Week Two Predictions

Each week I will be posting my predictions for every Big Ten game as well as a few of the bigger out of conference clashes.  As always these will be accompanied by related (not really) YouTube videos.

My Record: Overall 12-2, Big Ten 10-1

What I Still Want to Know About Boise State

Last night's game between Virginia Tech and Boise State has brought back a question that has dominated college football for almost half a decade now: Does Boise State belong in the National Title game?

While a lot of the articles I am seeing this morning are attempting to answer this question, I think I will take a different approach.  Here are five things I want to know before I feel like we can answer this question.

Bowl Predictions: Week One

Every week I will be putting up an updated bowl prediction out there. It will include all the BCS and Big Ten bowls. Every few weeks I will include all of the bowls. The selection order for the BCS is



1) National Championship
2) National Championship
3) Bowl that lost a representative to the first NC pick
4) Bowl that lost a representative to the second NC pick
5) Sugar Bowl
6) Orange Bowl
7) Fiesta Bowl


Remember that the Rose Bowl, if it loses the Big Ten or Pac 10 representative must take the first non-AQ school.

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BCS National Championship: Ohio State v. Alabama

The Gators will be better than their horrible performance against Miami of Ohio but the Tide were incredibly impressive with how cleanly they executed.  They will face Ohio State who didn't do anything to change my opinion of how talented the Buckeyes are this year.

Rose Bowl Game: Boise State vs. Oregon

I am writing this before the Broncos play Virginia Tech so this could change pretty quickly.  If Boise falls then I would probably bet that either TCU or Utah will fill that void.  Oregon gave New Mexico a 72-0 beatdown on Saturday and answered any questions people had about how their offense would be following the loss of Jeremiah Masoli.

Sugar Bowl: Florida v. Iowa

I still don't see anyone beating Florida in the SEC East.  The Hawkeyes still have some question marks to deal with but they still look like they have the horses to grab a BCS at large bid.

Orange Bowl: Georgia Tech v. Oklahoma

Miami is the only team in the ACC who I think looks like it could give the Jackets and Paul Johnson a run in the conference but right now I am sticking with Tech.  OU looked vulnerable Saturday but I still think they have the horses to earn a BCS bid.

 Fiesta Bowl: Nebraska v. South Florida

Word out of Lincoln is that the QB situation looks much better.  It may be too early to tell but if new starter Taylor Martinez brings a spark Big Red should win the Big XII.  The Bulls put up some big numbers against Stony Brook and they are still my pick to win the Big East.

Capital One Bowl: Penn State v. Auburn

Penn State will be inconsistent this year but what I saw in their game Saturday leads me to believe they will be back in Orlando on New Year's Day.  The middle of the SEC is muddled but I am not ready to drop Auburn farther than this given their potential and Cam Newton's 5 TD performance Saturday.

Outback Bowl: Wisconsin v. Georgia

Georgia put up great nummbers Saturday and Wisconsin survived some minor hiccups.  They won't win their conferences but they should both be fun teams to watch this season.

Gator Bowl: Michigan State v. South Carolina

MSU could jump the Badgers for the Outback Bowl but right now I have them headed to the Gator to face a solid Gamecock squad.  Cocky looked pretty good on Thursday and this weekends' matchup with Georgia will be a big barometer of how far they will go this season.

Insight Bowl: Purdue v. Missouri

I had Purdue losing to Notre Dame this week and while they looked pretty bad, I still think they have a decent enough team to make it to the postseason.  Mizzou could be replaced with a couple different teams but I think I will stick with this matchup for another week.

Texas Bowl: Indiana v. Oklahoma State

The Hoosiers offense was as impressive as expected but their defense allowed gobs of yards to the Towson Tigers.  The Cowboys had a similar game against Washington State who they gouged for points but gave up too many yards to a horrible offense.

Dallas Football Classic: Northwestern v. Maryland

Northwestern has a lot of questions still after a tough game against Vanderbilt and I think that they fall behind Indiana in the bowl pecking order.  Maryland was surprising against Navy Monday and they could get to 6 wins with some luck.

Little Caesers Pizza Pizza Bowl: Western Michigan v. Rice

I still do not see the Big Ten filling this bowl slot and despite the loss to Sparty I think the Broncos are headed to Detroit.  Rice looked awful good against Texas and I think they get slotted in here as an at-large team.

Week One Predictions

Ok so here are my predictions for week one of college football.  They will come out every Thursday and I will predict all of the Big Ten games and will usually add in a couple of supplementary picks for the bigger matchups as well.  Let's get started.

Bowl Predictions: Preseason

Every week I will be putting up an updated bowl prediction out there.  It will include all the BCS and Big Ten bowls.  Every few weeks I will include all of the bowls.  The selection order for the BCS is
1) National Championship
2) National Championship
3) Bowl that lost a representative to the first NC pick
4) Bowl that lost a representative to the second NC pick
5) Sugar Bowl
6) Orange Bowl
7) Fiesta Bowl
Remember that the Rose Bowl, if it loses the Big Ten or Pac 10 representative must take the first non-AQ school. 

Who The Hell Do You Think You Are?

Boise State's president and athletic director are continuing their campaign against logic in college sports with their recent anouncement that they intend to talk to the NCAA about mandating home and home series.  The news first came to my attention here (you have to scroll down past the first part) and frankly my opinion mirrors that of the authors.  This has an absolute zero chance of happening since the NCAA is not stupid enough to start forcing teams like Ohio State and Florida to play road games at North Texas or Western Michigan.  I know the fans really hate those cream puff games but there are a number of reasons they are a nesscesary evil:

1) For coaches, it makes your already stressful job easier when you don't have to worry about playing the starters for a whole game or hurting your chances for a bowl game with a loss.  It is a proffesion dominated by results and cupcake games allow coaches to puff up the stats a little.

2) For big school athletic directors it allows you to schedule an extra home game to help make ends meet in your athletic budget.  Sports like wrestling and women's volleyball rarely support themselves so it is often up to football teams to plug in the gaps.  Extra home games allow you the opportunity to do that since fans will pack the house anyway.  Use a small portion of the gate fee to pay the opposing team and the rest can pay for that new track you need.


3) For a lot of small schools this is an opportunity to gain more money than they would playing at home.  Teams like Florida International don't make gobs of money at the ticket counter so being payed a cool million or so to play in Ann Arbor would be well above what they would earn playing a random opponent at home. 

So basically, because Boise State can't get a home and home with a lot of top notch teams, they want to dismantle the exsisting system which helps fund thousands of student athletes in non-revenue sports.  I get that Boise does the home and home thing with all of it's opponents (they play a home and home with Toledo from the MAC which starts this year) but the vast majority of athletic departments cannot afford to do that. 

Also, isn't it odd that while Boise continues to complain about not being able to schedule BCS teams they are making plans to play Virginia Tech and Oregon State (both ranked BCS teams) this season, and neither of which on the road?  I understand the Hookie game is in Landover but neutral site games have much higher ticket allotments for "away" teams than true road games do.  Boise is already playing more ranked BCS teams in their out of conference schedule than the vast majority of the BCS schools so I don't really see why they are complaining here.

Boise State is going to the Mountain West next ear a long with every decent program in the WAC so there is a chance they could be getting into an automatic BCS bid as well anyway.  Why is Boise State making a fuss about out of conference scheduling at this point?

Frankly this is a stupid argument by Boise State and it really irritates me since it joins a long list of other things that that the Broncos complain about (the BCS being another one) that they really just don't seem to understand.  I know Boise State wants what's best for their program and that is their motivation behind this (they are not evil).  However you would think that they could try doing something about their problems that didn't always involve making radical changes to the game to support their interests at the detriment of others. 

My Pre Season Top 25

So in the spirit of the AP Poll coming out today, here is my own Top 25 for the preseason.  Since the Stones supplied the Big Ten expansion coverage here I decided that we should mix it up when it comes to the Top 25.  For now, I will use Chicago but if you feel like it should be something else then just leave a comment and it will be considered.