Week 1: Scratching My Head

With the first week under our belts it's time to take a step back on reflect on the key takeaways from an eventful weekend in College Football:

* The Michigan Loss is a Really Big Deal - Sports Illustrated says: "Appalachian State's win at Michigan Stadium marked the first time a Football Championship Subdivision team -- formerly I-AA -- beat a team ranked in The Associated Press Top 25."

True dat, the magnitude of this loss will be felt and discussed throughout this season. Whether Michigan salvages a decent season or goes on to fail completely, this game will be seen as the catalyst for whatever befalls the Wolverines from here on out. Repercussions set to amplify should things go bad.

Days later we're still talking about it and getting unique color commentary such as this tidbit also from the SI article linked above:

"Indianapolis Colts defensive back Marlin Jackson, a former Michigan standout, said he was embarrassed by the result.

'We lost to a I-AA program, and we were a top-five team,' he said. 'To go out and be the first team in history to lose to a I-AA team, it hurts.'

Jackson said the loss has been an almost nonstop topic of conversation for him.

'That's all I've been getting the last couple of days. Every text message I get just says `Appalachian State.' That's all it says,' he said.

'The Ohio State guys have been all right. It's everybody else around here. Even coach (Tony) Dungy said something to me about it.'"

* Notre Dame Sucks Worse Without Brady Quinn - Charlie Weis wasn't being coy (as Stewart Mandel lamely suggested) when refusing to name a starter at Notre Dame before the season opened. He just couldn't pick the lesser of three evils since they all flat out suck and so, apparently, do the Fighting Irish. God help them in the upcoming pillow fight at Michigan. Is that game like a consolation prize now that it's the two high-prestige programs who've been brought down to new, humbling lows?

* Cal Had it's 'Coming-Out' Game in the Victory over Tennessee - For a few years now in the Tedford era Cal has been flirting with greatness. I think the Saturday win over Tennessee, nevermind redemption for last year's setback, was Cal's coming-out party. As long as that offense keeps clicking this will be a great team and that date with USC is looming ever larger with National Title implications.

* Washington/Boise State Will Be a Fireworks Display - Both the Dawgs and the Broncos appear loaded with speed aplenty on offense. Washington surprised and delighted as new starting QB Jake Locker scampered all over the Carrier Dome and Syracuse D. Back in Boise, with Tyler Tharp at the helm, things were going as usual with Ian Johnson taking care of 100 yards and a couple of touchdowns before halftime. This equates to a big time match up this weekend in Seattle. Unfortunately nobody that you or I know is televising this except maybe the local Northwest affiliates or a pirate cable access feed in Seattle.

Documenting My Addiction

I've quietly placed two more bets:

UW -3 at Syracuse
Notre Dame -1.5 home vs. Georgia Tech

Am I crazy? Nobody knows shit about the Dawgs and only Charlie Weis knows who the starting QB will be at Notre Dame. How could I have any confidence in these wagers?

I'm glad you asked. I do know that both of these gold-helmeted teams represent tarnished, talented traditions that need these wins very badly and I'm willing to risk it on that alone for more glory!

However, I think that'll do it for this weekend, win or lose tonight. Reason being that I've been placing too many faith-based bets and I've got to watch a few games before throwing down any more bones.

Thursday Night Vindication

Big ups to Andy Gresh in yesterday's ESPN U College Football Insider Podcast for calling out the disrespect to Boise State after their coming-out season last year.

Quoth Gresh: "... and finally in the Top 25, Weber State at #24 Boise State. I hope Boise crushes, I wanna see them win a ton of games this year because I think it's disrespectul that Boise State, off of last year's finish, is #24 in the country.... Maybe I'm honking out for the small conferences, but I don't care: HOW can Boise State only be ranked 24th!!?!?! How can that happen? It's embarrassing!!"

And 'crush' they did. In fitting style last night they pummeled (admittedly I-AA) Weber State to the tune of 28 first quarter points en route to a 49-0 tally at half time, before calling off the dogs big time and crusing to a 56-7 victory. In any case they lived up to Gresh's call and made a fine statement going into next weekend's contest up in Seattle.

But signs of vindication were everywhere last night. Rutgers and LSU also lived up to the hype making their opponents look inept in convincing, cruise-control victories that also happened to safely cover the enormous spreads set in both games.

It was an auspicious evening for me, if not the Vegas bookies, and a great way to set the tone for this weekend's gambling picks which will be forthcoming later in the day.

Mainly, I'm torn on the Cal/Tennessee game. I bought into the West Coast hype last year and am still feeling the burn. Switters ran into the UT Vols in an Oakland hotel last night and confirmed that they are big and wear a lot of orange. So they're going to show up. Stil Ainge has a broken pinkie finger in his throwing hand. A sign of the apocalypse for the Vols? Thoughts? Advice? I'm ruminating.

Signs of the Season: Feldman's Back

Back in June we reported on the dire condition of ESPN's Bruce Feldman with the now evident theory that his strength (physical, mental and emotional) waxes and wanes with the proximity of college football. As it turns out college football is both Feldman's life force and mana and he struggles through a hellish, self-destructive depression through most of the offseason.

Said Switters at the time of the June 6 pic: "His picture definitely didn't look as bad during the season, maybe he just gets more and more fucked up until the next season comes around and his life changes for the better. Practically the same thing happens to me."

I agreed and wrote: "By August he will be twice the man he is today and we will hardly recognize his refound glory."

Well, judging by the picture posted now on ESPN we were right. Feldman is back at about 85% and looking fit here on Game Week 1, the veritable eve of college football. By Thursday at 7pm EST as Rutgers and Buffalo take the field and commence the season proper, we may even see a toothy smile on Feldman's face as his strength returns to full.

Big Ten Network: Answer my Question!

After last week's post about the Big Ten Network, we received a comment that could be nothing other than a Big Ten Network schill (nothing against schills, by the way):

Anonymous said...

All split feeds are offered to cable and satellite providers. DirecTV has already said that it will carry all of the split feeds on its overflow channels so if your carrier gets the BTN you should be able to choose the game you want to watch or channel surf among all of them, just like ESPN GamePlan except for much lower cost.

If the BTN takes that much interest in what's said on this blog, then I at least invite this person to give me a link, a document, some sort of proof of this. I just can't imagine an average person reading this blog to use language like "just like ESPN GamePlan except for much lower cost."

If the claims made by this person are true, I pretty much withdraw all of my criticism of this new BTN plan......

My Pre-Season Top 25

Now that we've been snubbed for inclusion in MGodBlog's Blogpoll, I'm continuing my petition for inclusion (not letting our pride get in the way) here in public by creating and posting my own derivative and aribitrary pre-season Top 25 ranking, what I would have submitted to MGodBlog, with the Lutheran statement that I personally believe that pre-season polls, no matter what their origin, are a complete waste of time.

Now that I've nailed my dissenting view on the Church door, I'll lay out my entire plan for a Reformation of sorts from within the college football blogosphere. The plan, as it were, was to effect change from the inside, by infiltrating the blogpoll and convincing its members that we could one-up traditional media schills with their 'pre-season polls' through a righteous refusal to rank teams until a sufficient set of data from the field was collected.

Ideally, I would push for the end of the non-conference schedule, 4 weeks into the season, to bide our time, watching inter-sectional games and slurping beer in stony, scientific silence while we made our observations backed by actual on-field play and not plagued by the moronic conjecture of Mark May and the lisping geriatricity of Lou Holtz.

And this poll, issued in the 4th week would be a good poll. It would be better informed by fact than by East Coast bias and anybodies-guessing as to whether Michigan's secondary might emerge, when by then we might actually know.

Of course we have some idea, now. But is it fair? No. We don't have all the facts. We have old news. We have history. But does it matter in the end? Yes, but only insofar as it serves to screw a great team out of a fair shot (Auburn 2004?) And is that what we really want?

We have a unique opportunity here in the blog ranks to do things different and better than the traditional media. Yes we make it better by turning the news into a conversation, but even then we're following their lead. What about starting our own conversation?

On the other hand, had I been admitted into the exclusive ranks fo the MGodBlog Blogpoll, I might not be whining right now. I might have played ball and submitted a pre-season poll. Hypothetically, it would have looked something like this:

My 2007 Pre-Season Top 25

1. USC
2. LSU
3. Michigan
4. Texas
5. West Virginia
6. Florida
7. Wisconsin
8. Oklahoma
9. Louisville
10. Virginia Tech
11. Ohio State
12. UCLA
13. Georgia
14. Penn State
15. Nebraska
16. Auburn
17. California
18. Boise State
19. Arkansas
20. South Carolina
21. Oregon
22. Rutgers
23. Hawaii
24. Texas A&M
25. Tennessee

Does South Dakota Hate College Football?

The above should need no explanation, since it is clearly the GeoMap Overlay report from Google Analytics showing the relative volume of traffic to CollegeFootBlog.blogspot.com by US State between January 1 and August 7 of this year.

Other than the horribly misshapen mitten of Michigan (um, where's the lakes?), the other disturbing feature of this map is NO TRAFFIC WHATSOEVER FROM SOUTH DAKOTA!!!!

Jeeze, what does it take to get you guys? Even population light-weights like Vermont, Wyoming and North Dakota sent a little love our way. Shit, we even got some Guam/Puerto Rico and "Minor U.S. Outliers."

Quirks in the data? Maybe. Or perhaps it's something more sinister. Should we question South Dakota's love for the great American tradition of college football?

So what up Rapid City? Pierre? Defecting to the Soviet Union? Boycotting the game out of extreme Nebraska envy? What will it take to get one South Dakotan to read this blog?

The Second Annual Foster's Oil Can Post

About one year ago, on this very blog, I thought it would be a good idea to extol the virtues of my second mistress (after college football) - the Foster's Oil Can. You see it has become something of a tradition to gather at the earliest excusable moment (and that comes earlier on the West Coast, mind you) on the first Saturday of college football season with a mess of these in a paper sack and drink them during the first round of games.

As with many things, it's about size. Which in this case means vital caloric content. The hopsy, yeasty goodness provides enough carbs to make it through the morning all the way to afternoon buffalo wings and pizza and ensures the requisite level of retardation that let's one know: you are shirking your responsibilities sufficiently and enjoying Saturday the way it was meant to be enjoyed since caveman times.

Only we're watching college football and the danger of death by sabre tooth tiger is low, so drink up and enjoy. If you're man enough, you may even be up to the Oil Can Challenge which is to finish at least one during each set of games and retire as many as possible with the goal of benchmarking a new high AND staying awake through the SEC night game on CBS.

Tallies for record consideration accepted starting September 1.