Category Archives: NCAA

Sorry to sound like a broken record but…

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By Kaleb Page

Over this past college football weekend, games were tightly contested and full of excitement which we all came to expect with this college football weekend. With that said a lot of games were not only battles between teams, but the elements as well. One game in particular, Ohio State versus Minnesota, was just that case. Playing in blizzard like conditions with temperatures in the teens, made it a game within the game just to even move like you would without having these conditions.

The game ended in a 31-24 win by Ohio State that was deceiving due to the miscues by Ohio State that left opportunities for Minnesota. Now it must be given to Minnesota that they are a very hard team to beat and work hard in all phases of the game. Therefore a tough win by Ohio State in those conditions should have a gotten a better reception.

That same Saturday TCU traveled to Kansas to go collect their win in what seemed on paper a mismatch in favor of TCU. For much of the game that mismatch did not play out as Kansas led 27-17 in the third quarter. A valiant effort was put together by TCU to come out on top in the end with the score of 34-30.

Now when looking in comparison to these two games you could pull out some things just by doing the eye test of the two teams (OSU and TCU) in the running to finish in the playoff. For one thing, the eye test would show you that the respective opponents for OSU and TCU that day were on two different planets. Coming into the game Minnesota was ranked 25th and in contention to make it to the Big Ten title game. While Kansas with only three wins on the season has been a bottom feeder in the Big 12 for the past few years. When watching the OSU-Minnesota game it was easy to see OSU was dominating. If they didn’t have three costly turnovers, who knows how big a winning margin we would be talking about today. TCU on the other hand was on shaky ground the entire game but did show their heart in this game to come away with a win; nevertheless they should have been nowhere near that position.

When it came to coverage at the end of these two contests it was interesting to open my ESPN homepage and read two different headlines that left me thinking “Are you kidding me?” The headline for the TCU and Kansas game read “TCU Passes Test in Lawrence” while the OSU and Minnesota headline read “Ohio State Escapes Minnesota.” So my question is this, did the person who put these headlines up even watch the games?

I mean come on anybody who knows even the slightest bit of football, or even watched both games Saturday would know that Minnesota would dominate Kansas nine times out of ten with the tenth one about to be served up. That is why it frustrates me to no end to see one team squeak by when they should dominate and get a somewhat praising review (TCU), and then another team get a headline almost making their tough road win seem like nothing (OSU). It wouldn’t matter what team it was or sport for this fact to frustrate me. I know it is good to write the headline that grabs attention, but there is a difference between that and just being so far off base.

I don’t understand how you can’t have a similar tone from headline to headline when talking about these two games. This is not the first time I have seen this by ESPN to make a headline about respective college football games, and one will get a good perspective while the other one will not.

I don’t want to be the one crying out that there is a bias or sounding like a broken record in that regard, but it is a suggestion to ESPN to fix this. How about we think before we post and make sure to not be too pointed one way in our judgment of a performance and then pointed in the opposite direction toward another similar performance.

To some of you who have heard this argument before I’m sorry to be the broken record, but someone had to remind us again.

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Melvin Gordon Breaks Record

By Matt Rogers

If by the off-chance you were a fan of college football and did not know of Melvin Gordon, before this past Saturday, you do now. Gordon, the all-everything running back of Wisconsin, broke the FBS record for rushing yards in a single game. Heading into the game the record stood at 406 yards, held by former TCU and NFL great, LaDainian Tomlinson. Gordon ended Saturday’s game against Nebraska with 408 yards. What was most impressive about Gordon’s accomplishment was that all of his yards came in the first three quarters. That’s right, he did not even play in the fourth quarter because the Wisconsin Badgers were blowing the Nebraska Cornhuskers out.

It should come as no surprise that it was Melvin Gordon who broke the record though, after the success that he has been enjoying this season. He was already the leading FBS in rushing yards heading into the game, averaging over eight yards per carry. With this game, Gordon now has a total of 1,909 yards on the season. Being that Wisconsin is in the driver’s seat to represent the West division in the Big Ten title game, the team has at least four more games this season. If Gordon were to play as well as he has through the first ten games, he has an outside shot at breaking the single season record for rushing yards, 2,628 held by NFL Hall of Famer Barry Sanders.

Not that he needed this performance to justify his status as a Heisman Memorial Trophy front-runner, but Gordon has all but punched his ticket to New York City in December as one of the finalists for the award.

Gordon has been receiving massive amounts of praise from various media outlets from the beginning of the season because he returned to Wisconsin for another season, after most draft experts considered him one of the very best running backs in last year’s draft class. The buzz about him as grown immensely as the season has progressed because of his unbelievable play on the field for the Badgers. Matt Miller, head NFL draft scout for Bleacher Report, has been evaluating Gordon’s play throughout the season, assessing him a second round grade (2nd overall among running backs) for the upcoming 2015 NFL Draft.

What Gordon has done to this point in the 2014 season has been nothing short of spectacular. It is very hard to believe that he is not done. It should be fun to see what sort of tricks Gordon has left up the sleeve of his #25 Wisconsin Badgers’ jersey for the last part of the season. Stay tuned.

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College Football Committee

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By Kia Tyus

Dan Wetzel wrote an article on whether the College Football Playoff Committee is making fair choices, and if their choices are influenced by outside behavior.

Wetzel made a host of great points throughout the article, one of them being whether or not there is there a point in the Top 25 poll? Wetzel made suggestions that there is no longer a point in the Top 25 polls because of the recently new playoffs. With the new playoffs, the top four teams in the nation make it. Therefore, if I chose to agree with this thought, I would suggest maybe that the NCAA should start doing a top seven-team poll. That way the nation would have an idea of who would be the first four teams in and the next two teams out.

Another suggestion Wetzel had was criticizing how fair it would be if there were three to four Southeastern Conference (SEC) teams to make the playoffs. Wetzel stated that the teams that should make the playoffs should deserve to be there. My question to challenge this would be to think about the other undefeated teams in the nation. Many teams can’t help the conference that they play in.

I feel personally that the committee recycles the top seven or eight teams until they have two or more losses. Which isn’t fair to the few teams that continue to win games week in and week out.

Wetzel suggested that the committee might be influenced by the outrage that pours in each week. I feel like he may have a point because in a scenario of a low-level team matching up with a team with the skill level of Alabama, it wouldn’t be as entertaining for fans to watch. While there is a slight chance that the public influences the committee, it is still a thought to think about.

The final point that Wetzel made was the fact that the ranking system will probably not be changed in the near future. I completely agree with Wetzel with this. In reality, the top 25 ranking system gets college football fans talking every week. More and more people tune in every week to watch college football and every Tuesday to see who is ranked in the top four.

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Ohio State Making a Case to Crash Playoff Party

By Matt Rogers

Over the weekend there were was certainly was no shortage of important games in college football. None of the outcomes to these games may prove to be more important than #14 Ohio State’s 49-37 victory over #8 Michigan State. The victory for the Buckeyes put them in the driver’s seat in the race for the Big Ten’s East Division crown, and in a promising position in terms of this week’s upcoming College Football Playoff Rankings.

Though the College Football Playoff Rankings have not yet been released, Ohio State has gained a substantial amount of respect from numerous members of the media and from the voters in the Associated Press Poll, jumping into the #8 ranking in the latest AP poll.

The one thing that may be the straw that breaks the Buckeyes’ back is their 14-point loss to Virginia Tech in the second game of the season. This loss is considered by most in the media to be a “bad” loss because the Hokies of Virginia Tech have gone on to lose five of their last seven games since that game. The Hokies have also posted a 1-4 record in the ACC, which most in the media consider the weakest of the Power Five conferences (Big Ten, ACC, SEC, Pac-12, and Big 12).

As far as that loss to Va Tech goes, some members of the media claim that Ohio State should be given a mulligan because the team was only a few weeks removed from their star player and Quarterback, Braxton Miller, suffering a season-ending shoulder injury. The team had to turn to a redshirt freshman Quarterback, JT Barrett, who hadn’t played in a game since the fourth game of his senior season of high school football. Not to mention that the team was also breaking in four new starters on the offensive line. The Va Tech game was only Barrett’s second college start, the first being against what most consider to be an inferior opponent in Navy.

Since that loss, OSU has rattled off seven straight wins and accumulating a 5-0 record against Big Ten opponents. The media outlets, namely ESPN, that are covering the release tonight’s upcoming College Football Playoff Rankings have speculated that the Buckeyes will not only enter the top ten in the new rankings, but will be squarely in the conversation to be part of the four teams that will ultimately be a part of the brand new College Football Playoff that the NCAA has implemented this season.

There are still a few weeks that remain in the college football season. There is bound to be some chaos, as there always is. Only one thing is certain; nothing that the members of the media and the so-called experts say has any bearing on what the 12-man committee will vote. The CFP rankings for this week will be released at 7:30 ET.

Is the gap growing between the “Power” and “Non-Power” Conferences?

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By Alex O’Connor

Marshall has had a historic football season, where they currently sit at 9-0 and are the clear frontrunners in Conference USA. Marshall is also one of three undefeated teams left. As conferences have been realigning rapidly not only in football, but basketball, there has been an increasing concern that the “power” conferences are getting more powerful each time there is a new alignment. NBCSports has noted that Marshall’s streak is special, but there is a large amount of hesitancy on whether or not it will matter if they finish undefeated.

Currently, Marshall is ranked twenty-first in the country, according to the latest AP Top 25, and they are notably unranked in the College Football Playoff Rankings. With the addition of the new playoff system, the twelve committee members are using new statistics to measure the quality of the eligible schools. The most notable new statistic is “FPI”, which stands for the Football Power Index. Per ESPN.com, FPI is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward for the rest of the season. Given the opponents Marshall has faced in and out of conference, there is no indication that they are anywhere near the top four teams in the country. The establishment of FPI has only furthered the gap between power and non power conferences.

In regards to the media, there is always a desire to find an underdog, or a team that can come out of nowhere to shock the bigger teams. This is especially prevalent in college football. fbschedules.com noted that Marshall going undefeated in this new playoff format will be a true determination if the non-power conferences are actually playing for that grand prize.

A recent example of a small school having major success in the previous format was Boise State. In 2006, Boise State won all twelve of their scheduled games. Though they were and still are in a non power conference, (WAC) they were still slotted into a major BCS Bowl Game which was the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. They ended up winning that game by one point over Big 12 powerhouse Oklahoma. For the time being, Boise State gave smaller schools at the glory of a big college football bowl game. Now that only four teams compete for the National Championship and the former big BCS bowl games will have considerably less attention than the final four teams. The new playoff system has only made it harder for non-power conference teams to break into the national spotlight and the balance of authority is shifting heavily towards the power conferences.

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Lauren Hill’s Final Hoop Dreams Fulfilled

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By Kaleb Page

The game of basketball is something that Lauren Hill has loved for a very long time. Her love of the game took her from playing in Lawrenceburg, IN to being a member of Mount St. Joseph University’s basketball team (Division III) in Cincinnati, Ohio. Being a member of this team is quite the remarkable accomplishment based on the hard reality Lauren faces every day.

In November of Lauren’s senior year in high school, she went to the doctor after having occasions of feeling dizzy, slow and at times numb. After going to the doctor she received news that she had an inoperable brain tumor; a life expectancy of two years. Even after receiving that news, Lauren played her senior year and signed on at Mount St. Joseph to continue playing.

Flash forward to the start of her freshman year and the news on her tumor had grown even worse. When she went for her latest MRI her life expectancy was reduced to this December. It all seemed like her dream of being a college basketball player would never come true as her condition would be too bad for her to take the court. In a great gesture not only by the NCAA but by the university as well, the first game of the season was moved up to this past Sunday November 2, 2014 (two weeks earlier than normal).

Seventeen seconds into the game Lauren got a lay up, her first score as a college basketball player. This moment brought a stop to the game as her teammates rushed the court and everyone cheered the moment that was. Then the final basket of the game came on another Hill layup that capped off a win by Mount St. Joesph over Hiram College 66-55. A great day that saw not only local support from the people of Cincinnati, but nationally as well with the likes of LeBron and Candice Parker sending out messages of how inspired they were by Lauren’s courage and determination.

Her story is something my words on this post probably could do no justice to. For anyone who has not seen it on ESPN, SportsCenter or any other media outlet; the piece put together by Tom Rinaldi is amazing. He does it time and time again finding these stories that need to be told. He frames them in such a fantastic way and flows the story along that makes you not only connect to what you are watching, but more importantly to the people involved.

He definitely gave this story the platform it deserves and let Lauren be the face of pediatric cancer that her doctor mentioned was needed today. I assure you watching this piece will not only inevitably make you feel sad, but it will also make you want to tell Lauren Hill she is inspirational. For all the things she has stacked against her and the obstacles put in her path; she went forward until she met her goal.

More and more we see people give up on their goals and not even have the horrible circumstances put on them like Lauren did. That is why Lauren is not just the face of pediatric cancer. She is also the face of the ultimate perseverance to accomplish anything you put your mind to. When you put all your hard work, effort and time looking to achieve a goal or goals; nothing can stop you.

Look at Lauren Hill, she will show you that first hand.

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Dave Brandon out as Michigan’s AD

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By Alex O’Connor

On last Friday afternoon, Dave Brandon formally resigned his position as Athletic Director for the University of Michigan. University President Mark Schlissel noted in a news conference that “It would be in the best interest of our student-athletes, athletic department and the university community if he moved onto other challenges.” Brandon strived to make a profit and was highly criticized for making college athletics into a business and having a strict bottom line approach. In addition, there were numerous other factors leading to Brandon’s resignation, however one of the biggest factors in the media came from the blog, MGOBlog.com. This blog site obtained emails sent between Brandon and UM Boosters and season ticket holders. These emails contained damaging information about Brandon. One email sent to this group by Brandon told recipients to “quit drinking” and another excerpt saying “I suggest you find another team support.” These emails being released only further confirmed the reason in which Brandon resigned.

An additional “knock” on Brandon’s tenure at Michigan was his handling of the concussion protocol regarding sophomore quarterback Shane Morris during a September football game against Minnesota. Immediately after Morris’ injury, Brandon sent out a release at 1:00 a.m. stating that Morris had a “probable, mild concussion.” However, head football coach Brady Hoke said he did not. Morris proceeded to play the rest of the game. This put Hoke in hot water as he immediately said after the game that “We would never, ever put a guy on the field when there’s possibility of head trauma.” USA Today noted that Hoke was defending himself and his staff, while Brandon neglected their judgment and put out his own statement. There was a large lack of communication between the two entities and put UM’s athletics in a negative light.

In regards to the blog posts on MGOBlog.com, many have noted that this could have been the catalyst for his resignation. Erik Bernstein, the co-owner of Bernstein Crisis-Management, labeled the UM Athletics Department as a state of “crisis”. This was after the emails were released to the public. Bernstein guaranteed that “The emails (Brandon) sent absolutely are going to cost him the job.” Bernstein also noted the personal and intentional attack on their supporters was immature, and did not reflect the program in any sort of positive manner. The comments came at a time of adversity for the program and only added fuel to their fire. Ultimately, Brandon had lots of adversity as Michigan’s athletic director, however the way in which he handled it prompted his resignation.

College Football Playoff Committee: Lose-Lose Situation

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By Kaleb Page

This Tuesday night the College Football Playoff Committee releases their highly anticipated playoff rankings (to this point). These rankings will be the first set of the year done by this class of committee members. With these rankings however there is certain to be a high amount of scrutiny, and it is only the first one.

That is why I beg the question: Is this committee in a lose-lose situation? Already I am reading an article with the headline “What the College Football Playoff Committee is already getting wrong.” To think the BCS had people going bonkers, could pale in comparison to what people might do after Tuesday nights reveal and even later on when the final four is set in place.

To some and to Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports who wrote the article above, a committee releasing rankings at this point is a bad idea. I think that rankings should not be released anywhere in the beginning of the season even for the AP Poll or the Coach’s Poll. Seems ridiculous to me to make out where you see a team ranked even before they hit the field. However, I think that right now in this point of the season you know what you are getting from teams, and a good barometer of where you stand in the playoff hunt is a good thing to know. This may be one small victory in my mind for the College Playoff Committee, in waiting awhile to get a sense of the whole picture before making a judgement.

When it all comes down to it though, this committee of 12 individuals is probably fighting a battle they can’t win. They can try to justify their procedures and processes for seeding and eventual selection for the playoff, but they will never be right.

Right now if you take a look at the landscape of college football you probably could not tell me one team that is complete, lock-down, or dominate on both sides of the ball. Yeah we may have two undefeated teams in Mississippi St. and Florida St., but they are not untouchable by any means and could topple over in coming weeks. When looking at the records of the top 25 at the moment, there are 15 teams out of the 25 with only one loss and a legitimate chance of becoming an option to be in the playoff. Then by the end of the year there could be no undefeated teams which makes things even harder. Then when looking at how the SEC and PAC-12 are valued higher, what happens when a two loss team in either conference has an impressive resume and is still sitting behind a one-loss Ohio State or Michigan St.; what will they do then?

Think about that or better yet place yourself in the board room right now as the committee. Feel the pressure? Knowing that you have to somehow dwindle down a list as long as Santa’s to just a mere four teams. Oh and I forgot no matter what you pick to have in your playoff, you will have somebody (or fan-base) out there screaming for your head on a platter.

This group of members has a lot of homework to do and will obviously have a lot of explaining after their release Tuesday night. With this little sample being thrown our way, it will have (for me at least) a big deal of excitement. This will ultimately have me on the edge of my seat even more as this college football season starts to wind down toward the playoff.

As for the teams with a one out of a million shot to make it in the playoff like East Carolina, Marshall, and Duke; keep the mindset of a wise guy by the name of Lloyd Christmas and say, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance?!” Maybe just maybe this committee will select you guys to join the party at the end of the year.

Either way, have fun College Football Playoff Committee becoming the new BCS and something a majority of people love to hate.

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Chris Fowler Brings Drama to Gameday

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By Kate Roth

During ESPN’s College Gameday this past Saturday, there was a moment where I had to stop watching to check and make sure I hadn’t accidentally turned my TV to The View. The show which has become widely popular for the dramatic way that Lee Corso puts on the mascots headgear of the team he is picking to win the big game of day had some extra drama in this weekend’s show.

As the gang was getting set to start making their predictions for the day the main host of the show Chris Fowler decided to address the acquisitions of ESPN having an SEC bias, a topic that does not sit well with fans or ESPN.

We’re all used to seeing the calm and collected Chris Fowler comment his opinions on the matters at hand with very little emotion, so it was quite a shock to see how worked up he was over this topic.

Fowler wanted to make it known that ESPN does not feel they have an SEC bias nor do they want to see the SEC or any conference for that matter run the table and take up all of the spots in the new playoff system. While ranting about how tired he is of seeing these reports over and over again he even referred to them as “stupid”, not a terrible word for that matter, but a word that we would not expect to hear come out of Fowler’s mouth.

Fowler continued to make his case by saying that it would be much beneficial to ESPN for the teams that will make up the playoff to come from all different conferences covering the different regions of the country. This way fans from all over the country would be watching the games, not just fans from one area which would help ESPN gain more viewers from all over.

Although Fowler made many good points throughout his rant, the reports in which he claimed were “stupid” also make many great points as well.

It’s as though for the past few years that almost every time we turn on our TV’s on Saturday morning College Gameday is in SEC country, and if some reason they are not, they still spend the majority of the segment talking about the games within the South Eastern Conference for that day.

Yes the SEC does typically have very high ranked team’s week in and week out, but it often feels like ESPN has completely forgotten about the other conferences.

Take for instance the Big 10 Conference this past weekend. Ohio State who is one of the highest ranked teams in the nation and Big 10 Conference, played one of the toughest games on their schedule this season against Penn State. Even though Penn State is not an elite team this year, a Happy Valley white-out at night is one of the toughest environments for any team to play in. This game had the perfect set up for the College Gameday theme, but instead where did they end up again? The SEC.

Don’t get me wrong, the LSU/Ole’ Miss game was one of the most important games of the season let alone weekend, but when you are trying to defend yourself against this so called “SEC bias” it would have been a good idea to take the open opportunity to check out some of the B1G action.

It is clear that each side here has a very strong argument and will continue to defend their opinions throughout the rest of the season and possibly onto many more seasons to come. It will be interesting to see if there will be any more rants on College Gameday from Fowler or any of his colleagues, but for the time being let’s all just take a deep breath and leave the roundtable drama to the ladies of The View.

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Mid-American Conference to Back Up Quick Lane Bowl

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By Kate Roth

The Mid-American Conference has just announced their agreement to be the back for the Quick Lane Bowl being played in Detroit. This agreement says that the MAC will be the backup to the Big Ten Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference if they cannot provide a team. For now this is a 6 year deal ranging from 2014 to 2019.

This may not seem like a huge deal to anyone right now, but in the long run could be very big for the MAC.

The B1G Conference has struggled over the past couple years to supply bowl eligible teams to all of the bowl games they have contracts with. If this continues the MAC will have a chance to send one of the conference’s best teams to the Quick Lane Bowl to represent the conference against an ACC team which happens to be one of the top conference’s in college football.

Not only will this be good for the MAC because they will be able to send one more team to a bowl game, but it will help them start to get some of the national media recognition they deserve.

All of the staff working for the MAC and the teams within the conference are working just as hard as all of those in the SEC or ACC. The players in the MAC are putting in the same amount of time and work as the rest of the players around the nation, but receive almost no media attention compared to the other conferences.

By gaining this partnership with the Quick Lane Bowl the MAC has a chance to step up and show the nation what MACtion is all about.

The MAC also has a partnership with 5 other bowl games for the 2014 season with guaranteed spots and 3 with back up spots. Of the bowls that the MAC has agreements with, the Quick Lane Bowl would be one of, if not the biggest. This being based upon the opponent and location of the bowl game.

Since the 5 bowls that the MAC has guaranteed spots with will be played in Alabama, Florida, Idaho, and the Bahamas, the Quick Lane Bowl (played in Detroit) would be the best option for fans from the MAC to travel to. This will help produce larger crowds for these teams to play in front of giving them the chance to feel a much different atmosphere than they are used to.

This bowl will also attract a lot more media attention because of the opponent the team from the MAC would be facing. The media likes to revolve around teams from the power 5 conference, which the ACC and B1G are a part of. Since the MAC would be playing against a team from one of these conferences compared to a WAC or Mountain West team as usual the game would receive more attention in turn giving more attention to the MAC team.

I think the MAC made a great move by gaining a partnership with this bowl, even though it is not a guaranteed spot, there is still a great chance that they could get the opportunity to send one of their teams to this bowl and make a name for the conference. I think it’s time that the rest of the nation got in on some of the MACtion and a spot in the Quick Lane Bowl could be a great way to do so.

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