FanHouse: Big Ten Is Hard To Defend

I said in my post today that I'd probably be talking about the perception of the Big Ten Conference over at FanHouse today, and what do you know, I did.

So if you're interested on my take, here you go. Read it. Soak it in. Live a full life.

Can Ohio State Redeem Itself?

Last year at this time the Buckeyes were embarrassed by the Florida Gators in the BCS Title game for all the world to see. The way they were manhandled by the Gators physically, and burned athletically did nothing but add fuel to the fire that the Big Ten just can't compete with college football's top conferences like the SEC.

So here we are again a year later, with the Buckeyes prepared to try again for a national championship, against yet another SEC opponent, the LSU Tigers.

Can the Buckeyes redeem themselves and the Big Ten tonight? With Michigan's victory over Florida in the Capital One Bowl, a Buckeyes win would be a nice cap to a bowl season that's been pretty unkind to the Big Ten.

I really have no idea if the Buckeyes can pull this one out or not, but there are more than a few reasons to think they can.

I can start off by reminding you that in the history of the BCS and the title game, the underdog has won every year. According to Bodog, the Buckeyes are currently four point underdogs.

Then there's the fact that this has been a college football season in which we should expect the unexpected. The Appalachian States of the world are beating Michigan, and the Stanfords upset the USCs. So Ohio State beating LSU couldn't be that big of a shocker, could it?

The most important reason why the Buckeyes could come away with a victory tonight is also the most basic of reasons: LSU isn't that good. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the Tigers suck or anything, but they have lost two games this season. It's not like they're unbeatable, and this LSU team is not as good as last year's Florida team.

When you break these two teams down by position, you actually find that the Buckeyes are very evenly matched with LSU, and even have an advantage in some areas.

Where this game will be settled though is where all big games are settled, in the trenches.

The key to tonight's game will be the Ohio State offensive line going against Glenn Dorsey and the LSU defensive line. If Ohio State can control the line of scrimmage when they have the ball, they will win this game. If Dorsey and the boys control it, the Buckeyes have no chance.

I'm not going to go too in depth here because I have other things I want to get to today, and frankly it's hard to figure out how each team is going to respond tonight after having such long layoffs.

I will make a prediction though, and it shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody that I'm siding with the Big Ten yet again.

Ohio State 24 LSU 20

Foul Balls

The Illini Still Suck - They did it again. The Illini lost their third straight home game on Sunday afternoon, this time to the Penn State Nittany Lions. I knew that the Illini weren't going to be the same team we've all grown accustomed to seeing this season, but I had no idea things were going to get this bad.

Three straight home losses?

It used to take this team three years to lose three games at Assembly Hall, and they sure as hell weren't losing any games to Penn State. (Or Miami of Ohio and Tennessee State for that matter.) Considering their next two games are on the road against Indiana and Michigan State it's pretty clear that this team is going to start out it's conference schedule 0-4, and at this point the NIT is a pipe dream, let alone the NCAA's.

Clemens Fires Back - I already went over my feelings on Roger Clemens on Friday, and I didn't even see the 60 Minutes interview, so I've nothing new to add to the subject. (If I wanted to watch the interview, I could go here.)

Still, one of the big things I've always maintained when a player claims their innocence when it comes to steroids is "If you're so innocent, why don't you sue those bastards for defamation and defend yourself?"

Well, guess what Roger's doing!

Roger Clemens beat Brian McNamee to court, filing a defamation suit against the former trainer who claimed to have injected him with performance-enhancing drugs. McNamee's attorney, Earl Ward, told ESPN's T.J. Quinn on Monday that McNamee is determined to file a counter lawsuit against Clemens. Ward said he spoke to McNamee on Monday morning and Clemens' statements in Sunday's "60 Minutes" interview are "a total lie."

No countersuit has been filed yet.

Clemens filed the suit Sunday night in Harris County District Court in Texas, listing 15 alleged statements McNamee made to the baseball drug investigator George Mitchell. Clemens claimed the statements were "untrue and defamatory."

Of course, this does absolutely nothing to make me think Clemens is innocent in this matter, but at least he's really trying to appear as though he is.

Foul Balls College Football Rankings - Week 8

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	1
2	Ohio State	1
3	Boston College	1
4	Oklahoma	1
5	Arizona State	3
6	South Florida	1
7	Oregon	1
8	Florida	6
9	Kansas	7
10	West Virginia	1
11	Virginia Tech	1
12	Kentucky	1
13	Missouri	2
14	Southern Cal	1
15	South Carolina	8
16	Virginia	2
17	Hawaii	2
18	Texas	4
19	Michigan	2
20	Rutgers	6
21	Auburn	4
22	Alabama	4
23	California	13
24	Connecticut	2
25	Illinois	1

Dropped Out: Tennessee (#20), Georgia (#23), Kansas State (#24), Cincinnati (#25).

I'm not going to get too in depth, but the ballot I turned in this week is the result of a highly scientific formula I came up with. It's kind of like Foul Balls' very own BCS rankings.

What I did was I came up with a point system.

Here are the categories in which teams earn points.

• Wins
• Losses
• Wins against teams ranked 11-25
• Wins against teams ranked 6-10
• Wins against teams ranked 1-5
• X-factor

Obviously losses are negative points, and the x-factor is basically nothing more than points given or taken away based on other factors. Like when LSU lost to Kentucky in triple overtime, they would have earned a point because it was a triple overtime loss. USC meanwhile would lose a extra point for losing to Stanford.

I then take the points each team earns in those categories and come up with a total using crazy mathematical functions like addition and subtraction.

After I'm done with that I rank the teams in five different areas.

• Total Points
• Points Per Game
• AP Ranking
• BCS Ranking
• My Ranking

I then take the average of those five seperate polls, and I base my rankings on that average. Get it?

It's nothing revolutionary, but it seems to work. I mean, I can't find much in the results to argue with.

As you can see, the biggest difference in my ballot is that I have LSU ranked ahead of Ohio State and Boston College. OSU and BC are ranked first and second in every other poll you look at, but I think LSU is a better team than both of them, and would beat them heads up. Yes, the Tigers have a loss while the Buckeyes and Eagles don't, but that loss came in triple overtime at Kentucky, and LSU has wins against teams like Florida, Virginia Tech, and Auburn.

Boston College and Ohio State don't have any wins of that caliber, let alone three.

Foul Balls College Football Rankings - Week 4

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	--
2	LSU	--
3	West Virginia	1
4	Oklahoma	1
5	Florida	2
6	Ohio State	1
7	Texas	1
8	California	--
9	Wisconsin	2
10	Oregon	3
11	Rutgers	1
12	Boston College	2
13	Kentucky	3
14	Clemson	3
15	South Carolina	5
16	Georgia	6
17	Virginia Tech	2
18	Missouri	5
19	Penn State	10
20	Arizona State	6
21	Hawaii	--
22	Cincinnati	4
23	Alabama	8
24	Michigan State	--
25	Purdue	1

Dropped Out: Louisville (#18), Texas A&M (#20), Nebraska (#25).

Well, there's my ballot in the Blogpoll after week four of the college season. I'm going to break it down a little differently this week though.

Top Five

• USC and LSU stay the same, and I really do consider them both to be 1a and 1b right now. Until either team does something to prove otherwise, they'll be staying in those spots.
• I moved West Virginia and Oklahoma back above Florida because they did exactly what they were supposed to do against a weaker opponent while Florida struggled a bit with Ole Miss.

The Middle

• Ohio State has taken over the title of "Best Team in the Big Ten" though I'm not really sure what that means right now.
  
• I'm not really sure which of the teams from 10-14 is truly the best between them, but from what I've seen I've been more impressed with Oregon. Though looking at it now, I probably should have put Rutgers below both BC and Clemson.
• Penn State dropped further than anybody else because Anthony Morelli didn't inspire much confidence against Michigan on Saturday.

The Bottom Five

• We welcome Arizona State to the Top 25 this week as the Pac-10 looks like they have more than just USC this season. We all knew Cal would be up near the top most of the year, but adding Oregon and ASU to the mix means that USC is going to have to fight to keep their #1 spot.
• I know Michigan State beat Notre Dame this week, but I don't think that's enough to earn moving up any spots, so they stay at #24 this week.
• I had about 5 different teams I considered for the 25th spot, but in the end I gave it to Purdue because I'm a Big Ten homer at heart.
  

Foul Balls College Football Rankings - Week 2

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	--
2	LSU	--
3	West Virginia	--
4	Oklahoma	4
5	Florida	1
6	Texas	1
7	California	--
8	Penn State	6
9	Wisconsin	3
10	Louisville	--
11	Rutgers	4
12	Ohio State	1
13	Nebraska	3
14	South Carolina	12
15	Georgia Tech	11
16	UCLA	2
17	Oregon	9
18	Tennessee	1
19	Arkansas	--
20	Clemson	3
21	Boston College	1
22	Virginia Tech	13
23	Georgia	11
24	Texas A&M	1
25	South Florida	1

Dropped Out: Auburn (#13), Boise State (#20), TCU (#21), Hawaii (#24).

Another week, and another shuffled ballot. Obviously the biggest story around here is Michigan losing again at home. The good news is that at least they faced a Division-I team this week.

Still, it's become apparent that this team is in some real trouble. They basically quit on themselves in the second half, and I'm not sure how they'll rebound next week. Fortunately for them, they'll be playing another bad team.

Yeah, Notre Dame lost again, but were you really expecting anything different? I already expressed my feelings on the Irish's biggest problem at FanHouse, but I am pleased with the play of Jimmy Clausen thus far. Still, I don't want to waste any more time in this post talking about teams that aren't even on my ballot.

So let's get to the teams that matter.

• LSU - LSU looked fantastic on Saturday night. I was confident they'd beat Virginia Tech, but I didn't think they'd destroy them. I may have USC at #1 still, but LSU is more a 1a than a 2.
• Virginia Tech - Speaking of VT, they also happen to fall the furthest in my ballot this week. I dropped them from #9 to #22 as Sean Glennon went out and confirmed my doubts about his ability to lead the Hokie offense. Granted, it was against what could be the best team in the country on the road, but the Hokies looked bad.
• Oklahoma - After seeing the way they dismantled the Hurricanes, there was just no way I could keep them out of my top five this week. I can't wait for the Oklahoma/Texas game.
• Penn State - I bumped the Nittany Lions up quite a bit this week. I know they haven't played much in ways of competition, but from what I've seen they're the best team in the Big Ten right now. Anthony Morelli hasn't convinced me of anything yet, but he hasn't made any huge mistakes either.
• South Florida - I'm not really convinced they're a top 25 team yet, but anytime you can go into Auburn and beat the Tigers, I have to give you some props.
• South Carolina - Spurrier might be on the verge of making the Gamecocks a real threat after all. Going into Georgia and beating the Bulldogs is a huge win for a program that's struggled against the SEC elite the last few years.

As always, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

College Football Rankings - Week One

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	--
2	LSU	--
3	West Virginia	2
4	Florida	2
5	Texas	2
6	Wisconsin	1
7	California	6
8	Oklahoma	2
9	Virginia Tech	1
10	Louisville	1
11	Ohio State	2
12	Georgia	--
13	Auburn	1
14	Penn State	2
15	Rutgers	2
16	Nebraska	2
17	Tennessee	2
18	UCLA	1
19	Arkansas	1
20	Boise State	2
21	TCU	--
22	Boston College	3
23	Clemson	3
24	Hawaii	--
25	Texas A&M	2

Dropped Out: Michigan (#4).

Now that we all actually got a chance to see everybody play, it's a lot easier to fill out my ballot. There weren't that many changes to my ballot this week, but teams did move around.

The only team to drop out of my rankings is obviously Michigan. If you lose at home to Appalachian State, you don't deserve to be ranked. I don't think it takes a genius to figure that out. Still, I'd like to thank the Wolverines for lessening the sting of Notre Dame's 33-3 loss. I mean, I wasn't expecting the Irish to win much this season anyway, so knowing that Big Blue's season is already over as well is nice.

As for the rest of the movement.

• LSU - LSU didn't look like the #2 team in the country for most of their 45-0 win against Mississippi State, but that just shows you how talented they actually are. They don't play well and still win by 45.
• Texas - I dropped Texas a few spots because, even though they won, they should have beaten Arkansas State a lot worse than 21-13. Another performance like that next week against TCU, and the Longhorns will lose.
• Cal - Cal made the biggest jump in the polls thanks to their win over Tennessee on Saturday night. For any SEC team or coach-Les Miles-who thinks that the Pac-10 doesn't have the same kind of speed the SEC does, I hope they saw DeSean Jackson and the Bears running away from the Vols all night. Don't go giving the Trojans the Pac-10 title just yet.
• Virginia Tech - I knocked the Hokies down a few spots because my fears about Sean Glennon still haven't been answered. Glennon struggled against a good East Carolina defense, and he'll have to face LSU in Baton Rouge next Saturday night. It could get ugly for the Hokies.
• Clemson - Clemson is the only new team on my ballot, thanks to their victory over Florida State Monday night. If they're going to win the ACC though, they'll have to develop more of a passing game. Don't get me wrong, I would just keep giving the ball to James Davis and C.J. Spiller too, but it's not going to work all season. Florida State nearly came back from a 21-point deficit when the Tigers running game came to a halt in the second half.

So what do you think? Any huge disagreements with my ballot? Please feel free to leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments.

Keep Your Head on a Swivel

Well, the college football season finally started last night, and I don't care that LSU beat the hell out of Mississippi State, 45-0, I enjoyed every single minute. It was the first meaningful football game I watched since the Bears got their ass kicked in the Super Bowl.

I didn't expect Mississippi State to keep the game close. All I really wanted to see was somebody get the crap knocked out of them.

I got what I wanted.

There's a reason coaches tell their players they have to keep their heads on a swivel, and if Bulldog safety Zach Smith didn't know it before, he does now. LSU wide receiver Brandon Lafell Lit. Him. Up.

Zach Smith and I have one thing in common. I didn't know who he was before that hit, and he didn't know who he was after it.

I salute you, Brandon Lafell, for providing us with the first "Daaaaaaaaaaaayum!" of the season.

The Basketball Diaries, College Edition - Gator Wrastlin'

LSU 66, Florida 56

Struggling all this season and without their lead scorer, the LSU Tigers defense awakened and took a large bite out of the Gators's pride yesterday, taking the lead two minutes into the game and never giving it back.

LSU, once ranked as high as sixth this season, had lost three straight before hosting the number 3 Florida team, so the victory was even sweeter. Missing leading scorer and rebounder Glen Davis, Terry Martin, with 18 points, and Garrett Temple, with 17 , picked up the slack. As LSU ran out the clock, the student section roared, "Overrated," at the fallen Gators. (To Joakim Noah's credit, he did not run into the stands and slap any of the fans.)

You could chalk this loss up to the fact that Florida had already wrapped up the SEC regular season title and really didn't give a crap. And you'd be right.

To a point.

But it is said, "pride goeth before the fall," and this loss was bad enough to make even a die-hard Gator fan a little concerned.

Understand these three quotes and you will understand what's happening to Gator basketball:

• Vandy's Derrick Byers on last week's win over Florida:"This is one for the ages. Twenty years from now, I'll be able to tell my little kids this. This is special. You can't explain it."
• LSU coach John Brady on yesterday's win over Florida: "I was coaching so hard and trying to do everything I could in the last five minutes to make sure we won that game...I was so emotional when I was talking to them after tonight's game I couldn't even finish talking."
• Florida coach Billy Donovan on their loss yesterday: "[Florida] looked like a team that just won a championship, and competing maybe wasn't the most important thing on their mind here today."

Billy Donovan sure better get his team to stop thinking about confetti and endorsement deals and start thinking about the basics. When your opponents are playing for a memory that will last a lifetime, you sure as hell better take the game as seriously as they do. Regardless of the stats they bring into the game.

Or come March, Florida will end up one of the stepsisters at the Ball.

Goin Bowlin' Previews - Sugar Bowl

We're not going to treat this preview the same way we've treated the rest of them. This one is personal to us.

It's Notre Dame.

Tonight, our Fighting Irish will march into the hostile territory of New Orleans to face the Louisiana State Tigers. The general consensus is that the Irish stand no chance against LSU.

It's hard to tell them they're wrong, as much as we want to. We saw the Irish get waxed at home by Michigan. We saw then get run over in Los Angeles by USC.

We still remember Ohio State springboarding themselves to a #1 ranking this season by dominating the Irish in last year's Fiesta Bowl.

You know what we don't remember? The last time we got to watch the Irish win a bowl game.

It was on January 1st, 1994 in the Cotton Bowl. The Irish's 24-21 victory over Texas A&M that day is erased from our memory.

Can you blame us? We were only 13 years old. There have been many a beer bong and whiskey shot flowing through us since then to erase those memories.

Sadly, we don't think we'll have a win to forget tonight, either. People are right. Notre Dame's secondary will not be able to keep up with the speed of LSU's receivers.

There is some hope, though. It's long been said that Big Ten schools, and other teams from the midwest can't compete with the speed and athleticism of the SEC conference. Yet, if you look at the history of these matchups lately, you see otherwise.

Just this week alone, the much "slower" and "less athletic" teams of Wisconsin and Penn State beat Arkansas and Tennessee.

What this game also represents is the end of Brady Quinn as a Notre Dame quarterback. Quinn has caught a lot of flak from the media and the blogosphere, for nothing more than just being the quarterback at Notre Dame.

The truth is he is a very good quarterback, even if he is overhyped by the media. If it weren't for Quinn, the Irish wouldn't be sniffing a BCS bowl game this season, and possibly not a bowl game, period. It isn't Quinn's fault that the ND offensive line hasn't done it's job this season. It's not Quinn's fault that the defense has trouble stopping opponents.

Yet it seems that everybody wants to say he sucks cuz Notre Dame isn't as good as the media and NBC want everybody to believe.

So we're hoping that Brady can pull off something amazing tonight, to shut everybody up, and send him out as a winner. We're hoping that the Irish coaching staff spent the last month coming up with a defensive scheme that can slow down the LSU Tigers.

But as a friend once told us, "Hope in one hand, shit in the other."

PREDICTION: LSU 38 Notre Dame 21