ESPN has reported that the Mountain West conference will hold a championship game in football and divide its twelve members into two divisions. The divisions will be named "Mountain" and "West" and the division champion with the higher BCS ranking will host the championship game. The proposed divisions will be arranged as follows:
MOUNTAIN: Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, New Mexico, Utah State, and Wyoming
WEST: Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV), San Diego State, and
San Jose State
The inaugural Mountain West championship game will be played on Saturday, December 7th. The network that will broadcast the game will be determined at a later date. More information can be found at the conference's website:
http://www.themwc.com/genrel/012213aaa.html
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Just In: Chip Kelly hired as Philidelphia Eagles Head Coach; San Diego State will rejoin Mountain West Conference
It looks like more big changes are occurring throughout the college football landscape. First, the Philadelphia Eagles announced earlier today that they have hired Chip Kelly as their head coach. Kelly, who accumulated a 46-7 record as head coach of the Oregon Ducks, replaces Andy Reid, who was fired on December 31st after leading the Eagles to a 4-12 season. ESPN's report today also mentions that Kelly will be the sixth active NFL coach to be hired directly from a college team (the other five include Pete Carroll, Tom Coughlin, Jim Harbaugh, Greg Schiano, and Doug Marrone). Despite Kelly's lack of NFL experience, the Eagles owner, Jeffrey Lurie, expressed confidence in their new head coach by saying that "he has a brilliant football mind . . . he motivates his team with his actions as well as his words. He will be a great leader for us and will bring a fresh, energetic approach to our team."* As for the Ducks, Bleacher Report's Ian Berg has mentioned three possible candidates to fill Oregon's head coaching vacancy. These include Oregon's offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich, Boise State's H.C. Chris Petersen, and Oregon's defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti.**
Today's second headline has to do with the continuing misfortunes of the Big East Conference. In the weeks after Boise State announced that they will stay in the Mountain West Conference in all sports, ESPN has reported that San Diego State will be reinstated as a member of that league.*** Both schools had originally planned to join the Big East as football-only members, but if the Big East keeps losing teams, there may not be a conference left to join. Since Pittsburgh and Syracuse announced back in 2011 that they were leaving to join the Atlantic Coast Conference in all sports, eleven more schools have either left or have mentioned plans to eventually leave the league. These include, in no particular order of departure: West Virginia, Louisville, Rutgers, Notre Dame, Seton Hall, Marquette, DePaul, Villanova, St. Johns, Georgetown, and Providence. This hemorrhage of members, along with an ESPN report on December 22, 2012 detailing that a "Big East media rights deal was worth about $50 million . . . and the loss of the seven basketball schools would decrease that [amount] by another '15-20%"**** most likely put both Boise State and San Diego State into a position where staying in the Mountain West would be a better alternative than boarding a sinking ship.
Finally, the Mountain West's decision to readmit San Diego State puts that conference into a position where it can offer a championship game in football. This year, Utah State and San Jose State will also join the league in all sports, thus increasing the conference's football membership (the University of Hawaii is a member in football only) to 12 teams. How the Mountain West will divide its members into two divisions will be a subject covered in a future post.
Sources:
*http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8849699/chip-kelly-bolts-oregon-ducks-coach-philadelphia-eagles
**http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1487617-odds-on-next-oregon-football-coach-after-chip-kelly-bolts-for-nfl
***http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8850122/san-diego-state-reinstated-mountain-west-conference-member
****http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8773423/boise-state-trying-get-big-east-mountain- west-allow-broncos-retain-home-tv-rights-according-sources
Today's second headline has to do with the continuing misfortunes of the Big East Conference. In the weeks after Boise State announced that they will stay in the Mountain West Conference in all sports, ESPN has reported that San Diego State will be reinstated as a member of that league.*** Both schools had originally planned to join the Big East as football-only members, but if the Big East keeps losing teams, there may not be a conference left to join. Since Pittsburgh and Syracuse announced back in 2011 that they were leaving to join the Atlantic Coast Conference in all sports, eleven more schools have either left or have mentioned plans to eventually leave the league. These include, in no particular order of departure: West Virginia, Louisville, Rutgers, Notre Dame, Seton Hall, Marquette, DePaul, Villanova, St. Johns, Georgetown, and Providence. This hemorrhage of members, along with an ESPN report on December 22, 2012 detailing that a "Big East media rights deal was worth about $50 million . . . and the loss of the seven basketball schools would decrease that [amount] by another '15-20%"**** most likely put both Boise State and San Diego State into a position where staying in the Mountain West would be a better alternative than boarding a sinking ship.
Finally, the Mountain West's decision to readmit San Diego State puts that conference into a position where it can offer a championship game in football. This year, Utah State and San Jose State will also join the league in all sports, thus increasing the conference's football membership (the University of Hawaii is a member in football only) to 12 teams. How the Mountain West will divide its members into two divisions will be a subject covered in a future post.
Sources:
*http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8849699/chip-kelly-bolts-oregon-ducks-coach-philadelphia-eagles
**http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1487617-odds-on-next-oregon-football-coach-after-chip-kelly-bolts-for-nfl
***http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8850122/san-diego-state-reinstated-mountain-west-conference-member
****http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8773423/boise-state-trying-get-big-east-mountain- west-allow-broncos-retain-home-tv-rights-according-sources
Saturday, January 12, 2013
ACC Announces Eight-Game Schedule
Yesterday, the Atlantic Coast Conference unveiled a new league football schedule for the 2013 season. As in previous years, each team will play eight conference opponents. But this year's schedule reflects the ACC's decision back in 2011 to expand from twelve to fourteen teams. On July 1st, the league will welcome Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh (PITT) as members in all sports. Syracuse will compete in the Atlantic Division while Pittsburgh will be placed in the Coastal Division. Since both league divisions will consist of seven teams, the ACC's new 8-game football schedule will work as follows:
1. Each team will play every opponent in their division, totaling six games (3 home, 3 away).
2. The remaining two games (one home, one away) will feature crossover or inter-divisional
opponents. One match will consist of primary crossover rivals, while the other game
features rotating opponents.
3. The primary crossover matches are listed below:
Atlantic Division vs. Coastal Division
To the ACC's credit, their new scheduling model preserves some traditional rivalry games (e.g., Syracuse-PITT, NC-NC State, Clemson-GA Tech, FSU-Miami) at a time when recent conference realignments have interrupted or suspended them indefinitely. Some of these now defunct matches include Nebraska-Oklahoma, Missouri-Kansas, Texas-Texas A&M, and West Virginia-PITT. Even the future of Maryland's annual game with Virginia remains in doubt once Maryland moves to the Big Ten Conference in 2014. It will be interesting to see if a rivalry between Louisville and Virginia (or Virginia Tech) will take shape when the Cardinals join the ACC as Maryland's replacement.
More information can be found at the following websites:
ACC Website: http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/011113aaa.html
FBschedules: http://www.fbschedules.com/
1. Each team will play every opponent in their division, totaling six games (3 home, 3 away).
2. The remaining two games (one home, one away) will feature crossover or inter-divisional
opponents. One match will consist of primary crossover rivals, while the other game
features rotating opponents.
3. The primary crossover matches are listed below:
Atlantic Division vs. Coastal Division
Boston College Virginia Tech
Clemson Georgia Tech
Florida State University of Miami
North Carolina State North Carolina
Syracuse Pittsburgh
Wake Forest Duke
To the ACC's credit, their new scheduling model preserves some traditional rivalry games (e.g., Syracuse-PITT, NC-NC State, Clemson-GA Tech, FSU-Miami) at a time when recent conference realignments have interrupted or suspended them indefinitely. Some of these now defunct matches include Nebraska-Oklahoma, Missouri-Kansas, Texas-Texas A&M, and West Virginia-PITT. Even the future of Maryland's annual game with Virginia remains in doubt once Maryland moves to the Big Ten Conference in 2014. It will be interesting to see if a rivalry between Louisville and Virginia (or Virginia Tech) will take shape when the Cardinals join the ACC as Maryland's replacement.
More information can be found at the following websites:
ACC Website: http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/011113aaa.html
FBschedules: http://www.fbschedules.com/
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Just In: Buffalo Bills hire Doug Marrone
ESPN has reported that the Buffalo Bills have hired Doug Marrone as their new head coach. Marrone, who spent four seasons as head coach of the Syracuse Orange, leaves that program with a 25-25 record that includes post-season victories in the Pinstripe Bowls of 2010 and 2012. Despite his .500 win percentage, Marrone turned around a Syracuse program that accumulated a 26-57 record over seven seasons. His resume also includes seven years in the NFL. He was the New York Jets' offensive line coach between 2002 and 2005, and he spent 2006-2008 as offensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints. Marrone will replace outgoing head coach Chan Gailey, who was fired after three seasons with a 16-32 record. More information can be found at the following websites:
ESPN: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8817962/doug-marrone-new-buffalo-bills-coach-leaves-syracuse-orange-sources-say
Buffalo News: http://blogs.buffalonews.com/press-coverage/2013/01/offensive-oriented-doug-marrone-molded-syracuse-with-discipline.html
Bleacher Report: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1472596-who-is-doug-marrone-and-what-does-he-bring-as-head-coach-of-the-buffalo-bills
ESPN: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8817962/doug-marrone-new-buffalo-bills-coach-leaves-syracuse-orange-sources-say
Buffalo News: http://blogs.buffalonews.com/press-coverage/2013/01/offensive-oriented-doug-marrone-molded-syracuse-with-discipline.html
Bleacher Report: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1472596-who-is-doug-marrone-and-what-does-he-bring-as-head-coach-of-the-buffalo-bills
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Aggies Rout Sooners in Cotton Bowl, 41-13.
I admit that I had my reservations concerning the decision to award Quarterback Johnny Manziel the Heisman Trophy. Until last December this trophy, which was primarily awarded to seniors since it was first established in 1935, had never been presented to a freshman. Officially, the Heisman Trophy recognizes "the most outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity."* Since the Heisman was given primarily to upperclassmen, the award, it seemed to me, recognized a player's accomplishments for not just one year. Rather, winning the Heisman represented the capstone of an exceptional college career. However, in light of Johnny Manziel's incredible performance in last night's Cotton Bowl Classic, I may have to re-evaluate my views about the place of the Heisman Trophy in modern college football.
Manziel's accomplishments in the Cotton Bowl revealed that he more than deserved the Heisman Trophy along with the other awards he received over the course of the 2012 FBS season. In leading the #9 Aggies in their rout of #11 Oklahoma yesterday, Manziel set a new record for rushing at 229 yards and he came within 13 yards of becoming only the second FBS player to pass 300 yards and rush 200 yards in a single game. He did, however, set a new post-season bowl record with 516 total yards and he became just the fourth player in FBS history with 20 passing and 20 rushing touchdowns in a season. As Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops put it after the game: "Johnny Manziel is everything he was billed to be, expected him to be."**
First-year head coach Kevin Sumlin led Texas A&M to an 11-2 record, the first time the Aggies have won eleven games in a season since 1998. Oklahoma finished with a 10-3 record, including a share of the Big XII championship.
I will conclude this post with the scores of all four BCS bowl games:
Sugar: #21 Louisville upsets #3 Florida, 33-23
Orange: #12 Florida State pounds #15 Northern Illinois, 31-10
Rose: #6 Stanford narrowly beats Wisconsin, 20-14
Fiesta: #4 Oregon overwhelms #5 Kansas State, 35-17.
The National Championship game between #1 Notre Dame and #2 Alabama will be played on Monday, January 7th, at 8pm Eastern, on ESPN.
* - Quote from Heisman Trust website: http://www.heisman.com/trust/mission_statement.php
** - Bob Stoops quote found here: http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=330040201
Manziel's accomplishments in the Cotton Bowl revealed that he more than deserved the Heisman Trophy along with the other awards he received over the course of the 2012 FBS season. In leading the #9 Aggies in their rout of #11 Oklahoma yesterday, Manziel set a new record for rushing at 229 yards and he came within 13 yards of becoming only the second FBS player to pass 300 yards and rush 200 yards in a single game. He did, however, set a new post-season bowl record with 516 total yards and he became just the fourth player in FBS history with 20 passing and 20 rushing touchdowns in a season. As Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops put it after the game: "Johnny Manziel is everything he was billed to be, expected him to be."**
First-year head coach Kevin Sumlin led Texas A&M to an 11-2 record, the first time the Aggies have won eleven games in a season since 1998. Oklahoma finished with a 10-3 record, including a share of the Big XII championship.
I will conclude this post with the scores of all four BCS bowl games:
Sugar: #21 Louisville upsets #3 Florida, 33-23
Orange: #12 Florida State pounds #15 Northern Illinois, 31-10
Rose: #6 Stanford narrowly beats Wisconsin, 20-14
Fiesta: #4 Oregon overwhelms #5 Kansas State, 35-17.
The National Championship game between #1 Notre Dame and #2 Alabama will be played on Monday, January 7th, at 8pm Eastern, on ESPN.
* - Quote from Heisman Trust website: http://www.heisman.com/trust/mission_statement.php
** - Bob Stoops quote found here: http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=330040201
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