Time for a Little NCAA Football Talk: Teams 6-10
August 21, 2008
It’s time for numbers six through 10 in the preseason poll. Three of these teams have a legitimate shot at BCS a final game. The others? Let’s see where they stand.
The second five:
Missouri
LSU
West Virginia
Clemson
Auburn
-Missouri has Chase Daniels and your team doesn’t. The quarterback that was too small for Texas head coach Mack Brown to recruit is now the bane of Big 12 defenses and one of the best college QBs in the country. With Daniels and a schedule that has them playing no team ranked higher than No. 11 (Texas), Missouri has an opportunity to atone for its late-season collapse last year and not only win the Big 12 North but meet and beat likely Big 12 South champion Oklahoma Big 12 championship game.
But.
Daniels and crew starts off the season against dangerous 20th-ranked Illinois. The game is in the “other Columbia” - Mizzou’s home city - which should give the Tigers the edge they need to this tough season opener.
The next time Missouri faces a ranked team will be October 18 when they play in Austin against Texas. Mack Brown’s Longhorn are talenbted but inexperienced at many positions and in fact may be overrated. Additionally, the Tigers have the luxury of getting Texas the week following their rivalry game against Oklahoma. If there is any time to play the “Horns at home it is that week.
Time For a Little NCAA Football Talk
August 20, 2008
Ten days. Ten days until the NCAA football season begins. Ten days until the play on the field starts and the talk ends.
It’s also time to briefly discuss how the preseason rankings will change by the beginning of November …
The SI preseason top 10 looks like this:
Georgia
USC
Ohio State
Oklahoma
Florida
Missouri
LSU
West Virginia
Clemson
Auburn
-The Georgia Bulldogs’ Third game of the season will be at Columbia where they play South Carolina. Steve Spurrier still does not have the recruits he needs to make an SEC championship run but his teams are always dangerous. This matchup is great preparation for a three-game stretch at Arizona St. (#15), 24th-ranked Alabama (home game), and No. 18 Tennessee, which is also a home game. The ‘Dogs get a one game rest at home against Vanderbilt before they travel to Baton Rouge to play #7 LSU and then return home to meet #5 Florida.
The Black Sportswriter – A Shameful Story: (On Bonnie Bernstein and Much More)
July 7, 2008
I recently wrote an article-commentary concerning ESPN’s Bonnie Bernstein and her quote from the June 25 Mike and Mike in the Morning show. The piece was apparently so incendiary that Ms. Bernstein emailed me. Her lengthy letter provided me with some valuable insights into how she views herself in relation to the world around her. I feel her email was sent with the confidence that its contents would not be explicitly disseminated in any public forum. Due to her missive and the comments of others in response to my piece on her Mike and Mike-made comments, I feel it is necessary and important for me inform some readers of my writings, particularly those who might have passed by just to read the Bernstein piece, of my positions regarding sports and sports-related topics as they pertain to the socio-cultural and socio-political climate in America.
However, to achieve this goal I will, in part, use Bernstein’s comments on Mike and Mike and her email to me as an outline for the following writing.
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I, like other black sports journalists, write about sport as a black man. More importantly though, I write about sports as a black man in a white United States of America. Though there are black men in editorial positions and most, if not all of them know of my writings, I am as unwanted at their tables as I am white editors and the publications they represent.
It is in this maddening and sorry milieu where I ply what I truly feel is an art: a series of stylistic choices by which I communicate my worldview as it pertains to sports, to others.
NCAA - Myles Brand - Adds Race to Mayo Mix
May 13, 2008
Reactions of this sort are rarely for the best. In an unprecedented action the NCAA today announced that is taking three of its staff devoted to investigations and using them to solely oversee and report on problems they perceive in the recruiting of basketball players in an environment that association President Myles Brand contends is, “more difficult than some of the others, certainly on the recruiting side.”
“We have to have enough knowledge and sufficient networks … to successfully investigate these cases. “That’s why we think it’s better to have a few people, some of our leading investigators, who are focused in their efforts.”
To translate, Brand is saying that the behind-the-scenes machinations in recruiting athletes in college basketball are more problematic than in its primary cash cow, football.
The Saga of Ray Ray and Fahmarr McElrathbey to Continue - Just Not at Clemson
March 12, 2008
Ray Ray McElrathbey, the 21-year old backup tail back and special teams player at Clemson, is transferring from the South Carolina University. McElrathbey gained notoriety in 2006 for taking custody of his then 11-year old brother, Fahmarr, and continuing to juggle academics and athletics while acting as older brother and surrogate father for his younger sibling.
The reason for his leaving Clemson is due to head coach Tommy Bowden and his coaching staff’s decision to not renew his scholarship for the 2008-09 academic and athletic year. The Clemson athletic department’s policy is to renew its athletes scholarships annually.
