• Man, I’m ready for football.    :-D


  • Not so much for the NFL but certainly for the NCAA. I’m just less than thrilled about the ESPN deal with the SEC. The SEC lovefest on Gameday is already intolerable.

    Combine that with the whole non-news news story over Rothlesberger (and the wonder about what else they’ll sweep under the rug from their business associates) and we can pretty much say that ESPN’s objectivity and integrity is out the window.

    But I am looking forward to the start of the season and my cable company gets the Big Ten Network and I have the internet to check scores. Buckeyes fall practive begins on Monday!

    Here is a nifty little custom schedule making website I stumbled upon. NCAA only.


  • I can hardly contain myself.  I was a manager for Iowa Football for 4yrs while I was in college, I bleed black and gold.  Last season was the first season in four years that I was not on the sideline for the saturdays.  But I have to say I enjoyed watching it as a spectator more then being staff person, because I finally got to endulge in the art of stailgating.  I am going to make a few pilgrimmages back to Iowa City this season again, Go Hawkeyes!


  • let me refrase that, “Tailgating”


  • Go Hawks!

    (Mt. Pleasant, IA native and Iowa alum)

  • 2007 AAR League

    GO HUSKERS!!!

    can’t wait

  • Moderator

    I have been converted by the locals to rooting for the Longhorns… I have discovered the strange beauty of burnt orange.

    For NFL, still a Pats guy…

    GG

  • Customizer

    Come on the Blades!

    Not a bad start last night, better midfield this season.


  • lol, go hawks gamerman, I knew Matt Melloy while I was there, he is a Mt. Pleasant native.  BigTen Champs 09, you can quote me on that.


  • I am more than ready.

    frimmel, your problem is listening to those idiots on ESPN. Lou Holtz is about the only one I have seen on that network that even has a clue.

    I will say as an SEC fan I think it is nice we now get the respect I feel we deserve, but ESPN does go overboard.

    I also think due to the changes that have occurred in college football (scholarship limits, more TV exposure) some teams have not come to terms with the fact they will not be the best year in year out. Personally I like it. You can either change and adapt with the times or keep moaning about “tradition”.


  • @frimmel:

    Not so much for the NFL but certainly for the NCAA. I’m just less than thrilled about the ESPN deal with the SEC. The SEC lovefest on Gameday is already intolerable.

    Combine that with the whole non-news news story over Rothlesberger (and the wonder about what else they’ll sweep under the rug from their business associates) and we can pretty much say that ESPN’s objectivity and integrity is out the window.

    But I am looking forward to the start of the season and my cable company gets the Big Ten Network and I have the internet to check scores. Buckeyes fall practive begins on Monday!

    Here is a nifty little custom schedule making website I stumbled upon. NCAA only.

    As Dallas Cowboy fan, I’ve always thought that ESPN favored East and West Coast teams. You are right the SEC get an overdose of atention.


  • Ah…the glory of armored wankball.  I may forego the feigned disappointment that Romo choked again this year.  Perhaps I’ll cheer for the Lions like I did for the Dolphins last year.


  • @a44bigdog:

    I am more than ready.

    frimmel, your problem is listening to those idiots on ESPN. Lou Holtz is about the only one I have seen on that network that even has a clue.

    I try but the cacophony is a bit overwhelming when you just want to see what happened in the day’s games.


  • @Jermofoot:

    Ah…the glory of armored wankball.  I may forego the feigned disappointment that Romo choked again this year.  Perhaps I’ll cheer for the Lions like I did for the Dolphins last year.

    I’ll give Romo one more full year, hopefully the third full season is the charm. I rank him not as a top five QB but somewhere between 6-12. My top five would be Brady, P. Manning , Phillip Rivers, Carson Palmer and Big Ben.


  • @ABWorsham:

    @Jermofoot:

    Ah…the glory of armored wankball.  I may forego the feigned disappointment that Romo choked again this year.  Perhaps I’ll cheer for the Lions like I did for the Dolphins last year.

    I’ll give Romo one more full year, hopefully the third full season is the charm. I rank him not as a top five QB but somewhere between 6-12. My top five would be Brady, P. Manning , Phillip Rivers, Carson Palmer and Big Ben.

    Romo can be on top of things.  It’s just that when it counts he fails to perform, or performs a fail.  I don’t think Ben should be in my top 5, I’d readily swap him out for Brees.


  • frimmel I use ESPN’s website for that. That way I can apply my BS meter or just quit ready some of the joke articles.

    I do think the SEC is the best conference in the country but not in the way the ESPN yappers imply. The top SEC teams are comparable to other top teams in the country. Where the difference lies is in the middle and bottom of the SEC. Those teams are light years ahead of comparable teams in other conferences. The only reason I can give for that is the amount of rivalry games down here. Most college football teams have 1 or 2 rivals. Now down here in the south that number is around 4 or 5. Plus college football is THE major sport down here. Most of us in the south could care less for pro football. I think it is hard for people from other parts of the country to realize just how serious and how nasty some of these rivalries are. As an example Auburn and Alabama are required to play each other by order of the State Legislature. They stooped playing due to a dispute over travel money and relations grew worse and worse between the two schools until an Alabama law was passed that they play each other.

    I also think having a conference championship helps as well. The SEC was the first to implement such. Now depending on who you loose to 1 loss is not the end of the season. I like it that way. I would rather see a team with 1 loss to a good opponent than a team that is undefeated that has not really been challenged. I would really like to see Notre Dame go to the Big 10 and a conference championship there. I think the days of Michigan and Ohio State playing for who goes to the Rose Bowl are a bit outdated. Plus Notre Dame would have to play some real football teams instead of the Service Academies.


  • I’m not a big fan of the conference championship game and certainly have no intrest in bringing it or Notre Dame to the Big Ten conference.

    I’m also in agreement that the SEC is top conference but the hyperbole just gets to be a bit much. Especially given that the SEC bowl record against the Big Ten has been just .500 over the last four years.

    Of course, those types of questions stem from statistics. The Big Ten went 1-6 in bowl games last season — the one triumph was Iowa’s 31-10 victory over SEC member South Carolina in the Outback Bowl — and is just 9-20 in bowl games in the last four years. The Big Ten is 5-5 against the SEC in bowl games in the same four-year stretch, something that’s not lost on Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema.

    “I think that bowl games, a lot of it depends on obviously your preparation and what you put into it. But a lot of it is what happens on that day,” Bielema said before citing his 2-2 record against the SEC in his five-year tenure with the Badgers.

    Source.

    They’ve won the highest profile games but you can’t say their mid tier teams are waaayyyy above the Big Ten’s mid tier the record says differently. And one Big Ten team keeps getting sent to play U$C in a home game every January 1st. A U$C team that is among the elite of the nation but always seems have close calls and outrigt losses to teams that have no business still being in the game with them after the first quarter. I really wish ole Petey could keep it together for a whole season.

    The whole SEC hyperbole given the recent deal with ESPN comes off as courting a new client and nothing resembling sports journalism. The continued pass Oklahoma has received lately for their lackluster BCS performance and the slack everyone cuts U$C (can you stand Herbstreit when he starts on his Pete Carroll worship?) contribute to let’s just say a less than objective view of conference strengths.

    I also have no interest in a ‘playoff.’


  • I am well aware of the SEC vs Big Ten record.

    However look at the in conference rank of the SEC teams vs the in conference rank of the Big Ten teams they played against.  And I am not saying the Big Ten is junk either. But the 2nd or 3rd place Big Ten team beating the 5th or 6th place SEC doesn’t prove much either.

    Herbstreet and Mussberger are probably the two biggest idiots ever to step into a broadcast booth. I cringe when I see them as the announcers. Going in you already know they are going to Rah, Rah whichever team is more shall we say traditionally known. What is even more amusing is watching them reverse directions midway through a game between two traditional powers when there favorite starts loosing.

    I am not that impressed with USC. They have no real competition in their conference and as you stated seem to manage to loose a gimme game every year.

    I doubt a playoff will ever happen if College football. However I don’t want to go back to the days of a 3 loss Notre Dame team going to a top tier bowl, or bowl selections based on the old “travels well” criteria.


  • @a44bigdog:

    I am well aware of the SEC vs Big Ten record.

    If you are aware of the record there isn’t much else to say cause that’s where the rubber meets the road.

    You can’t say the middle of the SEC is better than the middle of the Big Ten and say Iowa tied for fourth at 5-3 in confernce beating South Carolina at 4-4 tied for fifth in the mighty SEC ‘doesn’t prove much.’  :-)

    If the SEC middle was so far above the Big Ten middle the recent bowl record would not be split it would be well tipped to the SEC.  :-)


  • I’ve lived in Iowa my whole life and am a University of Iowa alum and love my Hawks.  Of course I’d like to see the Big 10 be a respected conference again, but what does it matter, really.

    That said, let me provide some context to the Iowa vs. South Carolina game.  Iowa knocked off #3 Penn State late in the season, solving the #1 #2 debate for last year.  Iowa tends to play their best ball in October/November and for some unknown reason seems to improve faster than most teams.  What I mean is, they lose games in September that are surprising, but if they were to play the same team again in November, Iowa would often win.  If you were to look at Iowa’s record over the last 10 years in October and November only, you would be surprised.

    Since getting embarassed by USC in the Orange bowl several years ago, Iowa has clamped down on bowl games, losing very few since then.  Iowa has beaten Florida (and lost to Florida once) and LSU in January 1 bowl games in the recent past.  The victory over SC is just the latest Iowa conquest of an SEC team on January 1.

    So I guess, if you took Iowa out of the Big Ten and then looked at Big Ten bowl records in the past 5-7 years, the Big Ten would suck even worse.  The fact that Iowa had the only Big 10 Bowl win last year is telling.

    Then there’s the fact that SC had lost several games at the end of their season.  The two teams were going in opposite directions.  So looking at this game as a “middle of the Big 10” vs “middle of the SEC” is extremely misleading.  I guess I’m making a case that the SEC is better than the Big 10.  But they should be.  They have much better weather to practice in throughout the year and can get better recruits.  It’s amazing that teams here in the Midwest can compete as well as they do.

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