I didn't meet up with Marco. It was pretty crazy downtown after the game, and there was a creepy Hunter S. Thompson vibe going on due to the weather and waves of drunken husker fans late in the evening. There were some questionable referee calls during the game, which Nebraska took advantage of in the 3rd quarter, and both teams seemed to stop playing defense midway through the 4th quarter.
The Huskies dared the Huskers to pass, and Nebraska scored with relative ease on the opening drive. I think the Pellini boys need to go back to that Peso defense they used last year, because the base 4-3 with young defensive backs playing soft coverage is clearly not working.
I'm guessing Nick Holt and Co. are glad they won't have to play against a healthy Taylor Martinez again any time soon.

What a great college football environment. Didn't like the outcome but the tailgating and game were a blast. A couple of very questionable calls on kick catch-interference killed UW, not to mention some terrible defense.

The Nebraska fans were very hospitable--I highly recommend seeing a game there sometime.

Great read. Passed on to my dad + a friend of the family on Amherst College's payroll.

"When the triple option succeeds, it's not because the defense is fooled; it's because the defense is forced to make difficult decisions about a something [sic] it fully anticipates."

timmyjoe - NC State at Cincy this Thursday on ESPN. I read last night that Cincy opened a 7 point favorite. Both sides of State's line blow, so could get ugly.

Seriously, What's the matter with Kansas?

Gave up 768 yards total offense. 604 on the ground.

That's insane.

What's up with your boy T. Gill Prom?

Nothing on ACC expansion? You guys are slipping.

He's not a defensive guru, but I'm guessing a lot of it has to do with losing Carl Torbush before the season started. I also wonder what sort of recruits Turner Gill is getting after cracking down on woman last season.

You know I'm on record as hating all of this crap.

Especially Syracuse. Way to throw decades long basketball rivalries with UConn and Georgetown down the toilet because your football team blows.

That renegotiated ACC 30 million dollar buyout clause to leave pretty much just guaranteed FSU and Clemson aren't coming to the SEC.

Somewhere Mike Slive is plotting.....

No disrespect to Pitt or Syracuse, but this ain't basketball. They have name recognition as being a midlevel BCS conference opponent, but they don't really strengthen ACC.
I really don't undestand all this talk about ND making a move to the ACC as well if they can't possibly remain independent, and the merger of what is the Big East/Big 12 and MWC/Conference USA don't seem to warrant automatic qualifier status either.

UConn will probably end up in the ACC anyway, but I get your point.

Mike Slive is definitely plotting. Hell, all these cats are plotting. I still think they will go after Virginia Tech before those other two, at least initially.

FWIW, if this is the way it's going, I don't mind the proposed 4 division Pac 16 with OU, OSU, Texas and Texas Tech joining the current 12.

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0 ... ent-chaos/

This should certainly spawn some comments from the UGA faithful. I think Nebraska, Georgia and LSU fans are clearly being shortchanged, and that they overestimated the number of Iowa, Georgia Tech, Auburn, Clemson, Rutgers and Wyoming fans.

would love to see some powers added to the pac 12. sure it pushed oregon state further down into the basement, but it would be entertaining.

always had him pegged as more of an SEC guy...

My friends who crunch data said the methodology is certainly slipshod.

According to their own numbers, there are just over 100,000 Georgia Tech alumni in the country. Add in the people who live in Atlanta who have adopted GT as their local team (not an insignificant number of people but nothing like the number for a major state university) and you don't get 1.6 million.

Now if you told me that Georgia Tech was the most popular US college football team in India, that I'd believe.

I'm guessing all those NYC college football watchers are transplants from strong college football watching markets, and the article supports that idea As far as the CommonCensus Fan map goes that shows a huge chunk of TECH fans in my native area of South Georgia, that's a load of shit. I knew MAYBE two Tech fans growing up.

Here is an NCAA football realignment I conjured as I drifted to sleep a few days ago.

To start, it decouples football from all other sanctioned sports, so conferences and rivalries in basketball, wrestling, lax, etc., can continue. Too, as NCAAf is closest to a unique minor/developmental league among the college sports (MLB, NHL, have their own minor-leagues, & frequently draft out of high-school/sign teenagers from abroad; some basketball players circumvent the NBA age rule by playing professionally abroad), it only makes sense to codify that.

Now, the basis for organization: ten school divisions, as regionally homogenous as possible (there is one glaring exception), with each team playing the others each season, alternating five home and four road games each year. Additionally, three intersectional games will be played, though no two schools will be able to play regular season matches more than three years consecutively. Conference champions advance to a 16 team playoff, with balance of playoff entrants selected much as are at-large teams for the NCAA basketball tournament.

So, going from east to west, the conferences:

Pacific 10

Washington
Washington State
Oregon
Oregon State
California
Stanford
UCLA
USC
San Diego State
Hawaii

Mountain West

San Jose State
Fresno State
Nevada-Reno
UNLV
Boise State
Brigham Young
Utah
Arizona
Arizona State
Wyoming

Southwest Conference

Colorado
Colorado State
New Mexico
New Mexico State
Texas-El Paso
Southern Methodist
Texas Christian
Baylor
Kansas
Missouri

Lone Star Conference

Texas
Texas A&M
Houston
Rice
Texas Tech
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Tulsa
Louisiana State
Arkansas

Big 10 Conference

Nebraska
Kansas State
Iowa
Iowa State
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Illinois
Northwestern
Kentucky
Louisville

Mideast Conference

Michigan
Michigan State
Indiana
Purdue
Ohio State
Penn State
Syracuse
Buffalo
Miami (Ohio)
Temple

Southeastern Conference

Mississippi
Mississippi State
Alabama
Auburn
Georgia
Georgia Tech
Florida
Florida State
Clemson
South Carolina

Gulf Coast Conference

Louisiana-Monroe
Tulane
Southern Mississippi
Memphis
Alabama-Birmingham
Troy
South Florida
Central Florida
Florida International
Florida Atlantic

Piedmont Conference

Tennessee
Vanderbilt
North Carolina
North Carolina State
Duke
Wake Forest
Virginia
Virginia Tech
West Virginia
Maryland

Appalachian Conference

East Carolina
Marshall
Ohio
Akron
Cincinnati
Central Michigan
Western Michigan
Ball State
Kent State

We're an American Conference

Army
Navy
Air Force
Miami
Pittsburgh
Notre Dame
Connecticut
Boston College
Rutgers

(Note: teams from nine team conferences will play four interconference matches.)

End of season playoff will begin second week of December, with eight games at lesser bowl sites (Detroit, Nashville, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego, Seattle, Tampa, Washington, D.C.), and the next four games the following weekend in Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix, & San Francisco. After a week's layoff for Christmas, the two national semifinals will play at two of the three remaining former BCS sites: Miami, New Orleans, Pasadena. The national final will proceed a week hence, at the city not hosting a semifinal. (This will alternate, on a triennial schedule.)

The big game in Madison is this weekend. I have limited time to post about the game the rest of the week, so I figured I would get it out of the way.
I'm taking the Badgers 31-17 right now, but will be rooting hard for my huskers to pull the upset. I expect the Pelini boys to have the Blackshirts playing 120% better than they have been so far this season, but I don't think Taylor Martinez is good enough to pull off the upset at Camp Randall.
I just hope we don't lose any key players in a tough game and look good for the upcoming game against the Buckeyes in Lincoln.
I might be unbearable to deal with should the Huskers actually win on Saturday, but I'll try to keep my talk of a BCS title appearance in check for the remainder of the season.

M headed to Louisville to see a friend and going to watch UGA v Miss State with their Bulldog Club. Got the boy in tow, and momma in Ft. Worth so this should be interesting.

I haven't seen Nebraska play this year, but I tend to think it will be a little closer than you think as far as the score goes, but It'll be a tall task for Nebraska. Night games in at Camp Randall are bonkers, and the Badgers offense has looked unstoppable. This is the first real competition of the year though, can't wait for the game.

If Washington can put up 38 points and 420 yards on Nebraska's defense at Lincoln, I suspect the Badgers will do at least as well at home. And the Wisconsin D is far, far better than Washington's. It could be ugly for the Huskers.

I'm going to my 2nd UW game in 3 weeks this Saturday at Utah. I'm expecting another shootout as the UW defense is not really improving much week to week but their O has been able to move the ball on everyone so far. This is probably the best D they've faced yet, though. We'll see.

How old exactly is SMU's QB, JJ McDermott?


Looks even rougher in this interview

Good weekend to be a Georgia fan. Got the win and South Carolina and Florida did their part by losing. Log jam at the top of the SEC East now but the door of opportunity just opened a little more. Unfortunately, this is typically where we have shit the bed the last couple of years.

Some great games this weekend.

Wisconsin fans aren't going to want to hear this after the beating they put on Nebraska but if Oklahoma and Bama/LSU hold serve the rest of the year and the Badgers run the table as well, they'll get shut out of the title game. Without question. Their schedule does them NO favors.

I agree and it totally sucks.

What a fun game last night. We did shots for every touchdown (gah) and made a pact early on that if the Badgers won we'd fly to Madison for the Purdue game. Booked the plane tickets on my friend's phone shortly after midnight.

Twitter for Russell Wilson's Heisman Campaign: http://twitter.com/#!/russellmaniaxvi