College Football General

[crashcourse]

ok yahoo fantasy sports pick ats group id 21713 group name megasite password goatpen

drop 1 week score if any interest log into yahoo sports otherwise stfu

[crashcourse]

have 3 in yahoo fantasy sports pick ats group id 21713 group name megasite password goatpen

drop 1 week score if you want in next week if any interest log into yahoo sports otherwise stfu

[10ac]

Wow! 98 points in regulation.

[It's me Karen]

UT and Ohio State tomorrow.

[10ac]

tUT plays Cinci.

[JRB]

Bennett was the 2010 Big South Coach of the Year at Coastal Carolina, so you'd better pay attention. This is important stuff.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/b ... aaf-wp6078

[AlabamAlum]

Peyote is the most likely answer.

[dave_rickart]

don't let Michael Vick hear him....he's start hanging, electrocuting and drowning Chanticleers....

[dave_rickart]

interesting AP Top 25 today....

Oregon gets ass-banged by No.2 LSU, FSU loses on a fourth-quarter TD to top-ranked Oklahoma..... so naturally, Oregon is ranked ahead of FSU.

Just behind FSU is a team that barely beat a service acedemy, at home.

And behind them is a team that couldn't score on ECU....

[billy bob bocephus]

polls don't start to count until at least October

[dave_rickart]

Excellent article on how the NCAA started on this path towards decentralized power, schools negotiating their own TV deals, and anti-competitive practices by the top programs:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/co ... story.html

[aTm]

They way you get your teeth back is schedule your own high profile games that you own the Tv rights to. Thats the way they took control of basketball, with the NCAA tournament and the money it generates. They let the bowls and conferences become the controllers of football in the name of preserving tradition. Seems that worked out well...

[JRB]

1. Alabama. You could credibly argue for either of the next two teams in this spot, and I wouldn't blame you. But I'm sticking with my preseason pick for #1 for now, chiefly for this reason: I trust this defense. They're #2 nationally in pass efficiency defense, #3 against the run, and #2 overall. There were times against Penn State when Alabama could have played a man short on defense and Penn State still couldn't have scored, and a much more proficient Arkansas offense didn't fare a whole lot better. Yes, they're not perfect-- they've turned the ball over a little more than you'd like to see, and the offense has been fairly mediocre on third downs so far, but they avoid crippling mistakes(third least-penalized team so far) when things aren't going well. I thought they'd handle Arkansas, though I didn't think it would be quite that one-sided. Florida, though, has impressed me(more on them later), and a night game in the Swamp is rarely a visiting team's idea of a good time. This looks to be by far Alabama's toughest test to date, and probably the toughest game they'll have until November 5th, when they face off in Tuscaloosa against...

2. LSU. I almost had LSU at #1-- the wins, just taken by themselves, are enough to merit that spot. But I didn't think anybody, and especially not Geno Smith, could throw for 463 yards on this LSU secondary. Even though LSU had control of that game pretty much the entire way, WVU's ability to move the ball on them shook my confidence in LSU just enough to deny them the top spot...for now. It's not as if it makes much difference. The Tigers get every opportunity to prove they're the best team in college football this year, and they're well on their way. I'm not sure, though, if Ware and Ford give them quite enough that they'll be able to run on everybody, and I'm still not sure if Jarrett Lee can win a game for them if the running game isn't producing. Lee's been a terrific stabilizing force after a mess that could have sunk the season, but is he a national title QB? We're about to find out.

3. Oklahoma. Alabama and LSU are #1 and #1A, as far as I'm concerned. OU is a clear #3 right now. I love their big-play ability in the passing game, and they're still virtually invincible at home. But the last couple of weeks have demonstrated a few cracks, most notably in the ground game. They're not a dominating running team. Whaley's good, but that's about it. More concerning is the run defense-- a week after they held Florida State's offense in check all night, Missouri repeatedly gashed them in the running game. They're going to see that kind of spread-option running game a lot this year, and they'll have to be better than that if they're going to make the BCS title game.

4. Boise State. The notion of a "revenge game" is probably overrated, but I've got to think the Boise State Broncos are preparing just a little harder than usual this week, as Nevada comes calling. The Broncos have their shortcomings-- this is another team that isn't running the ball all that well, despite having pretty good talent in the backfield in Doug Martin and D.J. Harper-- but they're getting into the portion of the schedule where that's not going to matter all that much. An athletic, disciplined defense that can crowd the box and the intermediate zones will give this Boise State team trouble, though, because while the receiving corps is very good at the fundamental routes Boise likes to run, they can't blow by people the way Titus Young and Austin Pettis could.

5. Stanford. Andrew Luck is the leading Heisman Trophy contender. The bad NFL teams are competing to win the Andrew Luck sweepstakes. Basically, Stanford's all about Andrew Luck. Right? Wrong. The Cardinal are(is?) first in the nation against the run and in tackles for loss, second nationally in sacks, fourth in the nation in third-down defense, and fourth in scoring defense. They've also turned the ball over once in three games, and they can punish you on the ground. This team does a lot of things well. Now, to be fair, they've accomplished this against two woefully overmatched opponents(Duke and San Jose State) and a Pac-10 team that doesn't believe in running the ball any more(Arizona), but they've beaten those teams exactly the way you'd expect a top five team to beat them-- they just pounded Arizona into submission in the second half in Tucson. They'll likely do the same this week to UCLA. The Bruins will be fortunate to gain much more than 200 yards on them.

6. Wisconsin. Wisconsin's won 32 consecutive regular-season non-conference games, which would be more impressive if they'd made a habit of scheduling decent non-conference opponents. In their limited defense, Wisconsin sort of tried this year with Oregon State, only to get the worst Beaver team of Mike Riley's tenure in Corvallis. In any case, they've looked utterly dominant so far on both sides of the ball. Russell Wilson has given them a dimension they've never had at QB, and so far he's resisted the urge to throw into triple coverage. This looks like far and away the best team the Big Ten has to offer at the moment. But again, we can't be sure yet. If they win this week at home against Nebraska, that might be proof enough, and given Nebraska's struggles defensively against Washington, I'd think the Badgers win decisively.

7. Florida. I didn't think Will Muschamp and company would have this team clicking this well this early. There's obviously still tons of talent in Gainesville, but with the way the offense sputtered and died frequently last year, I thought the Gators would need some time to get things in order. Instead, they've blown through three outclassed opponents and won comfortably over a Tennessee team that I think is better than the Vol fans here apparently do(though I may well be wrong). If they're going to return to the top of the rankings this year, though, they have to win this week, and to do that, a lot of things have to go right for them. They're going to need a monster game from Chris Rainey and/or Jeff Demps, they're going to need John Brantley to avoid turning the ball over, and most importantly, the Gator defense has to win the early downs. Florida leads the nation right now in third-down defense, and while Alabama can still beat you outside on occasion, the Tide don't want A.J. McCarron in third-and-longs all night in the Swamp.

8. Nebraska. Can Nebraska win a shootout in Madison? I think that's their only option, because I just don't think this Nebraska defense is going to stop the Badgers all that often. That's a strange thing to say-- the last couple of years, it's Nebraska's offense that was more likely to break down. Right now, the offense is fine. Taylor Martinez still doesn't complete enough passes, but when you're as fast and as good at running the option game as he is, completed passes are a nice bonus. Wisconsin hasn't seen this kind of speed yet this year. Nebraska, though, gave up 420 yards to Fresno State and 444 to Washington. Nebraska hasn't seen an offensive line or running backs like this since the mid-1990s, when the Cornhuskers were the ones running all over everybody.

9. South Carolina. I had the Gamecocks #10 before the season. I would have thought 4-0 would get them higher than #9 at this point. But that's the benefit of actually watching the games-- you can see that not all 4-0 records merit the same rewards. They've got some all-world players-- Marcus Lattimore is a future Pro Bowler, Alshon Jeffery might be if he ever gets to play with a consistent QB, and Jadeveon Clowney, I'm convinced, is part velociraptor. Seriously, that kid's phenomenal now-- imagine how good he's going to be in 2013. Still, with all that talent, they were fortunate to beat Georgia, they were fortunate to beat Navy, their defense got torched repeatedly by East Carolina, and I just can't be all that confident in a team starting Stephen Garcia at QB. They're a lot of fun to watch, though, and if the Vanderbilt game is a sign that the defense has sorted some things out, they could still be good enough to win the SEC East.

10. Oklahoma State. Yes, they won a big road game at Texas A&M, and no, I'm still not all that impressed with them, because I wouldn't pick this team to hold any team ahead of them on this list(and quite a few teams behind them) to fewer than 350 yards-- yes, they held Texas A&M to 309, but that was mainly due to A&M's offense imploding in the second half. As of now, the Cowboys are #105 nationally in total defense. They're all about the passing game-- there's nothing else they do particularly well, with the possible exception of field-goal kicking. The ceiling for this team is 2008 Texas Tech-- exciting team, a big win or two, a steady climb to near the top of the rankings, and then the day they get exposed. That will not be this week, though, as they've got a bye, and it won't be next week, either, as the Cowboys get the lousy Kansas defense in Stillwater. oSu might score 70+ and gain 800 yards on Kansas. They're 4-0, and they've got the big road win, so they're here, and they'll be here for a while longer.

Next Ten: Oregon, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Baylor, Texas, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, South Florida, Illinois, and Arkansas

[AlabamAlum]

LSU is the obvious #1 and South Carolina has not looked very good. Otherwise, a good effort, Jason.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Nebraska should be nowhere near the Top 10.

[Jungle Rat]

And you should be nowhere near young boys.

[AlabamAlum]

lmao

[THE_WIZARD_]

Don't run away from your feelings Rat...

AA:

hi

[dave_rickart]

Nebraska should be nowhere near the Top 10.

might be Wizzie's best work yet....

[BigRedMan]

Cracker please. That sandbagging is almost to the likeness of Talent (RIP).