Back To School

Hola mis amigos! The summer is coming to an end. The kidlets are dragging themselves back from summer vacation (or, more accurately, mom and dad are pushing them!) vacations are done and soon the leaves will be a-falling. Of course, all these factors mean but one thing here at the Sports Blog.

Football.

Is.

Back.

Can you smell it? No...that is not Gulf Coast oil, your roommates funky socks or Paris Hilton's...excuse for getting arrested. Its pigskin baby and not a moment too soon. We have had preseason NFL football all month and now the kids on campus strap on the headgear and get after it. It is with these young men where we focus today's musings.

When we last saw our friend College Football, Tonyajune's Crimson Tide were holding the trophy with a win over my beloved Longhorns (three words...no Colt McCoy) :)and Bama had secured their first title since 92 and their second since the passing of the legend, Bear Bryant. Can the Tide go back to back? Will Nick Saban win his third title..and thereby further add to the venom hurled at him from Mid-Michigan? Alabama is a trendy pick by a lot of folks to do just that. I am not so sure. They have to replace 7 starters on defense and while St. Nick of Tuscaloosa is known for his defense, they will be awful young and the SEC is no place for on the job training. Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram will also miss the opener but its against San Jose State so no big deal then. Ironically, it will be another breed of Trojan who will feel anger with Saban on that day.

I think Bama will meet Florida in the SEC title game and the Gators will take the crown. Florida does have a new quarterback in redshirt junior John Brantley. Brantley takes over where St. Timothy left off. He has limited experience but so did Tebow and look what he did...and Brantley has a better arm. The Gators have a talented stable of running backs and while only returning 6 starters on offense, Urban Meyer will have his team poised for another run. The defense loses 6 starters, much like Bama, so they may have to outscore some teams to win.

The AP top 10 is as follows:
1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Boise State
4. Florida
5. Texas
6. TCU
7. Oklahoma
8. Nebraska
9. Iowa
10. Virginia Tech

The Coaches poll is similar at the top with Bama and OSU, they then have Florida and Texas 3 and 4, then Boise at 5, Va Tech up at 6, then TCU, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa.

I can agree pretty much with the top 10, I think Texas is ranked a little high though. I think they are better suited for 7 or 8 and I am not convinced that TCU is a top 10 team. What we have to remember is that this poll is largely based on last year's results. Personally, I think pre-season polls are garbage. If I were in charge...ooh, sent a shiver down your spine, didn't it?....I would not have a poll until the first Monday in October. Then again, I would have a playoff, better uniforms, and less strict rules for celebrating. I would also outlaw artificial turf..but I digress.

Speaking of pre-season polls, upstart Boise State has its highest pre-season ranking in school history. The once-quirky underdog with the Smurf Turf (which by the way, I love!) is now ranked up with the big boys. BCS recognition is something that the Broncos have been clamoring (and to be honest, at times whining) to achieve for a few years now. To be fair they have been to two BCS games and one them both, including that classic Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma. That hasn't been enough though, two undefeated seasons in the last four years has had the boys in blue desiring a national title shot.

OK Boise, you have your high ranking you need to be considered for that title shot. All you have to do is beat the Hokies on Labor Day night and you should be set. Your schedule is cake, as it usually is and, to be honest, is what has held you back. Your move to the Mountain West will help but unless you can horn in on the next wave of conference expansion, you will be more often on the outside looking in. I think you can beat Va Tech and run the table but the other teams around you have tougher schedules and that will be your downfall again.

Back to the predictions...along with Florida winning the SEC, I have Oklahoma winning the Big 12, Wisconsin winning the Big 10, Pitt in the Big East, Miami winning the ACC and Oregon quacking its way to a Pac 10 title.

Whew....conference bingo, gotta love it!

The only one I am shaky on is Oregon. Even without disgraced QB Jeremiah Masoli, the Ducks have the tools to win but if anyone can reach up and bite them, its Andrew Luck and Stanford. I almost typed in Oliver Luck, Andrew's daddy and former Oiler QB. :) However, Oregon gets the Cardinal in Eugene so I like their chances. Stanford should do well this year, especially with USC being rendered useless thanks to a Kardashian sister's former boyfriend. They could, however, be looking for a new coach next year especially if Rich Rodriguez has another bad season in Ann Arbor. The Maize and Blue faithful are already calling for Jim Harbaugh and you can be assured that with every Wolverine loss, the clamor will get louder.

My BCS Bowl predictions for the 2010 season:

Orange: Miami-Pitt
Sugar: Bama-Boise
Rose: Oregon-Wisconsin
Fiesta: Texas-Ohio State
BCS Championship: Florida-Oklahoma (Brother Billy is already cringing at the thought.)

One other tidbit I wanted to bring up. Paul Lukas, a writer for ESPN.com, does a great job talking about logos, uniforms and the changes thereof for all the major pro sports as well as college football and basketball. This week was his annual College preview..hmm, a familiar theme...and he highlights the good, the bad (although I like the Boise and Miami helmets) and the ugly in this year's uniform trends.

Really Michigan State? After all that whining and bitching about a very minor logo change, you allow this? Oy.

Like Mr. Lukas, I am a uniform, colors and logo geek. I was the one who came up with the Uniform Curse theory which states that when you win a championship and you change your uniforms for the next season, you are doomed not to repeat...it happened with Duke and the Chicago Bulls in the 90's and the St. Louis Rams in 2000. I also have another theory...lack of success on the field leads to the uniforms changing every few years. You don't have success, you bring in new coaching staffs, new coaching staffs want to put "their stamp" on the program and the first to go is usually the old regimes uni's. Also when you don't have a good on-field product you have to come up with new things to keep your fan base interested..again, cue the new togs. I did some research to bear me out.

These are the top 10 winning programs in the history of D-1 college football:
1. Michigan
2. Texas
3. Notre Dame
4. Nebraska
5. Ohio State
6. Alabama
7. Penn State
8. Oklahoma
9. Tennessee
10. USC

Aside from the odd tweak now and then and the occasional "alternate" uniform, these programs have not significantly changed their looks since leather helmets.

The last 10 BCS Champions? Oklahoma, Miami, Ohio State, USC, Texas, Bama, LSU (twice) and Florida (twice). LSU and Florida also have changed their look in decades, Florida went from orange to blue helmets but that was it. Logo is the same as are the colors, number font, etc. Oh and don't get me started on number fonts. Its football...block numbers, period. You are lucky I will allow names on the back. :)

Coincidence? I think not.

One more note before I go...as of this writing the Big 10 announced its new divisional football lineup that will take place in 2011 when Herbie Husker and the rest of the Children of the Corn join up. Not sure of the divisional names yet but here is how they will break:

Division 1:
Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska

Division 2:
Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue

Each team will play the others in their division and each will have a permanent "crossover" game with the other. This way, Ohio State-Michigan gets played every year..this is good. Otherwise the alignment is pretty stupid. You either have an East/West alignment with Wisconsin in the East or a North/South alignment with Wisconsin in the South. Apparently Geography is not a pre-requisite for graduating from a Big 10 school...then again, they will have 12 teams and will still call themselves the Big 10. Guess Math isn't required either.

See you next week when we tackle (see what I did there?) pro football.

Peace.