DDT

2011-12-05T16:47:00.010-07:00

Nineteenth century power ratings

First-ever college football game in 1869: Princeton vs. Rutgers
The NCAA has released power ratings for all seasons since the game of college football began in 1869. The result for 1869: Princeton number one, Rutgers number two. But they played twice. Each won a game. How, then, could Princeton be given the nod? Some might say there’s only one solution—a playoff. Let them play again and settle it.
Unfortunately all the players involved in those early matches are dead. Today, Rutgers is DivOne and Princeton is DivOneAA non-scholarship. Might be a mismatch if they played, with Rutgers having the advantage. An academic playoff won’t work. Unfair advantage to Princeton.
Just another impossible scenario short of a playoff to determine a true champion. They should have settled it then. Now we'll never know.

Wrong team won
Conference USA paid $8.5 mil per loss
Conference USA officials are complaining that Southern Miss’s upset win over Houston in the ConfUSA Championship game cost the league $17 mil, the amount Houston would have brought to the league's coffers had they won and gotten a BCS bowl. Would seem to have been prudent not to play the game at all since there was the risk of upset.
    But Southern Miss’s coach Larry Fedora said his squad should be BCS bowl eligible. What the heck, they only had two losses, one of them to 73rd ranked Marshall, and the other to 111th ranked UAB.
    Looked at another way, that’s eight and a half mil per loss to the conference in SoMiss’s two contests against Marshall and UAB, because if SoMiss had won both and been undefeated going into the Houston game, which would have made both squads BCS bowl eligible, one, the winner, could have gone to a “big” contest. Read: Big pay-out.
    But now Marshall (6-6) and UAB (3-9) can smile at their great power. Little consolation to UAB’s coach, Neil Callaway, who got the sack. Marshall will play Florida International in the Beef O’Brady Bowl in St. Pete. In a game that’s going to be a hard sell, anyway, maybe the ad campaign can read, “Come see the 73rd-ranked Marshall Thundering Herd, the $8.5 mil Wonder, as they meet 66th-ranked Florida International, fourth place finishers in the Sunbelt. That's fourth place, fans! It’s 66 against 73 in a battle for the ages.” Or is it “Battle for the Aged.” St. Pete is a big retirement center.
    There are only 120 teams in DivOne. Neither Marshall nor FlaIntl are even in the top half of that number. DDT wonders where the money comes from to put on a game like that and pay teams to play in it.
    And college football complains about the cost of things.

PAC12 inaugural playoff a bust
DDT calls for lawsuit against Reggie Bush
   Larry Scott, PAC12 Commissioner: "Of course I acknowledge there is disappointment around the fact that we've got a 6-6 team that fired their coach this week playing in the game (PAC12 Championship)."
    The best match would obviously have been a rematch between USC and Oregon. But the Trojans are in jail thanks to the Reggie Bush affair.
    DDT sez, USC, maybe even the PAC12, too, should sue Reggie Bush. He broke the rules, his agent turned him into a pro before he graduated, now the current group of coaches and players at USC are paying the price while Bush, with a big bank account, is in the NFL. And the biggest losers are the fans. Did we want to watch Top 10 ranked Oregon roll over 61st ranked UCLA?
    There is no justice in a system that allows that to happen.
    The PAC12 should have just postponed their championship series until everybody was eligible. And if that’s not possible—teams are getting busted every year—maybe there should be no conference championship games.

SEC championship game redundant
Experts had already said that the two best teams in the country were LSU and Alabama and even if LSU lost to Georgia in the SEC playoff tilt, the Tigers would meet the Tide for the national championship. So what was the point of the SEC Championship game?
    ‘Bama essentially got a bye into the big game thanks to the BCS rating system. LSU got one, too, even though they went through the SEC scrimmage, a formality against over-matched Georgia.

MAC playoff
Northern Illinois 23, Ohio 20. Only 13,502 in attendance. Can you make money on a Friday night game like that, which, even though it was on national TV, was competing against the PAC12 Championship game? Does anybody in the MAC care? Was anybody watching on tube? The NCAA says you’ve got to average at least 15K per home game to be considered DivOne material. Hopefully, in the MAC’s case, playoff games don’t count against the average.

Random scatter shots:
• Teams whose coaches have been fired shouldn’t be allowed to play in bowl games. It’s like trying to go on a honeymoon after a divorce.

• The Ticket City Bowl (Houston/Penn State) is being played in the Cotton Bowl but the Cotton Bowl (KState/Arkansas) is being played at Jerry World (aka Cowboys Stadium). The names are reversed. If the Cotton Bowl is really the Cotton Bowl it should be played in the Cotton Bowl. And anything else that is played at JerryWorld can be called ... whatever. How about The Big City Big Ticket Bowl. Or Big Big Ticket Bowl. Big bucks, big tickets, big, big, big. That's the way Jerry wants it, no?

• Two biggest Ho-hummers of the bowl season: The New Mexico Bowl (Temple/Wyoming) in Albuquerque and the Beef O’Brady Bowl (Florida International/Marshall) in St. Pete.
    Temple and Wyoming both average about 20K per home contest. Be interesting to see how many folks fly down from Philly to follow the Owls and how many show from Laramie to support the Cowboys. The UNM Slowbos (1-11) drew only an average of 14K to their 39K-seat building where the game will be played. Not much interest in football in ABQ, right now.
    DDT has said before: “In New Mexico, tackle football rates right down there with the Grand Ol’ Opry.” But the folks in ABQ just don’t get it, so now it's, "Let's invite Temple and Wyoming."
   Maybe the fact that both teams have winning records will appeal to fans. That hasn’t been the case this year with the Slows stinking up the place.
    What the hell, DDT wishes Taos wasn’t 100 miles away. We’d probably go to the game.

Would you want to coach for that guy?
A DDT essay
by SAM•U•L
If you were a candidate for the head football coach’s job at Texas A&M, would you want to work for Bill Byrne the Aggie AD who fired Mike Sherman without any previous notice that termination was even a possibility this year? Sherman’s family heard a news report about it before he did. Coach was just pulling into the drive of a potential recruit when Byrne called and gave him the word.
    Shocked and disappointed, Sherman said, “We’re better than that.”
    Evidently not.
    Sherman was 25-25 in four years and only 6-6 this year. The Farmer’s problems “finishing” are well documented but Sherman had a nucleus to work with as the Ags venture into the troubled waters of the SEC where they’ll have problems enough without factoring in a new coaching staff. Was Sherman really that bad? Who will be any better? And how much will it cost TAMU to buy him out?
    Would you want to coach at UCLA, where, even though the team hasn’t eclipsed cross-town rival USC, they had made steady progress under Rick Neuheisel in four years and could have been on the brink of stepping up to the next level. They were young this year. They'll be better next year.
    USC’s sanctions will take more effect in the next few years and their program is bound to decline. Arizona and Arizona State are starting all over with new coaches, and Utah and Colorado are not much of a threat. It would seem that UCLA is/was in the best position to take over the PAC12 South. At least UCLA AD Dan Guerrero let Neuheisal coach the team’s final regular-season game.
    Would you want to coach at Kansas where Turner Gill only had two years to start building a program before he was banished? In a program where there is no football program, what did the KU AD Sheahon Zenger expect in two years? Was Gill really that bad? Who will any better, especially at KU where, like North Carolina and Kentucky, they really don’t want the football program to get too big and take limelight away from the hoops curriculum.
    Would you want to work for Oliver Luck at West Virginia who hired a “coach in waiting,” then kicked out the incumbent before spring training. True, the previous resident may have engaged in some ticky tacky gossip to sabotage the newbie’s reputation, but you almost can’t blame him after being saddled with a “coach in waiting?” Oxymoron. Either you’re the coach or you’re not.
    Would you want to work for Steve Pederson, the Einstein who fired Frank Solich at Nebraska a year after the Huskers were in the national championship game and replaced him with Bill Callahan who led the Corn Fairies to two losing seasons in four years. Callahan only finished ranked in a major poll once and was 1-10 against teams ranked in the Top 25. Sports Illustrated named Callahan as the worst coaching hire of the decade in college football.
    Credit Pederson for that. NU eventually fired him. He then moved to Pitt where he forced the resignation of Dave Wannstedt who had a 42-31 record and was in bowl games his last three years. So far Wannstedt’s replacement, Todd Graham, hasn’t improved Pitt’s position in the Big East. And three of Graham’s assistants just resigned. Pitt should change their nickname from Panthers to Scapegoats.
    In all of the cases where the head coach has been fired this year—17 head men in DivOne have gotten the sack, so far—the ADs stood before the press and recited the mantra of “program building.”
    “We want to thank (fill in the blank) for the work he has done to build (fill in the program) that will set the stage to take us to the next level.” Makes you wonder—if they did such a good job ...
    Of course, it’s all a politically correct smoke screen to appear civilized in a business where winning at all costs and money have become the uncivilized and abiding values.
    It’s a fast-gun business, college athletics. Pays well, though. How many jobs offer million-dollar severance packages? But the question arises: If the goal of college athletics is to educate young people, are the antics of ADs and alumni in their quest for the grail of “win at all costs” setting a good example for them?
    Maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised to hear about the scandal at Penn State when institutions consider themselves too big to fail, no matter who suffers, and where coaches become the gladiators whose job it is to please the mob no matter what the cost.

Ten years ago, going into the 2002 season, there were 13 changes in the DivOne head coaching ranks. Only one of those coaches, Jeff Tedford at Cal, is still on the job. Nine years ago, there were 18 changes. Only one, Mike Riley at Oregon State, remains. In 2004, there were 13 new head men. Two are still around. In 2005, 20 jobs turned over. Only five of those newbies remain. In 2006, six jobs changed. Two are still on board. The year 2007 was bad year for head coaches as 24 situations rolled. Five are still at those jobs. There were 18 new coaches in 2008. Ten remain. The majority of those hired in 2009 and 2010 are still around, with the exception of Gill and Porter, but there have been 17 changes already this year as the coaching carousel spins faster and faster.
   As Casey Stengel said about managing in major league baseball, “If you don’t own the club or die on the job, you’re going to get fired.”
    Sounds familiar.

The Academies
Army/Navy this weekend. 2:30 ET on CBS-TV
Air Force in the Military Bowl (Washingon D.C.), Dec. 28, against Toledo

And whatever happened to Miami, busted on multiple charges before the season started? What will happen when the other shoe drops? Will Al Golden hang out in jail with a program in deep trouble or move on? The "D" word came up before the season—death penalty. Not surprising given the seriousness and extent of the charges. But it's Miami, "The U", those lovable lugs, those bad boys we love to hate—business as usual, according to critics. Word is, that Miami, like Penn State, is too big to fail so the NCAA will never give another death penalty—too devastating, too hard to recover from. Example: SMU. But there will be sanctions for The 'Canes. And they will have an effect.

2011-11-21T16:42:00.002-07:00

2011-11-14T12:31:00.011-07:00

While big-time college football programs continue to place victories, cash and image over other things, and in at least one case take the position that institutions are too big to fail and victims can be sacrificed for the better good of the institution, hundreds of small colleges in Mayberryesque settings continue routine operations and will begin their annual round of playoffs to determine true national champions in three divisions. A few footnotes:

Johnnies trump Hamline
Gagliardi gets 484th
from staff reports
ST. PAUL, Minn. – St. John's forced seven turnovers and amassed 504 yards of offense to shutout Hamline 61-0 in the 2011 season finale on Saturday, Nov. 12, in St. Paul.

John Gagliardi

Sophomore quarterback Connor Bruns (Baltimore, Md./Loyola Blakefield) threw for 183 yards and three touchdowns, and added 24 yards and two more scores on the ground. Junior cornerback Bobby Fishcer (Plymouth, Minn./Osseo) intercepted three passes to finish with seven total for the season.

SJU ends the season with a 6-4 record (5-3 and third in the MIAC).

With the win, SJU head coach John Gagliardi ends his 63rd season as a collegiate coach with a 484-133-11 (.779) career record, including a 460-127-10 (.779) record in 59 seasons at SJU. He is the winningest coach in the history of college football.

Notes: The 61 points scored are the most for the Johnnies since the 62-7 win against Augsburg on Sept. 15, 2007. The shutout is the 103rd of Gagliardi's 59-year tenure at SJU.

St. Thomas, winner of the MIAC, who defeated St. Johns earlier this year, enters the first round of D3 playoffs this week against St. Scholastica.

Playoff brackets for DivThree can be found at:

http://static.psbin.com/z/q/s4g8g0ido72tvw/bracket.pdf

Ephs shorn but remain unshorn

No walk for Williams

The DivThree Amherst Lord Jeffs beat the Williams Ephs 31-18 Saturday in one of college football’s oldest rivalry games. As reported by DDT last week, a long-standing tradition at Williams is “The Walk.” When Williams wins, the entire team walks to St. Pierre’s Barber Shop on Spring Street in Williamstown, Mass., home of the college, where a celebration breaks out and anyone wishing to have their head shaved—and some who don’t—may get a free haircut.

Since Amherst won, there was no walk this year and the Williams squad will remain unshorn, shaved or sheared. Something to talk about on a Monday morning in Small Town, USA, following a college football weekend.

Amherst finished 8-0 in the New England Small College Athletic Conference.

The Game sí, Rhodes no!

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale quarterback Patrick Witt has decided to give up the opportunity to compete for a Rhodes Scholarship in order to play against archrival Harvard.

Witt has withdrawn his Rhodes application, despite being a finalist for the prestigious scholarship. The scholarship interview had been scheduled for Saturday, the same day as what is simply called "The Game."

The school had been trying to get the interview moved to Friday but Witt, a senior transfer from Nebraska, said he decided to withdraw the application because, "My focus this week is solely on preparing for The Game alongside my teammates and coaches." Witt, a history major with a 3.9 grade point average, had hoped to major in international studies at Oxford.

Saturday's game will be the 128th between the two schools. Harvard has won the last four and nine of the last 10.

The Academies

Air Force, 5-5, lost to Wyoming 24-17. Next week, UNLV in a Mountain West tilt.

Navy, 4-6, beat SMU 24-17. Next week, at San Jose State.

Army, 3-7, lost to Rutgers 12-27. Next week, at Temple.

The annual Army/Navy game will be played on Dec. 10 this season. Navy has won the last nine in a row.

2011-11-07T11:47:00.004-07:00

"If you wish to be happy for an hour, get intoxicated. If you wish to be happy for three days, get married. If you wish to be happy for eight days, kill your pig and eat it. If you wish to be happy forever, beat Amherst."

–Retired Williams College coach Renzie Lamb

Williams, Amherst tee it up in annual rivalry game

Ephs meet Lord Jeffs

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass — Saturday, it will be the Williams College Ephs against the Amherst Lord Jeffs in one of college football’s oldest rivalry games. The series began in 1884.

    Ephs is short for Ephraim Williams who founded the college. But their mascot is not an Ephraim. At the beginning of the 20th century there was a popular campus humor magazine called “The Purple Cow” so in 1907, by a vote of the student body, the college mascot was proclaimed to be a purple cow, even though they’re called the Ephs (pronounced Eeefs). Ephs, Purple Cows. Purple Cows, Ephs. Get it?
    Amherst is the Lord Jeffs. The college is named after Lord Jeffery Amherst, commanding general of British forces in North America during the final battles of the so-called French and Indian war (1754-1763). The town Amherst was named after him, later the college.
    Grudge match
The rivalry between the two Massachusetts colleges goes back to a time before football in the early 1800s when Williams' second president, Zephaniah Swift Moore, left the school to create his own college—Amherst. He took with him some faculty, students, and library books. Some at Williams still call Amherst students and alumni "The Defectors."
    Overdue books
A few years ago, the Williams band did some calculations and billed the Amherst band for $18 billion—a fine, with interest, for Moore's "overdue" books.
    The Walk
A long-standing tradition at Williams is “The Walk.” If Williams wins, the entire team will walk to St. Pierre’s Barber Shop on Spring Street where a celebration will break out, whence anyone wishing to have their head shaved—and some who don’t—may get a free haircut.

Amherst 7-0 in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) and headed for the DivThree playoffs. Williams is 5-2 and in third place in the conference.

Top 5 / Bottom 5 in DivOne attendance prior the Nov. 5 weekend.
Average attendance per game at home.
The Top:
1. Michigan, averaging 111,597 in six games.
2. Penn State, averaging 100, 348 in six.
3. Tennessee, 96,260 in six.
4. Ohio State, 105,186 in five.
5. Alabama, 101,821 in five.

The Bottom:
1. Eastern Michigan, 4,620 in four in a 30K-seat stadium. Attendance Saturday was 3,288 for their loss against Ball State. But the Eagles are 5-4, which gives them more wins than they’ve had in the past three years. They haven’t had a winning season since 1995 (6-5) and have only had six winning seasons in the 37 years since they joined the MAC in DivOne (1975). Evidently, their fans haven’t forgotten.
2. Kent State, 12,284 in four in a 20K-seat seat building. Attendance Friday was 10,132 for their Friday win over Central Michigan.
3. Idaho, 12,732 in five in a 16K-seat dome. Won on the road against San Jose where 10,621 were on hand in a 30K-seat building.
4. Western Kain’tuck, 15,284 in four in a 22K-seat stadium. Pulled 15,293 for a 10-9 win over FIU. Three-quarters full. Not too bad, but numbers in the 15s are not DivOne football.
5. New Mexico State, 15,743 in four in a 30K-seat building. Played on the road in front 92,746 at Georgia. The noise must have been bothersome. The Aggies lost 63-16.

Some major programs with low attendance this season are Cal, Northwestern and Cincinnati. Cal’s stadium is in remodel. The Bears are only averaging 37K playing at the San Francisco Giant’s ball park. Meanwhile, back in Berkeley, the “smokers” on Free Loaders Hill are sitting there, toking up, going, “When does the game start, man?” Northwestern is averaging 38K in a 47K-seat building. Cinncy is averaging 29K in a 35K-seat stadium, which is more than three-quarters full but with only a 35K-seater to work with ... and they wonder why the Big East has a problem.

The Heisman race
What do Don McPherson (Syracuse), Lorenzo White (Michigan State), Craig Heyward (Pitt), Chris Spielman (Ohio State), Thurman Thomas (Oklahoma State), Gaston Green (UCLA), Emmitt Smith (Florida) and Bobby Humphrey (Alabama) have in common?
    They were the runners-up in the 1987 Heisman voting when Touchdown Jesus’ beauty queen, Tim Brown, was named winner by the Downtown Athletic Club of New York.
    DDT overruled the “committee” and named Gordie Lockbaum of Holy Cross the winner that year and in several subsequent years, including 2010.
    Lockbaum currently leads Andrew Luck (Stanford), Kellen Moore (Boise State), and Trent Richardson (Alabama) in this year’s DDT Heisman voting.

BCS or FCS? Which is the better choice?
Interesting that with all the whore-dog conference jumping that’s happening that no teams are realigning themselves in DivOneAA (aka the FCS). We’re still seeing schools like Texas State, UTSA and Western Kentucky moving up to DivOne, where they’ll be guaranteed a number of suicidal losses playing for cash on the road against the big dogs outside their conference. Another manifestation of CRI that is viral in college athletics, now.
    DDT is on record as having said: All three service academies should drop back to DivOneAA; the entire MAC, WAC and Sunbelt, especially the Sunbelt, should be in OneAA; a number of Conference USA and Mountain West squads should join them.
   With some of the culls like UNLV and New Mexico out of the picture, the Mountain West should be made a BCS conference. In ConfUSA, programs like Rice, Tulane and UAB are too far gone to ever be a factor again and should drop back. Then what’s left of ConfUSA could merge with the Big East to salvage their BCS standing. The Big East is already after UCF, SMU and Memphis.
    The Big East doesn’t need any help in basketball where, as a 16-member league, they’re one of the top in the country. Which makes us wonder why Pitt and ‘Cuse jumped to the ACC.
    “We’re becoming a part of one of the top hoops conferences in the country,” they said.
    Sez DDT: “You already WERE part of one of the top hoops conferences in the country. Duh-uh!”
    It’s possible that the administrations at Pitt and ‘Cuse have been infiltrated by Aggies.
    Another of our proposals is an academic conference with strict caps on budgets. Some candidates, schools with higher academic standards and graduation rates than the Top 25 (the NFL farm teams) might be Rice, SMU, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Duke, Army, Navy, Air Force, Northwestern, Baylor, and Tulane. Stanford and Notre Dame have high standards but are hooked on money and win enough to run with the high-profile “pros.” Either one would be an asset to an academic loop if they’d cut their budgets and get real about expectations of national championships.

The Academies
Air Force, 5-4, beat Army 24-14. Next week, Wyoming.
Navy, 3-6, beat Troy 42-14. Next week, at SMU.
Army, 3-6, lost to Air Force 14-24. Next week, Rutgers.

Air Force will take home the Commander in Chief’s Trophy having beaten both Army and Navy.

Signs You're Watching Too Much Football

•Before lovemaking, you flip a coin to see who will receive.

•You've been banned from your neighborhood grocery for spiking melons.

•The kids bring home a good report card and you dump Gatorade on them.

•During lovemaking, you use a play clock.

•You fell in love with your wife because she looks like John Madden.

2011-11-02T14:39:00.009-06:00

“None of his decisions are life and death—no matter what the alumni might think—but he has to make countless make-or-break decisions every game—at 25-second intervals. Then he has to watch the whole thing boil down to a 19-year-old kicking a pointy ball between two pipes, 40 years away, into a crosswind—all in front of 100,000 screaming maniacs.”
—John U. Bacon, in his article “Return of the Mack” in Alcalde magazine

Lockbaum named Heisman Candidate

Lockbaum. Almost a lock to win the Heisman again in 2011

DDT’s 2010 winner of the Heisman Trophy, Gordie Lockbaum of Holy Cross, is again the front-runner in our Heisman balloting. Lockbaum was a runner-up in ‘87, losing out to Notre Dame’s beauty queen Tim Brown that year. However, DDT has in recent years named Lockbaum the winner—several times.
    Lockbaum was the last true candidate for the trophy. He played offense, defense and did the kicking for Holy Cross, a DivOneAA team. All other candidates since ‘87 have been pure products of big college media advertising, and DDT has taken the position that the award should be given to the Sports Information Directors at respective institutions of higher promotion.
Heisman trivia
Archie Griffin of Ohio State is the only player to receive the award twice, winning it as a junior in 1974 and a senior in 1975.

Charles Woodson of Michigan is the only primarily defensive player to win the award, doing so in 1997.

In 2007, Tim Tebow was the first sophomore to win the Heisman.

The player who received the most votes and won by the widest margin was O. J. Simpson of USC in 1968.

The closest margin of votes was in 2009 between winner Mark Ingram of Alabama and Toby Gerhart of Stanford.

Only eight of the 74 Heisman Trophy winners are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and only four winners have also been named Most Valuable Player in a Super Bowl. Some winners have gone on to play in other professional sports, including Bo Jackson in baseball and Charlie Ward in basketball.

Gordie Lockbaum is the only player to have been named winner more than three times (all by DDT), most of them after he had graduated.
For an SI story on Lockbaum, check: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1065445/1/index.htm

And from our O.J. Simpson aren’t you glad they didn’t win the award department:
Third place runner-up in 1997 was Ryan Leaf of Wazoo, last seen headed out of Canyon, Texas, where he had just been sacked as an assistant coach by West Texas A&M for buying and selling drugs.

Third place runner-up in 1994 was Steve McNair of Alcorn State, last seen on a coroner’s slab after being shot by his girl friend.

DDT may bill UNM $25,000
The University of New Mexico, whose tackle football program has hit bottom and is working its way down, will pay a consulting firm $25K to assist in their search for a new head football coach. According to AD Paul Krebs, his preferred candidate will have previous head coaching experience and recruiting connections in Texas. Previous ties to New Mexico would also be a bonus.
    DDT is already on record as saying that there’s only one man for the job: Mike “The Mad Pirate” Leach, recently of Texas Tech. Previous head coach, recruited Texas and New Mexico, all of the above.
    Leach won’t win right away in Albuquerque. Nobody will in a destitute program. But The Pirate gives good press conference. So while attendance at UNM footy matches will be off for a few years, tickets can be sold to Leach’s press conferences where he’ll create buzz.
    Comments like the ones he made at Tech about the player’s fat little girl friends will become the best show in the Land of Enchantment.
    If Leach is hired DDT will bill UNM $25K, since we had the idea first. The consulting firm, which at this point is clueless, may also get a bill if they claim it was their idea.

Gagliardi gets 482
JoePa gets 409
John and Joe, one and two on all time list
The St. John’s Johnnies’ win over Carleton, last week, gave head coach John Gagliardi his 482nd win in a 62-year career. He remains the winningest coach in college football history. St. Johns competes in the DivThree Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Association where they’ve won four national championships under Gagliardi.
    The Penn State Nittany Lions’ victory over Illinois was Joe Paterno’s 409th win, making him the second all-time winningest coach in the game (all divisions included) and the all-time winningest in DivOne. JoePa, in his 46th year at Penn State, has led the Nittany Lions to five undefeated seasons and two national championships.

2011-10-24T11:36:00.005-06:00

JoePa ties Robinson
Ready to become all-time winningest in DivOne
Penn State’s win over Northwestern, Saturday, was Joe Paterno’s 408th. Getting number 409 will be tough because in the next month the Nits get, in order, an angry Illinois (coming off an upset loss to Purdue), Nebraska, then finish on the road against Ohio State and Wisconsin.
    Currently, Penn State is on top of the Leader’s Div of the Big 10 and that final game with Wisconsin could be for the div championship and a shot at the first annual Big 10 playoff game and a BCS bowl.
Five winningest coaches all-time:
John Gagliardi*    481-133-11
Joe Paterno 408-136-3
Eddie Robinson    408-165-15
Bobby Bowden 377-129-4
Bear Bryant 323-85-17
*Currently coaching St. John’s, Minnesota

The Academies:
For the third time in four weeks, all three service academies lost. Navy and Air Force have been competitive. Army comes and goes. Navy got snookered out of a win, Saturday, on a close and controversial call at the end of the game, which should have resulted in a Navy score and the win.
Air Force, 3-4, lost to Boise State 26-37. Third loss in a row. Next week at New Mexico.
Army, 2-5, lost to Vanderbilt 21-44. Second loss is a row. Next week, Fordham.
Navy, 2-5, lost to East Carolina 35-38. Fifth loss in a row. Next week at Notre Dame.

2011-10-16T21:58:00.005-06:00

Texas/Texas A&M Thanksgiving rivalry is no more
Longhorns vs. Irish a new Turkey Day tradition?
Texas and Texas A&M started what became one of the greatest regional rivalries in college football in 1894 and have played every year since. Thanksgiving Day,1952, KTBC TV signed on in Austin, and their first broadcast was the Texas/Texas A&M game. One of the announcers was the late legendary Cactus Pryor.
   With Texas A&M’s move to the SEC/NFL, this year’s contest will be the last in the foreseeable future.
    When it was suggested by Texas A&M that the two meet as non-conference opponents starting next year, Texas said their dance card is full through 2018.
    DDT sez, since Texas and Notre Dame have scheduled four games starting in 2015 (2015, 2016, 2019, 2020) why not move that game to Turkey Day and start a new tradition?

Love for sale

The rumored migration of schools to new conferences continues.Each suggested move is prefaced and justified by a line that has become a mantra for the naïve: “We’ll make more money.” In most cases, they’ll also lose more games.

The Big 12 is reportedly still interested in Louisville, BYU and West Virginia. The Big East is after SMU, Boise State and all three service academies. East Carolina, UCF, Houston, Memphis and Villanova are rumored candidates for the Big East as well. And the Mountain West and Conference USA have proposed a merger.

DDT sez WVa won’t work for the Big 12. The Mountaineers are headed to the SEC, if anywhere, even though they’d be wise to stay put in the Big East. The scenario of SMU and Boise moving east would be as ridiculous as TCU’s recent, costly flirtation with the conference. The Frogs finally came to their senses and joined the Big 12, which is what SMU should do. Boise would be a good fit for the Big 12, too. However, a better fit for the Broncos would be to stay in the Mountain West, which will be strengthened by the additions of Fresno State and Nevada next year.

How the Mountain West and ConUSA are going to come up with a playoff with a total of 20 schools between them remains to be seen. ConUSA already has two divisions and a playoff, even though their numbers could change if some schools jump east.
The madness continues

Ten equals twelve

The Big 12 will be ten for dinner next year. TCU has joined the conference. Missouri is still contemplating defection but will remain aboard for 2012.     Here are the Big 12’s non-conference opponents for 2012 that have been announced so far. With nine conference opponents to play and, in some cases, three non-con games on the books, that would make a total of 12 regular season games.
    Some of these non-con match-ups, all announced before TCU joined last week, may have to be dropped if the respective schools decide to play an 11 game season.
    Of note is the OU/Notre Dame contest. The rest of the scheduling looks pretty fluffy.

Big 12 non-con schedules for 2012 as they stand, right now:
Texas: Wyoming, New Mexico, Ole Miss
Texas Tech: Texas State, New Mexico
TCU: Grambling, Virginia, SMU
Baylor: SMU, Sam Houston State, ULM
OU: Notre Dame
Oklahoma State: Arizona, Louisiana/Lafayette
Iowa State: Tulsa, Iowa, Western Illinois
Missouri: Southern Illinois, Arizona St., Miami (O)
KU: South Dakota State, Rice, Northern Illinois
KState: Miami (Fla.), North Texas

The Academies

Air Force, 3-3, lost to San Diego State 27-41. Next week at Boise State.
Navy, 2-4, lost to Rutgers 20-21. Next week, East Carolina.
Army, 2-4, was off. Next week at Vanderbilt.

From a former student of TAMU, whose alma mater’s inability to “finish” in football games was questioned by Brent Musberger after the Arkansas loss a couple weeks ago: Brent Musberger can kiss my ass. He probably rooms with Marv Albert (or whatever that creep’s name is) on the road and they exchange underwear.

2011-10-09T21:03:00.008-06:00

Possible signs of intellligent life in the Big 12

In a stunning, not to mention a rare rational move, the Big 12 has invited TCU to join up. The addition of the Frogs would be an asset to the conference. Others mentioned as possible invitees to the Big 12, which this year has only ten members and next year may have only nine, are Louisville, BYU and West Virginia. Lou Holz says the best two candidates for the conference are BYU and Boise State. All of the above with the exception of West Virginia, who is flirting the SEC/NFL, would be good choices.

    DDT sez, anybody who talks to the SEC is tainted, not to mention stupid. Let the SEC have WVa. Meanwhile, DDT says—again—that Houston and SMU would also be good additions to the Big 12. It’s time for SMU to climb back into the elite circle of college football and play their games in the “house that Doak Walker built,” the Cotton Bowl. And, as sports fans in the Southwest will recall, the first year Houston was part of the Southwest Conference (1976), they were conference champs and beat Maryland in the Cotton Bowl.
    But, now—now! here we go again—Missouri has come out of the closet and revealed their CRI (cranial rectal inversion) and said they want to join the SEC/NFL.
    The response in the lower tiers of the SEC—Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Mississippi—has been “come on down.” With Texas A&M’s jump to the Southeast, the addition of Missouri would give the have-nots in the SEC somebody else to beat up on. They could even have their own lower-division playoff. None of those will ever see the SEC conference championship game, the contest that the likes of LSU, ‘Bama, South Carolina and Florida own.
    So to TCU, come on home and start playing your old SWC rivals Texas, Baylor and Texas Tech. And to Missouri we say, we didn’t realize what toll the lack of oxygen in those dark hollers and foggy bottoms of the Ozarks had taken over the years. Have fun in the coliseum. Reference: Christians and lions. In this case, rednecks and lions. Look it up, try to figure out which one you’ll be.

From a Missouri fan: Boy, I say, Boy! Are you tryin’ to say we ain’t Christians in Missourah?

DDT: Not at all. You can be Christians and rednecks. Rednecks for Christ. Roll out to the tailgate parties on your Harleys, pass out a few Bibles. And have a snort of Jim Beam. It’ll ease your pain when you see what’s going to happen to you in the SEC.

Big 12 lives in the Sooner state for 2011

OU’s blowout of Texas and Oklahoma State’s abuse of Kansas last weekend established that the road to the Big 12 title, a BCS bowl, and possible a national championship runs through Oklahoma this year.
Okie Cowboy State is first in the nation in scoring and second in passing but has played poor D and will give up points. Their challenge: run up scores and hope the clock runs out before the other side catches up. OU, on the other hand, is playing better D and gave up only 36 yards to Texas on the ground. Sooners are weaker in passing D, which will be the key when they meet the Cowboys.

Letters sent to us or intercepted and deciphered by our enigma machine:

From our Hill Country bureau:

Well Al Davis has been booted between the uprights. I always liked him. He had a little class about him.
    When I was still doing fooball, the Raiders were "my" team. Always entertaining. ‘Twas a home for misfits. Big Ben Davidson was the first of the recognizable players to Joe Six Pack. He paved the way for a lot of them. Right up to the Boz.
    My mama became a pro football fan. She never got the names sorted out but John Madden was "that big old guy in the blue shirt who waves his arms all the time.”
    Last I had to do with pro football was when I wrote Jerry Jones a letter telling him he was an embarrassment to the whole state of Texas and should haul his sorry ass back to Arkansas. My statement still stands.

From a former student of a school whose team was struggling: Come on guys. There's more important things than how 18-year-olds play a game coached by over-paid idiots while we pay $50 to stand in the sun for three hours.

From a another former student of the same school: Well, I suppose in your hour of need (need a win) you are looking to me for solace and some guidance. One more play or this or that and we win (more) games. It was not a "choke" just lousy football in the second half.

And from a another former student of the same school: You guys are getting pretty testy. I guess the heat and drought are getting to you. Put things in perspective. It’s the fall of the year. Enjoy the cool mornings and great sunsets, shoot a few doves, and on Saturday, watch a good college football game with two teams you care nothing about—enjoy the moment.

2011-10-03T15:15:00.006-06:00

"They can't wait for that first SEC game against Vandy."

—Sportscaster Brent Musberger on Texas A&M's second half crash against Arkansas
and 0-7 record against SEC teams in recent years

Grapes of wrath avoided?

It didn’t happen, the 21st Century version of Steinbeck’s novel, with OU leading the wagon train west to the PAC12, followed by Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma state. The Big 12 will remain in tact for the time being, with one notable exception.
    Texas A&M made their shift official: They’re leaving home and abandoning decades of traditional rivalries to join the SEC. The Big 12’s mission, now, is to keep Missouri home and add a couple new members. Mizzou has flirted with the SEC but may be smart enough to know they can’t win over there.
    Good additions to the Big 12 would be Houston, SMU and TCU, assuming the latter has the juevos rancheros to pick up the gauntlet and come back to Texas now that their new nirvana, the Big East, is substantially diminished with the loss of Pitt and ‘Cuse, who have membered up with the ACC. UConn and Rutgers are talking about leaving the Big East, too, so TCU will be leaving a strong mid major to join what soon may become a mediocre mid major. From penthouse to outhouse.
    The arms race, riddled with hyprocrisy and infidelity, continues. Texas A&M accuses Texas of upping the ante by starting their own network, but the Aggie move to the SEC could end up hurting other programs which, in effect, is what they’re accusing Texas of doing. Baylor, KU, KState and Iowa State, all of which have invested fresh millions in upgrades, could be hurt the worst if the Big 12 is downgraded.
    But for the time being, the Big 12 Conference, the grandchild of the old Southwest Conference and the Missouri Valley Conference (aka Big 6, Big 7, Big 8) will remain as is.
    And Nero fiddled while Rome burned. In this case, Nero is the NCAA.

Ags await Vandy
The Texas State Boys and Girls Home for Farmers and Mechanics at College Station was rudely introduced to the SEC Saturday when they saw Arkansas come from behind to win the contest 42-38. The Cadets led 35-17 at the break.
   The Ags have been outscored 52-12 in the second halves of games this year. They have lost seven in a row to SEC squads and haven't beaten one since 1995.
   "They can't wait for that first SEC game against Vandy," said sportscaster Brent Musberger.

From the sketch book:
Ft. Hancock, Texas. Six man football. Friday night lights in heart of darkness far West Texas between El Paso and Van Horn. School buses and wooden bleachers and the whole town turning out for every game.
   No band because every boy in school was on the football team. Scores in the 70s every game.
   Ft. Hancock won a number of titles in six man but when their population grew and they had to join a larger division and start playing 11 man, they disappeared. Lost a lot of games.
   But the water tank out on the interstate still boasts the glory days and in big letters says, "Ft. Hancock, state champs in six man football, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991."
   I was coming out of Mexico after running a tour through Copper Canyon. Timed it just right and drove into Ft. Hancock in time for a hot dog, a Frito pie and a Coke and to watch "The Fort" maul their neighborhood rival Sierra Blanca.

2011-09-20T08:07:00.000-06:00

"A stunning, brazen lack of integrity." The comments of ESPN commentator Pat Forde about all the back room dealing that's going on between college administrators as they scramble to void all previous contracts, not to mention tradition, and realign themselves in super conferences, thinking they'll make more money.

2011-09-18T17:07:00.008-06:00

From a reader: Dear DDT, Keep 'em coming.

From another reader: Dear DDT, Keep 'em.

DDT proposes contemporary art look for college unis

DDT has taken the position that many college unis are taking “tacky nouveau" to new levels. Southern rednecks who buy their clothes at neighborhood yard sales have nothing on the “jammies” that schools like Oregon and San Diego State have been wearing. Now, even more schools have adopted new looks and change them weekly. Maryland leads the clothes hoss movement of 2011 with 30-some-odd combos they intend to wear. The state flag motif they wore for the Miami game, opening day, was only an hors d’eouvre.Nike is behind many of the unis. Their pro-combat series have been, almost without exception, ludicrous. Most notable was Georgia’s season opening dress-out for the Boise game. Boise also wore a Nike outfit, but their’s were mostly white and weren’t too bad. Georgia’s looked like something the Vatican guard would wear.

DDT proposes that schools go ahead and take fashion to the next level. The works of abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock and the hard-edged minimalist look of Piet Mondrian would be ideal for college footbal unis and would not only dazzle but might teach college footbaw players something about art history.

   Once the theme is established, the possibilities of artisitc affectation are endless.

Johnnies win in OT
Gagliardi gets milestone win in 28-21 victory over Concordia
from staff reports
   MOORHEAD, Minn. – St. John's stopped Concordia's Brett Baune a yard short of the goal line on fourth-and-goal to clinch a 28-21 overtime win on Saturday, Sept. 17, in Moorhead.
   The victory is the 480th of head coach John Gagliardi's 63-year collegiate coaching career (480-130-11) and 456th in 59 seasons at SJU (456-124-10).
   The Johnnies regained the lead in the contest on the first possession of overtime on a 14-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback John Ries to senior wide receiver Brent Graboski. Ries ended the day 21 of 25 passing for 207 yards and two touchdowns, both from 14 yards out to Graboski.
  Next week is homecoming for the Johnnies (2-1, 1-0 MIAA). Augsburg will be the opponent.
   DivThree Top 10 squads St. Thomas and Bethel remain on the SJU’s schedule. Both are MIAA conference members.

The Academies
Air Force, 1-1, was idle. Next week, Tennessee State.
Army, 1-2, big upset win over Northwestern, 21-14. Next week at Ball State.
Navy, 2-1, took South Carolina to the wire but lost 21-24. Next, Air Force in two weeks.

2011-09-12T10:21:00.005-06:00

Tradition, it’s not what it used to be

The grandfathers of the Big 12 Conference were the Missouri Valley and Southwest Conferences. The MVC was formed in 1907 with charter members Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Washington of Missouri. Iowa held dual membership in the Big 10. The SWC formed up in 1915 with Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Baylor, Arkansas, Rice and Oklahoma State.

In 1920, OU jumped to the MVC and, by 1921, after Iowa shifted to the Big 10 and Iowa State replaced them, the MVC had nine members: Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Washington of Missouri, Kansas State, Drake, Iowa State and Grinnell.

SMU joined the SWC in 1918; TCU in 1923.

In 1928, six members of the MVC formed the Big 6. They were Nebraska, OU, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri. In 1948, Colorado Joined and the conference became the Big 7. In 1960, Oklahoma State, which had been independent for a few years joined the Big 7 making it the Big 8. That same year, the SWC added Texas Tech. Houston joined the SWC in 1976.

Arkansas became one of the first programs to exhibit cranial rectal inversion (CRI) when, in 1992, they jumped to the SEC where they have for the most part disappeared.

After the Hog’s departure and SMU’s trip to the gallows, which helped kill the SWC, the Big 12 was established in 1996 with all of the former Big 8 and Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech from the SWC.

With the creation of the Big 12, the heart of two conferences was preserved in a viable arrangement with north and south divisions. However, CRI lay dormant in the DNA of a several programs and would emerge in coming years.

When the SWC broke up, Rice, UH, and a severely impaired SMU down-graded to mid-major Conference USA. TCU spent years wandering to the WAC, to C-USA, to the Mountain West but, now, in a blatant example of CRI, has joined the Big East.

Then CRI, like the creature in “Alien,” reemerged in the Big 12. First Nebraska and Colorado bolted—CU to the PAC12, NU to the Big 10, and the tradition of the southwest and midwest that connected back to the creation of the MVC in 1907 and the SWC in 1915, tradition that had been preserved in the Big 12 took a hickey. Now Texas A&M, failing to notice what happened to Arkansas in the SEC and having come down with CRI, possibly after intimate contact with NU and CU, has decided to try and move east, further damaging the Big 12. Intimate contact: We don’t call NU the Corn Fairies for nothing and Ralphie, the CU mascot, is actually a Buffalo gal.

It’s not a done deal, yet, the Aggie move. Talk of Texas, Texas Tech, OU and Oklahoma State moving west to the PAC12 has died off and the possibility of a lawsuit to keep TAMU from leaving the Big 12 could stop the Cadet’s move east. The SEC has said they won’t take a new member who has litigation pending.

DDT sez, “Litigation, come on down.”

Let’s leave things the way they are, now. NU and CU are gone. No big loss in the case of the whimpering Ralphies. The Children of the Corn on the other hand, were an asset. But both are gone. Forget about them.

Damage has been done, however. Nebraska’s traditional rivals have been in the states around them: Kansas and Missouri and Oklahoma. They’ve thrown that away. And Texas A&M’s traditional rivals are in the state of Texas and in the Big 12. They would toss that.

The most ridiculous move is TCU going to the Big East. What on earth has Fort Worth got in common with Piscataway, Syracuse, Pittsburg, Louisville, Cincinnati, Tampa, Blacksburg and Storrs? TCU belongs in the Big 12, playing traditional rivals in the state of Texas. Too bad they don’t have the huevos rancheros to take the challenge.

Tradition. It’s not what it used to be.

DDT the old school, out of touch rag that thinks small and dreams the dreams of better days in college football

2011-09-05T14:50:00.027-06:00

From a reader: You’re an old Gringo living in Taos, New Mexico writing about football at a small, private Catholic school in Minnesota that plays DivThree non-scholarship football. 'Sup wit dat?

DDT: Don’t forget the FCS, aka DivOneAA and the service academies. DDT is writing about them, too. All of the above are closer to the more honest, non-corporate game we grew up with. Put another way, they have lower budgets and the coaches make less money, but there’s still an innocence and authenticity there that has been lost in the big college game.

Winningest coach wins another

Gagliardi

Johnnies take opener
The St. John’s Johnnies of Collegeville, Minnesota started the 2011 campaign with a 34-0 win over Northwestern College of St. Paul. The Johnnies, coached by John Gagliardi, the winningest active coach in college football, are picked to finish third behind St. Thomas and Bethel in the DivThree Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAA).

Gagliardi, in his 59th year in Collegeville, has 479 wins, has led St. John’s to four national championships, and has the winningest overall record in DivThree.

With a crowd of 7,800 looking on, the Johnnies opened up a 27-0 halftime lead over NW, added another touch in the second half and coasted to the 34-0 final.

Junior running back Stephen Johnson led the way for St. Johns with 111 yards on 19 carries, including 81 yards in the second quarter alone. Johnson had a 27-yard TD run and five receptions for 20 yards on the day.

The Johnnies host the Wisconsin-Eau Claire Blugolds next Saturday, Sept. 10. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at Clemens Stadium in Collegeville.

DivOne Bubble coaches:

Pac-10

Jeff Tedford, Cal. Tedford has perpetuated Cal's tradition of bridesmaidmanship, finishing in the middle of the PAC10 (now the PAC 12) every year, but Cal fathers don't even know it. It's Cal/Berkeley. They're still marching around with placards protesting the war in Vietnam. Football? They don' need no stinkin' football. Except up on Tightwad Hill, which overlooks the Cal stadium, where freeloaders can watch a contest at no charge and partake of vast qualities of enchanted herb that's passed around during the games (“Yeehaa, Jane Fonda! Free Angela Davis!”) If Cal’s admin ever wakes up, Tedford could be in trouble.

Paul Wulff, Washington State. Wulff got Eastern Washington to the Top Ten in DivOneAA, which got him the Wazoo job. EW remains in the Top Ten in DivOneAA while Wulff and Wazoo are in the Bottom Ten in DivOne.

Rick Neuheisel, UCLA. The mission: Replace USC as number one in L.A. Say no more.

The whole state of Arizona:
Mike Stoops, AZ, has made it to the base of the mountain but has not made it to the summit and has not “seeeen the promised land.”

Dennis Erickson, AzState, could probably care less. He has been to the promised land with a couple programs and has coached in the NFL. AzState is just a postlude. If he wins, fine. If he doesn’t, he was going to retire, anyway.

Mountain West:
Mike of Locksley, UNM, has the worst record in DivOne (2-22) and has established the Lobos at the bottom, as in a rating of number 120 (out of 120 DivOne teams). Whew. If he makes it through the season, DDT will be surprised.
First casualty. Locksley a goner on Sept. 25.

Steve Fairchild, Colorado St. Lot of promise at the outset. But, now, lot of empty seats. And more players in trouble as well. Saturday, with fourth and one on his own 40 and less than a minute to go, Fairchild called a run and got stuffed. Ball over to UNM, giving the Lobos a short field and a chance to win. Fortunately for Fairchild the Lobos couldn’t capitalize and ColoSt. survived. Fairchild may not.

Whoever is coaching at UNLV. What’s his name who replaced what’s his name. They don’t win in Vegas, they just change coaches every other year or so. In Vegas, football is just another lounge act at Motel Six.

Conference USA:
Bob Toledo, Tulane, hasn’t really done much since he got there but he stuck it out through Katrina so that probably bought him some respect. But the clock is running.

Mike Price, UTEP. Price was filling up the Sun Bowl and winning a respectable number of games a few years ago. But attendance has dipped by about 20K per home contest in the last couple seasons, and the Miners have only been to one bowl game in six years, which was the New Mexico Bowl, last year, where they got blown out by BYU.

Neil Callaway, UAB. Give anybody credit who takes a head job in the state of Alabama where you have to compete against the two big dogs, but Callaway is 15-33 in five years with no bowl games.

MAC:
That great stepping stone in the Midwest: Urban Meyer, Bowling Green to Utah to Florida; Brady Hoke, Ball State to SDState to Michigan; Turner Gill, Buffalo to KU; Jerry Kill, Northern Illinois to Minnesota; Butch Jones, Central Mich to Cinncy; Al Golden, Temple to Miami. The trick is not to stay too long. Couple winning seasons in the MAC, then make the leap.
•Golden may be making another move, soon, if Miami gets the death penalty. None of the current violations under investigation happened on his watch, so he’s clean. But he could wind up in the unemployment line. DDT thought he might be the next head man at Penn State if JoePa retires after this year or next. That possibility may open again.

The Indies:
Brian Kelley, Notre Dame. It goes with the territory at South Bend. Step on to the field, step on to the bubble. There’s not enough Prozac to settle the fans and alums down at ND. Of course, winning a national championship would buy coach a year—but only a year.

WAC:
Everybody. The whole conference should down-size to DivOneAA. The WAC is a boring book and everybody disappears in the end, or, if they’re lucky like Derek Dooley (now at Tennessee), steps up and out quickly.

Sun Belt:
Everybody. The whole conference should down-size to DivOneAA. The SB is a boring book and everybody disappears in the end.

2011-09-01T13:56:00.012-06:00

Dark clouds hang over storied programs
at Miami, North Carolina, Ohio State and
Oregon as the season begins.
Will we see another death penalty?
Some say, "Yes !"

Pigskin Ramadan
Now begins the sacred season in which thousands upon thousands of hopeful pilgrims will return to the campuses of their graduation, not to mention the scenes of youthful bacchanalias, whilst millions of others will prostrate themselves in front of a flickering tube at least five times a day to check scores and highlights and watch hormonally induced young men scrum in one of America’s most highly rated forms of entertainment—college football. In the latter case, the supplicants won’t bow head down before their electronic altar, they’ll stretch out feet first in a recliner and sup the communion of beer and brats as they observe the annual fall festivals.

But the 2011 college football season begins with more dark clouds hanging over it than, possibly, at any other time in the history of the game: investigations, the possibility of another death penalty, player delinquency and arrests, member unrest stirred by a new independent network which, in the latter case, has led to more talk of conference realignments.

The Big 12 is under fire again with talk about Texas A&M jumping to the SEC. DDT, first against the move, has changed positions. If the Ags are naïve enough to think they’ll accomplish anything by heading east, let them—but with the caveat that the Texas rivalry is canceled.

Go east, you farmers and cadets, go east. Let the state of Texas be your Egypt. Flee and wander the swamps of the southeast in search of your promised land, but like Moses and the children of Israel get ready for a long and tortured trek.

Texas’ new network has caused no end of controversy.* Does Texas need a network? DDT is in favor of a Big 12 Conference network to keep the playing field level and to keep everybody together. Add SMU, Houston and maybe Tulane to round out the league. Rumor mongers have the conference talking to BYU, Louisville and even Notre Dame about joining. The latter three make good slow-news-day stories but have little chance of becoming reality. The former three would work, especially by including a resurgent SMU that has JerryWorld and the Cotton Bowl to play in.

Independent networks are another consequence of

Texas, the new anti-Christ,
striking fear into the hearts of
Corn Fairies in Nebraska
and Aggies in Texas.

the arms race in collegiate athletics that is leading to a form of natural selection—in this case unnatural selection—which allows the rich to get richer while the poor get poorer. The lesser endowed major programs in DivOne, evidently Texas A&M feels like they’re one of them, and the mid majors seem to think they’re falling behind.

And where is the NCAA in all this? Nowhere!

The current generation of chancellors, regents, university presidents and athletic directors are determined to put their stamp on the game, one that will be remembered like the mark of Cain.

Ridiculous shifts in conferences memberships (TCU to the Big East), the failure to police members who can’t police their own programs (Ohio State, North Carolina, Miami, Oregon, USC), and the failure to work out an arrangement with the NFL to prevent agents from corrupting players have revealed the NCAA to be an administrative machine whose wheels have come off. The game that tied generations together is no longer about tradition. It’s about money.

DDT sez CAP IT! Budget caps on programs, salary caps on coaches. Put a ceiling on spending so that nobody can go beyond a certain point in spending. After that, if the other programs can’t keep up, let them join DivTwo—which, as DDT has postulated many times, would be a good alternative for any number of mid majors and maybe even the military academies.

College football is a game soiled by greed and mismanagement but is still a game we follow on the field, so now that the off-season and preseason antics are behind us, let’s fire up the grill, barbecue some burgers and brats, slug down a few cervez’, get ready to tee ‘er up and dream the dreams of autumn days when the game connected us to our fathers and grandfathers, days when tradition counted for something.

2011-08-14T22:09:00.008-06:00

Preseason mascot trivia: Among the 120 DivOne college football squads, "Tigers" is the most popular nickname. There are five. Memphis is the least Tiger-like of the group, having been a doormat in Conference USA for years. The rest play a decent brand of tackle football.

Of Wildcats there are four in DivOne and three each of Bulldogs, Huskies, Eagles, Cougars and Aggies. There are a couple each of Cardinals, Cowboys, Broncos, Owls and Spartans. The rest fall into individual categories of their own.

LSU, Auburn, Missouri, Memphis, Clemson

Kentucky, Northwestern, Arizona, KState

Parting shots from 2010, some graphics

2011-01-05T16:49:00.018-07:00

A few sketches from the 2010 season and other seasons. Click on the individual images to get a bigger look.