Having players over for some grub is a photo op for Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel:
Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly would like to give you or Facebook some information. What that information is, no one knows:
Having players over for some grub is a photo op for Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel:
Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly would like to give you or Facebook some information. What that information is, no one knows:
Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh enjoyed an 80's classic:
Ball State defensive line coach Phil Burnett is taking in the sights of Las Vegas:
New USC head coach Lane Kiffin tweets some great news for fans of The Blind Side:
UCF LBs coach and recruiting coordinator Geoff Collins urges his followers to try his new candy and energy drink pairing:
USC head football coach Pete Carroll states the obvious:
Its an interesting consideration especially when so much of the playoff talk in college football is about fairness and letting the little guy get in on the action. What programs have the resources to acquire the great bulk of impact players? The big guys, of course --- USC, Notre Dame, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, etc.
Whether that extrapolates to college football I'm unsure but I certainly think a playoff (just like the bowls) is distinctive from the regular season and is structurally set up to reward differently than what success in the regular season means. Not enough attention is paid to the distinctions. I think back often to Billy Beane's thoughts in Moneyball about only caring that he get his team to the playoffs in the first place because after that, playoff baseball was a crapshoot that no amount of his tinkering could really influence the outcome. That is, entirely too much outside noise gummed up the works to reward not necessarily superior teams but merely the lucky.
It blows my mind that postseason success could be much more random than about the atual ability of the various teams. Playoff advocates need to think long and hard about that consideration and try to find (if even possible) how to manage the randomness of it all, and if they can't find a smart way to do it, step back from the megaphone.
Look, I'm not anti playoff. There's a few that I think work fairly well but you have to structure them appropriately. In my mind there's simply no way, however, to appropriately organize a college football playoff.
None.
Even in baseball where you have a series of games between teams, the randomness of the game is so large the format still doesn't always advance the generally superior regular season teams.
The NFL playoffs are great entertainment, but they're one and done. While there's certainly something significant to teams having just one game to advance or disappear, there's still so much noise to just a one game situation from weather to officiating to health to a million other factors. The only way in my mind to fairly reduce that and have the teams truly prove themselves beyond the noise (and not within the fog of it) is to play a series of games between them which is obviously unfeasible in college football.
]]>The Game: #23 Houston at Tulane
The Mileage: 347 (Approximately a 5.5 hour drive)
The Reasons: The Houston Cougars are coming off a road victory against an SEC opponent, but are still looking for their first C-USA victory. QB Case Keenum is 21 yards away from passing David Klingler for second on the Cougars' career passing yards list. Houston is 10-4 all-time against Tulane.
If you are a Cougar fan, you should jump in the car and make the road trip. Not only will you see your favorite team, but you will also get to spend some time in New Orleans.
Lodging: A quick search on SideStep results in a variety of rooms and rates. My pick?
Crescent Palms Motel
3923 Martin Luther King Jr Blv
New Orleans, LA, United States
504 821-7773
www.crescentpalmsmotel.com
It's located 1 mile from The Louisiana Superdome, so you can walk to and from the game to avoid paying for parking there. The rate is $69/night, plus they boast a cocktail lounge, which sounds like a win-win situation.
Eats: Get some local flavor at Joey K's. It was featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and has a menu filled with New Orleans' classics. Plus, it is located only 2 miles from the Crescent Palms Motel and the Superdome.
Joey K's Restaurant & Bar
3001 Magazine St
New Orleans, LA 70115
(504) 891-0997
www.joeyksrestaurant.com
Tickets: Tickets seem to be scarce around the web, which leaves you with three options. 1. Buy some off a ticket website and hope they show up at will call. 2. Scavenge for tickets at the Superdome. 3. Tailgate and then watch the game in the French Quarter.
Pregame: The Tulane Tailgating Village is set up on top of the Southeast Parking Garage at the Superdome. You can also just walk around until you see some red shirts in the green wave and join your fellow Houston fans.
Postgame: French Quarter. New Orleans is your oyster po-boy.
Tips: Don't show up empty-handed, especially if you're going to be looking for tickets. I would suggest bringing some Houston flavor in the form of local beer.
Please add your own suggestions in the comments.
]]>The reality is that the SEC in 2009 consists of Alabama, Florida and a bunch of nobodies. In nonconference games against Division I-A opponents, SEC teams are a pedestrian 14-11 against the spread. In nonconference play against teams from Bowl Championship Series conferences, the record is 4-7. That’s a .363 percentage, the worst of the six BCS conferences.
As we've said on here plenty o' times, things are cyclical. The SEC is the conference best positioned to dominate college football and has the most intense fan base, but the rumors of its invincibility have long been more fable than reality.
Its an old, tired debate but a good kick to the groin every now and then (while still voting Alabama No. 1, heh) hopefully keeps people honest and the whole discussion in perspective.
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The more stupid situations like this that go down, the less ground you have to stand on. This whole amateurism thing can't last forever, and you have to realize that, right?
Right?
Find a smart way to abandon it and maybe, maaaaaaaaaaybe when the reckoning comes for your organization, it can retain some reasonable scraps of power and carve out a more limited, focused, meaningful purpose more in line with reality.
But you have to wake up first.
]]>Others: LSU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Arizona, UCLA, Notre Dame, TCU, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia Tech, USF, Fresno State (don't laugh!), BYU, Kansas, Nebraska, Auburn, Iowa
]]>Oregon, Auburn, Houston, Iowa, LSU are all on the cusp. Watch how much this changes in just a few weeks.
]]>]]>Malzahn has to be considered the main cause for the sudden success. While it's nice that he has brought some early excitement to Auburn, the fact that the team's numbers have been so closely in line with Malzahn's offensive identity may be a sign of sustained prosperity.