FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Ah, you SEC, Gator homers and Tebow groupies, take a page from the Urban Meyer of those Eastland girls, Tootie, Blair and Natalie and relax:

"Girls! Girls! Girls!!!"

The fact is, if you're in charge, you accept the blame and you do so with dignity, grace and honor. If ND had won the game, he wouldn't have complained about the officials or claim that it left something to be desired. His lack of professionalism and sportsmanship as a coach and an educator of young men, and much more significantly, his obvious and recurrent lack of grace and honor as a human being, make him a very poor role model and example for his team.

Personally, one of the things I miss about college football NOW versus when I was a student, is the traditions. I don't mean by this that newer schools (without 'history' or 'tradition' say Boise State for a good example) should be kept down or that those schools rich with it (Bama, before the Saban hire comes to mind, or the Cornhuskers) should be artificially maintained. All schools have some down years - too many injuries, poor recruiting, scheduling, etc. Florida was not winning the SEC prior to Spurrier, for example, and USC had some horrible years when UCLA was the ONLY game in LA and USC was losing to crappy non-BCS schools in substandard bowls before their recent great run. However, PSU has maintained a certain level of excellence for a very long time with one head coach and I think that merits a certain amount of respect.

However, I'm not going to question reporting from the Inquirer but if Paterno really had the President and the AD in his pocket, this extension would have been signed before the season and all of this would not have been an issue. If the season has been 7-5 or worse, it might have been a one year versus a three year extension. Who knows. However, the objective evidence doesn't support that the president and AD are 110% Paterno boosters.

I do think he should be able to set the terms of his leaving, with or without a succession plan, on his own. As with Lute Olson in Arizona, he will know when it is time to go and do so without disrespecting his players. Finally, as to the question of his age, if kids in the late teens can commit to being coached by him, he's fine where he is at. If they weren't recruiting, you know it would be time for him to step down.

Since this article doesn't even actually address how Bellotti will vote, it's actually a stupid reprint of a small part of something in the LA Times by some moron at SI, since there isn't enough actual "rumor" around right now and I guess they figured Charlie Weis career has been talked to death.

As far as the other comments - Alabama still has to get by Florida and nearly everyone who covers college football has been stating for weeks that they expect the Gators to beat the Tide.

Oh, and the University of Texas at Dallas?! Are you old enough to even be logged on? Shouldn't you be the next contestant on Are You Smarter Than A Pre-Kinder? That's like saying Baylor, Tech, A&M, Houston or any other Texas based school would beat Oklahoma in Dallas. Is that really what you want to say? I realize the educational standards in Oklahoma aren't high but land mass wise, Texas is a very big state and Austin is not Dallas.

We are back to doing the dance of a thousand idiots, imitating their school boy days by screaming over each other, "My dad can beat up your dad." Let's be real. NONE of this will happen:

(a) The chance that Missouri will beat a Big-12 South team is (1) slim and (2) NONE. Even if, by chance, they beat the Big 12 South champion, that champion (Texas, Oklahoma or Tech) would have ONE loss by the time of the Big 12 Championship, so:
(b) The chance that one Big 12 South school with TWO losses pushes out either a 11-1 USC or a 11-1 Florida or Alabama are, again (1) very improbable and highly unlikely to (2) not going to happen.

If Tech losses to the Sooners, they would likely drop to low that regardless how they do against Baylor, they would not win their conference, and even at 11-1, they would serve as this year's Utah. For the Sooners to have beaten the Red Raiders and continued on, means they need to have beaten the Cow Pokes, so that drops OK State from the discussion.

The only real and serious possibility is that the Longhorns and the Sooners would remain highly ranked in the BCS to be factors, and again, once the Sooners lost to the Tigers [another (1) unlikely although not (2) fully improbable event] would then be a two loss team and likely drop below YES even a two loss OHIO STATE.

That leaves us with the Longhorns, with one loss, as a non-conference champion, having to make it into the "National Championship" game, and the Tigers getting the automatic conference bid. While this is not (1) outside the realm of possibility, its unlikely. As long as the Tide and the Gators win out and their loss is in the SEC championship, the winner of that game (with either NO or one loss) would get one slot in the NC. It would be a little hard to pole vault the Longhorns in to the other slot if they didn't even play for their conference championship. Yes, I fully well know that this isn't a requirement but its what cost Georgia its chances last year and the human component of the Harris and Coaches poll would prevent it again this year. This scenario is manna for the USC fans, as it makes them, at 11-1, the potentially more likely NC candidate.

The only way for this fantasy scenario to play out involves the Gators losing to Citidal or FSU (I'll light a candle for you) PLUS the Tide losing this weekend to Auburn (I'll looking into burning down the whole church), USC losing to Notre Dame and/or UCLA, Penn State losing to Michigan State AND Ohio State losing to Michigan (just to be on the safe side), that's the only way you're going to drop every other conference in the top 10 BCS low enough so that two Big 12 schools are ranked high enough to be must takes for the NC.

Between the two of them, Kiffkin would have the inside track, as he's been a head coach and he's not currently at USC. Why would he want the job? Anyone wants to advance in their career; it's not like Pete Carroll is going to give up his head coaching job anytime soon. If I were UW, I'd go for an alumni or someone with connections to the program. Since Pinkel likely won't leave MO for this job, that leave the other former James assistant on their staff, Dave Christensen. I agree that Chris Peterson has no incentive to leave Boise, other than money (for facilities, etc., not salary), and the Huskies (while Pac 10 and BCS) aren't quite enough of a jump. I can think he'd prefer to move the Broncos to Mountain West and have that conference replace the ACC or Big East as the 6th automatic bid conference. Supposedly, the UW big wigs want the Texas defensive coordinator Muschamp. Not sure why they think he'd be that interested to leave Texas for UW, tho.