College Football Week 10

Colorado is proud of their mountains and the Colorado State Rams features one of the finer dance team squads. This young lady is not only on the Ram dance team, but she also baby sits for the Video Coordinator of the Ram football team, Jeff Dotson....Michigan continues to have problems. Not only did they lose to Purdue at home for the first time since 1966, but allegations have come out of retiring Athletic Director Bill Martin pushed one student and grabbed the jacket of another following different football games this fall. The Wolverines are on the brink of missing post-season play in back to back years (upcoming games at Wisconsin and home with Ohio State) currently standing with a 5-5 record. My guess is that the players and fans would rather stay home than experience a bowl game in nearby Detroit....Hats off go to Temple Owl coach Al Golden and his football team. Yearly the Owls were the win all BCS teams counted on in their schedule. However they are undefeated in conference play and also have an impressive win over Navy....Oregon, who lost to USC ten days ago, is now ranked behind the men of Troy following their loss Saturday at Stanford. The computers have ranked the Ducks higher, but the human polls do not. There has been much criticism that the coaches aren't in the best position to rank teams--either it is a political vote or they allow a staff member to cast the vote for them--but it seems this is another justification for the computers to figure into the final outcome.

Bowl Season Kicks Off

The first day of the 2008-09 bowl season got underway with four games, two in their inagural state. The winners were Wake Forest, Colorado State, South Florida (see picture) and Arizona.

Navy losing to Wake Forest was my disappointment of the day. The midshipmen were playing as close to home as possible in Washington DC. They got out to a two touchdown lead, but saw the Deamon Decons dominate the rest of the way.

Fresno State lost to the hands of Colorado State. The Bulldogs should have fared better this season, but never recovered from its loss to Wisconsin. FSU needed a win more than any other team on this day. What was once a promising season has turned into quite the disappointment.

South Florida dominated in their game with Memphis. It should've have in the inagural magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl in nearby Clearwater / St . Pete. The Bulls are better than what the Big East gave them in bowl assignments, but they need to attain a BCS birth. In a conference that isn't among the nation's elite USF has had their chances to take that next step, but have faltered.

Finally Arizona made the Pac 10 begin a respectable streak of winning bowl games. This is an impressive win over BYU and is a good start for the conference. Other games it should win include Oregon over Oklahoma State, and USC over Penn State.

College Football Week 10

After an exciting weekend of Big Ten Football, the ladies of Minnesota will present the wrap-up of week 10.
Can anyone remember a Saturday of Big Ten Football that found every game settled in the last minute of play? First, an Adam Weber throw was intercepted by Northwestern and returned for a touchdown to break a 17-17 tie. The Gophers, instead of playing for overtime, threw over the middle and endured a devastating defeat. Then Michigan State came back from 11 down in the fourth quarter to kick a 45 yd field goal with :12 to play. A couple of mental breakdowns from the Wisconsin coaching staff contributed to the defeat. Purdue brings the hook 'n ladder from the back pages of the playbook to defeat Michigan with :27 to play. The win for the Boilermakers sent the Wolverines to the bowl sideline for the first time in 33 years. And finally, a Matt Eller field goal, broke a 24-24 tie with Iowa with :30 to play followed by an Ricky Stanzi intercepted pass. Although the conference is mediocre, that doesn't mean it doesn't have exciting finishes.
Exciting finishes were found elsewhere around the country. Pittsburgh took four overtimes to beat Notre Dame in South Bend. BYU defeated Colorado State 45-42 in a back and forth game that whoever scored last, won the game. And in a game that lived up to the hype, Texas Tech defeated the #1 Texas Longhorns on a touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree that left :01 on the clock.
And finally, on the eve of Election Day I just witnessed the interviews of Barack Obama and John McCain. When asked what sports issue they would change Obama wants a playoff while McCain would eliminate performance enhancing drugs. Based on that alone, I could not vote for Obama.