Lost in the talk of "Tsunami Tuesday" is the fact that we have a football game tonight. The undefeated New England Patriots will face the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. Kickoff is around 6:30 p.m Eastern time on Fox.
Vinnie Iyer of the Sporting News thinks there are "12 excellent reasons why the 42nd edition of the greatest American sports event will be the best ever."
I don't know if he's right about that, but I think the game will be closer than the two-touchdown spread the oddsmakers have given the Patriots. I predict a final score of New England 27, New York 24.
The two teams met on the last weekend of the regular season, and New England won by 3 points (38-35). In their previous three Super Bowl victories, the Patriots won each game by 3 points. I think that's the margin they'll win by today, which should mean an entertaining game.
While you're waiting for the kickoff, you might want to take a look at a list compiled by ESPN. It ranks the teams that participated in the first 40 Super Bowls, and it's guaranteed to bring back some "Super" memories -- even of the blowouts.
Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Sunday, December 9, 2007
News From The Sports World
The first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy is Tim Tebow of Florida. He was crowned the latest Heisman winner in New York last night in a ceremony that was carried live on ESPN.
The Gainesville Sun says Tebow is "tightening his grip on history."
But you didn't have to be in New York to make sports news -- or to be speculating on it.
* Barry Tramel writes, in The Oklahoman, that a four-team playoff in college football is "possible" in the near future. Four teams, he says, is about as many as you can expect.
His column today, however, points out that a playoff in college football is not a new idea. Such a proposal was brought before the NCAA convention more than 30 years ago. There was little discussion and the proposal was dismissed. And, in the 1990s, Division I-A voted heavily against a playoff proposal.
But Tramel contends that the current BCS "has the structure to expand its playoff from two to four teams. When the current Fox television contracts expire in 2011, the BCS bowls could establish a four-team playoff with no major reconstruction."
Meanwhile, Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star says forget it, a playoff system won't succeed in college football.
Who's right?
* In pro football, the teams are marching steadily toward their playoffs. Most of today's games have been played and we're getting a clearer picture of who will be in the playoffs -- in the NFC, anyway.
In the NFC, three teams clinched division championships today -- Dallas, Green Bay and Seattle. Tampa Bay could have clinched the fourth and final division title, but lost its game to Houston.
Things are a little more unsettled n the AFC, where it's been a given for most of the season that New England, still undefeated at 13-0, would be in the playoffs. The Patriots are playing against history these days. The Steelers, Colts and Chargers are close to clinching their divisions, but they haven't done so yet.
* Tom Dienhart of the Sporting News looks at what he calls college football's "coaching carousel."
He says Michigan has plenty of options left, but the other schools that are looking for new coaches may not find much to address their needs.
Many of those schools, Dienhart says, may have to hire assistant coaches rather than guys with experience as a head coach.
The prospect he mentions that intrigues me, as a graduate of the University of Arkansas, is East Carolina coach Skip Holtz, the son of Lou Holtz. If Skip Holtz is being mentioned as a possible coach at Arkansas, as Dienhart implies, he would be a candidate for his father's old job.
Lou Holtz was coaching the football team when I was a student there. And Skip was a student at Fayetteville High School with my brother.
The Gainesville Sun says Tebow is "tightening his grip on history."
But you didn't have to be in New York to make sports news -- or to be speculating on it.
* Barry Tramel writes, in The Oklahoman, that a four-team playoff in college football is "possible" in the near future. Four teams, he says, is about as many as you can expect.
His column today, however, points out that a playoff in college football is not a new idea. Such a proposal was brought before the NCAA convention more than 30 years ago. There was little discussion and the proposal was dismissed. And, in the 1990s, Division I-A voted heavily against a playoff proposal.
But Tramel contends that the current BCS "has the structure to expand its playoff from two to four teams. When the current Fox television contracts expire in 2011, the BCS bowls could establish a four-team playoff with no major reconstruction."
Meanwhile, Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star says forget it, a playoff system won't succeed in college football.
Who's right?
* In pro football, the teams are marching steadily toward their playoffs. Most of today's games have been played and we're getting a clearer picture of who will be in the playoffs -- in the NFC, anyway.
In the NFC, three teams clinched division championships today -- Dallas, Green Bay and Seattle. Tampa Bay could have clinched the fourth and final division title, but lost its game to Houston.
Things are a little more unsettled n the AFC, where it's been a given for most of the season that New England, still undefeated at 13-0, would be in the playoffs. The Patriots are playing against history these days. The Steelers, Colts and Chargers are close to clinching their divisions, but they haven't done so yet.
* Tom Dienhart of the Sporting News looks at what he calls college football's "coaching carousel."
He says Michigan has plenty of options left, but the other schools that are looking for new coaches may not find much to address their needs.
Many of those schools, Dienhart says, may have to hire assistant coaches rather than guys with experience as a head coach.
The prospect he mentions that intrigues me, as a graduate of the University of Arkansas, is East Carolina coach Skip Holtz, the son of Lou Holtz. If Skip Holtz is being mentioned as a possible coach at Arkansas, as Dienhart implies, he would be a candidate for his father's old job.
Lou Holtz was coaching the football team when I was a student there. And Skip was a student at Fayetteville High School with my brother.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
College Football Needs a Playoff System
In a few hours, it will be announced on national TV which bowls will host which college football teams this year. And it will be announced which teams have been chosen, through computer rankings and poll ratings, to play for the national title.
For a long time, it has seemed to me that we needed a genuine playoff system to resolve the question of who is the best team in college football.
After all, all of the other NCAA sports have some sort of playoff mechanism in place to crown a national champion at the end of the season.
The BCS was created, in large part, to end the possibility of having divided championships. But, as the BCS is “tweaked” after every season, it just seems to get worse each year.
And this season, with its many upsets and directional shifts, has dissolved into “chaos,” as ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit said last night.
In case you missed it, #1 Missouri lost the Big 12 title game to #9 Oklahoma. And #2 West Virginia lost to unranked Pitt. So now, we’ll have to see which two teams are blessed, via the computer analyses, and get to play each other for the national title.
Most experts believe Ohio State will be one of the two, but there seems to be a good case to be made for many teams, such as LSU, Oklahoma, Georgia, USC. No matter which teams are selected to play for the national championship, you can bet there will be at least three or four other teams, maybe more, who will argue that they deserved to be there.
And who’s to say they’re wrong?
Jennifer Floyd Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says it all adds up to an argument for an ”honest-to-goodness, 16-team, NFL-style, winner-take-all playoff.”
I’m inclined to agree.
In sports, you have to earn the title on the field. I know the bowl system is solidly entrenched, but I see no reason why the site for the national title couldn’t rotate each year, as it does now, and the rest of the bowls be used for the earlier round games.
Money is what the bowls are all about, anyway. Bowl games that match teams with a chance to play for the national title will create interest -- and interest is what brings people to sporting events. As it is now, only a school's fans have any real interest in any of college football's postseason games -- except the last one between #1 and #2.
But the early games will have as much interest as the late games because of the opportunity they represent. Because the dream, however tenuous, still lives for each school. Even if most of them probably don't have a realistic chance of winning it all.
Sure, it might take us deeper into January, or require scheduling that would overlap with final exams for the fall semester in December, but we already have a basketball playoff system that keeps its participants involved during spring break in March, and we have a baseball playoff system that requires players to compete during final exams for the spring semester and keep playing into June.
Those sports don’t have “mythical” national champions, but football always does.
It’s way past time for college football to do the smart thing.
Even though Ohio State is generally picked to be one of the two teams playing for the national title, there are people out there, like The Sporting News' Matt Hayes, who say that Oklahoma and USC should play for the championship.
If that comes to pass, you can expect to hear arguments to the contrary from Ohio State, LSU, Georgia, Virginia Tech, probably a few others.
And until college football crowns a winner of a real playoff system, we can expect more of this.
For a long time, it has seemed to me that we needed a genuine playoff system to resolve the question of who is the best team in college football.
After all, all of the other NCAA sports have some sort of playoff mechanism in place to crown a national champion at the end of the season.
The BCS was created, in large part, to end the possibility of having divided championships. But, as the BCS is “tweaked” after every season, it just seems to get worse each year.
And this season, with its many upsets and directional shifts, has dissolved into “chaos,” as ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit said last night.
In case you missed it, #1 Missouri lost the Big 12 title game to #9 Oklahoma. And #2 West Virginia lost to unranked Pitt. So now, we’ll have to see which two teams are blessed, via the computer analyses, and get to play each other for the national title.
Most experts believe Ohio State will be one of the two, but there seems to be a good case to be made for many teams, such as LSU, Oklahoma, Georgia, USC. No matter which teams are selected to play for the national championship, you can bet there will be at least three or four other teams, maybe more, who will argue that they deserved to be there.
And who’s to say they’re wrong?
Jennifer Floyd Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says it all adds up to an argument for an ”honest-to-goodness, 16-team, NFL-style, winner-take-all playoff.”
I’m inclined to agree.
In sports, you have to earn the title on the field. I know the bowl system is solidly entrenched, but I see no reason why the site for the national title couldn’t rotate each year, as it does now, and the rest of the bowls be used for the earlier round games.
Money is what the bowls are all about, anyway. Bowl games that match teams with a chance to play for the national title will create interest -- and interest is what brings people to sporting events. As it is now, only a school's fans have any real interest in any of college football's postseason games -- except the last one between #1 and #2.
But the early games will have as much interest as the late games because of the opportunity they represent. Because the dream, however tenuous, still lives for each school. Even if most of them probably don't have a realistic chance of winning it all.
Sure, it might take us deeper into January, or require scheduling that would overlap with final exams for the fall semester in December, but we already have a basketball playoff system that keeps its participants involved during spring break in March, and we have a baseball playoff system that requires players to compete during final exams for the spring semester and keep playing into June.
Those sports don’t have “mythical” national champions, but football always does.
It’s way past time for college football to do the smart thing.
Even though Ohio State is generally picked to be one of the two teams playing for the national title, there are people out there, like The Sporting News' Matt Hayes, who say that Oklahoma and USC should play for the championship.
If that comes to pass, you can expect to hear arguments to the contrary from Ohio State, LSU, Georgia, Virginia Tech, probably a few others.
And until college football crowns a winner of a real playoff system, we can expect more of this.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut(t)
Today is Championship/Rivalry Saturday in college football.
Army played Navy today. Conference championship games today involve Oklahoma and Missouri, LSU and Tennessee, Boston College and Virginia Tech. Rivalry games (besides the storied Army-Navy battle) will be played between USC and UCLA, Oregon and Oregon State, Arizona and Arizona State, and Cal and Stanford.
It's had me musing on a few subjects.
My alma mater -- Arkansas -- isn't playing today. Last year, the Razorbacks made it to the SEC Championship game in Atlanta and played -- and lost to -- eventual national champion Florida at the start of December, but they didn't make it back to Atlanta and Houston Nutt is no longer the coach in Fayetteville.
Even though his team beat the previously top-ranked LSU Tigers the day after Thanksgiving, Nutt (as expected, frankly) resigned as head coach -- amid rumors that it was a mutual decision between Nutt and the school.
Anyway, whether Nutt jumped or was pushed, he landed at another SEC school -- one that plays Arkansas every year, the Ole Miss Rebels.
It will be interesting to see the response Nutt gets when his Ole Miss team takes the field in Fayetteville for the first time. After all, he coached at Arkansas for 10 years and led the team in some of its most memorable games.
Oddly enough, the word I'm hearing is that, after the Razorbacks' dramatic triple overtime victory over LSU, Arkansas will be playing in the Cotton Bowl. When I was growing up, Arkansas played in the old Southwest Conference -- and winning the conference championship meant going to the Cotton Bowl. A trip to Dallas on New Year's Day was the prize every SWC school sought.
So, on those occasions when I was growing up and Arkansas was wrapping up the conference title, you could hear the students chanting from the stands, "Hey hey, ho ho, Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl!"
It appears that Nutt led Arkansas back to a berth in the game that used to be the annual goal for the Razorbacks -- and he lost his job. He must be the first Arkansas coach to lose his job in the same season his team earned a spot in the Cotton Bowl.
My, how times change.
Can you go home again?
As LSU prepared to face Tennessee in this afternoon's SEC Championship game, it appears that coach Les Miles has decided to stay at LSU. Miles was the front-runner for the job at Michigan, where he played his college ball and served as an assistant coach.
Miles turned down his alma mater, but one of his assistants, Bo Pelini, apparently will be heading back to his. Pelini, who was defensive coordinator at Nebraska in 2003, will be named Nebraska's new coach sometime next week, reports the Lincoln Journal-Star.
Earlier this week, Texas A&M announced that two-time offensive line coach Mike Sherman will be coaching the Aggies for the next seven years.
Sherman said, at a news conference Monday, that he'd only wanted to coach in two places -- Texas A&M and the Green Bay Packers. He coached the Packers from 2000-2005.
Maybe dreams really can come true.
Army played Navy today. Conference championship games today involve Oklahoma and Missouri, LSU and Tennessee, Boston College and Virginia Tech. Rivalry games (besides the storied Army-Navy battle) will be played between USC and UCLA, Oregon and Oregon State, Arizona and Arizona State, and Cal and Stanford.
It's had me musing on a few subjects.
My alma mater -- Arkansas -- isn't playing today. Last year, the Razorbacks made it to the SEC Championship game in Atlanta and played -- and lost to -- eventual national champion Florida at the start of December, but they didn't make it back to Atlanta and Houston Nutt is no longer the coach in Fayetteville.
Even though his team beat the previously top-ranked LSU Tigers the day after Thanksgiving, Nutt (as expected, frankly) resigned as head coach -- amid rumors that it was a mutual decision between Nutt and the school.
Anyway, whether Nutt jumped or was pushed, he landed at another SEC school -- one that plays Arkansas every year, the Ole Miss Rebels.
It will be interesting to see the response Nutt gets when his Ole Miss team takes the field in Fayetteville for the first time. After all, he coached at Arkansas for 10 years and led the team in some of its most memorable games.
Oddly enough, the word I'm hearing is that, after the Razorbacks' dramatic triple overtime victory over LSU, Arkansas will be playing in the Cotton Bowl. When I was growing up, Arkansas played in the old Southwest Conference -- and winning the conference championship meant going to the Cotton Bowl. A trip to Dallas on New Year's Day was the prize every SWC school sought.
So, on those occasions when I was growing up and Arkansas was wrapping up the conference title, you could hear the students chanting from the stands, "Hey hey, ho ho, Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl!"
It appears that Nutt led Arkansas back to a berth in the game that used to be the annual goal for the Razorbacks -- and he lost his job. He must be the first Arkansas coach to lose his job in the same season his team earned a spot in the Cotton Bowl.
My, how times change.
Can you go home again?
As LSU prepared to face Tennessee in this afternoon's SEC Championship game, it appears that coach Les Miles has decided to stay at LSU. Miles was the front-runner for the job at Michigan, where he played his college ball and served as an assistant coach.
Miles turned down his alma mater, but one of his assistants, Bo Pelini, apparently will be heading back to his. Pelini, who was defensive coordinator at Nebraska in 2003, will be named Nebraska's new coach sometime next week, reports the Lincoln Journal-Star.
Earlier this week, Texas A&M announced that two-time offensive line coach Mike Sherman will be coaching the Aggies for the next seven years.
Sherman said, at a news conference Monday, that he'd only wanted to coach in two places -- Texas A&M and the Green Bay Packers. He coached the Packers from 2000-2005.
Maybe dreams really can come true.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Holiday Football Brings Upsets, Firings, Resignations
As I've mentioned before on this blog, I got my bachelor's degree at the University of Arkansas more than 25 years ago.
If you grow up in Arkansas, you learn a few things at a reasonably early age. (1) The Razorbacks are the big-time team in Arkansas. (2) You don't have to be a student at or hold a degree from the University of Arkansas to be a Razorback fan. In fact, you don't even have to set foot on the U of A campus in Fayetteville. Ever.
And, I guess it goes without saying that this football season has been a disappointment for Razorback fans, after last season's success.
Last season, Arkansas won 10 games in a row, finished the regular season 10-2, played in the Southeastern Conference championship game and advanced to a New Year's Day bowl game.
And Darren McFadden became the first Arkansas football player to be a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. In fact, the then-sophomore halfback was the runner-up in the Heisman balloting.
Going into this season, McFadden was one of the favorites to win the Heisman and the Razorbacks were favored to return to the SEC title game. But things didn't work out that way. Although it still appears likely that McFadden will declare for the NFL draft, he did not have a Heisman-winning season and the Razorbacks did not win the SEC's West Division.
Consequently, going into yesterday's annual rivalry game with LSU, expectations for victory weren't too high. LSU was ranked No. 1 in the nation and was expected to play for the national title in January. The game against Arkansas was being played in LSU's home stadium in Baton Rouge, La. And the Tigers have one of the best run defenses in the country.
But, somehow, the Razorbacks overcame every obstacle and beat LSU in triple overtime, 50-48. (I say "somehow" because I had to work yesterday and I didn't get to see the game.)
The Thanksgiving holiday period always brings plenty of rivalry games and many upset opportunities. Unranked Arkansas' win over top-ranked LSU certainly qualifies as an upset.
Football news isn't made only on the field at this time of year. Today, it was announced that Nebraska fired head coach Bill Callahan. In the last 45 years, Nebraska has had only two losing seasons. Callahan was head coach for both of them, including this year's 5-7 campaign that ended Friday with a 65-51 loss to Colorado.
I've heard little about who is favored to replace Callahan, but during today's announcement, Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne stressed the need for "continuity" at the school, which suggests that someone from Callahan's staff could be selected. But the nine assistant coaches also were terminated, according to the Lincoln Journal-Star. And the newspaper is reporting that former Nebraska assistant coach Bo Pelini has been contacted by a search firm, although no meeting has been scheduled between Pelini and representatives of the athletic department.
Another coach is leaving a high-profile job, but he's doing so apparently of his own choice and in the aftermath of a big win, not a big loss. Dennis Franchione ended his five-year tenure at Texas A&M Friday following the Aggies' 38-30 victory over Texas. Tommy Tuberville of Auburn is considered a top candidate to replace him.
Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News writes that Franchione never came close to fulfilling expectations in Aggieland.
The futures of both of the coaches in the Arkansas-LSU game were in doubt before kickoff and remain so today.
Houston Nutt, Arkansas' coach, has reportedly been on the hot seat since the slow start knocked Arkansas out of the race for the SEC title early in the season. His position may be better today, after the win over LSU. But ESPN's college football experts appear to believe Nutt and the school have reached a mutual decision that it's best for them to part ways.
LSU's coach, Les Miles, hasn't been on the hot seat, but he has been mentioned as a potential replacement for Michigan's departing head coach Lloyd Carr. Miles played football at Michigan and was an assistant coach there for awhile.
If you haven't had your fill of holiday football, there are several big college games today. Already under way, as I write this, are games between Miami-Boston College and Virginia Tech-Virginia. Later today, games are scheduled matching Tennessee and Kentucky, Alabama and Auburn, Georgia and Georgia Tech, Florida and Florida State, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, Clemson and South Carolina.
And, in a big game with conference title game and national title game implications (but it would never have been predicted to be that before the season started), fourth-ranked Missouri will play second-ranked Kansas tonight.
By the way, for you sports fans, there's a good website out there, RealClearSports, that tries to bring together each day's best sports articles from across the internet. Take a look.
If you grow up in Arkansas, you learn a few things at a reasonably early age. (1) The Razorbacks are the big-time team in Arkansas. (2) You don't have to be a student at or hold a degree from the University of Arkansas to be a Razorback fan. In fact, you don't even have to set foot on the U of A campus in Fayetteville. Ever.
And, I guess it goes without saying that this football season has been a disappointment for Razorback fans, after last season's success.
Last season, Arkansas won 10 games in a row, finished the regular season 10-2, played in the Southeastern Conference championship game and advanced to a New Year's Day bowl game.
And Darren McFadden became the first Arkansas football player to be a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. In fact, the then-sophomore halfback was the runner-up in the Heisman balloting.
Going into this season, McFadden was one of the favorites to win the Heisman and the Razorbacks were favored to return to the SEC title game. But things didn't work out that way. Although it still appears likely that McFadden will declare for the NFL draft, he did not have a Heisman-winning season and the Razorbacks did not win the SEC's West Division.
Consequently, going into yesterday's annual rivalry game with LSU, expectations for victory weren't too high. LSU was ranked No. 1 in the nation and was expected to play for the national title in January. The game against Arkansas was being played in LSU's home stadium in Baton Rouge, La. And the Tigers have one of the best run defenses in the country.
But, somehow, the Razorbacks overcame every obstacle and beat LSU in triple overtime, 50-48. (I say "somehow" because I had to work yesterday and I didn't get to see the game.)
The Thanksgiving holiday period always brings plenty of rivalry games and many upset opportunities. Unranked Arkansas' win over top-ranked LSU certainly qualifies as an upset.
Football news isn't made only on the field at this time of year. Today, it was announced that Nebraska fired head coach Bill Callahan. In the last 45 years, Nebraska has had only two losing seasons. Callahan was head coach for both of them, including this year's 5-7 campaign that ended Friday with a 65-51 loss to Colorado.
I've heard little about who is favored to replace Callahan, but during today's announcement, Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne stressed the need for "continuity" at the school, which suggests that someone from Callahan's staff could be selected. But the nine assistant coaches also were terminated, according to the Lincoln Journal-Star. And the newspaper is reporting that former Nebraska assistant coach Bo Pelini has been contacted by a search firm, although no meeting has been scheduled between Pelini and representatives of the athletic department.
Another coach is leaving a high-profile job, but he's doing so apparently of his own choice and in the aftermath of a big win, not a big loss. Dennis Franchione ended his five-year tenure at Texas A&M Friday following the Aggies' 38-30 victory over Texas. Tommy Tuberville of Auburn is considered a top candidate to replace him.
Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News writes that Franchione never came close to fulfilling expectations in Aggieland.
The futures of both of the coaches in the Arkansas-LSU game were in doubt before kickoff and remain so today.
Houston Nutt, Arkansas' coach, has reportedly been on the hot seat since the slow start knocked Arkansas out of the race for the SEC title early in the season. His position may be better today, after the win over LSU. But ESPN's college football experts appear to believe Nutt and the school have reached a mutual decision that it's best for them to part ways.
LSU's coach, Les Miles, hasn't been on the hot seat, but he has been mentioned as a potential replacement for Michigan's departing head coach Lloyd Carr. Miles played football at Michigan and was an assistant coach there for awhile.
If you haven't had your fill of holiday football, there are several big college games today. Already under way, as I write this, are games between Miami-Boston College and Virginia Tech-Virginia. Later today, games are scheduled matching Tennessee and Kentucky, Alabama and Auburn, Georgia and Georgia Tech, Florida and Florida State, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, Clemson and South Carolina.
And, in a big game with conference title game and national title game implications (but it would never have been predicted to be that before the season started), fourth-ranked Missouri will play second-ranked Kansas tonight.
By the way, for you sports fans, there's a good website out there, RealClearSports, that tries to bring together each day's best sports articles from across the internet. Take a look.
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