NCAA Football 2011

[Quincy]

Former Duck football coach Mike Bellotti is in the news thanks to some Oregon newspapers suing to have state pension records made public. Bellotti's pension payment is over $41,000 a month thanks to the way the pension formula works out. By comparison the former UO president Dave Frohnmayer's pension is only $21,000 and change per month. I'm sure other states have similar situations.

[GA Russell]

Anybody watch the Alamo Bowl tonight?

[Free For All]

Crazy game between Stanford/OSU!

I feel bad for the Stanford kicker.

EDIT: I would have liked to see either of these teams take on LSU for the championship.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Free For All

[DukeCity]

1325569120' post='1164733']

Crazy game between Stanford/OSU!

I feel bad for the Stanford kicker.

Indeed, on both counts.

[papsrus]

Came away really impressed with Andrew Luck. As the commentators said at one point during the game, he looks a lot like Manning at the line of scrimmage. A no-brainer for the Colts, I'd think. Plus, he's from Stanford -- so, presumably a pretty sharp guy.

Rose and Fiesta were both really entertaining games.

Putting the outcome of a college game on your FG kicker has proved to be a losing strategy lately, seems like. The Boise loss(es), Georgia yesterday, Alabama in its loss to LSU during the regular season, Stanford yesterday.

[Dave James]

While high scoring games are always entertaining, I've come to the conclusion that good defense is an endangered species. I did a little research this morning and found that out of 126 football teams in Division I, only nine allowed less than 300 yards a game on average over the course of their 2012 schedules. One can easily conclude from this that offenses have become so sophisticated that the defenses have simply been overwhelmed.

[Free For All]

Other than Michigan State, the Big 10 is getting its collective ass kicked this bowl season. And currently Michigan's not looking too strong.

EDIT: Although currently it looks like Big Blue has things in hand.

EDIT #2: Never mind. Game tied in the fourth quarter!

Edited January 4, 2012 by Free For All

[papsrus]

The football gods were not with Va Tech tonight. Nor the refs.

That dude caught the ball, IMO. Or at least there wasn't enough there to overturn it.

[Free For All]

I'm surprised they overturned the call. Tough loss for VT, it reminded me of the Stanford/OSU game.

[Dave James]

VT got seriously jobbed on that call in OT. No way that guy didn't have possession and a foot in bounds.

[papsrus]

VT got seriously jobbed on that call in OT. No way that guy didn't have possession and a foot in bounds.

Agree. The way I saw the replays, he had the ball, then his left elbow touched down inbounds (just), then he tumbles out of bounds, never losing control of the ball. It was an amazing grab, and it seemed pretty clear to me that there wasn't any video evidence that would justify overturning the original call of a TD.

Seems like Va Tech couldn't catch a break all night. They pretty much shut the Michigan offense down for most of the night -- 184 total yards to 377 for the Hokies. And they get robbed of a chance at winning the game on that call?

hm.

[GA Russell]

I didn't keep track of how the teams qualified for the bowls, but it appears that the two teams in tonight's Cotton Bowl are higher ranked than the teams of the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl, two BCS bowls.

[papsrus]

I didn't keep track of how the teams qualified for the bowls, but it appears that the two teams in tonight's Cotton Bowl are higher ranked than the teams of the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl, two BCS bowls.

I think the bowl matchups this year were affected by the fact that two SEC teams are playing in the BCS title game. That wiped the SEC out of the Sugar. And I think the Orange is locked into taking the ACC champion regardless of ranking. If Va Tech had taken care of business in the ACC title game, the Orange would have had a higher-ranked ACC representative (and I guess would probably have been more competitive).

I kind of think of the Cotton as a BCS bowl anyways. It should be, IMO.

[Free For All]

The SEC appears to own it this year.

[GA Russell]

Well, you're not going to win if you don't score any points.

[papsrus]

Alabama moves on and will play the winner of the Giants-Packers game.

[Dave James]

Hope the morons who run the BCS are happy about their championship game last night. You know, the one that redefined the term boredom. There were quite a number of really exciting bowl games played this year, topped off, IMO, by Oregon's win in Pasadena. Too bad the showcase game was such a dog it did everything but bark.

[Noj]

I'm all for the BCS continuing to churn out extra boring bowl games if it gets us one step closer to a college football playoff system.

[Dave James]

Looks like a lot of people found last night's match-up to be something less than must-see TV. The game generated the lowest ratings in the 17-year history of the BCS. Hopefully, when the good old boys who run this thing get together today to discuss the future of their operation, this little bit of bad news will be at the top of their agenda. What would be great is if people are starting to register their unhappiness with the current system by simply not watching. That's about the only thing I can think of that will get these guy's attention.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2012/01/bcs-championship-game-draws-lowest-ratings-ever.html