Andy

He's got a chance to be pretty freaking good, that's the obsession.

Better question: Why the hell does the scoreboard say EIU beat Penn State 21-10?

DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair DeJuan Blair A million times this.

Oh, I'd love a guy like Stoops. But Stoops ain't leaving OU, ever. Kelly's Catholic, a family guy, and pretty clearly a very good football coach. He'd be perfect.

I desperately want Brian Kelly if Weis is done after this year.

The part about Caridad and Berg is encouraging, the part about Grabow is not.

My mistake on 7 home games, for some reason I totally blanked that you came to South Bend this year (and I was there so that was especially dumb). CMU is not almost as good as ND. They're a really good MAC team, but the MAC really, really sucks. LeFevour would have himself a day against ND's defense. I hate using the transitive property but it's really the only way you can judge some teams in college football. CMU beat MSU and MSU lost to ND by a whole 3 points. I think ND would beat Central Mich, but it'd be like every other Notre Dame game with the exception of Nevada. There is no use for the transitive property. None. USC lost to Washington, who lost to Notre Dame. Is there any way that's going to lead anyone with intelligence to pick us to beat USC? Michigan lost to Michigan State, who lost to...Notre Dame. Who Michigan beat. The transitive property is almost 100 percent junk. You can't assume that the MSU that showed up to play CMU also showed up to play Notre Dame. You can't assume that the CMU that showed up to play MSU would be the same team to show up to play Notre Dame. You can't assume that the same Notre Dame team that showed up to play MSU would play the same way against Central Michigan. I don't think ND would blow out CMU either, but that's because with our defense we're probably not blowing too many teams out and CMU has a good offense. (CMU has a garbage defense that we'd probably score 42+ on, but whatever.) That doesn't mean that CMU is on the same level, and it doesn't have anything to do with the transitive property.

My mistake on 7 home games, for some reason I totally blanked that you came to South Bend this year (and I was there so that was especially dumb). CMU is not almost as good as ND. They're a really good MAC team, but the MAC really, really sucks.

Jaws/Gruden fellatio aside, Favre looked pretty damn on the money on the last few plays of that last drive.

And one of those big-pay games a year is fine. But Penn State also played Temple and Akron. Michigan played EMU and WMU and also plays Delaware State. Michigan State played Montana State and CMU and has a game with WMU left. And that's just a few Big Ten teams for sampling. There's no reason to have three little boys on a team's schedule year in and year out. if you don't play little boys, you're playing a lot more home-and-home series, or 2-for-1, which reduces the number of home games you play, which costs your athletic department a lot of revenue. penn state can't bring in west virginia or maryland to play in happy valley every year. Penn State has eight home games. So does Michigan. MSU does too. I'm sure the majority of SEC teams do as well. Eight home games is great for revenue, I suppose, but it's ridiculous and punishes teams like Ohio State (loath as I am to give them credit for anything), USC, Florida/Florida State, Clemson/South Carolina, Georgia/Georgia Tech, and anyone else who actually tries to play intriguing games once in a while. I think it's stupid enough that ND is playing seven home games a year now with only four true road games. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask teams to at least play 7/5 schedules most years. They don't even have to make that extra road game all that tough (Texas played at UTEP recently, Miami's going to UCF the week after this one, IU has played games at MAC schools often).

According to Stewart Mandel's Twitter, Ron Zook has announced Eddie McGee will start for the Illini this weekend.

And one of those big-pay games a year is fine. But Penn State also played Temple and Akron. Michigan played EMU and WMU and also plays Delaware State. Michigan State played Montana State and CMU and has a game with WMU left. And that's just a few Big Ten teams for sampling. There's no reason to have three little boys on a team's schedule year in and year out.

The price depends on the game. There was a piece about it in USA Today this season, I think. Some are $1m though I think that was the record set by OSU this year. And yes, the BCS certainly discourages it. But it's as much about the margin of victory as it is the losses. Playing a legit BCS team and beating them by a TD or less is almost as bad as a loss. But beating Jackson State by 50 is apparently a legitimate win. It makes no sense. Rankings are a joke. Officiating is a joke. Scheduling is a joke. The whole system is a mess. I'm in the "liking that the regular season is a de facto playoff" group, but this system has all sorts of improvements that need to be made. Starting with scheduling, and taking away conference officiating crews, which create all sorts of conflicts of interest.

Theo is a idiot though. He gave away David Aardsma for practically nothing! That's more than we got for him...

18-12 is, at best, a slightly worse than unacceptable ratio. It is not, ever, for any reason, in the history of the universe, 'good'. Didn't say good said above average. A +6 ratio was 13th best last year. Above average like I said. I quoted a post where you called it good.

18-12 is, at best, a slightly worse than unacceptable ratio. It is not, ever, for any reason, in the history of the universe, 'good'.

As usual, you're right and whoever disagrees is wrong and there's no discussion to be had.

Am I crazy for wondering why Mangini punted rather than attempt a 57 yard field goal with under 20 seconds left to try to win the game?

And for the third time, the Bengals have resurrected Derek Anderson's career.

I was looking forward to my snarky comment about Derek Anderson but he put together two drives at the end to run his numbers to 8/16 for 130 yards, one yard coming on a TD pass.

Top 25 games --------------------------- (1) Florida at (4) LSU (8 pm, CBS) Colorado at (2) Texas (7:15 pm, ESPN) (3) Alabama at (20) Ole Miss (3:30 pm, CBS) Boston College at (5) Virginia Tech (12 pm, Raycom Sports) Wisconsin at (9) Ohio State (3:30 pm, ABC - Regional) (10) TCU at Air Force (7:30 pm, CBS College) Florida A&M at (11) Miami (7 pm, ESPN 360) Michigan at (12) Iowa (8 pm, ABC) (13) Oregon at UCLA (3:30 pm, ABC - Regional) Eastern Illinois at (14) Penn State (12 pm, ESPN Classic) (15) Oklahoma State at Texas A&M (12:30 pm, FSN/CSN) Iowa State at (16) Kansas (12:30 pm, Versus) (17) Auburn at Arkansas (12 pm, ESPN) (18) BYU at UNLV (10 pm, The Mountain) Baylor at (19) Oklahoma (3:30 pm, ABC - Regional) (21) Nebraska at (24) Missouri (9 pm Thursday, ESPN) (22) Georgia Tech at Florida State (8 pm, ESPN2) Kentucky at (25) South Carolina (12:30 pm, Sun Sports) Games of interest ---------------------------- Louisiana Tech at Nevada (9 pm Friday, ESPN) Michigan State at Illinois (12 pm, BTN - Regional) Georgia at Tennessee (12 pm, SEC Network) Purdue at Minnesota (12 pm, ESPN2) Miami (OH) at Northwestern (12 pm, BTN - Regional) West Virginia at Syracuse (12 pm, ESPN 360) Ball State at Temple (1 pm) Indiana at Virginia (3:30 pm, ESPN 360) Duke at NC State (4 pm, ESPNU) Western Michigan at Toledo (7 pm) Southern Miss at Louisville (7:30 pm, ESPNU) Other nationally available games ------------------------------------------ Middle Tennessee at Troy (8 pm Tuesday, ESPN2) Eastern Michigan at Central Michigan (12 pm, ESPN 360) Vanderbilt at Army (12 pm, CBS College) Houston at Mississippi State (12:30 pm, ESPNU) Navy at Rice (3:30 pm, CBS College) UConn at Pittsburgh (3:30 pm, ABC – Regional) Georgia Southern at North Carolina (3:30 pm, ESPN 360) Gardner-Webb at Buffalo (3:30 pm, ESPN 360) Bowling Green at Kent State (3:30 pm, ESPN 360) Maryland at Wake Forest (6:30 pm, ESPN 360) Stanford at Oregon State (7 pm, FSN/CSN) North Texas at UL Lafayette (7 pm, ESPN 360) Idaho at San Jose State (8 pm, ESPN 360) Utah State at New Mexico State (8 pm, ESPN 360) Fresno State at Hawaii (11 pm, ESPN 360) Non I-A games of interest --------------------------------- Holy Cross at Brown (12:30 pm) UC Davis at South Dakota (3 pm, CSN California) Northern Iowa at North Dakota State (4 pm, Fox Sports Midwest) Illinois State at Southern Illinois (4 pm) Nationally available games outside I-A ------------------------------------------------- Colgate at Princeton (7 pm Thursday, ESPNU)

Good ol' Browns. James Harrison fumbles, Cincy takes it back for a TD to go up 14-0.

I wasn't saying they deserve to be there (though they have fewer votes than BC, which is patently ridiculous). It was just an observation.

1 Florida (54) 4-0 1486 2 Texas (1) 4-0 1416 3 Alabama (5) 5-0 1404 4 LSU 5-0 1290 5 Virginia Tech 4-1 1200 6 Boise State 5-0 1185 7 USC 4-1 1108 8 Cincinnati 5-0 1004 9 Ohio State 4-1 994 10 TCU 4-0 940 11 Miami (FL) 3-1 931 12 Iowa 5-0 823 13 Oregon 4-1 676 14 Penn State 4-1 564 15 Oklahoma State 3-1 563 16 Kansas 4-0 513 17 Auburn 5-0 428 18 Brigham Young 4-1 403 19 Oklahoma 2-2 370 20 Mississippi 3-1 357 21 Nebraska 3-1 333 22 Georgia Tech 4-1 311 23 South Florida 5-0 238 24 Missouri 4-0 215 25 South Carolina 4-1 200 I hate to sound like Meph here, but ND was 18th in the poll going into Michigan. They lose on a TD pass with 12 seconds left in the game, drop out of the poll, and now have 9 votes. If that doesn't happen, they're probably sniffing the top 10 if only by sheer attrition. I don't see the huge difference between ND as a team whether they win or lose that UM game, but apparently it makes about 20 ranking spots worth of difference.

Jimmy Clausen is just plain phenomenal. That kid can bail us out of just about anything.