Brian and Jeff break down the Big 12 with a little game BCI likes to call Over/Under. They both have Nebraska losing to Virginia Tech.

More Statistics. And that’s a good thing because numbers are EVERYWHERE. Get my change faster cashier. F4H has the ACC turnover rates for 2008 and Bill Connelly introduces POE or a new way to rank running back performance. Strap on your thinking caps for the Connelly post because it is fan-fucking-tastic.

Your daily college football news guaranteed to be a day late and dollar short. If you’d like your blog’s link to appear here contact us.

Holt and his wife are both U. graduates; his daughters are BYU graduates. “We titled the piece ‘Eternal Struggle: Outcome Unknown,’ ” Holt said. The photo features Utah player Brett Ratliff trying to recover the ball following a bad snap. BYU player Cameron Jensen is in pursuit. The loose ball prompted Holt’s title of the piece. Fans will remember the final score: 33-31, BYU.

Deseret News | Jennie Nicholls

But never is a long fucking time. Urban Meyer has unequivocally refuted Paul Finebaum’s claim that the Florida coach would be bolting for browner pastures at the season’s end. We think the move is inevitable, but won’t happen this year or next year. Notre Dame’s schedule is weak, the roster is loaded and Weis is capable of winning at least 9 games under the previous two preconditions. Notre Dame isn’t going to buy him out if they are in contention for a BCS Bowl.

Poetry Lives Here. The Birddog’s masterful recount of Navy’s 4th quarter comeback over Temple last year.

ACCed. Virginia’s ticket sales are down 14.6%. There’s going to be even more Hokies at Scott Stadium this year. If you heart numbergasms then check out TheLegacyx4’s analysis on touchdowns per offensive and defensive play. F4H argues that offensive lines still DO matter in college football. And of course they do Berry Tramel. Just because spread has just given way to smaller, quicker and more agile lineman doesn’t mean the personnel are throwaways.

Is this going to be episode one of Houston Nutt’s new reality show?

Oh and it’s Bastille Day, celebrate accordingly.

Your daily college football news guaranteed to be a day late and dollar short. If you’d like your blog’s link to appear here contact us.

My, maybe interesting, observations.

• USC is THE elite program in college football. The numbers speak for themselves.
• Boise State is head and shoulders above the WAC, but their 55-9 (38-2) record looks weak when you see they are only 4-5 against the AP Top 25. The same can be said for WVU’s 50-13 (26-8) and 5-7 and Wisconsin’s 47-17 (26-14) and 5-12 records.
• The Georgia Road Warriors
• Boston College is #12 in wins over the last 5 years, yet both coaches went looking for greener pastures.
• Tulsa, Navy and Hawaii all have won more games than Florida State.
• Texas has the National Championship (USC’s only out of conference loss), but Oklahoma runs the Big 12.
• Kansas has an abysmal 32% away winning percentage.

The full table is after the jump.

• W-L: Wins and Losses
• W_c-L_c: Conference Wins and Losses
• W_w-L_w: Wins and Losses against teams with a winning record
• W₂₅-L₂₅: Wins and Losses against AP Top 25 teams **final AP Poll**
• M(W): Single highest wins
• M(L): Single highest losses
• H%: Home winning percentage
• A%: Away winning percentage

*FIU and WKU were not included because they didn’t compete in 1a over the entire 5-year timespan.

And make no mistake about it fellas we win this one too.

Matt Millen, who will also provide analysis on ESPN’s NFL studio coverage, will work Saturday telecasts on ABC with Sean McDonough, who called select Friday and Saturday games last year, and reporter Holly Rowe who moves from ESPN’s Saturday prime time games.

Millen should be a spectacular fit. He can use insight from his playing experience to analyze the players and segue into how he would ruin a franchise by drafting them.

Todd Blackledge

NO ONE WANTS TO SEE YOU EAT!

Erin Andrews, who adds the Saturday game to her ESPN Thursday night series role.

Erin Andrews Thursday, Erin Andrews Saturday, Erin Andrews in NCAA 10 and Erin Andrews every-fucking-where. Is that a bad thing? No. You can never get enough of a body like this:

Jesse Palmer will add Saturday studio analysis on ABC to his Thursday night ESPN game telecast.  In the new position, Palmer will provide pre-game, halftime and post-game analysis for every telecast on ABC and on the half-hour College Football Countdown at 3 p.m.

YES more tips from the Bachelor: what to do on a first date, how to appreciate Canada and what color suits match with color changing eyes.

Craig James, who will continue as an analyst on ESPN’s Thursday night series, Mike Patrick, the voice of many top events on ESPN for 27 years, and reporter Heather Cox will form a new team for Saturday telecasts on ABC

Just once we’d like to see Craig James gallop around the set with a pony head on a stick between his legs.

Analysts Bob Griese and Chris Spielman will join Dave Pasch on the Saturday noon telecast on ESPN.  Last year, Spielman called select Friday and Saturday games while Bob Griese worked Saturday games on ABC.

Dave Pasch has a schnoz and no one cares about OATMEALABETUS-University Greise.

Andre Ware will provide analysis on the new ESPN Regional Television Saturday SEC over-the-air syndication package

Awesomo, he can jinx all the SEC schools now. “Florida, Alabama, Ole Miss, LSU ALL UNBEATABLE!”

Host Rece Davis and analysts Lou Holtz and Mark May will return to work ESPN’s Saturday pre-game, halftime, post-game and College Football Final (Saturdays at midnight) studio coverage, as well as call select ESPN and ESPN2 weekday games.

Will this be the year Holtz’ stray spit darts into May’s eye causing to the two men to come to blows. Sadly it won’t be.

Returning announcer pairings to television’s deepest field of commentators include: Mark Jones and Bob Davie; Ron Franklin and Ed Cunningham; Joe Tessitore and Rod Gilmore; Clay Matvick and David Diaz-Infante; and Charlie Neal and Jay Walker.

Ron Franklin and Ed Cunningham broadcast all of ESPN’s games in the Garden of Eden. It’s a shame they’ve been banished to purgatory.

H/T: @espn4d

Mr. Kohl (Master of Ceremonies)

• Badgers fan, my condolences sir

Orrin Hatch (Senator, windbag, beacon of hope)

• Congress has investigated the BCS before.
• Hatch chaired a hearing in the full judiciary committee in 2003.
• Progress has been made since now the BCS includes “non-preferred” schools.
• Hatch believes nearly half the schools in college football are at a competitive and financial disadvantage.
• The BCS violates Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act
• Over the lifetime of the BCS preferred conferences have received 90% of the total revenues.
• There are two separate bowl markets: (1) the BCS Bowls (and National Championship) and (2) the rest.
• The BCS limits the number of teams from non-preferred conferences.
• Utah, BYU, Boise State and TCU were all ranked higher than one BCS participant (Virginia Tech, curses to you Hatch!).
• 13-0 Utah was excluded from national championship consideration before the 2008 season even started.

Michael Young (Utah President, Black-Belt Lawyer)

• BCS embraces favoritism over fairness in three critical areas: (1) champions of 6/11 privileged conferences receive automatic births in the BCS, (2) only college sport that eliminates half of the teams from contending for the championship before the season begins and (3) the revenue inequities under the BCS are stark.
• Frequently states Utah’s and the MWC’s record against the automatic-qualifying (AQ) conference schools.
• Non-AQ schools are second class citizens.
• System designed to channel monies to certain universities based on an agreement not on achievement.

Barry Brett (Antitrust Lawyer, sports fanatic, Jedi)

• The BCS is a cartel.
• Playoff would produce twice the revenues as the current BCS system.
• Coined the phrase Fictional National Championship; is this guy a closet blogger?

Harvey Perlman (Chancellor of Nebraska, former member of the Bill Callahan book-club)

• Athletes are also students.
• Not every school is equal on or off the playing field.
• Any system to determine a national champion must include and come from an agreement of those universities that consistently field the top teams (6 BCS + ND).
• Before the BCS non-AQ schools rarely played in bowl games.
• With the BCS they are exposed to a national audience.
• Revenue from BCS is a fraction of the overall revenue.
• Nebraska’s athletic budget is $75mm, one Big 12 team in the BCS only accounts for 2% of that budget ($1.5mm).
• An additional home football game would be equal to double the revenue from the Big 12 BCS split.
• Nebraska has become a football power without any distinct advantages, built their success on hard work and creativity.
• Any non-BCS school has the same, if not better, opportunity to reach as high of a level of success.

Williams Monts (Antitrust Lawyer, represented post-season college football for last 18 years, looks like he could have played linebacker for Nebraska in the early 80s)

• Argues that the BCS is a joint venture under Section One of the Sherman Act.
• National Championship Game wouldn’t happen without the agreement of the conferences.
• BCS has helped to create the most competitive regular seasons in all of American sport.
• Refutes the two alleged anti-competitive effects: (1) denies access to BCS Bowls and National Championship (2) revenues are not split equally.
• Purpose of antitrust laws are not to protect producers, but consumers (bowl organizations, television networks and ultimately the fans).
• If the BCS disappeared nothing would take its place and the old system in which conferences would compete against each other for most attractive bowl slots would return.
• Exclusion fails because BCS Bowls could, today, guarantee a birth to non-AQ conference or select one with an at-large, they’ve chosen not to do so.
• BCS enhances fairness by guaranteeing non-AQ schools a birth under certain circumstances.
• Revenue splits are not the concern of antitrust.
• Assuming the BCS is found to violate the Sherman Act, no court has the power to negotiate an alternative system and furthermore the same conferences and universities will be hesitant to create a playoff under similar guidelines since it is unlawful to do so.

This is what I took away from watching the hearing. There’s no middle ground between the two sides. One side’s point is the other’s counter; without a common ground a compromise isn’t going to happen. The anti-BCS (Hatch, Young, Brett) arguments center around antitrust (obviously) and past performances. Since the only things I know about antitrust are what I read on Wikipedia this evening I will leave that to the lawyers to argue. As a fan I agree, the recent on the field successes of the Mountain West Conference against BCS schools cannot be denied. However, as a whole, no other non-BCS conference can tout similar success. Instead of arguing for all non-BCS conferences, I feel the MWC would have been better off pursuing a self-serving agenda.

Monts’ scenario describing what would happen if the BCS is found to violate the Sherman Act really hit home with me. Until now I didn’t fully understand what the repercussions of ruling the BCS as unlawful would be.

In the end the hearing was what I expected. However, I don’t think it was a waste of my or Congress’ time. It put the major grievances against and defense for the BCS on the record. I wish there had been more discussion about a playoff or plus-one system to replace the National Championship Game.

Fairness is at the heart of the BCS debate. Is it more fair than it’s predecessors? Yes. Can it be more fair? Yes.

What makes the games at Scott Stadium such a windfall for Hokie fans, and in turn for their team, is that many Virginia students and alumni — some 35 to 40 percent, depending on when they matriculated — have out-of-state ties that often take them “home,” several states away — much as I have ties in Pennsylvania and Florida — and they have trouble breaking away from the social occasion with relatives in order to attend a football game on Thanksgiving weekend. With the Hokies, pardon my metaphor, the apple doesn’t fall far from the horse. Many more Tech alumni reside in-state and come from families who were, and are, in-state. That makes getting to Charlottesville after Thanksgiving a lot easier for them, often easier than getting to Blacksburg. Mind you, as a die hard Virginia fan, I have frustrated my extended family and left them behind since the late 1980s, as I have returned for every game Virginia has played after Thanksgiving, but it hasn’t been easy, and I know from my cohorts that I am an exception to the rule.
…
My suggestion is that Virginia should schedule an out-of-conference opponent, whenever possible, for every Thanksgiving weekend, some time before the ACC can drop the conference games into the schedule. When the ACC and Tech try to say “but VT wants to put the game at the end of the season,” Virginia should be able to say “Sorry, but we already agreed with Team X to play on that date. We can’t jeopardize what we have already agreed upon with an out-of-conference team.” The arrangement with the out-of-conference team would help in minimizing visitor impact on the game’s outcome in home years, and could allow many of our more far-flung out-of-state base to show up for an away game that might even be in their backyard, so to speak.

Out-of-state fans, and instate for that matter, travel and stay at home during Thanksgiving because they know they have no chance to beat us (the Hokies). Convenience is going to get an extra, what: 100, 500, 1000 Hoos to come to Lane Stadium North (Scott Stadium)? The solution doesn’t involve flip-flopping games, it is much more straight forward. UVA needs to field a more talented, better coached football team that is backed by a more passionate fan-base. Only then will the Cavaliers win games and crawl out of the shadow cast by their southern brother.

Even though his competition was France, Mexico and Canada, nations known for Fútbol and hockey, David Wilson’s numbers were gaudy and they make me giddy.

Running back David Wilson (Virginia Tech) once again led the U.S. ground game. The 5-11, 192-pound Virginian ran for 87 yards and one touchdown on 10 carries. That brought his three-game totals to 425 yards and eight touchdowns on 33 carries.

With Darren Evans and Ryan Williams in the backfield Wilson will most likely be red-shirting this year. But should he be? One thing the ‘08 Hokies were mediocre at was returning punts and kickoffs. With Macho Harris off to the Eagles Wilson, has the potential to be one helluva specialist, could fill a void and contribute immediately. He even does his best Reggie Bush impersonation below.

Anyways, just some food for thought.