College football Saturday open thread

'Twas the Saturday before Thanksgiving and Ohio St. plays... Iowa?

Chipping away, bit by bit and time-honored tradition by set-your-watch-by-it tradition, conference realignment and the BCS are turning college football into NFL-lite.

Time was, November 20ish was the true rivalry weekend: Ohio St. - Michigan, Army - Navy, USC - UCLA, Cal - Stanford... oh, wait, Cal is playing Stanford today. You get the point: Rivalry weekend is now spread out over the last two weekends in November and the first weekend of December. A depressing development in our book.



The ranked matchups:


#9 Ohio State at #20 Iowa


#13 Arkansas at #21 Mississippi St.


#8 Nebraska at #19 Texas A&M


#24 Miami hosts #16 Virginia



Other games of note:

Both #1 and #2, Oregon and Auburn are off.


The subway alum get their fighting Irish at Yankee Stadium against Army.


BCS busters: #4 Boise St. whupped Fresno St. 51-0 last night and #3 TCU, after surviving a scare against San Diego St. last week, has the day off.


Michigan hosts #7 Wisconsin. Word around the campfire is that Rich Rodriguez needs to win one of the two remaining games on the schedule (Ohio St., next Saturday) to hold onto his job. The zone-read spread attack he installed 3 years ago has taken hold, it's the deplorable defense there at Ann Arbor, however, that may be his undoing.

The image above is not photo-shopped. Some genius thought that staging a tackle football game at a place known as "the friendly confines" would be a swell idea. The good news: late this week, Big 10 officials put their considerably larged-sized thinking hats on and decreed that both offenses would be directed away from the ivy-less though padded though still possibly paralysis-inducing outfield wall of Chicago's Wrigley Field. The bad news: this momentous occasion is wasted on Illinois and Northwestern.


#6 Stanford at the cramping Cal Bears


#5 LSU, in their 13th home game of the season, hosts Ole Miss.


USC goes to Corvallis where they have dropped two straight to take on Oregon St.


And deep into the heart of Saturday night, #23 Utah comes out here to the coast to play a resurgent San Diego St. Considering affairs of late with the Aztec program, perhaps, "surgent" would be more appropriate.





And finally, Montana Tech football coach Bob Green announced his retirement yesterday after 24 years with the NAIA Diggers. Why is it only now that we find out about this guy?

College football Saturday open thread

The merit of leading the nation in total offense through the first two weeks of the season certainly stands on its own, however, having your image captured in a rather iconic pose can only aid your prospects.

Having said that, Michigan QB, Denard Robinson and his Wolverines are currently down to the mighty Minutemen of Massachusetts, 10-7 in the second quarter in Ann Arbor.




And as a public service to our younger followers out there, this why you shouldn't bet on sports. Forget the money...




... it's about the pride. Good on this lad for making good, though, but... damn, that had to hurt.

Deadspin commenters... they'll be here all week.

Writes Deadspin:

Michigan Stadium, opening after renovations, will again be the nation's largest with a capacity of 109,901. They've still got a ways to go to catch Pyongyang's Rŭngrado May Day Stadium, which seats 150,000.

Steve U:
Of course, attendance at Rungrado only approaches capacity on Dollar Dog Night.

Babcocksure:
wow, 109,901, that's amazing...I didn't know you could fit that many arrogant douchebags in one place.

bevraj ofchoice:
Finally, the UAW brass have a suitable site for their company softball games.

FavreFAIL:
Well on one hand you have a secretive, chaotically run regime with millions of feverishly devoted followers who worship it as though it were deity, and on the other you have North Korea.

don't-forget-where-you-:
Seats 109,901? Are they renaming it the Palindrome?

College football Saturday open thread

What mid-season lull?

There’s a reason why the term “dog days of August” is in reference to baseball. No such with college football. Again, great matchups abound across the fruited plain.

USC gets to exact some revenge against Oregon St. who has twice in the last 4 seasons represented the in-conference toe-stubbers that have thwarted the Trojans BCS title hopes.

Undefeated TCU (#10) goes on the road to BYU (#16) in one of those BCS-buster games.

San Diego native and freshmen QB Tate Forcier (pictured) leads his Michigan Wolverines hosting (#13) Penn St. at the Big House.

Touchdown Jesus will witness the Domers taking on the hated little Catholics of Boston College.

We’re probably out for the rest of the day so enjoy your college football Saturday.

Picture image of the Day

(Please click image to enlarge)

No. There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spent any time at Michigan.

Also, some members of Iran’s soccer team (playing South Korea in a World Cup qualifying match) wore green arm and wrist bands in apparent support for opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi… or was it just for religious tradition?

And when in the 2nd half, some had removed the green bands, were they ordered to or did they choose to do so voluntarily so as to not arouse any suspicions?

H/T: Deadspin

Turning the Corner

Its post July 4th so its officially time to start talking about some football. We we’re bored with the whole Brett Favre will-he-or-won’t-he saga within the first 24 hr. news cycle so we cherry-picked some articles on college football we found much more interesting.

West Virginia: Still not over Rich Rodriquez. Seems to happen every year where a head football coach leaves a program in a less-than-ceremonial manner. These days, in fact, college coaches are even taking this act to the pro ranks where the last two years have seen both Nick Saban (Miami Dolphins) and Bobby Petrino (Atlanta Falcons) depart, leaving emotional wreckage and hurt feelings in their wake. And though Rodriguez and his new employer, Michigan, came together to pay-off Rodriguez’s buy-out clause ($4 mil), there are obviously still some very, very bitter feelings among the Mountaineer faithful.

...and now that Tom Hansen is stepping down as PAC-10 commish how about some BCS-style super-conference expansion? How about BYU and UTAH in PAC-10? How about no can-do?

Lastly, Barack Obama proves he's not really serious about the college football fan vote.