Saturday's Games and a Monday Special too

I am posting a bit early this week since I am heading to Myrtle Beach to play golf for the next three days.

By the way, if you are looking for another great site with interesting commentary on sports and some additional selections, check out http://dilsmusings.blogspot.com/. The articles are great and he also runs some interesting pools.

Saturday

Duke +4 over U Conn. I think Duke will get off the schide early this season and former HC Spurrier will keep giving them their one vote in polls. (Just another reason why the coaches polls are so stupid. He gives them a vote each season until they lose.)

Wyoming +3.5 over Virginia. Going to Wyoming is a long trip for a major conference school, unfortunately it will be the beginning of the end for the over hyped Al Groh.

Nebraska -21 (bought the half) over Nevada. With a real QB at helm this season, I am looking for the Huskers to be very dangerous.

Georgia Tech +2 at Notre Dame. The wrong team is favored here. Georgia Tech will be much better then last year and Notre Dame is going to struggle to hit 6-6 on the year. (Just like Florida and few other teams I will try to point out, ND is way overrated right now.)


Missouri -4 over Illinois. The Illini are getting better but this game means more to Missou team that is expected to do big things this season.

UCLA -17 at Stanford. Stanford has a new head coach, now they just need new players. So far UCLA is healthy and unlike last season they will hopefully stay that way.

TCU -20.5 over Baylor. Unfortunately Baylor missed the boat last season and their chance at respectability has sailed. TCU is one of the top teams in the nation.

(The analysis may get a little short since my laptop is running out of juice, sorry.)

Oklahoma St. +6.5 at Georgia. I just don't think Georgia is as good as the hype either.

Central Michigan +7.5 at Kansas. CMU is the class of the MAC and might catch Kansas off guard.

Purdue -6.5 at Toledo. Purdue has a strong offense and their defense has to be slightly improved enough to an inconsistent Toledo a few times in the Glass Bowl.

Oklahoma -40 over North Texas. An Oklahoma high school team might be able to win this game. I think Oklahoma puts up 60.

Monday

SMU +8.5 over Texas Tech. Finally some expectations for the Mustangs, they will be able to keep up with Texas Tech and possibly win.

Good luck this week!

Finally Some Picks - Plays for Thursday and Friday

The NCAA really has it right with a 5 days of college football on the schedule from Thursday through Monday.

Thursday

Ball St. -6 over Miami-Oh. Another year and another dead ex-Miami head coach. Okay that was not really nice but Ball State has the team this season to keep Miami from having a strong opening performance. Ball State should win by 14 against a weak Miami team.

UNLV -6.5 at Utah St. UNLV has been awful the last two seasons but we beset with a bevy of injuries that they will hopefully avoid this season. They should get off to good start with this game.

LSU -17 (buy down from -17.5 to make it -120) at Miss St. LSU is just a great team and even the scrubs who will play in the second half will increase the lead.

Friday

Navy -21 over Temple. Navy will just run over Temple playing in front of more of their own fans then the Owls own faithful up in the cavernous Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

Syracuse/Washington Under 46. How the mighty have fallen, this would have been an interesting game in the 80's and early 90's but now they the worst teams in two major conferences. Both teams had bad offenses last season and are breaking in new Qbs. It will take a few weeks to see if either offense is any better this season.

More to come!!!!

Moss Report's Best and Worst

I am going to a monthly update of who I think are the best and worst teams in NCAA Football. I will mention the number of teams I feel worth mentioning.


The Worst.

I always enjoy checking out the Sagarin ratings once in a while since they rate all the Division 1 teams in one table. There are 242 1-A and 1-AA teams out there. The highest ranked 1-AA team at this point is Appalachian St at 80 and 7 1-AA teams in the top 100. Amazingly enough there are 4 teams in 1-A ranked below 150: Temple (151), Utah State (152), Buffalo (166), and Florida International FIU (174). Only one of these teams will win a game this year and that will actually happen early with an exciting Buffalo - Temple face off in Philadelphia on September 8th. Actually last season when these two teams battled in Buffalo, it was the first game that Buffalo was ever a favorite in. Buffalo won the game but it was actually a push against the spread. Utah State and FIU also have conference rivals who are close to as inept as they are Idaho at 146 and Florida Atlantic at 149, so in the end 3 of these 6 teams will end up with a win on the season but I would be very surprised to see any of the 6 beat any other team.

The Best

Lets just run down the teams the should win their conferences. USC, Texas, LSU, Michigan, BC, West Virginia, and TCU. Yes I am including TCU because if they beat Texas on September 8th they will be the BCS picture. Other teams with BCS potential, UCLA, Cal, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska, Auburn, Florida, Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Louisville, and possibly Hawaii or Boise State. This is just a quick run and we will revisit this after the first several weeks of the season.

Big Ten Network: Good or Bad

As an alumnus of a Big Ten University, I am thoroughly upset with the Big Ten Conference and its decision to align themselves with their own television network. The Big Ten was featured on the ESPN family of networks including ABC as well and was nations most nationally exposed collegiate athletic conference for football. Between ABC and the ESPNs, there were at least 4 to 5 conference games on national TV each week, and the remaining game or two was available on regional coverage through ESPN Gameplan or on a local station. Now, with the Big Ten Network, fewer Big Ten Football games will be available nationally to the fans that want to watch. In addition, the Big Ten Network is having difficulty getting cable operators to sign on for it. I understand that the schools in the conference may have been upset with ESPN relegating a few games last year that would have been part of regional coverage to ESPN 360 with a web only broadcast but this is not the solution. The Big Ten Network is being offered in Cable Companies in the immediate region at $1.10 per subscriber to be on a optional sports tier of programing and it is being offered to the rest of the country at $.10 per subscriber. The NFL has not even gotten full national distribution of its signature network but all games the NFL Network are required to be made available for broadcast on free television channels in the local markets. There is no such requirement for the Big Ten and not the national appeal of the NFL. It will be interesting to see if the Big Ten network can expand overtime to get more national distribution or struggle and weaken this once most powerful athletic conference.

Moss Report ACC Preview

Hey Everyone, I am back again but this year for the whole season. So lets get started with some conference previews.

ACC

Well the ACC is one of those annoying two division conferences but it seems that unlike the Big XII they are pretty balanced here.

Atlantic Division

1. Boston College - Interestingly enough after a 10 Win season long time successful HC O'Brian (actually to conference rival NC State), BC might even be a better team then they were last season. There are a few players that need to have a full recovery from injuries last season and off season surgeries but this team looks like the class of Atlantic Division.

2. Florida State - Some new coaches should have them improved but they need a QB desperately.

3. Wake Forest - The offense should be better, but the defense suffered some big losses to graduation.

4. Clemson - It is very interesting how Tommy Bowden's teams are very much like his father's great speed but never any true breakout offensive stars and a quick defense. The top 4 teams in this division are quite close.

5. Maryland - Totally new special teams and a young QB will leave the Terps looking to the future this season.

6. N. C. State - O'Brien inherits a huge mess. Give him a few years.

Coastal

1. Georgia Tech - Thank god Reggie Ball is gone. He did have the best receiver in the country last season and still could not complete 50% of his passes. This team needs to set the tone early in the season with a solid beating of the Irish up in South Bend.

2. Virginia Tech - Another year and another solid yet uninspiring team in Hokieland.

3. Miami - New Head Coach Shannon will try to restore the swagger in Miami but it will take a while for his tough love to work. I expect several players to get thrown off the team during the season while he works through the undisciplined Coker leftovers.

4. North Carolina - I think Butch Davis will make a difference in Carolina and I also think Mike Paulus will see significant time playing QB. Miami should watch out.

5. Virginia - Time to stop touting HC Al Groh, his teams have not done anything special and I am looking for another weak performance. Sorry Cav fans, but hit the bricks Al.

6. Duke - Duke might be able to win their home opener this season and it would give them their first win against a 1-A program in over 2 full seasons. HC Ted Roof is under no pressure to win at Duke and I have to say that is quite fair since I am not sure he ever will but his team played several close games in conference last year and they might break through and win one this season.

BC finally makes the BCS after beating Georgia Tech in the Conference Title game.