In case you were wondering...

Yup, we made it to the top of Half Dome and back:

Oh, and we had our first perfect week in the picks league!! Great job, Steve-O!
Uhh... Dan? You may want to think about taking "UW" and "Huskies" out of your name for a while, champ. You just aren't going to get these types of breaks in our league:

With his great week, we now have a new name atop the leader board:
While it's good to see Matt come back to reality with his team name.

Hey! Jeff hit double digits! And... Ben and Paula have quit on us. Paula, the Hawgs did so well on Saturday- what happened to you?

This week: Red River shootout (or, as it's known around here "Big Game Bob Gets Another Pass"), and Notre Ame gets the privilege of actually playing someone- whoops, it's U$C. Get the resume ready, Chuck.

Antitriskaidekaphobia

No, it's not the stuff that makes you sleepy on Thanksgiving- the post title has a different meaning for the week.

And so, it ends... not with a whimper, but with a bang. For the last week of our group, you couldn't have asked for more firepower. We had so much stuff blowing up, you'd think it was an episode of MacGruber. Let's start in Columbus.

Yup, the Buckeyes pounded the "JV Team in Funny Helmets", as Michael called them. I agree with Spielman- it's really a pity they had to go and screw up a great rivalry. By the time they play again, it will be over two thousand, one hundred days since Michigan has beaten Ohio State. If their program doesn't improve, I'm going to be a diabetic. Even though there was a new fella on the other sideline, there were some familiar sights:

2006
2007
2008

So much goodness in one game... Here's what I'll leave you with, as one of our videos of the weak:

Don't really feel like hurdling, huh big fella? Well, it could be worse. Final score: 42 to 7.

Although, that was only the halftime score for the Oklahoma and Texas Tech game. Sweet Odin's raven... that's a lot of points, and it wasn't the Mad Scientist who dialed them up. It was an impressive win, although I'm not sure what to do with it in the bigger picture (see below). Final score, 65 to 21

But that wasn't even the biggest point output of the week: West Texas A&M (remember them?) scored 68... and lost. Abilene Christian put 93 points on the board... three more than their basketball team did in a loss that evening. Let's see, if ACU scored 93 on the team that scored 75 on APU... carry the five... nope, not pretty.

Speaking of "not pretty"- the Crapple Cup. Wow. 0 and everything UWillingham against 1-everything WSU. I'd like to say that Ty pulled it off, but the fact of the matter is that his secondary gave up on him. I'll bet he's sad that he left Ntre Ame...

Or is he? The amazing Offensive Genius that is Charlie Weiss has been very public about calling the plays for the last couple of games. The result against Syracuse and their lame duck coach? Fail. At home. Let's be honest, Irish fans (both of you)- you are not elite. You were, then the University decided that academics are more important than football. That's a great thing. Really- it's the reason I chose the college football program and my alma mater. It's also the reason why Urban Meyer went to Florida instead of South Bend. But please stop telling us you're on the same level as U$C, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio State. Compare yourself to Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, Vanderbilt. Heck, this year you can even compare yourself to MACh1gAAn. We'll even help you point and laugh.

In other news- it was great to watch football on Thursday- not only did Miami lose, but they did so to an option team. Purdue won the old oaken bucket, State Penn sealed their ticket to the BCS (two Big T1e1n championships in four years? Wow- I wonder what that's like), Arkansas dropped the ball again while their former coach beat the living stew out of LSU. Wonder if Arkansas' team parents are still happy about their sons' experience? Cal beat Stanford in "The Big Game", the Frogs beat Air Force (seriously unpatriotic, Doug), and Oregon State continued it's journey to Pasadena. Northwestern won the Battle for Illinois, Tennessee reminded Vandy who owns the state (or at least the swanky formal wear) while the Holy War went to the Utes.

Small schools- Hobart upped Lycoming in a snowy playoff game. Ah, snow. How I miss you.

Well, since Joe's not coaching in the post season, it only makes sense that he ends with a huge perfect week!!

The surprising thing is that Nate's suffering from the triskaidekaphobia, obviously. Why else would he have flaked the last week?? Dan and Nolan's Dad round out the top of the charts.

Carrie and Jake must be reading the same website for their previews, and Steve and Michael are also sharing notes.

That brings us to the end, and we have a consolidated title!!! Congrats to Franklin Dan, who finished 114th in the nation. Great work, making us all look good (or bad, as it were).
You'll notice a new column, which shows the points you got right against the total you were elligible for. The folks in green are compared as if they didn't miss a week- not much change overall, really. Steve-o and I tied, so the tiebreaker must be the picks (arbitrary? Nope, I won the picks):

We had a huge logjam at the 10 spot, especially if Paula doesn't miss a week. I guess the Bowls Contest will have to settle it.

House awards: Terry wins for Salem, Chuck wins for Duarte, and I'm going to give the nod to Jake for Malibu (since he won the points and you tied in picks). Since I have no idea who's Aaron and who's Amanda, I'll just point out that A Terpening did very well for themselves.

So, let's talk Bowl Chaos Syndrome, shall we? I still am hoping for a catastrophe where toOSU wins out, Mizzou beats OU, FSU beats Florida, and Florida beats Alabama. That would leave either a U$C and Texas championship (neither one winning their conference outright), or would send State Penn to the MNC game and tOSU to the Rose. As it is now, tOSU is on the outside of this thing.

And why is that? Well, because it's about money and every conference wants theirs. That's why the ACC and Big lEast get an automatic bid even though their champion may have 4 losses. It's also why the Pac-10 will more than likely be sending a 3 loss Oregon State team; this isn't about championships or "best teams", it's about revenue.

Very realistically, these folks will be playing on January 1 and then watching the big money games: Undefeated Boise State, undefeated Ball State, one loss Texas Tech, and two loss Ohio State (the two losses coming to BCS teams- again, they don't lose to people they are supposed to beat).

As for the Big 12 South- Wow. I still think that Texas' win head to head puts them a bit above OU because OU beating TTU needs a bit of perspective. First, they run variations of the same offense (for good reason), so it's not like OU needed a lot of extra preparation. Although, second, they got it with a week off. Third, it was in Norman. So, for now, head to head carries the day. If OU wins the Bedlam game, that might change. I do think, though, that if Missouri would do the honorable thing and back out of the Championship Game that OU would beat Texas at this point. But remember, anyone on any day- makes "champion" a little less significant, huh?

What game do I want to see? Florida and Oklahoma. And, as much as I hate to say it, I think Florida wins their second championship in three seasons. They have the athletes to play man to man coverage, and the defensive front to get pressure. I also think that their offense is quirky enough to create problems for Oklahoma's preparation, and I'm think Bob's record in BCS games as of late may also mean something.

Remember, once this all shakes out, we'll look at the teams as if there was a "Chuck Style" playoff.

Before that, though, there are two weeks of great games: Nebraska/Colorado, the Iron Bowl (Beat SABAN!), U$C and Ntre Ame, Texas and the Ghost of aTm, The Egg Bowl in Mississippi, Georgia and GaTech, FSU and UF, TBPU hositing the Sooners, Texas Tech and Baylor, Carolina and Duke, Kentucky and Tennessee, Spurrier and Clemson in the "Biggest Dissappointment Bowl", KU and MU's Border war, toOSU and UO's Civil War... and that's just this week.

Next up, U$C and Slick Rick's Bruins, Army and Navy, the Big 12 and SEC Championships... All great reasons to not go shopping and stay at home eating leftover turkey (if anyone has leftovers next weekend, don't eat them. Seriously, just let it go)

But, if it's Turkey Day that means our small school game is the Frisco Bell matchup between Kirkwood and Webster's Grove in the suburban St. Louis area. In this, the 101st meeting, sees the WG Statesmen coming in after a 5-4 season that closed with two losses. Kirkwood's Pioneers enter at 6-5, after a loss in the second round of the playoffs. Here's information from the centennial meeting, including an article in the New York Times.

We'll be back in a couple of weeks with the Bowls Challenge.

Gobble gobble.

Cheaper by the Dozen

It's Monday, and MACh1gAAn still sucks.

In the midst of the "sleeper week" (where everyone was sleeping because there wasn't a marquee game) there were some things going on of note.

• Let's get it over with and start in Champaign/Urbana, where tOSU sought to bounce back from what I call the "airline worse case scenario" (I was stuck on Delta watching last year's upset as we traveled to Ethiopia- nowhere for me to pace around). And, sure enough, Tressel-ball was sufficient to stop the Zooks. Which brings us to our first video of the week: a lesson in physics

Look, there's no way a 240 pound guy should be able to do that. The best part of the video? Check out who's busting his keister to get out and lead block. Yup, #2, the freshman QB. Even though it's not the first time it's happened, when you realize that he started 10 yards behind Wells you've got to be impressed.

• Nebraska showed why they are still relevant, owning Kansas State in Manhattan.
• TSUN dropped a home game to Northwestern, who was missing their starting QB and RB. Awesome.
• Navy made two (!) onside kicks happen, as Ntre Ame almost collapsed against them for the second straight year.
• Auburn put a scare in the pre-season SEC champ.
• LSU needed a collapse of Biblical proportions by Troy to stave off the upset.
• Minnesota also failed to finish, and allowed the Axe to remain in Wisconsin.
• In the Big 12, Baylor beat A&M. You read that correctly.
• Texas reminded Kansas that they are, indeed, Kansas, in a game that brought our first runner up for catch of the week:

• Also in the Big 12, TBPU had to put up with some serious shenanigans as they overcame Colorado. At least they responded appropriately... if your definition of "appropriate" includes theft.
• In the "It couldn't happen to a nicer guy" category- Steve Spurrier got pounded by 50 points by the team he used to coach and run the score up on people with.
• Oregon brought out yet another uniform monstrosity in their win over Arizona. At least they had cute ducky wings.
• Slick Rick returned to Seattle. Nothing good can come of this sentence.
  
• toOSU continued to win and push it's way toward a Rose Bowl (more later).
• U$C didn't choke against Stanford this year (having already done that against the Beavers), but also didn't cover the spread. For what it's worth.
• Vandy is finally bowl illegible after beating Kentucky. Of course, all you need to do is win 50% of your games to be bowling, so there's really not that much to get excited about.
• Small Schools: The "Strawn Jinx" in in full effect. My comments about Manchester never winning the Bronze Ball inspired them to finally upset the Anderson Ravens, who end the year at .500.
• #2 Wabash also fell in the Monon Bell game, losing at home to DePauw.
  

And now, for the catch of the week. It's the second play in this highlight, and may also qualify for the hit of the week:

And now, the scores for our grouping:

What's amazing about that is that Carrie spent 5 minutes setting up her picks. Nate gets the award for "most from the least", finishing last in picks and middle of the pack in the points.
Cat's "moving lag" finally catches up with her,and she drops to the bottom of the week's standings.

Mystery solved: I've written before about how my scoresheet looks differently than what I entered. This week I figured it out. Typically, I do my picks twice- once on Tuesday (just by my initial gut feeling) and once again on Friday. Usually, there's no change- but when I have made changes they haven't registered for some reason.
This week, it cost me: for picks, I changed to choose Michigan and Boston College (after FSU suspended 5 players), so that ended up being a wash. However, the four games I lost were all changed on Friday to lower points, so this "glitch" meant that I dropped about 15 points more than I should have.

Ah well- we've said all along that we'll trust the machine, so I'm stuck. Moral? Either spend 5 minutes like Carrie or only do it on Fridays.

Not that it would have mattered, Dan seems to be running away with this thing:

(And by "Dan", I don't mean "Nolan's Dad").

This is especially true in the points race, where he's built a 19 point lead as the season comes to a close:
This week, things will shake out a little more in the BC$ when the Red Raiders travel to Norman. However, because I'm snarky, here's something that might be interesting to see:

• OU beats the Red Raiders and win the Big 12 South
• Florida State upsets Florida
• Missouri upsets OU in the Big 12 Championship Game
• Florida beats Alabama in the SEC Championship Game
• Penn State loses to MSU (more on this later)
• Oregon State wins out against Arizona and Oregon

Which means that, more than likely, we'll have a Texas and U$C National Championship Game. While a great matchup, neither of these teams will have won their conference.

You know what we need? A playoff. You know who agrees with me? The President elect.

Eight team playoff, shorter regular season... wow, that sounds really familiar somehow.

The problem with this plan- Even the President doesn't have enough weight to throw around. The current BCS coordinator responded to this by saying

For now, our constituencies -- and I know he understands constituencies -- have settled on the current BCS system, which the majority believe is the best system yet to determine a national champion while also maintaining the college football regular season as the best and most meaningful in sports.

Yeah. We understand constituencies. And given that ABC/ESPN is about to sign a deal to run the BC$ through 2015, we've got no hope of seeing change anytime soon.

What am I hoping for? Well, for tOSU to get a BC$ bowl bid this year, the easiest thing would be for either toOSU or Penn State to lose. And, I don't see either happening. If Penn State wins, they get the Rose Bowl (barring some other issue that would put them into the Championship Game), and Ohio State would be left hoping that an "at large" bid opens up (not likely, with Boise State and Utah going undefeated and toOSU winning out). But, if State Penn chokes against the Spartans, I may finally get to see the Buckeyes in Pasadena. Fingers crossed.

So, what does this week hold? Vandy gets a shot of finally beating the Vols, Arkansas faces the legion of Croom, Pittsburgh and Cinci play for the Big lEast championship, The Chicago War has the Zooks and the Wildcats in Evanston, and the "CRAP-ple Cup" sees winless Washington at one win Washington State. And yes, it will be televised. U$C is on their third bye of the season. Seriously.

Of course, the big games will be State Penn and MSU, as well as the Sooners and the Leaches. Oh, and it's the week for "The Game". Here's your joke of the day:

This years' Ohio State/Michigan game has been canceled.
Michigan began driving to Columbus to play, but couldn't get past Toledo.

Small schools highlight the first round of the NCAA Division 3 playoffs, where Lycoming will travel to Hobart. Well, actually, they will travel to Hobart and William Smith, since the schools were initally two seperate institutions, one for men and one for women. Collectively known as the "Colleges of Seneca", these colleges are located in Geneva New York. Lycoming's Warriors love numbers and colors, and famous alumni have bombed in a big way.

A Team By Any Other Name...

When they lost to Appalachian State, they became Mich1gAAn.

Today, that changes. They are now MACh1gAAn.


Good times, especially if you know your history.

You have to like it...

When your running back can do this:

And your freshman (!) quarterback can do this:

For context on this hit, here's TP's comments after the game:

"I ran out of bounds the play before (at the end of a 21-yard gain) and then a (Minnesota) coach or somebody said, 'Why don't you put your head down and run somebody over instead of running out?' " Pryor said. "So I was thinking, 'OK if I get a chance, I'm going to do it.' "

The next play, the 6-foot-6, 235-pound Pryor dropped back to pass, felt pressure and took off around left end. As he looked upfield, bearing down on him was the 6-foot-1, 226-pound Sharpe.

"I was (thinking), 'All right, this is it right here. You're saying I can't lower my shoulder. I've got to prove that,' " he said.

In his mind, he wasn't just addressing the Gophers.

"I had been talking to him about it in recent weeks. He said he runs hard; I told him he runs soft," Ohio State tailback Chris "Beanie" Wells said. "So he told me he was going to run somebody over, and he did it."

Pryor said he remembered his teammate's chiding as he was sizing up Sharpe.

Awesome.

Had a bad day

Yeah, even though I knew it was probably going to happen, it still hurts when it does.

I mean, Anderson losing 52 to 17? To DePauW? Yikes. The only thing worse happened when APU lost 75 to 13, but at least that was against the number 6 team in NCAA Division two.

(note- you want to talk about tough schedules? I believe that the first 7 teams APU plays are top ten in either the NAIA or NCAA Division 2 or 3)

Oh, and that other thing? I'm still processing. Thanks for asking.

Even though this is from a different game, this is how I felt most of yesterday evening. Stay with the video until the close up with his helmet off to get the full effect.

Oh well, it could have been worse.

Is it wrong for me to giggle a bit when I watch that?

Not everyone had a bad day, though- Former Husker Turner Gill's Buffaloes seemed to feel pretty chipper yesterday:

And I wish that I had ever had a time in my life where I felt like this Iowa coach.

Other folks were also successful- Illinois defeated what's left of Louisiana Monroe, and Nebraska squeaked by New Mexico State. Ntre Ame won the "cripple fight" when Mich1gAAn's six turnovers led to an insurmountable lead. The second version of the "battle of the bottom" saw Baylor defeat the Cougs of WSU. And speaking of anemic- Auburn 3, Mississippi State 2? Good thing the Tigers' shortstop made that diving catch in the ninth, huh? TCU pounded Stanford, who must have thought that the LHC's activation would end the world; thus negating the need to practice. Number 2 Georgia handed "The old ball coach" his sixth straight SEC loss, while Oklahoma pounded UW and looked like the team to play U$C in Miami. Our small college highlight: Mars Hill defeated St. Augustine's 34-17. Hooray.

Like I said, not everything was bad. For instance:

Cat posted the first perfect week of the season! Great work, especially since she was away from her computer at a conference.

Oh, and those of you who picked tOSU... Thanks. That's cute.I think that Paula forgot that there's more to football than just Arkansas- just because the UA/UT game was postponed, we're still doing the picks, sunshine.

A couple of movers near the top of our picks rankings...
While the points totals haven't shifted much (with the exception of Cat making a big jump up).

So, this week, what happens. APU returns home to play the University of Wisconsin-LaCross, and Anderson tries to rebound against the "Fighting Quakers" of Earlham college (awesome nickname). Nebraska gets ready to start the regular season, as the prep for Virginia Tech in a bye week. U$C also has another bye week (one of three this season), and tOSU looks to beat someone nicknamed the Trojans this season as Troy comes to Columbus (along with a healthy dose of quarterback controversy). Arkansas squares off against the Great Satan/Saban, and TCU gets their first look at June Jones' SMU offensive prowess. The Fighting Zooks also have a bye this week, and will probably be watching Ntre Ame and Michigan State or Tennessee and Florida or LSU and Auburn. Can you blame them? Big cross conference game of the week is Georgia traveling (what? an SEC School traveling for a non-conference game? Wow...) to Arizona State.

The Obscure Game of the Week- Division Three's Husson Eagles traveling to play the Cadets of Norwich. Located in northern New England, Husson prides itself in preparing students for "real world success". Unlike, say, other institutions which only hope their students will thrive in imaginary realms. Although, given that they're located in Bangor Maine, perhaps they are trying to distinguish themselves from that cities most famous resident.

Norwich University is a former military academy whose corps of cadets still anchors their campus community. It was the first private military school in the United States, and was the template for all ROTC programs used nationwide. Their ridiculously vague guiding principal is "Tradition of Innovation". Ummm... isn't innovation the opposite of tradition? You know, trying something new is not the same as doing what we've always done?

But then again, I wasn't smart enough to go there, so what do I know.

"... they teach you to be a better man"

Today's quote is about all you can get in terms of bulletin board material from tOSU prior to the big game on Saturday. Let me give it to you in context-

"As I took my visit to USC, I'm like, 'How are they successful? They're not even serious about the game,'" Small said. "Before the game, they're all going crazy. Me and Rob Rose was on the visit and I'm looking like, 'Wow.' And then the coach said, 'You better get out of here. It's about to get hectic.'

"And then I come (to Columbus) on the visit and before the game, it's all quiet, everybody getting taped, coaches talking. It's the total opposite."

"Here at Ohio State, they teach you to be a better man," Small said. "There, it's just all about football."

You know how I feel about coaches, and how important they are in the life of a young adult. You should also know how I feel about my favorite program- three expectations (if I, as a fan, am allowed to have any):

1. Run a clean program (both from the NCAA and legal perspective)
2. Graduate players, or provide them the opportunity to get a job (go pro)
3. Beat Michigan (1-11 is something I can live with, as long as that one win is the one that matters).

So, to hear an athlete (especially one that's been in the coach's doghouse) talk about their experience helping them be a better man strikes me as a great thing.

But, there's more.

You may know that the coach in question wrote a book that was published this summer by Tyndale press (a Christian publishing house. But you may not know that this faith-first philosophy has inspired a number of his charges, including Butkus Award winner James Laurinaitis. Even ESPN noticed his choice of wrist band ("I am grateful"), but didn't talk about the message on the other side ("Thank you God").

Those are also a great story, a great testimony to right priorities.

Am I naive enough to think that tOSU has somehow become God's team (seen that before),and that everyone is has come to faith? No, but it is good to know that you don't have to compromise success and faith, that it does make a difference in important ways, and that it happens more than we hear about.

Seriously...

Why wouldn't anyone want to play here:

or for this guy?

Amongst the greatest honors...

that a blogger can have is to find that he shares the same idea with one of the big dogs.

Case in point, DEADSPIN's Daulerio posted about the West Virginia Lawsuit within minutes of my reflection (below), and shared some similar ideas.

Again, I'm not pointing to plagarism.... Deadspin is much MUCH better than that (unlike some people). If you don't read Deadspin, you need to- they are THE leader in online sports commentary and snark.

I'm just honored to be in the same part of the internets and ebays.

Mississippi Miracle

Here's a better angle of that amazing play:

If you're interested in a chart of all 15 laterals, go here: Trinity Laterals