Welcome to another Saturday Skull session. I’ll be Jeff and you be you, and let’s just travel down this crazy road together. I don’t know about you, but Sept. 1 can’t come soon enough. I find my mind drifting to football season during nearly every facet of life. I’m trying to play it cool by pretending that I like the NBA playoffs, but I’m sitting on a throne of lies and deceit. Simply put. I WANT TO SEE THE BUCKS.
FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS GONZO. Some sad news coming out of New England recently as the Patriots announced they released former Colt and Buckeye phenom, Anthony Gonzalez. Gonzo had a promising start to his career in Indianapolis with 94 catches for over 1,200 yards in his first two seasons with the Fighting Mannings.
Unfortunately Gonzalez was never able to shake the injury bug resulting in only five catches in 11 games over the last three seasons. Gonzo had hoped to revive his career in New England, and on the surface it seemed like a good fit. He’s a slightly undersized slot receiver in the mold of Wes Welker, who has performed pretty well in New England the last time I checked.
But, at the end of the day the Patriots felt they were set at the WR position and released Gonzo to make room on their roster.
I can’t help but draw a parallel here with Greg Oden in terms of Buckeye what-could-have-beens. The hype surrounding Gonzo was nowhere near that of 1st overall pick Oden, but Gonzalez WAS a first round selection. Injuries have plagued the professional careers of both, never allowing either to reach the potential we all saw during their college careers. Here’s hoping Gonzalez can find a home before the start of the 2012 season (and while we’re at it, here’s to Oden finding his way back into the NBA.)
In the meantime we’ll always have this and this.
LETS AGREE TO AGREE. Things are starting to get ugly in the debate over who should be included (or not included) in a four team playoff. The line in the sand has been drawn with the Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC and Big East on one side and the SEC and Big 12 on the other. The former (which we’ll dub The Delanys) believe all four should be conference champions and the latter (which we’ll call The Sabans) believe it should be the four best teams determined by polls or a selection committee.
The Delanys and Sabans (less confusing than Leaders and Legends) will meet on June 13 and 20th to nail down a solution, where one side will have to concede. If no agreement is reached, the fall-back is a pure plus one-model where a No. 1 v. No. 2 matchup would be determined after the bowls. This would be terrible. As Stewart Mandel put it:
"To pull such an unsatisfying bait-and-switch on the public after months and months of teasing would go over about as well as Craig James' Senate campaign.”
In his piece Mandel brings up an alternative that’s being bandied about dubbed the “three-and-one” model. Said system would pull the three highest ranked conference champions and the highest rated at-large team into the playoff.
Mandel makes a case for the three-and-one model with this:
“In the 14-year BCS era, 42 of the 56 teams that finished in the top four of the BCS standings won their conference championship. That's 75 percent, which is the same exact number a three-and-one system would guarantee.”
What do you think about this alternative? At this point I’m for doing anything it takes to stay away from a pure-plus one, which would be like telling a kid Christmas is coming soon and then turning away from that child and flipping the kitchen calendar to March. Conference commissioners, stop making us wait for something everyone wants. FIGURE IT OUT.
Sorry, but I'm gonna go ahead and catch this. LITTLE KID DOWN THE STREET WANTS TO HANG. At the Big 12’s annual meeting, NCAA President Mark Emmert said he believes the four-team playoff will be a catalyst for a significant degree of conference realignment.
This is undoubtedly correct as schools in lesser conferences will have absolutely NO SHOT at a national championship under the new model. Especially if it's decided that teams in the playoff must be conference champions. Therefore, teams in conferences "not invited to play" will scramble to try and jump on larger conference bandwagons.
The BCS certainly has its flaws, but at least teams in lesser conferences had a chance (or at least the illusion of a chance) of making it to a national championship. With this new set-up, that illusion goes out the window.
If Delany gets his way, (and maybe even if he doesn't) prepare yourself for some serious conference expansion.
I PULLED MY MCGLOIN. Penn State Head Coach Bill O’Brien recently announced former walk-on and fifth-year senior Matt McGloin would be the Nittany Lion’s starter in 2012. McGloin has thrown for 3,119 yards and 22 TDs with 14 interceptions during his career. He’s been given the keys in front of redshirt sophomore Paul Jones and junior Rob Bolden, who McGloin split time with last season.
I’ll always remember McGloin for what he did to the Buckeyes in the first half of their matchup in 2010. Matty McMoxie threw for two touchdowns, vastly outplayed Terrelle Pryor and took Joe Pa’s Nittany Lions into the locker room at halftime leading 14-3 at the Shoe.
After that, the Buckeyes remembered they were playing a walk-on and locked it down to shut out McGloin in the 2nd half on their way to scoring 35 unanswered points.
Oh you thought I was going to have more to say about Penn State’s QB situation? Nah, I just wanted to bring up the time when OSU scored 35 points in the second half against a walk-on.
EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN LINK. These kids are talented. This guy just ruined wedding proposals for every person on the planet ever hoping to ask someone to marry them. Thanks dude. People are shooting people over Kool-Aid. It happened...what now? Stephen Colbert is the opposite of not funny.
