Well, yesterday I covered some of the college football highlights, but I have to start Monday Moaning off with the news that broke last week about Notre Dame...I wanted to write about it then, but I had my hands full with the kids, and the wife out of town...

For those who didn't hear, Notre Dame will be joining the ACC in 2014, for all sports, except Football...Now, while they aren't joining for Football, there are stipulations regarding Football...The Irish must schedule 5 ACC opponents each season, and must play each ACC team withing a 3 year period...It's as close as anyone was going to get ND Football to commit, right now...I feel this is just a stepping stone for the Irish to join fully...I'll get to that in a minute...

This is huge for the ACC...ND fans travel, so those ACC schools that aren't really Football schools will have packed houses when the Irish come to town...Also teams like Maryland for example, will face ND at a larger stadium like M&T Bank Stadium (home of the Ravens)...Which means more ticket sales...

Also in the deal, if ND doesn't qualify or get selected for a major BCS bowl, the ACC can use them for one of their automatic tie-ins with certain bowls...Which is good for the bowls, and the ACC, because the Irish travel well...

This deal also makes the ACC the elite Soccer and Lacrosse conference, already having a number of schools that are strong in those sports...Two sports the Irish have been doing very well in...Plus, with Pitt and Syracuse joining the ACC in 2013, and the Irish in 2014, it becomes an even bigger monster in College Basketball...Which will bring in more money from ESPN and their contract with the ACC...

The Big Ten went hard after Notre Dame, but made it clear, it was all or nothing...If the Irish didn't get in with football, then they weren't welcome...Great stand by the Big Ten, which can afford to make enemies since their conference makes the most money...Yes, SEC guy, you may kick them all over the field, but they manage to make more money then you...

The Big 12, also went after ND hard, and most likely would have given them a similar deal as the ACC, but Notre Dame wanted to stay East-ish...

Before I mentioned this being a stepping stone for Notre Dame eventually going all in, with the ACC...It's my opinion that within 5 years or so, we will see 4 "SUPER CONFERENCES"...We'll see Louisville, USF, Rutgers, and Cincinnati taken from the Big East...I would guess mainly by the ACC...Louisville possibly by the SEC...

The Big-12 will get chopped up and spread among the Big Ten, SEC, and Pac-12...Oklahoma, Texas, TCU, West Virginia, Kansas State, Kansas, (because of basketball) Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas Tech...Maybe even Iowa State (built in rivalry with Iowa in the Big Ten)...And then a few others will find their way in, like Boise State, Fresno State, and BYU...Possibly a few others...

I know Big-12 people don't like what I just said, but I think that is where we are heading...I think we were on our way when Nebraska, Texas A&M, Colorado, and Missouri all split, but the conference came out swinging, and managed to keep itself alive...But I think the men hold the power will convince the conferences that there is too much money to be made with 4 "SUPER CONFERENCES" and a sexy playoff system, that many fans have been clamoring for...

I'd love to hear what you think about this...

The other big story on my mind this week, is the NHL owners have locked out the players after the two sides couldn't agree on a new CBA...The clock ran out at 11:59PM Saturday...What I find even more ridiculous about this, is all day Friday, and Saturday teams were signing, and re-signing players to multi-million dollar contracts...The same type of contracts these owners have been bitching about...

The last lockout, the players swallowed a good deal of pride, and left a good deal of money on the table, thinking they were doing the best thing for the game...After a few years of struggling to get the media attention Hockey deserves, things started getting better for the NHL...The sport seemed to be on the rise the last couple years...

And now this happens...The mainstream media will be turning it's back on Hockey again...Fans like me will be pissed...I already canceled my Center Ice package...I was really excited to see Rick Nash playing for my New York Rangers...Now, I'm pissed...I plan on spending my money on some College Hockey and some AHL Hockey...It's going to be awhile until the NHL sees a dime from me...I don't think the players should get screwed...And I think the owners need to look in the mirror...Because they and that douchebag Bettman are the biggest problems with their business of Hockey.

Lastly, the Cleveland Browns lost Sunday to the Bengals...I'm not surprised, are you? And while the defense didn't play nearly as well as they did last week, the offense showed some real improvement...Trent Richardson rushed for 109 yards and a TD...He looked like a different guy out there this week...And speaking of looking like a different guy...Brandon Weeden passed for 322 yards, and 2 TD's...And he threw no Interceptions...He actually didn't look like a high school kid, shitting his pants...Does that mean there is hope for this team? I don't know...I stopped getting my hopes up years ago...I'll just watch and see what happens...


That's it for now...Have a week...

The Beeze.
 

I started writing this for suggestions of some additional changes to the conference “alignments”. But with this interest that many seem to have in the idea of 16-team conferences, I wondered how popular this idea could get. I know there are a variety of interests at play here, and it would be hard to get them to work together, but I’m mostly just imagining what I would do if I were appointed czar of college football.

I know that’s not going to happen, but as someone who frequently criticizes the powers that be, I thought I would put my own proposal out there. It comes across as cynical grumbling otherwise. But I’m not complaining because I like complaining, I’m complaining because I’d sincerely like there to be a better system, and I know I’m not alone.

For the record, I’m opposed to most of the expansion ideas because one wouldn’t really be in a conference with teams in the other division. It would just be a guaranteed quasi-playoff opponent at the end of the season. But as czar of college football, I would be an enlightened despot. If the people petitioned me through their AD’s and college presidents, I would listen.

Besides, if you did it for all of the guaranteed BCS/playoff spots, it could be good because (1) there would be fewer such spots, (2) more teams could play for those spots, and (3) there would be a more uniform process of playing for those spots.

I think the first two arguments are evident, but I’ll give some more explanation for the third. The Big East is an 8-team conference and the team with the best record in the seven conference games is named the champion. 12-team conferences play either 8 or 9 games just to determine the division winners, and then an additional game is played between the division winners. There are more hurdles in getting there from a 12-team conference, even if you assume equal competition.

Something else I dislike about the expansion/realignment talk is the idea that a conference should add one or two teams in another region in order to generate great recruiting and revenue.

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  Well it's Monday again, and it's time for another dose of Moaning...First off, this week I'm not as grumpy as I was last week...Thanks to Notre Dame not shitting the bed Saturday! You can read about that HERE...

Then there was the Browns...Coming off of an embarrassing loss to the Bengals, and rolling into Indianapolis...Now the Browns won, but unlike many folks in Cleveland, I'm not getting my hopes up...I mean, other than two excellent defensive ends, the Colts defense isn't that great...And their offense is lost without Peyton Manning...So relax Clevelanders, the Brownies still lost to the Bengals...

And what happened to the Ravens...They took apart the Steelers last week, and then this week they got punked by the Titans...WTF!?!

Cam Newton threw for over 400 hundred yards again...But he was able to mix in 3 interceptions, to help the Panthers lose! (ouch B-Dub!)

Oh, and Tom Brady was out there again Sunday, just torching mother fuckers! (423 yards and 3 TD's)

But enough of that stuff...Let's get into this College Football shit that is going down...Awhile back, I predicted, along with others, that we would see 4 "Super Conferences" in college football...Well as the Big-12 seems to be losing members, now The Big-East is falling...Pitt and Syracuse are heading to the ACC, and rumor has it, UConn and Rutgers are next...It wouldn't be a surprise to see USF head that way as well...

Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Tech...Look for all those kids to head to the PAC-12...I see Missouri, and Iowa State going to the Big-10, and then the Big-Ten will grab some Big East leftovers...The SEC already grabbed Texas A&M...They'll pick up some one else from the Big-12...

The big questions...Where do TCU and Boise State go...They're tired of being left out by the big guns...And, will 4 "Super Conference" telling the BCS to go to hell, and calling the shots in college football, finally force Notre Dame into a conference...Will the Irish even be invited?

If it all goes down, as I think it will...We may finally get the College Football playoff we've been dying for...And when it happens, how many will start bitching about the tradition of college football...What, the tradition of bitching every season about which team or teams got screwed...Don't worry, I'm sure there will be plenty to bitch about!

As for the happenings in my world...I spent Sunday morning at Chuck-Cheese with the kids, for one of their friends birthday...That, after watching our friends daughter over night Saturday...Some one is gonna get sick, I can feel it...

Here's my little girl, Saturday night around 12:30AM...Laughing and playing...She stayed up until almost 2:00AM...


Living the dream!

Sunday afternoon, I spent a few hours chopping a hedge that runs along our driveway...The city informed me it has to be no taller than 8 feet...So my 5'7" ass was on a shaky 6 foot ladder with electric hedge trimmers...One douche neighbor, who didn't offer to help, informed me that one of the things growing in this hedge, on my next door neighbors side, was poison oak...So if some one doesn't get sick, I'm waiting for some one to start itching...

Oh, and Mrs. Beeze starts her new job Monday...Going from one giant, evil bank, to another giant evil bank...But it's a really nice bump in pay...I'm one year closer to my goal of retiring by 40!

That's it for now....Have a week...I'm sure it's just gonna be great!

Later, The Beeze. 
 

I somehow missed this back in November—or I was paying too much attention to current games to care—but I’ve been looking at the divisional alignments and schedules, and I disagree with putting Colorado and Utah in the South.

There is a wrinkle to this that makes it more digestible to the California teams, since with Colorado in Utah in the South, Cal and Stanford were placed in the North. That wrinkle is that both USC and UCLA will continue to play Cal and Stanford annually.

By the way, the scheduling format chosen continues the 9-game Pac-10 schedule, so of course every team in a division plays one another (5 divisional games per team), and every team also plays 4 non-divisional opponents. So for the California teams, it will be the divisional opponents, two non-divisional California opponents, and two other non-divisional opponents. I’ll call this the California rule.

...

But apparently the teams want a 9-game schedule. It has served the Pac-10 well with schedule ratings (not always easy to schedule an opponent of a quality conference when they’re all so far away…and now there are two fewer non-conference options in the West), so I can’t say it’s a bad thing for the conference, although the unfairness will continue to bother me. Anyway, my proposal assumes that there will be a 9-game schedule. I don’t think there is much point in talking about what would or should happen under an 8-game schedule.

You might say, “Why bother arguing about it at all? This is the way it is.” The SEC saw after a few years that its initial approach (which was two permanent rivals, meaning 7/8 of the schedule was the same teams every year) didn’t work very well, so it changed the scheduling rules. It did not change the divisional alignment, but in this case, the divisional change if done within a few years would not be that traumatic, since the California teams will all play each other, so that wouldn’t be a problem, and the Mountain teams are new to the conference anyway. There isn’t an alignment that just jumps out as inherently logical here, as there is in the SEC and as there was in the Big XII. The ACC, whose alignment I can’t remember, could still realign, and I don’t think it would upset many people.

I understand the respect for tradition underlying the California rule, but it will cause some problems. This would mean that there would be more games between the Arizona teams (shorthand for Arizona and Arizona St.) and the Northwest teams (shorthand for Oregon, Oregon St., Washington, and Washington St.). One of the benefits of expansion is that there will be fewer such games. Either way there will be fewer Arizona—Northwest games than there were before, but enough travel has necessarily been included due to the selection of Utah and Colorado (I’ll call them the Mountain teams) that the Arizona—Northwest trips should be minimized. I don’t think the Northwest teams even need to play an Arizona team every year, but that was the only way I could see how to get my overall scheme to work, and you have to fill out nine games somehow.

Continue reading... (also note the skipped paragraph above)

This will probably be my second-to-last pre-bowl conference report.

Overall rankings and a list of results from the last three weeks follow.

I’m only ranking those conferences (the independents are ranked as a conference) with three or more inter-conference games during the period.

Rankings for the period

Rank Conference Overall (vs. AQ)
1. SEC 5-0 (1-0)

The SEC gained slightly against the Big XII with Arkansas’s win over Texas A&M. It’s hard to tell where either stands in their respective conferences. Both are technically toward the bottom of their divisions, but two conference losses aren’t anything to be ashamed of. Arkansas could realistically finish in a tie for second in the SEC West (or even a very crowded tie for first), Texas A&M has a chance to actually win the Big XII South outright. My guess is this is a fairly even match-up, but we need more games to assess it properly. Either could finish in a tie for last as well. The rest of the games weren’t remarkable, although most probably wouldn’t have picked Mississippi St. to beat Houston early on in the season. I think LSU/McNeese St. was the only recent I-AA/FCS game, but that isn’t really considered anyway.

2. Independents 5-0 (2-0)

Pitt and Wake Forest aren’t great, but they’re both AQ programs that have had some success in recent years. SMU wasn’t necessarily an easy win by Navy either.

3. Mountain West 1-2 (1-1)

I’m not going to penalize them much for losses by the two bottom-feeders, even though New Mexico lost to another bottom-feeder, New Mexico St. of the WAC. Utah is undefeated, but Iowa St. was an important win to give them a little bit of big-conference legitimacy after a weak early schedule.

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