(more…)

Raise a Glass

Put the Glass Down

At present, Kansas football coach Mark Mangino is under considerable fire after reports surfaced concerning how he treats his players. He is alleged to have threatened to send African-American players “back to the ghetto” or “back to the street corner with their homies.” He allegedly taunted another player with the player’s father’s alcoholism, and is said to use things said in confidence against players. Mangino is also reported to physically provoke his players as well. Keeping in step with his namesake, Baby Mangino has allegedly been throwing sand on African American toddlers at preschool and sprinkling some crack on them during nap time.

Duck, black people!

(more…)

4 patrons like this post.

Put the Glass Down

In honor of the holiday, and in hopes that most of us won’t have to be at the computer much tomorrow, we’re taking an early, abbreviated look around the non-BCS universe today.  First off, though, a tip of the cap to the folks in the retail, service, and phone desk job positions where you’ll spend Friday (and in some cases, Thursday), on the grind so the rest of us can fill up our tanks, get a meal or a beer, buy some worthless crap, or report our insurance claims during our four day weekend.  Much respect.

Now, on to the football.  We’re going to play Football Team Thanksgiving: what some of our non-BCS teams are, or hope to be, thankful for:

TCU: Thankful for being awesome, their shiny new MWC title, and that New Mexico got their one win out of the way against Colorado State last week.  Now they can roll over as expected, setting TCU up for their first BCS bowl bid.  Would be very thankful if Texas A&M beat Texas tomorrow to open the door, at least a little, to a shot at the national title.

(more…)

Raise a Glass

Put the Glass Down

If you watched TCU vs. Utah last weekend, or even saw the highlights afterward or on Sunday morning,  you saw a large handful of pundits and even more bloggers suggest that, just maybe, TCU was as good or even better than Texas.  Perhaps this was a reach, but perhaps not- their schedules are comparable (yes, really.  Sagarin has TCU at 48th and Texas at 50th) and TCU hasn’t been within 3 points of an opponent since a sub-20 degree game at Air Force.  Texas certainly hasn’t looked bad lately, but they also haven’t done anything to suggest that they’re far better than anyone around.

Of course, all this speculation and TCU’s massive win over then #16 Utah was met…with Texas still 100 points or more ahead of TCU in the polls.  Which isn’t surprising, given what we all know about how the polls work- pre-season polls are locked in, and nobody gets moved down until they lose, no matter how iffy they look or how strong a lower team is playing.  Unless they’re Boise State.  Bummer about that one, although if it can’t be settled on the field, TCU has earned their way ahead of BSU for now.

How much sense does it make, really, for polls to be demanded the day after the games are played?  To do a great job as a voter, you would have to be watching games from noon until 2 am every Saturday, then go straight to the TiVo for another 10 hours to catch up on the other matchups.  If the system had any interest in getting it right, polls would come out at the end of the week, after there’s time for voters to read, watch, and break down more games, instead of voting by box score.

(more…)

1 patron likes this post.

Put the Glass Down

Okay. Well, that was an interesting week. That is, if you like chaos. Northwestern threw a huge wrench into the Big Ten cog, and might have the BCS muckity-mucks sidling up to the Boise State faithful to see how they’ll like Tempe.

We’ll review a couple of the games from this past weekend, look ahead to the huge events coming up this weekend, and reexamine the Big Ten Bowl picture.

Walk this way…

(more…)

Raise a Glass

Put the Glass Down

It was a wild, if not entirely competitive week last week for the Big Ten. Ohio State and Wisconsin won blowouts, and Illinois beat up Michigan in a games that wasn’t nearly as close as the 25 point spread suggested. Wild second halves made Iowa and Penn State winners in games that were close at halftime. And Minnesota had a big win against Michigan State, despite the loss of Eric Decker.

I know you’re thinking, what are you going to discuss? Well, let’s just see what a bit of stream of consciousness gets us, shall we?

If you’ll follow me…

(more…)

1 patron likes this post.

Put the Glass Down

Hey guys, F’(x) here just to give ya’ll something to talk about during the day. College football’s the story, and its Halloween. You know what’s really spooky – I’m jacked up for the 80 cents I have in action on CentSports – where they give you 10 free cents to bet with, and every time you lose it they refill you. It’s wonderful. And those who don’t know me will find out my real name (shhh) if they click on the link. Enjoy your day folks, I’m back to work!

I'm a Trojan Man myself....

1 patron likes this post.

Put the Glass Down

The football this past weekend was, mostly, uneventful (Iowa-Michigan State notwithstanding). However, around the league, many more interesting things were going on that, for once, made me thankful that the schedule(s) that I keep have pushed this back towards a later in the week process.

So, let’s discuss the Iowa Hawkeyes, Eric Decker, and the rest of the Big Ten in the week 8 recap.

It’s ok to be afraid… it’s only Halloween!

(more…)

Raise a Glass

Put the Glass Down

We’re midway through the college football season for the Big Ten, and not all the schools have decided to focus solely on basketball just yet. Purdue, Iowa and Penn State put up huge victories this past weekend, while Michigan State, Michigan and Indiana put up moderately important wins as well. We’ll discuss the three big games, talk a little about the outlook for the rest of the year, and have some fun.

Come on in. (more…)

Raise a Glass

Put the Glass Down

Personally speaking, this was one of the best sports weekends I’ve had in years. For starters, the weekend kicked off with Big Blue Madness. I thought I was excited for John Wall and Eric Bledsoe before, but now I can barely contain it. Bonus: I saw clips of Late Night in the Phog that included Xavier Henry and the other Jayhawk freshman making total fools of themselves, and scenes of UNC’s party including some very white dancing from Roy Williams. I hope for a Kentucky-Kansas match up because the pre-season talk around those two teams is completely electric.  I have a countdown going for the start of the season – November 2^nd starts the exhibition games and I will be watching them.

But this is supposed to be about football. Well, fortunately, it was a pretty, pretty, pretty…pretty good day for football. There were so many upsets, and boy-howdy were they good ones. More after the jump.

(more…)

3 patrons like this post.

Put the Glass Down