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Why do you think the Rose Bowl will pass on Stanford? I think that they're forced to take the minor conference team this year if that team is not in the national title game.

It's almost certain to have two Big 10 teams and two Pac 10 teams in the BCS and yet they are almost certain not to play each other in any of the games.

Northwestern has a harder SOS than Boise State. Unless you're talking about preseason. 2 of the 3 computers that easily show schedule strength had Boise with the harder schedule before this weekend. It will likely remain close.

To give an idea of how far a team like Boise could fall in bowls because of this, Nevada before the game was projected to go to the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl against Boston College. Now they'll probably try to find the best matchup possible for a team like Boise but it could potentially get ugly. Unfortunately for Nevada all the focus will be on Boise now and not their great season. They have to be kicking themselves as a couple mistakes in a tough place to play (at Hawaii) is the only reason they aren't undefeated right now.

He mentioned that because ESPN has Jurkin as a 4 star and 53rd on their list of Super 60 prospects for 2012 (actually only 11 spots behind Perea who is ranked all the way back at 42nd on that list). I'm not a big believer in ESPN's rankings so I don't put a lot of stock in that but it is out there.

Taking Sagarins overall ratings (and looking at the entirety of their schedules) Boise State will have played 3 Top 25 teams. OSU will play 2. Boise State will have played 1 team between 25-50. OSU will have played 4. Boise and OSU will each play 1 team between 51-75. Boise will play 3 teams between 76-100. OSU will have played 1. Boise State will play 2 teams between 101-125. OSU will have played 3. Boise State will play 2 teams between 150-175. OSU will play 1. Obviously OSU has one of the weaker major conference schedules this year and it's still better than Boise's but the difference between their schedules is not that big. There certainly should be no argument for a 1 loss OSU even if everybody else in front of them fell away. Wisconsin and Michigan State also have similarly poor schedules.

I just listened to it and Simmons said that he thought they would be getting respect now from people (why I'm not sure). And Sal when he said the line "they do get a ton of respect" was talking about the Eagles because he then mentioned that the Bears are the flip side of that and the home team should normally be favored in this situation.

simply having your hands on the facemask isn't a penalty, Barber's head didn't get twisted at all until Suh tugged on his reins You don't need to twist the head for the penalty to be called. No, but you either need to twist or hold on for a while. Grabbing and then quickly releasing was always the 5 yard variety in the past and that was the penalty that was supposed to be eliminated. What has tended to happen though is that the 15 yard foul gets called on situations where it wouldn't in the past and that's not what the rule change was supposed to do.

The season will probably end with a fizzle this weekend. Let's hope Michigan is at least competitive in the bowl game. This game against OSU is going to be painful. The majority of the projections I am seeing suggest Michigan is gonna end up at the Insight Bowl playing Missouri. I can't see us being favored in that one. Considering there's a good chance that Michigan won't have beaten anyone with a winning record this year going into the game (if ND loses to USC and Illinois at Fresno St.), it's gonna be a tough matchup. Edit: Didn't realize UConn is all the way up to 6-4 this year, but they have Cinci and South Florida to finish the year. UConn is just a couple wins and a WV win on Friday away from making a BCS bowl this year.

I've seen it in college but not the pros. That's risky to even try it. I can't remember about the pros but in college there's no risk. Once a member of the kicking team touches it the receiving team can return it and a fumble wouldn't hurt them at that point.

It sounds like the Mountain West will likely add Hawaii and they'll be looking for a 12th school after that. The MWC is getting close to BCS conference territory again even after losing Utah and BYU. Adding the 4 best WAC schools and then if they add somebody else decent would create a pretty good conference.

Miles was signed to play regularly and the plan changed only after he tanked. Ramirez was in the lineup 13 out of the first 15 games. In those 13 games, Fontenot started 11 times and Miles started twice. That was before Miles tanked. Miles was not signed to start the majority of games at second base.

The Colts put Jennings on Marshall most of the day last year. Marshall had 21 catches for 200 yards and 2 TD's.

They probably could have but that also would have likely been close to the end of their offseason. I'm not sure he was worth that. Edit: And as TT said who knows if the Marlins really wanted a player like Infante as a replacement for Uggla and the Cubs couldn't offer somebody like that.

Yes, because that's exactly what I said. I said "8-10 in conference" they would need and named 3 teams they would need to beat twice (which I meant to put Iowa instead of NW). If you put 2 and 2 together, that would mean they would have to win 2 more games vs. the other teams in conference.....which would mean 2 wins over good teams. Which means you're once again trying to convince yourself that IU will never be decent again by constantly responding negatively to posts that are even remotely positive about IU. I think he's saying that 18-20 wins is not going to impress the committee with IU's relatively weak nonconference schedule (and as you mentioned a lucky conference schedule as well). A losing record in conference will not get IU into the NCAA's. They would probably need to go 10-8 in conference and get a Big 10 tournament win to get in. Even that might not be enough (see Penn State in 2008 who was left out with that resume).

when you hire good people at the vp level of a mlb org, does it matter what the title is? besides, based on his blog, doesn't seem like a bad fit. Well, yeah, there's still a large bit of differentiation. Take Jim Hendry, he did a very good job on the player development side, and now that he has to do more than that he's not nearly as effective. DePo, for all his abilities, doesn't seem like an optimal match for the Scouting/Player Development role. Is Jim Hendry a VP? I didn't say GM level. Jim Hendry is a VP as are several GM's around the league.

Manning gets hit a pretty good amount now. He doesn't get sacked very much because he gets rid of the ball so quickly but it's hard avoiding your share of hits when your offensive line is well below average.

I wonder if this will be in the back of pollster's minds when they make out their ballots. A few people might push TCU ahead of Auburn just on the chance that Newton will be suspended by the time the national championship game happens.

Cody said that he would start recruiting players immediately and he mentioned Yogi by name. With IU needing another point guard by 2012 and at least 2 other players recruiting him it would seem like IU has everything lined up for Yogi. IU needs a point guard by 2010. I would say they need another one. Hulls running the point for 20-25 minutes a game isn't bad. The problem is who runs the point for the rest of the time. And by 2012, it will be worse since there's nobody in the 2010-2011 classes that can really run the point.

Cody said that he would start recruiting players immediately and he mentioned Yogi by name. With IU needing another point guard by 2012 and at least 2 other players recruiting him it would seem like IU has everything lined up for Yogi.

They are 3-3 now. Are they legit? I heard about of preseason hype from Pacer fans but not a lot outside of Indy. Btw that is a mind boggling quarter. They look like they could make the next step and get 38-45 wins and maybe a playoff spot. They finally have a legit point guard in Collison, Hibbert continues to improve, and Granger/Dunleavy/Rush should provide a pretty good amount of perimeter scoring. Their power forward position doesn't look as bad as it did before the season as the energy guys they're putting out there help complement all the scorers on the floor nicely. But they're definitely the type of team who can beat anybody and who can also lose to anybody so there will be some wild swings for them during the season.

The Pacers were 4 seconds away with finishing a quarter with a 100% field goal percentage tonight. Instead they had to settle for finishing 20/21 from the field in the quarter and scored 54 points in the 3rd.

That's kind of what I thought too. I don't think I would be all that excited for the guy, but that's probably not fair since he isn't his brothers. Cody's really important to IU for 2 reasons. The first is what people have mentioned is that he is seen as the piece that might bring even more elite recruits to Indiana. And the 2nd is simply that IU could really use another big body. We all know that Crean can recruit guards. To pair them with big men with talent makes those big men really important pieces. IU doesn't need Zeller to actually be the 20th ranked player in the country for him to be a huge get for them. They just need a solid player at the positions that they are sorely lacking at and also a possible help in recruiting momentum.

Only 1 non-BCS team ranked 12 of higher is guaranteed, which would of course be TCU. Does that apply for the title game? If TCU were to make the title game, would one of the BCS bowls have to pick Boise State because of that rule? As far as I understand it from reading the rules no. Only 1 team can automatically qualify from a minor conference in any year unless both were to make the national championship game.

Huh? http://espn.go.com/college-football/bowls/projections?season=2010&week=10 One has them in the Rose Bowl, the other in the Sugar Bowl. I'll see if I can find it. There was one that had Oklahoma State in a BCS game instead of Boise State last night. It makes sense based on how the bowls are picked that Boise could get left out. If Oregon and Auburn win out, Big 10 winner locked into Rose: let's say Wisconsin right now Big XII winner locked into Fiesta: Nebraska ACC winner locked into Orange: Virginia Tech So there would be 5 slots left. The Rose Bowl would be contractually obligated to take TCU to fill Oregon's slot. The Sugar would be next and they would want to pick an SEC team if they can. A 1 loss or maybe even a 2 loss LSU team (or possibly a 2 loss Arkansas team if they win out) would be a logical choice for them. Then the Sugar gets to pick again. This would probably be the only place left for Boise to go. But the Sugar might be concerned about Boise's ability to travel and could easily pick a Ohio State, a Stanford, or somebody like that who's left out there. After the Sugar comes the Orange. If VT is sitting in the game they aren't picking Boise to face them since they already played this season. They'll select an at-large. Finally comes the Fiesta and they'll be forced to pick the Big East winner which none of the other bowls wanted. It's bad for Boise because if a major conference team finishes 3rd or 4th in the overall standings they automatically qualify even if they don't win their conference. But Boise will not automatically qualify even if they hold on to 4th. The Fiesta would probably want Boise again but they aren't going to be able to pick them. There are lots of scenarios where Boise's chance of getting picked increases but there are several scenarios in where they aren't likely to get picked.