A Couple Big 10 Thoughts

Last week USC and UCLA shocked the college football world by announcing they were joining the Big 10. Having had some time to digest the news - here's a couple of observations.

First, when there were no NFL teams in Los Angeles - college football was king. Especially with Pete Carroll's USC championship teams. Now LA has both the Rams and Chargers and overall interest in college football is on the wane. LA in a couple of years will be similar to Boston where no matter how good BC is the interest is minimal compared to the Patriots. Guessing it will take less than 8-years.

Adding USC and UCLA is a big win for the Big 10. The Midwest teams and their fans get to go to sunny California as basically the equivalent of an extra bowl game vacation a year. Also a big win for Big 10 recruiting, as these teams get an extra in with Southern Cal recruits. Will be especially important if, as I predicted, the local LA teams go on a downward spiral.  

The New Big 10 is Crazy!

This is crazy. USC and UCLA joining the Big 10 to me is like the Los Angeles Dodgers joining the AL East. 

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Now that it's officially fall - let me be the first to remind you that's there's now just 13 shopping weeks until Christmas... Actually surprised we haven't read about any UN translators having a stroke or nervous breakdown after trying to translate this speech... "Whoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god." - Aristotle. Given the choice between the two - I'm going to go ahead and say I'm a god then. Though to be fair to Aristotle - he was born before the printing press and mass production of beer. Give me a good book and a cold beer and I'm delighted in solitude... It's like the evolution of my punctuation over the last 5-years in one image. I feel so seen... Let me take this opportunity to announce I'm formally taking myself out of the running as the next head football coach at USC... Out of curiosity do all those copies of Andrew Cuomo's book that were printed but will never be sold count against his carbon footprint? What about Michele Obama's book Becoming? Think of all those dead trees killed for no good reason... Bait Collectors would be a good name for a redneck band... 

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

There should be a Go Fund Me page to get Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to attend and film an appearance at next year's Met Gala. There would be no lack in donors for the $35,000 cost of entry. And if a guy dressed as Captain Crunch can attend - why not Triumph? That would be awesome... Richard Feynman, while at CalTech, once wanted to create a diagram or a map showing how all different aspects of physics interacted. He was going to call it a "Guide to the Perplexed." That would also be a good name for either a blog or an online physics or science magazine... Has it really been 12-years since Pete Carroll was the coach at USC? Time flies. Also seems strange that he's now been the Seahawks coach longer than he was the Trojans coach. Kind of like Pudge Fisk actually playing more games for the White Sox than the Red Sox... Went on a neighborhood walk through a local college campus and a wildlife area and I must have seen twenty plus discarded masks. And nobody is picking those dirty face-diapers up... Seeing how it is now pretty much accepted that Andy Dalton is basically a below average starting QB - is it time to reassess Marvin Lewis as a head coach? People used to argue that it was Lewis holding Dalton back when it may have actually been the opposite...  From now on if anyone asks you to wear a mask tell them that you self-identify as a Met Gala party goer... 

More Linky Links

More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Operation Warp Speed: A Story Yet to Be Told. The best stories on the Manhattan Project didn't come out until years after the war.

- Fauci making sense (of course it was from 2-years ago and today he's probably against a good diet, exercise, and a good night's rest)

- Because in our society football coaches are held responsible for failures but Generals and Admirals are not. 

- And speaking of college football coaches being fired - USC fires Clay Helton (finally)

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I'll start the rumor right now - after the NFL season Patriots Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniels will be named the new head coach of USC. Makes lots of sense... Chuck Yeager not a fan of Pappy Boyington... For the good of the country - Gary Johnson should allow Belichick/Brady2016 to replace Johnson/Weld2016 on the November ballot... As a reminder - these two guys are responsible for trying to stop the Arizona Cardinals today... Rocky Balboa's first name is Robert - who knew?... In the golf game of life - the year 2016 is a Mulligan... Am I a bad person for laughing at this?...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Muhammad Ali and Andre the Giant meet and compare hand sizes. It makes you wonder if anyone could have stood up to Andre in the boxing ring. Just one solid blow from his hands would have ended most fights.

- Cool pool trick shots

- Formula E racing looks cool but not hearing the roar of the engine seems strange. Also not sure if I like the idea of having to switch cars when the batteries run low.

- Heh heh - epilepsy my cock

- Cool - soft robotic exosuits - faster please!

- Hannah Storm - what does the NFL stand for?

- The men with the red bandannas beat the USC Trojans last night. They "out-desired them."

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Weird stat - Tony Romo is 21-3 as a starting QB in the month of November. Too bad playoffs are not played before Thanksgiving... I see wild turkeys all the time. I had no idea that they were re-introduced to Massachusetts after I was born... Notre Dame haters will point out that Brian Kelley is lucky he inherited Charlie Weiss' decided schematic advantage on defense... Speaking of the big Notre Dame / USC game - has any other team started as a pre-season number 1 in the polls only to finished unranked? USC looks like they are about to accomplish this dubious feat... Would Reach-Around Elmo be a good fantasy football or band name?... Who knew? There are 293 different ways to make change for a dollar... Fact that really makes you think. Every human originally spent about half an hour as a single cell. If you murder that single cell - do you murder the human?...

Saturday Picks

Thought I'd offer up my picks for Saturday's NCAAF action. As always these are for entertainment purposes only.

Alabama -47 vs North Texas - I really think that when a line goes over 40 points it should be taken off the board. The temptation to run up the score just gets too great and nobody likes "style points" better then Nick Saban. The Crimson Tide may win this one 70-3.

Southern Cal -15 vs Syracuse - the Orangemen aren't that great to begin with and now they have to deal with the distractions of Southern California plus the news that the team may be going to the ACC. On top of everything else - the game is at 8:00 EST which may add in the jet lag factor.

Auburn +3 at Clemson - Death Valley hasn't been an intimidating place for visitors for some time (Clemson is just 1-4 ATS in last 5 home games). Auburn does well in close games plus this is an SEC vs ACC match-up (and I know that the ACC actually does pretty well in those matchups but I think that's due to small sample size).

Oklahoma -3.5 at Florida State - I think Florida State is improving but not quite ready to tackle a team like Oklahoma.

For record keeping let's say that each pick is for a mythical $100.

Good luck.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

So Reggie Bush says that returning the Heisman is not an admission of guilt. So is Reggie Bush now going to write a book called "If I Did It" just like another USC running back?... Heh heh... I doubt Jonathan Papelbon will use the Drop Kick Murphy's Shipping Up to Boston for entrance music next season because I don't think he'll be with the Red Sox... Very sad. UMass band director dies on way to Ann Arbor for today's game. My sympathies and best wishes go out to the family of George Parks... I do not apologize for being happy that the WNBA finals are over. Now we can go months without ESPN jamming the WNBA down our throats... Giant Manta Ray swipes $5k camera rig from diver, shoots some video...

College Football Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous college football thoughts and observations.

Week three in college football always seems to bring some big surprises and this year was no exception. The biggest surprise was of course USC getting beat by Washington. This was the 4th year in a row that USC was beaten by an unranked team. Two things about this game - first I hope that blame is not put solely on the shoulders of QB Aaron Corp. If freshman QB Matt Barkley comes back and leads USC to wins the rest of the way then Corp will be a target but it will be unfair. The whole team lost yesterday - not just the QB. Secondly, you have to wonder how this will effect Ohio State. It will be tough for voters to rank Ohio State ahead of USC for the rest of the way enabling maybe some lesser talented one-loss teams to leapfrog the Buckeyes in the rankings... Maybe the biggest winner of the weekend was Miami. First they dismantle 14th ranked Georgia Tech and then a team they beat - Florida State - dismantled number 7 BYU. Number 20 Miami will be sure to jump a number of spots in the rankings after the results of the past few days but the question is how many? The BYU loss causes a rankings conundrum. Oklahoma lost to BYU and is ranked 12th. Logic would seem to dictate that Miami be ranked higher with the thinking of Miami beat FSU, FSU beat BYU and BYU beat Oklahoma. But since when did logic and the NCAA ever really go together?... Notre Dame won yesterday but they did not cover the spread. Even with the win - many fans jumped off the Fighting Irish bandwagon. I know that Charlie Weis doesn't set the spread but his job nonetheless is to cover it (no I'm not bitter - much)... At gametime - Army was an 8.5 favorite over a fellow 1-A competitor Ball State. When was the last time Army was favored by that many points? With Army and Air Force victories yesterday - the service academies are now a combined 5-4 on the season. Good for them...

Football Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous football thoughts and observations.

East Carolina has had a funny season so far. They have not lost a game where they were the underdog and they have not won a game when they were the favorite. Yesterday they were once again the favorite (by 6.5 over Virginia) and they lost outright. Maybe Skip took in those Dr. Holtz underdog pep-talks but missed the Dr. Spurrier how to win when favored talks... Harvard's Ryan Fitzpatric is supposed to start today for the Bengals against the Jets. He can't be any worse than what Carson Palmer has done this season. I'm pulling for him. Am I the only one who finds it amusing that the most effective former USC quarterback in the NFL never started for USC? Palmer has been a wreck, Leinart isn't even starting but Cassel has been very good so far... The linesmakers in Vegas continue to amaze. USC was favored over Arizona State by either 28 or 28.5 points. The Trojans won 28-0... Kellen Winslow is upper upper class high society. God's gift to ballroom notoriety. Winslow always fills his ballroom. The event is never small. The social pages say Kellen Winslow's got the biggest balls of all...

College Football Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous college football thoughts and observations.

I watched the final quarter of Stanford's upset win over USC and I must say that John David Booty at QB for USC makes USC beatable on any given Saturday. Forget the 4 interceptions he threw - USC got the ball back with 49 seconds left and the ball on about their own 45-yard line. All they needed was a couple of quick out completions to set up the game winning field goal. Instead they used up 4 downs and lost 7 yards. Matt Leinart or Carson Palmer would have set the team up for that final field-goal try. John David Booty just isn't a big time QB and if his back-up leads them to a couple of wins - then John David Booty could have played his last down for the Trojans.... With USC and #5 Wisconsin both losing - that means #7 Boston College will probably move up into the top 5. I've got to mention that I may have been the only person to predict a 7-0 start and a top 5 ranking for the Eagles. BC still has to beat Notre Dame to get to 7-0 but with the Irish beating UCLA yesterday - I think that actually makes it easier for BC to win the game. Notre Dame no longer has the urgency to win their first game of the year weighing down on their shoulders... Boston College will probably move up to #5 in the AP poll but I find it amusing that pre-season Michigan was ranked #5 in the AP poll and now they aren't even in the top 25. Pre-season BC wasn't even in the top 25 in the AP poll. Pre-season Louisville was ranked 10th while Missouri was not even ranked. Now Missouri may rise as high as 10th in the poll while Louisville is not even in the top 25. Pre-season it seemed like the voters had no clue about teams like South Florida, Cincinnati, and Illinois while they ranked others purely on reputation. I point this out just to emphasize how unscientific and random the current system is.... Matt Ryan helped himself in his Heisman hopes with a 300 yard performance (or 312 yards depending on whose stats you use) with 4 TD's and most importantly ZERO interceptions. Just as BC will now be in the top 5 - Ryan should also be in the top 5 for Heisman hopefuls... Speaking of awards - Holy Cross QB Dominic Randolph should at least move into the Payton Award watch list with his 6 TD, 404-yard performance against Brown yesterday...