Snakes In My Pants

USA Today re-ordered its Coach’s poll from the first week in October according to graduation success rate for classes entering 1997-2000. It’s not a pretty picture. Only eight of the top 25 football programs had graduation rates above the national average of 67%. The ACC topped this list with three (BC, Clemson, VaTech), [...]

Well, things settled down a bit this week as only South Carolina and USF fell prey to the big upset.  Bob Vanasse disclaimer:  Jeff Sagarin’s predictor rates BC #18 in the country, playing the 51st hardest schedule out of 119 teams and that is why BC is only ranked 6th in my poll.  On to my rankings:
1. [...]

The unbelievable series of upsets continued for a third straight weekend, and a downright WACKY top-25 continues.  I KNOW I will hear about BC ranked 7th, but I DID move them up 3 spots and I honestly believe that all six teams ahead of them (and half of the teams ranked below) are better and have [...]

The unbelievable series of upsets continued this weekend, resulting in a downright WACKY top-25 that actually features Cal, BC, Oregon, and USF in the top 10 while ND, Miami, Alabama, and Texas are unranked. What a year . . .
1. LSU
2. Cal
3. Ohio State
4. South Florida
5. Oregon

Rutgers professor William C. Dowling, a long-time critic of high-profile college sports, had an Imus-like moment this week when he told the New York Times “If you were giving the scholarship to an intellectually brilliant kid who happens to play a sport, that’s fine, but they give it to a functional illiterate who can’t read [...]

At my bachelor party two years ago, we were all teasing Joe, telling him how HOT we all thought his Mom was. In the midst of the ribbing, Bentley asked the perfect rhetorical question: “Joe, if your Mom is that hot, how f’n ugly is your Dad?!?”

The Irish spit the bit again, but at least there were SOME good signs.  Clausen looked legit and he appeared unfazed by the white-out in appropriately-named Beaver Stadium.  The defense also looked much improved. Now, if only we had anything other than 5 turn-styles playing offensive line . . . but I digress. Around the [...]

Year Three of the Football Expansion Era is off to an abysmal start for commissioner John Swofford’s Atlantic Coast Conference. As SI.com’s Stewart Mandell notes, the ACC may be the worst big-time college football conference in the nation:
[T]he ACC is simply hideous. A year after going 6-16 against BCS-conference foes, the nation’s preeminent basketball-conference-masquerading-as-a-football-league [...]

Today, the last of the nations 119 Division I-A football teams begin fall practice.  The first games are in a mere 24 days.  It’s time for a comprehensive look at the 2007 season.
WARNING:  This will be long.

Goodbye BC, Michigan, Nebraska . . . hello West Virginia, Oklahoma, San Diego State.