CNN Breaking News: “The Justice Department said in a letter to the NCAA that it has opened an antitrust inquiry into the Bowl Championship Series system.” UPDATE: Andy Staples says the “CNN story makes it seem as if there is more news than letter provides”: Here’s the full text of the DOJ BCS letter to the NCAA. Sounds like DOJ… Read more »
Good news everyone! The Pac-12 media rights deal is done, and the conference looks to have hit the jackpot! Expected to be officially announced soon, the deal will reportedly bring in over $225 million annually for the next 12 years, for a total of approximately… THREE BILLION DOLLARS!!! That’s a major upgrade from the current deal, worth only $45 million… Read more »
The Stanford Daily put together a great article outlining one of the biggest non-playoff related problems with the BCS bowls*. Schools are required to sell a given number of tickets, and any unsold tickets must be paid for by the school. The schools have no ability to decide how many tickets they want to sell; that decision is up to… Read more »
OMG: [A]s if any Irish-Trojans confrontation required a more electrified backdrop, there was this bombshell out of South Bend on Wednesday: Notre Dame will host its first home night game in 21 years this fall, and the opponent will be USC. The Oct. 22 matchup between the teams will kick off at 6:30 p.m. CDT. It’s the first Notre Dame… Read more »
I kid, but this is terrible: Someone has intentionally applied lethal amounts of herbicide to the soil around the famous Toomer’s Corner oaks on the campus of Auburn University, university officials said Wednesday. They say there is little chance they can save the trees, which are an icon of the campus. HROOM, HOOM!!! As B. Minich tweets, “That’s horrible. Where… Read more »
It’s that time of year again: time for ridiculously early preseason college football rankings! SI’s Andy Staples, ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, and the Mercury News‘s Jon Wilner have all published their picks. Oklahoma is the consensus #1, with Oregon, LSU and Alabama ranked #2-3-4 in some order. After that, there’s really no consensus: the only other teams that appear in all… Read more »
I may have been rooting for Oregon, and I may mock the SEC and its insufferable fans mercilessly, and I may have been hoping for justice vis a vis Cam Newton, and I may have been slightly less than gracious in some of my tweets when it didn’t happen… but, in spite of all that, I’m genuinely happy for Auburn’s… Read more »
Randy Styles of South Bend, Indiana won the 6th annual Living Room Times Bowl Pick ’em Contest on Monday as Auburn beat Oregon for the BCS national championship. Styles, a.k.a. “wolfmanbc,” finishes with 45 out of a possible 60 points, and a 25-10 prediction record. Remarkably, when New Year’s Day dawned, Styles was just 12-10, but he was perfect in… Read more »
Since Brendan didn’t post anything, here’s a thread for commenting. You can watch on ESPN3.com if your internet provider supports it. UPDATE BY BRENDAN: I was just a little slow because I was putting the girls to bed. Stupid 6:30 games, grumble grumble. But… GO DUCKS!!! BEAT S-E-C!!! I’m live-Tweeting over at LRT Live and my Twitter feed.
LSU’s win over Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl eliminated David K. and left Jeff Freeze as the last Oregon-picking contestant standing, heading for a final faceoff with Auburn-picking Randy Styles in the 6th annual Living Room Times Bowl Pick ’em Contest. Freeze and Styles are both a perfect 10-0 in the New Year, having gotten every game right since… Read more »