WEEKEND WRAP-UP & AN EARLY SATURDAY LOOK AHEAD
Sunday night & Monday are pretty much dedicated to reading over 200-websites. I check about half the college websites, the newspapers that cover them & about 15 other sites like SI.com & ESPN.com. Then on Monday I move to the pro websites & about 40 newspapers, all the while ESPN's Mike & Mike in the Morning, College Football Live & NFL Live are playing in the background. By 4 PM on Monday, my brain is just about used up, thankfully my current career path doesn't require anything more strenuous than watching 27-hours of football on Saturday & Sunday followed by a solid 8-hours of reading. So here's a few more news items I thought you might want to know.
I was going to go into the release of the first BCS Poll last night, but the lack of sleep won out. While others in my household were watching The Amazing Race, I was in the bunker watching the BCS show on ESPN & the Colt-Redskin pre-game show. Once again the BCS stirs the pot, gets everybody all worked up but after just one week, I'm taking a wait & see attitude. My problem with the BCS as an end-all authority for the college football postseason is the way it's results are formulated. The USA Today/Coaches Poll accounts for 1/3 of the total. Four different computer polls account for a third & the Harris Poll the remainder. What is so controversial about this poll is the wild disparity between the three. I'm not going to cite all the radical differences, I'm just going to point out one many of you can relate to, the Missouri Tigers. The Tigers are ranked 11th by the BCS, 16th in the USA Today/Coaches Poll, 6th in the Sagarin Computer Poll & totally unrated in another computer poll. Sixth, eleventh, sixteenth, un-ranked altogether? See what I mean? How does this "official poll" that decides who goes where in the multi-million dollar bowl shuffle, make any sense? Of course the answer is "it doesn't." The human polls have voters with obvious bias while the computers crunch numbers, they don't see how incredibly lucky a few winners have been, luck is not a tangible thing computers are capable of measuring. Here's a thought.......how about a friggin' playoff already??????
There are ten unbeatens as of today, two will defintely fall by the wayside come Saturday. With LSU-Auburn & Oklahoma-Mizzou, that number is guaranteed to be reduced by at least two. TCU plays Utah on November 6th, another unbeaten will fall. I doubt we'll see more than or 3 unbeaten teams by the end of the regular season & then we have a few conference championship games which could reduce that number even more. College football's regular season is so much more important than the NFL's, every week the balance of power can shift so dramatically.
Shifting to the pros, the Green Bay Packers said today their tight end, Jermichael Finley, had been placed on injured reserve after undergoing successful meniscus repair surgery. This is a huge loss to a team whose season is in free fall from injuries.
Now Eagles coach Andy Reid says he's leaning toward Kevin Kolb as his starting quarterback this week. He also said Michael Vick is not healthy enough to play "right now."
Peter King of Sports Illustrated said today the interference call in the Chiefs-Texans yesterday "was the worst interference call of the season & it definitely changed the game." Brandon Flowers became a victim of what was known in NBA circles as the "Jordan Rule." Whenever Michael Jordan complained to a ref he was fouled, the foul was called about 80% of the time, whether it was right or wrong. Houston's Andre Johnson is generally considered to be one of the top-3 WR's in the NFL & when he says he was interfered with, the zebras pay attention.
The dumbest boast of the week belongs to Miami Herald writer Armando Salguero. He said in today's edition the reason for the Dolphins overtime win yesterday was "the Dolphins were just the tougher team." Really? Lets see how tough Salguero thinks his Dolphins would be if they had 8 starters missing plus 4 other players. It's not hard to be tough against 2nd teamers & guys right off the street. Armando gets a little carried away at times, but this is his worst, credibility-wise.
Mizzou linebacker Luke Lambert has already been ruled out of the OU game as well as the Nebraska game next week. Lambert sustained a knee-sprain in Saturday's win at A&M. No definitive word on the status of the conference's best pass rusher, the Tigers' Aldon Smith. He suffered a leg fracture four weeks ago & it is hoped he can play this Saturday evening.
ESPN's College Gameday, the best pregame show for any sport on any network, will visit Columbia Missouri this Saturday for their live telecast. My girl Erin Andrews will kick it off with her 1-hour version on ESPNU followed at 9 AM with Chris, Coach, Herbie & Desmond for two more hours. They'll be there to preview the OU-MU game, broadcast Saturday evening on ABC. A few must-see games & their lines:
Wisconsin at Iowa 2:30 PM on ESPN, Iowa favored by 5 1/2
Nebraska at Oklahoma State 2:30 PM on ABC, Huskers favored by 6
LSU at Auburn 2:30 PM on CBS, Auburn favored by 6.
Oklahoma at Missouri 7:00 PM on ABC, OU favored by 3.
I was going to go into the release of the first BCS Poll last night, but the lack of sleep won out. While others in my household were watching The Amazing Race, I was in the bunker watching the BCS show on ESPN & the Colt-Redskin pre-game show. Once again the BCS stirs the pot, gets everybody all worked up but after just one week, I'm taking a wait & see attitude. My problem with the BCS as an end-all authority for the college football postseason is the way it's results are formulated. The USA Today/Coaches Poll accounts for 1/3 of the total. Four different computer polls account for a third & the Harris Poll the remainder. What is so controversial about this poll is the wild disparity between the three. I'm not going to cite all the radical differences, I'm just going to point out one many of you can relate to, the Missouri Tigers. The Tigers are ranked 11th by the BCS, 16th in the USA Today/Coaches Poll, 6th in the Sagarin Computer Poll & totally unrated in another computer poll. Sixth, eleventh, sixteenth, un-ranked altogether? See what I mean? How does this "official poll" that decides who goes where in the multi-million dollar bowl shuffle, make any sense? Of course the answer is "it doesn't." The human polls have voters with obvious bias while the computers crunch numbers, they don't see how incredibly lucky a few winners have been, luck is not a tangible thing computers are capable of measuring. Here's a thought.......how about a friggin' playoff already??????
There are ten unbeatens as of today, two will defintely fall by the wayside come Saturday. With LSU-Auburn & Oklahoma-Mizzou, that number is guaranteed to be reduced by at least two. TCU plays Utah on November 6th, another unbeaten will fall. I doubt we'll see more than or 3 unbeaten teams by the end of the regular season & then we have a few conference championship games which could reduce that number even more. College football's regular season is so much more important than the NFL's, every week the balance of power can shift so dramatically.
Shifting to the pros, the Green Bay Packers said today their tight end, Jermichael Finley, had been placed on injured reserve after undergoing successful meniscus repair surgery. This is a huge loss to a team whose season is in free fall from injuries.
Now Eagles coach Andy Reid says he's leaning toward Kevin Kolb as his starting quarterback this week. He also said Michael Vick is not healthy enough to play "right now."
Peter King of Sports Illustrated said today the interference call in the Chiefs-Texans yesterday "was the worst interference call of the season & it definitely changed the game." Brandon Flowers became a victim of what was known in NBA circles as the "Jordan Rule." Whenever Michael Jordan complained to a ref he was fouled, the foul was called about 80% of the time, whether it was right or wrong. Houston's Andre Johnson is generally considered to be one of the top-3 WR's in the NFL & when he says he was interfered with, the zebras pay attention.
The dumbest boast of the week belongs to Miami Herald writer Armando Salguero. He said in today's edition the reason for the Dolphins overtime win yesterday was "the Dolphins were just the tougher team." Really? Lets see how tough Salguero thinks his Dolphins would be if they had 8 starters missing plus 4 other players. It's not hard to be tough against 2nd teamers & guys right off the street. Armando gets a little carried away at times, but this is his worst, credibility-wise.
Mizzou linebacker Luke Lambert has already been ruled out of the OU game as well as the Nebraska game next week. Lambert sustained a knee-sprain in Saturday's win at A&M. No definitive word on the status of the conference's best pass rusher, the Tigers' Aldon Smith. He suffered a leg fracture four weeks ago & it is hoped he can play this Saturday evening.
ESPN's College Gameday, the best pregame show for any sport on any network, will visit Columbia Missouri this Saturday for their live telecast. My girl Erin Andrews will kick it off with her 1-hour version on ESPNU followed at 9 AM with Chris, Coach, Herbie & Desmond for two more hours. They'll be there to preview the OU-MU game, broadcast Saturday evening on ABC. A few must-see games & their lines:
Wisconsin at Iowa 2:30 PM on ESPN, Iowa favored by 5 1/2
Nebraska at Oklahoma State 2:30 PM on ABC, Huskers favored by 6
LSU at Auburn 2:30 PM on CBS, Auburn favored by 6.
Oklahoma at Missouri 7:00 PM on ABC, OU favored by 3.
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