College Football's Most Overrated

By way of the Detroit News, by way of ESPN (though I didn't notice this on the CFB
portal), college football's ten most overrated teams:

1. Florida State (-63)
2. Tennessee (-58)
3. Washington (-42)
4. Miami, Fla. (-35)
T5. Ohio State (-34)
T5. Nebraska (-34)
7. Florida (-33.5)
8. Michigan (-25)
9. Texas (-24)
10. Clemson (-22)

These rankings were made by taking the difference of teams' preseason rankings against their final rankings over the past 10 seasons and adding them all up to determine which programs had been the "most overrated" and "most underrated." The number (n) in parenthesis behind each team name above is that difference compounded over the past ten seasons.

Looking at the flipside of the results, we get college football's ten most underrated teams:

1. Washington State (+51)
2. Boise State (+48)
3. Oregon (+32.5)
4. Arkansas (+26)
5. Wisconsin (+23)
6. Louisville (+20)
7. Texas Christian (+18)
T8. Boston College (+17)
T8. Iowa (+17)
T8. Maryland (+17)

Any surprises here?

I'm not sure. To me overrated is about facing high expectations year after year, a byproduct of sustained success, indicating not really being overrated. Whereas with being underrated you have the advantage of flying under the radar early and moving up into the soft underbelly of the top 25 as a few surprise teams do every year. It is imminently easier, to start low and surprisingly rise when you don't face said expectations and real obstacles (like the SEC compared to Conference USA) or risk being overrated at all.

If Hawaii slips from a pre-season ranking of 25 out of the poll, they lose 1 spot in this ranking system and suffer no such ignominy as being called 'overrated.'

On the flipside, a team that has to start high (Michigan) and risk a more dangerous and unlikely path to win it all (which if you're starting high is the only way to match the commensurate rise enjoyed by the underrated) has a much tougher time and more to lose for failing. A drop from a pre-season #3 to a pre-season #8 somehow makes them look a bad, overrated team?

Maybe I'm being too liberal in my view of the term 'overrated.' Scientifically speaking this ranking is right if a team underachieves from where they're projected to finish, but that methodology assumes a lot of science that the college football ranking system just doesn't have.

Finally, given a liberal interpretation of 'overrated,' all college football fans see it as a bad thing, that overrated teams are bad teams. But the real truth, the truth that is continually betrayed by pre-season rankings, that the overrated list includes some of the most storied-names in college football, doesn't back up this claim.

9 of the 10 teams on the 'overrated list' have won National Championships recently. So who's overrated now? QED.

I Go Away, and Look What Happens.......

First thing's first: 12 days until I can watch the Ohio State Buckeyes play their first football game of the year. Yep, with ESPN GamePlan, you can watch all of your favorite team's games! All is well in the world, and nothing could be easier.

Wait a second....

Yeah, you already knew about this, but still. I am willing to pay hundreds of dollars to watch Ohio State beat the shit out of Akron, Youngstown State, and other non-conference lightweights. But it appears that I no longer have that option.

According to the Big Ten Network's website, there will be "35+ football games per season"!!!!

Wow! Thanks so much!

According to a detailed analysis, there are 45 Big Ten conference games alone, not including all 11 teams' non-conference schedules. But here's where the Big Ten Network really fucks us all:

Let's take the first weekend, September 1. According to the BTN website, they will be showing the following games:

Appalachian State at Michigan, Noon EDT/11 a.m. CDT
Youngstown State at Ohio State, Noon EDT/11 a.m. CDT
Florida International at Penn State, Noon EDT/11 a.m. CDT
Northeastern at Northwestern, Noon EDT/11 a.m. CDT
Bowling Green at Minnesota, 8 p.m. EDT/7 p.m. CDT
Indiana State at Indiana, 8 p.m. EDT/7 p.m. CDT

For your convenience, I've highlighted the games that are all on at the same time. But guess what? There's only ONE Big Ten Network, not four. So they show the game that will "split the feeds regionally among cable operators to allow Big Ten fans to watch the game with the most regional interest."

Regional interest my ass

If you live in the area where your team plays, most likely you'll be able to watch your favorite team play. But if you lived in the area where your team plays, most likely you can watch your game on local TV. So if NastyB (a _ichigan fan) and yours truly (a Buckeye fan) both live in California, which game are we going to get? Which game between Youngstown State vs. Ohio State and Appalachian State vs. Michigan will generate the most interest in California?

I'm composing an email right now to lobby on behalf of the OSU/YSU game, because Tressel used to coach at YSU. Maybe that's the only way to make sure we can watch our favorite teams.

Nick Saban, So What?

Saw this on ESPN's college football homepage along with some bloated Ivan Maisel piece about the walking, talking, coaching controversy that is Nick Saban and the only thing I think anymore is... So What?

Isn't it pretty much the American Dream to climb the ladder to success like Saban has? So why does everyone hold it against him? Wouldn't anyone else in the same position have made the same decision?

Things weren't going well in Miami and to pretend that he owed the Dolphins anymore loyalty than they would have shown him when the chips are down is crazy. Look at the shelf life of NFL coaches when they aren't winning. The franchises show no loyalty.

So good for him for recognizing a bad situation and securing a better one. Just like any employee, you do have to look out for number one. So why is this still a story?

Chat Transcript: The Return of Switters?

Seeing this controversial statement of the Pac-10's mettle over the Big Ten by ESPN's so-called 'experts,' a seam of white-hot rage woke Switters (erstwhile co-blogger of this blog) from his silent slumber.


switters:

College Football's Best Conference

horse shit

how could the pac 10 possibly be better than the big 10????

Sent at 1:54 PM on Thursday

nastyb:
unsure

sounds like a thin argument

switters:
yep

you got that right

fucking jerks

nastyb:
sounds like you need to vent

the blog's been missing you...

The Freep Hatin' on the Big Ten

As one of a handful of sources I cruise for Michigan and Big Ten coverage I might otherwise miss, the Freep (Detroit Free Press) has been notable lately for its decided lack of the de rigeur pre-season hope and optimism.

In fact, in lieu of the expected homerist hype, there's been a biting, negative tone to recent Freep coverage including:

Big Ten: Most overrated conference?

and, in response to the ridiculous Jim Harbaugh situation:

DREW SHARP: Hail to the hypocrites; U-M's arrogance is academic

The tone and intent of these pieces almost feels like teenage rebellion (see: biting the hand that feeds you). Though some of these criticisms may have some validity, the Big Ten hasn't been totally excellent lately, it's pretty shocking to see the hometown crowd sweeping the rug out from under the home team, particularly in the unproven, conjecture-laden and usually hopeful run up to the season. Where's the love Freep?

And more importantly, where's the journalistic dispassion and perspective wherein band-wagoning with Harbaugh is concerned? He's looking like a jackass not only among Michigan fans (just ask USC and the rest of the Pac-1o outside of, or maybe now including, Stanford) and it doesn't take an investigate journalist's spider sense to sniff that out, Drew Sharp.

Finally, amid all of this negativity, the Freep's strangest contribution was a sad recap of the false-start-filled odyssey of Drew Henson.

FINAL SNAP: Once a two-sport star, U-M's Drew Henson is fighting for his football life

Who needs at this most hopeful time of year to be reminded of the sadness of the past?

A Pair of Tom Brady F-Bombs

Who knew? There is an emerging YouTube sub-genre devoted entirely to Tom Brady dropping F-Bombs. Witness:

Act I



Act II

YouTube Fan Video Classic: Boise State

A Good Sign For the Season

My special lady announced yesterday that she's got an extra $500 burning up her purse that she'd like to use to buy us a new television set. Sounds good right? So I said, what's the catch. Well, she said, we have to renew our subscription to HBO.

Is that a catch? I can finally find out what happens to Tony Soprano and watch college football in glorious high-resolution each and every Saturday. I'm not seeing the catch.

This is how I know it's going to be my year. The fall is shaping up beautifully and the only thing the woman wants from me is more of my time planted on the couch watching the brand new TV for which she's personally willing to contribute five-hundo? Luck be a lady indeed.

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.

Interesting College Football Factoid: BSU

This is of course the time of year of lots of schlocky pre-season annuals, rankings and conjecture, but it is also a time when more sophisticated news sources navigate the domain of sycophantic college football fans, bloggers and parasitic pundits to put together their own analysis. After all, it is their weekly rankings that comprise the AP Poll and not (much to their chagrin) the bloggers of the CollegeFootBlogospher (who may know better on both counts).

If these pinnacles of print journalism are going to add any value to the already over-populated dialog, much of it increasingly insider informed, it may be their commitment to dispassion and pure cold facts. Many of these turn out to be interesting and can be taken home for future consumption, which all blogging merits aside, is more than I can say for most of what I read out here on the Internets.

To wit, The Washington Post, who ranks Boise State a safe but respectful (read: cowardly) 25 in their Top 25 list includes this fascinating factoid:

*Boise State at 44th is now the highest-rated non-BCS school in the Collegiate Licensing Company's latest rankings of royalties reported over the last year. The school earned $512,000 in royalties during that period, school officials said, which is up 56 percent from the previous year.

What is the standalone value of a fact? I don't know, but for me, this has it. And maybe that's only because it dovetails neatly with my reigning and advancing view that the WAC is where it's at in the non-BCS world.

Downloadable 2007 College Football Schedule

2007 College Football Bowl Season Amendment: The Downloadable Bowl Schedule is now available.


Yes it's awesome. But I cannot take credit for this work.

I received it in a string of email forwards at work and thought that the entire College Football Community should rejoice in its abundance. Witness this model of tabbed-Excel-spreadsheet, organizational excellence as it plots out by means of full-color, helmet graphics the entire NCAA 2007 schedule of college football games. The tabs are organized by conference and this thing will come in handy for visualizing at a glance what games to watch/bet on week by week.

To the anonymous hero who created this document. Thank you for having so much time on your hands. Step up and be recognized!

Click the Link to Download:

Awesome '07 Football Schedule

The Worldwide Leader?

Some realizations sink in slowly as the aggregate of subtle clues adds up to the larger, troubling whole. Like taking a drink of slightly turned milk. It takes a bit, but the sump of oily slick finish on the surface, faintest waft of acridity as you raise the glass to your mouth, and finally the sour receptors send up the signal and you drop the glass and check the expiration date. That shit had to be out of the grocery store yesterday sucka.

Not to draw too exaggerated a corollary here, but that's kind of the experience I've had lately with ESPN.com (specifically) and ESPN the media phenomenon (in general) now that I think of it. Not to say sour milk, but that the clues of soddenness in thinking and presentation are starting to manifest as the quality of ESPN's product is starting to turn after so many years of excellence. I guess we shouldn't be surprised by this, since the historical record has plenty of examples of the complacency that can be engendered by an unchallenged run at the top. But still, it's sad to see.

ESPN has taken a lot of flack for its lame effort to cash in on the Web 2.0/celebrity culture revenue stream by mashing-up their sports coverage with a pop culture popularity contest in the "Who's More 'Now'" campaign.

But that's only the most obvious, tip-of-the-iceberg example. Real sports fans don't care if Tom Brady is good looking and stylish or that he bangs Gisele and knocks up b-list actresses if he isn't first and foremost an amazing football player. And if, in our shameful moments of giving in to guilty pleasures there's always US Weekly and Perez Hilton to fill the fix. We don't need ESPN peddling low-grade schlock in that department as well.

What we need is ESPN living up to its promise of being 'The Worldwide Leader.' (The more you fail to deliver on that promise, Bristol, the more your proclamation starts to ring like an empty communist tagline ala Kim Jong Il.)

I used to rely on ESPN heavily for my college football coverage. And while they still do some things very well (the weekly ESPNU Podcast, por ejemplo) so much of the meaty coverage has gone pay-per-view and is provided by mealy-mouthed third-party schills (read: Scouts, Inc.) that I just don't know who to trust anymore.

And so, almost imperceptibly, I've started to navigate to other websites before ESPN.com. Heresy! Nay! Truth! I will by the first to say it. CNNSI.com, CBSsportsline.com and, coming up fast with the most-improved-player award, Yahoo! Sports, are officially better sports websites than ESPN.com, both from the navigability/user-experience and content perspectives.

Big Ten Expansion?

Crafty, crafty Jim Delany. SI is reporting the Commish is once again pushing the idea of expanding the Big Ten by one team to 12.

It should be little surprise that revenue is the driving factor (Championship Game = TV Dollars) but there is the added galvanizing factor of the nascent Big Ten Network. (Which is more of the aforementioned 'TV Dollars'.)

Now the Big Ten Network slight of hand becomes clearer - it was all along an elaborate, multi-faceted ruse geared toward an end of expanding the already misnomered and mis-numbered conference. Delany figured he could steamroll all traditional pleas if the economic argument for the Network was stronger.

Quoth Delany: "The broader (the network) is distributed, the more value (expansion) has. We have eight states. With expansion, you could have nine."

Ah. Well if you put it that way....

But does that mean Notre Dame is no longer the preferred target? If it's a ninth state Delaney's after the likely candidates would appear to be Missouri, West Virginia or Louisville (in ascending order of preference by this guy).

Still the Delaney is cracking open the door that was shut in 1999. Delany said of Notre Dame: "There aren't many universities that produce that kind of value."

Wait and see I guess. But the argument should be interesting. There are low of powerful interests that like this conference just the way it is. Ferentz. Carr. The fan bases of Ohio State and Michigan. And the outcome is unclear. Is Delany a visionary taking the progressive move for the advancement of the conference or is this a reckless power grab?

Hindsight is 20/20: the '07 Rose Bowl Game Explained

Buddy Dave is a legal intern in the front office with the Oakland Raiders this summer and so will be a source I frequently pump for insider info of the ilk that arose unexpectedly (and unpumped I might add) in a recent chat.

Being that we're both Michigan fans we got to talking about the coming season in which some foolish pundits believe a Wisconsin team sans the Godly John Stocco is going to be the best team in the Big 10.

We disagreed, the Badgers are not the best team in the Big 10. Without a seasoned QB, you've got to doubt them. It's the Wolverines in the Big 10 this year - simply too much experience on offense.

Michigan's D, I pointed out, is the question mark, but I compare it to OSU's from last year. They're going to be better than expected. After last season, I've got a lot more faith in English than Herrmann.

To which Buddy Dave replies, "yeah, though he was exposed for losing to USC in essentially the same way they lost to OSU."

And I say, well, you've got to put a lot of the second loss on the offense, since even the bona fide Leon Hall can get tired if he has to chase fast receivers around the field all game because the offense can't put together a drive. And by offense I mean:

1st Down - Off-Tackle
2nd Down - Off Tackle
3rd Down - Draw
4th Down - Punt

Buddy Dave says, "good point." Then suddenly conjures up the insight that inspired this whole post:

"[The offense] seemed to drop the ball in that game. Which was weird. I was talking to the Raiders guy who does college scouting the other day.. and, I forget the name of the guy graduating on the right side, but this guy was telling me that there were SO many plays where Henne wouldn't necessarily get sacked or Hart stopped in the backfield but where the right side of the line would cause the play to break down and they were basically all this one dude's fault."

The gears in my mind were starting to turn. Who was this dude who couldn't hold up his shit? Then as they started to turn faster, the questions changed. Who else could it be?

Rueben Riley. That slow sack of shit.

The embarrassing Rose Bowl loss to USC reduced to a single observation. The right side of the o-line was compromised. The right side of the o-line was Rueben Riley - the often maligned and frequently doubted, ponderous, plodding, undrafted sub-planetoid. Good riddance. If Michigan get's OSU and USC this year, I'm pegging his absence (or replacement) as the difference.

"You need a good o-line, just ask the Raiders," summarizes Buddy Dave. "We gave up how many sacks last year? Burning through QBs like cords of wood. Oh my God. This guy was like... 'well, it we suck again this year we can draft Jake Long.' They LOVE him."

And they should. He's pretty manly.

Was Bruce Feldman Arrested? By ESPN?

What else are we to believe? He looks drunk enough. He looks sorry enough. By God he looks dirty enough.

Of course you will infer from the inclusion of this picture and the title of this blog that we have taken issue with Bruce Feldman's swarthy new look.

Buddy Dave (to whom credit must be given for unearthing this latest offense on ESPN.com) writes:

"When did Bruce Feldman's pciture change to look like this? And, what the fuck kind of picture is this? Did he just find out his wife was cheating on him, sit on the couch, not shower or shave for six days and then go in for his picture?"

Seriously. I mean, you'd think for a high-profile picture like this that he probably had days to contemplate and prepare for, he'd get gussied up a little. Nothing major you know, wash your hair, wear a collared shirt or at least take a razor to the fortnight of unkempt, Appalachian Trail stubble. I know all sportswriters are frustrated athletes, but someone's got to tell Feldman that the hockey playoffs ended for him years ago. And we're not asking for Kirk Herbstreit, necessarily, but just a little more professionalism - something, anything, to suggest a little more respect for our readership.

Unless of course Feldman's apparent regression is a sign of something deeper, as Switters suggests:

"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 love this idea of the rejuvenating approach of the college football season. It's happening to Switters and Buddy Dave and me. With each passing day our strength is growing and Feldman, in an effort to commune with his fans (whom he resembles, I confess), is chronicling this rehabilitation by the restorative power of college football by showing us the face of its healing - the face of his healing. His worst days in late January and February a distant memory, he has picked himself up off the floor, applied deodorant and changed out of the beer-strained t-shirt he wore for the six-month bachelor party he's apparently just returned from. By August he will be twice the man he is today and we will hardly recognize his refound glory.

Now let's all genuflect on a moment of silence for the new dawn of college football.

Problems with the Athlon Top 25

June's the first month where it really starts to feel like College Football is coming back. Maybe it's that the old school year is finally over. Or maybe it's that the NBA is winding down and we need a second sport to discuss besides baseball. But probably, it's the sudden, mushroom-like profusion of pre-season Annuals with their crazy pre-season Top 25s.

I won't lie. I love these things, beautiful, vapid, glossy bullshit-stuffed, but so, so irresistibly consumable at the scale and ease of pornography. They manage to trick everybody year after year. Maybe it's just my sweetest-of-all-time blogger hubris talking here, but I've grown wise to their tricks, and to prove it I'm going to poke a few holes in the recently-released Athlon Pre-Seasons College Football Top 25:

-Wisconsin #4 - On what authority? They've got a fat running back who stumbled over 12 teams, but lost to the only, proven team they played last year (Michigan) and all that was with the best offensive lineman the world's ever seen (Joe Thomas) and a dependable, if boring robot of a QB in John Stocco. The bad news, and the main reason the Badgers aren't the #4 in the country nor even the second best team in the Big 10, is that both of those aforementioned dudes graduated. The Badgers return to earth big time this fall.

-No BSU pre-season love, but plenty for everyone they beat in 2006 (OU #7, Hawaii #19, Oregon State #22). Honestly. What will it take for the Broncos to get some pre-season love? Admittedly, Zabransky' graduated, but they've still got Ian Johnson and should have a better defense this year. To top all of that, shouldn't the epic Fiesta Bowl win and final #5 ranking last year be worth something?

-Which brings me to OU #7 - No proven QB, and Adrian Petersen has flown the coop leaving what exactly? Well if you believe the experts at Athlon that's apparently the makings of a Top 10 team. I guess this is more a testament to the middling year projected for the Big 12, or the motivational energy imparted by being immortalized in Boise State's coming-out win, but still I think this is a little generous.

-Rutgers - This party ended last year.

Things they did right:

-USC is #1 - It's hard to argue with the ranking of USC as #1, given they return most of the team (except good old Dallas Sartz) that dismantled a very good Michigan team in last year's Rose Bowl. You can bet they've improved everything in the off-season except, apparently, John David Booty's haircut.

-No Notre Dame - this one I really, really like and don't have to explain, but it will be fun to see Jimmy Clausen not win the starting QB job, let alone the first of the Four National Championships he's counting on before he goes on to dominate the NFL.

-Michigan at #8 - Reasonable, and if anything a tad underrated, which should be comforting considering that Michigan has typically underachieved when expectations have been highest. This team has plenty of reasons to be good, so let's not screw it up by expecting the all-star, all-veteran offense to actually put up big numbers and blow teams out.

Overall it feels like they are just trying to be different for the sake of being different. Not ranking FSU? That's like anarchist blasphemy no matter how bad the 'Noles may look on paper after absolutely rocking a UCLA team Athlon says is Top 15 material.

So has Athlon no need for prognosticating credibility? Do they sneer in the faces of honest college football fans like you and me? Let's take it to Athlon and tell 'em what we think of their Top 25 poll. It sucks prunes.

(Next up Lindy's)

Cody Hawkins - Buffalo Gunslinger

CFN is reporting today that true freshman Cody Hawkins is looking like the uncontested starting QB this fall for the Buffs. So, without giving up a spoonful of the benefit of the doubt, doesn't this whiff faintly of nepotism?

Cody is Coach Dan Hawkins son, which raised my eyebrows at least, and I suspect I'm not alone. See 'Who is this Kid?', where one poster close to the program, Katie Hnida, sums up the uncertainty of the people thusly:

"My guess is they are wondering if he is a rapist or just a pot smoking hippie that can't get it done in the big game."

Well, all internet chin music aside, there are some facts about Dan Hawkins latest gambit that deserve a little more superficial examination and conjecture (assuming of course the Hawk will anoint his son the starting QB come September).

As recent as two years ago, a kid from Idaho's pre-eminent Catholic school (which doesn't even play in Idaho's toughest high school football division, 4A out of 5A) would not have a chance of starting at a prestige program like Colorado. Now, it's fair to ask, could he even start at Boise State were it not for his Dad's influence?

Is this Dan Hawkins' decision because it's best for Cody? Or because it's best for CU football? The key to CU's season will rest on this decision. Daddy issues for Cody or another losing season for CU? But just maybe the Hawk can have it both way!

Fact: Cody jumped ship from his commitment to Boise State last year and followed Dad to Boulder. What motivated this? Could it be the competition was suddenly looking fiercer at a Boise State program that was on the eve of a 13-0 season and BCS Bowl victory over Oklahoma? Were Cody's gifts suspect in such an environment?

Quite possibly. Though to be fair the idea of that and Cody being the rightful starting QB at CU, are no longer mutually exclusive. The nagging idea that Cody's best chance to play was wherever Dad is drawing up the depth chart and calling the plays, would probably have been easier to demonstrate had the Hawkinses stayed at Boise State where the benchmark would have been maintaining an astounding level of success rather than building up from a 2-10 season and a new low for a once proud program effectively ruined by the one-two punch of Neuheisel and Barnett. The point is there is a greater margin of error at CU, and the bar is lower than at Boise State, which seems funny to say. (But I like it.)

That said, and having never seen the kid play myself, I must rely on what I read about his talents as a football player. And the journalists at CFN seem convinced, writing, "with a nice arm and great passing touch... Hawkins has the biggest upside and might be allowed to work out all the kinks now with the hope that he'll be a star in 2008."

A star? Really? The little kid (5'11"/190) from the second best league in the mighty high school football state of Idaho? (I should know, I grew up there.)

My dubiosity aside, the truth of this review hinges on whether the impartiality of this 'reporting' can be trusted. Generally the guys who write these previews are people quite close to the program, bloggers or local beat reporters, bought for peanuts on the dollar, to put together 'scouting reports' that get repackaged and sold to stoke the faintest hopes of each fan of each program that this is their year. The 'secret sauce' in all of this? That the reporters themselves actually believe the hype they're peddling.

Good little PR schills. Their careers depend on it. What fan's going to keep reading prognostications of doom and gloom? What boosters will show up on opening day for Baylor's 87th gridiron campaign without first being convinced in the naive parts of their brain that this season just might be different?

But the writer here, Michael Bradley, Sports Illustrated's own El Hombre, is a hired gun with some old school street cred. Writing out of Philadelphia he doesn't have a local fan base to appease or a program to build up for the lift it could provide his own career. So it just might be genuine optimism.

Anyway, with a program as down in the mouth as Colorado, non-fans won't be reading period (unless they're archrival fans, or anti-fans, my assertion holds) so impartiality (balance as Fox would say) is a nicety not a necessity, and as a reporter you're after the lowest common denominator, or in this case those Buff fans at the bottom looking up where all the news is good because shit can't get any worse.

Which in the end is a kind of hope for Cody Hawkins. I will buy into the hype and believe that Dan Hawkins isn't making the choice that's best for his relationship with his son, and that for maybe the first time in this unfair world, the answer to Coach Hawkins second pressing question is the same as the first - Cody Hawkins. It would, after all, make a hell of story if father and son together rescue CU from the absolute, fucking dumps.

Switters Takes It Hard

TODAY AN ATTACK FROM SWITTERS:

switters: cool man
you are a classy dude
still taking that michigan loss to heart

nastyb: what?

switters: it's cool man
i knew you weren't always a real michigan fan at heart

nastyb: what are you talking about?

Sent at 5:33 PM on Tuesday

After which, stony cold silence.

Hmmmm. How is one to interpret this? Did I just shit on Switter's dream? Did I kick his dog or sleep with his girlfriend? I can't be sure, but I think this is related to a chat we had yesterday before what would become Ohio State's second, high-profile manhandling by Florida in a major college sport championship game. Witness:

switters: what's your take on the game

nastyb: chomp chomp

switters: i see
i would pretend to not be a big ten fan too if i were you

nastyb: well
when you've got $2500 riding on the outcome

switters: you do?
that's awesome for you

nastyb: if florida wins

switters: nice

nastyb: 23% of the kolkata pot

switters: you can take out the 50 you owe me for osu/um and you'll be up 2450

nastyb: haha
the check is in the mail

switters: ok good
i'll look for it when i get home

nastyb: what's your address again?

switters: who knows

nastyb: i'm serious
i'm sending you a check

switters: dude if you send me a mail bomb i'm going to be pissed

nastyb: not a bomb
but maybe some anthrax or ricin powder

switters: did you split florida with a bunch of people or what

nastyb: two other guys
so i get 1/3 of $2500
still a nice chunk of change

switters: cool

nastyb: assuming they win
if they don't we get about $400 each

switters: well it's pretty much already over
if you know anything about sports, you know that the favorites always win

nastyb: true
i've been following 'sports' for a while and that's always been the case

switters: i'm glad it was for the bcs championship

nastyb: ok

switters: i'm just saying

nastyb: there is the poetic justice argument here

switters: i love it
i love watching their press conference yesterday
they were acting like the game was already played

nastyb:
arrogant bastards
i have no love for florida
but i do want to get paid

switters: they are very proud of their back to back championships

nastyb: well, my support is nothing personal

switters: this is how bookie make millions
days like today
and days like january 8

nastyb: yep
what's the line?

switters: 4.5

nastyb: word
over/under?

switters: 140 i think

nastyb: that's respectable

switters: well florida's going to score 120

so osu will at least score 20

Sent at 1:50 PM on Monday

The guy's got a chip on his shoulder about being #2 and takes it out on me for my coincidental support of the new evil empire in college athletics? I'm just an opportunist, please don't say I'm not a Big 10 fan. That hurts. Besides, it's not like I could have supported Michigan in the NCAA Tournament anytime in the last 6 seasons. Give me some credit for still getting up in the morning.

Roy Hall is Ohio's Public Enemy #1

This looks bad, and I bet this guy (Roy Hall) already feels pretty bad. After hearing the resounding cry from Ohio if only Ted hadn't been hurt maybe 41-14 Gators wouldn't have happened, who wouldn't? Up until today, however, there was a cloud of mystery surrounding Ginn's injury and it just seemed like one of those things - or a goddamned blight from fate. So it's unfortunate for Roy that a.) someone was there to capture the moment of the crime, and b.) that Sports Illustrated put said picture out there for the world to see and judge.

I'm going to heap onto that mountain of shame because what a waste right? I've always watched the celebratory, tackle-the-amazing-guy-that-just-scored in the end zone thing with a little bit of incomprehension. I know you're jacked up 'cause your team just scored, but why risk hurting the team when chances are you're going to need to score again?

Already with Adrian Peterson shattering his collar bone on an unnecessary, celebratory dive into the end zone we have seen the folly and potential consequence of stupid end zone celebrations. Now it's getting out there that another ended Ted Ginn's BCS Championship game prematurely, and after such a promising start.

Chances are Roy Hall's learned his lesson, but it was such an expensive one so we'd better hope the lesson itself is invaluable and that's why I don't feel so bad, after all, heaping a little additional shame on this moron's shoulders.