Sorry Longhorns

...but it appears that you're losing your cadre of T-Shirt fans.

(A&M merchandise sales spike day after upset win over Alabama, Brent Zwernaman, Chron.com)

According to Fanatics.com, a leading online retailer of officially licensed merchandise, A&M for the week of Nov. 5-11 ranked fifth in college logo-branded sales behind Notre Dame, Alabama, Oregon and Ohio State. Texas was ninth.

The gaggle of people wearing burnt orange T-shirts, polos etc. when the 'Horns are on top is now dwinding as aTm rises to the top of the Texas college football pile.  Next thing you know they'll be learning the Aggie War Hymn and Saw Varsity's Horn's Off.  Just remember, if you see them swaying at a bar they could be just really drunk and not a REAL Aggie.

Fear not Horn fan, these things are cyclical.

College Football: Up, (Way) Down and...Meh...

Coming off an exciting week.


Up: aTm (obviously) Take a win over the consensus number one team in all the land, mix in a Freshman QB with a propensity for big plays, a cool nickname and a coach who's looking like a genius and you have:  The buzz in college football today.  I'll listen to the Johnny Manziel for Heisman talk now, but I still think the far less flashy (and more consistent doing it all year) Optimus Klein will win. Manziel should be there however.


Meh: UT-Austin - OK, the wishbone tribute to the late, great Darryl Royal was well played, and a win is a win is a win, but your fans attempts to pooh-pooh the Aggies good fortune smackes of this:  But....But....Longhorn Network!!!!  I'm not saying we're at the dawn of a new Aggie reign over Texas football, but right now you're third place in the 3rd best conference in the Nation.  The Ags just beat the best team in the best conference in the Nation, and they did it on a Network everyone gets.


(Way)Down: UH (prayers to DJ Hayden) - The Hayden tragedy was bad enough, then you follow it up by playing a non-competitive game against Tulsa?  This coaching staff is hardly ready for prime time, and they probably wouldn't do well in the MAC.  The remaining sports aren't in great shape either.  Time for a full house cleaning that includes a new AD, new coaches for almost all sports, and a new athletic department entirely.



Other stuff:  K-State is currently number one in all the land, but there's no way the voters let things stay that way if both Oregon and ND remain undefeated.  A 1-loss 'Bama team will get some run (from CBS) for the B(C)S Championship game but it's not clear (to me) that they deserve it.  SEC homers aside, I'm not convinced that two of the current three unbeatens are going to lose.  I think two survive and the SEC is on the outside looking in.


And no, Texas, even if you win out you're not getting in a B(C)S bowl. The voters are not going to forget 63-21, they're just not. Take the Cotton Bowl and see if DeLoss Dodds can pull enough strings to keep the Aggies out of it.  The last thing you want is to end your season w/a humiliating loss to Johnny Football & Co.


We'd like to thank Auburn and Arkansas for at least showing up to every game this season.  At least, your uniforms did.  Good luck to the two of you on your new head coaching search.  I hear Vince Dooley might be available.


Finally:  Michigan.  Just Yeesh, OK?  Go Blue.

Pity the fight fan

For they know not what they want.  And it has beaten up many a promoter trying to walk the line between credible fights and fan-friendly ones.

Jones v. Sonnen may be a financial windfall, but it denigrates the UFC Light-Heavyweight belt. Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports.

Sonnen was knocked out in devastating fashion by Silva in the second round at UFC 148. That dropped him to 0-2 in his two bouts with Silva. Whether or not he won five of the seven rounds against Silva, he didn't win the fights. He lost.
One of the things that White and UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta did in taking control of the company in 2001 was to try to structure the titles in a way that they meant something.
There has been a path to a championship that is transparent and understandable. No one was given title shots just because of their name or who their manager happened to be, as has been the case far too long in boxing.

As Iole mentions, the UFC roster has been devastated by injuries of late.  It becomes very hard to sell a pay-per-view full of lightly fought rookies, last minute replacements, or the ton of MMA fighters on roster that aren't household names.  There's a limit to the number of "Superfights" any fighting sport can realistically have.  Boxing has Pacquiao-Mayweather now, and in the future they might have something with Andre Ward vs. Canelo Alvarez but there's only ever going to be two or three big names out there in adjacent weight classes that anyone really wants to see.

The UFC is in the same boat.  Anderson Silva vs. George St. Pierre would be a GREAT fight, as would Silva vs. John Jones, but in each case one fighter is going to be giving up significant size to step in against a man who's at the top of a bigger division.  The fans want those fights, but they rarely live up to the hype.

The biggest problem is that the casual fight fan is terribly uneducated and only knows a handful of fighters, most of whom headline credible cards against lesser known foes.  While the hard-core fight fan realizes that Silva v. Weidman is a great fight, it's not going to have the juice of Silva v. Jones no matter how hard the UFC promotes it.

During it's early heyday the UFC had a roster full of star-caliber fighters who, unfortunately, were nearing the downside of their careers just as viewers were tuning in.  Fighters like Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, Rich Franklin and Quinton Jackson generated viewer interest on the downsides of their career.  Today's fans never got to see Bas Rutten fight, and that's a shame. He was a better striker in his prime than anyone fighting today.

The real shame is that, in many cases, most of the young up-and-coming fighters are more well-rounded and better fighters than many of the "stars" of the past.  The casual fight fan doesn't see that however, clamoring for fights with the names they know.  This leaves Dana White & Zuffa in the unenviable position of trying to cobble together profitable fight cards with a roster of healthy fighters with little buzz.

Remind you any of boxing? (Minus the corruption that is.)

College Football Game picks (10/18/2012)

Good slate of games this week:

Thursday:

Houston 37 @ SMU 27 - I've no faith in Gilbert and the Cougars are looking better of late.

Saturday:

LSU 17 @ aTm 13 - Part of me wants to predict the upset.  That part of me is probably drunk.

Va Tech 13 @ Clemson 31 - These aren't your older brother's Hokies.

Iowa St 35 @ OSU 38 - Iowa St. is ranked?  That won't last long and all will be right in the world again.

Purdue 10 @ Ohio St. 17 - Why closer than everyone thinks?  Because the Buckeyes aren't blowing anyone out this year.

Stanford 27 @ Cal 17 - Coach Tedford on the hot seat.

S. Carolina 27 @ Florida 24 - The Old Ball Coach > Muschamp.

TxTech 47 @ TCU 24 - Without Pachall TCU is just a frog.

Alabama 42 @ Tennessee 10 - The Vols aren't that good. Not sure why everyone thinks they are.

K-State 42 @ WVU 30 - I think the Wildcats have enough on defense to stop Geno Smith. (sorta)

Baylor 56 @ Texas 52 - After the OU debacle, how can you pick UT in this game?

College Football: Now we're getting there...

Lot of thoughts about College Football as it stands at the 1/2 way pole.  Some teams better than I thought, some teams just about what I thought they would be, some surprises, and some teams that are turning it around.

The rankings are here but I'm not going to limit my thoughts here to the teams on them....

Surprises to the good:

Kansas St. - I thought they would be pretty good, but I didn't think they'd be top 5 good.  They beat a very good OU team and destroyed Miami.  Anyone think they're not going t beat WVU and UT?  Could be a big season for the Wildcats.

Louisville - I still think they're underrated, probably should be a top 10 team.  The fans of Louisville should enjoy it now because Charlie Strong is not going to be there for long as other teams will come calling.

Miss St. - Again, probably underrated.  However, could play down to their ranking as the schedule starts to improve.

Ohio - That this 7-0 team is only ranked 25 in the AP is a crime.  They beat Penn St. which seems to be better than everyone thought.  Their exclusion from the USA Today Coaches Poll is my current biggest argument for the stupidity of that poll.

Ohio St. - This shouldn't have surprised me, because of Urban Meyer, but I didn't think he had the players for his system yet.  They're not winning pretty, but they're winning.

Oregon St. - Didn't see this one coming at all.

Surprises to the bad:

Arkansas: Duh.  Probably talking to Charlie Strong as we speak.

Va Tech - I thought, with the talent returning, that Va Tech was a sleeper candidate for the ACC title this year.  Oops.

Texas - Probably should have seen this coming. Mack Brown has only been good when he's had strong defensive coordinators.  Manny Diaz is not a strong defensive coordinator.

Auburn -   I didn't think the Tigers would be good, mostly because I don't think Chizik is a good head coach, but I didn't think they'd be THIS bad. Probably looking for a new HC after the end of this season.

About where we thought they would be:

Alabama - Until someone can prove otherwise, this is the #1 team in all the land.

Oregon - Has the most speed of any team in major college football and a defense that's turning out to be pretty good this year.

Rice - There's never a year we don't think the Owls are going to be terrible.  They're just more terrible than usual this year.  It's time this university took a hard look as to whether or not it wants to continue playing major college football.


Turning it around:

Houston - After losing their first three games (and looking terrible while doing it) it seemed that the Cougars were in big trouble heading into the Rice game.  Fortunately, Rice starting QB McHarge was injured and unable to play so the Cougars got their first win. Since then they've looked good against North Texas and UAB so there's progress.  They could get a win against SMU this Saturday and then the schedule gets tougher.  If they can sneak in a win against either UTEP, East Carolina or Tulsa they could go 8-4 and make it to a decent bowl game.

Michigan - The loss to Alabama didn't concern me, neither did the close win over Air Force, but the ND win exposed a team with a bad defense and a QB who should be playing WR.  Now, into conference play, the Wolverines seem to have found their stride and just pasted a decent Illinois team.  A win against Sparty this weekend puts them in the catbird seat for the conference championship game and a B(C)S bowl game.   Go figure.

Oklahoma - 63-21 over Texas.  Enough said. Probably not going to make it to the B(C)S championship game but could make it to a B(C)S game if they win out.


My Top 10 rankings:

1. Alabama
2. Oregon
3. Florida
4. K-State
5. Notre Dame
6. Ohio State
7. Oregon State
8. LSU
9. Oklahoma
10. Louisville

DopeStrong?

Things are not looking good right now for Lance Armstrong.  From holding status as the most prolific Tour de France rider ever (not the best rider ever, that title belongs to Eddie Merckx and always will) to being accused of being the best sporting drug czar ever the fall has been swift, and fairly damning. Whether or not you like or approve of USADA (I don't, as I think the drug enforcement groups are often more corrupt than the athletes themselves) the information that they put together has ruined the legacy of the greatest American cyclist of all time.

Lance Armstrong was the leader of the biggest doping conspiracy in sporting history say USADA. Nick Hoult, The London Telegraph

The United States Anti-Doping Agency charged him with six offences covering the use of banned substances, the trafficking of drugs, the administration of drugs to team-mates and aiding and abetting a massive cover-up between 1998 and 2005, a period when he dominated the world’s most famous race.

Dave Brailsford, British Cycling’s performance director who was key to Bradley Wiggins becoming the first Briton to win the Tour de France this year, said was stunned to read the USADA findings. “It is shocking, it’s jaw dropping and it is very unpleasant.”

A total of 26 witnesses including 11 fellow riders from the United States Postal Service team testified to USADA against Armstrong in a ­doping case the agency described as “more extensive than any previously revealed in professional sports ­history”. The dossier has been sent to the International Cycling Union which now has 21 days to challenge its findings and appeal to the World Anti-Doping Agency or comply with the decision to strip Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles.

In short, cycling another mess on it's hands.  In question are Lance's 7 Tour de France titles won from 1998 to 2005.  The easy solution would seem to be to just strip Armstrong of his titles and award the next finisher in line the championship.  The problem with this scenario is that most of the cyclists who finished 2nd to Lance (Including Ivan Basso) have been implicated (and in may cases suspended) for their own drug-related scandals. A worse option might be to vacate the titles and leave cycling with a gaping void of seven years where no Tour champion is listed.  It may not be a good solution, but it could be a fitting tribute to a cycling era where anyone who wasn't cheating wasn't seriously trying. (I'm looking at you, French riders)

For his part, Armstrong is remaining defiant, deciding to stay quiet and out of the public eye perhaps hoping that all of this just blows over and that he can keep chugging along post cycling as the public face of LiveStrong.

Time will tell what the legacy of Armstrong will ultimately be, but I don't think there's any way he's going to totally over come his doping legacy.  Even the staunchest of Lance Armstrong defenders has to go pale after reading the accusations and evidence compiled by USADA in this instance. There are really only two options, either Lance Armstrong is guilty as charged, or he's the subject of the greatest, most wide-reaching conspiracy that's ever been hatched to take down an individual who, by all accounts, hasn't hurt anyone if the allegations are false.  It's a staggering amount of money and resources that have been spent in what would all amount to a lie.

At the end of it all this case brings about one inevitable conclusion:  It's time to have a serious grown-up talk about PED's in sports, and whether or not we're willing to let a bunch of lawyers in suits come in and declare invalid what we've seen with our own eyes because they enjoy the power and privilege that come with being on the doping control board.  In the end, drug "cheats" hurt no one but themselves and we spend Billions trying to stop them from doing so.

If Pat Forde is correct....

And the B(C)S polls DO rank the Irish #1

Then we have exhibit A in the argument that the entire system was rigged from the git-go.

Any casual observer can determine that the number 1 and 2 teams in the nation are Alabama and Oregon respectively.  Now, granted, 3-5 might be a crap-shoot and Notre Dame is in the mix, but they're nowhere NEAR the number one spot.

Does anyone think that Nick Saban's team wouldn't take the Irish helmets and melt down the gold to build a Saban statue?  And the Golden Domers haven't faced a team with near the speed of Oregon.

Thank goodness this mess of a system is going the way of the Dodo.