Down To The Wire In College Football

With the college football season in its final two weeks of the season, there is still much to be determined in conference races and the BCS final standings. In fact, all we know about the standings in the six automatic qualifying BCS conferences is that the SEC championship game will feature East kingpin South Carolina versus West champs and #2 Auburn and Virginia Tech has won the ACC Coastal Division.

Let's now examine where things stand in conference races, including the non – automatic qualifying Mountain West and WAC conferences.

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC):

As previously mentioned, Virginia Tech has won the Coastal division and await either Atlantic Coast division champion Florida State or North Carolina State for the ACC title. The Hokies have been solid on offense and play their normal stifling defense.

Big East:

The University of Pittsburgh lead the Big East by one game over both Connecticut and West Virginia with two games remaining and control their own destiny. Pitt plays West Virginia at home on Friday and travels to Cincinnati to finish the conference schedule. Two wins and they're the champs.

The Mountaineers can lay claim to the title by beating the Panthers then defeating Rutgers in its finale along with a Connecticut loss.

U Conn has a shot at the title by winning its two remaining games at home versus Cincinnati and at South Florida. The Huskies need a little help and will get some as the loser of the West Virginia/Pittsburgh will fall behind Conn. It also helps that Connecticut has beaten both teams this season.

Big Ten:

The most exciting conference race remaining as three teams vie for the Big Ten title as #7 Wisconsin, #8 Ohio State, and #10 Michigan State have just one loss in conference. Wisconsin has beaten Ohio State but has lost to Michigan State while the Spartans lone defeat came at the hands of Iowa. On top of that, Ohio State and Michigan State go not meet this season.

How will the Big Ten title be determined?

In the event of a three way tie for the lead, the team with the highest BCS ranking will be crowned Big Ten champion in which Wisconsin leads for the time being.

Should Wisconsin and Ohio State tie for first, the Badgers will claim the with the aforementioned victory over Ohio State.

Should Wisconsin and Michigan State top the conference standings, the Spartans will win the crown by having beaten the Badgers.

In the event that Ohio State and Michigan State lead the pack, the squad with the higher BCS rank will prevail with the Buckeyes leading the way at the moment.

The schedule for the weekend has Wisconsin at home versus Northwestern, Ohio State staying home to play rival Michigan, and Michigan State traveling to Happy Valley to go against Penn State.

Good stuff, you think?

Big 12:

Nebraska controls its own destiny in the North Division and can claim its place in the Big 12 title game with a win against Colorado on Saturday. However, should the Cornhuskers lose and Missouri wins its game at Kansas, the Tigers will win the North.

The South Division will be decided Saturday as the Oklahoma Sooners travel to Stillwater to play the Oklahoma State Cowboys with the winner playing in the Big 12 title game.

Pacific 10:

The BCS #1 Oregon Ducks have two games remaining --- at home against #21 Arizona and at Corvallis to play arch rival Oregon State. One win will clinch the PAC 10 title and winning out will put the Ducks in the BCS title tilt.

Stanford, at #5, holds out slim hopes of being the conference champ by winning its remaining game against Oregon State and Oregon losing both of its games.

Southeastern Conference:

As previously mentioned, #2 Auburn and # 18 South Carolina will vie for the SEC title in 2 weeks.

Mountain West:

The #3 TCU Horned Frogs have already laid claim to the Mountain West title and look to finish a perfect regular season with a defeat of lowly New Mexico.

Western Athletic Conference (WAC):

The WAC title will be decided this weekend as the Boise State Broncos, ranked 4th in the current BCS standings, travel to Reno to square off against the #19 Wolfpack. Both teams have explosive offenses, but BSU has a stifling defense to boot.

This looks to be an exciting weekend for college football and the BCS standings could be jumbled. The key tilt will be #2 Auburn playing #11 Alabama with national championship implications for Auburn.

Enjoy the games!

Dick

Send email to dlafrance2@207me.com

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Only In The NFL

In my last post, I stated my opinions on the top four AFC and NFC teams respectively. I mentioned that Baltimore, Pittsburgh, New England, and the New York Jets were the cream of the AFC while the New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers, and New Orleans Saints were the NFC front runners.

Going into the 10th week of the season, I would have thought that very little would change although there were 2 marquee match-ups that could flip my opinions ( Baltimore @ Atlanta and New England @ Pittsburgh). After what happened Sunday, much carnage remained on the fields and things changed in a blink of an eye. This proves the old adage “On any given Sunday...”

Only In The NFL.

So what happened? For starters, the Ravens went to Atlanta on Thursday night and seemingly had the Falcons beaten until Matt Ryan led Atlanta on a last minute march to upend Baltimore 26-21. Then Sunday,the Jets managed to stay tied atop the East with a less than convincing 26-20 overtime victory over the Cleveland Browns, whom had pounded the Patriots the week prior. On Sunday night, the Patriots went to Pittsburgh and whipped the Steelers 39-26 in a that wasn't as close as the score indicated. The win kept the Pats even with the Jets for the AFC East lead with identical 7-2 marks. With that, it appears that the Jets and Patriots are seemingly a bit better than the rest of the AFC contenders.

With Atlanta winning and with both Green Bay and New Orleans on a bye week, the Giants had their opportunity to keep pace by playing the underwhelming Dallas Cowboys at Giants Stadium. After coming out flatter than a pancake and two power outages later, New York was dealt an embarrassing 33-20 loss to fall behind Atlanta for home field advantage.

I'm not convinced that Atlanta is the NFC's best team, but they have the look of a team coning together at the right time. Let's not forget that the Saints are seemingly gathering momentum and the Packers look as though they are rolling. It's wide open in the NFC.

Then again, “Only In The NFL.”

Dick

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NFL Halfway Through Regular Season

The NFL season is officially halfway through the regular season now that all thirty two teams have played at least eight games. Now that we've gotten there, I'll take a peek at where some teams stand as to playoff positioning and some potential pitfalls to the finish.

Let's go!

The AFC's best team is...?

Well, the New York Jets, New England Patriots, and Baltimore Ravens, and Pittsburgh Steelers all stand at 6-2 and are seemingly going to qualify for post-season play.

The Jets have a grinding style of offense and have improved the passing game some under quarterback Mark Sanchez . The tremendous defense limits opposing teams from moving the ball with any consistency.

The Pats are still dangerous on offense with Tom Brady at the helm but the youth on defense can and has proven to be problematic at times.

The Ravens offense is improving under quarterback Joe Flacco to go with a strong running game. Of course, defensively Baltimore is as good as ever.

The Steelers overcame the four game suspension of signal caller Ben Roethlisberger by playing lights out defense and running the ball effectively. However, Pittsburgh now has a rash of injuries in the trenches on both sides of the ball that could slow both units.

I would pick the Steelers as the top dog in the AFC if not for the aforementioned injuries. Therefore, my vote goes to the Baltimore Ravens.

The NFC's best team is...?

Four teams stand out as front runners --- The Atlanta Falcons and New York Giants at 6-2 while the Green Bay Packers and defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints stand at 6-3.

The Falcons have a punishing ground game led by Michael Turner, a young quarterback in Matt Ryan who makes few mistakes, and a defense that is unheralded yet stout.

The Giants have probably the best balance of all NFL offenses. The two-headed monster in the backfield of Ahmad Bradshaw and Jacobs are hard to stop and quarterback Eli Manning can sling the football with the NFL's top signal callers. Injuries on the offensive line could hamper the Giants however. The defense has been the big story as the G-men get to the opposing passer better than any team in the league.

The Packers, while deficient running the ball, move the ball with ease through the air thanks to top flight quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Defensively, the Packers have been terrific led by Clay Matthews who is having an All-Pro caliber season.

The Saints have come to life on offense after being dormant in September. Quarterback Drew Brees has regained his swagger and the running game has been pieced together with running backs Christopher Ivory, Ladell Betts, and Julius Jones. The defense has played quite well and the return of safety Darren Sharper can only help.

I cast my vote for the NFC's best team to the New York Giants although it is wide open and as previously mentioned, the Giants have injury woes on the offensive line.

Those are my thoughts. Yours are?

Dick

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The World Series, Randy Moss, And College Football

In another week filled with sports stories ranging from sublime to bizarre, three events of note caught my eye that has inspired me to write yet another post of multiple subjects.

Baseball season is now over, a mercurial wide receiver makes headlines yet again, and college football's landscape goes through more turnover.

Let's get this show on the road!

San Francisco Giants End Long World Series Drought.

The San Francisco Giants ended a 56 drought between World Series titles by defeating the Texas Rangers in 5 games to become the 2010 World Champions. The Giants rode the arms of starting pitchers Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, 21 year-old Madison Bumgarner, and closer Brian Wilson to what was to be easy pickings against the Rangers vaunting hitting attack.

But the surprise star was aging shortstop and World Series MVP Edgar Renteria. Renteria hit 2 homers and knocked in 6 teammates including the series clinching 3 run shot in game five. Edgar is now contemplating retirement after a very good major league career that included 2 World Series titles.

Congratulations to both the Giants and Renteria!

Randy Moss Moving Again.

In what I thought was a stunning development, The Minnesota Vikings suddenly waived wide receiver Randy Moss just a month after acquiring his services from the New England Patriots for a third round draft choice in the 2011 NFL draft.

Moss did little to revitalize the Vikings passing game and reportedly got upset over bad food from a catering service. Whatever the case, it was Randy's attitude that bit his butt yet again and Vikes' coach Brad Childress has publicly regretted making that trade.

Moss has been claimed on waivers by the Tennessee Titans to bolster their passing game which surprised me as I thought the St. Louis Rams would claim him ahead of the Titans. We'll see what happens.

The Ever Changing Landscape Of College Football.

More upsets last weekend led to more changes to the headache that is the BCS standings. Previously unbeaten Michigan State and Missouri got thrashed by Iowa and Nebraska respectively and Oregon leapfrogged Auburn as the nation's new top dog (or duck).

Two key games to keep an eye on this weekend as #3 TCU travels to #5 Utah for what should be the Mountain West title and #6 Alabama plays #10 LSU in what should be a defensive struggle for positioning in the SEC West.

Then we can watch the BCS show at 8:15 PM Sunday to see the new standings...Or not.

Dick

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