Boise State Might, Finally, Have a Chance

By Eddie Mayrose

After years of controversy regarding the BCS exclusion of Mid-Major conferences from consideration for the BCS Championship game, Boise State, the poster child for successful, smaller programs with title aspirations, looks to have its fate in its own hands.  Ranked as high as #2 in major College Football polls as well as #1 by CollegeSportsView.com, the Broncos seem to be in a position to have a perfect season rewarded.

Led by legitimate Heisman hopeful Kellen Moore, Boise brings as much talent and depth to the table as any of the elite programs.  Head Coach Chris Petersen is as innovative as any coach in the country, they play an up-tempo style on both sides of the ball and their blue field, (Smurf Turf) is just plain cool.  Everything is in place for the Broncos to stake their claim to the College Football throne, if they can just get past Week One. Continue reading »

Locks Return for 2010 College Slate

CollegeSportsView.com

They’re back.  The Lock family, Gil, his wife Jill and nephew Pad, have agreed to return to CollegeSportsView.com for another stellar season of College Football prognostications.

When we last left the locks, Gil, of Ryno Rife Sports Handicappers, had spent most of the season sullying the family name.  It was for this reason that his wife, Jill, started to submit her own weekly selections, as Gil’s picks had become a source of embarrassment.  Good thing, too, as Jill was a winner two-thirds of the time.  Then, nephew Pad Lock got into the act, helping to bump up the record even further.  Perhaps inspired by their performance, even Gil started to come around by Bowl Season.

 So, here they are again, fresh off a 2009 campaign that returned an exceptional 55-45-1 record.  The season kicks off tonight and, true to form, the Locks are all over the Thursday night action. Good luck!! Continue reading »

by Eddie Mayrose

USC Football Program Left Holding The Bag

As has become tradition in college sports whenever the NCAA investigators show up, Pete Carroll, Head Coach of the USC Trojans, beat it out of town a step ahead of the sheriff.  Laughably, Carroll denied that the  investigation into his USC Football program had any bearing on his decision, citing opportunity as the only reason for his departure to the Seattle Seahawks.  The fact remains, however, that the three year probe into alleged infractions involving payments made by boosters to USC stars Reggie Bush and Joe McKnight has been concluded, with the NCAA Committee on Infractions scheduled to announce its findings in late February.

Carroll is merely the latest coach to turn tail once improprieties have been exposed.  These snake oil salesmen jump at the first job offer made to them once it all hits the fan, leaving their former players and employers holding the bag.  Now, the universities are just as culpable as the coach due to their responsibility for their own compliance with NCAA regulations.  But what of the players that committed, not only to the university, but the coach himself?  A coach that sat in their living rooms and promised their parents that he’d take care of their sons.  What becomes of them?

Right now, they have but two options: stay or transfer.  Stay; and take the chance that the new coach, one that did not recruit them, owes them no loyalty and may espouse a system not suited for their talents or transfer to another school and sit out an entire season.  Some choice.

When will the NCAA, charged with protecting the best interests of these student athletes, realize the gross inequity that currently exists?  There is no way to prevent a coach from moving to another school; nor should there be, as many more of these changes are legitimate upward moves than not.  However, the NCAA can easily establish two rules that give the player some security.

First, make the coach carry the sanction with him to his new job.  USC gets two years probation?  Carroll’s new employer goes on probation for the same amount of time should he ever return to the college ranks. Think that’ll promote compliance?  How hard would the University of Kentucky have pursued John Calipari if the sanctions against the Memphis basketball program would be theirs, as well?  Second, and most importantly, allow the player to transfer without sitting a year whenever the coach leaves; no matter the reason.  Why punish them for infractions committed before they even arrived on campus?

Unfortunately, there is collateral damage with each of these moves. After just one season as Tennessee Football coach, Lane Kiffin takes over for Carroll, leaving behind an entire class of kids that came to Knoxville after being promised by Kiffin that he would be their coach.  Worse, there are nine high school recruits committed to Tennessee that graduated early in order to enroll in January and participate in spring practice.  What happens to them should they decide to transfer; especially now that many schools have committed to other players?  Don’t ask Pete Carroll or Kiffin because neither one of them care.  Nor, apparently, do the stuffed shirts at the NCAA.

College Football Bowls Conspire To Protect BCS System
Boise State vs. TCU in the Fiesta Bowl? With the sleight of hand used by a magician, the College Bowls make themselves appear to be magmanimous by granting a sscond BCS bid to a non-conference school while diverting our attention from their bigger goal; protecting their wallets by diffusing the uproar for a playoff system to determine a champion in the NCAA Bowl Championship division.  Nice try, guys.

With five unbeaten teams headed into the Bowl Season, anti-BCS sentiment was running at an all time high and figured to ramp up to an intolerable level if as many as four were left standing after their Bowl Games. A likely scenario, as contracts between the Bowls and certain conferences should have had Cincinnati facing Georgia Tech in the Orange, TCU against Florida in the Sugar, Boise matched up with Iowa in the Fiesta with Texas and Alabama deciding the Championship.  While the loser of the BCS title game would have dropped from the ranks of the undefeated, it wouldn’t have surprised anyone if all of the other perfect teams finished that way.  How then, would the powers-that-be quell the demand for a playoff?

Here’s how.  Using loopholes to get around the conference agreements, the Sugar Bowl drafted Cincinnati as its BCS at-large team and the Fiesta paired Boise State with TCU; robbing both schools and college football fans of the opportunity to see how these “outsiders” would fare against the big boys.  What they did create, though, was a scenario where only one team beside the champ is unbeaten.  TCU is much better suited to handle Florida than the boys from Cincy who’d have had a much easier time with Georgia Tech in the Orange. Considering that the Bearcats will head into the Sugar Bowl without their head coach, beating Florida will be difficult.  As for the Fiesta, the loser is out of the conversation.

Every year we hear the same nonsense from NCAA officials about the logistical difficulty of staging an eight or sixteen team playoff.  Travel and academics are the two obstacles most often cited.  They’d have merit, too, if only the NCAA’s lower divisions didn’t already participate in a 32 team format.  What’s the old saying?  When they say it’s not about the money, it’s always about the money.

Welcome Back, Gil Lock

There’s something to be said for karma.  Just days after banishing husband and uncle, Gil Lock, from the very handicapping column founded to feature his expertise, Jill and Pad Lock suffered through their worst weekend of the season.  Jill, who had been rolling along at a two to one clip, turned in an oh for three stinker; her first of the year.  Nephew Pad didn’t fare much better; registering just a single win. Realizing they had ticked off the football gods by mistreating Gil just before the start of the all important Bowl Season, they decided to correct the situation and invite Gil back to the team.

“We never felt right about firing Gil”, said his wife, Jill.  “I mean, he’s a sports handicapper.  It’s what he does. What else is he going to do, work in a supermarket? He had a bad stretch and we overreacted.”  Pad echoed the sentiment, saying, “Uncle Gil has always been good to me. I hated to let him go but Aunt Jill wanted to protect her record.  Not much to protect now, I guess.”

Gil, while overjoyed at the news, was still feeling a little low after some personal misadventures took their toll.  “I’ve been pulled over a number of times by Jersey State Troopers because I look like the guy who punched Snookie on Jersey Shore.  They usually notice I’m not the guy after I form a few complete sentences but, the last time, I got in over my head.”  “I have a buddy who’s a guido”, said Gil, “and this cop pulls me over with him in the car.”  “He takes one look at Phil’s hair gel and general, torpedo demeanor and assumes he’s ‘The Situation’”, Gil continued.  “I tried to explain that Phil’s nickname is, actually, ‘The Altercation’ and that the officer  was mistaken; but he wasn’t buying.”  “Finally, the cop, knowing that the real ‘Situation’ has six-pack abs, asked Phil to roll up his sleeveless tee.”  “As soon as he saw that Phil’s six-pack was actually a half keg, he let us go.”  Asked if he harbored any ill will toward his wife and nephew, Gil was gracious.  “Nah.  I’m just happy to be back.”   And, with that,  here’s how the Locks see the Bowl Season:

Locks of the Week(s)

Before we get to their individual selections, we present the Locks’ consensus picks along with this insight from Gil:  “The Big Ten is as overrated a conference as I’ve ever seen, yet, they get two BCS bids and two New Year’s games.  Now try and tell me the system doesn’t need to be changed.”  “We at Ryno Rife Sports Handicappers  have no confidence in any Big Ten teams or coaches, especially Penn State and Paterno, and have decided to pick against every one of them.”

Champs Sports Bowl

(12/29-8PM-ESPN) Miami - 2 1/2 over Wisconsin

Insight Bowl

(12/31-6PM-NFL Network) Iowa State +3 over Minnesota

Outback Bowl

(1/1-11AM-ESPN) Auburn -8 over Northwestern

Capital One Bowl

(1/1-1PM-ABC) LSU +2 1/2 over Penn State

Rose Bowl

(1/1-4:30PM-ABC) Oregon – 3 1/2 over Ohio State

Alamo Bowl

(1/2-9PM-ESPN) Texas Tech - 6 1/2 over Michigan State

Orange Bowl

(1/5-8PM-FOX) Georgia Tech – 3 1/2 over Iowa
 

Jill Locks (22-12)

Poinsettia Bowl

(12/23-8PM-ESPN) California -3 over Utah

Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl

(12/26-1PM-ESPN) Ohio-Marshall UNDER 50

Eagle Bank Bowl

(12/29-4:30PM-ESPN)  UCLA -4 over Temple

Humanitarian Bowl

(12/30-4:30PM-ESPN) Bowling Green-Idaho OVER 68 1/2

Sun Bowl

(12/31-2PM-CBS) Stanford +10 over Oklahoma

Pad Locks (10-6)

Meineke Bowl

-(12/26-4:30PM-ESPN) Pittsburgh -3 over North Carolina

Emerald Bowl

(12/26-8PM-ESPN) Boston College-USC OVER 45 1/2

Texas Bowl

(12/31-1PM-ESPN) Navy +9 over Missouri

Sugar Bowl

(1/1-8:30PM-FOX)  Cincinnati +10 1/2 over Florida

Alamo Bowl

(1/2-9PM-ESPN) Texas Tech-Michigan State OVER 60 1/2

Gil Locks (11-16-1)

New Mexico Bowl

(12/19-4:30PM-ESPN)  Wyoming +10 1/2 over Fresno State

Las Vegas Bowl

(12/22-8PM-ESPN) Oregon State – 1 1/2 over BYU

Armed Forces Bowl

(12/31-12PM-ESPN)  Air Force + 4 1/2 over Houston

Cotton Bowl

(1/2-2PM-FOX) Mississippi -3 over Oklahoma State

Fiesta Bowl

(1/4-8PM-FOX) TCU -8 over Boise State

Citi BCS National Championship Game

Thursday, January 7 – 8PM – ABC   
Alabama 3 1/2 Texas

Jill: Alabama: Can’t see Nick Saban losing after a month of preparation.
Pad: Texas: Big 12 Football is underrated. The Horns will catch Bama sleeping.
Gil: Texas: Nobody giving Texas a chance; which is my favorite scenario.

Season Record

43-34-1