2009 Week 3
September 23, 2009
With the plethora of non-conference games these days, there are more inter-conference challenges. This was originally done in basketball, with teams from separate conferences facing off in one week. In football we've seen the Big Ten/MAC challenge become prominent in recent years.
Last weekend I was really pleased to notice that some of the power programs in the South are now battling it out. An ACC vs SEC challenge has been long overdue and we had some great battles over the weekend.
Auburn chalked up an SEC important win over the ACC on Saturday night when they knocked off Western Virginia. WVU's in-state rival, UVA, didn't help the ACC's cause either as they lost a tough one to Ole Southern Miss.
In fact, the SEC had a mighty fine day, as the ACC's Georgia Tech got blown out by SEC South power Miami. The only disappointment for the SEC was Virginia Tech knocking off new member Nebraska.
There were some other games for both leagues, as apparently they couldn't line up matchups for every team. Georgia knocked off R Kansas from the Southwest Conference. Kentucky beat Louisville from Conference USA.
I just don't get why the ACC ended up having an actual league game like Florida vs Tennessee.
And don't get me started about the North Carolina vs East Carolina game. This whole gimmick where they carve a new state out of an old one just to get an expansion team makes no sense. They should have left the state of East Carolina alone. If they wanted to do something, they should have gone to the west side of that region and carved out a mountainous state and called it Appalachia.
Another college basketball idea that's come over to college football are the "bracket buster" games, where teams from smaller leagues face off to see who will get higher seeding in the tournament. I was talking to my good friend Chris Berman and asked what he knew about "bracket busters". He said he complimented one of the interns on her shoeware, something about her booty, and, one booty kick later, he said his bracket was busted. I don't get Chris at times.
Anyway, in college football these are games to see who might get into the BS field. So last Saturday #8 rated BYU was trying to ensure a spot in the BS games against another small school power. Unfortunately for the Utes, they got blown out by Fresno State. This means that FSU will advance to the Elite Eight of the BS busters field.
I heard about the controversy about last week's Michigan vs Notre Dame tilt. I saw on the video that one of the Michigan players punched a Notre Dame player.
I haven't seen an Irishman take a blow like that since Mickey Rooney's private audition with David O Selznick.
Texas avenged last year's loss to Texas Tech, as the Aggies pulled out a close victory. Another exciting game was Greg Powlus and Syracuse's win over Northwestern's team, in a Kafka-esque finish.
The most important result of the week was Southern Cal's loss.
Now I've ranted before about these teams playing out of the country, like all these games against Yukon.
But USC went way beyond that by playing at U-Dub. Just the jet lag involved in flying to Dublin Ireland would be plenty. But you're also playing those guys on their home field in front of their home fans. That doesn't guarantee a defeat of course, but it makes things more difficult.
Notre Dame certainly struggled a decade ago when they played Navy in Navy-friendly Dublin, with all those midshipmen who trained in Ireland showing up at the game to cheer against Notre Dame. I hope the Trojans are proud of themselves.
And I hope those Song Girls who were shanghaied into a convent come back soon. I miss you.