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Hopefully you'll forgive me for being candid, but this week may not be my most well written thread of the season. Family is coming into town, I actually have to work on Thanksgiving, and I actually have an excuse to watch one of the Thanksgiving NFL games. But aside from that, it's that week of the season that encapsulates the spirit and tradition of college football. Of course, that means one thing here on the FR College Football Ping List: it's rivalry week! Often our rivals perform the menial tasks associated with life: cleaning toilets, digging ditches, waiting our table...

ATHENS -- To the Bulldog Nation, the Uga mascot is royalty, the lineage anointed to represent the University of Georgia. But to the Seiler family, the English bulldogs are family pets. That is sadly evident at times such as these. In only his second season as Georgia's mascot, Uga VII has passed away. Uga VII passed away suddenly Thursday morning at his home in Savannah. At 4 years old, he was practically a pup and had served as Georgia's mascot for not even two full football seasons when he unexpectedly succumbed to heart problems.

This month is the centennial of what has all but been forgotten — a moment that could have ended football in America but instead forced the sport down a different, better path. Football was so gruesome at the turn of the century that in 1905, no less than President Roosevelt himself demanded that the sport clean itself up, and the notorious flying wedge was banned. However, by ought-nine, as they said back then, it was still a brutal battle royal. In the season's championship match — what may be called the first "game of the century" — The New York...

When you get right down to it, who doesn't love a good trophy? A trophy may end up becoming a thing of the past in most facets of human civilization, but there will always be a home for the physical manifestation of the internet meme "Pwn3d" in the great game of college football. In the professional game, there is really truly only one trophy that people really want and that has Vince Lombardi's name etched on it. But in the college game, there are trophies for nearly every type of game you can think of. Some contests have a bronze...

They're not a member of any conference and you’ll never be able to follow their standout players to the NFL. Nothing about the Navy football team screams “pay attention to me.”

Nile Kinnick may not have reached the average American life expectancy even when he was alive. But one could argue that the life he did live was extraordinary anyway. A very talented athlete as well as a gifted student, Kinnick enrolled at the University of Iowa and would eventually play football. By the time Kinnick was a sophomore, most folks that were associated with Hawkeye football knew they were witnessing a once in a generation kind of student-athlete. (And don't underestimate how good of a student Kinnick was. It's extremely rare to see that sort of thing anymore out of...

JACKSON, Miss. — The University of Mississippi's first-year chancellor followed through on a promise Tuesday and asked the band to stop playing a pep song because some fans are chanting "the South will rise again" at the end of the medley. "Here at the University of Mississippi, there must be no doubt that this is a warm and welcoming place for all," Dan Jones wrote Tuesday in a letter to the university community. "We cannot even appear to support those outside our community who advocate a revival of racial segregation. We cannot fail to respond." Dan Jones said last week...

No Recession for Tedford Bethany Stotts, November 10, 2009 California students and furloughed faculty will be feeling the pinch this academic year. Not so for University of California head coach, Jeff Tedford. He’s going to get $2.8 million for the upcoming football season. Yes, the University of California system, despite its budget crises, will give Jeff Tedford $2.8 million this year. The California Memorial Stadium at UC Berkeley also has a planned $430 million makeover. How high has Tedford’s salary climbed as of late? A 2004 press release from UC Berkeley regarding his 5-year contract states that “Coach Jeff Tedford,...

BOWL (MATCHUP) Mark Schlabach Bruce Feldman Citi BCS National Championship Game (BCS No. 1 vs. BCS No. 2) Alabama vs. Texas Florida vs. Texas Tostitos Fiesta (BCS vs. BCS) Iowa vs. TCU USC vs. Boise State Allstate Sugar (BCS vs. BCS) Florida vs. Boise State Alabama vs. Cincinnati FedEx Orange (BCS vs. BCS) Georgia Tech vs. Cincinnati Georgia Tech vs. TCU Rose Bowl presented by Citi (BCS vs. BCS) Oregon vs. Ohio State Oregon vs. Ohio State

Top 10: 1: Florida 2: 'Bama 3: Texas 4: TCU 5: Cincinnati 6: Boise State 7: Gerogia Tech 8: LSU 9: USC 10: Iowa Computer put 'Bama back up over Texas. TCU leaped over Cincinnati to take the top spot for highest ranked non-BCS team. Despite losing LSU gained a spot. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/ncaa/polls/bcs/

It was an eerily warm November morning when I arrived in South Bend yesterday with my son, Gary, to attend the Notre Dame-Navy battle. "What a beautiful day for a game!" I exclaimed to my son as we listened unsuspectingly to the band's pre-game rendition of the Notre Dame Victory March. Little did we know that we were not about to witness a football game, but a funeral. For not only did the Naval Academy's efficient yet stunning 23-21 victory, their second in three years against the Irish after Notre Dame had defeated them 43 years in a row,...

Longhorn fans may be jumping the gun, but with players like Colt McCoy who’s a Heisman contender, Jordan Shipley a semifinalist for the Biletnikoff Award, and Earl Thomas a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, fans anticipate the best. Not to mention Texas has one of the leading defensive lines in the conference. So how does Coach Mack Brown feel about his key players? "I do feel like, the way Colt has been playing the last two weeks, that he's right back in the middle of the Heisman race," said Coach Brown. What about the Texas defense? "It's unusual to...

A major heart thumper, GT now 9-1 (6-1 in ACC) Looks to win ACC, major bowl bid Unashamed Georgia Tech Vanity

With November now upon us, I have a few disjointed things lying around on my desktop that have been there for several weeks, and since they're all not compelling enough by themselves to introduce a thread, I'll go ahead and get them out of the way now and regroup with some much better philosophy for the next few weeks or so. --Here is a neat quiz that might give some of you grief. Name the 26 teams with the most all-time wins in the Division Formerly Known as I-A in 7 minutes or less and you get to brag about...

NEW YORK — Maryland and South Carolina will wear uniforms with camouflage designs during their games Nov. 14 to honor military veterans and promote the Wounded Warrior Project. The black with tan camouflage uniforms, designed by Under Armour, will have a Wounded Warrior logo on them. Instead of players' names, the backs of the jerseys will have words such as courage, loyalty, integrity and service. "Ooooh," South Carolina defensive tackle Ladi Ajiboye said Tuesday after seeing the camouflage cleats the Gamecocks will wear. "I could wear these the whole season." The Wounded Warrior Project acts as an advocate for injured...

STORRS, Conn. (AP) -- A University of Connecticut student committed an act terrorism by posting Internet messages telling people to "stop the snitching" after the stabbing death of football player Jasper Howard, university police said Thursday.

My high school English teacher, Mr. Wood, used to do something to essays that I'd write to attempt to pass his class. Anytime I would use a cliche or something that he thought was trite, he'd deduct a certain percentage from my final grade on that particular paper. If it was doing an assignment on an author that I didn't care too much for, like that uncle fornicating commie George Bernard Shaw, I was particularly obnoxious in my rhetoric and that would just enrage him even further. Looking back on it, Mr. Wood always seemed like he was either the...

An attorney for a Bloomfield man said Tuesday that his client has been charged with murder in connection with the death of UConn football player Jasper Howard. Attorney Deron Freeman said his client, John William Lomax, was charged Tuesday morning with murder in connection with Howard's death. Freeman maintained his client's innocence in Howard's death.

Last play of the game, 4th down!!! Hawks win!!! 8-0 BAYBEE!!!!

So now the geniuses who run the BCS have decided that the answer to their problems is better spinning. A story in yesterday's Sports Business Journal reports that the BCS is considering hiring someone whose job would be to defend the BCS against people like me--and many, many others--who think it is a complete and utter shame. In fact, John Marinatto, the new commissioner of The Big East, who as of now would be in charge of the BCS next year--the ACC's John Swofford is doing it right now--is quoted as saying that the BCS commissioners believe they have not...

'Southern Methodist University freshman Ryan Rosenbaum still has a lot of collegiate soccer ahead of him, but he'll be hard pressed to ever score as memorable a goal as he did Wednesday night. Up 2-1 against No. 16 Tulsa, SMU was on its heels trying to keep the Hurricanes from setting up the equalizer in the 63rd minute of their Conference USA game. Tulsa controlled possession, but an errant pass found the freshman Rosenbaum, who attempted to clear the ball downfield. Things ended up working out slightly better than expected'

This most recent Sunday afternoon is when we approached the second half of the season and with that came the first BCS rankings. That dreaded three letter acronym we love so much does give rise to several talking points, chief among them are which teams deserve to be where they are. And let's face it, when it comes down to brass tacks with the BCS standings, most only look at the top 5, and maybe the top 10 in the very least. Take Boise State for example at #4. After two very underwhelming games in the past few weeks against...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Southeastern Conference has suspended officials from last weekend's Arkansas-Florida game after the crew was involved in its second controversial call of the year. Referee Marc Curles' crew called a personal foul on Arkansas defensive lineman Malcolm Sheppard in the fourth quarter as the Gators were rallying for a 23-20 victory. The league said there was no video evidence to support the call.The same group of officials called the LSU-Georgia game earlier this month, which included a late unsportsmanlike conduct penalty the league said shouldn't have been called. "A series of calls that have occurred during the...

Angelo, look at the way your son's eyes darken now. Look how he balls up his fists and uncrosses his legs, as if he's uncomfortable, as if he suddenly remembered someplace he needs to be. Look how the smile on his face—the smile that punctuates all the stories he tells, like the one about Bear Bryant wanting a lane of traffic cleared for his team (the Pennsylvania governor said no), or the time at a coaches' convention that Dan Devine mentioned an unnamed loudmouth coach at Oklahoma, and Barry Switzer shouted, "Switzer!" and raised his hand—look how that grandfatherly smile...

I decided to shamelessly build off a discussion going on over at ncaabbs.com. How would you rank MAC coaches? I've decided to put on a decathlon for all 13 MAC coaches to find out how I would rank them. I sent out a bunch of emails to the coaches asking them to perform some tasks like running along the side line as a player makes a big play (and timing), measuring just how loud they can yell at an official, Clipboard Discus, and several others. I have yet to get a single response so I can either wait until hell...

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said Monday that they are backing a federal political action committee "dedicated to discarding the Bowl Championship Series and instituting a competitive post-season championship for college football." The people behind Playoff PAC – whose tagline is "Beat the BCS. Save College Football." – believe that the Bowl Championship Series is "inherently flawed," the group said in a press release. "It crowns champions arbitrarily and stifles inter-conference competition," the group argued. "Fans, players, schools, and corporate sponsors will be better served when the BCS is replaced with an...

The Florida Gators held the No. 1 spot in the first Bowl Championship Series rankings, despite playing a relatively weak schedule and struggling offensively in recent weeks. The Gators (6-0) had .989 points, giving them a 0.36-point lead over No. 2 Alabama in the standings, released Sunday for the first time this season.

Jasper Howard, a 5-foot-9, 174-pound starting cornerback on the UConn football team, died today after an on-campus stabbing. According to multiple sources, Howard, 20, was reportedly was stabbed near the student union.

STORRS, Conn. - A University of Connecticut football player has died following an on-campus stabbing, hours after the team’s victory over Louisville. Twenty-year-old Jasper Howard of Miami, a junior and starting cornerback, was stabbed during a fight early Sunday. His death was confirmed to The Associated Press by an administration official who requested anonymity because of the police investigation.

Does anyone want to advance to the BCS title game? Tim Tebow drove Florida for a winning field goal against Arkansas. Several contenders teetered on the edge of extinction Saturday. Florida survived Arkansas 23-20, and Texas snuck by Sam Bradford-less Oklahoma 16-13. Some fell off the edge. Ohio State was stunned by Purdue 26-18, and Virginia Tech was dumped by Georgia Tech 28-23. The first BCS standings of the season will be released Sunday afternoon. No matter how they look this week, we likely will end up with the winner of the SEC title game playing USC or Texas for...

After being knocked halfway to kingdom come, Tim Tebow knew that millions of college football fans would be paying close attention to his eyes the next time he led the Florida Gators into action. Viewers would be looking for signs that the quarterback was OK after a nasty concussion. Many would also want to see which Bible reference would be written in the patches of eye black that would be visible whenever television cameras focused on the face of America's most famous muscular Christian. Tebow was wearing Isaiah 40:31 when he got hurt against Kentucky: "But they that wait upon...

Just an anti-ObamaCare ad during the Red River shootout (OU leading Tex 6-0, BTW).....that means they are going for the kill. An ad during the big college football game of the week is serious stuff, costs a lot, and reaches a lot of people. I don't care for the insurance cos too much, but hell, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and I wish them well in their quest to crush Obama and his asinine socialist health care plan.

Internet message boards, you know, like this one, are if nothing else a sociological petri dish. In a forum as vast as this one, it's possible for me to perform assigned FR College Football Live Thread hosting duties and get a pretty good pulse on what a lot of have on your minds about your team as well as other people's teams. It's perhaps my favorite aspect about keeping this ping list is all of the observations and banter between some of you, friend and foe alike. The past few days I've been lurking on several message boards devoted to...

Blinn College’s Cameron Newton completed nine of 11 passes for 177 yards and four touchdowns in the first quarter to set the stage for a 63-29 victory over No. 18 Trinity Valley Community College. The top ranked Bucs scored on every possession of the first quarter with Newton first hitting Grant Merritt for 37 yards. The Cardinals tied the game with an eight-yard pass from Garrett Beal to Darnell Williams. And Blinn quickly responded with Newton throwing a 40-yard touchdown pass to Dexter Ransom. A blocked punt by Jerry Singleton led to a Sean Rutherford 31-yard reception to put the...

Fourth quarter. The Colorado defense holds the Horns and punting team comes in. But Colorado fails to take advantage of their possession and punts. But much to the delight of the Longhorn fans Shipley takes the punt return down field 74 yards for a TOUCHDOWN! Texas 31, Colorado 14. “First of all, I want to give God the glory for the win tonight and for the opportunity to play,” Shipley said. “I’m having so much fun on that team right now because we have 10 guys out there that are just working their tails off to make those things go....

Go Tigers...too many penalties, but LSU WILL knock off Florida, Tebow or not,....

ESPN is asking who folks think will win this year's Heisman Trophy. The choice should be obvious, don't you think? Go here to send a little love to the Big O in his quest to dominate the world of college football!

Hyperbolic though it might be to say that there is nothing on earth like college football in the South (and particularly the SEC), it's by and large a true statement. Many out there, even on this thread, abhor the perceived hubris and self-importance of the members of this conference often have. Living in the western United States and being a fan of a school that is doing its damndest to enact as many Saturday traditions of its own, I've often held to the sentiment that the schools in the states of the artist formerly known as the Confederate States of...

Do you remember the old adage, "those that can, do. Those that can't, teach. Those that can't teach become guidance counselors?" Well, I suppose if you can't become a guidance counselor you can always vote in the AP College Football Poll every week. Now, in terms of BCS standings, the AP is useless. However, it should serve as a reminder as to why nobody subscribes to newspapers anymore. If you go to this handy link, you can see in all its glory how each AP voter voted in their top 25 each week. In his weekly press conference on Monday,...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKCVS57j284 Watch these 5 young girls singing the national anthem! They are so talented. National Anthem will give you Goosebumps!! This was at a Texas Tech University basketball game . . . The National Anthem is sung by five little girls. The two on the right are six years old. The two in the middle are seven and the one on the left i...s eight. An entire arena remains completely silent throughout the song. You could hear a pin drop.. Take a moment to listen to this. Trust me, you will not regret it.

For a select group of college football players, the words “sacrifice” and “commitment” extend far beyond the football field to places that don’t require helmets and shoulder pads. Allstate Insurance Company and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) today have announced the 22 student-athletes chosen for the 2009 Allstate AFCA Good Works Teams, honoring dedicated and hard-working student-athletes for their off-the-field achievements and selfless contributions to their communities. This summer, a record 106 players were nominated for this prestigious honor by sports information directors on behalf of their teams, surpassing all previous single-season nominee totals since the program began in...

Do you ever stop and wonder what it is about this great game of college football that keeps you watching, that keeps you going to games and reading this, the FR College Football Live Thread every week? Surely I can allow my own ego to run amok here and say that certainly you must come back here every single Saturday because you're wondering who I'll make fun of each week, and let's face it. Anytime you have the opportunity to have a few laughs at Joe Biden's expense, you're doing your fellow man a wonderful service that no government program...

Who heard it? A player on the Giants offense gave his college as "University of Chief Illini" in the pre-recorded intros.

As faithful Longhorn fans go, my friends are right up there. They may prefer to remember the Longhorn wins but they will reluctantly recall the losses. Like the loss to Texas Tech last season. But that’s old news, as you know it’s always the next game that counts. As for this game, the story goes… The first quarter started with a flag against Tech. But Tech’s QB, Taylor Potts got his team moving quickly with the Horns’ defense seemingly dragging their feet. It almost looked like the Horns’ defense was playing scared. However, as soon as Longhorn fans start to...

SEATTLE — Southern California was leveled by another post-Ohio State funk, taken down by upstart Washington with a late drive that must have looked familiar to the Trojans. Erik Folk kicked a 22-yard field goal with 3 seconds remaining and Washington's fired-up defense stymied fill-in quarterback Aaron Corp and No. 3 USC in a 16-13 victory Saturday. USC quarterback Matt Barkley, who directed an epic game-winning drive to beat the Buckeyes in Columbus, Ohio, last week, could only watch the latest stunning upset loss by the Trojans from the sideline. The star freshman was out with a sore shoulder.

Back before my job contained some actual responsibility, there was the perpetual temptation (and I did give into it much of the time) to watch videos on YouTube. While there's nothing more annoying in life than some yay-hoo droning on about the dreaded neocons scrambling their brains, there are those special occasions where you will find something that is worth your time and effort. Anymore, the internet has become a classic sports network of its own, with people finding film of games from days gone by and even more recent games getting posted just after they occur. In this the...

We have completed a mere one week of play in the college football season and and we've already seen some things that some of us would prefer to unsee. What began with a punch Thursday night on "The Blue" ended on Labor Day evening in Doak Campbell Stadium with a team looking for a punch of a different variety and coming up short. (I'll do my best to console our Seminole fan FRiends later). In between, we had many blowouts, a few good marquee games, and a victory in Big D that could set the tone for the season to...

No one reads about the long snapper until he flubs the snap on a critical field-goal attempt or sails one over the punter’s head in a tight game. If the starting snapper is obscure, that makes the third-teamer nearly invisible. But South Carolina’s Matthew Grooms has a story that goes beyond football. It started on a dirt road in Marlboro County, wound through the deserts of Kuwait and included a stop on the new sod at N.C. State’s Carter-Finley Stadium, where Thursday night the 26-year-old walk-on and Iraqi War veteran stood on the sidelines for the Gamecocks’ opener. Grooms made...

PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University officials say more than 2,000 students have been sickened by swine flu during the first two weeks of classes on the Pullman campus. But Saturday's football game between Stanford and Washington State will go on as scheduled. School officials say there have been no deaths and no students have required hospitalization. Dr. Dennis Garcia says most students suffer three to five days of discomfort. The school is handing out free flu kits including a thermometer, painkillers, throat lozenges, sport drinks, hand sanitizer and tissues.