NCAA Football 2011 Season Catch-All

This was the halftime show during the 1990 Arkansas-Texas game.

Please, if any of you guys have ties to the band, make sure to rub it in that you're leaving. Texas will be at the head of yet another dying conference in 2012.

"I see you standing over the body of another dead conference."

- In The Line of Fire

Hurricanes suspended.

The NCAA ruled eight Miami (Fla. ) players must miss games and repay improper benefits as part of an investigation sparked by allegations from former booster Nevin Shapiro. Defensive linemen Marcus Forston and Adewale Ojomo, linebacker Sean Spence, wide receiver Travis Benjamin and quarterback Jacory Harris all will miss the school's opener at Maryland on Labor Day.

Fortson received more than $400 in benefits from Shapiro and athletic personnel, including meals, nightclub cover charges and entertainment at a gentleman's club.

Harris received more than $140 in benefits from meals, entertainment, transportation and nightclub cover charges.

Once again the NCAA shows that they can't do the right thing.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

"I see you standing over the body of another dead conference."

- In The Line of Fire

Fed, I really like you. But I have to admit, I'm already planning a night out at the bar to watch SMU punch A&M in the mouth. Part of it is that I played SMU in our GWJ OD last season, and took them again this season. I love the make-up of their team and think thy could be on the rise again.

Now with SMU trying to get into the Big 12 and A&M trying to get into the SEC, the drama of Sunday night's game is so huge. I'm rooting for Zach Line to just pummel the Aggies into submission, while Kyle Padron makes them pay for loading up the box by hitting Cole Beasley and Darius Johnson deep.

While SMU has a solid DL and a couple of good LB's, I think SMU's secondary is going to get them in trouble. It will be a pretty major upset of SMU can go to College Station and win. But that's what opening weekend in the NCAA is all about! I know that SMU has to be pouring everything they have into this game.

So while I hope Kansas turns this season into as a surprisingly successful season as last year was disappointing, I was getting amped up to see if SMU could get themselves ranked this year.

And yes, Firesloth, there is something insanely cool about having a strip club as a dressing room.

IMAGE(http://l.yimg.com/a/p/sp/editorial_image/3f/3ffcfedc88f27397669b5da0c58d42f0/sorry_but_smus_new_locker_room_only_looks_like_a_strip_club.jpg)

a&m people: we were on your side until you got snarky.

Tldr: time to ride the pony express.

Boogle, the snark is directed entirely at Texas. You of all people should understand that possibly that only fanbase in the world that hates Texas more than OU is ours.

Anyway, you Okies should be coming with us to the SEC. It's probably too late now, but you ought to man up and tell Texas to F off.

MyBrainHz wrote:

Boogle, the snark is directed entirely at Texas. You of all people should understand that possibly that only fanbase in the world that hates Texas more than OU is ours.

Anyway, you Okies should be coming with us to the SEC. It's probably too late now, but you ought to man up and tell Texas to F off.

At least if OU went to the SEC they would still be a team that matters. A&M is just going to sit underneath a bunch of Texas-like teams now. If they increase their net worth, bully for them. But I think thy just rendered themselves as pointless as Ole Miss. Have fun Aggies.

But in other news, Matt Taibbi brings it:

In a vacuum, a free education and a shot at the NFL sound like pretty good compensation for the labor of 18 year-old football players, many of whom come from poor backgrounds. And if this were fifty years ago, before the giant TV contracts that come with major-college football, it would make perfect sense.

But it’s not a good deal. For one thing, most of these guys don’t get very good educations, because playing on a D-1 football team is basically a full-time job – at least as time-consuming (and certainly more dangerous) than most full-time jobs. Major college football players spend an average of 44.8 hours a week in practice or in games, and everyone knows that a lot of the players get “tutors” to write their papers for them, if their professors aren’t already being pressured to soft-pedal their grades.

The reason they spend so much time at practice instead of in the library is because the amounts of money now involved have skewed the priorities of the universities. College sports has become such a huge business that coaches have to drive their kids hard to be competitive.

The same corporate ruthlessness that drives management in any other big industry drives coaching staffs in college sports. If your second-string linebacker is spending his weeknights studying botany instead of his blitz package, that doesn’t mean he’s a good kid who does what his parents tell him. It means he’s an unreliable worker. Coaches with multi-million-dollar salaries won’t hesitate to cut or discipline a player whose iffy priorities imperil his chance at a contract extension.

In order to preserve this bottomless well of unpaid labor (poor kids, both black and white, coming from the ghettoes and from busted country towns in West Texas or the Ozarks, etc.), the league has created and carefully nurtured the myth of “amateur status,” essentially arguing that the 200-300 players they deliver to the NFL draft every spring must be economic virgins at the moment they sign their first NFL contracts, or else all moral hell will break loose.
MyBrainHz wrote:

Boogle, the snark is directed entirely at Texas. You of all people should understand that possibly that only fanbase in the world that hates Texas more than OU is ours.

Anyway, you Okies should be coming with us to the SEC. It's probably too late now, but you ought to man up and tell Texas to F off.

1 there are more not texas fans than texas fans here.
2 I can't do sh*t about ou's decision to stay in the big 12 after the longhorn network sh*t came out. Our AD yes needs to man up. Me, nope still can be childish I can't control that decision.

Jayhawker wrote:

At least if OU went to the SEC they would still be a team that matters. A&M is just going to sit underneath a bunch of Texas-like teams now. If they increase their net worth, bully for them. But I think thy just rendered themselves as pointless as Ole Miss. Have fun Aggies.

1) EDIT: Too much snark on my part. I don't really have anything against KU (or OU for that matter)
2) A&M is currently ranked #8 in football.
3) Football pays the bills, obviously, but it's not like that's the only sport there is. A&M will be competitive across the board in the SEC. See the latest Director's cup standings.

MyBrainHz wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:

At least if OU went to the SEC they would still be a team that matters. A&M is just going to sit underneath a bunch of Texas-like teams now. If they increase their net worth, bully for them. But I think thy just rendered themselves as pointless as Ole Miss. Have fun Aggies.

3) Football pays the bills, obviously, but it's not like that's the only sport there is. A&M will be competitive across the board in the SEC. See the latest Director's cup standings.

I am not a fan of jumping ship like they are, but I will give you this.

A&M will/would be a power in baseball and basketball in the SEC.

Also, It would be interesting to see what mixing a major Texas University with the draw of playing the SEC would do as an impact to UT's hold on the "top" recruits in the state.

Meh, A&M will be competitive in baseball and basketball, but not the instant front runner.

As to their prospects in football in the SEC, I predict they settle somewhere around the Arkansas level, generally good, even making the occasional championship game, but consistently winning the league or finishing near the top? I would be more than surprised.

i38warhawk wrote:

Hate to break it to you guys, but Arkansas already plays LSU that week (usually the day after Thanksgiving). We fight over a golden boot, get drunk on a golf course (only at the Little Rock games), and make fun of Les Miles.

Here's a picture.

IMAGE(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/71/The_boot_%28lsu-arkansas%29.jpg/451px-The_boot_%28lsu-arkansas%29.jpg)

Has there ever been a more forced "rivalry" than what the SEC has tried to make the LSU-Arkansas game?

Jayhawker wrote:

But I think thy just rendered themselves as pointless as Ole Miss. Have fun Aggies.

Hey! Wait a minute!

sheared wrote:

Has there ever been a more forced "rivalry" than what the SEC has tried to make the LSU-Arkansas game?

Nope, it was forced at first, but LSU fans are such degenerate assholes (generally speaking) that there is some genuine hatred now. The close games of the last few years have really helped ratchet it up a notch.

I was thinking about the annual Arkansas/TAMU game at Jerry World. Don't know how the SWC is going to fair with TAMU joining the SEC. There are contracts to continue the series until the 2014 season I believe. I hope it continues because it's a great venue. That said if it becomes a conference game I think both teams might want it at home (for obvious reasons).

As for the beauty of Ole Miss. If you didn't have Houston Nutt roaming around campus it wouldn't even be close. One sighting and you actually lose points, they must have kept him locked up this year

Honestly, Ole Miss has a beautiful campus. I always look forward to going to games at The Grove.

Have I told you guys how excited I am for this season? Arkansas finally has a head coach with some vision and recruiting skill. We're not longer relying on lucky picks (like McFadden, even Mallett) from in state. Petrino is getting solid recruits from across the country and I think the Razorbacks have a real shot at winning it all this year. It won't be easy, but I think there's a chance and that's not a feeling I've had in a very long time. Can't wait until Saturday.

So who's going to be the 14th member of the SEC? Seems like Missouri is the front-runner (big state U, good TV market, geographically close enough, member of the sinking ship that is the Big 12). Would they bolt?

Enix wrote:

So who's going to be the 14th member of the SEC? Seems like Missouri is the front-runner (big state U, good TV market, geographically close enough, member of the sinking ship that is the Big 12). Would they bolt?

Rumor is that although they have been in discussions with the SEC, they really would prefer to go Big 10 if they can. Then again, there are rumblings today that OU and OSU are seriously considering making the jump to PAC-10 again, and if that happens Mizzou is going to have to make a decision really quickly.

Yeah, Mizzou to the Big 10 would let them keep their "rivalry" with Illinois.

Apparently, they think it's a big deal....Not border war big, but still a rivalry.

sheared wrote:

Has there ever been a more forced "rivalry" than what the SEC has tried to make the LSU-Arkansas game?

I don't know, I think the Michigan State - Penn State "Land Grant trophy" is a pretty forced rivalry.

IMAGE(http://sportssquared.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/land-grant-trophy.jpg)

...forced and UGLY.

Oh, and with a goofy name.

Jolly Bill wrote:
sheared wrote:

Has there ever been a more forced "rivalry" than what the SEC has tried to make the LSU-Arkansas game?

I don't know, I think the Michigan State - Penn State "Land Grant trophy" is a pretty forced rivalry.

Penn State might be the king of forced rivalry. They have trophy games against Michigan State and Minnesota and everybody keeps assuming that they'll have a rivalry with Nebraska for some reason.

:-/

It's all been downhill since the big rivalry of the independents, Notre Dame / Penn State .

Apparently, according the NCAA 12 game, SMU and TCU play for an Iron Skillet. Seriously.

Here you go:

IMAGE(http://www.smu.edu/News/2010/~/media/Images/News/2010/Summer/the-iron-skillet.ashx?h=452&w=300&as=1)

Notre Dame and USC play for the Jeweled Shillelagh...

IMAGE(http://i.cdn.turner.com/si/multimedia/photo_gallery/0811/cfb.unusual.trophies/images/jeweled-shillelagh.jpg)

You'll forgive me if it looks to me as if Carson Palmer is holding a sex toy in that picture.

wow... that is completely terrible.

edit: and yet fitting for when the two teams I dislike the most play each other. You go ahead and fight over that magical dildo

i38warhawk wrote:
sheared wrote:

Has there ever been a more forced "rivalry" than what the SEC has tried to make the LSU-Arkansas game?

Nope, it was forced at first, but LSU fans are such degenerate assholes (generally speaking) that there is some genuine hatred now. The close games of the last few years have really helped ratchet it up a notch.

You mean like Arkansas fans are the cream of the crop in society? Try this:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoot...

Yeah, I'll take my LSU any day.

Jolly Bill wrote:
sheared wrote:

Has there ever been a more forced "rivalry" than what the SEC has tried to make the LSU-Arkansas game?

I don't know, I think the Michigan State - Penn State "Land Grant trophy" is a pretty forced rivalry.

IMAGE(http://sportssquared.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/land-grant-trophy.jpg)

Is it just me, or does the bronze dude on the statue look like he has one massive schlong?

Coolbeans wrote:

You mean like Arkansas fans are the cream of the crop in society? Try this:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoot...

Yeah, I'll take my LSU any day.

LSU fans are the infinum of the set of fan bases. A null fan base is better than you guys (Don't worry the same applies to lots of fan bases).

Very disappointing slate for this year's Thursday opening night.

boogle wrote:
Coolbeans wrote:

You mean like Arkansas fans are the cream of the crop in society? Try this:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoot...

Yeah, I'll take my LSU any day.

LSU fans are the infinum of the set of fan bases. A null fan base is better than you guys (Don't worry the same applies to lots of fan bases).

Wow, that's... deep. Guess you just went to your algebra class?