Sports Illustrated, spreading out the cover jinx, went back to the regional covers this year. Of course, last season it was a little more out-of-control, but unless we see something new, it looks like SI will settle with four covers this year, the top four teams in the poll. And being the top four, we begin with the best.
2. OHIO STATE
3. BOISE STATE
4. TEXAS
JerryDome. Cowboys Stadium, the new Texas Stadium, which led to the irrelevance of the old Dallas Cowboys venue and the movement of the Cotton Bowl from the actual Cotton Bowl to the massive stadium outside of Dallas. It’s quite a place. Something built by a man with a shit-ton of money who loves both professional and college football. Because the second the building went up, there were all sorts of interesting games being played out under the massive high-definition screen.
So, let’s go. In this situation, “2012″ isn’t a movie, it’s just two seasons from September. Word broke out on a blog we used to read (like, in 2005) before the proprietor became the foulest of Big Ten stereotypes, the douchebag, Brian Cook of MGoBlog.com. He said he had some hot-as-shit source telling him that Alabama and Michigan would be playing an opening season game at the JerryDome in 2012.
But apparently it is happening. The contract is being signed Monday. Which is tomorrow.
The following details are unconfirmed but of interest since they come from an established source:
- Game is happening because a desperate Jerry Jones “overpaid.”
- Michigan will be the nominal home team (important mostly for TV rights) and receive more money.
- There’s no additional game scheduled and there may not be.
- Jones might be well-positioned to provide some advice on HD scoreboards.
This comes with a set of crazy conflicting emotions. Hurray awesome nonconference game, boo that it’s in fricking Dallas in a corporate death star of an NFL stadium and not a home-and-home in Ann Arbor and Tuscaloosa. I guess that’s what it takes for a lot of actual nonconference games to get done these days, but awesomeness of trip to Dallas to see M play ‘Bama <<<<<< awesomeness of M-Bama home-and-home. On the other hand, awesomeness of M-Bama Dallas >>>>>>> awesomeness of M-BGSU anywhere.
[Note on sourcing: in this case I am going with one source, but he is a very established one.]
Yeah. Not so sure about that. Crimson Tide athletic director Mal Moore, who just recently received a contract extension, puts the situation as a “maybe.” Perhaps the Wolverines are so hungry to get into the Southeastern Conference and Big XII Conference recruiting sphere that they want it to look better than it does. Yet, there’s just as good of a chance that Bama might play an opening season game in two years in Jacksonville.
So will Alabama open its 2012 college football season with a game against Michigan at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
“We’ve talked about several teams,” Alabama athletics director Mal Moore said this morning, “but nothing’s done.”
That was all he had to say about reports that a deal to match the two traditional powers at a neutral site was in the works.
There are 34 bowl games this year, and we’re picking every damn one of them (probably with 60-70 percent success). You can follow the progress or join up and do battle with us through ESPN College Bowl Mania. We’re in “The League” and “The War Against Tebow.” TWAT (jokes!) is the brainchild of decamped S.C. blogger and good time Johnny, Micah Snead, so go there. But beware — Snead’s dad is a total ringer and will probably take the title by 20 points.
Dec. 19, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
Fresno State v. Wyoming
Dec. 19, 8 p.m., ESPN
Central Florida v. Rutgers
Dec. 20, 8:30 a.m., ESPN
Southern Miss v. Middle Tennessee State
Dec. 22, 8 p.m., ESPN
No. 18 Oregon State v. No. 14 BYU
Dec. 23, 8 p.m., ESPN
No. 23 Utah v. California
Dec. 24, 8 p.m., ESPN
Nevada v. Southern Methodist
Dec. 26, 1 p.m., ESPN
Marshall v. Ohio
Dec. 26, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
No. 17 Pitt v. North Carolina
Dec. 26, 8 p.m., ESPN
Boston College v. No. 24 Southern Cal
Dec. 27, 8:30 p.m., ESPN
Kentucky v. Clemson
Dec. 28, 5 p.m., ESPN2
Texas A&M v. Georgia
Dec. 29, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
UCLA v. Temple
Dec. 29, 8 p.m., ESPN
No. 15 Miami v. No. 25 Wisconsin
Dec. 30, 4:30 p.m., ESPN
Bowling Green v. Idaho
Dec. 30, 8 p.m., ESPN
No. 20 Arizona v. No. 22 Nebraska
Dec. 31, Noon, ESPN
Houston v. Air Force
Dec. 31, 2 p.m., CBS
Oklahoma v. No. 21 Stanford
Dec. 31, 3:30 p.m., ESPN
Navy v. Missouri
Dec. 31, 6 p.m., NFL Network
Minnesota v. Iowa State
Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
No. 11 Virginia Tech v. Tennessee
Jan. 1, 11 a.m., ESPN
Northwestern v. Auburn
Jan. 1, 1 p.m., CBS
No. 16 West Virginia v. Florida State
Jan. 1, 1 p.m., ESPN
No. 13 Penn State v. No. 12 LSU
Jan. 1, 4:30 p.m., ABC
No. 8 Ohio State v. No. 7 Oregon
Jan. 1, 8:30 p.m., Fox
No. 5 Florida v. No. 3 Cincinnati
Jan. 2, Noon, ESPN2
South Florida v. Northern Illinois
Jan. 2, 2 p.m., ESPN
South Carolina v. Connecticut
Jan. 2, 2 p.m., Fox
No. 19 Oklahoma State v. Ole Miss
Jan. 2, 5:30 p.m., ESPN
Arkansas v. East Carolina
Jan. 2, 9 p.m., ESPN
Michigan State v. Texas Tech
Jan. 4, 8 p.m., Fox
No. 6 Boise State v. No. 4 TCU
Jan. 5, 8 p.m., Fox
No. 10 Iowa v. No. 9 Georgia Tech
Jan. 6, 7 p.m., Fox
No. 25 Central Michigan v. Troy
Jan. 7, 8 p.m., ABC
No. 2 Texas v. No. 1 Alabama
Here we go. With the conference championship games over, and only Army-Navy left on Dec. 12, bowl bids are going out hot and heavy. There are some things that were expected, some surprises and — oh man — Clemson totally got jobbed.
BCS National Championship Game
No. 1 Alabama v. No. 2 Texas
Sugar Bowl
No. 5 Florida v. No. 3 Cincinnati
Capital One Bowl
No. 12 LSU v. No. 13 Penn State
Cotton Bowl
Ole Miss v. No. 19 Oklahoma State
Outback Bowl
Auburn v. Northwestern
Chick-fil-A Bowl
Tennessee v. No. 11 Virginia Tech
Music City Bowl
Kentucky v. Clemson
Liberty Bowl
Arkansas v. East Carolina
Independence Bowl
Georgia v. Texas A&M
Papajohns.com Bowl
South Carolina v. Connecticut
Definitely some interesting matchups — Georgia and Texas A&M are a couple big name teams for a small bowl, so that should be good. In other bowls, the Gator Bowl gave a big, wet, sloppy kiss to Bobby Bowden by inviting Florida State and West Virginia. Travesty. Though it was technically OK, Miami and Boston College were higher up in the selection order in the ACC. Southern Cal, the over-hyped 8-4 team, is going to play the Eagles in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco.
Ooh! There are other BCS games?
Fiesta Bowl
No. 6 Boise State v. No. 4 TCU
Rose Bowl
No. 7 Oregon v. No. 8 Ohio State
Orange Bowl
No. 9 Georgia Tech v. No. 10 Iowa
Nike’s bizarre, “tradition ain’t shit” uniform policy will befoul a number of teams for the rest of the month. Alabama, thank God, has been limited to the swoosh, the NCAA-mandated conference pennant and the script A, through there was that houndstooth collar mess for the 2006 Ole Miss game.
It appears the garish ensemble will come out for the Florida State game (but there hasn’t been a definitive statement). The Seminoles will also be wearing the misfit creation, with a black helmet. Don’t drink too much, as you might not recognize who’s on the field. We haven’t found a picture of the side of the Florida helmet, but unless it’s got the old-school F on that white melon case, it’s going to be even more strange. Throw a blue helmet on there, and you’d swear it’s Kentucky.
The other ones are even weirder. LSU’s look like a direct rip from Washington. The helmets are gold. TCU’s entry has pants that look like scales and red stripes on the helmet. Horned frogs, you see, shoot blood out of their eyes. Miami has two-tone numbers, but the only tradition there is thuggery and fairweather fans, so that’s no big deal.
Recently, the Gator Bowl has been moved to the stadium that is the home of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Funny enough, a low-level bowl game should be able to fill the stands to the level of a Jags game or an ACC Championship Game.
For far too long, the Southeastern Conference has been in a contract to make sure that a six-win team was sent to Shreveport, La. for the Independence Bowl. A lot of SEC teams have decried this, considering the lameness that is the Shreveport-Bossier City metroplex. Starting next season, it is no more.
Turns out, the SEC is ending its ties with the Independence Bowl and moving said team to Jax for the Gator Bowl, which before was reserved previously for the ACC v. Big XII/Big East/Notre Dame. This won’t happen until next season. From the stories that have come out, Gator Bowl 2010 will involve an SEC and a Big Ten team.
“This is tremendous, getting the SEC,” Gator Bowl chairman Dan Murphy said to The Times-Union. “Jacksonville is an SEC city and I hope people will really support this game with the SEC as a partner.”
As it stands, the Independence Bowl, which no one wants to go to, will now be relegated to representatives from the ACC and the Mountain West Conference. Haha. Good luck in the northern Louisiana casinos, you unfortunate six-win jokers.
In the 1979 Sugar Bowl, when Alabama played for the national championship against Penn State, the Nittany Lions drove down the field in the fourth quarter to the Crimson Tide goal line. Multiple times, Penn State ran it up the middle to try to score what would have been the tying touchdown. Each time, Bama stopped them, leading to the famous goal line stand.
In next week’s issue of Sports Illustrated, the magazine is including that moment in its “Where Are They Now?” double issue. The moment led Birmingham graphic designer Daniel Moore to make a painting, starting him on a career in which he has made bank doing paintings of famous moments from Alabama and other SEC teams.
In the story, Lars Anderson writes, “At the precise moment that [Barry] Krauss and [Mike] Guman collided, SI photographer Walter Iooss Jr. snapped an iconic shot that would make the cover of that week’s issue, a picture whose spirit and upward thrust of angles faintly echo the famous photo of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima. So powerful was the image that Daniel Moore, then a 25-year-old graphic designer in Birmingham, made a painting of the scene. It’s no stretch to say that Goal Line Stand is the most popular piece of artwork in Alabama; it hangs in countless dens, offices, restaurants and bars throughout the state. ‘That painting hit home, because that single image symbolized Bear Bryant’s philosophy,’ says Moore. ‘It was gut-check time for the players, and they made a stand.’”
After the game, a sportswriter asked Bama coach Bear Bryant how far Penn State got from the end zone. Bryant replied, “About the length of your tallywhacker.”
Maurice Clarett, former Ohio State running back, was last seen using his breakaway speed to run from the cops in 2006. The charge he is being held on was what was over his head before the police chase — namely, robbery (four counts), aggravated robbery (two counts) and one count of possessing a concealed weapon.
While he was out on bond, this shining example of Buckeye football took off from police one early morning three years ago with three loaded handguns and a loaded AK-47 while wearing a bulletproof vest. He also had half a bottle of Grey Goose in the car, though the authorities said he was sober after they maced him and took him back into custody. But, just to stop the SUV, they had to bring in a helicopter and lay down some spike strips to blow the car’s tires.
So, for some reason he thought he could get Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland to grant him clemency. Sounds like a great idea, right?
“He had an AK-47 with 30 live rounds in the magazine and three pistols in his vehicle, and was wearing a Kevlar bullet-proof vest…an open bottle of Grey Goose vodka and a hatchet,” Franklin County prosecutor Ron O’Brien told Strickland in a letter. “Those facts do not suggest the kind of conduct that warrants the intervention of executive clemency.”
