AP Top 25 Week #5

The Associated Press released the Top 25 poll for week 5 of the college football season. You know the drill:

AP Top 25:

1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Louisville
4. Michigan
5. Clemson
6. Houston
7. Stanford
8. Wisconsin
9. Texas A&M
10. Washington
11. Tennessee
12. Florida State
13. Baylor
14. Miami (FL)
15. Nebraska
16. Ole Miss
17. Michigan State
18. Utah
19. San Diego State
20. Arkansas
21. TCU
22. Texas
23. Florida
24. Boise State
25. Georgia

So Alabama crushed Kent State, easy #1. Ohio State had the week off, but they're still good so easy #2. Louisville crushed Marshall and Lamar Jackson is still the best QB in college football (there's the weekly Louisville and Lamar Jackson mention), easy #3. Michigan crushed Penn State.. Still haven't proved anything but I can live with them at #4, for now. Clemson crushed Georgia Tech on Thursday, easy #5. Now we're going to shift focus to #8 Wisconsin. A wise man once said "The only reason why Wisconsin is ranked is because in Week 1 they beat #5 LSU (barely)." That man also mentioned that games between ranked teams should be close. Wisconsin proved to the man that, they are good and just because a team is highly ranked, doesn't mean they deserve the ranking. That man, despite his (genius) Big 12 Plan, has revoked his statements. Wisconsin beat Michigan State 30-6 on Saturday. Yes, a game between #11 and #8 in the nation ended with the score being 30-6. And yes, the #11 team won. Wisconsin has now proved me wrong and they truly do belong at #8 now. Good job guys! Now they have to face #4 Michigan this week, and #2 Ohio State next week.. Have fun guys!:) Now let's talk about my favorite team, the now #10 Washington Huskies. THEY DROPPED A SPOT IN THE RANKINGS! Yes, they won last week against Arizona. BUT, they only won 35-28. It was a close game. Now they play #7 Stanford next. It was nice having you in the Top 25, Washington. But it is time to go (finally!). Speaking of overrated teams, next we have now #11 Tennessee, who just like Wisconsin, managed to prove me wrong. Tennessee played Florida last week and they deserved to lose this game. Tennessee was losing 21-3 at halftime. They went on to win the game. Yes, I'll say that again. Tennessee was losing 21-3 at halftime and they won the game. I do not know what the heck happened to Florida in the 2nd half, but they were bad. Bad isn't even a good word to describe the 2nd half for Florida. Horrendous. That's better. Florida had a horrendous 2nd half against Tennessee. The final score of the game was 38-28. I'm not saying Tennessee is a good team at this point. They still have a ways to go before they'll be good in my book. Texas A&M beat Arkansas. It was very close at first, with the score being 17-17 at halftime. Then Arkansas's defense collapse and Austin Allen got injured (kind of) and the game ended 45-24, in favor of Texas A&M. This only brought Arkansas down to #20, which I can easily live with. TCU came back into the rankings after crushing SMU, 33-3. They're good at #21. Boise State entered the rankings for the first at #24. Now there are to Top 25 teams from the Mountain West Conference (also #19 San Diego State). So when those 2 teams play, we should expect a good game because they're ranked, right? (Looking at you, Florida State and Louisville, Michigan State and Wisconsin, and Georgia and Ole Miss..) Now I'm going to complain about Georgia at #25. They're awful this year. I know they're 3-1 but those 3 wins were close calls. They should be out of the Top 25 and be like maybe #26 or #27. Arizona State should be #25. They have done so much in their first 4 games. They even beat California, who I thought would easily beat them. I feel like Arizona State is worthy of being in the Top 25 and I will complain about it until they get there (unless they lose to USC next week.. sorry guys.)

Well that was fun. That is this week's Top 25 and my opinions on it. Some games we should look at this week are #3 Louisville vs #5 Clemson, #7 Stanford vs #10 Washington, and #8 Wisconsin vs #4 Michigan. Not only will those games shake up the Top 25. They will shake up the conferences too. But we'll get into that more in the Saturday Preview (yes, there will be another one).

BREAKING NEWS: LSU Fires Head Coach Les Miles

Shocking news from the college football world today as famed LSU Head Coach Les Miles was fired. Miles had a 114-34 record in 12 seasons with the Tigers and had lead them to a National Championship victory in 2007, a National Championship appearance vs Alabama in 2012, and many bowl appearances. Miles and the Tigers got off to a rough start this year, going 2-2 in the first 4 games of the season. Assistant Coach Ed Orgeron has been named Interim Head Coach. I am very shocked and disappointed with this news. Even though I am an Arkansas fan and we rival LSU, Les Miles was always a good coach and I am sad to see him go. I wish him the best in the future and hope he either gets an NFL coaching offer, or to find another good college program to coach and beat the Tigers. Thank you Les!

Saturday Review #3 (9/24/16)

Week 4 of the college football season was very disappointing for me.  My predictions were very wrong for the most part.  But everyone who was supposed to win, won.  Except the teams I picked..  I got 4/12 games correct.  Let's focus on the bright side though.  My Big 12 Idea is great and North Dakota State beat Iowa once.  Let's start with the Team of the Week:

Team/Play of the Week: North Carolina Tar Heels and GW Touchdown with 2 Seconds Left

Finally a team that isn't Louisville has been given the honor of being my Team of the Week. This was a hard choice to make but because I don't like Tennessee, I chose the Tar Heels. Now the Tar Heels played the Pittsburgh Panthers and it was a very, very close game. The Tar Heels made a small comeback and ended up winning the game 37-36 on a nice catch with 2 seconds left in the game to win it. There really isn't much to this Team of the Week. They just played a good game and made a good play. Here's the GW touchdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt2bNrPG1es

Game of the Week: BYU vs West Virginia

West Virginia is probably one of my favorite Big 12 teams so I ended up watching this game not expecting much. But the 4th quarter kept me on the edge of my seat (I was laying in bed but you know what I mean). This game went back and forth and in the 4th quarter being down 32-35, BYU got the ball back with little time left and made their way down the field with a chance to either tie of win the game. But the pressure got to BYU QB Taysom Hill and he threw a very crucial interception and West Virginia hung on to win the game, 35-32.

Player of the Week: QB Riley Ferguson (Memphis)

Now you're probably wondering, who the heck is this Riley Ferguson and how did a player from Memphis do well? Well guess what? You're not alone. I have no idea who he is. He's not a Heisman Candidate by any means and he's certainly not highly rated by anyone. But he led the Memphis Tigers to a 77-3 win over (my maybe future alma mater) Bowling Green State Falcons. He threw 6 touchdowns with 395 passing yards. Some quarterbacks can't even throw 6 touchdowns over he course of 2 or 3 games (except Lamar Jackson), But yeah, Ferguson dominated the Falcons and has earned the right to be named this week's Player of the Week.

"Sadder"-Day's Upset: Duke beats Notre Dame

What is up with Notre Dame Football this year? I mean they had high hopes this year and now they're 1-3. I don't know what to say really. But Duke came into this game being heavy underdogs and they did what any underdog does and somehow won the game. Duke came back from a 14-0 Notre Dame lead and then kept the game very close down to the last minute basically. And with 1:24 left in the game, Duke kicked a 19 yard field goal to take the lead and they went on to win the game, 38-35. This will probably be Duke's best win for the next 10 years or so.. It's all downhill from here guys!

Well this review was kind of lame but I write on this blog a lot and I have a headache so you can't win them all. From this week we learned that I may or may not still have my title as "College Football Genius" (My Big 12 plan is pretty nice though..), I will not give Tennessee the recognition they may deserve, Riley Ferguson is the quarterback of the Memphis Tigers, and Notre Dame is awful. Until tomorrow for the AP Poll!

Social Issues and Protests

Let me start this by saying this, it's my opinion.  It's how I'm viewing this.  This is my perspective.  If you do not like it, that's fine.  I completely understand.  The last thing the world needs is another pointless opinion that will probably just add fuel to the fire.  But a lot has been happening not only in the college football world, but all over sports (It's also happening in the real world and I will most likely make that connection in this at some point but at the moment sports blog = sports issues).  I'm not here to say "hey guys, I have the solution to the problem!" or "I know how to fix this."  I'm just here to address the issues and discuss them in a civil manner.  So as we all may know, many protests have been happening all over the United States.  Some in the sports world, and some outside of it. What made me want to talk about this subject was the recent post game protest at Eastern Michigan. Three days before the game, "racial graffiti" was spray painted onto one of the campus buildings. According to the school, the graffiti mentioned the "KKK" and had a "racial epithet."   There was also a "racial slur" found in the stairwell of a building as well.  This led to campus-wide protests and 150 students marched to the home of Eastern Michigan President James Smith and also "peacefully" discussed the idea of the field protest during the game with him.  So right after the game, students took to the field, and along with some players, marched across the field chanting "No justice! No peace!"  The investigation is underway to find out the culprit of the graffiti and at the moment the chant does speak for itself, until the culprit is found (so at the moment there is no justice) there students will continue to protest (no peace).  So now this incident ties into what's been going on in the rest of the US and that is sitting during the national anthem due to "racial oppression."  It began when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was seen sitting during the national anthem of the USA.  When asked about it, Kaepernick said "I am not going to stand up and show pride for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.  To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way.  There are bodies in the street and people are getting paid leave and getting away with murder."  Yes, there have been a lot of shootings involving African Americans and police officers.  But to me, its not the country as a whole that oppresses African Americans and people of color.  I don't even know if "oppress" is the right word for it.  There was a time when African Americans and people of color were oppressed in America.  But I believe we, as a country, have gotten passed that.  However there are still some people who haven't.  And some of them gladly voice that because of their first amendment right.  What I'm trying to say here is America, as a whole, isn't oppressing African Americans and people of color, it is certain people in this very diverse country, who believe in what the past generations have believed.  Beliefs and traditions are passed down.  Some people over the years grow out of them.  Some stick to them.  It's just the way things work.  It's complicated.  The same thing with police officers.  Not all police officers are racist.  But some just happen to be.  Everyone has their own beliefs, traditions, and way of thinking.  Everyone is unique.  As much as we want to, we just can't all agree.  Some people think their ideas are better and want to use and say them,  Racism is really bad but taking away someones right of free speech is as well. We can't just tell someone they're wrong and expect them to change.   Can we change someone? How do we change someone?  And can we actually put an end to all the racism and protests? These are some of the many questions that are asked. And for now, they remained unanswered. 

The Big 12 Expansion and My (Brilliant) Ideas

As I lay here in my death bed (I'm still sick :/), I began to think about the Big 12 and it's desire to expand and add new teams to the conference (because I want that to be my dying thought?).  This wasn't originally supposed to a blog post but instead of keeping these thoughts to myself, I figured I would share them with you readers (because people read my blog.. right?) so you can appreciate my "genius" as much as I do.  So here it is, my Big 12 Expansion Idea, broken down (I think way to much):

Big 12 (Currently):

TCU

Iowa State

Texas*

Oklahoma*

Oklahoma State

Kansas

Kansas State

West Virginia

Texas Tech

Baylor

*Oklahoma and Texas haven’t approved expansion idea.  If they leave they should go to the SEC.

Expansion Candidates:

UConn

Cincinnati

UCF

USF

Rice

Houston

SMU

Tulane

BYU

Air Force

Colorado State

SEC (with Texas and Oklahoma):

 East:

Florida

Georgia

South Carolina

Vanderbilt

Tennessee

Kentucky

Alabama*

Auburn*

West:

Texas A&M

Arkansas

Ole Miss

Mississippi State

LSU

Missouri*

Oklahoma*

Texas*

*Geographically, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri are more “western” than Auburn and Alabama, so you move those 2 teams to the East and add Texas and Oklahoma to the West and move Missouri from the East to the West.  Iron Bowl rivalry stays.  Red River Showdown Rivalry stays as well.  Divisions stay even with 8 teams a piece.

Big 12 (without Texas and Oklahoma):

TCU

Iowa State

Oklahoma State

Kansas

Kansas State

West Virginia

Texas Tech

Baylor

Logical Additions:

BYU*

Houston*

Geographical Additions (self-explanatory):

Houston

Rice*

SMU*

*Rice and SMU aren’t good or prestigious (well SMU kinda is) but just location wise it works I guess.

Teams to Think About:

Air Force*

Colorado State*

*BYU and Houston are good and prestigious programs.  It makes sense to add them to increase ratings and add competition to the conference.  Air Force and Colorado State aren’t as prestigious and they do not sound like good Big 12 teams but their programs are decent enough at the moment to also be considered.  Only add if you really want to increase to 14 teams (or 12 if Texas and Oklahoma leave).

Teams to Not Even Consider:

UConn*

Cincinnati*

Tulane*

UCF*

USF*

*None of these programs are good enough or even prestigious enough to even be considered to join the Big 12.  No one wants to see UConn vs Baylor or like UCF vs TCU.  Those will just be demolitions.  Plus the AAC will shrink in size and will just destroy the conference.  Plus geographically it wouldn’t make sense for UConn or Cincinnati or any of these teams to be there (what about West Virginia though? Couldn’t tell ya. They’re an more of a Big 10 team to me but fits well in the Big 12).

Big 12 (Post Expansion if Oklahoma and Texas Leave):

TCU

Iowa State

Oklahoma State

Kansas

Kansas State

West Virginia

Texas Tech

Baylor

Houston*

BYU*

SMU*

Colorado State*

*4 expansion teams if Texas and Oklahoma leave.  Big 12 will have 12 teams and the name will make sense.  I feel like Colorado State would add better competition than the other teams considered therefore they should be added only if Texas and Oklahoma leave.  SMU on the other hand isn’t the best team in the world but they have the prestige (kinda) and the rivalries (all the Texas teams basically) to be added, again, only if Texas and Oklahoma leave.

Big 12 (Post Expansion if Oklahoma and Texas Stay):

TCU

Iowa State

Oklahoma

Texas

Oklahoma State

Kansas

Kansas State

West Virginia

Texas Tech

Baylor

Houston*

BYU*

*2 new expansion teams if Texas and Oklahoma stay

So long story short, no matter what, Houston and BYU should join the Big 12.  They are good teams and deserve to have better competition.  If Texas and Oklahoma do not approve the expansion idea (I wouldn’t blame them, I like the Big 12 like it is right now), they should move on the SEC which adds way more competition to the conference and will make it the best/hardest conference to play in college football more than it already is.

Other Teams to Consider Outside of the Approached Expansion Teams:

San Diego State

Tulsa

Boise State

Nevada

Team Spotlight: North Dakota State Bison

Well I promised this article earlier so here it is. Today we're going to talk about the FCS powerhouse North Dakota State Bison because they beat #13 Iowa (I called it. Still not over it) and they're really good for an FCS team. This will be the only FCS team I will ever talk about. So North Dakota State plays in the FCS, which is a lower tier Division One college football division. They play in the Missouri Valley Conference and typically dominate everyone in it. The Bison have a total of 13 FCS National Championships. That's a lot. If they were in the FBS (they should be) they would be ranked 9th all time in number of football national championships. So North Dakota State has been on a streak of national championships lately. It all began in 2011 when head coach Craig Bohl led the team to a 14-1 record after going 9-4 the season before. They won the national championship over Sam Houston State with the score of 17-16. 2011 was also the year future star quarterback Carson Wentz began attending North Dakota State. The Bison went on to win the national championship in 2012 and 2013 as well. Then head coach Craig Bohl took a job as head coach for the Wyoming Cowboys (very, very bad idea..) and Chris Klieman took over in 2014. Klieman took it upon himself to start Carson Wentz (finally) and Wentz led the team to 2 more national championship victories in 2014 and 2015. Now with Wentz graduated and drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles (who by the way are not as bad as I thought they would be), Easton Stick (what a name), is starting quarterback for the North Dakota State Bison. A now sophomore out of Omaha, Nebraska, Stick has led the Bison to a strong 3-0 record to begin the 2016-17 season. He did play 8 games in 2015 due to Carson Wentz's broken wrist. He went 8-0 with 1144 yards passing and 13 touchdown passes. Not bad for a freshman. He led the Bison to the National Championship, where Wentz returned from injury and won the game for the Bison. Now 2016, he is still undefeated with a career 11-0 record with the Bison and is going strong with 575 yards passing with 5 touchdown passes. He led the team to the 23-21 upset of #13 Iowa (that's 2 mentions in 1 article now.. Still not over it) and doesn't seem to be slowing down. The Bison are on a bye week this week but return next Saturday to play #12 Illinois State (did I mention NDSU is #1 in the FCS?) and that should be a fun game. I don't know what's in the water in North Dakota or what the coaching staff is doing, but whatever they're doing, keep on doing it. Go Bison!

*Add in: They are close to being the first FCS team to ever be ranked in the AP Top 25 (ranked #27 right not)

Week 4 Saturday Preview (9/24/16)

Week 4 of the College Football season begins this Saturday and it will also be the first Saturday of the Fall season which means I'll be in bed dying from whatever sickness is going around (I'm already sick anyways).  I've decided to do a preview and prediction of the games that I think will be pretty good because I feel like I should continue the genius that began last week (NDSU<3) and it also adds to my workload and who doesn't love more work? I don't know if I'll do these previews often mainly because it's a lot and I have a life (at least I think I do) that doesn't revolve around this blog. Plus we already got the Saturday Review going so now I'm gonna have to connect the preview to the review and I don't know how that'll go. We'll just play it by ear I guess. So these are the games I think will be fun to watch this Saturday:

#12 Georgia vs #23 Ole Miss

#11 Wisconsin vs #8 Michigan State

#19 Florida vs #14 Tennessee 

Penn State vs #4 Michigan

Colorado vs Oregon

#18 LSU vs Auburn

Oklahoma State vs #16 Baylor

#7 Stanford vs UCLA

#17 Arkansas vs #10 Texas A&M

California vs Arizona State

Air Force vs Utah State (Before you say anything, I can explain)

#9 Washington vs Arizona

I'm not going to predict scores because that's like me predicting the lottery numbers (it took me forever to think of an analogy) and I just think it's a waste of my precious time (even though I'm spending this time writing a blog post). So we'll start with #12 Georgia vs #23 Ole Miss. Both of these SEC teams have their ups and downs but they're both ranked so it should be good, right? (Looking at you Louisville and Florida State) I'm taking Ole Miss in this game mainly because they almost beat #1 Alabama last week and Georgia almost lost to Missouri (and Nicholls State.. c'mon guys). Plus I like their quarterback Chad Kelly so it all work out. With #11 Wisconsin v #8 Michigan State, I got Michigan State. The only reason why Wisconsin is ranked is because in Week 1 they beat #5 LSU (barely) then they almost lost to Georgia State so Go Green! #19 Florida vs #14 Tennessee is kinda hard for me to predict because Tennessee is overrated and Florida lost their starting quarterback and they haven't had a challenge all season. I will take a chance with Florida for reasons stated earlier. Penn State vs #4 Michigan is mainly thrown in here because I like Penn State football (my sister may or may not be attending Penn State at the moment..) and Penn State might slightly, maybe, could try to give Michigan a run for their money. But I'm picking Michigan because as overrated as Michigan is, Penn State isn't ready for a game like this yet (sorry guys). Colorado vs Oregon to me will be fun. Oregon has struggled since star quarterback Marcus Mariota got drafted by the Tennessee Titans in 2015 and Colorado has gotten better recently (to me) so I think this will be a close game. My pick is Oregon mainly because Colorado is having quarterback issues with Sean Liufau having a sprained ankle. #18 LSU vs Auburn, I got LSU because Auburn hasn't beaten a ranked opponent this season but Auburn could keep it close so look out for that. Oklahoma State vs #16 Baylor, this game is tough because OK State's only loss was to Central Michigan on a fluke (yet awesome) play and Baylor hasn't had a challenge all season. I'm going to go with Oklahoma State mainly because I feel like Baylor will be unprepared with all their wins being very easy to get. #7 Stanford vs UCLA, I'm going with Stanford because Christian McCaffrey is a beast running back and UCLA football is.. decent? #17 Arkansas vs #10 Texas A&M, as much as I love Arkansas, Texas A&M seems very good this year and no ones been able to stop them. So I'm going with Arkansas (logic). California vs Arizona State, I'm going with California because they seem to have a lot of momentum coming into this game after beating #11 Texas last week (probably should've been "Sadder-Day's Upset".. oops). Air Force vs Utah State, as I looked at the list of games because both of these programs have been good as of late and it could really shake up the Mountain West this year. Plus the game was only settled by a touchdown last year so it makes sense to me to include this game. I'm going with Utah State because they've always had a better program than Air Force so I think it'll just continue to play out like that. Last but not least we have very overrated #9 Washington vs Arizona. Last year's score was 49-3 in favor in Washington.. Now Arizona's program was pretty poor last year but they used to dominate the Pac-12. As much as a want to see the down fall of Washington, they'll take this game, maybe (hopefully) with a little trouble. So I sadly take Washington.

I could've made this way shorter and organized but I'm sick so leave me alone. As a struggled to breathe through my nose, I realized the ways I could make this shorter but I can try it next week if I do this next week. I've also promised other articles such as the Penn State visit and the North Dakota State Team Focus. Those will be coming at some point. But yeah, these are my picks. Let's see how I do.