I hate to interrupt the ongoing saga of the Ground Zero Mosque with something trivial, but we need a few more players for our FF league. Our League name is Around the Keg. The ID number is 485088 and the password is guiness. Non-ATKers, spouses, friends. Invite whomever you want.
Read more...I just have a quick question for the ATK staff and regular posters. I just realized that football season is getting close. I love watching games and going to the occasional one, but I also love fantasy football. Unfortunately, the league I have been a part of for the last 10 years has disbanded. I was wondering if there was any interest in and ATK league. We would need 10-12 players and I would use Yahoo, as it seems to work better than the others I have tried. If there isn't any interest, then does anyone belong to another one I could join. I prefer to join one where I know most of the others, as opposed to some random league.
Read more...So the Bowl Championship Series matchups are out and have succeeded in confusing an entire nation of football fans again, except those in Texas and Alabama. For them, it's not that they get it any better than the rest of us (Lord knows...it's Alabama...I mean come on); they're just happier with the results.
As I understand the BCS selection process:
1) Massive schools in the South and Soutwest assume their rightful places in the top 5 and stay there all season through a wiley combination of bribes, positions of tenure within this "BCS" and the assembling of weak schedules (save but for a "hard" game or two);
2) Enough latitude is given to allow some undefeated, heretofore unheard-of school recently defining itself as "Division I" to have one single spot in the BCS top 5 so as to appear like it is indeed open and competitive;
3) In December, a group of gnomes with an IBM Thinkpad are fed ESPN streaming coverage, theoretical nuclear physics textbooks, scrolls concerning weather pattern prediction from the Middle Ages, a copy of the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, a duck, a random selection of adult movies and the first movement to Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. They use all of this and come up with:
This.
For all 6 Sparty fans, we get picked to lose a horrid, flaming death to Texas Tech on January 2nd. Somehow, MSU's already-dubious selection into the BCS provides State with an opportunity to show how horribly a second-rate secondary will stand up against a school known for the veracity of its passing game.
Awesome.
Take a look at this year's BCS games in the link above. Consider this an open thread on college football and the need for a playoff system. Sure, as a Sparty I realize I should be careful what I wish for, as we may never appear in a playoff again. But as such, is #1 or #2 really ever #1 or #2?
It's football season. The long winter of "the Boys of Summer" is finally, albeit slowly, drawing to a close. Soon, Sportcenter's Top 10 Plays will feature more than 10 guys making diving catches in the outfield.
And for those of us hailing from Michigan who have to suffer the Lions week after week, here's a little football warmup:
NFL Players Mentor Troubled Detroit Lions
WHEW! Now that I'm more settled in down here in the great state of TAY-HAAS, I think I have time to once again begin contributing to the ATK community in a somewhat meaningful (I use the term VERY loosly) fashion! YAY!! Now for a sports thought.
Watching OSU play Texas and listening to the Big Ten get railed for its lack of recent bowl success, particularly in the BCS games, I can't help but think that, at least partially, the league is a victim of circumstance, as follows:
For those of you curious what it was like to be a Michigan fan in the Notre Dame student section today, I think this guy pretty much sums it up:
It poured. Not your standard rain, or even "wow it's raining hard" rain. We're talking "epic, puddles are forming in my hair, someone find that ark guy" rain. Which wouldn't have been as big of a deal if my team hadn't shit the bed.
Six turnovers. Two inside their own 15 yard line, two inside ND's 5 yard line, and another returned for a touchdown. And they let this guy beat them:
Could be worse though... USC just went up 35-3 on Ohio State...
So, in an attempt to find a way to declare my allegiance in advance of this week's Michigan/ND game, I did a Google Image search of 'fucking Notre Dame'. And what do you think was the first hit?
It was this image, from none other than the good people at Around The Keg.
Congratulations, and well done gentlemen. We are now the world's foremost internet source of images related to inappropriate fornication with Our Lady.
**** UNRELATED UPDATE***
This has nothing to do with the earlier post; but it pretty well encapsulates what I've learned thus far in Law School...
Supreme Court Rules Death Penalty Is 'Totally Badass'
If you listen, you can actually hear Wolverine nation exhale. After weeks of painful, embarassing, and ham-handed searching, Bill Martin finally did it. He found someone who was willing to coach the men's varsity football team at the University of Michigan.
Rich Rodriguez, welcome to the fold.
Rodriguez was 60-26 in his 7 years at West Virginia. He is known as one of the earliest authors of the spread option, and is apparently viewed in coaching circles as one of the best X's and O's minds in football. He can recruit. He can even *gasp* speak to the media. Sure it cost a few extra million dollars to pry him away from West Virginia. It was worth it.
However, it's easy to see growing pains ahead. Rodriguez may be a great coach, but I wonder how he will fit in at Michigan.
But the biggest change will be the cultural shift. Michigan Football has basically had one administration since 1968. Hell, several pages of the playbook haven't changed in decades. What happens the first time an option pitch hits the turf? Will the alumni flip out and cry for the old days of Student Body Left? Or when the latest prized QB recruit gets hurt trying to turn the corner? New and scary things may happen in the Big House (though HOPEFULLY not as scary as App State)
But, all things considered, this is a really good hire for Michigan. They get a big name coach with BCS-conference success. Michigan probably won't lose any recruits over this change(PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE still come to Ann Arbor, Sam McGuffie. Please. Pretty please...). In fact, right after the announcement was made, uber-recruit Terrelle Pryor announced that Michigan was now on his short list. That's a good sign.
Read more...Lloyd Carr might be one of the easiest punching bags in the college football world. After all, there are always 3 "L's" in Lloyd. His Michigan teams are like
opossums (after all, they play dead at home and get killed on the road). And he pretty much perfected the Wolverine Cookie recipe; put them in a big bowl and beat for three hours. It's easy to make fun of Lloyd. But you'd be hard-pressed to find many coaches with a better track record.
His football credentials are solid. He coached for 13 seasons, and had 13 winning seasons. I can think of a lot of schools who would love to be able to say that (Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, and the University of Miami come to mind). With a 121-40 record, he took the highest all-time winning percentage in college football and IMPROVED it. A National Championship, multiple Big Ten titles, multiple Rose Bowls. And he ended his tenure with 11 straight wins over Penn State and 6 straight over Michigan State.
The knock on Lloyd was always that he was too "old school". He didn't adapt well to the evolution of the spread offense on either side of the ball. His defenses couldn't stop it, and his offenses couldn't run it (and never tried to adopt elements of it). He ran more draw plays on 2nd-and-10 than the rest of the Big Ten combined. And he was always content to try to win a game 13-10 in an era when 33-30 was more likely. Vince Young, Appalachian State, and the Man in the Sweatervest made that more and more obvious as the years went on.
But there is another side to the "old school" moniker. He came from an era where a successful program was not a springboard for the Next Big Thing (Nick Saban, I'm looking in your direction). It was never about Lloyd; it was always about the program. He hated interviews and the media. He was loyal to his assistants and his players (almost to a fault), and never threw them under the bus. That's probably why he was such an easy target; he never ducked.
In 13 years, Michigan's program was beyond clean. It was virtually spotless. There have been no Maurice Clarett incidents. No Reggie Bush scandals. No Florida State University (i.e. Free Shoes University) happenings. Not to pick on my Sparty brethren, but two MSU players are still starting while under indictment for armed robbery. Oklahoma seems to have a weekly appointment with the NCAA infractions committee. Even Penn State and Notre Dame, with their reputation as "above the fray" programs, have had their incidents. But Michigan remains nearly unblemished.
That was the legacy of Bo. And I have a feeling that it will be the legacy of Lloyd. Consistency, excellence, and above all, integrity.
So now the search for a replacement begins (although it has actually been underway for several weeks). Les Miles, LSU's coach, is the logical replacement. He played for Bo, and served as an Assistant at Michigan many years ago. Those of you who don't follow Michigan may not be aware of the obsession with finding a Michigan Man. It doesn't necessarily mean someone who went to Michigan (though that helps). A Michigan Man is one who puts the program first. He honors the building that Fritz Crisler and Fielding Yost built, and the program that Bo revived. The list is short. Jim Harbaugh was on that list until earlier this year. But he violated that trust by putting himself by badmouthing the program to score cheap points. That's something that a Michigan Man doesn't do.
So thank you, Lloyd. And the first time Les Miles runs a 5-wide receiver set onto the field, I'll remember the times when "Mike Hart behind Jake Long" played like a broken record, and I'll be thankful again.
Well, Spartan Fans (all....1 or 2 of us on this blog) are thrilled. State's 28-17 win over Bowling Green makes us all feel pretty good about our prospects of going into the Big 10 part of the season with 3 wins under our belts.
Of course, a good Sparty is nervous about the Pitt game next week and remembers what last year's season looked like when we went into the Big 10 season with 3 wins under our belt. That's about all we got.
For the most part, Hoyer was shaky. He blew lots of passes and I think 2 interceptions. He didn't find his mark much. Ringer and Caulcrick, though, each had excellent games, and the Receivers tried hard to make difficult catches. State's defense, primarily their secondary, looked way off in the first half. Bowling Green ran some very basic routes with their recievers and stuck the Spartan defense almost every time with a 1st down. It wasn't until the second half that the Spartan defense figured it out.
A side note: I loved the movie "300." Had a lot of fun watching it. But every time Bowling Green was at a third down...every damn time, they played that brief clip where King Leonidas screams "SPARTANS!!! WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION!!!" followed by a gutteral war chant. Cool in the movie. Very motiovating. Drove home a point. But 900 times in one game at Spartan stadium? Tedious. Done to death. Find a new clip or move on. Like when they start the game, and the team runs onto the field, they should show that clip where King Leonidas screams (notice a pattern) "TONIGHT!! WE DINE IN HELL!!!!" See? Once. At the beginning of the game, when they take the field. I'd be motivated. I digress...
So, a few bugs to work out, especially in the secondary, and the Spartans could actually stare a winning season in the face.
But I am a Spartan fan, so my expectations are lowered.
Speaking of lowered expectations, will one of the Wolverines in the house explain to me what happened? Is it frustration? Injury? I mean, Henne hurt and Hart kinda hurt has to lower the chances for success, but is Oregon better than expected or is U of M just frustrated and over-playing?
Did I conceal my joy well enough?
And finally, the Lions. What?? 36-21! They won! I am thrilled! And now I am in that same place that Lions fans get into every year: this is our year to be good. To have a winning season. To make the playoffs. And that little voice in the back of your head is screaming at you to settle down and wait for the next game.
It started great...a 17-point lead. Then, typically, they blew it to a 1-point deficit. Great. I thought, here it goes again. But then....they got it back! The offense, the new, much-vaunted offense, looked the way it was supposed to look! All these great new picks we got...worked!
Let's not forget that Kitna boasted we'd get 10 wins this year. We'll see. The Lions' D looked like the Sparty D; a little shaky and forcing the offense to score to stay ahead rather than being good enough to just...stay ahead with what you've already got. That worked against an opponent like the Raiders. But will it keep working?
Just like State: the screw-ups are easily overcome by smaller, weaker teams. But come the Big 10, will it stand up?
As an MSU alum, I should be gloating. Over the years, my anti-Michigan feelings have mostly gone away and I can enjoy watching Michigan win. This game was just stunning. It was not televised, so I didn't even know they were behind, nor did I even know who they were playing. To be perfectly honest, I didn't have a clue were A-State was located. They are already calling this the biggest upset in college football history, possibly even sports history. There are also calls for Lloyd Carr's resignation. I would think that U of M is considering this and he does bear a significant amount of responsibility. That being said, I think that a team that is this talented bears some of the blame.
I wish I could say that I know what this feels like. After all, MSU lost to CMU in the early 90's and received some well-deserved flak, but this is whole different kind of loss...the only time a I-AA school has beaten a I-A school.
In the spirit of Warmachine, which Noah and I dare to participate in from time to time as a means of escaping what has otherwise started to become a somewhat "meh" point in our lives, I have begun to think about the little "hits and misses" in life that can mean so much. For the uninitiated, Warmachine is a tabletop "geek game" where you move your pieces in a tactical manner against an opponent's army of pieces. Each piece lends it's own special abilities to the battle. Movement is measured in inches... just like football... just like life...
Tony D'Amato's (Al Pacino) speech to his football team from ANY GIVEN SUNDAY:
"...You find out life's this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game - life or football - the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when add up all those inches, that's gonna make the f--king difference between winnin' and losin'! Between livin' and dyin'! I'll tell ya this: In any fight, it's the guy who's willin' to die who's gonna win that inch. And I know if I'm gonna have any life anymore, it's because I'm still willin' to fight and die for that inch. Because that's what livin' is! The six inches in front of your face!! Now I can't make you do it. You got to look at the guy next to you. Look into his eyes! Now I think you're gonna see a guy who will go that inch with you. You're gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows, when it comes down to it, you're gonna do the same for him! That's a team, gentleman! And, either we heal, now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's football, guys. That's all it is. Now, what are you gonna do?"
National Champions!! National Champions!!! GO STATE!!!!
3 - 1. My Spartans are National Champions!
**UPDATE**
Here is a nice index page of all the goods on the game, and here is a link to a detailed article.
And this article has a neat little video embedded in it for the Spartan Fan.
This sucks ass. 
I hate Billy Donovan. I hate Florida. I hate the SEC. And what I hate most of all is that the 84 - 75 victory over Ohio State (whom I also hate, but was forced to root for because they are at least a Big 10 school) confirms everything that the talking heads at ESPN have been gushing about for what feels like 6 months (but was really only a couple of days).
And in equally-disappointing news, there was the Tigers' opening day. 5 - 3 loss to the Blue Jays in 10 innings. Yes, boys, you still actually have to play baseball in order to win.
**Update**
Okay, so there is still humor to be found today. I know you can normally post You Tube clips to Blogger, but I want this done quick and dirty. Go check out this video parody of My Humps by Alannis Morrisette. Hysterical.
This about says it, concerning Rex Grossman's offensive drives. And by offensive, I don't mean the opposite of defensive.
I know that usually, the leading Offensive player gets the MVP. But I just want to give a nod to Brian Urlacher, who played an intense and massive game. He was all over the field, and you saw number 54 on every single play on the defensive side. Every one. I have not yet seen the stats, but he had to have at least a third of all of the tackles yesterday. He, and the rest of the Bears' defense, truly showed up.
But the one guy who didn't show up yesterday was Rex Grossman. I haven't seen so many injured ducks wobbling through the air since hunting season. He threw passes aboslutely meant for the defense to pick-off, and the Colts' D returned the favor by grabbing as many balls out of the air as they could. The rest of the offensive playbook last night was uninspired, though Chicago's running game certainly showed up to play. The running backs and Offensive line certainly wanted to win the game. Hell, Moose Muhammed tried as well as he could. But Grossman just sucked. So we'll see you next season, Brian Greise.
That said, I feel good for Manning. And I feel even better that Chris Berman will finally shut his wobbling yap. But Manning played a good game, that really improved after half time. Got his jitters out and led a solid, dominant second half.
One surprise of the game was Vinateri missing a field goal.
So that's about it. Just some random thoughts about the Bowl. Not bad this year; good back-and-forth, good turnovers. Both teams worked hard. The second half wasn't riveting, but it wasn't a blowout.
By all accounts, this was an amazing weekend for football. Those were indeed two very exciting games.
I am thrilled for Lovie Smith who has endured a season's-worth of second-guesses, and armchair quarterbacking from talking dunces at ESPN, and kept faith in Rex Grossman to lead the team. And for being the first African American coach to go to The Show.
I am excited for Rex Grossman who with every single loss this season (of which there really weren't many, especially if your a Lions fan like I am) has had to withstand questions and accusations from sportswriters about not being good enough, and constant cries to replace him with Greise (who I think would have been worse). Who's laughing now, bitches? Rex Grossman is, all the way to the Superbowl. Where he will quarterback.
I am equally thrilled for Tony Dungy who also endured overtures and speculation of being fired at the end of the season, constant criticism from the mouth-breathers over at ESPN about not being a good enough coach to make any headway in the NFL (along with constant pleas - or nearly so - for his firing), and, like Lovie, for being the second African American coach to make The Show AND for being one of 2 in history to coach the Superbowl at the same time. My heart is absolutely bleeding.
And finally I am releived for Payton Manning. What do I hear every damn Monday morning from the two Neanderthals on Sports Center? How Manning is a good QB, but not great, as he can never follow-through and "win the important games." Here he finally is, on the way to the Superbowl. Manning is such an honest guy, who so easily makes light of himself on a zillion commercials...but it doesn't come across as staged. He's just a good, honest guy, humble to the core. I like to see Nice Guys win.
So now for the Superbowl. I predict a barn-burner this year. Two teams are playing each other who are not used to easy wins. They work, and work hard, every game to win. The coaches are comparable. I think there is a difference in QB; Manning, in my mind, is the better of the two. But Grossman is surrounded by talent and the Chicago Defense is a monster. Every single tackle, you see them trying to strip the ball. 10 times out of 100, it works...but they do it every tackle. That's coaching and discipline.
But Manning and his Offense won't be cowed by a solid defense, as we saw yesterday. Even after an entire half of mistakes, they hung in and came back for the win.
I am really looking forward to the game this year. And for the record, if every it matters in the history of the Universe, I say Bears by 3.
It all boils down to this: the BCS is this guy's fault. Jim Delany.
Consider:
"...Delany, 58, has emerged as a man widely considered the most powerful figure in college sports and the biggest obstacle to a Division I-A football playoff."This guy, this Big 10 Commissioner, is the roadblock to a system that, um, makes sense.
Defending his assertion, Delany said revenue from college football has grown to $900 million from $200 million since 1990; average attendance for Big Ten games has increased to 71,000 from 58,000 over that same period; and the rising TV ratings and sponsorship dollars suggest the game is as healthy as ever.I have lots of problems with those assertions.
"There's probably more of an outcry than there was 15 years ago for something different. I don't disagree with that," Delany said during a recent interview in Chicago. "But what I've also seen simultaneously is the growth in interest in the BCS and the regular season.
"If the public walks away from our games during the regular season and walks away from television during the regular season and walks away from the bowls, they're saying, 'We won't support this anymore. We want something else.' But I don't see them walking away from anything."
Polls show more than 50 percent of college football fans favor a playoff.So under Delany's logic, more than half of college football's fans would have to stop watching their favorite team to get their message across.
Studies indicate the slightest step toward a playoff – seeding the teams in four BCS bowl games and pitting the two top-rated teams emerging from those games in the national championship – could generate another $50 million. But with a new system, Delany and the commissioners of the other BCS conferences could lose control of the knife that guarantees them a huge slice of the financial pie.And there it is. A playoff system hurts the Big 10 financially.
The so-called BCS conferences – which include the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC – outnumber the less powerful conferences six to five. Thanks to that slim majority, the six conferences grant themselves automatic bids to the five BCS bowls and this year will take in more than three-quarters of the estimated $120 million the BCS will generate.
The annual yield since has widened the financial gap between the haves and have-nots, and since the formation of the BCS eight years ago, no conference has benefited more than the conference Delany runs. He appears determined to protect the Big Ten's economic interests even if it means preserving a flawed system.
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