Blogpoll Week 14 Rough Draft

Here's the week 14 Rough draft.

I got to about poll #6 or so before total confusion prevailed. It's a good thing only the top two count in college football. Let me know if you see anything I missed.

1	Oregon Ducks	--
2	Auburn Tigers	--
3	TCU Horned Frogs	--
4	Stanford Cardinal	1
5	Michigan St. Spartans	4
6	Ohio St. Buckeyes	1
7	LSU Tigers	-1
8	Arkansas Razorbacks	4
9	Virginia Tech Hokies	2
10	Boise St. Broncos	-6
11	Nevada Wolf Pack	5
12	Missouri Tigers	2
13	Nebraska Cornhuskers	4
14	Oklahoma Sooners	1
15	Texas A&M Aggies	6
16	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	-6
17	Florida St. Seminoles	5
18	West Virginia Mountaineers	--
19	Alabama Crimson Tide	-6
20	South Carolina Gamecocks	-2
21	Miami Hurricanes	--
22	Navy Midshipmen	1
23	Northern Illinois Huskies	--
24	Hawaii Warriors	-4
25	Maryland Terrapins	--
Dropouts: Wisconsin Badgers, Utah Utes, Central Florida Knights, Temple Owls

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Bowl Bound Army

Army accepted an invite to play in the Armed Forces Bowl in Dallas, TX on Dec 30th.

The bowl will be Army's first in 14 years.

Army's waiting for a Conference USA team to fill the other spot in the Armed Forces Bowl. At this point none of that stuff matters. It's an extra game and an extra road trip. The seniors (and alumni) who waited so long for a trip to the postseason have gotten their wish.

Who will they face? How will they do? These are questions that will be answered in time. What it means for the program is this: an extra televised game, three extra weeks of practice, a cool $750,000 for the athletic budget, and a finish of the season fitting of the effort put forth by everyone involved with the team.

The bowl bid is a huge step for Army football and pretty much allows me to declare the season a success. Like it or not the athletic department will face some changes this off season. How nice would it be to take on the changes with a season-ending win?

That's our plan for New Year's. As for now, the Army Navy media blitz is soon to arrive, so hold tight.






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TCU Joins the Big East

 TCU accepted an offer to join the Big East in all sports. Here's the report from ESPN.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I am. TCU to the Big East reminds me a lot of Louisville's move to the Big East. Sure they are a great team right now - but 3, 4, 5 years down the line - is this still going to be a top 5 team?

This one has nothing to do with basketball.

“We’ve got enough basketball programs,” Boeheim said. “I don’t think that’s an issue. It really doesn’t matter if they’re strong or not.”

He added: “I think that it’s obvious that the football side has to get better, either with the addition of someone or our teams have to get better. That’s pretty obvious. They have to do what they have to do to keep the B.C.S. thing going. That’s the bottom line.” 

...

“If you go to 18, you have to have divisions and figure out how you do it,” Boeheim said. “It took us three 12-hour days to get the divisions the last time, and at the end of it, no one was happy with the divisions you have.

“No one is ever going to be happy. They all want certain teams in their divisions.”

I can't shake the feeling that this is the beginning of the end of the Big East.
Don't get me wrong, TCU is in the middle of a great season. Do I think a Texas school is going to save the Big East? No, I don't think they can nor do i think they will save the Big East.

TCU just dilutes the football Big East by becoming another mouth to feed. Is TCU really that amped about the annual shot at Birmingham and the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl? For TCU the move is a no-brainer. BCS cash and exposure is at stake and TCU is riding high with their 12-0 Rose Bowl season.


So am I being led to believe that TCU will bring down per team payouts from the conference while providing a grossly overestimated TV market. I just don't see getting a team as that necessary to run out and grab TCU right now. The Big East will weather this stormy 2010 football season and return to showcasing national contenders - with or without TCU. My point is: If the Big East will be fine without TCU them then why even bring them in?

My only hope now is that Pitt can escape The Big East's sinking ship quickly and fortuitously.


More on this one later after I add a TCU blog to the BIG East links.