When it rains, it pours.

It sure has been a rough week for the LSU nation.
     First off, there was the debacle in New Orleans that some people called the BCS National Championship game. That was quite possibly the worst LSU bowl game ever and definitely the worst in recent memory, at least offensively it was.  The defense did everything they could to keep the team in the game. The offense however was very frustrating to watch to say the least.  Many would have liked to seen Jarrett Lee get a few snaps in the ball game, but it's hard to say he would have made much of a difference in the outcome of the final score.  Alabama's defensive line was beating the offensive line of LSU most of the night, making it extremely difficult for the running game to get going.  In my opinion, without an established running game the passing game didn't stand much of a chance with either Jefferson or Lee at the QB position. Well that's about as much of that game I can relive for now.  Maybe I'll discuss it more at a later date.
     Secondly, the Saints lost their playoff game to the San Francisco 49ers.  I wasn't really expecting them to win the Super Bowl, but it certainly would have been nice to get at least 1 playoff win.
     And of course last but not least, highly recruited QB Gunner Kiel backed out of his commitment to LSU and instead will be attending Notre Dame.  He is from Indiana and stated that he would like to attend college closer to home. It sure would have been nice to get the #1 QB recruit in the nation on the team but you can't really fault the kid for making a decision like that.
     All in all it has certainly been a rough 7-10 days but with plenty of returning talent on the 2012 football roster there are many reasons to look forward to next year.  Should be a great season again.

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.