, regardless. Tennessee is my place. It's my football team." When asked if he believed this despite having a gun pointed in his face by one of the robbers he added, "Yeah, it's Tennessee. That's the way it is sometimes,"

You have got to check this guy out!

Lane Kiffin and Vols need to hook this kids up with some season tickets!

THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE
While watching the Sunday Sports Showdown last Sunday on KDKA-TV and I heard a very interesting stat about Penn State football given by Paul Zeise. The stat was that Penn State is just 5-20 against Iowa, Ohio State and Michigan in the past 10 years. This stunned me, and it was followed up with the fact that they are just 5-10 in non-conference games vs BCS records that finished with a winning record in that same span. So, Penn State is just 10-30 against good competition over the last 10 years. That got me thinking, and researching, to find other surprising numbers that people may not be aware of regarding some of the top profile teams in the country.

I tried to choose 1 or 2 schools from each of the 6 BCS conferences, here is what I found out.
FLORIDA:
A lot is always made about teams and how they schedule their non-conference portion of their schedule. Somehow, it seems to be overlooked each year that Florida does play road non-conference games, and the ones they do play, they don’t have to travel very far to get to. The Gators have not played a non-conference game outside the state of Florida in 18 seasons. The last time Florida went on the road to play a non-conference game was September 21, 1991 and they lost in the Carrier Dome to Syracuse 38-21.

ALABAMA:
To be the best you have to beat the best, sometimes at least. Alabama, since 2000 is just 4-21 against teams that finished the season with double digit wins including losing the final two games of the season last year to Utah and Florida, both of whom finished with 13 wins on the season.

LSU:
Not as bad as Alabama against winning teams but LSU isn’t beating many powerhouses either, in conference play at least. Over the past 20 years the Tigers are just 7-31 against fellow SEC teams that went on to win 10+ games that season.

GEORGIA:
What’s the old saying, “It’s not a rivalry unless both teams win.” Well apparently Georgia is running short on rivals. If you would ask a Bulldog fan to name their two biggest rivals, they would probably say Florida and Tennessee. In the past 20 years Georgia has won only 10 of the 40 games played against those schools.

OHIO STATE:
Going from the SEC to the Big Ten this seems like the best transition to make, Ohio State has not beaten a team from the SEC since September of 1988. That is right, it has been 21 seasons since the Buckeyes have beaten a school from the SEC. The win occurred September 24, 1988 in a 36-33 win over LSU. That is also the Buckeyes only win versus a SEC team.

MICHIGAN:
The Wolverines haven’t fared much better against their rivals than Georgia. Michigan is 2-8 the past 10 games against Notre Dame and Ohio State and in the past 23 seasons, they have swept their rivals just four times.

NOTRE DAME:
As we all know Notre Dame is pretty much just like any other school in college football, the mystique is gone, although they would never want you to know that. Look at some of these numbers regarding whom Notre Dame plays (and beats). In the past 10 years, Notre Dame has won 69 games; only 26 of those wins came against teams with winning records. The average record of those 69 opponents was 5-6. The Irish have lost 8 straight games to teams with 10+ wins and are just 5-21 in the past 10 seasons against 10-win teams. In the past three seasons, they are 0-6 vs ranked teams and 3-16 against teams with winning records.

CINCINNATI:
Cincinnati is new to this winning thing, so these number may not surprised you, but for a team that is in the Top 5 they are pretty interesting. In the past 10 years Cincinnati is 3-12 against non-conference BCS opponents. Two of those three wins have come against Oregon State over the past three seasons.

PITT:
Being a Pitt fan is difficult; they seem to always lose at least one game every year to an inferior opponent. Well maybe it seems that way because it is 100% true. Pitt has lost at least one game for the past 9 seasons to a team that finished with a losing record. That streak looks like it will stay in tact as the Panthers only loss this season was against 4-5 NC State.

WEST VIRGINIA:
What is the toughest place to play in the Big East? West Virginia. WRONG! A crazy misconception is that playing in Morgantown tough. A hostile environment, yes, but a tough place to win, you may want to reconsider. WVU has lost at least 1 home game every year since 1994. In that span they have lost 13 home games in the last half of the season, when the wins are the most important. So far this season the Mountaineers are 6-0 at home with just one game remaining. WVU hosts Pitt Nov 27th, the last time they hosted the Panthers, Pitt knocked them out of the National Championship game upsetting the #2 Mountaineers in the final game of the regular season.

VIRGINIA TECH:
This one might be a stretch and maybe a little misleading because VT has been so good recently. Of the Hokies last 12 losses, 10 of them came from teams that had a worse record then them.

TEXAS:
The Longhorns and Oklahoma have pretty much been the class of the Big XII since the conference started in 1996. Since that time, Texas has a losing record to only two Big XII foes. One is Oklahoma, who is 6-5 versus the Longhorns. The other is Kansas State. That’s right the Kansas State Wildcats are the 2nd most successful team against Texas since the inception of the Big XII conference. K-State is 4-2 against the Longhorns.

OKLAHOMA:
Sooner fans get on Bob Stoops for not winning the big bowl games, but let’s not stop with just bowl games. Stoops has struggled against every team that is not in the Big XII. Since 2003, the Bob Stoops led Sooners have lost just 19 games. 9 of those games have come against Big XII opponents in 58 games. However, in just 32 nonconference games the Sooners have lost 10 times.

Enjoy your great weekend of college football!