Buzz Meets Brutus

Who will survive?

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:09:31 -0400

The fog is starting to clear and teams are separating themselves. Three undefeated teams fell on Saturday and they were arguably all pretenders. Michigan, Illinois, and Georgia Tech had all put in sub-par performances in previous weeks and they payed for it. So who’s left?

LSU
Alabama
Oklahoma
Stanford
Oklahoma St
Wisconsin
Boise St
Clemson
Houston
Kansas State

Who will survive? Let’s take a look at the teams above based on who they’ve beat and what tough games they have left.

Kansas State

Key wins: Miami, Missouri
Teams left: Oklahoma, Ok St, Texas, Texas A&M

Odds of going undefeated: Kansas State will be lucky to go 9-3 this year. 0%

Houston

Key wins: UCLA
Teams left: SMU

Odds of going undefeated: It’s an easy schedule but I’m not sure how good Houston really is beyond Case Keenum. 30%

Clemson

Key wins: Virginia Tech, Florida State, Auburn
Teams left: Georgia Tech, South Carolina, ACC title game

Odds of going undefeated: Clemson seems have survived the early onslaught and now just have to avoid falling into the trap of past Clemson teams. They still have to travel to Atlanta and will most likely have a rematch in the ACC title game with either GT or VT. Re-matches are always tough to win. 60%

Boise State

Key wins: Georgia
Teams left: TCU

Odds of going undefeated: TCU looks like a shadow of their former selves. Boise will not be denied after a disappointing late loss last year to Nevada. 95%

Wisconsin

Key wins: Nebraska
Teams left: Michigan State, Ohio State, Big 10 title game

Odds of going undefeated: Wisconsin has looked pretty unstoppable so far but they still have a lot of games left. Still, the Big 10 has not been impressive so far. 65%

Oklahoma State

Key wins: Texas, Texas A&M
Teams left: Oklahoma

Odds of going undefeated: I like what the Cowboys have done so far but they looked vulnerable against Texas. The won’t lose until they get to Oklahoma and but they don’t survive against a more complete Sooner team. 15%

Stanford

Key wins: Washington State?
Teams left: Oregon, Notre Dame, Pac-12 title game

Odds of going undefeated: Stanford is a big question mark right now. They have not been that impressive against inferior talent. Oregon is injury ridden but even if they survive that battle Notre Dame and the Pac-12 title game still stand in their way. 45%

Oklahoma

Key wins: Texas, Florida State
Teams left: Texas A&M, Oklahoma State

Odds of going undefeated: Oklahoma has been impressive so far. They stumbled a little against Mizzou but have been strong since. They do have to travel to Stillwater but this is a complete team. They’ll be undefeated and in the BCS title game baring anything unusual. 65%

Alabama

Key wins: Florida, Arkansas
Teams left: LSU, Auburn, SEC title game

Odds of going undefeated: It all comes down to Alabama-LSU. Both teams have looked unstoppable so far. With only Auburn left after LSU, I think Alabama gets the slight nod here. 55%

LSU

Key wins: Oregon, WVU, Florida
Teams left: Auburn, Arkansas, Alabama, SEC title game

Odds of going undefeated: LSU has proven themselves on the road so far but playing at Alabama will be too much for Les Miles and the tigers. Even if they survive Alabama there is still a tough Arkansas team waiting at the end of the year. 45%

Life, Liberty And The Pursuit of Happiness May Be Inalienable Rights - A College Scholarship Is Not

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:22:05 -0400

This is the third and final part of Dan’s essay on pay for play. You can check out the earlier entries for part 1 and part 2.

I refused to write this article sober.

In ”I’m Not Telling The Pistol Team Their Sport Is Useless”, I used the words football players instead of “Everyone kills People” Pryor, “Sexual Ball’ah” Bush, “I’m a Soldier” Winslow and crew. I’m now talking about the upper-echlon folks at the top BCS programs whose names plaster our ears on College Game Day and fill the highlight reel on Sports Center. The Men in Black - the “best of the best of the best”. These dudes knew they were going pro shortly before puberty. I took a few moments to reflect back and apply all of those statistical methods I learned in grad school and analyze what I could when the thought “ya know, it’s often those ball’ah guys who pop-up for rules infractions allegations”. It turns out that there’s a strongly-positive correlation between being a stud on the field and fucking over the college helping you put together footage of you on that field for NFL scouts.

The correlation gets its measure from the lack of actual consequences. Potentially sit for a game for getting hammered on expensive steaks and booze before getting a bj from Nut Gobbler - on some other dudes dime on the nearly non-existent chance you’ll get caught OR just get hammered on expensive steaks and booze before getting a bj from Nut Gobbler - on some other dudes dime and play anyway!

These guys are at least 18 years old; that makes them adults. It is not the host institution or NCAAs’ job maintain control on every single athlete’s decision-making process. They know the rules. They were taught was is right and what is wrong. They know the official consequences. Hell, the host institution is actually incentivized to not maintain control. This is why Jim Tressel took the risk of lying and covering it up. He’s a smart dude. He ran the numbers and calculated an acceptable risk to lie about Tee Pee’s tats.

When shit goes down and players are caught, the punishment is not their burden to carry. Did USC know that Reggie got $200,000 for the house? Maybe, maybe not. Reggie did however make a conscious decision that ripped a school, locker room of teammates and a wealth of fans of a BCS National Championship. USC had nothing to do with his choices. Sure he lost the Heisman and a National Championship but he’s also worth 8 figures - not gonna feel sorry. Tee Pee got caught, kicked out of school and received a $500,000 signing bonus while Ohio State has to forfeit millions in winnings, a BCS bowl victory and a Big Ten Championship.

I offer a simple and sustainable solution that is practically self-governing. For every game that a player gets suspended, so are all the starters on that side of the ball. You win as a team and you lose as a team. Once the NCAA gets some fecal cohesion going on their rules manual, you can quite easily implement this. (I’ll admit the rules presently stray into may gray areas and is as dense as the Federal Tax code.). I’m comfortable estimating that car dealerships might be a little less inclined to stretch the rules.

As an additional punishment for the guilty player, they must pay back the lost portion of their scholarship; that is to say there are 12 regular season games and a one game suspensions means you owe 1/12 of the full financial benefits associated with your scholarship before your ass steps onto the field again. (It’s a side topic but people on academic scholarships are due the same financial punishment in my opinion).

A college education is a privilege - not a right. Players can be suspended for the season and not lose their scholarship. Translated to a normal college student means that they are not allowed to clock in at work for spitting in the customers’ food, still get paid, and still get to come back to work in year. Pryor took it a step further and chose to say “that’s ok, I found someone who’ll pay me more.. sorry about your customers”. If a student loses their job and cannot pay for school, they don’t go to school.

Tough shit. Learn from it.

NCCA athletes are given an amazing forum to showcase their impressive talents, a little humility to respect for the opportunity they have isn’t too much to ask. I call that accepting the consequences for the choices you make.

Conference Power Rankings

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 10:51:05 -0400

Trying to make sense of the conferences as we know… for today at least.
After 4 weeks here is where the conferences stand

Against the BCS:

ACC (5-7)
Big East (4-7)
Big 10 (6-5)
Big 12 (6-2)
SEC (5-2)
Pac 12 (4-7)

Overall against FBS:

ACC (12-10)
Big East (13-9)
Big 10 (25-11)
Big 12 (20-2)
Pac 12 (12-10)
SEC (19-4)

At this point I would rank the conferences like so:

1) Big 12
2) SEC
3) Big 10
4) Pac 12
5) ACC
6) Big East

The ACC has a better win percentage than the Pac 12 but I think the top of the Pac-12 (Stanford and Oregon) is better than the top of the ACC (VT and Clemson) so I moved them up. The Big East has had a rough time but they still haven’t lost to an FCS opponent like the Pac-12, ACC, and Big 10 have. For all the talk of weak schedules, the SEC has only played 6 FCS schools, same as the Big 12 and Big 10. The ACC takes the crown with 10 FCS match-ups. Ouch.

The ACC might actually be weaker with Pitt and Syracuse. Pitt has no wins against non-conference BCS teams and Syracuse’s only BCS win came over Wake Forest… an ACC team.

Big 12 vs. SEC is an interesting question. The SEC is definitely strong at the top with Alabama and LSU but the bottom is also quite weak with Ole Miss, Miss State, and Kentucky. Traditional Big 12 bottom feeders Iowa State and Baylor actually look competitive while whether a top 15 team exists in the SEC east has yet to be proven. Texas A&M vs. Arkansas should tell us a little something about how these conferences stack up and I would love to see a BCS showdown between Oklahoma State and LSU.

Most teams are getting conference play kicked off so we won’t know much more about the how the conferences far against one another until the bowl season. At this point I’m betting a 1 loss Big 12 or SEC school would get the nod over an undefeated ACC squad (VT, Clemson, or GT) but that would be an interesting scenario. Still plenty of football left to play, so who know, perhaps the ACC will recover and make a good showing come BCS time.

Winners and Losers for Week 4

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:56:05 -0400

The week’s top winners and losers, picking the six teams that collectively had the best and worst Saturdays.

Winners:

Oklahoma State: One half of nearly flawless football kept Ok State in the winner’s column and out of the loser’s. How often can your star player fumble a touchdown out of the endzone and you still win the game? Oh yeah, that was playing on the road against a top 10 conference rival. Bravo, Cowboys. Bravo.

LSU: Like most people I had a hard time decided between Alabama and LSU for the top team in the country this week. Hell, I had Alabama in my winners in the first draft. Alabama had a spectacular game at home against a conference rival that we really didn’t know much about. LSU went on the road against a hungry team that desperately wants to be future conference rival in primetime. LSU smoked them in every way possible. LSU vs. Bama is going to be fun.

Arizona State: Meet the new leader in the Pac-12 South. It just feels good to type that so I can only imagine how great the ASU team and fans are feeling. After dropping the ball against Illinois, ASU is on top of the Pac-12 South and have just cleared a path for themselves to the first Pac-12 title game.

Losers:

Maryland: The ugly uniforms were cool when you beat Miami on ESPN. When you get steamrolled by Temple at home… well ugly refers to more than the uniforms. I’m sure Ralph Friedgen is laughing somewhere.

Florida State: Maybe Clemson is much better than people think but this has to be a huge let down for FSU. Top 5 to barely top 25 in two weeks is rough. Guess we’ll be subjected to more “Is FSU finally back?” stories next preseason too. (3 years in a row now or has it been more?)

Toledo: Toledo fans meet Cubs fans. I have a feeling you’ll get along. If Toledo misses a bowl game this year they might lay seige to Syracuse and the Big East officials.

Top 25 for Week 4

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 21:25:21 -0400

Still pondering the winners and losers this week but please enjoy the BMB Top 25 for now. Positions 11-25 are getting harder to fill out as the conference schedule kicks off for most teams. It should get easier with each week though.

LSU
Alabama
Oklahoma
Boise St
Oklahoma St
Wisconsin
Stanford
Nebraska
Oregon
Florida
South Carolina
Clemson
Virginia Tech
Texas A&M
Baylor
South Florida
Arkansas
Illinois
Texas
Georgia Tech
TCU
West Va
Arizona State
Michigan
Florida State

It was a tough choice between LSU and Bama but I think LSU has shown more and they’ve done it on the road. With an impressive win this weekend over Florida, Alabama may move into the top slot though. After that, who knows? Bama and LSU as the top two teams in the country is the only certainty at this point.

I'm Not Telling The Pistol Team Their Sport Is Useless

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:05:56 -0400

This is Part 2 of Dan’s thoughts on pay for play. Read Part 1 here.

In “Fiscal Responsibility - Not Just For AIG”, I used the term “student athletes” instead of football and basketball players. In this post, I’m only talking about those two sport as those are the only two revenue generating sports found at the collegiate level (with a few exceptions here and there) and even then, there’s no guarantee. And my goodness how they generate revenue from crazed fans, media conglomerates, boosters, and sponsors. OSU had a profit exceeding $40 million from their football program alone in 2010. ESPN spent $2.25 billion over the next 15 years to certify their monopoly on SEC college football. Once you get into March Madness and Bowl Sponsorship - it get’s even crazier. It is fair that some programs generate cash money and others do not? Of course not but it is the reality of the situation. Always has, always will.

All those dollars are to watch the athletes on the field or on the court. Every single one of them. There’s quite a few folks out there that think the financial benefits (full scholarship, tutors, food, clothing, etc) and the un-calculable benefits (the opportunity to showcase and refine the athlete’s talent at a very elite level to sports zealots all over the country) isn’t enough. That student athletes in revenue generating programs should get a piece of the pie. Divide $40 million (OSU’s profit last year from the football program) by 85 (max. # scholarships) and I’ll readily agree the benefits in college calculable or otherwise probably don’t balance. Ok, so, they shouldn’t get all of the $40 million but let’s run a thought experiment. Let’s say we give each player $100,000 and leave $31.5 million to OSU. What happens?

As a first estimation, I’d bet the football players would correlate their success on the field to the large sum of money. That more wins equals more money. That more wins will require more practice and effort. Only a few brain cells are needed to make those conclusions. Which do you think becomes the priority? That history paper or practice? Those passages in the Iliad for Classics or extra-sets in the weight room? Paying those 85 football players directly incentivizes a conflict of interests that defeats the whole fucking purpose of going to college. “Ohhh ohhh, but Dan, we’ll only pay them if they get passing marks in their studies”. Right, and you thought cheating scandals were an issue now.

Right behind the football players comes the wealth of other student athletes. Sure the OSU Men’s Soccer Team isn’t as glamorous on campus as the football program but those guys play anyway. Why? Because they love playing soccer. Love it. However if you’re rewarding the athletes in revenue generating programs, I’ll guarantee you’ll find the elite players re-thinking their strategy. That stud Forward with Ted Ginn speed? Teach him to catch a ball instead of kicking one and he’ll get $100,000 in his pocket. (Ochocinco experimented with the reverse concept during the NFL lockout). This obviously this goes beyond just soccer. Track and field athletes are prime real restate as are baseball pitchers. Offer any college kid an athletic stipend or $100,000/yr and very little decision making will occur. You’ve just robbed a wealth of athletic programs of their elite athletes.

Nearly 60 years passed before a player from Michigan put on an OSU jersey. Name a professional sport with that reputation. There’s a reason why so many college sports are offered, let’s keep it that way. College athletics represent the pinnacle of amateurism for nearly all sports. You have the best athletes from across the world competing in their sport for the love it, pride and the competition at such a high level - not the money. That’s something pure or damn near it.

We already have professional leagues and for great reasons. There’s no need to wreck college athletics.

ACC re-alignment and you

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:05:05 -0400

Looks like someone got my letter. Over the weekend Commish Swofford made the first big move in the conference re-alignment wars. The ACC added Syracuse and Pitt.

As an ACC fan, I’m not really that happy with expansion in general and I’m definitely not happy with having Pitt and Syracuse in the conference (Miami and BC are bad enough, did we really need more Big East dead weight?), but I think Swoff did the best he could with what was available.

Now please stop.

14 teams is enough. 16 teams will further skew things and here’s why:

The ACC already claimed the two biggest prizes in the Big East. Send hate mail here UConn, South Florida, and West Va fans. Rutgers fans you can too but I really don’t think you exist.

7 team divisions allows for a divisional round robin with two cross-division games in an 8 game scenario. 8 team divisions just makes things messy and the two divisions almost operate like small conferences.

If the league stops now, things can be split geographically for divisions that make sense rather than the sufficiently vague Atlantic and Coastal variations. Here is how I would split things:

North:

BC
Syracuse
Pitt
Maryland
VT
UVA
Duke

South:

UNC
NC State
Wake
Clemson
GT
Florida State
Miami

Gasp! Duke and UNC in separate divisions? They can deal with it the same way Michigan and Ohio State will deal with it. Besides it will fit well for basketball too. ESPN would love to see the ACC tournament end with a classic Duke - Carolina match-up in Charlotte. (Screw you, Jim Boeheim, you join the ACC, you deal with the ACC’s traditions.)

Is the South division a little football heavy? Perhaps it looks that way now, but remember, things change. Miami looked like a heavy weight when they joined the ACC but it turns out Virginia Tech was longer term power. Who’s to say Pitt wouldn’t emerge or Maryland wouldn’t step up?

Most importantly, let’s try to preserve the little bit of tradition the ACC has left. The basketball tournament and football title game stay in Charlotte every year until the end of time. North Carolina is the geographic center of the league, most of the fans live within driving distance of Charlotte, and it is a neutral site with pro facilities. End of story.

Dear Notre Dame, You are not special

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:47:00 -0400

NOTRE DAME. YOU. ARE. NOT. SPECIAL. GET. OVER. IT.

For those of you who did not watch insane finish in the Michigan-Notre Dame game, you missed a doozy. Michigan entered the 4th quarter down 24-7 in a game marked by complete ineptitude from the Michigan defense and 18 penalties (9 each). They also entered the 4th quarter on 3rd and goal from the ND one yard line. Denard Robinson handed it off to his RB who had the ball knocked from his hands charging into the trenches. Mr. Robinson scooped up the loose ball and trotted into the end zone- I’ve never seen that happen. That touchdown sparked a 15 minute performance by Michigan that poured on 28 points (almost 35 had they maintained possession in the fumbled kickoff return in the last 2 seconds).

The Wolverines took their first lead 58 minutes and 58 seconds into the game (that means for 98.3% of the game Michigan was losing). Then the Michigan defense did what they do best and let ND go 61 yards in 42 seconds to retake the lead. Now down by 3 with 30 seconds left, not to be out done by ND’s 61 yard march, Michigan moved 80 yards in 28 seconds to score with 2 seconds remaining taking the lead for good. Wowzers. First game under the lights with an NCAA record of 114,000 people. I wish I was there and don’t even like either team!

You may have noticed that the title of this article has some grumbles in it but I seem to be summarizing the dramatic finish to the ND-Michigan game. No worries, things will now get grumpy.

After the loss, I heard a lot of reporting from the media asking some variant of the question: “Are ND’s BCS chances dashed?”…… YES! YES THEY ARE! ND HAS LOST 2 GAMES TO 2 UNRANKED OPPONENTS! Why is that even a question. The only way a team gets into a BCS game after losing to 2 unranked opponents is by getting the automatic BCS bid from one of the 6 BCS conferences and chances are great that team sucks (see most ACC and Big East BCS performances). And guess what Notre Dame, you were too arrogant to join a conference. You thought you were special enough to warrant BCS privileges simply because you’re Notre Dame. How special does the following make you:

In the past 3 seasons you are 1-5 against ranked opponents with your sole victory coming over Utah. During that same span you are 1 game over 0.500 against BCS conference opponents (15-14).

Since 1994 you have 2 bowl victories. You’ve beaten Hawaii and a 7-5 Miami team (congrats on your bowl winning streak!). In 2007 you set the NCAA record for most consecutive bowl losses at 9. You also turned down a bowl bid in 2009 because you felt you were better than the toilet bowl bid you earned using the dismissal of your coach as the excuse. I’ve never seen college football players turn down the opportunity to play football.

When you actually get to a BCS game things get even worse. In your 3 BCS appearances you have netted 0 wins. You have lost all 3 by a combined score of 116-43 or on average, each game 38-14.

In summary: against BCS-eligible competition you are at best mediocre; against ranked competition your win percentage is below Obama’s approval rating; against BCS Bowl competition you cannot even compete. Those are called facts of reality and they can be hard to swallow. Trust me. I know. I was at the Florida-OSU BCS Title game.

Now with your 0-2 start after starting the season at #16, why are people still clinging to your BCS chances? Where is the merit for your BCS talk? Don’t give me that crap that about being “in” both of your losses. That your offensive output was double that of South Florida or that you were whipping Michigan for over 58 minutes. You are also averaging 5 turnovers a game - dead last in the country in turnover margin - and 8.5 penalties (T-14th most penalized). Did I mention those numbers are coming against unranked teams? I was going to give you some room after the USF game given that it was is the first game of the season and gitters are common but add Michigan to the mix and you’re one game away from making it a habit. If you’re self-destructing against South Florida and a rebuilding Michigan program, what do you expect to happen when you head to Stanford?

I haven’t clarified whom I’m speaking to when I say “you” in reference to Notre Dame. I have no beef with the actual Notre Dame players. It’s their fans and the media that provides special privileges to them. ESPN gives them their own columnist. Until this year, each BCS conference got the same one-columnist treatment (several conferences now have 2). There’s a set of articles called “What We Learned: Week ##” for each conference. The entire SEC conference got the same article as the singular Notre Dame team. Notre Dame has a huge fan base and the media is giving the people want they want but I guarantee that base is not bigger than Alabama, Auburn and LSU combined. And that’s just one half of one division of one conference.

Here’s where I give Notre Dame credit. They play one of the most unique and challenging schedules in the country. In 2011 they will play 3 ACC schools (Wake, Maryland and Boston College), 3 Big Ten Schools (Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue), 2 Pac-12 schools (USC and Stanford), 2 Big East schools (South Florida and Pitt) and 2 Service Academies (Air Force and Navy). No other program in the country will play a schedule that takes a cross-section of football across the U.S. like Notre Dame. While most of those schools are not the creme-de-la-creme of their conferences (Pac-12 excluded), there’s a respectable amount of challenge there.

Unique schedule or not, Notre Dame has to start winning games that count before automatically joining the BCS conversation.

~Dan

Top 25 and 3 Winners and Losers for Week 2

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:43:15 -0400

Top 25 (week 2)

LSU
Boise St
Alabama
Wisconsin
Oklahoma
Florida St
Stanford
Nebraska
Oklahoma St
South Carolina
Arkansas
Oregon
Texas A&M
Ohio State
Mich State
Virginia Tech
Arizona St
West Va
Florida
Baylor
Auburn
Maryland
Northwestern
Miss State
Penn State

Not much changed from last week. Oregon is still the best 1 loss team in the country. Penn State and Miss State lost to quality opponents, but I still think they are top 25 teams. We’ll learn a lot more about Miss State this week though. Otherwise this is all just wild speculation as only a few teams have proven themselves (LSU, Boise, maybe OK St).

3 Winners:

Texas: They pulled one out and came back from a 13 point deficit against a good BYU team. To say they struggled at QB is to put it gently. The QB situation is probably causing Mack Brown night terrors but they may have found a solution in a familiar name, McCoy. That would be Case McCoy, Colt’s younger brother. He can toss it to Jaxon Shipley, Jordan’s younger brother. And yes, in a made for Gameday story,they are roommates, keeping the family tradition alive.

Oklahoma State: Remember on Thursday when Weeden to Blackmon looked like two buddies playing catch in the backyard? Remember they were playing a decent Arizona team that many people picked as a Pac-12 darkhorse? The Cowboys are good this year.

Auburn: Somehow they just keep winning. Are they are a good team? Who knows but the only thing that matters right now to the Auburn fans is that they keep winning and are now 1-0 in the SEC after defeating a hyped up Miss State squad. Gene Chizik is now 9-0 in games decided by 4 points or less. (via Bruce Feldman #freebruce )

Honorary Mentions: Tennessee, Michigan

3 Losers

Notre Dame: What can I say? The offense continued to turn the ball over and the defense decided not to show up in the last two minutes of the game. At least Brian Kelly didn’t blow a gasket on national television again. I can only imagine the hell he gave those players after the game.

Miss State: Thought you could steam roll Auburn and look forward to LSU? Didn’t realize Gene Chizik had sold his soul to keep winning games without Cam Newton? Or was it just poor coaching that turned an opportunity to tie the game into a loss? I know MSU is run first and runs a mean spread option but 8 seconds left on the goal line? I’d at least try one throw.

Georgia: Georgia was clearly focused and hyped for this one. They came out strong and generally outplayed South Carolina in every way possible except they lost. Stephen Garcia looked hungover at times but Steve Spurrier dialed in enough trickery and the South Carolina defense did just enough to deliver a win. The question now is not if they fire Richt but when. The fan base is frothing at the mouth. I almost feel bad for the guy… nah. THWG!

Honorary Mentions: Iowa, Oregon State, football in the state of Indiana

Fiscal Responsibility - Not Just For AIG

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 12:46:28 -0400

As a Buckeye Fan, the last 9 months have been rough and I’ve got plenty to say about that. Interestingly enough however, Ohio State was joined by a dozen other schools around the country for players allegedly receiving improper benefits. These allegations put the “pay-for-play” discussion into the spotlight for most of the off-season.

I look at the “pay for play” discussion and college football and see two schools of thought. School #1 revolves around supplementing athletes income by providing them a modest payment to cover living expenses - in the neighborhood of a couple hundred or a couple thousand dollars a semester. School #2 involves giving the athletes a piece of the money-pie served up (mostly) among the BCS conferences. I can summarize both schools using Obama 2012 campaign slogan’s initial acronym ‘WTF’ but I feel they are worth discussing. Each school brings to light another issue that will need to be resolved should college football - hell, college athletics - continue to exist. As a result, I’ve broken up the “pay-for-play” discussion into 3 posts:

“Fiscal Responsibility - Not Just For AIG” 9/11
“I’m Not Telling The Pistol Team Their Sport Is Useless” 9/18
“Life, Liberty And The Pursuit of Happiness May Be Inalienable Rights - A College Scholarship Is Not” 9/25

“Fiscal Responsibility - Not Just For AIG”

Supplemental income of a couple hundred or a couple thousand dollars is not a whole lot of money in the grand scheme of things but a college student can stretch that a lonngggggg ways. And for student athletes supplemental income is talking about $2500 spread out over the course of 15-18 weeks. You know how most students gather $2500 over the course of 15-18 weeks?

They get a j-o-b.

Pre-season and in-season responsibilities are a full-time commitment above and beyond classroom duties for student athletes. As many of these students are on a scholarship for their respective sport, I fully support dedication of 100% of their effort to their studies and athletic commitments during this time. Once the season is over their athletic commitments drop to a part-time job, or drop completely or at least should (more on this last point in a minute). This would be a great time to get a job and earn “a modest sum of money to cover living expenses - in the neighborhood of a couple hundred or a couple thousand dollars”.

As an added bonus, unlike nearly all of their classmates, most of student athletes’ educational expenses are already covered. Cash from that part-time job need only be used to directly supplement their living expenses. While they’re at it, squirrel a little away for preseason and season commitments. Viola! Living expenses covered! As a matter of fact, I watched my roommate in college (Women’s Soccer @ OSU) and her teammates do exactly that. I call that fiscal responsibility and I doubt I’m the only one.

I’m am also sure I am not the only one whose heard the rumor that athletic commitments at high-profile institutions in revenue-generating sports are a year-round commitment. Sure the NCAA limits the official number of practices but there’s plenty of “volunteer” activities, practices, lifts, etc that make the commitment year-round. I agree that this would make it difficult, but not impossible, to get that job to supplement your income. (Some of us regular folk worked 40 hours a week year-round to pay for their school and didn’t bitch about not having enough money but I digress). However I am willing to find some semblance of sympathy if that commitment is so great that finding part-time work to supplement your living expenses is that restricted.

The NCAA and host institutions should work to limit the amount of off-season commitments instead of finding ways to pay all their athletes. I think a little extra monitoring may have additional benefits (see ESPN for a list of NCAA programs on the “you should have monitored your program more” shit list). And ya know what? I suspect this is the reason, this year-round commitment, the whole pay for play discussion has come about. You don’t hear about the men’s gymnastic team complaining about pay for play. You don’t read about the lacrosse team asking for a supplemental income. Quite frankly, 99.9% of student athletes are doing what is necessary to play the sport they love, go to their classes and live the college lifestyle. It’s the 0.1% of student athletes playing high-profile sports at the highest-profile institutions that are involved in this pay-for-play debacle.

Limiting off-season commitments also represents a sustainable path forward to supplement athletes income. Most athletic departments lose money each year, only a very select few make money. Where in budgets that lose money year in and year out do you expect to find a couple thousand dollars for the hundreds of athletes ? How do you expect to make a case to tax-payers for those state-institutions to supplement income when their poster children are buying tattoos? How do you keep an amateur-level playing field internally between sports and externally between institutions? Most academic institutions are already providing enough benefits to their student athletes above and beyond paying for the entirety of their education (see food, clothing, travel expenses, etc) - paying them more money should not be their burden.

All sports however can determine maximum commitments between pre-season, season and off-season regardless of sport - and can enforce them with a little help from the NCAA. If you ensure student athletes have the opportunity to supplement their income like everyone else, the pay-for-play discussion is over for 90% of that 0.1% of student athletes that give this article its purpose. And while you’re at it, you teach the student athletes a lesson in fiscal responsibility - lord knows we need as much of that among my generation as we can get. The remaining 0.01% of student athletes need an article all of themselves and I’ll talk about them in “Life, Liberty And The Pursuit of Happiness May Be Inalienable Rights - A College Scholarship Is Not”.

As a Cleveland Browns football fan, I don't understand college football.

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 20:22:48 -0400

I think you’ll be much happier in this:

Danimal Award (Week 1)

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 11:32:05 -0400

According to ESPN, the top three Heisman candidates (updated 9/6) are Andy Luck, Kellen Moore, and Landry Jones. Here’s what I find most interesting about those rankings: we are one week into college football and those guys are considered the most outstanding players in the game.

1. Andrew Luck has a passer rating of 146.0, good enough for 41st in the country.

2. Kellen Moore has a passer rating of 170.1, placing him 21st.

3. Landry Jones has a passer rating of 148.5, giving him a strong hold on 37th in the country.

Those numbers wouldn’t even win prom king - the ultimate measure of a popularity contest - how the hell are they leading the Heisman race? Mr. Moore gets some credit for going up against Georgias’s defense but Luck and Jones played against San Jose State and Tulsa, respectively. Sure those are three excellent players, no argument there, but you cannot claim that Heisman rankings are based on play. This is a popularity contest. Does Luck have the tools necessary to be a badass QB? Yes. Did he have an amazing year last year? Yes. Does that mean he belongs in the discussion for most outstanding player in college football this year? Not until he performs at the level worthy of the most outstanding player this year! This isn’t a political election where you base someone’s merit on what you think they might be capable of doing (look how well that turns out: see anything congress has done in 10 years). The merit for this award is supposed to be based on performance.

I’m tired of ESPN using their influence to advertise players they feel should get the Heisman. I’ve decided to create the “The Danimal Award” which is a t-shirt that says “I’m Awesome” and is awarded to the most oustanding player on the field during the course of a season.

Here are the candidates after week 1:

1. Robert Griffin III (RG3) - QB Baylor. This RG3 and crew went up against #14 TCU whose defense has spent the better part of a decade ranked in top 5 in most statistical categories. RG3 also plays for Baylor. Baylor finished with a winning record (7-6) last season for the first time since at least 2002 (I stopped looking, it might be longer). RG3 threw for 359 yards and 5 touchdowns including 38 rushing yards on 10 scampers. His QB rating of 250.6 puts him 25 points ahead of ANY QB IN THE COUNTRY. He is currently in 4th on the ESPN Heisman Watch.

2. Oregon State’s Malcolm Agnew ran for 221 yards and 3 TD’s in the Beaver’s OT loss to Sacramento State. He accounted for 45% of OSU’s total yards and 75% of their points - those numbers are worthy of the most outstanding player. I know the Beaver’s lost to a FCS team but it certainly was not Agnew’s fault. Did I mention he’s a true freshman? The Beaver’s are headed to Camp Randall this weekend and I’m excited to see what Mr. Angew can do against some a ranked team.

Here are the remaining candidates worthy of honorable mention.

The aforementioned Kellen Moore did complete 82.4% of his passes for 261yds 3 TD’s against an SEC defense. The entire Boise team also carries their reputation into every single game like this. Lose one and all national respect for Boise is gone. That’s pretty outstanding considering the pressure.

While I dock USC’s Robert Woods- like the rest of the Trojans- points for going scoreless in the second half and letting the Gophers come back from a 19-3 halftime deficit, 17 catches for 177 yards and 3 scores is pretty damn impressive - even against Minnesota. He is presently 4th in the country in receiving yards. [GT’s Stephen Hill is currently #3, no love, Dan? ~Z]

Michigan’s Brandon Herron set a school record at the winningest program in college football history by returning a fumble and interception for TD’s in a rout of Western Michigan. Anytime you set a record at Michigan like that, it’s impressive.

Kendall Wright of Baylor was RG3’s principal target making 12 catches for 189 yards (50% of RG3’s total yards) and 2 TD’s. That puts Mr. Wright #2 in the country in receiving yards. That is 45 yards and 2 TD’s more than ESPN’s Experts Poll top wide receiver Justin Blackmon. I had the luxury of watching this game and it does bring together an interesting point. Is RG3 just that good or did his track team of receivers make him look that good? Only time will tell and that’s the beauty of the Heisman Race.

Week 1 Top 25 and Other Thoughts

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 22:08:00 -0400

Buzz Meets Brutus Top 25 (Week 1)

LSU
Boise St
Alabama
Wisconsin
Oklahoma
Florida St
Stanford
Nebraska
South Carolina
Arkansas
Oklahoma St
Oregon
Texas A&M
Ohio State
Miss St
West Virginia
Mich St
Va Tech
Florida
Arizona St
Baylor
Penn St
Auburn
Maryland
Northwestern

The weather was terrible, the uniforms were atrocious… but dear God I missed you, College Football.

Some of the weeks’s big winners:

LSU - big wins in the national spotlight are always good
Boise State - see above
Auburn - sometimes avoiding a disastrous loss can be just as good as a huge win

And Losers:

TCU - Defense much?
Notre Dame - USF should have hung 45 on them
Boston College - home loss to the a Persa-less Northwestern, FCS has more wins against BCS schools than the ACC

Short week + massive amounts of football means this is a shorter post. I’ll try to write more in the coming weeks. Like the images? They are from the talented @bubbaprog on twitter and Mocksession. Follow him for more sports goodness!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T Find Out What It Means To Me

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 11:43:00 -0400

In the past 3 seasons Oregon is 2-3 against ranked non-conference opponents beating Utah and Oklahoma State while losing to Boise State, Ohio State, and Auburn.

In the past 3 seasons Boise State is 6-1 against ranked non-conference opponents beating Utah, Virginia Tech, Oregon State, TCU, and Oregon (twice!) while losing to TCU by 1 point.

In that same period Boise State has played in 1 BCS bowl with a victory while Oregon has played in 2 with 2 losses.

2011 Preseason rankings had Oregon @ #3 and Boise State @ #5.

Saturday night both teams played at “neutral sites” against SEC opponents. Boise traveled to Atlanta to play Georgia while Oregon traveled to Dallas to play LSU. The Broncos won big and the Ducks lost big so let’s update:

In the past 3 seasons Oregon is 2-4 against ranked non-conference opponents beating Utah and Oklahoma State while losing to Boise State, Ohio State, Auburn, and LSU.

In the past 3 seasons Boise State is 7-1 against ranked non-conference opponents beating Georgia, Utah, Virginia Tech, Oregon State, TCU, and Oregon (twice!) while losing to TCU by 1 point.

I think it’s time the media start giving “SEC-like” credibility to Boise State and “Ohio State-like” credibility to Oregon. By this I mean that you almost never see the media pick an SEC school to lose a non-conference game (BSU was favored by 3 Saturday night against a Georgia team coming off a losing record) because they are that flippin’ good and almost always win. Likewise you’ll never hear the media call Ohio State a bad team but they’ll never get favored in a large non-conference game because the Buckeyes earned it by losing 3 straight BCS games and shitting the bed twice against USC. Both OSU and the SEC have earned their reputation and unless results prove otherwise, they deserve to hold that reputation.

A 0.875 winning percentage against ranked non-conference opponents needs to be respected more than a 0.333 winning percentage. How many times have you seen Boise’s coach on College Game day or in a Sports Center commercial? Chip Kelly will soon be a co-host at his rate. Oregon may have new uniforms every week to compliment their flashy and unique offensive scheme but they also don’t produce at the top 5 status they are given.

Go Broncos!

P.S.

This “neutral site” shit with Boise State has to go. According to Google Maps: Boise to Atlanta = 2,100 miles. Athens to Atlanta = 70 miles. Boise to DC = 2,300 miles, Blacksburg to DC = 300 miles. By way of analogy, the size of my dick is “neutral” compared to Ron Jeremy. Ladies feel free to email me. [Ladies, Dan can be contacted here. -Z]

Dan hates the Big 12

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 09:56:00 -0400

Zach’s Open Letter to the ACC got me thinking about the Big 12 after he mentioned how much the ACC hates Texas. Like most people not from Texas, I hate Texas too! [ACC country hates Texas because Mack Brown used to coach UNC - Z] Here’s some interesting numbers on the Big 12 as the season kicks off.

The Big 12 has 4 teams ranked in the preseason Top 10: Oklahoma @ #1, Texas A&M @ #8, Oklahoma State @ #9 and Missouri @ #21.

Since 2002 the Aggies have been to 5 bowl games and have won zero. That’s worse than the Big Ten in bowl games- ouch town. They are also 2-9 against Top 25 competition since the 2008 season. How the hell The Aggies received a top ten ranking I don’t know.

Their neighbor in the rankings, the Cow Pokes, are a measly 3-7 against Top 25 competition during that same period but are coming off a solid drumming of Arizona in their bowl game. The ‘Pokes have been an offensive juggernaut for several seasons now but unless their defense can make some stops, the lofty pre-season expectations will continue to be missed.

Let’s also not forget to give Big Game Bob a congrats for finally winning a BCS bowl game after 5 consecutive losses. Actually, NO! DON”T DO THAT!!! They beat Connecticut of the Big East. That conference has not deserved respect since WVU’s last BCS appearance in 2008. And even then, it was more of “Oh yeah, WVU, they’re good but it’s a shame they play in the Big East”.

The Big 12 only has 1 team ranked in the Top 25 for strength of schedule. I will give OU some credit for scheduling that game with FSU in the second week of the season. That should be exciting IF AND ONLY IF SOMEONE IN THE ACC FINALLY STANDS UP TO PRESEASON EXPECTATIONS AND STOPS SHITTING THE BED… ZACH THIS IS YOUR DEPARTMENT. FIX THIS!

Danimal OUT.

An Open Letter to the ACC

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:05:00 -0400

Commissioner Swofford,

As you no doubt have read, Miami is hosed. Sorry, allegedly hosed. Let’s be completely honest here and just agree that ACC expansion has not worked out exactly as everyone hoped. Let’s review:

Boston College deliver the Boston TV market to the ACC. Boston TV market? I didn’t see anyone watching a BC game in Goodwill Hunting or The Town. Unless we add the Red Sox or the Patriots to the ACC that’s not happening. Well Boston College is at least good at basketball right…. hmm, well, we can give them a few more years right?

A sold-out, exciting championship game in Florida every year! I was in Jacksonville for the 2006 Wake Forest vs. Georgia Tech game. I don’t think I need to go into any more detail. Charlotte is at least a step in the right direction.

Miami is a national power and will make the ACC relevant. The ACC bought high and now it looks like we’re about to sell low… or maybe just call declare bankruptcy and pull out. Miami delivered the spotlight alright. It delivered pure and utter chaos. Miami makes Florida State look like model program. That’s an impressive feat.

~~Syracuse will deliver the NYC TV market.~~ Wait, Syracuse didn’t even work out, did they? Virginia Tech was allowed in thanks to some political wrangling but so far that appears to be the one move the ACC got right.

I think the fans are willing to forgive these past transgressions if you’re willing to grow a pair and go big. (See Larry Scott Pac-12) How big? Texas Big.

The ACC should invite Texas A&M.

Positives:

The ACC enters the Texas recruiting market.
The ACC footprint grows and becomes less regional.
Texas A&M adds a football pedigree and they aren’t half bad at basketball.
Most of the ACC already hates Texas (see Mack Brown) so A&M will be a good fit.

Negatives:

Travel… but is this really any worse than Miami or Tallahassee?

The Big East did it with TCU. We can’t let them pass us! Grow a pair Mr. Swofford and make the ACC relevant again.

Sincerely,
A humble ACC fan

Back in the saddle

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:55:49 -0400

Football is back and soon BMB will be too…