As a die-hard Longhorn football fan, the past week and a half have been excruciatingly boring (thanks a lot, Ike…). The next week and a half don’t look much better, until the Razorbacks roll into town. That being the case, I’ve decided to expand my pea-brained, burnt orange tunnel vision to try and gain some insight on happenings from the rest of the NCAA ranks. Here are a few thoughts from this brief period of observation:
1. Colorado is in a Lose-Lose situation this week. Win against WVU, and the Mountaineers have suddenly become a very mediocre team in the national perspective, causing your OOC schedule to look significantly less impressive. Lose the game, and, well…you lost.
2. The UGA-ASU game should not be Saturday night’s featured game on ABC over LSU-Auburn, which has been relinquished to ESPN status. Granted that both teams in the latter game have some questions to answer early this year (especially Auburn’s offense), do the network execs really believe that a top-10 conference match-up in the SEC won’t rule the market? Or is the justification that the West Coast audience will be broader for the late time slot? I’ll be flipping back and forth between the two either way, but I’m left scratching my head.
3. Is it just me or have there been more conference games played NCAA-wide early this season? Not that my Big XII has paid any attention to this trend, but I feel that a good deal of teams are scheduling conference openers before knocking out all of those OOC cream-puffs.
4. I think the game of the week, in terms of a match-up that will play out really closely in the fourth quarter, is Va. Tech at North Carolina. This could be a real statement game for the Tar Heels if they can beat a Hokie team that’s really been on a roller coaster thus far, especially after such a close victory last week.
5. Most improved team of this season so far might be Baylor. Robert Griffin looks the part for Art Briles to start building a solid franchise around. This team could quite realistically go 5-7, so an extra upset win over the Huskers or one of a few ranked opponents could make this a bowl-eligible team for the first time since 1994. They’ve definitely caught some teams sleeping in the past few years. I think it’s too soon to expect that kind of year, but if it happened I’d be less surprised than most.
So there you have it – the inner workings of a pea brain at full capacity. You know, this expanding horizons stuff isn't so bad after all. Enjoy your next weekend of football.
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