More Treats Than Tricks

It was just one of those weeks in college football... must have been the haints and boogers out in full force, because some interesting doings were afoot.

For instance, our favorite Halloween colored team won it's first game, as the Anderson Ravens said "Nevermore" to Bluffton's Beavers. The Cougars of Azusa Pacific also added one to the "W" column, handily defeating Trinity Texas. Trinity's Tigers could not manage a miraculous comeback this time, not that there's any chance to get 28 points on one play. Tusculum defeated Mars Hill, while Southern Nazarene dropped another heartbreaker.

In the land of the Big Boys, the three "marquee games" didn't live up to the hype; resulting in three blowouts. T. Boone Pickens University couldn't channel the Black and Orange holiday mojo to overcome Texas, even at home. Looks like Texas will be headed back to Pasadena in January (more on that later). Florida obliterated Georgia in the "Beverage Redacted" bowl; St. Tebow again did the impossible by breaking Herschel Walker's SEC Touchdown record. Georgia was lucky to be on the field with Tebow, since he was able (as far as we know) to use his super powers to heal Washaun Ealey's eyes:

I'm certain that the SEC will be looking into Mr. Spike's actions, although with the level of respectability that their conference's officiating program has developed, you can't be too certain. To be honest, if Urban Meyer is the coach that they say he is, he shouldn't wait for the conference to make a decision.

In the other "big game of the week", we sent a correspondant to Autzen for the sole purpose of seeing which of the stupid uniform combinations the Ducks would come up with. Little did we know that he'd get to watch a dismantling of U$C, who gave up the most offense in the Pete Carroll era.

Ducks fans celebrate a likely Rose Bowl berth

There will be tons of debate about the Oregon/Boise State rankings- should the Ducks, who undefeated against better competition, jump the Broncos team that beat them in week one. I would vote "yes", but we'll get into that a bit more in a minute.

Our "This week in Schaudenfreude" moment comes from Champaign, where the Fumbling Zooks got their first victory against a Division 1 opponent. That team? Mich1gAAn. Ah, the sweetness. But, Wolverine fans, it could be worse- Your punt return unit could look like this:

Come to think of it, there are blue/yellow winged helmets involved...

The whole weekend started off strangely, with another ACC BCS team dropping a game to an unranked foe as North Carolina defeated Virginia Tech. Iowa continued whatever "black magic" they've got going, coming back from a 21-7 halftime deficit to manhandle Indiana at home. Hoosier fans- Basketball season is coming... oh, wait. Ohio State handled their warmup game, and covered a 44.5 point spread. This season, Ohio State has three games with over 500 yards of offense... but what's next is more important. You really can't blame the Aggies of NMSU for scheduling this game- given the economy and the fact that only 25 NCAA programs were in the black last year, a man's got to do what he's got to do.


Notre Ame had a similar scrimmage/game, paying out the Wazoo to have the Cougs play a game in Texas. Yawn... I'm still pulling for them to be BCS elligible and return to the greatness of losing bowl games against teams not named "Hawaii". Auburn gave Emily a great present (more later), upsetting #25 Old Miss. Miami squeaked by Wake Forrest, and aTm won their second straight game. Mike Leach's guys were able to look past their fat little girlfriends and beat a team coached by a... uh... well... "fluffy" gentleman. State Penn handled Northwestern, TCU continued to cruise, and Kentucky faithful are also ready for some roundball. Georgia Tech optioned all over Vanderbilt while LSU won the battle of New Orleans (oooh! All the etouffee you can eat!).

The biggest congratulations of all, though, goes to the four (!) perfect scores this week!

While I usually try to be arbitrary in deciding who is listed first in the case of ties, Emily is the big winner this week as she, Jake, and Abby Jane welcome two new wonderful War Tiger fans: Blythe and Joy.

Please also notice that Matt has resumed being a realist about his favorite squadron, and Jeff finally comes through with a week befitting his status. Steve's lower than usual ranking can obviously be attributed to his spending time in preparation for the Oregon game... Can't say that I blame him. Although, he still did better than other folks that we won't name *cough Michael cough*.

Dan remains in first place, but has several people nipping at his heels. Janie seems to be running away with the Salem Shike's bracket.

At the end of the year, I'll also do a "conference challenge" and see how the picks percentages work out for our particular allegiances. I'll have to get some clarification from some of you, though- I'm guessing Ms. Terp is a Husker, and Cat wants to be a Gator. Joe, where do you stand- Big T1e1n? Michelle- SEC (Vandy), Big 12 (Nebraska) or Pac 10 (Oregon)? Doug, you've already won the Mountain West- congrats.

Speaking of the end of the year, the Trojan's loss still doesn't change much in terms of what I'd like to see during BC$ week; if it were up to me Texas and Florida would still play for the shiny ball, Oregon and Iowa would be a good Rose Bowl match up (although I know Iowa's losing in two weeks and think that the Ducks would smoke them), Let Cincinnati and whoever comes out of the clowncar that is the ACC play in the Orange Bowl (thems some guaranteed great ratings!), have Alabama embarrass Notre Ame in the Sugar Bowl, and showcase TCU and Boise State in the Fiesta (no conference affiliations required). Did I leave anyone out?

Big games coming up this week: Ohio State begins the "murders row" of it's schedule as it travels to "Happy? Valley" for a huge game against the Lions. Mich1gAAn plays Purdue and looks to get off the schnide. LSU goes to Alabama in a big SEC West conference matchup. Oklahoma returns to Lincoln for another historic matchup of two Big Eight powers. Florida hosts Vandy, U$C travels to Sun Devil Stadium, while Auburn writes a big check to Furman. UK has a bye against Eastern Kentucky, and Illinois hopes to continue it's winning ways as it meets up with a resurgent Minnesota.

Small schools: APU ends it's season with Sooner Conference power Langston University. Anderson squares off against the engineers of Rose Hulman, and SNU's Crimson Storm host Oklahoma Panhandle State. Gosh, I hope their mascot is the Skillets.

Speaking of unusual mascots, our obscure game of the week has the Builders hosting the Bobcats. Yup, the Bobs and the Builders.

First the visitors, from Frostburg State University in western Maryland. Initially known as "Normal School #2", Frostburg has gone from a teacher's college to a school that prepares students in 45 degree programs. The institution is nationally recognized for their "Bottom Line" student newsletter, which has both hard hitting articles about student debt and advertisements for credit cards. Famous alumni include actress Debra Monk and model Jennifer Hurt (no, I'm not linking to photos), Frostburg's other claim to fame is the Appalachian Festival, which featured Highland Grass at this year's events (Googling their band name was an adventure, as you can imagine). The football Bobcats are winless on the season.

Perhaps that will change when they play this year's "longest named school champion", Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding- Newport News Apprentice School of Shipbuilding. As far as I know, this is the only institution that has direct sponsorship from a corporation or entity, other than Oregon and Oklahoma State, of course. The school is unusual in that it's degree are actually awarded from nearby Thomas Nelson Community College, but it competes at the Division Three level in six sports (although not under NCAA jurisdiction- kind of like U$C, I guess). Famous alumni include the USS Enterprise (not that one), the USS Yorktown, the USS Ronald Reagan, and the USS Dallas submarine. The Builders football team has only one win in 2009, but I'm not going to make any snide comments because a) their opponent hasn't beaten anyone and b) they have access to nuclear weaponry.