In My Words

* If Oklahoma State and Stanford lose, we have to see an LSU/Alabama rematch for the BCS title. If LSU remained the only unbeaten team, who would have a better loss than to the No. 1 team by a field goal? No one.

*Kansas fans need to stop acting like they don't want to play Missouri anymore, because they do. They just don't want to admit it.

*Missouri fans need to stop acting like they'll ever finish better than 4th in the SEC. They won't, they just don't want to admit it.

*Michigan State and North Carolina are playing on a boat Friday night.

*Once again, Kentucky has the most NBA-ready talent in the country. Will that bring a championship to Lexington? Probably not.

*Is the NBA still locked out? Huh.

*If you ever get on twitter, please follow Jay Bilas. Just do it, you can thank me later.

*The matchup between Kansas' Thomas Robinson and Ohio State's Jared Sullinger on Dec. 10 in Lawrence might be the best 1-on-1 matchip we see all season. According to CBS, it's the No. 1 (Sullinger) and No. 6 (Robinson) players in the country.

*Kansas head coach Bill Self has more seasons at Kansas (8) than he does home losses (7).

*Back to football, maybe Alabama being left out in the cold will push us closer to a playoff. Boise State has as much pull as St. Cloud State Volleyball. A pissed off Alabama could get things changed, though. I think.

*Will the Packers go undefeated? Of course not, but their quarterback does make some good commercials.

Will they repeat, though? I say yes.

*Is this hit really worth $40,000? I say no way. But then again I think players with helmets should be allowed to hit each other. Crazy, I know.

*It's never too early to predict NCAA tournament brackets.

*Or bowl games.  How great does that Cincinnati/Clemson Orange Bowl matchup look? Game of the century, right there.

*Here's what it's like to be a Cleveland Browns fan. Factory of sadness, indeed.

Big 12 Safe For Now

If you needed any more proof that football and tv sets are the only things driving all this conference realignment talk/excitement/rumors/lies, take a quick gander at TCU. The Horned Frogs formally accepted an offer to join the Big 12 minus 3, bringing conference membership to 10 as of right now.

If conference shakeups happened 5 years ago, TCU wouldn't have been on any one's radar. But somewhere after that 5th or 6th top 25 finish since 2000 or that 2nd consecutive BCS bowl, or that 13-0 season and Rose Bowl win over Wisconsin a year ago, TCU became sexy. They knew it, too, agreeing to a $105 million expansion to their football stadium last year which currently only holds 44,000 people. Expected to be done in 2012.

                                                              

  

TCU has an enrollment of just over 9,000 students, by far the smallest in the Big 12. It's basketball program has been a joke forever, along with it's basketball facility, the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. The 50-year old building has a capacity of just 7,166.  The only truly redeeming qualities of TCU are football and playing in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

Now with the top 25 football program and 4 million sets of eyeballs in tow, the fun begins. If the Big 12 wants to gain some credibility back, it should probably add two more to get to 12 to have a title game. Of course, until the SEC decides if it wants Mizzou or not, things are at a stalemate. Here's a few scenarios..

1) The Big 12 stays at 10, TCU steps in for Texas A&M and has the Aggies' old schedule.
2) Louisville, Cincinnati, BYU, and West Virginia are offered with some sort of hierarchy, i.e. Louisville gets first option to join, then WVU, etc. or something like that until we have 12 schools.

If Mizzou somehow does leave, you could still ask the above four schools but you'd obviously have to get commitments from 3/4 which would be tough. Without Mizzou, I see the Big 12 adding just one more to get back to 10 to stay above water for another year. Not a great spot, but certainly better than where the conference was a month ago. Baby steps.

Winners and Losers

Of course everyone saw the Lions sitting at 4-0 ready to play on Monday Night Football. Of course.

Winners

The NFC North: The Packers are 5-0 for the first time in 46 years or something. Aaron Rodgers is no worst than the 2nd best quarterback in the league, and it's obvious his constant winning since last December is irritating Brett Favre, which is a plus. The Lions have survived 3 games to start 4-0 and are preparing to play the Bears tonight on Monday Night Football. The rushing game is non-existent, this is all about the receiver they call Megatron. The Bears aren't terrible, either.

The SEC West: One of these years we're going to have a BCS title game without an SEC team, I can feel it. 2011 doesn't look to be one of those years though. LSU and Alabama are No. 1 and 2 in the latest AP polls and obviously, one of them will lose when they play this season. The winner of that Nov. 5 matchup will have a clear path to another title.
Here's LSU's remaining schedule after the Alabama game:
-Western Kentucky
-@ Ole Miss
-No. 10 Arkansas

and Alabama:
-@Mississippi State
-Georgia Southern
-@ No. 24 Auburn.

Kudos to both AD's for scheduling Western Kentucky and Georgia Southern late in the season, giving their teams a nice off week to stay sharp for the homestretch. That's why they win.

Indianapolis Colts: Stay with me here. The Colts have had the most consistent -and oftentimes best- quarterback play with Peyton Manning for the last decade. The one year he sits out due to injury just so happens to be the same year the best quarterback prospect of the last 15 years is available. The Colts are 0-5 with 3 straight road games coming up. There's a good chance their first win doesn't come until Nov. 13. And if that happens, there's a good chance they end up with the No. 1 pick in next year's draft. One of these teams will have the first pick:
-Colts (0-5)
-Dolphins (0-4)
-Vikings (1-4)
-Rams (0-4)
-Cardinals (1-4)

The Colts and Rams have looked the worst. The Rams won't draft Luck, so I could see them trading out of the first slot, leaving Indy two chances at nabbing Luck and letting him become Aaron Rodgers 2.0. That just wouldn't be fair.

Losers

The Border War: The Kansas defense might end up being the worst of all time. Last week against Oklahoma State, Mike Gundy pulled the starters in the 1st half. He could have put 100 on KU if he wanted but he let his walk-ons only tack on 14 in the second half, winning 70-28. The defense is giving up 49 points a game and is getting worse, if that's possible. And if you believe in rumors from anonymous sources, there's this:

"Informed sources tell Football Rumor Mill that, even though Kansas head coach Turner Gill has a significant buyout on his contract, he could well be unemployed at season’s end. It seems AD Sheahon Zenger is running out of patience with his predecessor’s last hire" 

Then there's Missouri. After trying desperately to get a Big 10 invite last year, they're trying again this time around for the SEC. The talks definitely seem much farther along than last summer, but the longer things drag out, the more you have to wonder if Mizzou will get left at the altar again. Leaking quotes that the SEC isn't your first choice can't help things at all.

"One Mizzou source has told the AP that the Big Ten remains the school’s top choice, but Jim Delany’s league "“has no interest"" and about the SEC, he said."" That’s what’s left,”" the person said referring to the SEC."

And while the Tigers try to join the SEC West (Alabama, LSU, Auburn etc.), they're having trouble in the Big 12. At 2-3, a bowl game is no longer a foregone conclusion.

The Eagles: The Dream Team is more of a nightmare at this point. Hopefully people are realizing Michael Vick is nothing more than a good quarterback who's never done anything of merit in the playoffs. From a sexy Superbowl pick to 1-3, I'm not sure what the problem is, but it couldn't have happened to a nicer group of fans.

Ron Zook: Can't get out of his own way

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