Pretend Playoffs - Championship Game

Last week we saw Alabama knock off Texas in the BCS championship game and now this week we’re ready to crown the Crimson Tide as our 2009-10 NCAA Football Pretend Playoff Champions. While the BCS agreed with our champion the runner-up was a different story. We had a team from the state of Texas in the championship game but it was the one from Ft. Worth and not Austin. Granted TCU’s real life loss to Boise State hurts our formula here but we still have to finish the process.

In our system TCU reached the championship game by knocking off Florida in the Rose Bowl and then sneaking past the Longhorns in an Austin upset. Bama reached the championship game virtually unchallenged after crushing Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl and then Boise State in the semis. Now we’ve reached the championship game and we find the Tide still driving on cruise control.

Pretend Playoffs Championship	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
TCU Horned Frogs	0	6	3	3	12
Alabama Crimson Tide	17	3	7	6	33

College Football Pretend Playoffs – Semi Finals

Teams Remaining
#4 TCU
#1 Alabama
#2 Texas
#6 Boise State

The four teams to survive our first round of the pretend college football playoffs were #1 Alabama, #2 Texas, #4 TCU and #6 Boise State. The playoffs now move to the home sites of the two remaining top seeded teams which means #6 Boise State will travel to Tuscaloosa to take on the top seeded Crimson Tide while #4 TCU travels to Austin for an instate showdown with the Longhorns. Who doesn’t think that would be fun?

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
#6 Boise State Broncos	0	16	3	0	19
#1 Alabama Crimson Tide	7	17	10	16	50

Boise began their season with a major upset over the eventual Pac 10 champion Oregon Ducks but they'd be no match for the SEC champions at the end of the season. Mark Ingram runs wild through the Broncos' defense in leading Bama to a rout and punching a ticket to Pasadena for the college football championship game.

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
#4 TCU Horned Frogs	7	0	6	0	13
#2 Texas Longhorns	0	7	0	3	10

Austin becomes upset city as the Horned Frogs kick their way to Pasadena to face the Tide. After playing to a draw in the first half TCU kicks two third quarter field goals to stun the Longhorns and the college football world.

Final Regular Season BlogPoll Ballot

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	2
2	Cincinnati	2
3	Texas	2
4	TCU	1
5	Boise State	1
6	Florida	4
7	Oregon
8	Ohio State
9	Penn State
10	Georgia Tech	2
11	Virginia Tech	1
12	LSU	1
13	Brigham Young	1
14	Oregon State	3
15	Miami (Florida)	2
16	Stanford	4
17	Arizona
18	Nebraska	1
19	Pittsburgh	4
20	West Virginia	3
21	Utah	4
22	Oklahoma State
23	Wisconsin
24	Central Michigan
25	East Carolina
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Houston (#16), California (#18), Southern Cal (#21), Clemson (#24).

CBS Sports BlogPoll Ballot Week 13

Rank	Team
1	Texas
2	Florida
3	Alabama
4	Cincinnati
5	TCU
6	Boise State
7	Oregon
8	Ohio State
9	Penn State
10	Virginia Tech
11	Oregon State
12	Georgia Tech
13	LSU
14	Brigham Young
15	Pittsburgh
16	Houston
17	Miami (Florida)
18	California
19	Nebraska
20	Stanford
21	Southern Cal
22	Oklahoma State
23	West Virginia
24	Clemson
25	Utah

Writing On The Wall For Charlie Weis

While there’s been no official word out of South Bend regarding the job status of Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis it seems to be understood that Saturday will be his final regular season game, if not his final game period, on the sidelines. Weis himself said that he couldn’t make an argument against being fired after a 33-30 loss to Connecticut.

On Tuesday Irish athletic director, Jack Swarbrick, said that Weis would not stay in California to recruit following the game against Stanford but will return to South Bend with the team. Hmmmm, why wouldn’t an AD want his coach out on the recruiting trail? I can think on only one reason.

CBS Sports BlogPoll Ballot Week 8: I’m Joining The Resistance!

Raise Your Hand If You Want To Be In The Resistance

I’m keeping Alabama at #1 this week and dropping Florida to #3 just because I don’t agree with what the SEC is doing. Both teams struggled against lesser opponents on Saturday, Bama at home against Tennessee and Florida on the road at Mississippi State. The difference was that the Tide won with the assistance of Terrence Cody blocking two field goals. Florida won with the assistance of an officiating crew who once again gave the Gators a favorable call which was also once again the wrong call. Its clearly obvious by now to everyone who isn’t a Tebow worshiper that the SEC is protecting their “cash cow” and is working to script the season, much like a WWE event, so that we see a Bama vs. Florida SEC Championship game. I’m not buying the hype nor am I adding to it. Florida is a good team and could be the best in the country but I don’t want ESPN and CBS telling me that. I want to see them go out and earn that type of respect on the field without the assistance of a biased officiating crew. Until that happens you can count me in the group of people standing against the ridiculous nonsense we’ve seen the last two weeks from the SEC. We are the resistance and we call ourselves the Anti-Tebows. Lookout Georgia, you’re next in line to get hosed by SEC officials!

I've got 12 teams on the move this week on my ballot. Arizona and Notre Dame are new this week as I said goodbye to Texas Tech and South Florida.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Texas	1
3	Florida	1
4	Cincinnati
5	Boise State
6	Iowa
7	Southern Cal
8	LSU
9	Georgia Tech
10	Penn State
11	Oregon	4
12	Virginia Tech
13	Oklahoma State
14	Mississippi
15	Ohio State	1
16	TCU	2
17	Utah	2
18	Pittsburgh	2
19	Miami (Florida)	8
20	Houston	1
21	South Carolina	2
22	West Virginia	2
23	Arizona
24	Notre Dame
25	Brigham Young	8
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Texas Tech (#22), South Florida (#25).

SEC Officiating Crew Suspended For Sucking!

If you don’t believe that the SEC tries to protect its top teams from being upset then you didn’t watch the LSU/Georgia or Arkansas/Florida games. In both of those games the underdogs were bidding for an upset late in the contest and the officials called a questionable personal foul swinging the momentum in favor of LSU and Florida. In both games the SEC came out and said afterwards that the penalties were unwarranted. In both games it was the same officiating crew.

After Saturday’s farce of a call that set the Gators up at the Arkansas 10 while trailing 20-13, Referee Marc Curles’ crew has been suspended. It was the first time that the SEC has taken such action against an officiating crew but it certainly was needed.

“A series of calls that have occurred during the last several weeks have not been to the standard that we expect from our officiating crews,” SEC commissioner Mike Slive said Wednesday. “I believe our officiating program is the best in the country. However, there are times when these actions must be taken.”

While I agree with the commissioner’s decision to suspend this crew, I also believe that it should have been for more than just one game. I also can’t understand how Commissioner Slive can think that he’s got the best officiating program in the country when he’s putting a crew on the field that favors the higher ranked teams and clearly doesn’t know the difference between shedding a block and a personal foul.

Do you have a disaster recovery plan?

BlogPoll Ballot Week 7 Says Goodbye To Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska

Last week the BlogPoll guru said that there wasn’t enough movement on my ballot and this week he’ll probably say that there was too much. My top three teams are the same but just in a different order. Alabama has been the most impressive team that I’ve seen to date and I’m ready to put them at Number 1 now. Texas had a chance to make some noise by thrashing an injury depleted Oklahoma squad but instead squeaked by with a 3 point win. Anyone who thinks the Longhorns can play Bama or Florida to within two touchdowns right now is either crazy or named Mack Brown.

Pittsburgh (20), Texas Tech (22) and West Virginia (24) are all new this week to the ballot while a trio of Big 12 schools (Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska) say goodbye. Those are my thoughts, now let me hear yours!

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	2
2	Florida	1
3	Texas	1
4	Cincinnati	3
5	Boise State
6	Iowa	4
7	Southern Cal	2
8	LSU
9	Georgia Tech	4
10	Penn State	1
11	Miami (Florida)	1
12	Virginia Tech	8
13	Oklahoma State	1
14	Mississippi	3
15	Oregon
16	Ohio State	10
17	Brigham Young	1
18	TCU	2
19	Utah	3
20	Pittsburgh
21	Houston	3
22	Texas Tech
23	South Carolina	2
24	West Virginia
25	South Florida	2
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Kansas (#16), Oklahoma (#19), Nebraska (#25).