About many things

I don't really know what to blog about this week, so I will blog about lots of stuff.

- This weekend was the Army vs Navy game. It was another Navy blowout. With Navy scoring 34 points and holding Army to 7. Back in the day this game was quite the rivalry as both of these teams had all the talent in the nation lining up to join the armed forces and both of these teams were frequently highly ranked. The game is a shadow of its former self as the army hasn't won since 2001.

-I got a $10 certificate from Dicks Sporting Goods this week. So I went to Dick's and bought myself two Rapala lures- a Shad Rap and an Original Floater. The Original Floater is only one inch long but it set me back $7.50 (good thing the certificate ate five bucks of it).
                                                 
-I saw a Flint Hills Basketball game this week. They were destroyed by a team that is undefeated and regularly plays teams in higher divisions. The Flint Hills guys, along with the CHIEF guys, are always trying to recruit me to play on their teams. The main problems are that I once played for Flint Hills in the summer league and I would feel like a traitor if I played for CHIEF; Flint Hills practices at six in the morning EVERY DAY and I just can't do that; and I really don't like basketball that much. Basketball just doesn't make sense to me in general, it is too fast, I can't make shots under pressure, and you cant just tackle a guy when he has the ball. I am content to play pickup games when I get the chance.

-The bowl games are taking an eternity to get here but when they do, they will start fast. Four games- the Potato Bowl, the New Mexico Bowl, the New Orleans Bowl, and the Las Vegas Bowl are all being played this Saturday. The bowl games started earlier last year but they came at a slower pace, at one game per day. My picks in the games are CSU beats WSU, USC beats Fresno St., Tulane beats UL Lafayette, and Buffalo beats SDSU. Of course, my picks are proven to mean nothing, so don't listen to that last part.

oops

Um, yeah. I made this whole post about how Missouri would beat Auburn, ASU would beat Stanford, Ohio state would beat MSU, and Florida State would slaughter Duke. Well I got the whole Florida State thing right, but I kinda guessed all the others wrong. sooooooooo..............................................Yeah.................I know a lot.....about football.............I promise.

So anyways, this last week was a huge week in College Football. All of the bigger conferences had their championship games, even the Big Twelve championship came down to this weekend.

I did not say too much about the Big 12 last post, so I will make it up now. The deal was that the top four teams in the Big 12 just happened to play each other on the same week. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State played each other in a game that they call Bedlam. Every year the OKST Cowboys come into the game with high hopes of winning and getting into a great bowl game in the post-season. But the Sooners almost always ruin their dreams just before they reach that goal. This year, if the Cowboys won, they would be the Big Twelve champions and they would automatically go to the Fiesta Bowl. The Cowboys were the huge favorites in the game as they had only lost a fluke game against West Virginia. The Sooners were ahead 20 to 17 with only 4 1/2 minutes left in the game and the Cowboys had to go 89 yards if they wanted a touchdown. They did exactly what they needed to do. After they scored, they gave to ball back to the Sooners with only 1:46 left on the clock. Ou only had their third string quarterback and the game seemed almost hopeless, but Blake Bell drove the team across the field in only one and a half minutes and they scored on a touchdown pass to Jalen Saunders. That last Ou touchdown basically sealed the game.

The Cowboy's loss meant that another game-that started just as the Bedlam game ended-would determine the Big 12 championship. Texas and Baylor started off the season with two different kinds of out-of-conference results. Texas, a team that was ranked #15 in the preseason, lost to BYU and Ole Miss in blowout losses because of an absolutely horrendous run defense. The school fired the defensive coordinator after the BYU loss and the new guy only had a few days to prepare his defense for Ole Miss. But somehow the Longhorns started winning and they had only lost once (against the Cowboys) since that time . The Baylor Bears started off their season white-hot while scoring about 70 points in each of their out-of-conference games. The Bears had the most potent offense in the country until they lost a star receiver-Tevin Reese- to a dislocated wrist. They lost in embarrassing fashion to Oklahoma State but that had been their only loss so far. Since both of these teams have only lost to the Cowboys, this game decided the outright champion of the Big 12. The Texas/Baylor game was VERY slow in the first half with each team scoring only one field goal. The Bears looked as if their once awesome offense had suddenly become inept- until the second half. The Bears defense continued to hold the Texas offense well while the offense suddenly got going. The final score was 30-10 Baylor. The Bears suddenly have won a Big 12 Championship and just finished the best season that they have ever had.

The bowl games have all been decided and they look like this in the Big 12
Sugar Bowl: #11 Oklahoma VS #3 Alabama
Fiesta Bowl: #6 Baylor VS #15 UCF
Cotton Bowl: #13 Oklahoma State VS #5 Missouri
Alamo Bowl: Texas VS #10 Oregon
Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl: Kansas State VS Michigan
Holiday Bowl: Texas Tech VS #16 Arizona State.

There are a bunch of games where the Big 12 looks out-gunned, but there are also some really good matchups. Hopefully the Big 12 can have a better bowl season than it had last year

regular season almost over

The regular season in college football is almost over. The final games are the championship games and the games between teams that play in conferences that do not have conference championships.

The regular season has ended for many teams in college football. A conference with twelve or more teams is divided into two divisions. For example, the Big Ten is divided into the Leaders Division and the Legends Division. The best of each division will play each other to determine the conference champion.

The Big Ten Championship Game will feature the #10 Michigan State Spartans from the Legends Division and the #2 Ohio State Buckeyes from the Leaders Division.
MSU is a team that was very much under the radar earlier this year. They had only six wins last year and were not expected to do much better. They have won every game in convincing fashion- except for one loss against the then-#22 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. They boast one of the best defenses in college football, only allowing an average of 11.8 points-per-game. Their only weakness is their offense, which ranks 64th in the nation in average points-per-game.
OSU is the team that everybody expected to get to this game. They have not lost a game since Urban Meyer (former head coach of Florida and Tim Tebow) became their head coach at the beginning of last year. They are very capable of scoring massive amounts of points against most of the teams that they play. The problem is that they sometimes have had to rely on their offense to win games when their defense could not get a stop. They barely won this week's game against Michigan- a team that got owned when they played MSU.
This game will probably be determined by the offenses of either team. If MSU can score well enough against OSU and their defense holds strong, they could win this game. But if OSU can overcome the MSU defense they are heavily favored to win
I would pick Ohio State to win this game because of their ability to score. They have not scored less than 42 points since mid-October and MSU has only scored an average of 23 points in their last five games. OSU 35-24

The Pac-12 Championship Game is between the #7 Stanford Cardinal of the North Division and #11 Arizona State Sun Devils of the South division.
Stanford is a team that was highly ranked in the preseason and they stated their dominance early in the year against the then-#23 Sun Devils by a 42 to 28 victory. Their season just continued to improve with wins over Washington and Washington State, but they fell to a now- 5-7 Utah Utes team. They bounced back with a huge win against the then #3 Oregon but they fell again against USC. They seem to be a team that plays very well at times but they are very inconsistent in games that they should easily win, such as their win this last week over Notre Dame where they only won by seven points.
Arizona State was embarrassed by Stanford earlier this year, but their only other loss was against Notre Dame (they must really get around). Besides their losses, the Sun Devils have looked fairly good in their games. They feature a high powered offense that has scored an average of 43.3 points per game this year. They have showed their ability with three solid wins over teams that are or were ranked at the time that they played.
The game will be determined by Stanford's ability to score. If they cannot score more than the 20 to 27 that they seem to like scoring, the Sun Devils will find a way to outrun them.
This game will probably end in either a close game that is won by Stanford or a blowout win for ASU. I will pick ASU to win this game because they seem like the hotter team coming into the home-stretch. ASU 42-28

The SEC Championship Game is a top-5 matchup between the #3 Auburn Tigers of the West and the #5Missouri Tigers of the East.
This game is the last thing that anybody expected for the SEC Championship Game. AU and Mizzou both ended their seasons last year without bowl games. They combined for a 2-14 SEC record last year, but this year they are a combined 14-2 in the SEC.
AU was the team that nobody believed in. They lost all but two of their games last year and have a new coach (Gus Malzahn) this year. But they just won an absolutely massive game against #1 Alabama and have only one loss against #15 LSU that hurts their schedule. They have an extremely powerful rushing attack that averages over 300 yards-per-game, and they appear able to run it against even the powerful Alabama defense. The last two games that they have played have had incredible finishes, one was a miracle hail-mary that bounced off of the defender's hands and right into the receiver's and the other was a missed field goal that was returned for a touchdown (this has only happened a few times in college football).
Mizzou was a team that had just joined the SEC last year. They ended up doing very poorly in their first season and only won four games. The team has turned things around in a big way this year. Their offense is very balanced and capable of scoring large amounts of points and their defense is one of the best in the SEC. Their only loss this year was to the now #8 South Carolina Gamecocks in double-overtime. Other than the loss against SCar, Mizzou has been able to effectively shut down their opponents in most phases of the game.
This game will end with a very high score. In the end, the game will be determined by the defenses of both teams- whichever team can get more stops on defense has the edge in this game.
I will pick Mizzou to win this game because of their consistent and balanced play on both sides of the ball. Mizzou 42-38

The ACC Championship will feature the #1 Florida State Seminoles and the #20 Duke Blue Devils
There is not much analysis for this game (because I am tired) because there is a clear favorite in this game.
It is worth noting that Duke is a well-known basketball school and has not had much gridiron success until this year. They set a new school record of 10 wins this year when they beat UNC this last week.
Florida State is (in my mind) above and beyond the best team in college football. They have not even come close to losing this year, even when they played the then #3 Clemson in hostile territory. They have the best defense -in terms of scoring- in the FBS and they have the second highest scoring offense in the FBS.
All I have to say is "Good job for making it this far Duke."
FSU 49-17

One final thing- or maybe four. K-State won, Texas A&M lost, Nebraska lost, and Alabama lost- a perfect week.