3 reasons to cheer against Auburn

Before I start, what is Auburn anyway? Who names their school after a hair color? Although.......auburn colored hair is similar to Auburn Football - it looks pretty good but you need to spend a ton to maintain it!

Auburn is #2 in the country, they have a fantastic quarterback, some impressive wins, and a legitimate shot at the BCS Championship game. All disturbingly true.  However, you don't have to peal back the onion very deep to find reasons to cheer against them the next few weeks.

Reason 1: Watch this video...it serves as a great reminder that college football coaching hires can be very misleading See Video. Wonder if that guy still feels the same today about Gene Chizik...lol?

Reason 2: It will be proven Cam Newton received financial benefit to play at their school.  Remember, Cam Newton turned down  6 figure money from Mississippi State to get a "free" education at Auburn (wink, wink).  Sorry Cam, this type of "free education" will eventually make you ineligible, which will eventually make you give back the Heisman Trophy and that cool National Championship trophy.

Reason 3: Good teams like LSU, Boise, TCU, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Nebraska won't get a chance to prove they are worthy because Auburn is going to make a run for it despite fully knowing this run will most likely be foiled by the NCAA.  Assuming they beat Alabama, Auburn playing in the title game will be about as valid as Milli Vanilli's 1990 Grammy Award.

College football is a great game.  Too bad this great season has to be ruined by a school who wants it's day in the sun, despite knowing full well all of it's glory will eventually be taken away.

Go Bama, Go Carolina....we want to see the guy from the video one more time ("Booo Chizik....anyone except Chizik" "5 and 19, booooo")!!!

-Z

How the mighty have fallen in College Football

I was born in 1967.  My college football landscape includes some great moments, memories, and rivalries.  On Sunday morning I woke up....and now my football front yard looks like a low budget Edward Scissorhands' project. It's a disaster.  Things you could count on (Bobby Bowden grimacing at a wide right or Notre Dame coming from behind for a lucky last minute win) cannot be found anywhere.   Here are just a few glimpses of what has become the new College Football:

Texas lost to Baylor at home. My neighbor Jeff T. is on suicide watch (can you imagine cheering for your team in the BCS Title game and then 10 months later watching them lose to Iowa State and Baylor at home in successive weeks?) And, Texas A&M is so bad that the only way the Texas/Texas A&M game makes national TV is if one of the A&M cadets builds a collapsable bonfire.

Miami lost to Virginia.  Yes, in football, not Lacrosse or being stuck up.

Florida State fumbled away a win at NC State on Thursday night.  NC State use to be a stats game for FSU.  What happened here people, what happened?

Michigan continues to tackle like a Big East team (optional in that league) and has lost 3 games.  I remember the days when the only game they might lose was Notre Dame or Ohio State.  They have sunk (or stunk for that matter) to a new low. Can someone please remind Rich Rodriguez that going 0 for rival gets you fired....even at Minnesota!

But my all time favorite came when Notre Dame, who scheduled Tulsa for what was suppose to be a mercy win, lost in about the worst way a team could lose.  First, the fact that Tulsa played them close was a loss on it's own.  Then when ND drove to the the Tulsa 18 yard line with :40 left and 1 timeout, they decided to throw a pass (why???????) and yep, you guessed it, picked off, game over.  Brian Kelly = Hot Seat.

This is just a short list of Mighties.  How about Colorado, Tennessee, USC, Penn State, Georgia, Washington (got beat by 40 by Stanford on Saturday), and UCLA?  These teams have no shot of smelling New Year's day much less the Top 25!!!!

Who replaced them is even more depressing...Boise State, TCU, Oregon, Utah, and Wisconsin/Iowa.

Of the 10+ programs I mention, I only see Texas as the one who can get back to prominence fast (see "Texas Saved College Football" blog for why). The one I see farthest away is Colorado (no recruiting base, new large conference, no extra money to spend on a coach).  They could make their own conference, call it the "We use to be 12"...They would have full stadiums, a great TV network, some great rivalries already in place.  The beauty is one of these slug programs would still have a better shot at a BCS title than Boise or TCU (check back for my next Blog, "Why the non-BCS resembles Negro League Baseball")

No matter what, they have some work to do, or else Wake Forest or SMU might come calling (don't laugh, Boise State was a 1-AA not long ago my friends).

-Z