Home     Log in    XML, RSS Subscribe Feed (RSS)     XML, RSS Comments Feed

Posts Tagged ‘SEC’

« Older Entries

10 Surefire College Football 2010 Happenings

August 18th, 2010 by Matthew C. Keegan | 1 Comment | Filed in Collegiate Sports, NCAA Football

Kickoff set for Labor Day weekend

In about two weeks the first college football games will get underway, officially launching the 2010 season. Over the next four months or so, you’ll be hearing pundits and prognosticators comment about everything from the surprise team of the season to the coaching bomb and everything in between.

At SayCampusLife, we’ll continue to keep tabs on all of the news and present what we hope you will find to be some interesting information just beyond the mainstream reporting including ten “for certain” happenings for this season:

1. Bombs away — During the first weekend and most definitely by the second weekend, one of this season’s top picks will be upset. Unlike when LSU won the national championship with two losses, this team won’t have the luxury of winning out and playing for the national championship.

2. Out for the season — Injuries are a fact of life with football. A Heisman hopeful or other top player will see his season end, perhaps his NFL aspirations with it.

3. SEC champs — The SEC is the odds on favorite for winning it all, an unprecedented fifth straight national championship. But it won’t be Alabama that wins the SEC; instead an upstart will contend for the national title in January.

4. Coach firing — Who won’t finish out their coaching career this year? Anyone who loses a bunch of games that they should have won. At least one seasoned coach will be fired in November.

5. Seasonal surprise — TCU, Boise State and Utah can no longer surprise anyone. Is there anyone left who can? Yes, and that team will emerge as a top ten candidate before October comes to a close.

6. Simply scandalous — Whose scandal will get the news this year? Will it be recruiting violations or some sort of unethical behavior not heard about before?

7. Conference rumors — No conference changes will emerge while the season is active, but that won’t stop the speculation from reaching a fevered pitch once again.

8. Player antics — Not completely related to #6, but an issue nonetheless will be some sort of yucky player behavior that will emerge before the regular season ends. Whether that be gambling on games or sordid dorm behavior, expect something to leak out.

9. Record broken — Records are broken on a regular basis, but one player will have either a break out game or season that will simply defy expectations. And he’ll do it without taking steroids!

10. Bowl angst — As usual, the bowl season will anger some while gladdening the hearts of others particularly Michigan fans if the Wolverines get a warm weather invite around the first of the year.

When the curtain officially settles on the 2010 season following the early January BCS game, check back to see how well I did. I’m willing to venture that I’ll be spot-on at least nine out of 10 times.

Adv. — Need cash for tuition this semester? A Sallie Mae Smart Option Student Loan can provide for you a way to close the financing gap.


Tags: , , , , , , ,

UConn to the BCS & Other Mysteries

July 29th, 2010 by Matthew C. Keegan | 1 Comment | Filed in Collegiate Sports, NCAA Football

Title Town For Someone

The UConn Huskies playing in a BCS game seems almost farfetched, but when you consider how close they played in each of their losses last season, the Huskies stand a chance to prove themselves nationally this year. Winning the Big East Conference championship would provide the Huskies with that access; who’s to say that UConn won’t win it all?

The Bleacher Report is just one of many websites offering up their predictions about how the 2010 college football season might unfold. And writer Ben Carson got one thing dead right: most avid fans think about college football year ’round, thus the prognostications are never too early.

SEC Rules

One thing on most fan’s mind is this: will the SEC fill out the glove and claim their fifth consecutive championship? Importantly, are the Tennessee Volunteers good enough to knock off the Tide and keep all challengers at bay?

Clearly, college football is one of the hardest sports to predict with supposed top teams going from glory to gloom in just one season. Yes, Hawaii got creamed by Georgia in the Sugar Bowl a few years back, but there always seems to be a handful of Cinderella teams who defy the odds and get an unaccustomed January play date.

Best Guess

Personally, I haven’t bothered to throw my predictions out there, not that I’m afraid of what you may think. I simply find it too difficult to offer anything that could possibly be taken seriously; then again I see the following trends unfolding in 2010:

New Champ — This will be the season that the national champion won’t be from the SEC. Instead, I see Texas (not Oklahoma as Carson suggested) winning the Big 12 and playing for the national title. The Longhorns will face off against an SEC opponent and surprise everyone with a statement making win.

No Irish — This is the year that the Irish will turn the corner. Not so fast.  Brian Kelly will make some much needed improvements including getting the Notre Dame defense to do their job, but I don’t expect they’ll manage much more than a lower tier bowl bid this year. Three years out and the Irish could be playing for the national championship.

Mountaineers Run It – UConn may be the odds on favorite for some, but I see West Virginia winning the Big East on the legs of Noel Devine. If Devine rushes for 2,000 yards, he’ll lead a perfect West Virginia team to a shot to play for the national championhip. Yes, they’ll have to beat LSU, UConn and Pitt on the road along the way.

In a few weeks we’ll take a look at the first games of the season and offer up our predictions then.

Adv. — Are you coming up short this semester? A Sallie Mae Smart Option Student Loan can help you close the student financing gap.



Tags: , , , , ,

Conference Realignment: New Midwestern Conference Could Emerge

June 11th, 2010 by Matthew C. Keegan | 7 Comments | Filed in Collegiate Sports, NCAA Football, NCAA Men's Basketball

Forget for just for a moment that the PAC 10 is likely to expand to sixteen teams or that the Big Ten isn’t about to settle for Nebraska without doing a super-sizing of itself. Even if the SEC and ACC expand to keep pace, there is likely going to be enough good programs left out of the picture to force a new midwestern based conference to emerge.

college footballUnder the scenario now unfolding, the Big 12 is toast. But so is the Big East. Rutgers and Syracuse will likely go to the Big Ten and UConn too if Notre Dame agrees to join along with Nebraska. That will leave the Big East morbidly weakened, but present a new opportunity: join the remnants of the Big 12 and Big East conference together to form an all-new league.

And that scenario is entirely plausible.

Here is how it might happen:

With Colorado, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in the Big 12 and Nebraska headed to the Big Ten, the five remaining schools will need a home. Baylor, Iowa State, Missouri, Kansas and Kansas State will effectively become orphaned.

From the Big East, Louisville, Cincinnati, West Virginia and Pittsburgh would be left out as would South Florida who, by the way, could find their way to the ACC. Take Memphis, Tulane and Southern Miss from Conference USA and you suddenly have a 12-team conference.

But why stop there? Texas Christian, Utah, Brigham Young and Colorado State could be pulled in from the Mountain West conference to form the new league’s western flank. It may seem unbalanced on the surface and a dreadful travel nightmare at that, but with two divisions in play, it can be done.  Maybe Heartland Conference would be the appropriate name.

This particular scenario isn’t likely to happen especially if the Pac 10 and Big Ten become 16-team conferences. Sure, the SEC with 12 teams would still be the college football powerhouse, but the other conferences would have four more schools. That represents four additional schools for a lucrative TV pact which is what this conference expansion movement is all about.

So, here is how I see things shaking out: Syracuse, UConn and Rutgers leave the Big East for the Big Ten. South Florida, Louisville, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh head to the ACC. West Virginia, Missouri and two schools to be named later join the SEC. I believe those two schools could be poached from the ACC, forcing the ACC to turn to Memphis and Southern Miss to fill their now depleted ranks.

When the smoke clears we’ll be left with four 16-team super conferences. Yes, under that scenario the Mountain West and Western Athletic Conference would probably merge while Conference USA would be forced to get creative and raid the Mid-American conference for some teams. How about six 16-team conferences?

Just when you think that the conference alignment picture has straightened itself out, everything is clear as mud again. Blame it on the Big Ten who let its own conference expansion whispers force everyone to look at their options, leaving some schools scrambling to make sure that their options remain strong.

Adv. — Father’s Day is coming and with it will be many sales and special deals. Check out the nBuy Shopping Network for seasonal goods just for dad.


Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Best Football Conference? SEC, of Course.

May 25th, 2010 by Matthew C. Keegan | 2 Comments | Filed in Collegiate Sports, NCAA Football

Beyond the SEC, which conference rules?

When it comes to men’s basketball, the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big East Conference typically produce the top teams year in and year out. But when it comes to football, mostly everyone agrees that the Southeast Conference plays at the top level of each of the six major college football conferences.

BCS Champions

college footballSince the BCS championship was first played in 1998, the SEC has fielded six teams in the championship game, winning all six. As of 2010, the SEC has won the last four championships, further demonstrating that this conference, indeed, is best in the land.

Positions two through six may be harder to gauge. The Big East, Big Ten, ACC, Pac 10 and Big 12 can claim to be up there, but how can that be adequately measured apart from the number of championships won?

Number Two?

Of the five conferences following the SEC, only the Big 12 has won at least two championships, but they’ve also lost five. The Pac 10 is 1-1 in championships while the remaining three leagues are each 1-2. But the Big East has reached the title game when they had Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College in the conference and would be 0-0 for the teams now compromising the conference.

Another measurement involves checking the number of bowl appearances by team. Again, an SEC team, the Alabama Crimson Tide, easily leads the pack with 57 bowl appearances with Texas (Big 12), USC (Pac 10) and Tennessee (SEC) tying for second with 48 appearances. Positions five through 10 are held by Nebraska (Big 12), Georgia (SEC), Oklahoma (Big 12), Penn State (Big Ten), LSU (SEC) and Ohio State (Big Ten).

Weakest Link

Thus, the SEC has four of the top bowl attending teams in the country, the Big 12 has three, Big 10 with two and the Pac 10 has just one. Some might deduce from these statistics that the ACC and Big East conferences bring up the rear, but one important fact remains: conference strength fluctuates and coming up with hard evidence more than a decade or two old can skew that information.

Yes, even Army and Navy once had glory days, but you’d be hard pressed to find a top military academy team in the most recent 50 year period of college football.

Adv. — Are you looking for an online bargain? The nBuy Shopping Plaza can connect you to more than 5,000 retailers including merchants of football paraphernalia.


Tags: , , , ,

« Older Entries