Category Archives: College Football
After Destroying Notre Dame For Another BCS Title; Alabama A Dynasty
Stewart Mandel on College Football’s Newest Dynasty, Nick Saban’s Alabama Roll Tide:
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — College football’s overlords need to hold an intervention, pronto, because this is becoming a serious problem. It’s clear now that no one can possibly hang with Alabama in a BCS championship game. And that’s an issue for everybody else, seeing as neither Nick Saban nor most of his marquee players seem interested in leaving Tuscaloosa anytime soon.
As the confetti poured down behind them at Sun Life Stadium, and as they tried to get changed in the locker room, Alabama’s players found themselves answering the same question over and over from reporters following their 42-14 demolition of Notre Dame on Monday: Having won three of the past four BCS championships, are the Crimson Tide a dynasty?
No. 2 Oregon Ducks Score At Will In Impressive Road Victory Over Rival USC
LA Times Gary Klein on the explosive Oregon Ducks 62-51 victory over USC behind RB Kenjon Barner’s record setting day:
The numbers didn’t lie.
Not before the game and certainly not after.
Second-ranked Oregon rolled into the Coliseum on Saturday with the nation’s highest-scoring offense.
The Ducks rolled out with a 62-51 victory over staggering USC, setting a slew of opponent records in the process.
“They did their thing,” Trojans safety T.J. McDonald said. “We didn’t.”
With running back Kenjon Barner rushing for 321 yards and five touchdowns, Oregon amassed 730 yards en route to a victory that improved the Ducks’ record to 9-0 and kept them in the race for a berth in the Bowl Championship Series title game.
Meanwhile, USC surrendered the most points and yards in its history and fell to 6-3 overall and 4-3 in the Pac-12 Conference.
“They played the way they usually play,” USC linebacker Hayes Pullard said. “Real fast.”
College Football: An Early Season Look At The Top Heisman Trophy Candidates
Chris Huston of CBS Sports previews the top Heisman Trophy candidates after USC’s Matt Barkley’s latest loss to Stanford:
Week 3 of the college football season is in the books, and the race for the 2012 Heisman Trophy has been dramatically altered.
USC’s Matt Barkley is the latest preseason favorite to stumble, throwing two interceptions in a huge loss to Stanford.
If you had told me before the year began that Barkley, Denard Robinson and Montee Ball would all be out of the Heisman race by the middle of September, I would’ve said you were crazy.
But it’s happened, and now it’s a wide-open competition. Any number of candidates could emerge. The next two weeks will give us a better understanding of the Heisman terrain, but for now the race is very fluid.
Keep in mind that the goal of this Heisman Watch is not just to track who is playing well from week to week. This is not a college football version of Kasey Casem’s top 40. The goal is to figure out who will ultimately win the trophy. Read the rest of this entry
PAC-12 Network Finally Launches; Just In Time For College Football Season
CBS Sports’ College Football writer Dennis Dodd on the brand new launch of the highly anticipated Pac-12 TV Sports Network:
When the Pac-12 Network debuted in San Diego on Wednesday, there were more subscribers in that market to the Big Ten Network.
Don’t ever underestimate the Buckeye surfer demographic.
This is not to disparage the Pac-12 Network or elevate the Big Ten Network. It is a call for calm. The Pac-12′s networklaunched Wednesday like a digital hydra. There are seven of them bound for glory and riches, the Pac-12 believes. The media, for the most part, concurs. This space merely questions.
To this point the P12N has had their new product sufficiently promoted. Commissioner Larry Scott is brilliant and articulate. His expertise has made sure the conference will have the rights to technology that has not been invented yet. Read the rest of this entry
College Football Finally Set For a 4 Team Playoff Approved By University Presidents, End Of BCS Coming
USA Today’s Nicole Auerbach on the newly approved playoff format coming soon to rescue college football:
WASHINGTON – The long, slow march toward a major college football playoff is over. It has been approved.
Conference commissioners met with an oversight committee of university presidents and chancellors here Tuesday to approve the four-team seeded playoff, consisting of two semifinal games in bowls and a national championship game that will be put up for bid.
Commissioners presented the plan for 30 minutes then took questions from the presidents, who then deliberated for about three hours before announcing their approval.
“A four-team playoff doesn’t go too far,” said Virginia Tech President Charles Steger, chair of the presidential oversight committee. “It goes just the right amount.”
The 14-year reign of the Bowl Championship Series— and the persistent criticism that accompanied it — is finally near its end. The new deal will go for 12 years.
