Top 25

#1 Alabama: Hard to pick against this one. The talent is so deep and the confidence level is so high not picking the Tide to starting at #1 would be down right rude.

#2 Ohio State: A media favorite to be in the championship game gets the buckeyes near the top. With a tough schedule and a offense that still has to show they are worthy of a shot at the top. It will be an interesting season and with a good defense they will be a tough nut to crack.

#3 Boise State: Boise State is finally getting the respect their fans think they deserve so they are ranked here. For what they did to the WAC I have to hope that Virginia Tech. grad Gargamel runs off with Smurfette. I wont bet on it though.

#4 Oklahoma: Can Bob Stoops bring them back to the promised land. The talent is there but the schedule is going to require them to be on their toes with Florida St and Cincinnati on their non conference schedule Stoops could be on the hot seat early.

#5 Nebraska: – The “Black Shirt” mentality back in Nebraska football but is their a offense lurking in the shadows. Regardless of the offense expect the corn munchers to win the north and face Texas or Oklahoma in Dallas for the Big Whatever title.

#6 Florida: No Tebow means more exciting offense for Florida. Will Brantley be the quarterback they expect. Probable but they still have to beat Georgia, , SC, Kentucky, Alabama twice and yes Tennessee to go all the way. Thats a hefty weight to put on a quarterback even if he has been behind Tebow and knows where all the rocks under the water are.

#7 Texas: No more Colt McCoy puts Texas in the same position Florida is. Texas got a look at Garret Gilbert during the championship game. Is he Colt McCoy no, but he will suffice to get them wins against Wyoming, Rice, and Florida Atlantic. UCLA will give them a challenge but only Oklahoma and Nebraska stand much of a chance to beat them.

#8 Oregon: Are they really the best in the PAC 10? USC, Washington, Oregon St. and the rest of the PAC 10 don’t think so. Try hard not to pick them to win the title.

#9 Virginia Tech: Beat Boise St. to start the season and they will be 8-0 before they have to play another team of any worth. Sorry Duke but you don’t have it yet.

#10 Iowa: The Hawkeyes have Penn State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State at home and their quarterback back. Unbeaten probably not but last year showed their rabbits foot works.

#11 TCU: Expect TCU to be better this year and with a little luck they will get to play someone besides Boise St. in a BCS bowl.

#12 Arkansas: Ranked to high probably but high octane offense is sold in Arkansas. If they can finally field a decent defense they could unseat Alabama. Considering that Bobby Petrino is their coach expect a melt down against a team they should beat.

#13 Miami: This could be the year The U turns the corner. I’m picking them to win the ACC.

#14 Florida State: How long has it been since the big 3 Florida schools have been ranked this high. Once upon a time the winner of the round robin between the 3 was going to be playing for the title. It could happen again if Florida ever grows a set of big ones.

#15 Wisconsin: They won’t win the Big 10 but expect them to be in every game they play.

#16 Georgia: The talent to win the SEC is there. The only thing lacking is a quarterback. Aaron Murray could be that quarterback but unless hes a stud there will be enough mistakes that someone will surprise them.

#17 North Carolina: All they are waiting on is to see how hard the NCAA comes down of them and who they might have to sit. We should know the sitters soon. Expect LSU to give them a tough game and with very many sitter win.

#18 Pittsburgh: Starting at Utah is a good way to kick off what many or expecting to be a banner year for the Panthers. Win at Utah and they still have Miami, UConn, Notre Dame and West Virginia. This could the year that Dave Dave Wandstedt finally breaks on thru to the other side.

#19 Auburn: A Top 25 team but still in rebuilding mode and not quite ready to challenge Alabama.

#20 Penn State: They have the talent but the Big 10 is hard to win out in. Expect a loss at Alabama and two losses in league play.

#21 Notre Dame: Its surprising what a coaching change can do for a teams ranking. They have been stock piling players and finally have a coach to use them. Unfortunately for them their schedule looks to give them 3 or 4 losses.

#22 LSU: Les had better get out the old walkin shoes because they could easily loose 4 games this year.

#23 Oregon State: This could be a breakout year for Mike Rileys team so I’m gonna hold my thoughts till after this weekends game against a TCU team that could win the PAC 10 outright much less the MWC.

#24 Missouri: A good schedule and a weak north gets them into the top 25. They should have the offense but their defense is suspect. They don’t hit the meat of their schedule till mid October so their defense will have some time.

#25 Utah: Utah has a fair chance to move up with a win over Pittsburgh.

Standing on the ledge with a chance to jump in are Houston and West Virginia.

Season on the Brink

Joker has made up his mind, drum roll please, trumpets please! Mike Hartline is our starting QB. No surprise here and no complaints either. Sure he isn’t the man I wanted as our starting quarterback but he is the man with the most experience.

Its up to you now Mike, seize the moment and show us how you have improved your passing game. Make us forget game management. Give us a laser light show every game. Thrill us beyond our wildest dreams. Set your sights on Louisville and fry us some bird with the secret spices you’ve used twice before. Then set your sights higher and go for it.

As Hondo said in another story. This is a Season On The Brink. This is your year Mike, your on the brink. This is the year you’ve been playing for.

Ugly Is As Ugly Does

Hey how about that Jay Mariotti the Edie Munster of sports writing. The Fanhouse.com writer and ESPN personality who is best known for his put down pieces on famous sports figures is now going to have to write one about himself. Its guaranteed though that it won’t come close to what bloggers are going to do to him.

Arrested after a late night argument in a bar continued at home leading to his arrest for violence upon his girl friend. Any of us old time bar patrons have seen the story numerous times. 2AM and way to many drinks, girl friend being friendly, guy’s ego getting bruised, girl friend getting bruised, trip to the station house, bail in the morning.

I wonder now if Jay is going to expect ESPN and Fanhouse to be as strict on him as he expects MLB to be on players and violence. Oh thats right he doesn’t really expect it he just writes like hes throwing out chum to get a bite.

Take a look at his story headlines and see if you dont agree with me when I say KARMA Jay KARMA. The worse part of the whole thing is that he brought his woman into his Karma. Oh and he was a longtime columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times so he probably taught Michael O’Brien every thing he knows about writing.

The Real Mountain God

A day has gone by since Fresno St. and Nevada cannibalized the WAC and I’ve had time to think more on it. This wasn’t a Stacy Keach, Ursula Andress movie with slinky tops like the Mountain of the Cannibal God. It was more of a Donner Cookbook type of a cannibalization with better spices.

I’ve come to the conclusion that there was a Mountain God involved in it and that God’s name is BCS. Sure the first thing I wanted to blame is the world wide leader and they do deserve to get a piece of the blame for trying to own the sports universe and forcing people like Pat Forde with his obvious bias for Kentucky and Cow______ fill in the blank yourself on us. Just kidding Cow_____ your a dedicated, educated reporter unlike this blogger and I’m only using you for a small laugh.

The real blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the BCS though. If there was a playoff system then the MWC wouldn’t have had to strengthen its conference at the WAC’s expense. Boise St. would still be going 12-0 and being ranked in the top 10, and the MWC’s future wouldn’t look like one of those meals at the Donner Pass where its eat or be eaten.

When you think about the excuses for not having a playoff there is not one that makes since other than the players missing classes. Thats what tutors are for though I will grant you its not what Tennessee tutors are for. Does anyone really believe that TCU or Boise St. no matter their records are going to be able to beat USC, Florida and Alabama in a row to win a BCS championship playoff. You notice I didn’t say national championship as a NCAA national championship is open to all and the NCAA once again should be ashamed of themselves for allowing their democracy to be ruled by a few. Heres another on of those does anyone really believes, that the BCS conferences would leave the NCAA.

The only true winner in the whole thing is the BCS, while the WAC teams and football fans as a whole are the losers.

Please don’t think that I’ve forgiven the MWC and those Karen Sypher wantabe’s from Nevada, Idaho and California because I haven’t.

Violation Blues

Hoist one with me to say good bye to the WAC. I’ve been a WACker since the early 60′s when sometimes the local New Mexico paper or El Paso and Albuquerque TV stations didn’t even bother to show SEC scores or standings and left me in limbo about my Cat’s.

Now that Fresno St, Boise St. and Nevada are leaving leaving there only leaves 6 football teams left in the WAC. This is old news and normal WAC history though. In the late 60′s as soon as Arizona and Arizona St. got to the point where they were looking like top 25 teams and recruiting to mank kids from California the PAC 8 gobbled them up. Then when the MWC teams broke away the WAC got lucky with Boise St. who is departing to the Big 12.

Now I don’t have to like it but I can understand why much of this has happened. Its all about consolidation and all you have to do is follow the money. What do you find when you do? You find the worldwide leader ESPN. With having only 6 teams now I’m going to bet that the newly signed WAC contract will be challenged and who does that benefit? Why ESPN of course. After all the best WAC teams are now in other conferences so why spend the money to televise the WAC games is small markets. Does anyone really think that there haven’t been any discussions about the MWC’s television channel and ESPN getting a cut. I have my hopes that the talks with Comcast and CBS pan out so the world wide leader gets screwed by the MWC too.

When you look there are only a few decent teams left and they are FCS teams in the Big Sky who’s budgets won’t support trips to Hawaii. This is going to destroy the Hawai’i men’s athletic program.

So I only have this to say. I will never have anything good to say about any of those bitches or the MWC again and I hope a UH linebacker violates your QB with his foot this year.

We will just have to watch and see how this plays out but one thing for sure. I’m glad to be a SEC fan where even lowly Vanderbilt’s back is watched by the other teams.

Fabled Passage Found

Well our trip to the great north is finally over and BigBlueRules is proud to announce that we found the Northwest Passage. Brandon Knight is going to be the icebreaker thats going to lead us through the passage.

Now on to some observations after watching the three games. Jon Hood is going to have a fine career at Kentucky and Darius Miller is the man thats going to help this team jell. When you throw in Deandre Liggins and Josh Harrellson the veterans are going to be the heart and soul of this team.

Offensively the dribble drive is going to be unstoppable as long as we continue to make the threes. Unlike last year this team can take it to the hoop from any position on the floor any time they want. Its going to be interesting to see how the offense changes with Kanter, Vargas and Jones on the floor. Jones showed in the couple of minutes he played that he can take it to the hoop and handle the ball in the open court so we just have to see how Vargas and Kanter do. Lamb and Knight can average fifty between them and don’t mind giving up the ball to a team mate.

Defensively this team is light years ahead of last years team at this time and I’m looking forward to watching their press develop as the year goes on. The ole pressmeister in Louisville better have taken notes because there going to be a new pressmeister in town.

I thought that Windsor and Western should both be proud of how they played, and their steady play gave the Cats a lot to look at.

Finally I’m going out on a limb now and saying this team is going to be a better team than last years team, and we could go all the way this year.

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Jokers Wild

Like you I have been reading everything I can find getting ready for the season to start and like you I have come to some conclusions. Some are based on facts and some on gut feelings.

Gut Feeling: We are a lot stronger this year on the offensive side of the ball and have a better defense than people are expecting.

Fact: Georgia has good skills players but is starting a quarterback with no experience so expect them to play conservative for a few games. That could cost them a loss at SC or Miss St and we get them at home a week before Florida.

Gut Feeling: We get SC a week after they play Alabama and Spurrier will have chewed on Garcia so much for the loss that he throws several interceptions and we run it down their throats and catch them sleeping on several long passes.

Fact: Tennessee is like so over the hill that one good punch in this fight and they are down. How we control their run game will determine if we win or not.

Gut Feeling: Florida is going to be better this year than last year. Run it on them and pass effectively and we stay in the game but expecting a win is a little far fetched.

Fact: If we don’t beat Vandy we don’t deserve to play in a bowl. Stop their run game and we win hands down.

Fact: We should easily win six games and have the opportunity to win nine since we have a joker up our sleeve. This season is going to depend on Joker. If he really opens up the offense and defense and has the special teams playing their best with the depth and speed on this team we have a great year.

Preseason SEC Rankings

Well its a little over 3 weeks till football kicks off so here is our initial pre season SEC ranking. This could be a year where the SEC champion has two loses.

Note: Tennessee’s rankings might change due to injuries, arrests or other karma related problems.

1. Alabama: Strong on offense but they lost a lot of players on defense. Until they show otherwise I’m going to rank them at the top.

2. Florida: John Brantley has a cannon for a arm and should have no problem filling in for Friar Tebow. With good play by the receivers and running backs this team could be better than in the previous two years offensively. Meetings with SC, Alabama and Georgia is going to make it hard for them to go undefeated.

3. Georgia: If Aaron Murray can ignore having never started in the SEC the Dawgs can challenge for the east. This is Georgia though so expect a loss to SC, Tennessee or Kentucky to blunt their run to the top.

4. Arkansas: The defense will hold down the offense again but they will score enough points to keep them in the hunt for best in the west.

5. Auburn: Auburn will be better this year but are still a year or so from challenging Alabama for bragging rights in the west.

6. LSU: If Miles can light a fire under the team they could be in a fight for the top. The quarterback position will keep them from the top again this year.

7. South Carolina: The talent is there to rank them higher but so to is Steve Spurrier.

8. Ole Miss: The defense will keep them ranked this high for the year. If Jeremiah Masoli and the offense jell they could move higher.

9. Kentucky: The speed is there and the playmakers are there. How high they go is going to depend on the quarterback again this year.

10. Mississippi State: They look like they are heading up but looks can be deceiving.

11. Tennessee: We keep hearing that Dooley is doing it the right way. Its going to take more than doing it the right way since its looking like karma is striving to bring them down to the bottom.

12. Vanderbilt: Vandy is Vandy.

If this was a cheerleader rankings LSU would be at the bottom.

Time Has Come Today

Guilty as charged!! Juries are so predictably don’t you think. After five hours of deliberation the jury found Karen Guilty on all six charges. Sentencing will take place on October 27th, and she could face a maximum of 26 years in the big house. Guidelines allow for lesser time so she has some hope she gets out before she qualifies for Social Security.

I made a lot of well deserved fun about this trial but now that its over I have to admit that it hurt seeing one of my heroes get himself into a Marx brothers comedy like this.

You know Rick might have screwed the pooch on this one but Karen is going to get big house trained.

Time Has Come Today Karen.

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