National Football Foundation Press Conference

I attended the National Football Foundation press conference for the annual awards ceremonies and Hall of Fame inductions yesterday, which went well despite the frenetic pace of the morning. I do not envy the media relations staff of the NFF as there is a lot to do in a limited amount of time. Phil Marwill and his crew do a great job keeping the flow going and balancing the needs of the media with the needs of the honorees. I was fortunate to not only get a great deal of material from comments made by the next class of Hall of Famers and the current student athletes honored for their current ability to excel at school and football while also contributing community work, but through interviews with some of the honorees in attendance. Most importantly I laid the groundwork for a future book, but more on that at a later date.
The event began with a presentation on the future 50,000 square foot home of the Hall of Fame, which is scheduled to break ground in downtown Atlanta in August of 2011 with a March 2013 scheduled opening date. The building certainly looks impressive and the ability to pair future inductions ceremonies with the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic every late summer make the decision to move the Hall from South Bend to Atlanta a brilliant one.
Next up, the next class of Hall of Famers plus special award winners Bill Cosby and Tom Brokaw. Two members of the class are no longer with us and North Carolina State great DT Dennis Byrd was represented by his son David and Arizona State's (and the country's) Pat Tillman was represented by his wife Marie. The others all expressed their humility and sense of joy at being honored, with former Arkansas lineman Ronnie Caveness, whose hat was bigger than former Navy DB Chet Moeller, getting the biggest laugh (not really for what he said but his general good-ol'-boy demeanor). Many of those being inducted stressed the importance of teammates, family and coaches, while former Colorado LB Alfred Williams, one of the youngest of the group, admitted that he broke down on his radio show when told that he made the Hall of Fame. Gene Stallings also got a laugh for knocking today's cream puff scheduling mentioning that while at Texas A&M his non conference schedule was LSU at Baton Rouge, Ohio State in Columbus and Michigan in Ann Arbor (I looked it up in The USA TODAY College football Encyclopedia--makes a great Christmas gift!--and the year was 1970 and is Aggies did beat LSU that season). Bill Cosby then went on a comic rant making fun of his playing days before Tom Brokaw finished that portion of the morning in his usual style.
I have to get to the library now but will delve into some of the interviews I conducted and mention the scholar-athletes honored yesterday.

Bowl Line-up: First Glance

My goal this year is to pay attention to all bowls featuring a match-up of teams with winning records. In other words skip the contests featuring 6-6 clubs as they have no reason to be rewarded with post-season play. So New Mexico Bowl, showcasing 6-6 BYU and 6-6 UTEP on 12/18? Sorry, but I will be watching college hoops or making eggnog or buying presents. Beef O' Brady's Bowl on 12/21? Not only do I have no idea what that means, but 6-6 Louisville does not merit December watching (until next year as the program is turning around). Little Ceasar's Bowl featuring 6-6 Florida International? Nope (and how has this game survived?). The next one is the toughest one as Air Force and 6-6 Georgia Tech square off in what could be an interesting Independence Bowl game on 12/27. So I may cheat there. But the double header on 12/29 of the Military Bowl and Texas Bowl with 6-6 ECU and 6-6 Illinois respectively? They are easy to pass on. Another potential dilemma occurs the following day wen Army takes on SMU in the Armed Forces Bowl. Right now the Cadets are 6-5 but Navy still looms on the schedule. Later that day I will skip the Holiday Bowl, annually one of the better bowl games, as it features 6-6 Washington getting crushed by Nebraska for the 2nd time this season. On New Year's Eve I will focus in on the Sun Bowl at the expense of the Meineke Car Care (with 6-6 Clemson) and Liberty (6-6 Georgia) Bowls. January 1 is thankfully free of .500 teams, but it is sad that 5 teams sporting 7-5 records get to play on that day including one (Michigan) whose coach may get canned. And later in January a 6-6 Middle Tennessee team is somehow playing in a bowl game that I will skip as too a 6-6 Kentucky squad. Sorry, but by then I will be burned out on games. Although if I am still alive in my bowl pool...

What We Learned Yesterday

The seemingly inevitable did occur as Auburn and Oregon locked up undefeated seasons and expected spots in the BCS title game with generally easy wins. I firmly believed that Auburn was getting into the championship game with a close loss, but now we do not have to worry about it. TCU does get a nice consolation with the Rose Bowl and it will be interesting to see how they plan to stop the steamrolling Wisconsin offense. Oklahoma needed a full game's effort to subdue rival Nebraska, who wrapped up their Big 12 play. Meanwhile kudos to both Virginia Tech and Connecticut who both rebounded from poor starts to the season to wrap up conference titles. This is new territory for the Huskies, who are expected to draw Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. I'll comment later when the full bowl roster is determined.

Mighty MAC

Miami stunned Northern Illinois with 26-21 victory last night, winning on late 33y TD pass from frosh QB Austin Boucher to WR Armand Robinson. Boucher was making only his third career start yet was dominant performer on night, completing 29-46 for 333y with TD and 0 INTs. Robinson caught 14 passes for 176y. The RedHawks defense was also instrumental to delivering the win by holding Northern to only 92y net rushing. Huskies QB Chandler Harnish did throw 3 TD passes in defeat and laid a 4th in his receivers' hands that was dropped in 2nd half (leading to a punt).

It was funny seeing Miami in the role of underdog and the announcers talk about what a great story they are after finishing 1-11 last year. But Miami is arguably the traditional power in the conference and indeed this title was their MAC-best 15th overall. Remember Miami earned the moniker "cradle of coaches" for being affiliated to the following as players or coaches or both: Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, Paul Dietzel, Ara Parseghian, Sid Gillman, Weeb Ewbank, George Little, Bill Mallory, John Pont, etc. Of course much of their tradition is a bit old now, but back in 2003 with some guy named Roethlisberger at QB Miami won 13 straight games after an opening loss to Iowa and finished 10th in final AP Poll. It has been up-and-down since then with last night being a very big up.

I am a big fan of the MAC and they are a conference that has been negatively effected by the BCS (without 90% of television analysis discussing what teams will play in the BCS Title game there is no room for competitive conferences playing quality football but lacking a program good enough to rise to BCS prominence). Hopefully they can open some eyes this bowl season.

Picks

I won't bore you with my lousy picks but do hope the games this weekend are good ones. Hopefully we will enjoy an upset or two. I'll be back with picks for the bowl games.

NCAA is a Silly Place

I have to give the NCAA credit for one thing. They obviously could not care less what other people think of them.
Announcing that Cam Newton was eligible for both the SEC title game and Auburn's bowl game, while making it okay for Heisman voters to cast their votes for the young quarterback, was considered a huge positive for college football. At least I assume that was the behind-the-door reasoning that came to this poor decision. If the decision was not based on helping the sport's television ratings, then what was it based on? Common sense? No way. The NCAA found evidence that Cecil Newton offered his son's services through a peddling agent to Mississippi State. But they ruled that since there was no evidence that Cam knew about the deal, nor that Auburn did anything wrong, they are ruling him eligible and slapping the dad on the wrist. Auburn can go ahead and continue their charmed season.
The reasons this is a stupid ruling are myriad. For one thing, your father is an extension of you when it comes to recruiting. All decisions are made by the family together and the onus should have been on Cam to prove that he did not know anything about pay-for-play offers. Secondly, we have to assume that Cecil also shopped his son to Auburn. That is what everyone outside of southern Alabama thinks. Is the NCAA already finished investigating Auburn? If so, that was rather quick and will not assure fans of the sport that the NCAA exhausted all avenues in this regard.
But my biggest problem with this ruling is the message sent to players, their families and schools/boosters that cheat. The NCAA came down hard on Dez Bryant to not only punish the receiver (and cynics will say ensure Texas's undefeated regular season) but send a message to players: do not lie to the NCAA. Then this summer the NCAA dropped the hammer on USC. The message: establish your program in a way that makes compliance, not cheating, easy. So now they can make a statement about the selling of star players to colleges. But despite finding evidence that Cam was offered to MSU, the NCAA dropped the ball. The message: continue to sell your kid to programs but keep him ignorant of the situation and keep the number of people in the know about the offer to a minimum.
This is a ridiculous ruling.

Heisman Chatter

Unless something stunning happens soon, the truth about Cam Newton will not be known by the time votes are due. That is a shame because voters understandably are torn about picking the best player or picking the best player who will not one day have to give back the trophy.
With his performance in the Auburn rally against Alabama, Newton wrapped up any "most outstanding player" awards out there. The Heisman is a different story thanks to the troubles of 2005 winner Reggie Bush. And all of the evidence out there points to Newton being guilty. He is not even defending himself, but keeping quiet. And no one has proven to me that the growing number of people with information about attempts to sell Newton's services to Mississippi State have a reason to lie. The Bulldogs are building a nice program under head coach Dan Mullen. Why risk a good situation with a host of made-up stories about a guy playing for Auburn?
Of course there are plenty of voters who believe that Newton should have been able to sell his services. And others who do not care what the best player does off the field as long as he is the best player on it (even if he cheated to become the best although that does not seem to apply here).
Me? I'd vote for Kellen Moore.