Gridiron Fanatics

I don’t know why I keep falling for it but it somehow I do. I keep going back to ESPN.com for my college football news. However, after reading this mock draft the other day I think that my daily internet breaks to the “world wide leader in sports” will become less and less. To save you a few painstaking minutes I’ll sum up the gist of this draft. Three writers Pat Forde, Ivan Maisel and Mark Schlabach “draft” college football’s 40 best programs to encompass the FBS while relegating the remaining 80+ teams to a second tier that could not compete for the NCAA championship. The general criteria used for selecting a team are as follows:

We’ll be drafting the most successful programs in the nation, based on whatever criteria each of us chooses to bring to the situation room. There is no set formula for this. Wins and losses matter most — and what you’ve done in the 21st century is more important than what happened in the 1930s — but fan following and overall prestige count, too.

Yup that’s right. They will be selecting a list of the 40 best college football programs with no rhyme or reason to it. The madness of this “draft” that ensues is mind boggling. How someone employed by ESPN could pick Utah, Boise State and BYU in the top 23 over UCLA, Boston College, Iowa and Miami, FL of an all time college football poll is beyond me. After reading this article it got me thinking. How much quality content does ESPN.com really produce these days? It seems like this type of mindless nonsense is becoming way too prevalent and anything with real substance is lacking. Instead of giving their crazy opinions on the top 40 programs with no rhyme or reason to the rankings why not write some insightful articles on what is actually happening in the world of college football?

As long as I keep reading gems like this:

23. BYU Cougars, selected by Mark Schlabach

I finally left Dixie and now I can’t get out of the Mountain Time Zone. I needed at least one team to offset my SEC selections, and I found it in BYU. The Cougars have never been on NCAA probation! The Cougars have had only three losing seasons since 1974, and don’t forget they won the 1984 national championship (by winning the Holiday Bowl). Bronco Mendenhall is the first BYU coach to take his first four teams to bowl games, and the Cougars are a sparkling 32-7 the last three seasons.

I’ll be looking for my college football content elsewhere.

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This week’s college football hottie comes to us from the Maize and Blue in Ann Arbor. However, being a U of M alum I can say with confidence that this broad did not go to school in Ann Arbor. I’m guessing she was bussed in from Eastern Michigan or more likely Western Michigan as she is pretty smokin’.

Michigan did not grow them like this during my four years

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The Las Vegas Sun has an article about revenge factor in college football games that lists several early college football lines. Some of the Vegas lines that stick out to me are:

SATURDAY, SEPT. 12
# USC -3
# OHIO ST

How many times will it take for USC to blow out a big 10 team before the Las Vegas lines will take notice? This seems like a pretty low line, even in early August.

# NOTRE DAME -2.5
# MICHIGAN

Rich Rod has some work to do in Ann Arbor this year but I am expecting much better execution out of the Wolverines this year starting with this early season clash with rival Notre Dame.

SATURDAY, OCT. 17
# TEXAS -1
# OKLAHOMA @ DALLAS, TX

This year’s annual Red River Shootout has Texas as an early 1 point favorite. This is a game prime to test the revenge factor that the Las Vegas Sun talks about with Texas beating OU last year 45-35.

SATURDAY, NOV. 7
# OHIO ST
# PENN ST -3

In what could be a game that decides the Big 10 title Penn State opens as a 3 point favorite against Ohio State. I could see this line moving up in PSU’s direction and actually be more like PSU -4 or -4.5 come game time.

There a bunch of other college football lines listed in the article as well. It is a nice tease to get you excited for the upcoming college football season and to make some money.

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Stephon Marbury might be starting a new trend for athletes. Forget Twitter and Facebook, Usteam.tv is set to become all the rage now. After Starbury’s awkward and sort of disturbing internet show debuted the other day Chad Ocho Cinco has embraced the self broadcasting website Ustream.tv with his own show, The Ocho Cinco Show. I for one am thoroughly exited for the potential that exists with giving egomaniacal sports figures their own platform to express themselves freely over the internet.

How can we get other sports figures to broadcast themselves on Ustream? Wouldn’t you like to know what Mike Tyson was doing at 2:15pm on a Wednesday? Maybe we can pop into Deion Sanders’ living room for a little bit while we are at it. I would have volunteered my opinions to Ricky Henderson while he was preparing his Hall of Fame induction speech. Check out the following clip from the Ocho Cinco Show. Here Chad explains some of the fines you can be assessed via the “conduct policy.”

One can only hope that he is researching loopholes in this policy for crazy on the field antics that won’t get him fined. While there has been much less crying and Vaseline eating than Marbury’s webcast I will still be tuning in to the Ocho Cino Show this season. Especially when Carson Palmer goes 12 for 35 for 200 yards and 2 INTs and Ocho Cino coming up empty handed for receptions. Forget bitching in the media about each other, turn to Ustream. Straight up!!

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The Northwestern Wildcats and Illinois Fighting Illini are looking into holding their annual Big 10 match up at historic Wrigely Field.

“Northwestern spokesman Mike Wolf says the schools have talked several times with the Chicago Cubs, most recently last weekend.
Wolf says the schools have a lot of details to work out, among them the financial arrangements and logistics of turning Wrigley’s surface into a football field. But Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald and Illinois’ Ron Zook like the idea.”

The soonest this game could happen would be late in the 2010 season. Apparently the idea of college football games being played in Major League Baseball stadiums is spreading like wildfire. Last week Army announced that they will play three added games at Yankees Stadiumin addition to Notre Dame in 2010.

When is this madness going to end? Part of the mystic and allure of college football is the pageantry and gameday atmosphere on a college campus.

The giant crowds, tailgates, keg stands and continuous playing of your schools fight song is part of what makes college football so great. I think that by moving these games to MLB stadiums you are going to be lacking that certain aura that surrounds college football. However, maybe in the case of Northwestern and Illinois they need something special to spark some interest in their game. Outside of the Northwestern or Illinois Alums I do not think the general college football fan really cares about their game. I just hope that this trend does not gain more steam and have Texas playing Oklahoma in the old Astrodome or Georgia and Florida facing off at Turner Field.

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This week’s CFHOW showcases two of Arizona State’s finest. Why didn’t I go to school where it was warm year round and blondes grew on trees?

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The NFL draft just became more of a spectacle than it already is. Now football fans will have the opportunity to stare at Mel Kiper’s hair for three straight days. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced Thursday that the NFL draft will be expanding to three days instead of the traditional 2 day event it has been.

Look at that mop...flawless

“The draft will be spread over three days in 2010, running Thursday, April 22, through Saturday, April 24.
In addition, the first round will start in prime time at 7:30 p.m. ET.

“We continue to look for ways to make the draft more accessible to more fans,” Goodell said in a statement. “Moving the first round to prime time on Thursday night will make the first round of the draft available to fans on what is typically the most-watched night of television.”

ESPN and the NFL Network will televise the entire show.
The second and third rounds will start at 6:30 p.m. ET on April 23.
Rounds 4 through 7 will be on April 24, starting at 10 a.m. ET.”

I think this is a great move by the NFL. By moving the draft to prime time on a Thursday night the NFL is sure to attract more casual fans to watch the draft. Since most people are already watching tv on a Thursday night it will be easier for them to flip over to ESPN to catch their favorite team’s pick. The NFL will not have to try to lure the people that otherwise might be out and about enjoying their Saturday back inside their homes to watch draft coverage.

Also, by moving the draft’s marquee first round to prime time allows the NFL to market the draft as a big time, must see event. The prime time slot gives the draft a little more relevance in the eyes of the casual NFL fan. It will get them thinking that maybe they are missing out on something exciting related to football and they should tune in to see what all the buzz is about.

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MGM Grand Sportsbook

The four major sports leagues are suing Delaware in the hopes of blocking the state from implementing sports betting. Congress banned sports betting in 1992 but grandfathered in 4 states – Delaware, Nevada, Montana and Oregon – that had already offered it. The leagues and NCAA feel Delaware’s plan would “irreparably harm professional and amateur sports by fostering suspicion and skepticism that individual plays and final scores of games may have been influenced by factors other than honest athletic competition.” State officials hope to have the law in place in time for the upcoming NFL season. Read more about this topic at ESPN.com

I do not see what the big deal is if sports betting is made legal in the state of Delaware. It is already allowed in Nevada so the chance of any games being compromised already exists. Maybe the major sports leagues feel that with more opportunities for fans to bet this risk increases? I just think that if there are some people out there that want to fix a sporting event would already have the means necessary in Nevada. A few more Joe Blows from Delaware aren’t going to hurt anything.

Also, there is always going to be the risk of a betting scandal with any sport. I would much rather prefer that the bets coming in on a game are regulated and monitored for any suspicious betting patterns to protect the integrity of the sport. I think Nevada currently does a good job at this and I see no reasons why Delaware would not do the same. Hopefully this lawsuit does not affect the status of sports betting in Delaware and fans on the East coast can place wagers on their favorite teams.

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This would look better on Twitter

As you may have heard last week Chad Ocho Cinco plans on “tweeting” from the sidelines during games. While I originally sided with the league and Chad’s coaches on this one in thinking it was a bad idea for my star receiver to be worried about sending updates to Twitter instead of catching the ball and actually scoring touchdowns (thanks for sabotaging my fantasy squad last year Chad. The ‘Douche Canoes’ send our appreciation). But after reading some of Ocho Cinco’s tweets I’ve got to say I have done a complete 180 on this one. Who wouldn’t want to be seduced by such gems as this on a NFL Sunday?

“McDonalds shot Burger King over some chick named Wendy’s, my homeboy Popeye said the funeral at Church’s, yall gone go?”

Or maybe you are interested in Chad’s political views?

“Obama addresses the world on North Korea’s threat, he pauses, gives a Child Please and says Drew Rosenhaus famous line, next question!”

You can even catch up on his latest product endorsements:

“Another topic!!!! Ocho Cinco condoms coming soon, they’ll catch everything your Johnson shoots.”

So please NFL, Roger Goodell and Bengals coach Marvin Lewis please let Ocho Cinco tweet from the sidelines. The world is waiting to be enlightened.

Follow Chad Ocho Cino on twitter here.

With Madden 2010 set to hit store shelves on August 14th football fans everywhere are awaiting the newest release of an American institution.

However someone who is not eagerly awaiting this release is current Seattle Seahawks and former Cincinnati Bengals wideout T.J. Houshmandzadeh. The Detroit News reports that the former Pro Bowl receiver is upset that he ranks behind Calvin Johnson and sits as the 6th best receiver in the NFC according to the folks at EA Spots.

“Man, they don’t get my rating right,” Housmandzadeh groused on Colin Cowherd’s ESPN Radio show Monday. “I just looked at the game and they have this wrong and that wrong. And I understand I averaged 10 yards a catch (in 2008), but it’s the offense, man, not me.”

I am afraid your Madden rating is not based on how well you play the video game but actually how well you play football itself, T.J. I’m sure it is the “offense” and had nothing to do with your 904 receiving yards good for 29th best in the NFL last year. Or your measly 4 TDs that had you tied for 43rd in that category.

“I’m not playing Madden no more, until they get my rating right,” said Houshmandzadeh, who left Cincinnati to join Seattle as a free agent this offseason. “It might be a little pouting, too. It might be. But, you know, I used to be the best in the world at Madden, so I’m going to miss not playing it. But until they do me right, I’m not playing it no more.”

Houshmandzadeh sounds like a little kid that is getting teased and taking his ball and going home. Hey T.J. here is a novel idea why don’t you go out and actually prove you are one of the best receivers in the NFL instead of claiming your dominance at Madden 2010? You certainly did not look like one when you were the go to guy last year in Cincy with Chad Ochocinco M.I.A. for most games. I look forward to you dropping passes up in Seattle with the rest of their team.