College (American) Football

[picnic_crossfire]

The American football season is underway! In this thread, discuss your opinions, predictions, boasts, arguments, and questions regarding college football. Who will play in the BCS national championship? Heisman trophy watch list? Is conference realignment finished, or can we expect to see more in the upcoming off season?
I'd like to start by discussing the upcoming game between Virginia Tech and Boise State. Is Boise the real deal?
Begin.

[Krong]

Is Boise the real deal?

Yes, they are. Now of course this is posted after that game ended, but the answer would have been the same had they lost.

This question's been asked every time they play any good team, and they've won the biggest ones when they counted most. They're dominant in their conference, 2-0 in BCS games, beat the PAC-10 champion last year, etc. etc. It's almost to the point where if they don't go undefeated for years in a row, they'll be labeled as overhyped.

VT looked very good out there, too -- the rest of the ACC (Coastal) should be scared. They certainly looked better than Florida looked against inferior competition.

EDIT: Also, this ESPN ad was one of my favorite parts of watching the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx0pTIDb-r0

To anyone who thinks nerds can't be sports fans, I say: IT'S A TRAP!

[The EGE]

My dad just offered me a deal. I finish my college applications by the end of September, he takes me to the OSU / Michigan game. (We're huge Buckeye fans; he's a OSU alum and gets a pair of tickets each year, but he managed to horsetrade with his brother for 2 Michigan tickets).

It turns out, bribery does work. I've finished 3 or 4 writing parts in 2 days.

[Endless Mike]

They certainly looked better than Florida looked against inferior competition.

As a Florida alum and fan, this is the worst I've seen them play since the Zook years, which I had the misfortune of being in school there for. (Defense looked good, and it actually did win the game.)

[Sir_Elderberry]

I go to the University of Oklahoma. Sometime in the third quarter, the girl next to me turned and said "Uh, they [Utah State] weren't supposed to get this close. Didn't anyone tell them?" I'm not feeling too optimistic about FSU this week.

[Oregonaut]

Huge Ducks fan. Huge. I am not seeing a repeat of last year in the making right now. 72 - 0 over Nowhere U, yeah it was an ugly ass game, yeah the Ducks dominated...Nowhere U. The quality of the schedule this year isn't really winning me over.

[Thurid]

Boise State to the National Championship Game! Jake Locker will prove that he still sucks. Julio Jones will prove he is the best Wide Receiver in College Football.

[Endless Mike]

Boise State to the National Championship Game!

They'll lose to Alabama or Auburn (winner of Alabama/Auburn game is going to the BCS Championship).

[Gears]

Go Montana Grizzlies! Go fight win beat nobody important!

[Krong]

Go Montana Grizzlies! Go fight win beat nobody important!

At least they beat them good!
(Seriously though, that game against App State last year was excellent.)

[podbaydoor]

I'm told that Missouri performed dismally against Illinois. They still won, but none of the fans in my acquaintance were happy. Geez. Though they perked up considerably when Kansas took a beating from North Dakota in the same night. I have to admit, I laughed.

Do I fit in here okay? I'm working outside my element.

[Oregonaut]

You're doing fine so far.

See, if Oregon loses, I'm bummed. If USC/Cal/UCLA/UW lose, I cheer up.

It is as much fun to have your hated rivals lose as it is for your team to win.

[podbaydoor]

Well, Missouri is playing Oklahoma for our homecoming. And the entire contingent of students, alumni, and general fans are wondering who was smoking what when they came up with the schedule for this season.

[Oregonaut]

I'd imagine it had more to do with how the Big-12 does their intra-division game scheduling. (BTW, Homecoming on Oct 23? Isn't that early?)

I know that the Pac-10(12) sets up their intra-division schedule so that any non-rivalry games are not on the same week they were the year before. So we'd play USC in week 3, the next year week 7, then week 5, etc. etc. etc. It may be that they hadn't scheduled the Sooners in week 7 for some time, and that's the way it worked out.

[podbaydoor]

I suppose a similar system would make sense. It certainly makes more sense than "let's definitely ensure we are going to be beaten bloody on our homecoming night!"

Pac-10(12)

Still laughing about that. The Big 10 is 13, the Big 12 is 10. I wonder when they're going to change the names, or do they have too much invested in the branding now?

[Oregonaut]

They have too much invested in branding. Commercial partnerships, corporate sponsorship deals, player uniform designs, etc. Making a change to a new conference name is a massive deal. They try to build up "mystique" around their conference, and if you're constantly changing your name, it confuses the poor dears.

[podbaydoor]

http://www.bringonthecats.com/2010/6/7/ ... -12-twelve

My favorite analogy was given by one of my professors, who originally hailed from Oklahoma. He compared American football to the state of the world today: ESPN is the World Bank, the NCAA is the UN, the conferences are the trade alliances between nations, Notre Dame is Saudi Arabia. Everyone jockeying for a piece of the monetary pie. Made me a lot more interested in handegg than I ever was before.

[Oregonaut]

So all it took was an intelligent analogy to get you interested in the American version of gladiatorial competition? Nice.

[Endless Mike]

Still laughing about that. The Big 10 is 13, the Big 12 is 10. I wonder when they're going to change the names, or do they have too much invested in the branding now?

Big 10 is only going to be 12. They only picked up Nebraska.

This was Big 12's plan all along, anyway. Lose two teams, rename to Big 10 and take over the Big 10 Network. Pac-10, at least, has confirmed changing their name to Pac-12.

[podbaydoor]

So all it took was an intelligent analogy to get you interested in the American version of gladiatorial competition? Nice.

Well, it sort of gave me a way to look at it beyond juiced-up jocks taking money away from journalism/science/art/medicine (our coach, Gary Pinkel, makes more than the neurosurgeons at the university hospital). They're still juiced-up jocks, but there are some fascinating stories that can be dug up from the whole deal. I like examining the phenomenon of college football: the passion, the religiosity, clashing with cold economics. What will archaeologists digging up one of our sports stadiums think? And so on.

[Oregonaut]

Honestly, I'm a fan of football for the strategy and tactics. Dudes smashing into each other at terminal velocity doesn't amuse me anywhere near as much as a well done misdirection play, or a safety jumping a route because he has properly deduced their plan. It is the intelligence that is demonstrated by a well conducted plan. I'm very much into the playing of football, if I'm able to physically, but when watching I love dissecting the X's and O's.

[podbaydoor]

Given that the actual rules and play of football is pretty much opaque to me (the QB throws the football, a bunch of guys hit each other, there are lots of starts and stops, is about the extent of it), I guess that part isn't an interest I share. I don't find that it diminishes my viewing experience, though. I'm more fascinated by the reactions of the fans viewing it, and the human interest stories. And if I need to, I can manipulate a guy into a kindly disposition towards me by asking him what's going on in the game and making him feel all paternalistic and knowledgeable.

[Oregonaut]

<snicker> I wish the opposite were true. There's any number of things that I'd love to ask women, but when I do I get...poor reactions because of my size/race/gender. But, any time you have a football question, go ahead and ask. I've played various levels of football, and can explain any number of positions, and their practical applications. As to why people react the way they do, it is simple. Tribalism.

[Endless Mike]

Here's a basic description: http://www.sbnation.com/2010/9/9/167865 ... ular-sport

[podbaydoor]

I have no interest in learning how it works, is the thing. And when I'm not interested, especially with something technical, explanations tend to escape my mind - which is why I still don't know how to play chess despite several people explaining it to me over the years. Still, I guess I'll give that page a go.

Haha, futbol equivalents. Excellent explanation strategy (not that I know how futbol works either).

<snicker> I wish the opposite were true. There's any number of things that I'd love to ask women, but when I do I get...poor reactions because of my size/race/gender. But, any time you have a football question, go ahead and ask. I've played various levels of football, and can explain any number of positions, and their practical applications. As to why people react the way they do, it is simple. Tribalism.

Well, yes, you can make a general explanation out of anything ("Art." "Economics." "Religion." "Men.") but that doesn't make the individual stories any less fascinating. I suppose this is kind of the curious poking about that a perpetual outsider always does. "And now, we observe the American male as he enacts a ritual common to many males in the high suburban lands of North America. First, he consumes small morsels of meat known as buffalo wings, soaked in hot sauce - anthropologists have determined that American males tend to favor wings with a higher rating of piquance, taken as a sign of virility and dominance. Then, stimulated by the images on the screen, he rises from his seat on the couch to punch the air and release a primal scream to the heavens."

[Oregonaut]

Ha! No, I was merely making an opening salvo. If you want, I can explain the triablistic behavior in greater detail, and how individuals are drawn in by the same.

[podbaydoor]

National religion, isn't it? My favorite story is Texas A&M and the Reveille cemetery: they built a little scoreboard so the dead mascots would always know what the score of the game was.

But then, A&M is batshit in general. What are the craziest stories you know?

[Oregonaut]

Best one I've heard is the slapping of a sign, trophy, or somesuch for "good luck" before they go out onto the field. I've known Ducks players who won't touch the endzone lines. I've been to Autzen stadium where wearing Orange and Black is a hangable offense. The Georgia Bulldogs having a bulldog mascot with the same name "Uga". Humans love doing the same thing over and over and over, reversing their jersey when their teams are down.

Let's see...the craziest one I know is the Army/Navy rivalry. Two weeks before the game, seniors from each school are "captured" and taken to the rival school where they are...treated special. The day of the game, the two sides conduct a prisoner exchange. Having spoken to Cadets at West Point, and Midshipmen from the Naval Academy who have gone through the experience...Let's just say I'm happy I was in the Air Force.

[podbaydoor]

...okay, that's, wow. That kind of makes things not as fun.

I guess it beats out the story of Bevo, the UT Austin mascot. When A&M beat UT one year, they stole the longhorn and branded "13-0" onto the poor thing (the final score). Of course, UT couldn't have its mascot walking around like that, so with a bit of creative re-branding, it became Bevo.

[Oregonaut]

<grin> It's a military thing. The Army-Navy rivalry is one of the most storied in all of American Football. None of the prisoners have ever suffered lasting damage, and honestly in our line of work, it's a good way to prepare for eventualities. The prisoner exchange is fantastic (I've been to three A-N games) and it is very emotional at the end when both teams line up on one side of the field to listen to the loser's band, and then both teams line up on the other side of the field to listen to the winner's band.

Even better, as much as the rivalry is instilled in their marrow, they don't hate each other. How many college rivalry games can say that?

[podbaydoor]

It's phrases like "lasting damage" that are the most worrying.

Fair enough. Last year at the MU-KU game, it was in Kansas City. Someone threw an oversized stuffed Jayhawk onto the ground in the parking lot and every Mizzou fan cheered as they rolled over it on their way into the lot.

And they like to tell the story of how the historical Jayhawks would massacre Missourians in the Civil War, which supposedly engendered the rivalry. I think it's BS. Still, at least Army-Navy never used to massacre each other, right? Right?

[Krong]

Sorry to butt in:

Each year, a number of players - not teams - are promoted from the second division, a level Americans call "college football." The name comes from the link between universities and the traditionally amateur teams, with the moniker sticking after many second division teams recently turned professional (such as the University of Southern California, or North Carolina). Each year, NFL teams take turns promoting individual players from those teams, with players on more successful teams more likely to be promoted.

Amazing. I really hope someone reads this article and takes this at face value.

[Chuff]

FUCK YEAH RICE!!!! YOU GO, ONLY LOSING TO TEXAS BY 17 POINTS!
We were predicting a 50 point spread in my house. (My sister's at Rice)

Also, yay for Aggies and Bears for killing in their first games, even if they were both playing pseudo-div 1 teams. (parents)

[Armadillo Al]

I'm told that Missouri performed dismally against Illinois. They still won, but none of the fans in my acquaintance were happy.

As an alum of Illinois, I can tell you we weren't exactly thrilled either.

At least we actually looked like we stand a chance to win more than three games for once?

(Footnote: The Big Ten has had eleven teams for at least the last 15 years. The Big Ten didn't change their name to acknowledge this fact; they simply added an '11' to the negative space in the Big Ten logo.)

[Oregonaut]

I'm happy that the Pac-10 isn't going to be silly and is actually going to do something about their logo/conference name. But the Pac-12 sounds odd anyway. I do like the ACC and SEC naming convention, as it at least reflects the geographic location of the conference, and if people move into or out of the conference, it doesn't screw anything up. As long as they are on the Atlantic, or in the South East.

[podbaydoor]

Yeah, the problem with that is if the conferences aren't geographic. Didn't Texas want to flee to the north or something like that? They should just give the conferences animal names or something. "Live from California, it's the Shark Bowl!"

[Oregonaut]

Texas is trying to stand up its own network anyway.

[podbaydoor]

Damn, if it does that, the whole analogy breaks down. Notre Dame is Saudi Arabia, what would the independent Texas equivalent be? Russia? Dubai?

[Oregonaut]

Iran. Have you seen how whiny Mack Brown is?

[podbaydoor]

Zing! But Texas hasn't gotten around to kicking out the UN NCAA inspectors yet, has it?