The College Style Bracket

Fun stuff from the crew over at GQ Magazine. Its the "64 Most Stylish College Basketball Players of All Time". They broke the brackets down by eras and the four regions are 50's/60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's/00's. You can have a little fun with it, assuming you know the people and teams like i do. If nothing else you can look at the garb these players previously donned. It caught my attention, and perhaps it will help you burn some minutes at the J-O-B.

Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This saturday is the beginning of the college football season, and with my passion exuding out of my skin i think its time to peruse the college football landscape. I told Hump i would be unbiased so i'll try to leave my LSU affections out of this. Here are some focal points before we kick off.

The Big 12 might be the most explosive conference this year. Look at the offenses, Texas still has Colt McCoy, Texas Tech still has Graham Harrell and the best receiver in the land Mike Crabtree, Oklahoma-still got it, even Mizzou brings back Chase Daniels, and Coach's son Cody Hawkins wasn't too bad slanging the rock at Colorado either. But that begs the question are these guys going to play any defense in that conference, and we also know how important it is to have a running game regardless of how good you throw the pill. The team i see closes to the pin is Texas, with new defense coordinator Will Muschamp from Auburn they're going to get more out of their defenders than they have in the past, i guarantee it and im sure they have a running game. Im sure Oklahoma is going to shoot themselves in the foot once again, i just know it. Side note: Nebraska has LSU's former defensive coordinator Bo Pelini and that should help them a little bit. But watch out for Crabtree and the gang, they remind me of Pitt in 03-04 when Fitzgerald was there but with a better quarterback.

Watch the evolution of the Big Ten and enjoy it. Much has been made of R.Rodriguez going to Michigan and bringing that wide open offense in his suitcase. Although much of the offense is gone the majority of the defense is returning and i really like that corner Donovan Warren. Progress is a slow process and we'll see what happens in Ann Arbor, they need some big wins because they've only had about one in the last five years. Illinois and Ron Zook were successful last season bringing more than "3 yards and a cloud of dust" and Ohio State is still the headliner of the conference and they used some of that spread offense pretty effectively. Chris Wells is a problem! And the receiving core has another year under their belt so the team should be even better than they were last year. So teams are starting to open it up in the Big 11. I really like where the Spartans are headed, coach Dantonio has the Spartans on the cusp of some good things, they just have to learn how to finish games and if they can do that then they should be able to make some real noise in the Big Ten. Wisconsin will continue to hang around and probably pull one of the top 3 spots in the conference once again.

The Pac-10 SHOULD be a rout, USC shouldn't lose to another Stanford and actually the defense on that team might be better than the offense with Ray Maualuga and Cary Harris holdin it down. Pete Carroll makes the best adjustments so they should be able navigate the Pac-10 but the trick is getting past Ohio State Sep.13, that should be the game of the year by the way. Oregon will not be as effective but im sure they have some talent cause they can get recruits off their jerseys alone. The only sleeper i see is Arizona State with Rudy Carpenter at the helm throwing to Mike Jones who had 10 touchdowns last year. Bottom line: the Pac-10 really isn't deep at all.

(Hump, Sutton, KT, and Finney don't judge me) The most uncertain conference will probably be the SEC. Everyone has fallen in love with Georgia and Knowshon Moreno, but they are going to have to try to clip the Gators in back to back years and they also have to travel to LSU and Auburn, and don't forget Tenn got them last year as well. This will be a good race even up to the last week. I think everyone needs to focus on Florida in this conference, with Tebow, Harvin, Rainey, and Moody they have multiple playmakers. The trick is whether that defense line can beef up and get stronger and not get blown off the ball against heavy rushing teams (but the defense line is quick).Im not sure they are quite flying under the radar but they certainly aren't getting all the attention. LSU has a huge question mark at quarterback after kicking Perrilloux off the team, Les Miles is creative and will come up with ways to use his playmakers but that's if the quarterback can get them the ball. And do not be misled by the absence of Dorsey, the defense is still ferocious and efficient (TRUST ME on this one, please). As much as it pains me to say this watch out for Ala...Ala... hold on... watch out for Alabama. Saban is a very efficient coach and will get a lot out of his team whether they have talent or not and but i think they just might e.g. Julio Jones.

The Big East is going to be fun but it won't be much suspense, Rutgers won't be as good without Ray Rice and Louisville really can't be taken seriously. Head of the class should be West Virginia with Pat White and Steve Slaton's replacement, Noel Divine. But im amazed at how quickly South Florida's program is rising and churning out athletes because they play FAST and DE George Selvie gets busy. And im not looking for UConn at all, sorry.

The ACC is the home of my cousin team the Clemson Tigers who i beg and implore to take the next step and win this conference, they have been ringing the doorbell long enough its time to bust in. They have dual RB's James Davis and C.J. Spiller with a decent quarterback in Cullen Harper, oh and don't forget wideout AK 80 (Aaron Kelly). The defense is solid when they want to be with Hamlin and Clemons anchoring the secondary. If they don't win im sure Tommy Bowden is outta there. Miami can't be the U yet especially when you have to suspend 7 players for the opener. FSU might get back on track but i just don't believe in Drew Weatherford under center, but i know papa Bowden can coach. Virginia Tech might have something to say especially if they use sophomore QB Tyrod Taylor along with their main stay starter Sean Glennon.

Sorry no C-USA or MAC talk. But the season is going to be unpredictable again. Now that all the TV exposure for everybody has spread out the recruiting battles, the talent is all over the place once again. I say USC and Texas will probably end the season in a 05-06 rematch for the national championship game. My heisman prediction is that it will land with a certain running back in the state of Ohio. Now that i am through being objective i can say LSU is the best team in the land until somebody takes the title from us, the Bayou Bengals are back and we'll make it exciting for everybody once again, so tune in on Saturdays usually on CBS at around 2:30 or 5:30.

What we Drinking Tonight!?

There is a motion from approximately 100 college presidents to lower the drinking age back to 18. This includes universities such as Duke, Morehouse, Ohio State, and Dartmouth. Presidents generally cited reasons of inconsistency from the student body as far as following the law, they understand that students commonly evade the law and apparently it is a cumbersome rule for them to enforce. This motion has been building steam for about a year. The presidents also used the rhetoric of "too young to drink, but old enough to fight for your country".

However every president has not jumped on board, Donna Shalala, president of the "U" (Miami Univ.) remembers when the drinking age was 18 and she apparently thinks progress has been made. Shalala was also on president Clinton's staff as the secretary of health as well. Also MAAD (no surprise here) spoke up as ardent proponents against the lowering of the drinking age, insisting that universities are taking a back door and avoiding the problem. Also insinuating that lowering the age would alleviate them of the onus of policing their campuses for underage drinking and not help make campuses a safer place.

I do not know if lowering the age would quell any problems around college campuses. However, I do know that it does create two different populations and with everyone amalgamated it is extremely tough to police everyone differently. If universities want to help then perhaps they just have to be a little more animate about enforcing their rules. Its not something that can totally be resolved without intruding on the privacy of the students. It should be interesting to see how this one plays out. Alcohol is overrated anyway, they need to make illegal to drink juice until you twenty one, then everyone will get on the healthy bandwagon trying to sneak orange juice into the dorms. That's really how you solve the problem!