Good morning and welcome to the second day of 2013 and your Wednesday Skull Session.
January first is always one of the best days of the year for college football, with about six games worth watching.
Somewhat surprisingly, the Big Ten didn't totally embarrass itself yesterday, going 1-4 instead of 0-5 in bowl games! It's pretty sad that losing 80% of the games is considered a successful day for the ol' B1G.
To be fair, all B1G teams were playing a few slots tougher than they would have been due to the absence of the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions from the postseason. Outside of Purdue, the B1G teams were extremely competitive, not losing a single game by more than two touchdowns!
To recap yesterday's action:
The Good: Northwestern and Mississippi State. Congrats to "Chicago's Big Ten Team", who actually won their first bowl game since 1949 yesterday, and against an SEC team at that! I'm sincerely impressed with the program Coach Fitz has built at Northwestern.
The Ugly: Purdue and Oklahoma State. No need for a "bad", let's just skip straight to ugly. Purdue was straight-up dominated by Oklahoma State in a game that should have been put out of its misery.
Darrell Hazell had to have watched that and cringed the entire game as the Boilermakers were unable to do anything on offense, nor were they able to stop anything on defense.
OTHER NEW YEARS DAY BOWL RECAPS.
The Unwanted: NIU and FSU. "You're not even wanted here!" says Mean girl to Northern Illinois representatives. Pat Forde ended up right about this matchup as it turned out to be all talk and little action for the Huskies and Seminoles last night:
When the gums were finished flapping, Florida State had a humdrum, 31-10 victory over outmanned Northern Illinois in a game that was as entertaining as Tuesday night bingo in Dubuque. The voluminous controversial verbiage was inversely proportional to the quality of the product on the field.
Mr. Forde, I can personally attest to the raucous bingo nights in Dubuque, and that's just not fair! Ok not really, I didn't even know where Dubuque was.
However, the game did provide some first-rate irony:
And finally, there was this un-self-aware gem from some Florida State fans, who directed an "over-rated" chant at the Huskies late in the proceedings. That was rich, considering that no program has been more overrated than the Seminoles in the last decade.
The Aerial Assault: UGA and Nebraska. Georgia's Aaron Murray torched the Huskers' "top-ranked pass defense" for 427 yards yesterday afternoon as the Capital One Bowl was largely devoid of defense. Pelini has really got to address that defense after giving up 36, 63, 70, and 45 points in the Huskers' four losses this year.
Also, to the announcers, please keep lauding Taylor Martinez's throwing motion. Just a thing of beauty.
The Visor's D-Line: South Carolina and UM. Michigan fell in the last minute after playing much better than many predicted against a tough South Carolina defense. However, just imagine the outcry over this "first down" if UM had pulled out a victory.
The Disappointment: Wisconsin and Stanford. I had personally been incredibly excited for this matchup between bruising offenses and stingy defenses, but it ended up largely underwhelming.
GEORGIA INVASION. Just your daily reminder that Urban is a beast at recruiting:
I seriously can't believe how many top GA 2014 kids list OhioSt as one of leaders. It's like an invasion
— Michael Carvell (@RecruitingAJC) January 1, 2013
Onward, Urban!
Does anybody not like this guy? PENNSYLVANIA BRINGS IN THE LAW. The state of Pennsylvania is expected to announce a lawsuit against the NCAA later this morning in a press conference:
Corbett referred to them on Tuesday as "illegal sanctions." A wholesale suit against the NCAA by a third party as powerful as the state of Pennsylvania could loom as an important case in testing the ultimate power of the NCAA...One of those penalties, the $60 million fine, has become a point of contention in Pennsylvania politics. Local politicians have argued that the money should be used to fight abuse in the state of Pennsylvania, while the NCAA had initially targeted a more national approach for the money.
Note that this is not specifically Penn State, but the entire state itself. The critical part to me is the bolded section above – while the specific issue itself is relatively minor (how the money should be used), it has critical implications for NCAA power, especially against an entity as strong as a state.
However, that's not the only Penn State-related news items of the day:
CLE, AZ, PHI and SD all interested in Penn State's Bill O'Brien according to pro and college sources. Pursuit begins this week
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) January 1, 2013
Get in line for BOB, guys – he's a hot commodity right now after winning the Big Ten and Maxwell Coach of the Year awards.
NEW STIPEND PLAN IN THE WORKS. In other news stories that are more exciting than they appear on the surface, NCAA president Emmert is planning to announce a new stipend proposal after his need-blind $2,000 one from last year was killed.
More than a year after widespread rejection of a proposal to provide players a $2,000 stipend to cover expenses a traditional scholarship won't, NCAA president Mark Emmert told CBS Sports he hopes to unveil a retooled stipend plan likely to include a “need-based component” to his board of directors in April...
Among the plan's options, according to Emmert: 1. Athletes applying for money through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. 2.Giving universities or conferences discretion over how funds are allocated. 3. Calculating stipend payments based on family contributions.
Gene Smith had a brief mention in the article as well:
The public backlash might be less this time around, and there's a faction of Bowl Championship Series schools that prefer a stipend because they can afford it. “Everyone in [the Big Ten Conference] is supportive of need-based model,” Ohio State athletics director Gene Smith said.
It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that the filthy rich Big Ten is able to afford need-based stipends due to the Big Ten Network's money printers.
BOWLING FOR LINKS. Drop the sword... This is oww for sure... TIL that the Stanford band is banned from the state of Oregon and from Notre Dame's campus... No pass interference to see here!... Vandy's coach gives some hugs... Clowney-Lewan lives up to the hype. Does this send him to the NFL?... Congrats to the nerds out there!
