- Can the NCAA finally blow up the BCS??!! Alabama, Ohio St, Oklahoma in consecutive weeks as #1 all lose to conference rivals. This is not the 80's where the elite programs could use TV exposure as a recruiting tool. Conferences have their own networks for TV exposure including the Mountain West. A school, BYU, is starting its own TV network. Parity is widespread and its time to realize that schools like Utah, TCU and Boise State ARE that good. The cry for a playoff system should be louder than ever, the rankings are a joke!
- So its finally come to this, twitter user @Golfer904, whose bio states "Marketing Consultant, Sports fan, avid golfer, Conservative" and who tweeted that he is a Purdue alum, tweeted this last night: "still have a chance at six wins even with all the injuries. Part of the problem is ESPN has been pretty nasty to Purdue in the past."
Part of the football Boilermakers' problem is ESPN's nastiness? I was intrigued so I kept reading more tweets. "Mark May referred to Purdue as Purdon't on tv a few weeks back. Pretty unprofessional in my book and pissed a lot of alumni off." A meathead o-linemen, former member of the "Hogs", and Pitt grad just single handedly made the Purdue football team a .500 squad and angered alumni from a prestigious Big 10 university by calling them Purdon't? GASP! When the person @Golfer904 had tweeted didn't overwhelmingly agree with him he backtracked a little to defend his displeasure.
"I was by far not the only one who was pissed about it.....3 different threads on G&B.com trashing May and ESPN when it happened." (ooh that will show them) and " The fact May stooped to the level of an IU fan on Nat. TV is what got me upset." A guy with a degree from a university such as Purdue should be holding his head high and thumping his chest once in a while. He should also consider the source and recognize that May's comments were harmless. What should upset him is the fact that the coach of the football team is bad, they can't recruit a QB, and the transfer QB they did have is out for the season. Then with rage in his heart he should drop to his knees, look up to the heavens and cry out "Whyyyyyy" in response to the centerpiece of the Purdue basketball team getting hurt yet again and diminishing the chances of a team that some had picked to be in the Final Four for the upcoming season.
- Some analysts expressed surprise in the fact that Navy beat ND on Saturday or in the way they did it so convincingly. I ask Why? Notre Dame couldn't stop the run against Michigan, Michigan State, or Stanford and yet when they play a team whose offense is the triple option these folks think a loss is a surprise. Navy threw the ball 3 times in the entire game, 2 completion for 70+yds and the 3rd attempt resulted in a pass interference call against ND.
- Death is not an option, Lovie Smith, Brad Childress, or Norv Turner? As a bonus choice Andy Reid's clock management skills. You hear all the stories about how these NFL coaches put in 18-20 hour days so why is it none of them can do simple math involving a game clock, a play clock, and timeouts or have basic knowledge of the NFL rulebook and know when to challenge a play that was ruled incorrectly on the field.
- Why are NFL referees so bad at what they do. At least 3 times in the Minnesota/Green Bay game last night they blew obvious calls. One didn't get challenged by Childress and resulted in a GB TD. One was blatantly obvious and GB had to challenge it to prevent themselves from giving up a TD and the 3rd one was incorrectly called and would have resulted in a lead change in the final minute of the game. It was fixed by booth review. A similar error was made during the 3rd Q of the Redskins/Bears game when a goal line QB sneak was not called a TD and instead ruled a fumble and thus a change of possession and good ole Lovie Smith did not challenge it yet he wasted a challenge on the previous play even though the result of that play gave his team the ball, 1st and goal from the 1 yd line.
- Finally. NCAA Men's basketball teams all over the country completed their first full week of practice and the season starts in about 3 weeks. An ongoing investigation into the Tennessee Vols men's program involving head coach Bruce Pearl keeps turning up violations and the revelation that the guy knew he was breaking the rules as he was doing it and just told the parties involved to deny it if they were ever asked. Classy Bruce, real classy! The folks in Knoxville are dealing with the fact that their football program has become irrelevant and can't stomach the fact that the men's hoops program would go the same way if Pearl was fired otherwise the former whistle blower would already be one of the many Americans in the unemployment line.
