chomp

I could not figure out what was happening when Davis was boldly stating that Oklahoma should go for it on 3rd and goal inside the Florida 5. Fox has no business broadcasting the BCS games. They broadcast no college football during the year and then do a pathetic job calling the bowl games. The studio show was particularly bad with none of the hosts (including Switzer and Johnson) really giving much insight into the game either at halftime or at the end. I am glad that ESPN picks up the rights to the BCS in 2011.

While I understand the AD's emphasis upon loyalty, there is something to be said for wanting employees who are wanted by others. If you hire good people, they are also going to be attractive to other employers. The key then is to keep them in the fold by making them happy where they are. This kinds of strikes me as one of these pennywise, pound foolish kinds of decisions. The AD has made his point but how many ambitious coaches (which most of the best tend to be) are going to want to go to BC now?

Actually, the biggest difference at Auburn with respect to other SEC schools is that it is effectively run by just one booster, Bobby Lowder. Although he is a Florida grad, I cannot fathom how Chizik could possibly be seen as an upgrade over Tuberville.

If he weighs the same as a duck ...

He would really be a great pick up for UNT. He has good size and before his ACL injury he really had some explosive speed. To be honest, from the reports that I read from spring practice and over the summer I really thought this would be his breakout year at UF. I think that he just got lost in the depth chart.

It's early in the season so there are no doubt posers mixed in there, but of this week's AP Top 10, five of the teams are from the SEC. USC is the only team from the Pac 10 in the top 15 and Oregon is the only other Pac 10 in the AP Top 20. That seems to be as clear of indicator of the SEC's strength relative to the Pac 10 at this point in the season as we can get. LSU plays all four of the other SEC teams that are now in the Top 10 this season. That is pretty brutal (particularly when you come to Gainesville, Crip*TeamKatt!).

Oh come on, you can't tell me that you don't want to see Charlie Weis in a speedo. Your welcome for that mental image.

Admittedly, I am biased but I do not understand this exclusive focus on the quality of OOC games as an indicator of overall schedule quality. To me, you have to focus on the total schedule that a team plays, both in conference and out of conference. I agree that LSU's OOC schedule is pretty sad, but they do play #10 Auburn, #4 Florida, #3 Georgia, and #9 Alabama. Plus, if they make it through that schedule undefeated, they will have to play in the SEC Championship game against a time from the East that will almost certainly be ranked. Meanwhile, USC plays #5 Ohio State, #16 Oregon, #15 Arizona State, and #23 Cal. Is that really a tougher schedule than what LSU plays? I am not really sure that anyone in the SEC has an easy route to getting to the BCS title game. Plus, I don't think that you can indict the SEC for LSU, Georgia (as much as I hate them) plays Arizona State and Georgia Tech this year and Tennessee routinely plays a decent OOC each year (losing to UCLA this year). Florida, in addition to its SEC schedule plays Hawaii, Miami, and Florida State this year. Although I am not too happy that The Citadel is also on the schedule for the Gators. Until we have a playoff system, this is all just one big beauty contest.

One quick note - if you are at a computer on campus then you should be able to access ESPN 360. I am pretty certain that ESPN gave free 360 access to colleges and universities a year or so ago. I know that I was able to watch Euro 2008 in my office over the summer on ESPN 360.

I'm pretty sure that these are SEC refs so that usually means that Florida crossing the goal line gets an unsportsmanlike penalty in and of itself.

Wow. That is really, really sad. I have not spoken to my father in nearly 20 years and I would never imagine writing something like that, even if it is deserved.

This site is comedy gold! Here is the listing for Tennessee: Arena : Neyland Stadium Championships : Phillip Fulmer Headcoach : Stan Van Gundy http://www.onlineseats.com/college-footbal...essee/index.asp Does winning the Phillip Fulmer involve eating a lot of Krispy Kremes? It is good that the Magic can give Van Gundy leave time to coach the Vols.

I read about a Stanford's gimmick to increase season ticket sales, they guarantee that you will like it or you money back. Given the high octane offense that UNT is running these days, this kind of promotion would seem to be tailor-made for UNT. Has UNT done something like this before? http://gostanford.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl...-guarantee.html

Forgot to add the link: 2006-2007 Bowl Revenue As bad as the revenue numbers are, the profit is even worse. The SEC made 28 million after expenses, the Mountain West and WAC lost money.

I am really torn about a playoff. While I think that it would be great to watch and good for my Gators, I really fear what it would do to the fabric of college football because I have no confidence that teams from non-BCS conferences would be allowed to participate. A playoff would force a change in how postseason revenue is distributed and, given that revenue distribution is so unfairly skewed to the BCS conferences, it would seem certain that that revenue distribution under a playoff would have to become less favorable for the BCS conferences as leagues like the Sunbelt, WAC, and CUSA get a more fair share along the lines of the NCAA basketball tournament. If you look at what the postseason revenue distribution looks like now, my worry is that the only way that a playoff would happen (or what would soon follow it) is that the major programs in the SEC, Big 10, PAC 10, ACC, and B12 would split from the rest of the Football Bowl Subdivision into some sort of super conference purely as a means of maximizing the amount of revenue that they receive from the postseason. That would be a travesty as one of the best things about watching college football is knowing that any week Louisiana-Monroe can beat Alabama or FAU can beat Minnesota. Plus, the major football programs in BCS conferences are already over-professionalized, this would be the last step to them simply becoming farm teams for the NFL with little attachment to their educational institutions. 2006-2007 Bowl Revenue (from NCAA report) ACC Totals 28,266,175 Big East Totals 21,888,675 Big Ten Totals 35,403,095 Big Twelve Totals 30,568 259 Pac-10 Totals 24,786,399 SEC Totals 40, 119,611 Conference USA Totals 3,675,000 Mid-American Totals 2,839,252 Mountain West Totals 2,369,252 Sun Belt Totals 1,075,000 WAC Totals 828,000

If you want to read the full report on UNT or see the list of schools that were penalized, you can access them here: http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/home?WCM_GL...ata_J5lt9A.html The results for all of UNT's men's sports are disappointing, although UNT's women do well.

Having gone to concerts and baseball games at the Trop, that is going to be one awful place to watch a football game.

As a Gator, I cannot believe that I am going to post something standing up for a Bowden, but here goes. Tony Barnhart had a good column today that explained the situation in much better detail. It sounds like what Tommy Bowden and Clemson did was actually pretty fair. A couple of excerpts from the column. Atlanta Journal Constitution on McElrathbey and Clemson Ok, now that I have taken up for a Bowden I feel dirty and have to go take a shower.

Georgia should try winning the SEC East first before whining about being overlooked for the national championship game.

The funniest part of this is that Miami ranked 110th in total offense and 101st in scoring offense and fired their defensive coordinator.

I think that Silver Eagle hit the nail on the head about pagentry being key to getting people to attend games. To my mind, the game has to not just be a game but an event. To be honest, it is probably fans like me that UNT needs to encourage to come to more games. I see the posters on this board and you are a passionate group. Not only do you support your team and your university, but you even brainstorm fundraising schemes, public relations efforts, and promotional events for the program. All of you will go to the games, regardless. I am a big college football fan and follow my undergraduate team (Florida) religiously, never missing a game either in person or on tv. In my nearly 5 years at UNT, I have gone to a few UNT games but have never gotten into the program very much. At least in the games that I have attended, much of the crowd has seemed pretty quiet and uninvolved for most of the game, there did not seem to be an awful lot of pagentry that made the game seem like an event, and the opponents were not teams that I particularly cared about. Thus, when it comes to decide whether to attend a game or to stay home and watch an SEC, Big 10, or Big 12 game on tv there is not a huge draw to get my butt of the coach and go the UNT game instead of a watching a game on tv that is likely to be at least as exciting to me. I think that the key to change some of this will be to better connect students to the university. These students will become alumni that are more closely tied to the university. Ones that will not only attend UNT games, but live and die with each win and loss. Right now, when I hear many students in my classes talk about UNT they talk about it a lot like a store where they pick up some sort of needed commodity. Once they have that commodity, their education, they move on and don't look back. I don't know how you do it, but convincing students that they are part of something bigger than that seems to me to be the thing that will help every aspect of the university, including athletics. When more of these types of fans start turning out to games, the games will be more interesting to casual fans that have less of a connection to the university. The irony is that once this begins to happen, there will be less of a need to attract those casual fans in the first place.

I apologize if this has been posted already but I just got this via email and thought that some might be interested: Mean Green Fans- As you know the Men's Basketball team has made it to the big dance the NCAA Tournament in New Orleans, Louisiana! The team will be playing on Friday, March 16th at 11:30 am in the New Orleans Arena. We are taking a charter bus full of students to the big game. The bus will leave from Fouts Field on Thursday, March 15th at 9:00 am we anticipate arriving in New Orleans between 6-7 pm Thursday night. Our bus will arrive back on campus on Friday after the game. We will be staying at the Astor Crowne Plaza located at 739 Canal Street. We are offering three price packages for the New Orleans trip. Package 1 includes charter bus, game ticket, and double occupancy room rate. Total $190.00 Package 2 includes charter bus, game ticket, and triple occupancy room rate. Total $157.82 Package 3 includes charter bus, game ticket, and quadruple occupancy room rate. Total $141.75 Going to see the Mean Green beat Memphis....Priceless! The actual cost for the hotel is $192.97 per room so as you can see you will be saving a great deal by getting a roommate! Reservations for this trip must be made by Wednesday March 14th at 1:30 pm in the Information Center located on the third floor of the University Union, as availabilities for rooms and busses are in high demand. If you already have roommates in mind please bring them with you along with your UNT ID when you purchase your package so that you can be assigned a room together. Otherwise you will be assigned a roommate with a least one other person. The Information Center will only accept cash for this event. Please be advised that this trip is non-refundable. Each person on the bus to New Orleans will receive a free green t-shirt to wear the game! Please provide us with your shirt size preference when you purchase your package. This is a great chance to show your Men's Basketball team how much we appreciate the wonderful work they have done this year. If you have any questions please contact me at nboyd@unt.edu or 940-565-3807. Seating is limited so purchase your tickets today! This trip is available only to UNT student and Faculty and staff with proper ID. See you at the game! This trip is sponsored by Student Activities and Organizations and Athletics. NaMicha Boyd, M.Ed Coordinator, for Student Life and Involvement Student Activities & Organizations University of North Texas Phone (940) 565-3807 Fax (940) 565-4466 nboyd@unt.edu GO MEAN GREEN!

I am a proponent of a playoff and am even more of one this year since the situation my school (Florida) found itself in. My understanding is that it is 3 fundamental problems that have quashed all playoff proposals (note, none of them are about academics). 1. Instituting a playoff would be risky for coaches. As it stands now, with such a large number of bowls, half of all bowl teams end their season as winners, making it easier for coaches to keep their job. With a playoff, only winning it all could ever satisfy a lot of alumni at BCS schools. 2. Surveys of student athletes have suggested that the push for pay for college football players is likely to become much stronger if college moves to a playoff and increases both revenue for college football and games played by athletes. While it might be possible to pay football players a stipend, with most schools' athletic departments in the red, it would be impossible to do so for all other student athletes. 3. The biggest reason rests with money. Under the current system, the power conferences share very little of the revenue from the bowls. The SEC, with 2 BCS teams, gets $15 million for each plus nice payouts from the other bowls its teams play in. Compare that with Sun Belt which at best will break even with its bowl participants. Under a playoff, there would certainly mean more equality in revenue distribution between conferences like the SEC and the Sun Belt. Given these issues, I can only see a playoff occurring in two scenarios. In the first scenario, the revenue from a playoff is so large that it expands the pie broadly enough that problems 2 & 3 can be overcome. In the second scenario, the biggest conferences (or perhaps the a set of schools from them), leave the NCAA and form their own league, instituting a playoff. This would allow them to institute a playoff while retaining all of the revenue for themselves. I would be happy to see a playoff under the first scenario but not the second.

I once made a similarly stupid comment about a new hire at my alma mater, Florida. When Lon Kruger left our basketball program to coach the Atlanta Hawks, I was angry that our athletic director, instead of hiring the most high profile candidate available for the job, hired some young guy I had never heard of from Marshall (Marshall basketball?) who had no track record as a head coach in a major conference. Of course, that guy turned out to be Billy Donovan who is the single greatest thing to ever happen to Gator basketball. Two lessons from this story: 1. I am an idiot 2. If you trust that your AD will make good decisions, feel confident in whomever is picked.

Wow, how did Florida State miss him in recruiting?