CuseCubFan69

You could put West Virgina in there too. My guess is they will be playing for the national championship after Michigan loses to OSU and ND beats USC. I'm sure all the ND fans will be crying about it too even though Michigan destroyed them. Regardless, no one touches OSU this year. USC is going to lose to Cal and maybe ND. If OSU loses it will be to Michigan. I certainly wouldnt put that in the win column for OSU yet. I agree that West Virginia is going to end up in the title game. I also think it is going to be well deserved even with all the SEC crying foul. WV still has undefeated Louisville and Rutgers left and the backyard brawl with Pitt. It isn't an easy schedule left to play by any means and that goes for Louisville too. Also, South Florida for some strange reason has Louisville's number so that may be a very tough game for them as well. We could end up with the three undefeateds in the BE knocking each other off. That would be something. WV is a running team and if they fall behind a team with a good offense it could be interesting. I think Louisville will pull it out because of their balance offensively and their defense but you're right, they might just knock each other out. Which of WVU and Louisville do you think Rutgers has the best chance against? West Virginia. Rutgers RB Rice can keep the WV offense off the field and the Mountineers have been living with long rushing TD runs. White and Slaton are fast as heck but Rutgers has some nice speed on defense so they have a decent chance. I can't believe White and Slaton are both just sophmores, 2 more years of this. White was drafted by the Angels in the 4th round by the way.

You could put West Virgina in there too. My guess is they will be playing for the national championship after Michigan loses to OSU and ND beats USC. I'm sure all the ND fans will be crying about it too even though Michigan destroyed them. Regardless, no one touches OSU this year. USC is going to lose to Cal and maybe ND. If OSU loses it will be to Michigan. I certainly wouldnt put that in the win column for OSU yet. I agree that West Virginia is going to end up in the title game. I also think it is going to be well deserved even with all the SEC crying foul. WV still has undefeated Louisville and Rutgers left and the backyard brawl with Pitt. It isn't an easy schedule left to play by any means and that goes for Louisville too. Also, South Florida for some strange reason has Louisville's number so that may be a very tough game for them as well. We could end up with the three undefeateds in the BE knocking each other off. That would be something. WV is a running team and if they fall behind a team with a good offense it could be interesting. I think Louisville will pull it out because of their balance offensively and their defense but you're right, they might just knock each other out.

You could put West Virgina in there too. My guess is they will be playing for the national championship after Michigan loses to OSU and ND beats USC. I'm sure all the ND fans will be crying about it too even though Michigan destroyed them. Regardless, no one touches OSU this year. USC is going to lose to Cal and maybe ND. If OSU loses it will be to Michigan. I certainly wouldnt put that in the win column for OSU yet. I agree that West Virginia is going to end up in the title game. I also think it is going to be well deserved even with all the SEC crying foul. How can anyone say WVU in the title game is well deserved? Look at their schedule. According to CBSsportline it is 100 of 119 DI Teams. They played no one this year. The Big East is terrible this year. It'll get tougher, trust me. How is the Big East terrible? Compared to what, the NFL?

The Big 10 may be down but its hard to say that they are completely down with 2 of the top 3 teams in the country. I mean depth wise. Michigan and Ohio State are very good teams, it just brings me back to the old days when they were always 1 and 2 and the rest were like this year.

Man, Donovan pukes a lot. I saw him puke a couple of times here and he seems to puke in the heat quite often.

You could put West Virgina in there too. My guess is they will be playing for the national championship after Michigan loses to OSU and ND beats USC. I'm sure all the ND fans will be crying about it too even though Michigan destroyed them. Regardless, no one touches OSU this year. USC is going to lose to Cal and maybe ND. If OSU loses it will be to Michigan. I certainly wouldnt put that in the win column for OSU yet. I agree that West Virginia is going to end up in the title game. I also think it is going to be well deserved even with all the SEC crying foul. WV still has undefeated Louisville and Rutgers left and the backyard brawl with Pitt. It isn't an easy schedule left to play by any means and that goes for Louisville too. Also, South Florida for some strange reason has Louisville's number so that may be a very tough game for them as well.

I wonder with the Big Ten being down if that is going to hurt Michigan. Man I wish there was a playoff.

I have no idea how they base their rankings either. Why show SOS if it doesn't count? USC should be #2 and as you said Arkansas should be a heck of a lot higher than 20. I'm curious on how they figure the SOS.

Arkansas still gets no love for some reason, #14 is rediculus IMO. Why is Georgia even in the Top 25, Alabama is a better team with a 5-3 record? If Texas gave Ohio State a better game I'd be fine with them ahead of Louisville but they didn't.

Well let's see. Air Force lost by one to Tennessee at Tennessee so you're right, Navy must be a bad team. as is Tennessee then. Since Tennessee is a bad team how are they in the top 10? I'm just using your criteria Truffle. No, you're not. Geez, how hard is it? He named ALL of Navy's wins to show that none were particularly impressive; you named one close game for Tennessee and said they were a bad team. Ridiculous. He's calling Navy a bad team while they beat Air Force at Air Force while Tennessee wins at home by one. Not only that but in the last seconds. What makes Tennessee so much better?

Did Baker have too much imput when it came to signing players? Hendry mentioned how he and Baker went over player transactions and I'm thinking, and hoping like only a Cub fan would, that he was giving Baker too much credit and got some of the Dusty boys that Baker wanted. Granted, this can't be an excuse because it's Hendry's responsibility to build the team, but I'm thinking he just put way too much stock into what Baker thought and it came back to burn him. Before Baker they were in Asia. During Baker they are not. After Baker they are in Asia agian. I don't know but something just smells fishy to me and I'm hoping that it was just a bad phase and bad judgement that Hendry went through and he has woken up.

Not only that but the chance to get younger Japanese kids interested in the Cubs.

I think a lot will depend on how the Nats plan to rebuild. While Bowden may be the GM, I firmly believe Stan Katsen is calling the shots. I'd look to use some pitchers from the minors or a package built around Marshall. Who's Stan Katsen? Is he Bowdens bartender?

Well let's see. Air Force lost by one to Tennessee at Tennessee so you're right, Navy must be a bad team. as is Tennessee then. Since Tennessee is a bad team how are they in the top 10? I'm just using your criteria Truffle.

There's simply no way this is true. There are 3 downright bad teams out of only 8. What are the bad teams? Syracuse that lost to once beaten Wake Forrest by 10 and Iowa in OT and beat Illinois. UConn beat Indiana. S.Florida beat North Carolina but did lose to Kansas, Cincy played Ohio St and VTech tough so tell me how are they god awful? Mississippi, Vanderbuilt, Miss St, South Carolina and Kentucky haven't beaten one major conference team this year...none and have blown out when they have. Georgia played a 1-6 Colorado, LSU a 3-4 Arizona, Alabama a 0-7 Duke and the only one that acutally plays teams Tenn which beat Cal and Air Force by 1. By this, tell me why this is the best conference? Is it your perception of what you think is good? I admit the wonderful stadiums being full and the great tradition they have is something the Big East does not have but in 2006 they are not better or deeper. I'd say the PAC 10 would be the toughest top to bottom if Stanford didn't suck. Man, this is homerism at its finest. UConn beat a bad Indiana team, Syracuse beat a bad South Florida beat a North Carolina team that hasn't won a game against a I-A opponent, and Cincy lost all their non-conference games against good competition. I'm pretty sure that just about all those teams listed above could've beaten Indiana, Illinois or North Carolina. It's pretty easy to say that South Carolina hasn't beaten a big conference team in an OOC game, because they haven't played one. Mississippi State played one, West Virginia, and they got hammered because they suck. Ole Miss lost two (Mizzou, Wake) because they aren't very good. Vandy hasn't beaten a major conference team because the only one they played happens to be the #2 team in the country. That's a little more of a challenge than taking on Indiana or UNC. Kentucky played Louisville on the road, and of course they got killed because Louisville is good and Kentucky clearly is not. You give credit to USF for beating UNC, but then goof on LSU for playing a 3-4 Arizona team? Come on. And while we're at it, let's compile a list of the Big East non-conference games this year: WVU - vs Marshall, vs Eastern Washington, vs Maryland, @East Carolina, @Mississippi State Louisville - Kentucky, @Temple, vs Miami, @Kansas State, @Middle Tennessee State Rutgers - @UNC, vs Illinois, vs Ohio, vs Howard, @Navy Pitt - vs Virginia, vs Michigan State (loss), vs Citadel, vs Toledo, @UCF USF - vs McNeese St, vs FIU, @UCF, @Kansas (loss), @UNC Cincy - vs Eastern Kentucky, @Ohio State (loss), @Virginia Tech (loss), vs Miami OH, vs Akron UConn - vs URI, vs Wake Forest (loss), @Indiana, vs Navy (loss), vs Army Syracuse - @Wake Forest (loss), vs Iowa (loss), @Illinois, vs Miami OH, vs Wyoming Wow, quite the illustrious record there. The best win is Louisville at home against a Miami team that barely beat Duke. The second best is probably West Virginia beating Maryland at home - by the way, Maryland barely beat Florida International at home. Then there's Rutgers' win over a physically outmatched Navy team. USF's best win is over a team that has only beaten Furman. I could go on, but it's pretty obvious that there really isn't much to brag about there, and that's putting it mildly. And, I'll remind you now that Florida plays F$U later in the year, Georgia plays Georgia Tech, and South Carolina goes to Clemson. Georgia Tech and Clemson are better than any non-conference team that West Virginia, Louisville, Pitt or Rutgers will have faced this year. So the bottom of the Big East is better than the bottom of the SEC, correct? Also, Navy is 5-2 and a very good team. Maryland also beat NC State. I admit I'm a homer but I'll also admit when I'm wrong and I know I'm right about the SEC. What also is going to stink is that the bowl system is set up for the BE to fail. We have one big game and the rest are against teams that the BE teams should beat or are suppose to beat and no games against the "big boys" as they all play each other in the bowls since they are set up ahead of time and not earned.

So, if the Trammel rumor is correct, we have: Bench Coach: Alan Trammel Hitting Coach: ? Pitching Coach: Larry Rothschild Firstbase Coach: ? but believed to be Quade. Thirdbase Coach: Bullpen Coach: Matt Sinatro. All right....I'll take the hitting coach job then since nobodys taken it yet. Those last 2 openings are pretty important IMO and may distinguish what idenity this team is going to have.

I don't think Tremmell was ready to be a manager when he was hired by the Tigers. I think through time he will be a fine manager and by learning the ropes from Lou could be a very good thing in his development in becoming a good manager.

There's simply no way this is true. There are 3 downright bad teams out of only 8. What are the bad teams? Syracuse that lost to once beaten Wake Forrest by 10 and Iowa in OT and beat Illinois. UConn beat Indiana. S.Florida beat North Carolina but did lose to Kansas, Cincy played Ohio St and VTech tough so tell me how are they god awful? Mississippi, Vanderbuilt, Miss St, South Carolina and Kentucky haven't beaten one major conference team this year...none and have blown out when they have. Georgia played a 1-6 Colorado, LSU a 3-4 Arizona, Alabama a 0-7 Duke and the only one that acutally plays teams Tenn which beat Cal and Air Force by 1. By this, tell me why this is the best conference? Is it your perception of what you think is good? I admit the wonderful stadiums being full and the great tradition they have is something the Big East does not have but in 2006 they are not better or deeper. I'd say the PAC 10 would be the toughest top to bottom if Stanford didn't suck. Cuse, You make your argument that the Big East is a deep conference by pointing out they're barely losing to (at best) mediocre major conference teams? Syracuse, who won 1 game last year, has proven themselves by going 3-5 and losing to the only decent teams they played? Sure, I'll give you their improved and probably will get better over the next few years. But I don't see the evidence that they are a good team. UConn, who is 3-4, is a good team because they beat Indiana? The Hoosiers (and I apologize to any IU fans I may upset with this, I have a good friend who is an IU fan) is year in, year out the worst team in the Big 10 and typically the weakest of any major conf. team and most minor conference teams. By the way, you left out that UConn's biggest win is over the powerhouse Army. They also were killed by another beast, Navy. As for USF, didn't you or someone criticize Bama for struggling against Duke, and then you praise the Bulls for beating a terrible UNC team? Plus, USF squeaks out a win over FIU (1 point) and UCF (7 points). You can't give Cincy credit for hanging tough with OSU (they lost by 30) unless you give Vandy credit for hanging tough with Michigan (lost by 20 and were down by much less until the fourth quarter). Otherwise, the Bearcats' biggest wins are over decent MAC teams Akron and Miami of Ohio. Let me ask you a question, Why are we supposed to give the Big East credit before they prove anything to us? WVU beat UGA last year and Louisville's typically a decent top 25 team. You complain about the SEC getting the benefit of the doubt, but you demand the Big East get the same treatment? I'll give you the SEC is down this year, but so is the rest of college football. The key difference is, the SEC has been good in previous, recent years, the teams currently comprising the Big East have not. Dew, As my friend TransTiger pointed out, the past is the past and I'm talking about the current. You admitted the SEC is down but if you listen to all the College "experts" they go on and on about the SEC as if they are the best. As I've wrote many times, they are talented but to have 4 to 5 teams in the top 11 is redicules. But, if you want to talk the past, how far do you want to go? WV had one loss last year and Louisville had 3. How many games did Auburn or Florida lose last year? I mentioned those teams like Indiana because the bottom of the BE has beaten the bottom of the other conferences thus IMO proved they are better. As I pointed out, Kansas did beat SFlorida and Pitt lost to Michigan St and I give you that.

I was talking about good team baseball and yes, the byproduct is winning.

Why is Arkansas behind Auburn who they destroyed in Auburn, Tenn, Florida and LSU who lost to Auburn along with Florida while Forida beat Tennessee? If I remember correctly the Freshman QB didn't play or start against USC. Maybe there's a reason why those teams schedule D2 teams out of conference.

Interesting, Nebraska #15. They are good, no doubt, but they haven't impressively beat anyone in conference. A bad KU team by only 7, a bad Iowa State team by only 14, and a meh K-State team by only 18. They are good, and I'd rank them higher than Missouri at this point (just because they have played USC and UT tough), but I don't think they're a top 15 team. I see them losing two of the next three games: on the road against a solid Oklahoma State, home vs. Missouri, and on the road against A&M. Wasn't Nebraska #17 this week? You don't go up 2 spots by losing, IMO. Yes, I know they played a top team. I still don't think they'll go up. they barely lost though. a win would have put them in my top 10. losing by two to a heavy favorite top 5 team is at least 2 spots IMO. Who else would you put at 15? Oregon lost badly, GT lost badly (even though it was to a great clemson team). That's two teams that dropped to let Nebraska go up 2. I would think Rutgers would deserve to be in 15th now at least now that they are 7-0 and have beaten a legitimate opponent. Also Wisconsin deserves to be in front of Nebraska-only one loss to Michigan. A 3rd team that should be in front is BC-only one loss, and wins over Clemson, Va Tech, and Florida State. They also beat them in Pitt.

There's simply no way this is true. There are 3 downright bad teams out of only 8. What are the bad teams? Syracuse that lost to once beaten Wake Forrest by 10 and Iowa in OT and beat Illinois. UConn beat Indiana. S.Florida beat North Carolina but did lose to Kansas, Cincy played Ohio St and VTech tough so tell me how are they god awful? Mississippi, Vanderbuilt, Miss St, South Carolina and Kentucky haven't beaten one major conference team this year...none and have blown out when they have. Georgia played a 1-6 Colorado, LSU a 3-4 Arizona, Alabama a 0-7 Duke and the only one that acutally plays teams Tenn which beat Cal and Air Force by 1. By this, tell me why this is the best conference? Is it your perception of what you think is good? I admit the wonderful stadiums being full and the great tradition they have is something the Big East does not have but in 2006 they are not better or deeper. I'd say the PAC 10 would be the toughest top to bottom if Stanford didn't suck.

Team baseball is when one player struggles and another teammate picks him up and makes a play or plays to help win the game. It can be a pitcher getting K after a fielder makes an error, a HR, a bunt, a good relay play, blocked ball in the dirt or a variety of things. They don't have to get along outside of the game but when they are on the field together they do what they have to do to win the game.

Interesting...very interesting. I think it might be a very good thing indeed. I now want to learn more about this Alan Trammell of which you speak.

I would think that would be a problem in Japan as well.