the freshman 15

We Are

2011-11-25T22:21:00.000-05:00

We are Penn State. More than a mere rallying cry, this mantra reflects a near universal truth in college athletics: fans and alumni are more intertwined with the team here than in any other sport. This is mostly due to the fact that we have given tens of thousands of dollars to a particular school and rightly can claim at least a slice of ownership. I lived out the four most influential years of

Week 5: One Sentence Picks

2011-10-01T07:20:00.000-04:00

No time for a full post this week, so we'll go with one sentence selections instead. And for the preview sentence... I'm convinced the lack of media coverage caused by living in Australia has actually increased my accuracy; I'm having my best year yet. 1. Nebraska at Wisconsin Big Red gets rudely welcomed to the Big Ten. Wisconsin 38, Nebraska 24 2. Alabama at Florida Gators much better than

Week 4: A Must Read

2011-09-22T09:10:00.000-04:00

Wow. It's difficult to keep up with everything going on in college sports right now, especially if you're in Australia. If it's not scandals or impending scandals, it's conference realignment or realignment speculation. I'm not sure about you, but my head is spinning. But we need to stop the madness for a second and look beyond the chaos to a glaring underlying problem: the tremendous greed

Week 3: I Have An Idea...

2011-09-17T11:29:00.000-04:00

A look at this week's list of games reveals one of the ugly truths of early season college football: there are way too many games involving Division 1-AA teams. There are some juicy matchups out there, but they're like finding Rolex watches in a scrap heap. Most of what we see are top programs taking a week off, or suffering the embarrassment of being felled by a dull knife. The reason this

I Remember Where I Was

2011-09-11T10:20:00.000-04:00

The day dawned clear and bright, one of the most beautiful of the year. Fall was sending hints of its impending presence and the humidity marking August was nowhere to be found. I woke early, joining a small group of friends for prayer in the Student Union. Afterward my future wife and I sat quietly in a study lounge reading the Bible. Such a peaceful start to what would be anything but a

What Did We Learn Last Week?

2011-09-08T09:51:00.000-04:00

The short answer to that question is: absolutely nothing. One game does not a season make, and we have a loooong way to go in this dance party. Overreaction is at an all-time high after week one, and we shouldn't take anything being said about any team's seriously. Wait for the end of the month before you make a fair assessment. That's a bit of good news for Oregon fans and a downer for those of

Fifteen Fearless Forecasts for the 2011 Season

2011-09-03T11:03:00.000-04:00

We're on the verge of springtime in Australia, which in this upside-down world means that college football season is upon us. It also means that I'm trying to stay awake until College Gameday begins at midnight, and my Nittany Lions kick off at 2am. Writing this might provide an extra 2 hours of energy to help me make it through. I just read my last post, a bowl season preview from December, in

Bowl "Week": A Long Countdown to a Title

2010-12-18T00:50:00.001-05:00

You're not going to believe this, but I took two nights to write an epically long, 35-pick bowl preview extravaganza. Then 3 minutes ago when I pushed the "publish post" button, it disappeared. Gone, apparently, for all eternity. A stream of bits and bytes floating somewhere in the ionosphere, never to be commingled again. Tragic. So instead of the multi-thousand word epic, all you get is this

Week 14: End of the Line

2010-12-01T23:45:00.001-05:00

Well, here we are. Championship Saturday. Everything that's happened this season has culminated in this - by Saturday evening we'll be down to 2 teams who'll play for all the marbles, and a few left reaching for an unmet goal. Speaking strictly as a fan, I'd LOVE to see either Oregon or Auburn fall, opening the door for TCU to glide into an unexpected championship game appearance (except by

Week 13: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2010-11-24T23:36:00.002-05:00

No, I'm not talking about Christmas season. Certainly the celebration of the birth of the Messiah is the most wonderful time of year, but I'm speaking in the college football context. And in this realm, rivalry week is the very best it gets. It's only fitting that most major rivalries are played around Thanksgiving - I, for one, am thankful for these titanic, traditional grudgematches. More

Week 12: A Dud Firework

2010-11-17T23:40:00.000-05:00

The college football season could easily be likened to a fireworks display: lots of loud noises, sparkling sights, unexpected surprises that draw 'oohs' and 'aahs', and a rousing finale that often leaves you breathless and rattled. But like many fireworks displays, there can be a few duds that make it off the launch pad. You know the ones. You hear the cannon shot pump the rocket into the air,

Week 11: Rise of the Excludeds

2010-11-11T00:27:00.000-05:00

I can't figure out a good way to refer to the schools who play in the conferences without automatic BCS qualification. The common reference is "non-AQ's", but that sounds bulky and weird, like you're referring to an outdated Army acronym. I've defaulted to "Non-BCS", but that's not even accurate. These teams can make the BCS, they're just given an intricate obstacle course to navigate first.

Week 10: Making Good on a Promise

2010-11-05T00:08:00.000-04:00

In the "About Me" section at the bottom of this page I built in a fail-safe phrase for a time like this. I just don't have time to do a full post this week, just as my profile indicates might occasionally happen. So this is the first week I have to fully invoke that "just in case" phrase. More important and more pressing things have gobbled up my time, and I'm left with a few minutes to throw

Week 9: Tecmo Bowl and the College Football Playoffs

2010-10-28T09:12:00.000-04:00

I’m old enough to remember when the original Nintendo made its debut, permanently etching video games into popular culture and changing the lives of 30-35 year old single men forever. The rudimentary technology made it nearly impossible to design playable sports games, and the video game landscape was dominated by the the two-dimensional, scrolling screen titles, like Super Mario Brothers or the

Week 8: Midseason Observations

2010-10-21T00:16:00.000-04:00

Another wild week proves that college football delivers the goods on a weekly basis, and now we're knee deep in what could be a 2007 retread - a year that's gone down as the zaniest, most upset filled in recent memory. This season hasn't come near that level, but it's starting to tread the same path. Here are my brief observations, taken from across the wild world of college football as we cross

Week 7: TwitPicks

2010-10-12T22:18:00.001-04:00

An early, abbreviated post this week - I've got to condense things for the sake of time. Sometimes there just aren't 2 hours to bang out a full post. We'll see if I can cram this baby into a half-hour! I'll do so by making my picks in the form of tweets - which, if you're over 40 or have spent the last 3 years under a heavy dose of Hibernol, are 140 character limit, brief, often pithy

Week 6: A Look At The Unbeatens

2010-10-07T00:07:00.000-04:00

This weekend we move into mid-October, the rich, chocolatey nougat center of the college football candy bar. It's that time of season where teams have pretty much sorted themselves out, allowing us to see who are contenders and who are posing as such. Last weekend exposed former unbeatens USC, Florida, and Wisconsin (among others) as fraudulent contenders, and more can be expected to be outed in

Week 5: The Misinterpretation of David and Goliath

2010-09-30T00:17:00.000-04:00

One of the most cliched cliches in all of sports is that of calling a particular matchup a "David vs. Goliath" encounter. You can find it in almost any sport, whenever a no-chance underdog faces the daunting odds of trying to take down an apparently all-powerful behemoth. In the college football realm, I'd be remiss not to mention the most memorable of all David vs. Goliath takedowns -

Week 4: The Mighty Mighty Pac Ten

2010-09-23T00:12:00.000-04:00

I'm not one who typically buys into the whole "East Coast Bias" thing, but I believe when we're looking at the latest top 25 rankings, we're starting straight into a blatant case of it. The Pac Ten, arguably the strongest conference in the country (outside of the SEC, of course) has Oregon (AP #5, ESPN #6), Arizona (AP #14, ESPN #16), Stanford (AP #16, ESPN #17), USC (AP #20, ESPN N/A), and

Week 3: Top Ten Testers

2010-09-15T22:49:00.000-04:00

This weekend could be the most telling of the young season-to-date. A quick glance at the schedule shows 5 top ten teams, all national title contenders, facing challenging road tests. Boise State at Wyoming. Texas at Texas Tech. Nebraska at Washington. Iowa at Arizona. Florida at Tennessee. Some of those, in all honesty, don't appear to be more than speed bumps, but early season road games - the

Week 2: Back to the Future

2010-09-07T23:40:00.000-04:00

From the early 80's to the mid 90's the college football landscape was dominated by a few high-profile national programs. Eight of these lock horns this weekend in what could be the greatest weekend slate of major intersectional games in college football history. Not even New Year's Day could rival this platter of college football goodies. Penn State-Alabama. Florida State-Oklahoma. Miami-Ohio

Week 1: The Journey Begins

2010-09-02T00:29:00.000-04:00

I love the eclectic mix of games that dot the landscape during the first week of the season. You have the occasional matchup of major conference powers (LSU - UNC), minnows without even the faintest hope being offered up to a hungry swarm of sharks (North Texas - Clemson, LA-Lafayette - Georgia), Division-1AA sheep being led to the slaughterhouse of 90,000+ seat palaces, for the promise of a cool

Fifteen Fearless Forecasts for 2010

2010-08-28T01:19:00.001-04:00

Well, well, here we are, about to turn talk to action on the 2010 season. There's been more upheaval and chaos this offseason than any in recent memory. I'm not going to reproduce the 15,000 words needed to recap all the movement, threatened movement, allegations of impropriety, and off-field naughtiness. I will say one thing, though, before moving on to my season preview: the conference movement

Spiritual Truth in the Other Football

2010-06-24T10:50:00.002-04:00

Like most of the nation right now, I’m fully immersed in World Cup fever. It’s hard not to be after the breathless affair the Americans had yesterday against Algeria. I’ve watched replay after replay, pondered the goal’s historic significance, and reveled in what a glorious sporting moment it was. Last night, after seeing it for about the thirtieth time, I recognized that Landon Donovan’s

The Shot Heard Round The (College Athletics) World

2010-06-10T20:54:00.004-04:00

In the pre-dawn hours of April 19, 1775, a motley group of militiamen from Massachusetts formed ranks in the town of Lexington, awaiting the march of the British Army. Paul Revere's midnight ride had stirred them from their beds, and what had long been talked about, theorized, even feared, was inevitable. As day broke, the Redcoats arrived, vastly outnumbering the colonists, and the two lines

Spring Top 15

2010-04-17T22:49:00.003-04:00

Spring games began to make an appearance on the far reaches of the cable universe this weekend, giving us a brief chance to think, even for just a fleeting minute, of college football again. Like many off-season (and in-season) parts of the sport, spring games are overblown and overrated. We're 4 months away from the season, 3 from the start of practice, yet tens of thousands of fans travel to

Final Four Thoughts

2010-04-01T20:26:00.003-04:00

What have these past 2 weeks proven? On a macro level, parity in college basketball is as strong as ever. The 3 teams everyone unanimously considered head and shoulders above the rest (Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse)? All bounced before the Final Four. The one #1 seed that didn't belong on that line (Duke)? In the Final Four. Two teams (Michigan State, West Virginia) lost starting point guards in the

Cracking the Bracket

2010-03-17T22:56:00.002-04:00

Basketball, more than any other major team sport, is a players game. What I mean by that is, a dominant player makes a much greater difference on the hardwood than anywhere else. A dominant quarterback is just one of 11 guys, and all he can do is get the ball into their hands. His success largely depends on those guys. A great hockey goalie can stand on his head for 60 minutes but if he doesn't

Freshman Fifteen Bracketology

2010-03-14T01:29:00.003-05:00

I'm back!I'm not sure how much posting I'll be able to do over the course of the next few weeks, but I'll give it a shot. As always, I promise bold, flawed predictions and mediocre results. Yet you keep reading!It's that time of year when a college football fan's fancy turns to the hardwood. Spring is in the air, the word 'bubble' is being overused, and my favorite day in all of sports is here:

Sadly, A Hiatus

2010-02-03T21:45:00.003-05:00

In my last post I promised to deliver my four year rankings in response to the hubbub of national signing day. I don't like breaking promises, but unfortunately I'm doing so now. The four year rankings will come, eventually, but for now I have to follow the lead of Urban Meyer and announce a hiatus from the Freshman Fifteen for a time. This is for several reasons. One, it's honestly very hard to

The Best 15 Games of 2009

2010-01-29T22:00:00.004-05:00

Admittedly this wasn't the greatest season in recent memory, but it did manage to produce a few memorable performances. Out of the morass comes these fifteen, in reverse order. Let the argument begin.15. Iowa 17, Northern Iowa 16Iowa City, IA (Sept. 5)If the cardiac Hawkeyes had managed to complete the season unscathed this game would rank much higher. This was the first of many close calls,

Season Predictions Review

2010-01-20T22:31:00.003-05:00

Well, this should be fun. I just read through my first post of this season, from way back in early August, where I unveiled my Fifteen Fearless Forecasts for the season. And now, a full 5 months later, it's time to revisit those fearless forecasts in an effort to find out just how good (or bad) I did. The result, as you'll soon see, is laughable.But before I get into all that, kudos begrudgingly

Bigger than Football

2010-01-15T01:02:00.002-05:00

Sometimes football can wait. The terrible earthquake in Haiti and the horrifying aftermath has taken my attention this week, and instead of moving forward to review my preseason predictions, which seem even more meaningless now, I decided to use the time I'd typically use to write this blog to post on another blog I contribute to. I'm on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ in Pittsburgh, and our

National Championship Preview

2010-01-06T22:56:00.003-05:00

It's nice to be back at the keyboard after a few weeks away; not nice, however, to mull over my bowl picks to date. I'm on pace to do worse than last year's lackluster 16-18 effort. I contend that it's not completely my fault - few saw results such as Wyoming over Fresno State or SMU over Nevada coming. Even fewer saw the Big Ten's top 4 defeating some of the best the SEC, Pac Ten, and ACC had to

Bowl Weeks Part Two

2009-12-26T00:23:00.003-05:00

If the beginning of bowl season is any indication of what's to come, I'm in for a rough time. Losing 5 of the first 6 games gives me no confidence in picking the rest of the bowls. It's just so hard to get a read on what will happen. The long layoff, the unfamiliar opponent, how a team handles the distractions of the bowl, a team's motivation and mental focus (are they just happy to be there and

Bowl Weeks Part One

2009-12-15T00:00:00.005-05:00

I know many coaches and players love the bowls (the swag they and their schools get probably has a lot to do with it), but I just can't seem to view them as anything more than glorified exhibition games. Only one truly matters, the rest are mini-vacations that enable 33 other teams to close their season on a high note. Moral victories for the most part - how many teams set out to become the

The Freshman Fifteen Fifteen Superlatives

2009-12-09T22:23:00.005-05:00

There's a lull in the college football universe this week, as only Army-Navy and the Heisman trophy presentation blip onto the radar this Saturday, a week away from the beginning of bowl season. I'll get down to bowl picks next week, and I'll be inviting you, faithful readers, to compete with me in an ESPN Bowl Mania group. I'll also go head-to-head with fellow blogger, sports fan, and friend, PJ

Saturday Postgame: Week 14

2009-12-05T22:44:00.006-05:00

An assortment of thoughts and observations from a Championship weekend of fantastic games and crazy finishes:There was certainly a buzz surrounding the 5 biggest games of the weekend, the ones deciding major conference championships. More than any other weekend of the year there was a sense of expectancy and tension that's been missing most Saturdays this season. It was refreshing and made the

Week 14: Championship Week

2009-12-02T23:40:00.004-05:00

Most visitors to the Grand Canyon approach the chasm from Flagstaff, to the south, via U.S. route 180. A drive on that road is a strange one. It's a pretty boring trip - the scenery isn't much to look at in the hour or two before you arrive at Grand Canyon National Park - but as you travel it there is a palpable sensation growing in your gut that something amazing is coming. And that it's very

Saturday Postgame: Week 13

2009-11-28T21:29:00.006-05:00

Some thoughts from a long, wild rivalry weekend. I'm stuffed with turkey and potatoes, and actually ready for all the football to be over!The oft-used adage, "You can throw the records out the window when these two meet!" proved true this weekend. We had bowlless teams pulling big upsets (Mississippi State, N.C. State), hated rivals spoiling great seasons (South Carolina, Georgia, West Virginia)

Week 13: Giving Thanks

2009-11-24T20:02:00.004-05:00

If you'll excuse me for a minute, I'd like to push the football talk back for a bit to make some social commentary. If you're anything like me, you get miffed at the fact that Christmas has bled well past Thanksgiving and into early autumn. I saw Christmas paraphernalia for sale around roughly September 12. No joke. The Fall season begins September 21, which means Christmas has bled into summer.

Week 12: Why TCU in the National Championship Would Be Bad for College Football

2009-11-15T22:03:00.005-05:00

For the sake of argument, lets say that Texas drops one of it's last 3 games (Kansas, @Texas A&M, Big 12 Championship, likely a decent Nebraska team). Not likely, but stranger things have happened in the world of college football. Much stranger. Remember West Virginia laying an egg against arch-rival Pitt in the last game of the season 2 years ago? And this is for the sake of argument anyway. So

Saturday Postgame: Week 11

2009-11-14T22:12:00.005-05:00

Some observations after another solid week of college football:When I saw the Stanford-USC score, it was the most astounded I've been all season. The Stanford Cardinal hung 55 on mighty USC?! What's happened to the Trojans? USC now sits at 7-3 and is in danger of losing at least one of their last 2 (UCLA, Arizona). This begs the question: where will USC land come bowl time? If they win out, they

Week 11: Quick Picks

2009-11-12T22:53:00.002-05:00

My apologies for the late post this week - it's been a crazy busy week for we campus ministry folk in Pittsburgh and I've not had the opportunity to write until now. It just means I won't be able to pick the now-over USF-Rutgers snoozer (I'd have picked Rutgers, honest). What I will do, due to the ongoing craziness of my schedule and the lateness of my initiation of this post, is make this a week

Week 10: The Undefeateds

2009-11-03T20:43:00.004-05:00

If you've been following this blog this season (I thank you), you'd know that I suspect that there will be several undefeated teams left standing at the end of the regular season. The last time more than one was undefeated heading into the bowls was 2006, when Ohio State and Boise State made it through unscathed (though the Buckeyes were dispatched easily by Florida, the first of their big game

Saturday Postgame: Week 9

2009-11-01T00:13:00.003-04:00

Some thoughts and observations from a wild and entertaining day in college football. Perhaps a so-so season is beginning to bleed into a fantastic November...Texas has asserted itself as the top team in the country (right now) with two dominant road victories the past 2 weeks, this one in Stillwater more impressive than last week in Columbia. The explosive Texas offense has been joined by a

Week 9: WITTPWLLN Review

2009-10-28T22:18:00.005-04:00

Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com wrote a column this week arguing that if the college season would end right now, it would go down in history as a major dud (not that anything in the world of college sports will make it deep into the annals of history anyway - how many history textbooks chronicle the greatest gladiator seasons of the Roman empire?). And he's right, especially considering the fact that

Saturday Postgame: Week 8

2009-10-24T22:24:00.005-04:00

This is becoming a stranger season by the week. No team could be labeled as dominant, yet I get the sense that at least one team will end up undefeated by the end of the year. In recent years when one or two teams emerge as clear dominant powers, the media begins to tout them as unstoppable and uses terms like "collision course" or "walk into the title game" to describe their future destiny. It's

Week 8: Tweeted Picks

2009-10-20T09:06:00.003-04:00

Another week of survival looms, as top contenders face tricky road games and stern home tests. There are no real glamour games on the schedule, but it’s college football – you know it will be entertaining nonetheless. It’s also Penn State-Michigan week, which means that we Nittany Lions enter a week of coming up with new and fresh ways to trash our most hated rival. Be

Saturday Postgame: Week 7

2009-10-17T22:26:00.004-04:00

Some thoughts from a wild week of survival in college football:Top 10 teams across the land are breathing huge sighs of relief tonight, as the top 3 all played sloppily and eked out victories and #6 USC somehow survived a furious Irish rally. Add to that 5th ranked Boise State's unimpressive performance in Tulsa on Wednesday, and you have 5 of the top 6 teams just glad they have more lives to

Week 7: Midseason Status Report

2009-10-13T21:50:00.003-04:00

Roughly half of the Division 1-A teams have played six games already, making this week the official midpoint of the season. I thought it would be an appropriate time to give each conference, plus the national championship race, a status report and make a midseason prediction of a winner. It also gives me a chance to clean the slate a bit, as many of my preseason picks are, to put it lightly,

Saturday Postgame: Week 6

2009-10-10T23:33:00.004-04:00

An recap of college football week 6 using the wonder of adjectives!Exposed: Auburn, Wisconsin. Tigers and Badgers take hard falls back to reality. Enjoy your December bowl, boys!Workmanlike: Florida. Gators don't show lots of flash, but lots of grit in win over LSU. I saw a stat near the end of the game: Florida's defense has allowed just 2 touchdowns all year. That'll do.Surprising: As in, most

Week 6: The Unpredictability of College Football

2009-10-07T21:27:00.004-04:00

Imagine my gloom as I returned from a weekend in the wilderness that is rural Western PA, opened up my laptop Sunday evening and discovered that I had, again, gone under .500. Gloom turned to questioning as I wondered - wow, am I really that bad at this? Or are other factors at work? As I processed the lukewarm results, those two possibilities loomed large. One - I don't have what it takes and am

Week 5: The Blue-Grey October Sky

2009-09-30T22:19:00.004-04:00

One of the greatest lines in all of sportswriting is, "Outlined against a blue-gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again." Grantland Rice penned the line in describing the Notre Dame backfield of Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden, referencing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the book of Revelation. Sometimes I like to gather all the baritone I can muster and

Saturday Postgame: Week 4

2009-09-26T23:58:00.006-04:00

Iowa. Iowa. Again. Iowa. So aggravating.I didn't know how to feel about this year's Penn State team. I knew a #5 ranking was too high, but I didn't expect the offensive egg they laid. Yikes. They'll lose a few more before the season's out. And I can't put my finger on what it is that's missing. Talent? Check. Speed? Check. Experience? Check, at least in the backfield. Play calling? Check - the

Week 4: Overrated/Underrated

2009-09-22T21:54:00.004-04:00

If you've been reading this blog long enough you already know my opinion of preseason polls: they're unfair, biased, and ridiculous. Not because of the fact that they rate teams before games are played (which is in itself ridiculous), but because they directly affect the outcome of the season. The coaches poll is a factor in the BCS formula, and the fact that all the teams don't start on an even

Week 3: Priorities Please

2009-09-15T21:57:00.007-04:00

It has been hard to miss the ubiquitous DirecTV commercials that have been flying around the airwaves the last month or so. It's true, they are for the NFL, but they bring up something that's a bit of an annoyance for me. One of the commercials advertises the NFL Game Mix, which is essentially a display of all the games being contested at that time. At a certain level this is attractive, but if

Saturday Postgame: Week 2

2009-09-12T22:02:00.004-04:00

So it ended up being a pretty juicy steak after all! Guess that's another reason why nearly all predictions are wrong. Why do I do this every week?Even in defeat, Ohio State answered all the critics with a fast, aggressive defense that did a fantastic job shutting down USC's prolific rushing attack, at least through 3 1/2 quarters, and with the emergence of Dan Herron as a solid running back.

Week 2: A Bad Steak Dinner

2009-09-09T22:11:00.003-04:00

If you've spent any time on America's interstate highways - and if you haven't, you probably should get out a bit more - you have in all likelihood noticed the truck stop billboards advertising 20-ounce porterhouse steak dinners for $8.99. Now I've never fallen into this trap, but I imagine the difference between the picture shown on the billboard and the actual product is quite large. Sure, you

Saturday Postgame: Week 1

2009-09-05T23:16:00.003-04:00

I decided to add a new wrinkle to the Freshman Fifteen this year. At the end of the day Saturday I'll do a quick bullet-point recap of the day's events. Sort of a "what did we learn" assessment. At least that's what I feel like doing right now. We'll see how long it lasts or how often it happens. You'll just have to check each week and be surprised.Defense is making a comeback. Several games this

Week 1: It Begins

2009-09-01T20:32:00.003-04:00

Have you noticed how the college football season has become more and more like Christmas? Not the real Christmas - you know, the birth of Jesus - but the American commercialized capitalist version. Two weeks ago I started the comparison, and today I realized that it runs much deeper. College football magazines are now released in early June, if not earlier. ESPN runs their College Football Live

Preseason Preview Part 2

2009-08-25T20:31:00.005-04:00

I'm currently watching a "Big Ten's Classic Games" broadcast of Penn State vs. Iowa from 2002. I must be a glutton for punishment - I was at this game and remember very vividly the ugly feeling that rises in your gut when your team fails to convert a 4th down in OT, suddenly and stunningly ending the game. So abrupt and disheartening. We Penn Staters have not had many good memories against

2009 Season Preview: Fifteen Fearless Forecasts

2009-08-20T20:52:00.003-04:00

Remember how anxious Christmas Eve was as a kid? The anticipation of what might be to come the next morning, the nervous excitement that you might get something totally unbelievable, the hoping and longing for something you know you'll never get, like a jetpack or a flame thrower. This is what August feels like for college football fans. Some are feeling that nervous excitement, namely fans of

15 Changes I'd Make If I Ran the NCAA (Part 1)

2009-04-28T23:13:00.000-04:00

I have sad news for my handful of faithful readers: after next week, the Freshman Fifteen will take a summer hiatus, to return in August primed and ready for football season. I'm just running out of viable topics to write about, and rather than come up with drivel each week, I'll take a summer break just like all the kids in college do. If I have a fantastic column idea I'll throw it up here, but

15 Arenas I'd Like to Visit to See a Game

2009-04-23T22:32:00.000-04:00

The NFL Draft is this Saturday, which might just be the most overhyped event in sports. People like Todd McShay and Mel Kiper Jr. make a living predicting who will be selected where, even to the point of doing ridiculous things like a mock 7th Round. Seventh Round! Can one possibly come close to predicting that?Wait, isn't this a column on college basketball arenas? Patience, my friends, we'll

15 Stadiums I'd Like to Visit To See a Game

2009-04-14T23:41:00.000-04:00

I've not been out much, at least in the football sense. I've been to one and only one true college stadium (Dolphin Stadium for the Orange Bowl didn't count), and that's Beaver Stadium in State College, PA. I suppose that if I've seen a game there (and I've seen plenty), it's not really worth going to a game anywhere else. Nothing but disappointment awaits. Beaver Stadium hosts the "Greatest Show

15 Reasons Why College Sports Are Better Than The Pros

2009-04-06T22:48:00.000-04:00

The Tar Heels were men among boys, plain and simple. All double digit wins in the tourney, never truly threatened in the Final Four, the most dominant players at 3 of the 5 positions on the floor (Hansbrough, Lawson, Ellington), stifling on defense, unstoppable on offense, they just couldn't be beaten. This weekend we saw the team everyone expected them to be all year. If it weren't for their 4

The Four Tops

2009-03-31T22:27:00.000-04:00

I always love the championship events of my favorite sports, and the Men's College Basketball Championship is one of my favorites. It's weird though, about a month after it's over I have a hard time remembering who won. I think it's the culmination of the journey that makes it so special, the fact that it's the apex of a 3 week long cornucopia of colors, buzzer-beaters, and bleary-eyed mornings

mmm...Chalky

2009-03-24T22:53:00.000-04:00

If you look at the sidebar and "About Me" section at the bottom, the shape of this blog has changed. I've decided to expand my horizons and tackle college basketball as well as football. What started the last 2 weeks as bracketology and some ruminations about the tournament, moved to an innocent comment at the end of last week's post that I might stick with roundball for another week, and now has

The Perfect Bracket

2009-03-18T23:44:00.000-04:00

Do you know how impossible it is to predict every single game correct in an NCAA tournament bracket? I'm not pretending to be a mathematician, but I believe if you were to go take each of the 63 games as a pure 50/50 chance, you'd be looking at something along the lines of 1/2 to the 63rd power, a 50/50 chance iterated 63 times over. To show the ridiculousness of that impossibility, here's that

Bracketology, Freshman Fifteen Edition

2009-03-15T13:33:00.000-04:00

You know already that college football, not basketball, is what this space is for, and that my favorite sport is the gridiron variety of university athletics. But college basketball is a close second, and I've always been a dabbler in bracketology. What follows is my best guess of how the brackets will line up come 6 o'clock this evening.A few notes before we get to the field of 65...1) This is

15 Games I'd Like To See

2009-03-02T22:03:00.000-05:00

I got to thinking during this past season of some potential cool matchups, and decided that I'd devote an off-season blog post to the topic. Some of these matchups would be huge hype-generators, the types of games sportswriters salivate over when the buzz of the new season starts in late June. Others are mere whimsical (or comical) affairs that would pique curiosity. Still others are just games I

The Best 15 Rivalries in College Football

2009-02-24T22:12:00.000-05:00

Rivalries are to college football as 50 stars are to the American flag; they are inseparable. Take away rivalry, and you rip the heart right out of the game. Every school, right down to the tiny, scholarship-free D-III minnows has a hated rival, a game circled on the calendar every year as the season-definer. Beat your rival and you've had a successful season, even if you've gone 1-11. Lose, and

On Second Thought...

2009-02-18T00:03:00.000-05:00

Last week I closed the post by telling you I'd be ranking the best 15 rivalries in college football this time around. Um, psych! I lied. I've run out of time and seeing as it's midnight and I'm leaving for vacation soon, I'll leave that topic for next week. To tide you over, here's a glimpse of what's ahead in the weeks to come for your good friend, the Freshman 15.Next week: Best 15 Rivalries in

The 4-Year Rankings

2009-02-10T22:43:00.000-05:00

Toward the end of this college football season, I had the idea to figure out which teams had the most success over the previous 4-year span. I thought this would give an interesting perspective on which programs are really the top of the class, which underachieved, and which were simply overrated and underrated. At first I gave it the title of "Senior Class Rankings" - which outgoing senior

The Best 15 Games of 2008

2009-02-03T21:41:00.000-05:00

For those who are asking, yes, Sunday was the perfect sports day for me. The Steelers won a breathless Super Bowl with a soon to be legendary last minute drive by Ben Roethlisberger (who is a virtual lock for the Hall of Fame now), after an 8 minute stretch of some of the most exciting action sports can offer. The Boss lit the place up at halftime (and I almost nailed the playlist!). Beastly

A Perfect Sports Day

2009-01-27T23:18:00.000-05:00

You couldn't possibly script this situation better for me. My absolute favorite artist, Bruce Springsteen, performs at halftime of my favorite professional sports team's chance to win a record sixth Super Bowl, eclipsing the total of any other franchise. I'll be positively giddy for 4 hours (as long as the Steelers win, of course).For those who have yet to see The Boss perform live, buckle up.

Next Year's Top 15

2009-01-20T22:21:00.000-05:00

This is a pointless column. Just be forewarned. I, an amateur aspiring college football blogger, is trying to tell you who will be on top of the college football world when the 2009 season starts in 221 short days. It's probably the least important thing you'll read all year. But thanks for giving me your time!It's way too early to tell, but I think next season will in many ways mirror this past

A Sentimental Look Back

2009-01-13T22:50:00.000-05:00

As we close the book on another rousing college football season, it's time to take a look back. Back to the warm, long days of August, when hope sprung eternal for 120 Division I-A football programs, and hope filled the heart of one budding young prognosticator who sought an impossible dream: picking games at an 80% clip. We've come a long way since those innocent days, and we've been hardened by

Expositions on the National Championship

2009-01-05T20:39:00.000-05:00

The 2009 college football season reaches its anticlimactic climax this week, with what's being billed as an epic national championship game. Unstoppable Oklahoma versus equally indefensible Florida. I'll break down the game in a moment, but first, here are five observations worth mentioning from the bowl season to date.1. I'm really not so good at picking bowl games. I suppose that should be

Bowl Week Part Deux

2008-12-22T22:47:00.000-05:00

We soldier on through the next 16 bowls on the calendar, all of these happening December 31 and thereafter. The big boys and some guppies mixed in for good measure. Since only 5 games have happened since I last posted, I have nothing witty or profound or insightful to say here, so onward we go to the picks:1. Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl: Houston vs. Air ForceI commented on the title of this

Bowl Week #1: Bowl Trends

2008-12-15T21:32:00.000-05:00

The corporate marketing blitz called Bowl Week arrives Saturday, this year extended into a tidy 20 days in length. I love the crazy names that emerge when corporate sponsors attach their name to an already existing traditional bowl name, or a contrived new bowl. The all-time classic is the Poulan/Weed Eater Independence Bowl, which sadly died several years ago. This year we have quite a few

A Look at Playoff Possibilities

2008-12-06T22:16:00.000-05:00

The door is closed on another regular season, and as is customary, complaints about the unfairness of the BCS and college football's method of determining a champion run rampant from all across the country. Well, mostly Texas. Tis the season to espouse on the need for a playoff and to daydream about what it would look like this season. So, in that vein, it's time to take a good, hard look at what

Week 15: Championship Week

2008-12-01T19:51:00.000-05:00

Championship week arrives in the aftermath of the annual BCS explosion - Oklahoma leapfrogging Texas, a team they lost to by 10 points on a completely neutral field (they split the tickets 50/50 in the Red River Rivalry, and the fans of each team sit on opposite sides of the field, the definition of neutral). When will they learn that the system is irreparably broken? Tweaking hasn't fixed it,

Week 14: Rivalries

2008-11-24T22:44:00.000-05:00

Welcome to one of the best weeks of the year. Thanksgiving brings not only a feast of food, but a 3-day banquet of great college football too. There isn't much better than heating up a plate of leftover turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes, or making a cold turkey sandwich, and curling up in front of a string of classic rivalries. College football is built on rivalry. Nearly every school has a

Week 13: Did They Play Football Last Week?

2008-11-17T21:49:00.000-05:00

We were witnesses to a never-before-seen occurrence in the history of college football last weekend: a November Saturday came and went, and nothing happened. No major upsets. No BCS shakeups. None of the typical November chaos, where we find ourselves waking up Sunday morning trying to sort out what just happened and who's in the driver's seat now. The only unexpected results came from the ACC,

Week 12: Fear and Loathing in Happy Valley

2008-11-08T22:57:00.000-05:00

I was a sophomore at Penn State in 1999, the last time the Nittany Lions ran off nine wins to open the season. Talk of a Sugar Bowl berth (the location of that year's BCS national championship game) swirled around campus. Penn State sat solidly at #2 in the BCS standings, and on November 6 an unranked yet deceptively good Minnesota team came to town, boasting a meager 5-3 (2-3 in conference)

Week 11: On Polls

2008-11-03T22:04:00.000-05:00

With Election Day arriving tomorrow, I figured it would be appropriate to do a little commentary on the plethora of polls that determine college football's champion. Or, to be more accurate, a scathing commentary on why in the world computer ranking systems are used in determining who gets to play for the national championship.I know why computer ranking systems came into the equation. Back in

Week 10: Playoffs

2008-10-27T22:17:00.000-04:00

This Saturday we turn the calendar to November, and that's when you can begin to really think about the national championship in earnest. Everything up until now has been a precursor; now we get down to business. Now is when all the BCS madness and ceaseless arguments over who's deserving and who's not really heat up, and when we'll see those stats that show how something like 95% of the nation

Week 9: The ACC Is Stupid

2008-10-20T22:37:00.000-04:00

I'm not so much a fan of the ACC right now. The conference is impossible to figure out - just when you think you know who's good and who's not, it all flips a week later. I've compiled my year's record picking games involving ACC teams, and I'm 12-14. Take those games away and my record is a robust 59-35. The ACC is weighing down my progress! Stupid ACC!Just for fun, here's a few of the many

Week 8: Don't Quit My Day Job

2008-10-15T14:19:00.000-04:00

Another 8-7 week for me, which I suppose I’ll accept. At one point Saturday afternoon I was sitting at 0-4 with several other games looking bleak, staring 5-10 in the face. But I tend to do well with the night games and managed to get above .500. In 7 weeks I’ve discovered that .600 is my Mendoza line (as opposed to the .800 I so flagrantly set as

Week 7: Clearing Up the Picture

2008-10-06T22:44:00.000-04:00

We've reached the point in the 2008 college football season where we can take a step back and get a decent read on how things are going to play out. Already several teams have played half their games, and all have played enough to get a pretty accurate read on who's for real and who's out of the chase. So, like wiping clean a steamed up mirror after a hot shower, let's see if I can clear up the

Week 6: Why Upsets Happen

2008-09-28T20:34:00.000-04:00

Just when we thought this season wouldn't mimic last year's parade of upsets, we get last Saturday. College football seems a particularly upset-prone sport, which got me thinking - why? How does Ole Miss waltz into the Swamp and post 31 against Florida, who had allowed only 19 in their first 3 games combined? How does an Oregon State team that was massacred at Penn State just 3 weeks ago take

Week 5: Consistency

2008-09-22T22:35:00.000-04:00

I've been doing the prediction thing for 4 weeks now and have proven to be the Clemson of football prognostication: lots of preseason fanfare followed by consistent mediocrity. I've had nearly the same record each week, with a slight dip last time (8 correct instead of the usual 9). It's time to pick up my game!I think one reason I've been so consistently mediocre is because so many teams have

Week 4: SEC Takes Center Stage

2008-09-15T22:57:00.000-04:00

After 3 weeks, we can take a step back and see what we've learned so far in 2008:Each week has seen a different major conference lay an egg: ACC in week one, Big East in week 2 (well, both 1 and 2), and the Pac Ten this past weekend. There were some murmurs that the Pac Ten was near the level of the Big 12 and SEC, but that was before Arizona State, Arizona, UCLA, and California all put up

Week 3: Should East Carolina Be Ranked #1?

2008-09-08T19:58:00.000-04:00

The East Carolina Pirates are the hot topic in college football right now, and rightfully so - they shellacked West Virginia in the wake of their thrilling win over Virginia Tech. Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that the Pirates are the best team in the nation, but if you were to forget the preseason rankings and begin ordering the teams from 1 to 25 after week 2, East Carolina would

Week 2: The Calm Before The Storm

2008-09-01T22:30:00.000-04:00

Some things we learned last week: Michigan's offense still needs lots of work (and a quarterback). The ACC may be worse than the Mountain West or the WAC. I did not get a very good read on Louisville's offense (my prediction: 48 points, their actual output: 2). Perhaps hype is not good for teams like Pitt and Clemson. USC is again loaded, and has already emerged as the frontrunner for the

Week 1: Scare Tactics

2008-08-28T23:16:00.000-04:00

When the NCAA added a 12th game to the schedule a few years ago, many people thought it meant more marquee intersectional matchups, like Ohio State-USC or Auburn-West Virginia. And we do have those, but it certainly doesn’t seem like we have more than when the college football calendar had 11 Saturdays. What we do have more of is the big boys going

Preseason: 15 Fearless Forecasts

2008-08-23T23:19:00.000-04:00

When I was growing up I thought I could smell football. It would waft in sometime in early August. I'd step out of my house or out of the car and catch a whiff of the glorious scent I decided was football. It could have been the first crisp, non-humid day, or the scent of freshly mown grass, or just the freshness of late summer Pennsylvania air, but I swore that it was football, beckoning and