Bowl week has officially begun for the Big 12 with Missouri stepping up tonight to be the first conference team to play in the post season. Most of SBN's Big 12 blogs are talking about their team's post season football games this week but there are a few (looking at you Texas!) that only have basketball to discuss. Actually the Longhorns are still talking football. They're just talking about the 2008 season. Seems to me like that would be pouring salt into the 2010 wounds. Friendly piece of advice - let it go man, just let it go. Speaking of hoops, guess where SBN's Big 12 basketball blog has the Sooners in this week's power poll. Not last?
The very top and very bottom stayed the same, but lots of shuffling inbetween. - Big 12 Hoops
Continuing with my review of teams that ran odd-front defenses during the 2010 season, we now move on to look at the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Notre Dame is a significant team to look at, not because of their tradition, but because they were similar to A&M coming into last season, a team that had struggled recently on defense, and was looking to a change to the 3-4 to improve their performance on that side of the ball. The difference between A&M and Notre Dame, though, is that they were bringing in a whole new coaching staff, while we were just bringing in a new coordinator and new assistants on one side of the ball. - I Am The 12th Man
For those who can't read the article, the main takeaway is that all of the above sold awards and uniforms and received discounted tattoos. Pryor sold a Big 10 Championship ring, a sportsmanship award from the Fiesta Bowl (irony!), and the gold pants charm he received for beating Michigan in 2008. (which to me seems the worst. Those things have been given out since 1934. It would be like Hansen trying to sell Ralphie). - The Ralphie Report
The obvious edge in this contest is that Nebraska seems uninspired and the Huskies have nothing to lose. That is the exact type of recipe that inspires upsets. I think Nebraska is in trouble the minute they step on the plane to go to San Diego. This is a team in danger of just showing up and going through the motions. They have everything to lose and basically nothing to gain. Washington on the other hand is in a exact polar situation. - Corn Nation
Since we know almost nothing about this school that calls itself the University of Arizona (the school whose footballing team the Cowboys will be matched up against tomorrow evening), I figured it was time to do some digging into this school and figure out if we should love them, hate them, or a little of both (hott!). What follows is the result of tireless minutes of
wikipedia browsingresearch into what makes the UA the UA, divided into two polar opposite columns of "Love" and "Hate" (two feelings that are rare in real life but in the bloggy world receive relentless use...I'm just following the rules here). Feel free to offer your own Arizona qualities you love, hate or are on the fence about... although that last one really doesn't fit the theme. - Cowboys Ride For Free
Overall a pretty slow week. Iowa State downed Chicago State last Tuesday 104-63. In that game, DG scored 18 points, and is now #25 on the all time career scoring list for Iowa State. It was another game in which everybody played and scored. You just don't gain a lot when you play arguably the worst D1 team, but it is what it is.
This coming week, they play @Virginia on Thursday, in what will be their first road game outside the state of Iowa all season. Virginia has been up and down this season, having wins @Minnesota and @VA Tech, but also having losses against @Stanford, Wichita St., (and most recently) Seattle. - Clone Chronicles
Kansas returns to the Phog for a final three game non conference tune up homestand that kicks off Wednesday night with the Mavericks of Texas-Arlington.
UT-Arlington is a Southland Conference representative and has squared off against another Jayhawk opponent in the North Texas Mean Green. As most will recall the Jayhawks dispatched of the Green fairly easily by a final score of 90-63. In the game of who beat who, the Mean Green defeated the Jayhawks upcoming opponent 87-83 just under a month ago. - Rock Chalk Talk
A question as we move to a 10-team, round-robin schedule without a CCG to determine the conference champion:
If 2008 happened again (three teams, all with one loss in the conference, all losses to each other), which team wins the conference's automatic berth in the BCS?
It could simply be the team ranked highest in the BCS. It could be the same as the existing Big 12 tiebreaker used to determine which school advances to the CCG. Or it could even be akin to the old SWC rule in which the team which has gone the longest without receiving the automatic berth receives it. - Burnt Orange Nation
Thank goodness that Northwestern isn't a top 25 pass offense, otherwise I think Texas Tech might be in some trouble. If you cannot tell that this is sarcasm, then you don't know me well. The pass defense started out on the wrong foot and it's never gotten back on track. I intend on getting to this later in the offseason, but I've praised the book from Pat Kirwan on the NFL and one of the chapters deals with defensive backs. The thought is that cornerbacks that play man coverage and cornerbacks that play zone coverage are two completely different type of players. What they are asked to do are completely different. Sure, they play the same position, but their responsibilities are completely different. Perhaps the biggest thing is that when a cornerback is playing man coverage, his rear-end is facing the quarterback and is trying to force the receiver to the outside along the sideline, while a cornerback playing zone coverage has his rear-end facing the sideline and is trying to force the receiver towards the middle of the field. I'm going back in my mental memory of the games and it seems like that most, if not all of the long passes were completed along the sideline, which is exactly what Willis wants. Well, he doesn't necessarily want the completions to be made, but the cornerbacks are forcing the opposing receivers into the correct coverage. - Double T Nation
At the end of this week the 2010 Oklahoma football season will officially draw to a close when they take on the Connecticut Huskies in the Fiesta Bowl, a game that hasn't been very kind to the Sooners over the last decade. However, its no secret that this UConn team isn't on par with the Boise State or West Virginia teams Oklahoma played in their Fiesta Failures but they are the Big East champs and OU's opponent and thus making them a threat. - Crimson And Cream Machine
Bill Carter's in Arizona, and he sent me a few pictures from yesterday's Insight Bowl pep rally... - Rock M Nation
It's bowl week! From the sounds of things, a fair amount of BOTC readers are in New York City for the Pinstripe Bowl this week. Feel free to post pictures from any bowl-related activities.
Bill Snyder is an advocate of the bowl system. He wasn't in 1998, but he's since reconciled with his bowl faith.
K-State's players have mixed feelings about the New York Yankees. Some hate them. Some are indifferent. To Bill Snyder, they're America's Team (well, sort of). - Bring On The Cats