The omnibus 2008 college football thread

The Game Room
361

Andre Smith and Antoine Caldwell and who else?

I counted 13 seniors on the roster. The names that jumped out at me (I don’t study this stuff as much as my brother does) were:

Antoine Caldwell (OL), (definite loss)
Rashad Johnson (DB),
Nikita Stover (WR), (only played 5 games)
Nick Walker (TE), (workhorse, but replacable)
John Parker Wilson (QB), (made into an efficient QB by Saban and staff. Replacable)

Amongst juniors we have Javier Arenas, Glen Coffee, Andre Smith, and Roy Upchurch. I don’t know how many will go pro, but I don’t think that Javier Arenas is big enough (5-9, 193).

362

I get some fun out of a team that is undefeated and thinks they have made the big step up, get their horns honked.

363

Ok so here are my predictions. Florida is #1 and Oklahoma is #2.

Sugar Bowl: Alabama
Fiesta: Texas
Fiesta: Ohio State. Fiesta has to choose between Utah, Boise State and Ohio State, the next highest available BCS school. OSU travels well, which means Boise gets hosed.
Sugar: Utah. It’s either Utah or Cincy, and Utah is the no brainer choice.
Orange: Cincinnati. The Orange bowl gets hosed, and has a less glamorous match up than a few second tier bowls.

364

Isn’t Cody eligible for the draft?

365

According to this he’s a sophomore. I don’t know if that means red-shirt or not. Man I hope he doesn’t leave.

366

I’ve heard (maybe from Scout.com?) that Cody has announced his intention to stay at Bama.

Tough loss last night, but what a game, huh? Holy crap.

367

Here’s the full schedule:

Dec. 20, 11 a.m. - EagleBank Bowl: Wake Forest vs. Navy (ESPN)
Dec. 20, 2:30 p.m. - New Mexico: Colorado State vs. Fresno State (ESPN)
Dec. 20, 4:30 p.m. - magicJack St. Petersburg: Memphis vs. South Florida (ESPN2)
Dec. 20, 8 p.m. - Pioneer Las Vegas: BYU vs. Arizona (ESPN)
Dec. 21, 8:15 p.m. - R+L Carriers New Orleans: Southern Miss vs. Troy (ESPN)
Dec. 23, 8 p.m. - San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia: Boise State vs. TCU (ESPN)
Dec. 24, 8 p.m. - Sheraton Hawaii: Hawaii vs. Notre Dame (ESPN)
Dec. 26, 8 p.m. - Motor City: At-large vs. Central Michigan (ESPN)
Dec. 27, 1 p.m. - Meineke Car Care: West Virginia vs. North Carolina (ESPN)
Dec. 27, 4:30 p.m. - Champs Sports: Wisconsin vs. Florida State (ESPN)
Dec. 27, 8 p.m. - Emerald: Miami (Fla.) vs. California (ESPN)
Dec. 28, 8:15 p.m. - Independence: At-large vs. Louisiana Tech (ESPN)
Dec. 29, 3 p.m. - Papajohns.com: NC State vs. Rutgers (ESPN)
Dec. 29, 8 p.m. - Valero Alamo: Missouri vs. Northwestern (ESPN)
Dec. 30, 4:30 p.m. - Roady’s Humanitarian: Maryland vs. Nevada (ESPN)
Dec. 30, 8 p.m. - Texas: Rice vs. Western Michigan (NFL Network)
Dec. 30, 8 p.m. - Pacific Life Holiday: Oklahoma State vs. Oregon (ESPN)
Dec. 31, Noon - Bell Helicopter Armed Forces: Houston vs. Air Force (ESPN)
Dec. 31, 2 p.m. - Brut Sun: Oregon State vs. Pittsburgh (CBS)
Dec. 31, 3:30 p.m. - Gaylord Hotels Music City: Boston College vs. Vanderbilt (ESPN)
Dec. 31, 5:30 p.m. - Insight: Kansas vs. Minnesota (NFL Network)
Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m. - Chick-fil-A: LSU vs. Georgia Tech (ESPN)
Jan. 1, 2009, 11 a.m. - Outback: South Carolina vs. Iowa (ESPN)
Jan. 1, 2009, 1 p.m. - Capital One: Georgia vs. Michigan State (ABC)
Jan. 1, 2009, 1 p.m. - Konica Minolta Gator: Clemson vs. Nebraska (CBS)
Jan. 1, 2009, 4:30 p.m. - Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi: Penn State vs. USC (ABC)
Jan. 1, 2009, 8:30 p.m. - FedEx Orange: Virginia Tech vs. Cincinnati (FOX)
Jan. 2, 2009, 2 p.m. - AT&T Cotton: Ole Miss vs. Texas Tech (FOX)
Jan. 2, 2009, 5 p.m. - AutoZone Liberty: Kentucky vs. East Carolina (ESPN)
Jan. 2, 2009, 8 p.m. - Allstate Sugar: Utah vs. Alabama (FOX)
Jan. 3, 2009, Noon - International: Buffalo vs. Connecticut (ESPN2)
Jan. 5, 2009, 8 p.m. - Tostitos Fiesta: Ohio State vs. Texas (FOX)
Jan. 6, 2009, 8 p.m. - GMAC: Tulsa vs. MAC (ESPN)
Jan. 8, 2009, 8 p.m. - FedEx BCS National Championship Game: Florida vs. Oklahoma (FOX )

368

This is why I hate the BCS / current Bowl set up (and I say this as a Gator alum, so it’s hardly sour grapes). Ball State had a fantastic season, losing only once, to a fired up Buffalo. Now they don’t get into a bowl at all. Meanwhile several SEC teams that scarcely deserve to be in a bowl end up at pretty big bowl games: Kentucky, LSU, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Alabama, Georgia and Vanderbilt all made bowl games (did I miss any?). I’d quickly sacrifice one of those to see Ball State get a game. USF (South Florida), my other alma mater, also got a bowl game, albeit a weak, local game, but Ball State is way more deserving, as probably are several other schools. I love the Bulls but they played like warm piss for most of the season. It’s just kind of ludicrous.

369

Texas wuz robbed.

370

Since I found it hard to believe that a 12-1 team wouldn’t get a bowl game, I looked it up. According to here :

GMAC (Jan. 6, 8 p.m., ESPN)
The Site: Mobile, Ala.
The Matchup: Tulsa vs. Ball State

Not only a bowl game, but a JANUARY bowl game. That’s huge. :wink:

371

True. They should be playing Utah in the Fiesta Bowl, not tOSU.

372

Is it just me or does that Oklahoma State v. Oregon Holiday bowl seem to have a lot of potential. Just after a quick glance that looks like it may be a fun game to watch.

373

BUT, the *Sugar Bowl *is where undefeated, small conference teams go to die.

Moving back to an old topic… I’m starting to come around on the CCG vs. playing everyone debate. I was looking at the SEC, which had the good fortune of having one dominant team in each division that hadn’t played each other in the regular season. That made for a great CCG. But that’s not going to happen very often. Looking at the Big 12, that CCG meant nothing, and was only worth paying attention to to see if there was an upset.

So maybe in a 12-team conference every team could play every other team every year, and still have 1 non-conference game.
Maybe then we could replace those CCGs with some inter-conference championship games. Like the SEC champ vs. the WAC champ in early December. (We can’t have big-6 CCs playing each other before January. That would take away from the major bowl games.)

374

Should be a good one. I am really hoping the family makes a road trip out there.

375

As a loyal Sooner, I have a hard-and-fast rule about never rooting for Oklahoma State. I am granting myself an exception in this case. Just pray that you don’t have a Pac-10 officiating crew.

376

I missed it in the original all-encompassing listing since the GMAC bowl just said “MAC”. I was scanning for Ball State. Sort of seems like a fixed game when the GMAC has MAC rep.

Anyway, I’m extremely happy that they got a bowl game, although I think they may have deserved a better one. Maybe we should start a thread (or sub topic) on what the best possible bowl match ups would have been OR how we would see a 8, 16 or even 32 team play off series.

377

Depends which Beavs team shows up. :rolleyes:

378

I believe that Hawaii often plays in the Hawaii Bowl.

379

For the record, it’s Oregon (Ducks) vs Oklahoma State in the Holiday Bowl. The Oregon State Beavers are playing Pitt in the Sun Bowl.

380

I hate to root against the SEC, but in this case I’ll make an exception. Go Sooners!