Big 12 Football Steps into Spotlight

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Big 12 football seems to dominate Saturday as it has half of the games I consider “must see” for passionate college football fans. Baylor will have a hard test at West Virginia. Kansas State has a chance to destroy Oklahoma’s playoff chances at noon as well. TCU looks to rebound from the disappointing Baylor loss at 4 against Oklahoma State.

The sneaky game is Northwestern hosting Nebraska in what could create chaos in the Big Ten West if the Wildcats can defend their home turf. Florida State and Notre Dame has obvious playoff impact.

If you only see one non-football game this week, check out North Carolina going to rival Duke on Sunday in women’s volleyball. Both are ranked in the top 25 and you know that game will be heated.

Damage Report: Big 12 Refs and Mississippi

Saturday is finished and we learned quite a few things this week in college football. Such as to never go for it on 4th and 3 in a tied game after burning two time-outs to think about it. That was for you Gary Patterson. Here are winners and losers from the past 24 hours.

How UCLA fans felt today.

Winner: Mississippi State and Ole Miss

Honestly, I thought both Mississippi teams would get carried away with their top rankings and have a bad game. That didn’t happen as Mississippi State jumped on No. 2 Auburn with a 21-0 first quarter lead and never looked back. Ole Miss was in control of No. 14 Texas A&M the whole way and led 21-0 at the half. The Egg Bowl has never been so enticing in October.

Loser: Big 12 Referees

The zebras called pass interference on TCU corner Corry O’Meally placing Baylor in field-goal range in the final minute with game tied at 58. Baylor would kick the game-winning three points to end the bout 61-58. Problem is the flag was bogus. Replay showed O’Meally made contact as the ball reached the Baylor receiver and even turned his head to find the ball. It was a shame that a great game ended on the result of a bad call from the refs. Then again, if TCU had simply punted instead failing on 4th and 3 maybe this would not have happened at all.

Winner: Duke

The Blue Devils knocked of the ACC Coastal leading Yellow Jackets on the road 31-25. Duke is now in great shape to repeat as division champions. With Florida State in the news for all the wrong reasons there is a legitimate possibility Duke could win the ACC in football. Yeah, I said in football.

Loser: UCLA

The Bruins went from being a playoff favorite to dropping two-straight at home. Unlike last week’s close game with Utah, UCLA was lifeless against Oregon. Don’t let the 42-30 score fool you. It was 35-10 after the third quarter. UCLA has plenty to fix.

Winner: West Virginia

Trailing Texas Tech on the road 34-20 with less than eight minutes to go it looked bleak for WVU. The Mountaineers would score two touchdowns in drives lasting only 1:37 and 2:37. They even had time to set up a 55-yard field goal for kicker Josh Lambert. The sophomore kicker drilled the field-goal to crush the hearts of Texas Tech fans everywhere. At 4-2, West Virginia has plenty to play for while Texas Tech is going to need a miracle to reach bowl eligibility at 2-4.

Loser: Fresno State

The Bulldogs were a contender to repeat as Mountain West champions but that took a hit Friday night in Vegas. Fresno lost UNLV in overtime 30-27 who was previously 1-4. The Rebels had been torched this season with a minus 131 point-differential. It was Fresno State’s first Mountain West loss who fell to 3-4, and 2-1 in conference. Instead of making a run at the conference crown, the Bulldogs will have to fight to just finish 6-6 after the bad loss.

Football Teams in Love with Cupcakes

Don’t laugh, that might be what your favorite team actually looks like on the field.

Every year, football programs try to manufacture the perfect schedule and the teams below didn’t make the cut. While there is no “perfect schedule,” there are schedules that treat its fans like they are a Comcast customer.
Discarding the conference slate, as schools don’t have control on those games, here are several non-conference schedules that are ripping off fans and their conference rankings.

Marshall

The Thundering Herd are a front-runner in Conference USA this season but does not play a single power conference school. Instead, Marshall loaded up on three MAC schools and FCS Rhode Island. If Marshall wants to make a splash it will have to go undefeated before pollsters notice them. Maybe the weak schedule will help the Herd obtain the coveted mid-major spot in the four big bowls. Then again it might cause Marshall to fade away into obscurity.

Oregon State

The PAC 12 has nine games in league play allowing just three games out of conference. Oregon State took that opportunity and converted it into FCS Portland State, at Hawaii and San Diego State. Hawaii only won one game last year so way to push the envelope there Beavers. With that said, Oregon State lost to FCS Eastern Washington a year ago so maybe it’s tough enough.

Baylor

Baylor won the Big 12 last season so why in the world are Bears afraid to play anybody? It’s toughest out of conference game is at Buffalo of the MAC. SMU and FCS Northwestern State round out an unimpressive trio. This is not great for the Big 12’s strength of schedule rankings.

Middle Tennessee State

The Blue Raiders open against FCS cupcake Savannah State and then travel to their toughest non-conference foe on the season in… Minnesota? MTSU is also at Memphis of the AAC and at Old Dominion of the Sun Belt. Not a slate that will impress people and the weakest team is the only home game.

Ball State

My alma mater in Ball State has the issue of playing two FCS programs this year. BSU does play at Iowa but that doesn’t really make up for the fans having to see Colgate and Indiana State. There is no value in beating two FCS schools as the second win does not count towards bowl eligibility.

Houston

The Cougars are another school playing two FCS programs (Grambling State and Tennessee Tech) that I’m sure fans are dying to see. UTSA is Houston’s best non-conference opponent at home as BYU is away. Did I mention this is only the fourth year UTSA has had a football program?

Georgia Tech

For the second straight year the Yellow Jackets will be playing two FCS opponents. It’s as if Georgia Tech is conceding multiple losses in ACC play and the rivalry game to Georgia with that attitude. Tech also traverses to AAC Tulane which could be a trap game costing it bowl eligibility if it falters there.

With their schedule I don’t think winning a prize pack is a good thing.

North Carolina State

Another ACC school topped Georgia Tech as NC State will play 2 FCS schools too. NC State’s sexiest home game out of conference is Old Dominion of the Sun Belt. There is a trip to South Florida but that does nothing to accommodate the fans at home. For an ACC school to go this soft is a giant white flag in confidence coming off a 3-9 season. Hope the people in Raleigh like cupcakes because they’re about to get a lot of them.

Other flimsy non-conference schedules: Buffalo, Florida International, Air Force, Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky

The FCS gets it right

As the BCS rankings and match-ups were announced on ESPN Sunday night, the trinity of annoying studio commentators (Jesse Palmer, David Pollack and Kirk Herbstreit) said the BCS got it right.

They couldn’t be more wrong.

For the record, I agree Auburn should be ranked no. 2. That doesn’t mean other one loss teams are not more deserving.

Michigan State only has one loss too and folks north of the Ohio River say the Spartans should be in. Check out what Big Ten talking head Mike Hall had to say while watching the SEC championship game.

I mean…. Powerful sec defenses here

— Mike Hall (@BTNMikeHall) December 7, 2013

Nice sarcasm as both Auburn and Missouri were scoring at will. Even Purdue fans tried to make a case for Michigan State.

One-loss MSU won't even be in anyone's conversation, but one-loss Auburn will be in title game. College football, everybody.

— Boiled Sports (@BoiledSports) December 8, 2013

What about Baylor? The Bears only had one loss too. Heck, I still think Alabama is the best team in the SEC as Auburn won the Iron bowl in its own house. What if the game was on a neutral field? Alabama would probably be going for its third straight title.

Yes, it’s the last year of the BCS; but instead of media personalities saying the BCS got it right, we should be blasting it one final time.

Look at how much fun the second round of FCS playoffs were this weekend. Several top teams went down and its games were great.

• Coastal Carolina had maybe the surprise win of the weekend going into a freezing Montana. Montana’s website gave detailed advice on how to handle the below zero wind chills. Now that’s extreme. Coastal Carolina came out on top 42-35 in what might be the biggest upset a road team has had in below zero conditions since the Empire took over Hoth.
• No. 2 seed Eastern Illinois has been destroying people all year with its passing game. Even the mascot was burning calories on the sideline in its 55-10 drumming of Tennessee State.


Still better than “Insanity”

• New Hampshire stunned No. 5 seed Maine 41-27 to take the important title of “Best FCS Team in New England.”
• No. 4 seed Southeastern Louisiana survived its upset scare against Sam Houston State 30-29.
• No. 6 seed McNeese State was not so lucky as it lost 31-10 to Jacksonville State. That’s what happens when you’re too busy putting the name of your school on the back of the jersey instead of the players.

Get in there McNeese! No not you. I was talking to McNeese.

Come on McNeese State, even Michael Bay is more creative than that.

The FCS playoffs are just juicer than the anticlimactic BCS. The regular season still matters as not that many teams get in. The idea that the BCS system protects the magnitude of the regular season is just a total fallacy.

It’s so easy to accept the BCS after the great couple of weeks of football that we’ve had. But conference championships and huge rivalry games would happen no matter what type of postseason format was in place.

At the end of the day, can you justifiably say that Auburn is better than a Michigan State or a Baylor? Like bet your car, house, and PS3 type justification? What’s the harm in having them play each other for that spot?

The excitement we’ve had in college football the past two weeks can be recreated for four more weeks if we had the eight-team playoff we should have. Sorry ESPN, the FCS gets it right.