Category: Sports

Commentary and news about sports and sports teams — and media coverage of them.

And it’s not even 10, it’s 11

What would be truly incredible is if voters and computers finally realize that the Big Ten, whose teams have won two national titles in 38 years, is no longer a football conference.

What would be absolutely fair is voters and computers treating the Big Ten the way they treat the Western Athletic Conference of Boise State and Hawaii.

Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times

Here’s the final AP Top 10:

1. LSU (60) 12-2 1,620
2. Georgia (3) 11-2 1,515
3. USC (1) 11-2 1,500
4. Missouri 12-2 1,347
5. Ohio State 11-2 1,346
6. West Virginia 11-2 1,342
7. Kansas (1) 12-1 1,303
8. Oklahoma 11-3 1,139
9. Virginia Tech 11-3 1,096
10. Texas 10-3 962

MVP

Tom Brady has been elected the NFL’s most valuable player for the 2007 season. He received 49 of 50 votes.

Some cheesehead voted for Brett Favre.

Good for him

Last night’s Fiesta Bowl was tough for Oklahoma fans but it turns out it was a great job interview for West Virginia interim coach Bill Stewart. The 48-28 win got him the job.

Oh, and go read this ODE TO OWEN SCHMITT.

The guy is weeping and the silly reporter still asks him “What does this mean to you?” A great moment anyway.

“Bill Stewart’s crying, everyone’s hugging, and Owen Schmitt starts to talk about his team, his state, and his home and just completely and gloriously loses his shit.” (Every Day Should Be Saturday)

Best college football line of the year, so far

“The two showcase games on the sport’s grandest day were absolute dogs.”

Pete Thamel – The Quad

Thamel goes on to add:

U.S.C. blew out Illinois in the Rose Bowl, setting all kinds of records in the process. Georgia is doing the same to Hawaii here. Wouldn’t it be novel to, say, have the best teams play each other. It would have been nice to see this: A Rose Bowl of U.S.C. vs. Georgia, an Orange Bowl of Oklahoma vs. Virginia Tech, a Fiesta Bowl of Missouri vs. West Virginia, and then Hawaii vs. Arizona State in the Sugar Bowl. Instead, the B.C.S. has yet again managed to deliver a watered-down, unwatchable product. And it’s the fans that suffer.

So, take note Fox and Fox’s advertisers, I gave up on the Sugar Bowl midway through the first quarter. I imagine millions of others did the same. (Georgia eventually won 41-10.)

Me, it’s all about me

Hollywood, college football, Major League Baseball — it’s all just show business folks and the same considerations apply to stars everywhere.

Rodriguez had a graduate assistant hand in his official letter of resignation. When West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong read the letter, it said that Rodriguez is resigning “effective Jan. 3.”

West Virginia’s contract with Rodriguez has a $4 million buyout clause. The resignation date is Coach Rod’s way of telling the school that they either let him coach through the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 2 or they let him walk — in which case the buyout clause could be voided.

And all this time we thought college basketball coaches were the slick ones.

Wendell Barnhouse

Sequoyah High’s Success Energizes Tribe

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — If not for basketball, Angel Goodrich and her school, Sequoyah High, would be as easy to overlook as the dusty farming towns that freckle northeast Oklahoma. Goodrich, a shy sliver of a guard, is the face of the Lady Indians, who are the three-time defending state champions in their classification and a rising force on the national scene.

They opened the season ranked in the top 10 in Sports Illustrated’s national poll. And this week they will participate in the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix. Sequoyah is the first all-Indian school to receive one of the coveted invitations.

Read more about Sequoyah High’s Success, its players and coach.

Nobles, 46, is cross between Bobby Knight and the father of Hannah Montana. He puts his players through the wringer with his exacting standards, especially when it comes to boxing out for rebounds and trapping on defense. But then, after every game, Nobles collects the uniforms and takes them home to wash because the one washing machine on campus is always being used.

Though there is this error.

During the playoffs, Bush’s husband, David, does the radio play-by-play of the games in Cherokee, the language created by Sequoyah, the Indian for whom the school is named. It can be a challenge, he said, because many basketball terms are not easy to translate. For instance, he describes a foul as a crime.

Sequoyah, of course, didn’t create the Cherokee language. He developed an alphabet for it (and thus writing).

Tiger Woods Putts Baby Into Diaper

ORLANDO, FL—Tiger Woods added yet another accomplishment to his already outstanding résumé Sunday when the 13-time major winner successfully putted his baby daughter, five-month-old Sam Alexis Woods, into a fresh Huggies diaper.

Dressed in his signature red shirt, black pants, and black Nike golf shoes, Woods—who has not played competitive golf in three months in order to stay at home and spend time with his newborn daughter—followed the clutch 12-foot putt with a celebratory fist pump before hugging caddie Steve Williams, who was handling the baby’s skin ointment.

The Onion – America’s Finest News Source

There’s more and the photo is priceless.

Where do you think he buys his bling?

We beg your pardon — not even Portland can promise you a rose garden.

Said Trail Blazers rookie Greg Oden, giving the Indianapolis Star a scouting report on his new Oregon digs: “The city is nice. The only thing is, they don’t have any Wal-Marts near my house. “I go to Best Buy or Target, but those places are pretty expensive.”

Footnote: Oden gets paid $3.9 million this season.

Sideline Chatter

Good points

The BCS did not choke away a national title berth against a four-touchdown underdog the last night of the season. The BCS did not lose to Oklahoma, rise all the way up to No. 1 — then lose to the Sooners again.

The BCS did not lose on its own home field to Stanford. Or Arkansas. Or South Carolina. Or Illinois.

The BCS did not lose 48-7 in its showcase non-conference game.

The BCS did not win its first 11 games against a bunch of nobodies, rise to No. 1 in the country, then lose in its first and only marquee game.

The BCS did not soar to No. 2 in the standings, then implode upon losing its starting quarterback. The BCS did not give up 473 yards to Texas Tech — then blame it on losing its starting quarterback.

Stewart Mandel

Mandel does blame the BCS for the unappealing match-ups that resulted, however.

Just for fun

Jeff Sagarin’s computer says the top 10 today are:

1 Oklahoma (11-2)
2 Ohio State (11-1)
3 Kansas (11-1)
4 Florida (9-3)
5 Virginia Tech (11-2)
6 LSU (11-2)
7 West Virginia (10-2)
8 Southern California (10-2)
9 Missouri (11-2)
10 Georgia (10-2)

However, the Sagarin ranking the BCS uses (which is part of Sagarin’s larger set) ranks the teams:

1 Virginia Tech
2 LSU
3 Oklahoma
4 Ohio State
5 Kansas
6 Missouri
7 Georgia
8 Hawaii
9 USC
10 Boston College

Most obnoxious

If you’ve been watching much college football, as have I — no really — then you are probably very tired of certain commercials.

For example, the Dr. Pepper commercial with the dancing football player who dives off the goal posts. Cute the first hundred times, but stop already.

Or even worse, the Dr. Pepper commercial with all the sweets — candy, ice cream, pie, cupcakes — substituting for Dr. Pepper. Could they possibly make a soft drink seem less appealing?

I’m a little tired of Durwood and his buddies chasing after Bobby Bowden, too. Again, funny — hilarious even — the first few times, but annoying now. Why would Allstate insure that guy? I wouldn’t want to pay premiums to help cover him.

Even the AFLAC duck is getting on my nerves.

Any others?

BCS

My heart says the only undefeated eligible team should go to the national championship game, otherwise why have a regular season?

But no one is going to “vote” Hawaii into the championship, so who’s left?

Ohio State I suppose. They’ll lose once there, and it’s always fun to laugh at the Big 10 in bowl games, so there is the sentimental factor.

And Louisiana State. LSU would be undefeated (11-0-2) if this season had been played as in old without a tie-breaker. Furthermore, LSU won its conference championship with its starting quarterback hurt. That’s quite an achievement — just ask USC, Oregon, Oklahoma and West Virginia what can happen when the starting QB can’t play.

Ohio State vs. LSU — and LSU will win by at least ten.

By the way, a generation ago college teams played ten regular season games and a few played an eleventh game in a bowl. Now teams play 12 regular season games, some play in a conference championship, and many (too many) play in a bowl game. The season is more than a quarter longer than it used to be. I never hear this mentioned when so-and-so breaks some old record for rushing or TD passes completed in a season. Where’s the Roger Maris asterisk?

And, if you’ve been watching you may have seen the run down of the 25 Greatest Players In College Football. All but the last two spots have been announced — they’re being saved for broadcast during the Rose Bowl. By process of elimination we figured the best players who haven’t made made it to the top 25 so far are Red Grange and Barry Sanders.

Unless you think O.J. Simpson would be number one or two.

[At the time this was posted, ESPN hadn’t posted the names of all-time players numbers 3, 4 and 5. They are Herschel Walker (Georgia), Doak Walker (SMU) and Sammy Baugh (TCU).]