TonyStalloni

It must be nice to have such focus that nothing in life could bother you and change your mindset. Not even death or loss of people you knew to a tragic accident knowing you have to get on a plane within 24 hours of losing said friends or acquaintances. I applaud you in your devotion to task. You are truly one in a million.

After hearing T. Boone last night I wonder if he might put his money where his mouth is and do some of the leg work for the NCAA. With his connections in Congress I'm guessing he could raise a big stink if he could prove corruption at many levels. I'm not sure the NCAA would like the info they might receive and I'm sure would try to bury it.

What I needed to finish my rant with is this: I would agree to a boycott of this years Natl Championship Game. It will prove nothing and isn't what most football fans wanted unless you live south of the Mason Dixon Line. If Tostitos is the main sponsor you'll need to boycott all their products not just corn chips. Tostitos is owned by Frito Lay which is owned by PepsiCo. They would all need to feel the pinch with hundreds of thousands of boycott letters from all over the country and a pledge to not watch the game in any form.

I'm not seeing the reason to boycott all the bowl games. I'll agree their ethics stink (Fiesta Bowl administration). We want a champion based on what happens on the field. Most years we have either more than two undefeated teams (USC, Oklahoma and Auburn about 5 years ago) or we have only one or no undefeated teams which seems to be the qualifications for making it to the big game (unless you aren't a BCS team). Our dilema is finding a legitmate way to determine at least 4 teams and possibly 8 for a playoff. Coaches can't be counted on to vote honestly to choose who they really think is the best. Most coaches during the season have no idea about any schools outside their conference. They work 16 hours days to get ready for the next opponent. How would Bo or any Division 1 coach know anything more than a box score they read in the paper at break time on monday morning? I saw where Gary Pinkel (Missouri coach who will be a member of the SEC next year) voted OSU 4th and Stanford 3rd which helped to knock OSU further down the chain. You think he didn't get his marching orders? Newspaper writers can't be counted on to honestly vote either. Their paycheck comes from advertisers who buy ad space in the very papers and magazines they work for. Many of those advertisers are boosters of local universities. The more papers and magazines they sell the better for their pocketbooks. We know we can't let Bowl Committees choose either because their first order of business is putting butts in seats and tourists in the local economy. (Virginia Tech this year). ESPN couldn't be trusted with any input. I'd like to see a committee of College football savy people determine the 4 or 8 best teams. People who can be counted on to have the best interests of the public in mind. Not beholden to any conference or team. If it works out that a Big Ten team and a Pac 12 team make it in, they could play in the Rose Bowl. (unless they are the #1 and #2 seeds.) No more than 2 teams from any one conference and they would have to meet in the semi finals so as not to have one conference play for the national championship. NAIA, NCAA div 3 and 2 all determine a champion from actual games. They play a 16 team playoff but that would require 4 games if you play in the finals and with the size of the men playing at Division 1, I think 8 is enough.

"Just because OSU had a terrible tragedy fall on them the night before a game in no way excuses their performance." If you had someone you knew who died in a plane crash traveling for a university( who had a previous plane crash 10 years before which killed numerous members of the athletic staff) and you knew the next afternoon you would get on a plane (chartered or owned by that same university)headed for Iowa, do you think you would sleep well? How many hours of sleep do you think those kids got that night? The first half of that game they were running on memory and guts. The second half they ran out of gas and fear took over. Many people said that game should not have been played that weekend. Had it been postponed till after the Oklahoma game, do you think Iowa State would have won the game? "Just because the LSU v Alabama game didn't live up to the hype doesn't mean it won't again in round two". If you can project your feelings into the outcome of the rematch game between LSU and Alabama I can also state the idea that Oklahoma State could have good things happen to them in a game vs LSU. Fumbles and interceptions happen, key players get injured (ask Texas). If LSU wins ,at least I know they beat all their competition. Unless OSU gets a chance, we won't ever know because the people at the top who stand to profit greatly from an Alabama vs LSU game have stolen that chance. Namely ESPN and their lapdogs who sit behind the desk and tell us what a good game this will be.

Several of the games seem interesting to me. Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl, and the games that Big Ten teams play in. I'll find something else to watch the night of the "SEC Championship Game part 2". I have little interest in a conference that abuses scholarship players in the name of football excellence. The ESPN harpies can talk all they want about "the two best teams". We won't know if the two best teams are playing. Okla St's record against teams in the Top 20 and top 40 is considerably better than Alabama.

Did anyone look at the link in the first post? It was interesting to see what this writer did. I know pure statistics can be misused to portray any issue in a different light but the writer used what I thought were some telling stats. He also took the emotion out of the decision by letting you see all the stats ....let you pick (using just team A<B<C etc), who you thought was the best choice to play LSU....then after you make the choice you click on another link that tells you the team you chose. See what you think. I was a bit surprized how it turned out.

The argument for Okla St is, and I think it has merit, their loss came within days after 2 coaches from the womens basketball team were killed in a plane crash, which was the second time in 10 years that an OSU plane had crashed and killed the occupents. This team had to get on a plane and fly to Iowa 2 days later and play a game.

Embassy Suites and The Cornhusker Motel are both downtown and within reasonable walking distance to the stadium. You will pay a premium on football weekends to stay there I've heard. $500 to $700 a night. I've stayed at the Embassy (non season) and it is very comfortable. Lincoln is not that large a city that you can't stay at another motel and drive close enough to walk to the stadium and most of the chain motels are represented. If you are flying into Omaha and renting a car you might consider staying in Omaha and driving into Lincoln on game day as it is only a 50 to 60 min drive (if you leave early). If you want to experience Lincoln the night before the game then by all means stay in Lincoln and enjoy the weekend and the game.

http://eye-on-collegefootball.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/24156338/33566427 I think we can all agree that LSU must be in the title game. Who they should play seems to be the debate among college football fans. Many say Alabama since they only lost by 3 points to LSU in the regular season game. Some will be on the Okla St bandwagon since they also only have one loss and appear to have a great offense. A few might say Stanford or Oregon. USC is out of the picture and Virginia Tech and Oklahoma lost yesterday so they get knocked out as well. Take this test to see if you agree with the results.

I know that usually we start with a patsie to get one easy win under our belts. I wouldn't call SM a patsie.

I obviously don't know Mike M personally, but I didn't see attitude last year when he was switched to wide receiver from tight end. It cut his catches numbers way down. Taylor M was/is not a thread the needle type of QB and McNeil's numbers suffered because of it. He had to be frustrated to work his butt off the get open only to have the ball thrown at his feet or sale over his head. He showed he had great hands in several games his soph and jr years.

The team that spanked Houston this afternoon is I think the first team on our schedule next year. Didn't see all the game but the parts I saw it looked like SM came to play. I'm not saying they are world class, but they are the winners of their conference with a signature win over an undefeated team. I don't know if they are a team loaded with seniors or how many will be back next fall. The boys better have their helmets strapped on tight for that first game!

Our defensive genius (Pelini) had more trouble with Leach's offense than most. There was one close game in Pelini's 2nd year I think but even our best defense always had trouble stopping their offense scheme.

I always thought he would catch on with some team in the NFL. I thought he'd be a good fit for the Colts (with Manning) or the Patriots in their short game.

I'm not going to judge whether Cassidy was a good, decent or bad player. Bo had him playing for a reason. It doesn't look to me like he was ever in the weight room! I see 50 year old guys at the gym who look better than he does. How can you spend 5 years at Nebraska at look that pedestrian?

She is definately a loose cannon. Auburn U better find a way to keep her mouth shut of they'll be on probation big time!

This knocks Kansas out of the water a bit. I think they were hoping Leach would be a Jawhawk from all I've read. This might set their timetable back a few weeks....or months.

In addition to having different athletic directors and the night and day attitudes each brought to the table, the other big difference is the mindset of Husker fans. We were coming out of the 90's run that TO had and that was still fresh in the minds of fans. That 6 year run was what we considered normal and our "right" to have a top 5 team every year. Frank had had his troubles but 03 was a step in the right direction. Petersen thought he could improve on the brand and kick us into high gear. "Little Stalin" did a torch and burn that nearly brought the program to it's knees. Bo rode in on his white horse and brought us to respectability. We have a ways to go but we're going in the right direction.

Urban has some good pieces to work with at OSU. The coaches he will use won't be the same ones he used at Florida. Big name coaches don't always keep up the same level of excellence when they take a break and go back into coaching. Don't get me wrong....I think his name will attract recruits and he may be able to get a few speedy Florida players to Columbus but I'm not ready to crown OSU as the new National Champion. I wonder if his committment will be the same as it was in his previous jobs?

Gill is guaranteed some part of that 6 million and KU has to pick up the tab for whatever his new job doesn't pay. I say lets hire him as a graduate assistant for $5000 and let KU pay the rest. Let him work with Qbs.

It's hard to believe they only gave him 2 years to turn around a program whose cupboard was about empty when Gill arrived. If I heard correctly he has $5 million left on his contract so his life isn't exactly shattered. I hope he can pick up the pieces and make something of himself. He will do good things at another school.

While I agree that at some point kids/parents have to come to the realization that perhaps "Johnnie" wasn't destined to be a starter as a freshman, coaches still need to communicate with players as much as possible on what they need to improve on to gain traction toward playing time. I doubt many kids show up at Division 1 with the idea of floating through 4 years of school for the free education. Many may not have the work ethic to succeed without guidance however. I would hope coaches can be genuine enough to tell a player they have doubts that he will ever see the field. Unlike most SEC schools we choose not to pull their scholarships. I see no reason an unhappy player should stay with a team where he has lost faith in the coaches or school. Joe Ganz is to be commended for sticking it out and for him it was a storybook ending. There are other kids (who will never see the field here) who could be starting for smaller programs in Div 1 or Div 2 or an NAIA school.

I've never thought poorly of a player who feels his best career move is transferring somewhere else. If I was a player who truly loved the game and wanted to play rather than sit the bench, I wouldn't have second thoughts about leaving and trying my hand at another school. Maybe he doesn't really have Div 1 skills and Bo told him that. If that is the case then we really only have one Qb on our roster! If there are other guys on the team ( and I think there might be about 25) on scholarship who aren't going to have a sniff at playing time I would like to see them transfer and free up a few this year.

I feel and certainly hope that TO would retire before he would fire Bo for a 9-3 season. We went down that road once and look where it got us. Next year will more than likely be similar to this one. We play the same Big 10 schedule. Wisc shouldn't be as good next year unless they find another Qb in the weeds. OSU might be pretty good depending on what they do with coaches. PSU shouldn't be great with the players they loose. Michigan will be good....Mich St probably not so good. We play at NW so lets not get upset there again looking ahead. The recruits who redshirted this year will add strength to our depth issues. Todd Peat should be a factor on the D line. David will be missed at Lb lets hope the redshirts can fill most of the void. The offense better be ready to carry the load for most of the season. I do hope Bo can see his way to play the young kids in places they can succeed early. We'll need them for the Big 10.