It's been a wild day of college football, so lets take a break from the dizzying rumors of realignment to talk actual games:
Clemson 38, Auburn 24 - We all knew that Auburn was probably the worst 2-0 team in the country, with last-gasp wins against marginal foes staking them to an unbeaten early start and a top 25 ranking. Clemson, however, exposed all that is wrong with Auburn, especially on defense. After falling into a 21-7 hole, Clemson reeled off a 38-3 rally that carved up the Tiger secondary like so much Thanksgiving turkey. Throw in a bushel-basket full of bad and broken arm tackles, and you have all you need to know about Clemson's win. Of course, Clemson being what it is, they'll try to make this win into something akin to an upset of the '74 Steelers, with Dabo Sweeney bellowing like a madman to the ESPN cameras in a post-game interview. C'mon, Dabo.
Iowa 31, Pittsburgh 27 - After staking the Panthers to a 24-3 lead early, the Hawkeyes pounded Pitt just as the ink dried on their application to the ACC. You know, since their national title in 1976 with Tony Dorsett, has Pitt really done anything of significance?
Texas 49, UCLA 20 - Okay, with Garrett Gilbert permanently on the sidelines and a guy named McCoy at the helm, Texas looks like a legitimate football team again. Then again, I think Paul Rhoads' Iowa State juggernaut could probaubly hang 30+ on UCLA. As Texas rolls, the one thing for Horn fans to worry about is that the Bruins' best weapon was - get this - running right at the Horns. Which was eerily like UT's biggest defensive liability last year, too. UT fans should be cautiously optimistic - they've got a QB, a RB, and they're already clearly better than last year. But temper that with the reality that UCLA will struggle to find a winning record this year. I can't believe a program like UCLA has allowed itself to get this bad.
Ugly Stat: In four years under Rick Neuheisel, UCLA is a dreadful 2-19 against teams that go on to finish at or above .500.
Seems to me a long year is ahead for the Bruins, and a new job is in Neuheisel's future. Despite his baggage, I still think Mike Leach would be a perfect fit for that job, football-smart to get the job done, wacky enough to fit into LA culture like a glove. Question is whether the support is there for UCLA football to get it back to its former level....who knows..
More commentary and updates as the mood hits...
Showing posts with label clemson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clemson. Show all posts
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
Conference Shuffling 2011 - More Talk...
Update Saturday, 7:10 PM CDT: Orangebloods.com is now reporting that the remaining Big 12 AD's (minus A&M) have vowed solidarity to the conference. OU has supposedly said it is not interested in the SEC. If A&M leaves, the Big 12 would look to fill the vacancy, with a current short list of BYU, Air Force, Houston, or TCU. Now, how TCU would fit in the picture given their new alignment with the Big East is unexplained.
It looks like the crippled, castrated Big 12 is going to try and limp along as an embarrassing, 9-member remnant of college football that seems to be shifting around its members without touching them. Even if they pick-up a leftover from a middling conference as a 10th member, its a pitiful shadow of what it was just one season ago. It's amazing to me that programs the stature of Oklahoma or even Texas aren't making overtures to conferences that have something more credible than Dan Beebe as their leader.
Update Saturday, 5:03 PM CDT: CBS Sports' Gregg Doyel reports that Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and two other "unnamed" Big 12 schools inquired of the Big 10 about joining their conference. They were declined due to their academic standing.
This continues to reflect the ongoing scramble for conference realignment with virtually all major sources concurring that A&M will leave the Big 12 for the SEC, and the SEC apparently soliciting several other schools as well.
Update Saturday, 9:30 AM CDT: BIG NEWS: ESPN's Doug Gottlieb is now reporting from his own sources that A&M will, in fact, join the SEC. That's not necessarily new news; however, the other element he is reporting IS big news: Reportedly, three NEW teams are planning the SEC jump, and they are Clemson, Florida State, and Missouri. With A&M and now Missouri departing, the Big 12 is a dead duck. The only question now, where will Oklahoma, Texas, and the rest of the Castrated 12 go? All bets look like the Pac 12 will be the winner. More as it happens!
Update 11:03 CDT....One fairly significant event to note - A&M has apparently scheduled a regents' meeting for Monday to discuss "all matters....relating to conference alignment." Florida State still officially denies they are being courted.
I still think the NCAA is going to have a finger in this, and try its darndest to stop any potential expansion. The threat superconferences pose to the NCAA is very real, but exactly how they can prevent them without some sort of leverage is hard to contemplate.
Rather than continually update yesterday's post about A&M, it seemed ripe to start fresh and evaluate where we are in the whirlwind of new conference realignment talks.
What do we know now? For concrete facts, very little. We have strong indications that Texas A&M will formally announce its intent to join the SEC on or about August 22, although there have been "non-denial denials" all over the place. I think this aspect, with details pending, is going to happen.
The next question I asked here is simple: Given that the SEC wouldn't be taking just one team, they'd take at least two, and maybe four, who was the next school on the SEC's list? Current reports and rumors strongly indicate that other school is Florida State. Supposedly, one insider at the athletic department of one current SEC school claims the conference is "confident" they will announce A&M and FSU as new members within the next two weeks.
That same source also indicates that the SEC might be emboldened to jump to superconference status by ramping up to 16 teams, possibly seeking Oklahoma and possibly Clemson.
If the SEC plans a chess move to a superconference, one has to wonder if the same anonymous "interested parties" thatblocked the formation of the Pac 16 prserved what was left of the "Big" 12 would step in to prevent an "SEC 16?"
The NCAA wants no part of superconferences, for they fear the organization of an entity that jeopardizes their existence. It would not surprise me to find they were part of the "interested parties" that helped put the kibosh on the Big 12's split last year. If ESPN doesn't want to renegotiate its SEC deal and find its newly inked agreements with the BCS to be worth slightly less than the king's ransom they paid for it, it would seem logical they might use backdoor channels into the NCAA to solicit their assitance in stopping this iteration as well.
How? Stopping all the movement would presumably be simple - figure out a way to shut down the Longhorn Network, presumably the proverbial straw that broke A&M's back and led them to pursue the SEC. If the NCAA could apply pressure sufficient to force the Horns into shutting down their network before it started, A&M would have won the battle and the war. If the NCAA couldn't stop them, it would demonstrate just how serious a superconference threat would be to the NCAA's power and influence over college athletics.
How will it all shake out? At this point, who knows. COnventional wisdom holds that OU and Oklahoma State are tied at the hip, and would first want to head west to the Pac 12. OU wants no part of the SEC recruiting quagmire. Missouri has to be attractive to someone with its proximity to the St. Louis TV market, making a prospective Big 10 jump a very real possibility. Either way, it seems all-but impossible for what's left of the Big 12 to survive as a credible conference if A&M bolts.
Watch this space for updates as they come in!
It looks like the crippled, castrated Big 12 is going to try and limp along as an embarrassing, 9-member remnant of college football that seems to be shifting around its members without touching them. Even if they pick-up a leftover from a middling conference as a 10th member, its a pitiful shadow of what it was just one season ago. It's amazing to me that programs the stature of Oklahoma or even Texas aren't making overtures to conferences that have something more credible than Dan Beebe as their leader.
Update Saturday, 5:03 PM CDT: CBS Sports' Gregg Doyel reports that Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and two other "unnamed" Big 12 schools inquired of the Big 10 about joining their conference. They were declined due to their academic standing.
This continues to reflect the ongoing scramble for conference realignment with virtually all major sources concurring that A&M will leave the Big 12 for the SEC, and the SEC apparently soliciting several other schools as well.
Update Saturday, 9:30 AM CDT: BIG NEWS: ESPN's Doug Gottlieb is now reporting from his own sources that A&M will, in fact, join the SEC. That's not necessarily new news; however, the other element he is reporting IS big news: Reportedly, three NEW teams are planning the SEC jump, and they are Clemson, Florida State, and Missouri. With A&M and now Missouri departing, the Big 12 is a dead duck. The only question now, where will Oklahoma, Texas, and the rest of the Castrated 12 go? All bets look like the Pac 12 will be the winner. More as it happens!
Update 11:03 CDT....One fairly significant event to note - A&M has apparently scheduled a regents' meeting for Monday to discuss "all matters....relating to conference alignment." Florida State still officially denies they are being courted.
I still think the NCAA is going to have a finger in this, and try its darndest to stop any potential expansion. The threat superconferences pose to the NCAA is very real, but exactly how they can prevent them without some sort of leverage is hard to contemplate.
Rather than continually update yesterday's post about A&M, it seemed ripe to start fresh and evaluate where we are in the whirlwind of new conference realignment talks.
What do we know now? For concrete facts, very little. We have strong indications that Texas A&M will formally announce its intent to join the SEC on or about August 22, although there have been "non-denial denials" all over the place. I think this aspect, with details pending, is going to happen.
The next question I asked here is simple: Given that the SEC wouldn't be taking just one team, they'd take at least two, and maybe four, who was the next school on the SEC's list? Current reports and rumors strongly indicate that other school is Florida State. Supposedly, one insider at the athletic department of one current SEC school claims the conference is "confident" they will announce A&M and FSU as new members within the next two weeks.
That same source also indicates that the SEC might be emboldened to jump to superconference status by ramping up to 16 teams, possibly seeking Oklahoma and possibly Clemson.
If the SEC plans a chess move to a superconference, one has to wonder if the same anonymous "interested parties" that
The NCAA wants no part of superconferences, for they fear the organization of an entity that jeopardizes their existence. It would not surprise me to find they were part of the "interested parties" that helped put the kibosh on the Big 12's split last year. If ESPN doesn't want to renegotiate its SEC deal and find its newly inked agreements with the BCS to be worth slightly less than the king's ransom they paid for it, it would seem logical they might use backdoor channels into the NCAA to solicit their assitance in stopping this iteration as well.
How? Stopping all the movement would presumably be simple - figure out a way to shut down the Longhorn Network, presumably the proverbial straw that broke A&M's back and led them to pursue the SEC. If the NCAA could apply pressure sufficient to force the Horns into shutting down their network before it started, A&M would have won the battle and the war. If the NCAA couldn't stop them, it would demonstrate just how serious a superconference threat would be to the NCAA's power and influence over college athletics.
How will it all shake out? At this point, who knows. COnventional wisdom holds that OU and Oklahoma State are tied at the hip, and would first want to head west to the Pac 12. OU wants no part of the SEC recruiting quagmire. Missouri has to be attractive to someone with its proximity to the St. Louis TV market, making a prospective Big 10 jump a very real possibility. Either way, it seems all-but impossible for what's left of the Big 12 to survive as a credible conference if A&M bolts.
Watch this space for updates as they come in!
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