Breaking News on the Rumor Mill....

Word on the street is there might be an NFL style skills competition to determine selection order in the 2011 Bourque Family Dirty Santa Extravaganza.  No official press release has been announced but officials close to the source indicated that some of the events may include relay races, arguing about football, bake offs, excessive candy eating, high jump, and possibly who can simply talk the loudest. Other events are believed to be in negotiations at the moment. Stay tuned for further developments.

ETA: New word has been leaked that an endurance competition of most complaints may be added to the cycle.

The Other Rematch

     Everyone lately has been talking about the upcoming LSU v Alabama football game on Saturday. And in an effort to not talk about that game, some have begun talking about the possibility of a rematch between LSU and Alabama in the BCS national championship game in New Orleans. Now should it be a close game between those two teams and of course every other teams ends up with at least one loss, then yes it is certainly a possibility for a rematch. But since we are playing what if's here,   what if LSU beats Bama and the rematch is instead between LSU and Oregon. That is a scenario that has yet to be brought up from what I can tell. And that is a more likely rematch than the other one in my opinion. Now I don't believe at all that there will be any rematch what so ever, but under the unique circumstances of "what if" then I think the possibility certainly exists. And I think if Oregon beats Stanford and goes on to win the Pac-12 and Oklahoma St. and all the other unbeatens end up with one loss, then Oregon will get plenty mention as a repeat opponent for LSU instead of Alabama.  Every SEC fan will certainly want to see the LSU/Alabama rematch but most people outside of the region probably will not. They will want their chance to dispel "the myth" of SEC dominance.
     Unfortunately margin of victory can not be officially used to in calculating BCS standings. But should LSU beat Alabama this weekend, there will be a common opponent among Oregon and Bama. Will the voters use the final scores in determining who is a better team? They probably will, all while not allowing the computers to use the same criteria. Probably not fair, but hey that's life. What if LSU beats Bama by 13 just like they did against Oregon? Will the voters just move onto the next one loss team in line and skip the rematch talk? Most likely they will. It's the easiest decision to make/justify. The ironic part to this is that the voters could save face this year by voting LSU/Bama as #1/2 in the final polls and not having a repeat of 2006 (you know, the year when they were certain that Ohio State and Michigan were good teams only to watch both of them get crushed by Florida and USC respectively in the bowl games), but they probably won't. Had the voters gone the rematch route in 2006, then the string of 5 consecutive SEC champions would not have started and we could still be thinking that B1G football is the cream of the crop.
    Speaking of which,  Penn St only has one loss at the moment. Should Alabama win this weekend, what about a rematch between Bama and Penn St.? Yeah, that doesn't sound nearly as exciting. Maybe that's enough "what if" talk for now. We should probably stick to the philosophy of "one game at a time." At least for now. Until then GEAUX TIGERS!!!

What a great day of college football

Yesterday was an unbelievable day of college football. LSU absolutely trounced Auburn 45-10, which was certainly nice to see. Alabama was a little slow starting but eventually took control of the game against Tennessee in the second half and won 37-6. More amazingly was Michigan State's Hail Mary at the final seconds to beat previously unbeaten Wisconsin, 37-31. Then after a rain delay, Texas Tech beats Oklahoma 41-38. So two high ranked unbeaten teams fall yesterday leaving 8 unbeaten teams left in FBS football. Those 8 teams are: LSU, Alabama, Stanford, Oklahoma St., Boise St., Clemson, Kansas St., and Houston. Most of those teams will actually play each other in the regular season. LSU plays Alabama Nov. 5th at 7pm central. Kansas St. plays Oklahoma St. Nov. 5th. Of the other unbeaten teams, most will play a tough schedule or at least one tough opponent in the remaining weeks. Stanford plays Oregon Nov. 12. Clemson plays Georgia Tech Oct. 29th, and South Carolina Nov. 26th.  Houston and Boise St. however don't have much of a schedule left. Houston plays SMU on Nov. 19th, although Houston is too low ranked to be a significant factor in BCS bowls. Boise St. plays TCU on Nov. 12 but that will not be a big enough game to boost Boise St. up in the rankings.  The next three weeks of college football should be really exciting. New BCS rankings should be released tonight at approximately 8:30/7:30 central on ESPN. I'll be looking for LSU to be #1 followed by Alabama at #2. The real question will be what order the remaining teams will be in and how close will they be to LSU/Alabama.

How about them Tigers!

It's been way too long since I've posted last. But what can I say, this season has been very exciting so far. Between the football and school, I have certainly lost track of the blog.  Back to the important stuff though.  LSU is sitting at 7-0 on the season and playing some good football.  The defense looks mighty strong and the offense is playing well also.  Unfortunately word has just broken that 3 LSU players will be suspended for the Auburn game this weekend; Mathieu and Ware being two of the players.  That certainly hurts both sides of the football but I think they will be able to manage that loss against a team like Auburn.  I'm not saying Auburn is a bad team, but I don't think they will be able to exploit the weaknesses of losing players like TM7 and Ware. It will still be an exciting game and probably much closer than Vegas is projecting, LSU -22.5 points. And of course those that have followed this series throughout the years know that something crazy will likely occur during the course of the game (i.e. barn burning, missed fg, earthquake, etc.).  I truly wish this game was on ESPN at night, but you can't blame CBS for wanting to follow the #1 team in the nation.  For now the countdown is on for kickoff, looking forward to a great game on Saturday. GEAUX TIGERS!!!

Why does the AP continue to reward cheaters?

The NCAA found USC guilty of major infractions in 2004 and 2005, in other words they cheated and got caught. The BCS had no problem stripping USC of its title in 2004, it was a unanimous vote.  So why does the AP insist on keeping USC as its proclaimed champion of that season? I'm not saying that USC wasn't the best team that season, they very likely were. What I am saying is, when you cheat and get caught you typically get punished and you certainly don't get rewarded. Unless of course you work for the AP. This sort of action is what got the AP poll removed from the BCS rankings.  This is not the first time the AP has rewarded a college football program guilty of cheating,  they did it back in 1974 with Oklahoma and there are probably other instances that occurred as well. I just don't feel like doing any more research at the moment. This is a very dangerous precedent the AP has set for itself.  It doesn't matter if you cheat and get caught, just win all the games. That's the only thing that matters.  In fact, if you win by a large enough margin some will almost forget that you played those games with a professional athlete on your team as seen by the five writers in this article.  At the very least the AP should vacate the title from 2004, showing that they won't reward teams for cheating. They should probably take a step further and declare Auburn and Utah co-champions since both finished the season undefeated and neither were caught cheating.  Every day the AP refuses to acknowledge the corrupt behavior at USC, I can only assume that the AP itself is also corrupt.

Picture of Michigan throwback uniforms

These uniforms will be worn for the Michigan v Notre Dame  football game on Sep 10 at 7pm CDT.

Bill Stewart will resign as head coach of West Virginia.

After reports broke of Stewart paying a reporter to dig up dirt on head coach in waiting Dana Holgorsen, it was only a matter of time before his resignation occurred. I'm not sure I blame Stewart for this because he was forced into a lame duck season after the West Virginia administration hired a new head coach for the 2012 season to be coach in waiting in the meantime.  It doesn't necessarily excuse Stewart's actions, but clearly he was not in a good situation to begin with. In hindsight, the proper thing for Stewart to do was resign as soon as Holgorsen was named coach in waiting by the administration. I feel certain Stewart could have got another head coaching job fairly quick, although it may not have been quite on the same level as a West Virginia head coaching job.  This could pose some added intrigue to the LSU v WVU game this season.  New coaches sometimes have a way of inspiring exceptional play from their players. That game may end up being closer contested than I'd like. I still think LSU has more overall talent and depth than WVU. So as long as LSU can not make mistakes they should beat WVU. But then again, it is in Morgantown and they just officially got a new head coach so we can only wait and see.

SanDisk Sansa Fuze MP3 Player

I highly recommend this MP3 player not only for the price but also for its functionality. The Sansa Fuze is and extremely easy to use MP3 player that can also play videos and it has an FM radio.  It's simple drag-and-drop file adding lets you quickly and easily add music to the player. It also has an expandable mini sd card slot for additional storage space, that is something the ipod doesn't have.  For half the price, or less, of an ipod you really can't beat the Sansa Fuze MP3 player.

College baseball super regionals have finally started.

First game today is Florida v Mississippi St, as I am writing this Florida is laying the smack down on Miss St in the top of the 5th 9-0.  Later this afternoon Stanford and North Carolina will square off.  Then this evening there will be two more games;  Texas v Arizona St., and Vanderbilt v Oregon St. Should be some pretty exciting games today. My predictions are UNC, Arizona St, and Vandy all come out winners today.

Wow! Jason Terry and Jason Kidd with huge shots in the final minutes.

Looks like its going to be another exciting finish in the NBA finals. Let's see who comes up bigger, Lebron or Dirk.

QB Terrelle Pryor declines Canadian Football League offer.

Terrelle Pryor, formerly of Ohio State University, has declined an offer to play for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL. It seems as though he is going to wait for the NFL supplemental draft later this summer. That's not necessarily a bad move as long as he didn't out right reject the CFL offer. I personally do not believe he will be drafted in the NFL supplemental draft. I think he should have taken the offer from the Roughriders even though they probably didn't offer much more than what local memorabilia dealers where offering him while he was at OSU. He seemed to have no problem taking the money while he was in college, he should have continued to take the money the CFL offered him. If he really wants to play in the NFL, he should strongly consider switching to wider receiver. With his size and athleticism he could make a quality possession receiver in the NFL. He won't make QB money, but he will probably make more than a CFL contract, if he is willing to work at the WR position. I think the only real question left is,  how little is the Pryor memorabilia worth now. The tattoo parlor owner can't possibly get a good return on investment in this deal. Especially considering most of Pryor's wins as a QB at OSU are about to be vacated by the NCAA, if not all of them. Oh well, maybe a lesson can be learned from all of this. Although, I highly doubt that this sort of behavior will stop. 

LSU gets snubbed by selection committee

So at the end of the season after all the conference tournaments nation wide are finished, LSU baseball has a final record of 36-20 with an RPI ranking of #26. Still they aren't considered one of the best 64 teams in the nation.  Some notable teams that were selected are Cal St. Fullerton, Southern Mississippi, Mississippi St., and Princeton.  I mention those teams because LSU beat all of those teams head-to-head only losing one game to Mississippi State in a three game series. While this year was a sub-par season for LSU standards; LSU still deserved to be in post season play in my opinion. Some say that the SEC is by far the best baseball conference in the country this year. If this is true then LSU definitely deserves to be in a regional somewhere. Everyone acknowledges that Vanderbilt, Florida, and South Carolina are great baseball teams, but what remains to be seen is just how good are Mississippi St, Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas on the national level. If any number of those four teams make it to a super regional that only lends more fire power to the argument that LSU was snubbed by the selection committee in my opinion. LSU's resume is on par with those four SEC teams and certainly on par if not better than the likes of St. John's*, Baylor*, Jacksonville, Troy, and a few other teams that were selected. I'm going to stop this rant here, I'm only making myself even more angry as I go along. In closing, I feel this whole selection committee process is about as biased as the BCS is made out to be. The NCAA needs to make a few more definitive guidelines for post season eligibility to help the selection committees in their decisions.  Any and all comments are welcome on these matters.

*I feel fairly certain that having a Big XII commissioner and a St. John's AD on the selection committee helped these schools get selected for regional play. But I guess I can't really prove that.



edit:  LSU also lost one game to Princeton in a three game series. Still shouldn't have made that big of a difference.

LSU Spring game

The LSU spring football game will be televised live tomorrow on ESPN at 3pm CDT.  Here is a link to the rosters.  Admission is free to the game.  I'm really looking forward to watching the game. This will be the nation's first look at the "new" offense for the Tigers after the addition of offensive coordinator Steve Kragthorpe.  There are plenty of things to look for during the game but a few will be:
1) The running game.   Who gets the bulk of the carries? How many yards from scrimmage will each running back get?
2) Quarterback rotation/playing time.  Which qb gets the most reps with the first string offense and who actually moves the ball? Also something to watch for is qb Jordan Jefferson's mechanics. Especially his footwork and timing with the receivers. That will be a very good indicator of improvement on the offensive side of the ball.
3) Injuries.  There are already quite a few minor injuries to key players. Those players will not be participating in the game tomorrow. These are players that need to be healthy by the start of the season in September. Hopefully we will not see any more injuries tomorrow during the game.
All in all this should be a good game and I'm can't wait to watch it. In case your going to miss the live airing at 3pm, the game will be replayed throughout the rest of the weekend on ESPN2 and ESPNU. Check local listings for times.

So U of Alabama is cheating... again.

Apparently, Jeffery Lee of Auburnsports.com  has accused an Alabama booster of paying a recruit to sign with the University of Alabama to play football.  The full story is at MrSec.com and the article goes on to list accounts of money and a car being given to the player and other recruiting misconducts. Alabama has been caught in this sort of behavior before, so it wouldn't surprise me if all this were true.  But the real problem isn't necessarily the universities, it seems to me that the problem is with boosters.  Too many die hard fans with a little too much money, so they want to ensure that their respective teams have good players for them to root for and maybe to brag to their close friends how they "got that player" on the team. The coaching staffs and universities for that matter have a hard enough time keeping track of all the incoming freshman, let a lone the boosters too. Often times college football coaches will pay recruiting services to provide game tape of potential recruits from other states to save on the costs of traveling to see the recruit first hand and to save time.  College football coaching staffs have a very busy schedule, they certainly don't have time to babysit every incoming recruit. But don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily defending this sort of behavior. This could certainly be some sort of loophole being exploited, and most likely is with some universities, so as to keep the university name and coaching staffs clean from an illegal recruiting activities. The boosters will end up with a slap on the wrist and be out whatever money they invested into the recruit should they be caught.  Right now the blame goes to the NCAA.  They will have to change rules regarding athletic scholarships to allow for some spending cash for players, much like many high end academic scholarships provide.  It won't have to be a lot of money, just enough for small stuff like a plane ticket back home once a semester/summer or a laptop or enough money to go out to eat every now and then.  Plus this might teach young athletes to be a little more responsible with their money in the future should they go pro. But only time will tell. Until then I guess it's Cheat Tide Cheat, or is it Roll? Either way, same difference.

Opening Day!

It's finally Opening Day for MLB. I don't know about you but I'm a little disappointed that there are only six games today.  I would really liked to have more games today but it is what it is.  Jeff Passan talk about it more in depth here. But I suppose some baseball is better than no baseball at all.  I hope everyone has their fantasy lineups set and are ready to enjoy another season of MLB.

LSU update

Here is an update on LSU football and baseball via Kris Brauner @ Saturday Night Slant concerning the baseball struggles of late and an important signing for the football team.  If you're an LSU fan and you aren't following him on Twitter I highly recommend you do.

The Upsets continue..

     (4)Kentucky pulls of the "upset" against (2)UNC even though latest betting lines via Betus.com had Kentucky as a favorite to win.  Even still, the win by Kentucky created a first for the Final Four of the tournament. This year will mark the first time there are no No.1 or No.2 seeds in the Final Four. More details on this unique Final Four in this article written by Jeff Eisenberg.
     This is the sort of stuff that the anti-BCS crowd looks for in college football.  The Cinderella team making a run at the National Championship.  A playoff system would give more hope to the likes of Boise St, TCU, Utah and other smaller conference teams to winning the championship. But is this also a reason to not have a playoff system in college football? I mean how many tickets could teams in the smaller conferences sell to road playoff games compared to the big time teams such as USC, Ohio St, Alabama, LSU, etc.?  And could those smaller conference teams sell out their respective share of tickets to road playoff games multiple times per post season should they win? These are probably reasons we won't see a playoff in college football anytime soon, but it sure would be fun to watch a playoff run by any team in major college football.

Upsets Galore, so far....

     In college baseball today, U of Georgia Bulldogs pulled off an upset of (10)LSU winning both games of a doubleheader.  Saturday's game was rained out, so they played two 7 inning games today on Sunday. UGA won game 2 of the series by the score of 9-5 and then won game 3 of the series 3-2. LSU won the opening game of the series on Friday by the score of 7-3. With the two losses today that brings LSU's record to 17-7 overall; LSU has lost 6 of the last 7 games. After losing the weekend conference series to UGA, LSU will certainly continue to drop in the rankings.  McNeese St is up next on the schedule for LSU, Wednesday night at 6:30 pm CDT. In other SEC baseball news, (1)Florida loses two of three to South Carolina, another surprise. Florida may drop in the rankings as well.
      And now on to the biggest upset of the day so far;  (11)Virginia Commonwealth University beating (1)Kansas in the NCAAB Elite Eight match up today by the score of 71-61.  This was VCU's first ever Elite Eight appearance as they move on to the Final Four to face (8)Butler on April 2nd. This is without a doubt the furthest a play-in team has advanced in the tournament. Now that the two remaining underdogs face each other, the winner moves on to set up a certain David versus Goliath match up against the winner of the UCONN versus Kentucky/UNC game.  Are there more upsets to come?  Only time will tell.

LSU Football Spring Practices

Read an article, spring-practice-notes, written by Kris Brauner of Saturday Night Slant containing some recent updates of LSU football. Seems as though spring practice is going well the the Tigers. I know I'm certainly looking forward to watching the spring game on April 9th. It will be televised on ESPN. I'll update with a more specific time and channel of the spring game as we get closer to the date.

Congrats to the Butler Bulldogs!

What a great game between the Bulldogs and the Gators.  Butler is legit. Very well coached team with good talent all around. The winner of the Kansas v VCU game will certainly have their hands full.

Speaking of Sports...

Watching the Butler versus Florida NCAAB Southeast Regional Final right now.  Pretty close game so far. Both teams playing very well.  Butler Bulldogs hanging in there with the Florida Gators. It's always fun to see the underdogs win during March Madness, but I'm going to have to stick with my SEC roots and pull for the Gators to win this one.  Good luck to both teams in the second half and let's go Gators!

New Blog

This is my first blog.  I'm not really certain what to make this blog about but it will most certainly contain a lot of sports related topics, especially once football season comes around.  Overall, there will probably be a variety of topics I discuss.  If anyone has a suggestion for a topic, feel free to let me know through comments/emails.