Week 9: NCAA Ruminations

Big 10, Schmig 10
Quick - what team has the best record in the Big 10 - don't look!

Yep - the Nittany Lions. After tanking at Ohio State, the Badgers are suffering big time. Guess who Wisconsin is tied with in the "Leaders" division of the Big 10?  Purdue. The same team that, once again, shriveled in the face of the Wolverines. The league is doing itself no favors with Michigan State looking helpless against Nebraska.

Big 12, Schmig 12
Really Texas Tech? Not only do you lose to Iowa State, you get pancaked by them. This is a team that lost 4 straight games to league opponents and you lose BIG to them AT HOME.

Really Kansas State? Shades of the past - you give up 35 unanswered points in the second half?

Remember when Baylor was the talk of the town? Baylor? Meet a real offense, real offense? Feast away.

In the defense of Mizzou: take a look at Missouri's schedule sometime...they had an early game at Arizona State. Have all ready played Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, and Texas A&M (they managed to beat the Aggies today). In the next 3 weeks they travel to Baylor, and then host Texas and Texas Tech. They finish the season with a gimme against Kansas. That's a tough schedule no matter how you slice it. Prep for the SEC apparently (expect for the part about travelling west of the Mississippi to play a quality non-conference opponent in the regular season)

ACC, Scmay CC
I never, not for once, figure Clemson would be the golden goose that would give the ACC it's first national title since the 1999 FSU team. No, this is Clemson, and not since its last, and only, national title in 1981 has it ever gone a season without an implosion. I knew it was coming. In these blogs I predicted it would be against NC State. It came a few weeks earlier against Georgia Tech, which ran Paul Johnson's madman scheme to perfection. When the Yellow Jackets are clicking, they are the most frustrating team I could imagine having to face. The Hokies have been victimized by it many times. Any given possession could use 8 minutes of time with the Jackets run-first, run-second, run-always offense. Clemson was down early and that was that.

So the Hokies struggled to beat Duke. And by struggled I mean Duke had a chance until a final interception doomed the Devils with under a minute to play. Good thing the Hokies are really clicking right before they face....Georgia Tech.

Headline from Friday "Cavaliers Shock Miami". The only truly shocking part was that Jacory Harris didn't throw a pick.

Dear Maryland, Great move firing the ACC Coach of the Year last year. Super. How's that working out for you anyway?

And a hearty congratulations to Boston College for finally beating a team that plays above the Pop Warner level.

All day Saturday I heard how FSU has now beaten three straight opponents by 25 points or more for the first time since forever. No one mentioned that those three opponents were Duke, Maryland and NC State - a combined 3-10 in league play. Next week the Noles get Boston College.

SEC, SchmessEC
Having suffered through another Florida loss (four straight) in my household, it is hard to take any kind of non-biased approach. One thing I can say about yesterday is that Will Muschamp may have been left a mess by Urban Meyer BUT Urban Meyer didn't leave a disorganized mess that can't send in a play from the sideline in time to avoid about 27 delay of game penalties. Coach, Meyer never used running backs - but he had Tebow. You don't. You need a running game in the worst possible way.

Georgia has the following left on it's schedule: New Mexico State (really?), Auburn, Kentucky, and Georgia Tech.  They could easily be 10-2 after an 0 and 2 start. They could seriously lose to the SEC West champ, whoever it is, by 70.

Vanderbilt - stupid kickers.

Remember when Houston Nutt was awesome? Neither does he.

Pac 12, Schmack 12
Gosh - it just breaks my heart to see Lane Kiffin lose in triple overtime at home to Stanford.

I almost said that with a straight face.

Big East, Schmig East
If anyone is curious, the Big East is still holding games.

Others Schmothers
Take away Case Keenum's stat-padding 9 TDs from Friday night's win over Rice and he STILl leads the nation in passing TDs.

NOTRE DAME BEAT NAVY! NOTRE DAME BEAT NAVY!

Outside of Boise State in the Mountain West, no non-BCS conference has a team with fewer than 2 losses. The Mid-American and Mountain West conferences have no team with fewer than 3 losses. This is why you don't get to sit at the big boy table.

Week 9: Main Pool Update

Holy cow what an evening of football! OSU and Wiscy, USC and Stanford - all down to the wire! In our own action, Go Terps made a charge with a week's best 11 picks to reclaim a piece of the top spot with last week's leader Holy Mackerel III (he went a LOT better than his real life Terps who dropped one to Boston College). Our fearless leaders sit at 104 points on the season. Fast on their heels are Show me the Money (102), sportchief (101), and three players at 100.

Best Pick Award
Boardwalk Empire for both Vandy and Duke, Tiger Town for Duke, and Vol Nation for Vandy

Worst Pick Award
Club Zartrump for a no-show and those of you who, along with me, thought Colorado would show at least a pulse.

Week 9: Elimination Pool Results

Down to two as Texas Tech let down WyoKat:

Week 9: Elimination Pool Picks

Three men enter, how many leave?

BUCFP Exclusive! Some insight into the future of NCAAF from the Executive Director of the Gator Bowl!

Just something of interest to my little BUCFPites who all know and love the game of college football as much as I. I saw a presentation by Rick Catlett, the executive director of the Gator Bowl (this year to be sponsored by TaxSlayer.com - how bad arse is that?). Rick shared some insights as to what he believes is happening to college football:

1) There will be four 16 team conferences. They will be the SEC, ACC, Pac 12, and Big 10 (whatever they end up naming them once there are 16 teams).
2) The goal of the presidents of the big schools is to get college football back to what it was in the traditional D1 days of 74 teams competing for a national title, versus 100+.
3) Geographic ties are a thing of the past. (i.e. - the Big 10 may look east. The Pac 12 will certainly look in the midwest. The SEC may look outside of the southeast)
4) There will not be a playoff akin to the D1AA model - ever. There may be a 1+ model using the champs from each of the 4 mega-conferences and playing the winners in a be all end all title game (that is estimated to add $150M in value)
5) All the other teams will simply have to fend for themselves.
6) This will still fall under the NCAA but with a different set of rules for football.
7) Notre Dame will not survive as an independent - Catlett says it will be the Big 10 for the Irish
8) Texas will not survive under anything but an equal revenue sharing model. Catlett thinks they are Pac 10 bound along with Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State

This guy has been on the inside for a long time and I think, while he was expressing his opinion, it is closer to the truth than much of what we've heard.

Just thought I'd share!

Week 8: NCAA Ruminations

Unbelievable! Oklahoma loses in a contest it had no business losing! That never happens - expect in each of the past 10 years. I always kick myself for not being able to pick that game because you just KNOW it's coming. How Texas Tech lost two games with THAT offense is beyond me but they were a lot of fun to watch. Yes, the wife and I made it to 1:30 AM to see the conclusion. Of course we had an adrenaline rush going from the end of Michigan State/Wisconsin. Ahhh, the old Hail Mary off the Helmet play - just like we drew it up!

Speaking of Michigan State, here's what I recommend for practice this week. Each player and member of the coaching staff received 18 strikes from a cane, Singapore style. That would be one strike for every point you LOST TO NOTRE DAME by! Seriously? How...how did that happen.

Here's a question - does this ever happen in the NFL?

How HUGE is the build-up going to be to Bama LSU on Nov. 5. Each team has a bye week coming off of absolute domination of two name SEC programs. How big is this game going to be? How much will it be talked about? Does the NFL generate this kind of buzz over anything short of the Superbowl? And this is mid-season. That's why I love college football.

Is anyone having a quieter season than Kansas State? If you didn't know, and you couldn't be faulted for it, the Wildcats are undefeated. Among their victories, they've beaten Baylor, Missouri, Miami, and Sooner-slayer Texas Tech. They get Oklahoma and Oklahoma state back-to-back over the next two weeks. Probably a loss or two in there but they have as strong a resume as anyone in the country right now.

Hate to tell you this Boise: Struggling to beat a 3-3 Air Force team at home is going to doom you. That's the kind of thing that happens when you are perceived to have a cupcake schedule. I'm not saying it is fair, and in late October, a W is a W no matter how you slice it, but the reality is - there is, in fact, a different standard for you.

Remember when Colorado was an Elite Program? Boy that was a terrific add Pac 12! Oregon 45, Colorado 2.

While we are on the expanded conference topic...Utah's entree into the Pac 12 isn't going so well either. To date, the two new league players are 0 for 7 in league play.

Clemson Can? I'm going to put it in black and white now. I see a rematch coming for the Hokies in the ACC title game. And I'm also going to say that will not work out well for the Tigers.

Nittany Lion Love? Ever think you'd see a Penn State team at 7-1 and 4-0 in Big Ten play and it be completely ignored by the press? Be honest with yourself, did you even know JoePa's group was playing that well (that question does not go to Hot Rats or White Out)? They get the suddenly Zook-like Illini next week but the real test is the following week when the Cornhuskers come to Happy Valley. They get past that one and that will make for a huge season-ender against Wisconsin!

Why does New Mexico even field a football team? Seriously.

Week 8: Main Pool Update

HOLY MACKEREL What a day!
No seriously. What a day for Holy Mackerel III who took first place with a week's best 11 points. She now sits atop the standings with 96 points for the year. Holding close still is last week's co-leader WkyoKat who sits in second with 95. Our other co-leader from last week laid an egg with 7 points and fell to sixth place as a result.

Out leaders are starting to pull away from the field. Only eight players sit within 5 points of Mackerel.

Best Pick Award
TigerTown, Hot Rats, and Eagles for Miami over the now-reeling Yellow Jackets

Worst Pick Award
Shajawilsav, WyoKay, and Boardwalk Empire for Minnesota
TigerTown, Springfield Atoms, and cock-a-doodle-doo for Missouri

BUCFP Hall of Fame
A few days after GIVING BIRTH to a beautiful baby girl, UTK'03 brings it with a week's best 11 points. Unfortunately last week she didn't get any picks in - the blame for this, of course, goes to her hubby Vol Nation who didn't have "Make BUCFP Picks" on his baby trip check list. Congrats to both of you!

Whiel on baby talk, a special nod goes to A2 Boiler who just announced he has another one on the way.

As the administrator of the pool, always concerned about long-term viability, it pleases me to no end to see production towards a second generation of BUCFPites.

BUCFP Week 8: Elimination Pool Update

And then there were three:

Seven entered the week still vying for the Elimination Pool title. Two were taken out when ole Sparty hail mary'd its way to a win. Mutt put his faith in the toothless (literally and figuratively) Mountaineers. And Yours truly picked the wrong week - Boise finally idled its engines.

BUCFP: Week 7 Main Pool Update

What an exciting day of college football. Clemson and Maryland put on a show worthy of its own 30 minute highlights package. Auburn and Florida slugged it out SEC style. LSU and Bama keep on rocking towards the megadeath match on November 5 and Oklahoma State and Oklahoma keep pounding opponents, probably with an early December head-to-head match up in mind. And in the pool, things are heating up big time...

Go Terps, unlike his actual Terps, fought hard until the end of the day to reclaim a tie for first with last week's sole leader, WyoKat. Show Me the Money continues his impressive mid-season run and sits in 2nd along with Holy Mackerel III, who can offset her disappointment with losing out on the Elimination Pool thanks to South Carolina's intentional safety. Right behind that group sits Week 7's superstars: A2Boiler and Springfield Atoms in 5th and 6th place after their week's best 13 point performances.

At the low end of the scale sits UTK'03, who couldn't be bothered with picking this weekend. Not far behind is Rocky Flop, who didn't get a point until about 9 in the evening. A relatively strong finish netted him 5 points at least.


Best Pick:
No one really stands out here - maybe the people that figured Illinois would Zook it up against Ohio State and its  newly replenished roster of felons.

Worst Pick:
The entire pool. Not one player picked UVA. Not one.

BUCFP Week 7: Elimination Pool Update

Well, my prediction almost came true. VT didn't blast the young punks of Wake right away, but they did manage a good old fashioned whuppin' after a slow start. White Out is surprisingly the first player to choose Boise and its scoring machine and survives to Week 8. WyoKat, Hot Rats, and randomaxe sweated it out with Clemson but live to see another day. A2 Boiler and the Mutt hung their hats with the Cowboys.

Holy Mackerel II and Shajawilsav had the cover until the final seconds of the South Carolina game. Springfield Atoms went with Georgia Tech, which laid an egg against UVA. 10 entered the weekend, 7 leave:

BUCFP Special Feature: My Week 7 Elimination Pick and the 80's Hair Metal Band Cinderella

I am a 40 year old father. What I've come to understand is that I don't care about anything. This epiphany has greatly increased my understanding and appreciation for my own father. For those of you in similar shoes, you might understand my position of not caring. For those of you who are not, let me explain:

1) I don't care what clothes I wear.
2) I don't care that my music is dated.
3) I don't care about what people I don't know think about me or my clothes or my music.

The list goes on and on, but in short, I just don't care. And it is FANTASTIC! I never realized how liberating the 40 year old father mindset can be. Life is wonderful.

And this brings me to my special feature column topic: What exactly do my Week 7 Elimination Pick and the 80s hair metal band Cinderella have in common. let me begin with a true story:

A few months ago I found myself behind the wheel of my Camry, crawling through the ever present traffic in Jacksonville, Florida, on my way home after work. Traffic is not always a bad thing, because, as we all know, the car is often the only place a father/husband can get some peace and listen to whatever he damn well pleases. As such, I had my XM Radio tuned into a glorious station known as "Hair Nation". For us 40 year old white males, that station is a trip down memory lane. In addition to the aforementioned Cinderella, you get a healthy dosage of Guns 'n Roses, Whitesnake, Poison, Judas Preist, Ozzy, and so much more. It is loud, obnoxious, and PERFECT.

So there I was heading east on Beach Boulevard, minding my own business and rocking out, when up besides me, crawling along at my pace came the car driven by a young punk. Now, though I recognize I too was once a young punk, I've come to learn that, with my new mindset, comes along a general disdain for any activity undertaken by anyone between the ages of, say, 12 and 29. So here comes the young punk blaring some kind of indecipherable, incomprehensible, bass-thumping, diarrhea inducing "music". You all know the drill - the bolts of his car were shaking loose at the heavy thumb of the bass of a song that, no doubt "featured" an "artist" with "li'l" in his name. That's right - here I am minding my own business, rocking out at a reasonable volume and thinking of the day and up comes young punk with nerve enough to think that he is going to get his way. 38 year old Ultimate Bill may have digressed but not 40 year old Ultimate Bill. no sir. Just as the opening  chords of Cinderella's "Somebody Save Me" came on Hair Station, every aggravated fiber in my body told me it was time for a come-uppance. And with that, I rolled down my window and dialed up the volume on my factory installed Japanese made stereo and let loose with:

I shook that little sniveling wimp to his core. He didn't know what hit his little dance-hall music butt. He couldn't get out of my sight fast enough. Win for the middle aged guys!

ed note: This is all a true story. I did in fact, crank this song in this exact scenario. Whether the young punk actually heard me is debatable but he did exit the highway shortly thereafter so let's go with my theory.


What does this have to do with the Elimination Pick? Let's begin with my pick - I select the Virginia Tech Hokies (-6.5) over Wake Forest. Is this homerism at it's best? No. You know why? Virginia Tech is the 40 year old father in this scenario and Wake is the young punk that's about to get a beat down of Cinderella-esque proportions. 6.5 measly points? In the first quarter you little sniveling Demons. To wit:

Wake Forest is but one of a handful of teams that have NEVER beaten Virginia Tech in ACC play. Now, on paper, Wake would appear to have some hope for this one. They are riding high on an unbeaten streak in league play, including last week's home win over the now pedestrian Seminoles (riddled with injuries). They are the darling of the ACC media scene. And Virginia Tech has all ready had it's big time aspirations crushed under the weight of a beat-down in Blacksburg at the hands of Clemson. But, as Coach Corso says, "NOT SO FAST!"

The Hokies righted their offensive ship by putting on a fireworks display against Miami, including Logan Thomas' otherworldly QB performance (responsible for 5 TDs and a 250+ QB Rating). "But wait Bill! The defense was very generous against a Miami team that is mediocre at best." I agree Mr. Naysayer but let me share with you what probably happened behind closed-doors in Bid Foster's locker room:

"YOU LOWLIFES LET THAT ASCOT-WEARING, FREE-SLINGING, MONEY GRUBBING, BURNOUT OF A QB NAMED JACORY HARRIS LIGHT YOU UP! YOU LET MIAMI RUN AT WILL......IN MY HOUSE!?!?!?  PREPARE YE GENTLEMEN FOR A WEEK OF PAIN. PAIN SO GREAT YOU WILL WISH YOU CHOSE THE GLEE CLUB WAY BACK IN NINTH GRADE. PAIN SO GREAT THAT IT WILL BRING YOU NOTHING BUT PLEASURE TO STROLL INTO WINSTON-SALEM TO INFLICT PAIN UPON SOMEONE ELSE. NEXT WEEK, YOU SHALL OWN THE DEMON DEACONS BUT THIS WEEK YOUR SORRY BUTTS BELONG TO ME!"

This would be followed by much pants-wetting and clipboard smashing.

No, my friends, Wake doesn't have a chance this weekend. I'm going to take the easy cover of 6.5 points and go with my Hokies. And with that, God bless America and God bless Judas Priest, because Wake Forest, if you think you have a chance this weekend? YOU GOT ANOTHER THING COMING...

Week 6: Main Pool Update

Without the benefit of Yahoo's page, which is not available until tomorrow (I'm writing this after the Nebraska/Ohio State game), I've taken a stab at current standings. It would appear that we have a new leader among us: all hail WyoKat, who's 13 points were good enough to garner 76 points and the top spot through week 6. The hot rocket this week was with Hot Rats, who catapulted into a log jam at second place with his week's best 15 point performance. Joining him with 75 points total for the year to date are GoTerps, Holy Mackeral III, Show Me the Money, and Sportchief. The top 17 spots are within 10 points of the leader so we have a tight race with a lot of weeks to go!

One item of note is Shajawilsav's free fall from the top continues. After a week where he missed picking half the games, he puts in a morbid 8 correct picks (having tried them all) to drop into 14th place for the season to date. Can the two-time title holder pick up the pieces?

Best Pick Award
bk all day and sportchief with Wake Forest.

Worst Pick Award
No real clear winners here so I'll just stick with anyone that thought Fresno St was going to be within a mile of Boise or Vandy would compete with any pride against Alabama.

BUCFP Week 6: Elimination Pool Update

T'was a bloodbath this week. For realz. 21 players entered Week 6. 10 leave.

BUCFP Week 5: NCAA Ruminations

This week had three tantalizing match-ups between high ranked teams: Bama at Florida; Clemson at VT; and Nebraska at Wisconsin. All of them turned into high-class duds for games. The real action took place earlier in the day, beginning with a very interesting Illinois/Northwestern game that I otherwise wouldn't have watched a single down except it caught my eye at the end. At the same time, Texas A&M and it's soon to be conference brethren Arkansas Razorbacks went toe-to-toe in a slugfest in the Jerry Jones dome. This too was an awesome game.

The second round of games were also intriguing with Kansas State bursting Baylor's bubble in the last minute of regulation, Auburn looking like it may not have lost too much mustard from it's hotdog by beating the Stephen "Fence Post" Garcia led South Carolina Gamecocks, and SMU BEATING TCU in overtime!?!?!? TCU's downfall has been hard - think about the fact that Andy Dalton is a starting NFL QB one year removed from TCU and you begin to see how the smaller programs fortunes can really ride on that once-in-a-lifetime player.

The evening games might have answered some questions, but then again, might not have. Is Bama THAT good or was Florida really not tested yet? Brantley's injury really didn't have much to do with the outcome. Florida couldn't run against Bama - period. Mark it down folks - November 5th. Tide/LSU...as showmethemoney texted to me last night "someone will likely get decapitated in that game" because those two teams are just nasty. I really didn't see much of the Wisconsin Nebraska tilt but I was never sold on Nebraska and I couldn't figure out why they were ranked so high. As much as it pains me to say it, the Badgers are the REAL deal. There really is no one in the Big10 that is even close right now. The rest of their schedule doesn't have Michigan, which appears to be the only Big10 team with any kind of offensive pulse right now.

I don't think I can stomach addressing the Virginia Tech debacle. The offense in Blacksburg is so putrid right now it makes one wonder what has to happen for Beamer to EVER make a change. This was a team that simply couldn't do anything with the ball. The shame of it is the defense is top tier caliber again. I certainly expect Clemson to stumble as always (look for a loss to NC State on Nov 19 - big trap game before facing South Carolina) but they took it to the birds in the Burg last night. Yuck.

Week 5: Main Pool Update

Some shake-ups in the pool this week, including shajawilsav spotting the first 10 games to the entire pool. His generosity led to his free fall from 1st to 12th. His co-leader, GoTerps, put in a 9 point week to maintain top spot all by himself with a total of 65 points.. WyoKat and Sportchief put in two solid weeks to move into a tie for 2nd with 63 points. Wyokat and Uncle Buck both led the pool with a week's best 12 points.

Despite shaja's 10 game staggered start, both hokeustheway and yours truly, Ultimate Bill, could only beat him by 2. That's just awful. Given the Hokies destruction at the hands of Clemson, the Boiler's destruction at the hands of the Irish, and the Gator's destruction at the hands of the Tide, it was an all-around craptastical day in the Ultimate household.

Best Pick Award
Best pick goes to Uncle Buck. It is rare that only one player will go with a team that covers but it happened this week when Buck took SMU to cover the now-pedestrian TCU Horned Frogs.

Honorable Mention goes to Peter Pantsless and Boardwalk Empire who went with KState to cover (and beat) Baylor.

Worst Pick
Besides, shaja's no shows, worst pick awards go to UTK'03 and hokeustheway for picking NC State to beat GT straight up.

Honorable mention goes to me for everything I did.

BUCFP Week 5: Elimination Pool Update

We have our first two eliminations of the season. geauxboygeaux went with Illinois to cover 8 on Northwestern. While Zook and crew pulled off a late game miracle, it wasn't enough to satisfy the bookies. TigerTown went with Nebraska which was rudely welcomed into the Big10 with a trouncing by Wisconsin (who happened to be the elimination choice of BigOrange!)

21 players (most of whom took the no line game with GT) survive into Week 6.

Pick Set Name Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5
  Vol Nation FSU Baylor TCU Clemson
  Ultimate Bill * FSU Baylor TCU GT
  sportchief MiSt Baylor TCU GT
  Peter Pantsless WVU Mizzou Wiscy GT
  Springfield Atoms MiSt Baylor TCU Bama
  Rocky Flop WVU Baylor TCU Michigan
  Augusta DayStrippers MiSt Baylor TCU GT
  Boardwalk Empire MiSt Mizzou TCU GT
  Eagles FSU Baylor TCU Michigan
  Show Me The Money WVU Baylor TCU GT
  A2Boiler WVU Baylor TCU GT
  WyoKat MiSt Mizzou TCU GT
  cock-a-doodle-doo FSU Florida TCU GT
  Go Terps WVU Baylor TCU Bama
  Holy Mackerel III FSU Baylor TCU Texas
  Hot Rats WVU South Florida TCU Texas
  BigOrange FSU Baylor TCU Wiscy
  White Out LSU Oregon Wiscy Oklahoma
  randomaxe  FSU Mizzou TCU GT
  Shajawilsav WVU Baylor TCU GT
The Ugly Mutt FSU Baylor TCU GT
  geauxboygeaux MiSt Mizzou TCU Illinois
  TigerTown WVU Baylor TCU Nebraska