by naternet January 23, 2012

As he so often does, Spencer Hall sums up a overwhelming event in college football with wit, style, and substance. 

If I could add anything, it would be that the legend and the man became one toward the twilight of Paterno’s career, even perhaps in his own mind.

Joe had absolute power in Happy Valley, and as we all know, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Even for a man of Paterno’s iron will, corruption’s pull wears away at the hardest resolve. In the end, Joe Paterno succumbed to the temptation of absolute power and those around him enabled that downfall by indulging an old icon and allowing him to become a tyrant of his own making. It could happen to any one of us, and in most it probably would have happened much sooner. 

And it’s a shame. Not just because his legacy is tarnished, but because all of the good that he did for thousands of student-athletes, for Penn State as a place of learning, for college football as a whole- is now colored by what he did not do. He did not live up to the high moral standard asked everyone else to live up to. 

In the end, I don’t believe that one wrong act can nullify decades of good. I think Paterno really did wish he could take it all back and do the right thing, not because it would make him and his legacy untarnished once more, but because when it came time for him to live up to the legend he had made himself to be, he found himself just a flawed old man, unable to do the right thing when it mattered most. 

by naternet January 10, 2012

Yup. Fuck this season. Bring on 2012!

by naternet December 16, 2011

YAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!

by Kimberly December 14, 2011
Y’know what? That’s pretty awesome. People give Tim Tebow a ton of shit, but being able to laugh at people mocking you diffuses it pretty well. Now, if he could just work on the people mocking his throwing motion…
tebowing:

“Tebowing with Tebow!!!!! <3 <3 <3”

Y’know what? That’s pretty awesome. People give Tim Tebow a ton of shit, but being able to laugh at people mocking you diffuses it pretty well. Now, if he could just work on the people mocking his throwing motion…

tebowing:

“Tebowing with Tebow!!!!! <3 <3 <3”

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by naternet December 13, 2011
I&#8217;m sorry, but fuck James Harrison. If you hit a guy helmet to helmet once, it&#8217;s an accident. Twice, I&#8217;ll give you the benefit of the doubt. But if you keep doing it over and over again and apparently think that it&#8217;s funny? You&#8217;re a fucking asshole who shouldn&#8217;t have the privilege to make a living playing a sport. 
James Harrison is a dirty player and giving him just a one-game suspension sends the wrong message in regards to the NFL&#8217;s stance on helmet to helmet hits. It&#8217;s a slap on the wrist. If the NFL were serious, they&#8217;d suspending him through the remainder of the season. He&#8217;s a repeat offender, for crying out loud.
sbnation:

James Harrison tweets his response to news of his suspension for a helmet-to-helmet Colt McCoy hit.

I’m sorry, but fuck James Harrison. If you hit a guy helmet to helmet once, it’s an accident. Twice, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. But if you keep doing it over and over again and apparently think that it’s funny? You’re a fucking asshole who shouldn’t have the privilege to make a living playing a sport. 

James Harrison is a dirty player and giving him just a one-game suspension sends the wrong message in regards to the NFL’s stance on helmet to helmet hits. It’s a slap on the wrist. If the NFL were serious, they’d suspending him through the remainder of the season. He’s a repeat offender, for crying out loud.

sbnation:

James Harrison tweets his response to news of his suspension for a helmet-to-helmet Colt McCoy hit.

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by naternet December 4, 2011
Well, That Happened 2011 - BCS Edition

So it’s a rematch. 

Never mind that Alabama already lost to LSU. 

Never mind that Alabama didn’t win their division.

Never mind that Alabama didn’t play in their conference title game. 

Never mind that only three of Alabama’s wins came against teams that ended the season with a winning record. 

Never mind that Oklahoma State beat seven teams who ended the season with a winning record.

Never mind that there are 119 other teams in the FBS. Some of them even deserving of a shot at the national title, despite not being named Alabama.

Never mind that, in five of the seven computer rankings, Oklahoma State was #2. It was the human voters who found it necessary to keep the ‘Pokes at #3, despite the ass-whipping they handed to #10 Oklahoma. What highly ranked team did Alabama beat this week? Oh yeah, that’s right, they didn’t play anyone. They were eliminated from their own conference title game. Curious…

Despite all of those factors, it’s going to be LSU v. Alabama in New Orleans on January 9th. Oklahoma State is going to have to settle for Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl. Andrew Luck doesn’t have the horses to outscore the Cowboys and Stanford’s defense isn’t fast enough to stay with Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon and Joseph Randle. 

So, where are we if Alabama beats LSU close in January? They would end the season 1-1 head to head. Do they share the national title? If Okie State blows the doors off Stanford, do they have a claim at the title? Is there any way I can talk myself into not hating this matchup? Probably not. Let’s stop talking about it.

Giving a cursory look at the remainder of the bowl schedule, here are some big questions I have:

1. Arkansas State v. Northern Illinois in the GoDaddy dot com Bowl is going to be a fun matchup. Lots of points and excitement.

2. UCLA v. Illinois in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl is the exact opposite of fun and exciting. In fact, it’s the poster child for those who complain that there are too many bowl games. Neither of these teams deserves to play another game and we certainly don’t deserve to suffer through it. 

3. Wisconsin v. Oregon in the Rose Bowl should be a very good game. Two well-rounded teams that are well-coached. Great matchup.

4. Ohio State v. Florida in the Gator Bowl is an abomination. Heaven help the poor souls who attend/watch this one.

5. Texas A&M has no business playing in a bowl. For that matter the following teams should not have received bowl bids at all, in my opinion - Texas A&M, UCLA, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi State.

6. TCU and Boise State are going to make mincemeat of their opponents, Louisiana Tech and Arizona State, respectively. 

7. Washington v. Baylor in the Alamo Bowl could be a very interesting undercard bowl game. If Keith Price and Chris Polk can keep up with RGIII and the Baylor offense, that is.

8. Not bowl-related, but Robert Griffin III deserves the Heisman. If I had a ballot, it would read - RGIII, Tyrann Matheiu, Montee Ball, Andrew Luck, Trent Richardson. Mathieu was a game-changer like none other, despite not playing offense. Montee Ball had a slightly better season in total yards than Trent Richardson and happened to score 12 more TDs than him. Will he be a better NFL back? Who knows, but he was better this year.

Griffin had multiple Heisman moments this season, from the opening game all the way through the thrashing of Texas. The fact that he plays for Baylor doesn’t matter. If he doesn’t win, the Heisman means even less than I previously thought and we should probably start ignoring it.

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by naternet December 4, 2011
by naternet December 3, 2011

Why doesn’t this make me feel any better? 

by naternet December 3, 2011

Take a break from hand-wringing over the impending BCS implications of what transpired tonight with Dikembe…

(Source: youtube.com)

by naternet December 3, 2011
My Best Guesses 2011: Championship Week

I know I’m late on this again. I also know that I didn’t get a chance to pick the Pac-12 championship game. Oh well. UCLA made it a little more interesting than people thought it would be, but I chalk that up to Oregon completely overlooking them.

Let’s go to the conference title games as well as two Big 12 games that really matter; Bedlam- which has BCS title game implications and the Texas/Baylor game- which has Heisman implications.

Last week: 3-2 / All-time: 123-68

No. 24 Southern Miss at No. 6 Houston - I don’t think the Cougs trip up here. It would be fitting if they did, but Case Keenum is a veteran leader and he knows what’s at stake here. 

Houston wins, 45-31


No. 22 Texas at No. 17 Baylor - RGIII has been cleared to play in what could be an ugly game. Texas plays good defense and should be able to get pressure on Griffin and slow the game down to help their inept offense stay in it when they face Baylor’s awful defense. Still, I think Griffin has another “Heisman moment.”

Baylor wins, 27-21


No. 14 Georgia vs. No. 1 LSU - Can Georgia play David to LSU’s Goliath? It doesn’t seem likely, but I’d be damned if I don’t want to see it happen. So let’s go ahead and pick Georgia. They have a solid defense and an emerging offense.

Georgia wins (somehow), 24-22


No. 10 Oklahoma at No. 3 Oklahoma State - Bedlam. This one is simple. If Okie State wins convincingly, they will have a good shot at the BCS title game. If Oklahoma wins or keeps it close, well…

Okie State wins, 45-24


No. 5 Virginia Tech vs. No. 20 Clemson - Clemson won earlier in the year, 23-3. I don’t think that happens again. Frank Beamer’s teams always play better as the year goes on and Clemson has been sliding for the past few weeks. It’s awful tough to bounce back against that Hokie defense.

Virginia Tech wins, 31-13


No. 15 Wisconsin vs. No. 13 Michigan State - The first matchup between these two teams was a classic. I expect this one to be a classic, too. This time, Wisconsin finishes the job.

Wisconsin wins, 27-20

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by naternet December 2, 2011

So that’s why I find myself so interested in soccer matches, even though I barely understand how strategy works on the pitch, because it’s FUCKING FASCINATING TO BE ABLE TO FIGURE SHIT OUT FOR YOURSELF AND WATCH A TEAM PLAY AS A SINGLE, COHESIVE UNIT. 

by naternet November 27, 2011
So, That Happened 2011 - Week Thirteen

I give up. 

The #2 team in the BCS has been eliminated from it’s conference championship game. As has the #4 team in the BCS. The #3 team doesn’t even have to play in a conference title game. Meanwhile, the #1 team in the land has to play in their conference title game and win just to hold on to their ranking. 

How is this not a broken system? The conferences have title games, but getting to those games has no bearing whatsoever upon rankings, apparently. Alabama, who lost at home to LSU, could leapfrog the Tigers if LSU somehow loses to Georgia in the SEC title game. Even without that gift, the Tide has a good shot at playing in the national title game, despite being beaten at home and eliminated from their own conference title game. 

The fuck?

LSU is handicapped due to their excellence. They’re putting in jeopardy their #1 ranking for something that has no bearing whatsoever upon the BCS race. Stanford is ranked ahead of the team that eliminated them from contention for their conference title, Oregon.

None of this makes any sense. Nor is it fair. 

On the flipside, the Big East’s automatic qualifier for a BCS bowl may well be 7-5 Louisville. Meanwhile, 10-1 Boise State has to hope for an at-large bid.

This system is broken. It needs to be fixed. People across the college football landscape have been screaming this for years, but it’s even more true this year and it’s only going to get worse. 

With the 2011 season all over but the shouting (and there will be plenty of shouting), we have just a scant few games left for things to shake themselves out. But from my point of view, it’s been a disappointing, rough season marred by scandal, investigations, sub-par play, lack of parity, and likely a unsatisfying outcome. LSU/Bama rematch? Yeah, I’ll watch it, but I’m not going to enjoy it. 

Never the less, here are some things I learned this weekend.

  • Friday’s games are all a haze of leftover stuffing and pie. I’m not too convinced that I actually missed anything. 
  • Saturday’s rivalry games were almost all blowouts. What a way to end the season…
  • Michigan/Ohio State was actually worth watching. Who knew?
  • Notre Dame finally looks like they’ve made the switch to Andrew Hendrix at QB over Tommy Rees. Too bad they didn’t make that decision before they found themselves down 21-0…
  • The most intriguing game of the weekend happened while most of you were in a turkey-induced coma, with Texas A&M sticking to the script and collapsing in the second half.  Well done, guys.
  • We still have no idea who the Heisman frontrunner should be, but it looks like Andrew Luck, Trent Richardson and Robert Griffin III are locks to be invited to NYC in a few weeks. Montee Ball disapproves, but then again, he’s probably still scoring a TD somewhere…
  • I will be spending the next few weeks watching FCS playoffs, because I enjoy seeing moderately competent football, especially when the teams are actually playing for a real title instead of an imaginary one. Watch with me, won’t you?

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