The Hybrid: Yanks, Iowa!, Spikes, Boise, Morrissey

First thing's first: Rickhouse encouraged people to wear their backwards Yankees hats with pride today, but since I didn't have any pictures wearing mine backwards, I did the best I could with this one:

What I don't get is, all across the blogs today, I keep reading "oh man, the smugness of the Yankees fanbase is totally back!" Meanwhile, I'm thinking, how do you want them to act? They just won the title, no? Does that mean no cheering/smack talk to rival fans/street celebrations/victory posts/happiness is permitted? It's one thing if one year, month, or even week from now, you point back to the victory and say "man, that's when they really started to get smug again," but they just won the god damned title. So whatever. Congrats on 27, New York. You are a model franchise. And you deserved it. Great World Series, too. It made me really not hate baseball so much.

Anyway... So I really thought I jinxed Iowa last week. I'm usually not like that, believing in jinxes and stuff, but after my "Bad Boys" rant about how I was sticking with Iowa until the end? It was just difficult to think I didn't ruin everything. I left for work with Iowa down 21-7 after the Hawkeyes played like absolute mud for the first half, only to find out through many, many texts with capital letters about the improbable comeback and eventual double digit victory from my buddy Ryan. There's really nothing left to say. I don't know how they did it. My best guess would be they a) came out too conservative, b) caught a few breaks, and c) most obviously, really, really got their shit together in the fourth quarter -- through a mixture of a little more luck and some well executed passing plays. So that's that.

It'll hurt them in the polls though, and despite the computers wanting to molest them, it's really, really hard to envision them getting a shot to play for the national title. Seriously, this game probably sunk the title hopes (barring Texas or SEC team losses). Such a bummer. Am I looking too far ahead? Yeah, possibly, but you've got to plan for these things. I expect it to be crushing... and I'd hate to be blindsided by that feeling.

1) Florida (8-0) - That Brandon Spikes scandal was so weird. To review, from my perspective.

First... Spikes gouges the dude's eyes, no penalty is called.
Then... They review the tape, say it's bad, Florida takes matters into their own hands, and Meyer suspends him for one half against Vanderbilt... and the SEC says that's fine.
Next... Everybody freaks out, saying how it was just a slap on the wrist, how Meyer sacrificed his values for an over-emphasis on winning.
Twist!... The dude who got his eyes gouged says he doesn't think Spikes should be suspended with some inexplicable quotes:

"He really didn't gouge my eyes," Ealey said. "He really didn't get a chance to get close to my eyes." ... "I'm pretty sure it goes on back and forth," he said. "We probably do it and other teams do too. It's all football. We're just out there trying to have fun."

Didn't get near your eyes? His hands were deep into your helmet! "Trying to have fun"? What?!

Finally... Meyer decides to suspend him for the whole game -- on Spikes' request for him to do so!

That couldn't have played out any more unorthodox. And oddly enough, it almost makes Spikes more likable. I just don't get where Meyer got off thinking one half would be enough, especially factoring in who Florida would be playing. I'm sure most people -- I'm including Florida fans -- think they'd be fine without him until the SEC title game. But let's not devalue Spikes that much. I'd end this with "I guess everything worked out," but I don't know if I feel that way. What makes Spikes' actions any better than LeGarrette Blounte's punch? Because it was in a pile instead of upright? Daytime as opposed to prime time? These things don't matter. And the fact that the dude was defenseless in the pile makes it way worse, if you ask me. Spikes, to me, was saved in a big way by Washaun Ealey's reaction to everything.

2) Texas (8-0) - Is this the country's true No. 1 team? That was a dismantling of Okie State.

3) Alabama (8-0) - Them having the week off makes college football a lot less fun.

4) Iowa (9-0) - A week or two ago, head coach Kirk Ferentz -- in a refreshing moment of coach-to-media honesty -- said he had trouble seeing Iowa as a Top 10 team. I can't imagine what he's thinking after that Indiana game.

5) Cincinnati (8-0) - Super weird schedule left. Home for UConn, West Virginia, and Illinois!? Then on the road to finish the season against No. 13 Pitt. I don't know, man. I'm not writing them off, but I wouldn't pen them in as undefeated just yet. How serious is Tony Pike's injury?

6) TCU (8-0)

7) Boise State (8-0) - Very torn on the "Boise beat Oregon but Oregon hasn't lost since and throttled USC so who should be ranked higher?" debate. I lean toward Boise, but that schedule sucks, but I just don't know what they can do about it. Clay Travis made some good points toward favoring Boise:

And if we do ignore the first week of the season, what's the point of having a broken system to determine who the champion is? Because pretty soon, if they keep winning, Oregon is going to pass undefeated Boise in the BCS rankings. Already Iowa, Cincinnati, one-loss USC, and TCU have all passed Boise since the first BCS standings were released three weeks ago. What's Boise done since that first week's release when they stood at No. 4 in the country?

Beaten two teams by a combined score of 99-16.

I'm not arguing that individual results should always govern the rankings between two teams. But I am arguing this, if the regular season means anything at all, you have to rank an undefeated team above any team that they've beaten.

Absolutely, positively, have to do that.

Lawyers, man.

8) Oregon (7-1) - Well, well, well, what do we have here? Oregon nipping right on Boise's heals. I know they were at home and USC's ranking was inflated, but what a victory last Saturday night. Not just for Oregon, but for the spread offense. That game was a clinic. Running, passing, zone-read. Oregon amassed yards in about every way possible. It almost felt gluttonous at points. Jeremiah Masoli looked like a stubby Mike Vick out there.

9) LSU (7-1) - What a loss this week is going to be.

10) Georgia Tech (8-1) - Speaking of offensive gluttony, Tech's line against Vandy: 56 points, 28 first downs, 597 total yards (404 on the ground), just one penalty for nine yards, 12-17 on third down conversions. A nice little showcase of that triple option, no?

11) Penn State - I will give this team a solid B in respect if they beat OSU this week.

12) USC - Like they'd leave the Top 15. Highest ranked two-loss team in the country.

13) Pittsburgh - I still know nothing about them, but they could actually be good.

14) Utah

15) Houston - Even more offense. After last week's column, Arin wrote "Don't sleep on Houston though, Case Keenum's arm is awesome" in the comments. Possible understatement of the week? Keenum went for 559 yards, 44/54, 5 touchdowns, 1 pick, and no sacks. Oof. What kind of offense does Houston run? Is it Hawaii-y? West coast-y?

16) Ohio State - That Penn State game is at Penn State. A victory there would easily be Ohio State's biggest win of the year. Their best win so far is probably a double-digit home victory against Wisconsin. So that's pretty meh.

17) Miami (FL.) - I can't believe Wake attempted a 60 yard field goal instead of going for the hail mary against the 'Canes. You can't beat The U like that, son!

18) Arizona - Iowa beat them. No one will remember this.

19) Oklahoma State - Final score won't show it, but they stuck with Texas for a while in that game. Sure, they got a few bad breaks, but their offense had to be firing at basically an A+ level just to compete on the same level as Texas. Meanwhile, Texas looked effortless at times. And though that sounds like an indictment of Oklahoma State's talent level, it's more just evidence of how superb Texas actually is. McCoy is an outstanding college QB.

20) California
21) Wisconsin

22) Notre Dame - I was gonna make fun of -- what I thought -- was a weak schedule to end the year, but they play at Pitt next week. So I've got no beef.

23) Virgina Tech/24) Oklahoma - Six combined losses, but just one win away from bowl eligibility!

25) South Florida


No cool Thursday stuff this week. Oh well. To Saturday!

LSU (9) at Alabama (3) - Easily the game of the week. Hopefully when Alabama beats LSU, they'll get the same props Florida got.

Ohio State (16) at Penn State (11) - Terrelle Pryor respect vs. Penn State respect.

That's about it. It's a very top heavy week. I've got some Big Ten games I'm interested in, but they'll be shitty, so if you don't care, stay away. Speaking of the little eleven...


This "October spawned a monster" post at MGoBlog about summed up everything I feel about Michigan, the Illinois game, and the state of my life.

Also: Ohio State is planning to wear throwbacks against Michigan. I usually don't get indignant about uniforms or anything (do what you do, Oregon), but this is the one game out of any sport where I would just really enjoy the current unis vs. the current unis. When Ohio State and Michigan play -- smugness alert! smugness alert! -- you can just look at those jerseys and helmets matched up against each other on the field and feel the magnitude of the game*. I don't get that feeling from anything other sporting event. That game is just loaded with what I think is unarguably pageantry. And in a sport loaded with pageantry, it's still able to stand out as the best. That's really saying something. /end of smugness alert

* - this feeling happens to me every year, but for people who know what I'm talking about, it probably happens to them when Michigan is, uh, actually good


Every year, once my actual favorite teams have been eliminated from the national title picture (by, you know, losing just one game), my buddy Ryan and I create what we call the "College Football Bandwagon" which mostly consists of a list of all the undefeated BCS conference teams minus Notre Dame (and this year, Florida). The goal of the CFB is to fake feel good about yourself when your "team" makes the national championship. Plus it gives you invested rooting interests.

College Football Bandwagon 2009 -- Still no. Iowa home for Northwestern this week.


I'm a long time reader of Shanoff, he's probably in my Top 5 online sportswriters, and he's usually the first thing I read every morning, but as a national columnist, his Florida bias has gotten out of control in recent years (most notably acknowledging no case for Michigan to play for the national title in '06 and creating TimTeblog.com in '09). We'll use this space to make fun of him when he says insane UF stuff which usually happens weekly.

Though my faith was about as low as his, this tweet during the Iowa-Indiana game really pissed me off:

Now can we finally just stop talking about Iowa as a BCS title-game contender? #learnednothingfromlastweek

Like I said, I had my doubts, too, but the implication in this tweet was that people shouldn't have been talking about Iowa going in to the Indiana game. That opinion is totally bogus. Going into last week, Iowa had five times more of a case to go to the BCS title game than Florida did.

In his defense, he recanted:

I take back that earlier comment about Iowa. /shakes head sadly

Haha, pwn'd.

Got even worse in today's column:

CFB Scandal Watch: Brandon Spikes instantly quashes any controversy around his "half-game" suspension for his Georgia eye-gouge by voluntarily sitting out the entire game on Saturday against Vandy. Spikes earns a ton of credit from the media -- his slate is wiped clean, frankly -- and it's not like Florida's defense will need him to dominate the 'Dores.

"Slate is wiped clean"? Do you know what that even means? It means everything is erased and forgotten. He tried to gouge the dude's eyes! I take back everything I said about Spikes being more likable. That paragraph really pissed me off. It had everything: Florida bias, Florida smugness, and, my favorite, making a point that not everyone agrees with but just assuming everyone does ("Instantly quashes any controversy"... yeah OK).

Bonus from that same column: he described Yankees fans as having "insufferable triumphalism" following the World Series. Really, Florida? Really???


Picture of the week -- over at the Wiz of Odds:

And for Iowa fans, the day only got weirder from there.

- This was a front page headline on ESPN... just seemed odd.

- I'm telling you, please read the MGoBlog post. It's mixes college football and Morrissey. Peas in a freakin' pod.


* * *

I can't believe it's only been six days since the Bulls tipped off. It seems like the season has been going on for three or four weeks. This season might be pretty taxing. Hopefully Rose gets it together. Speaking of taxing: worst Bears victory ever. I've never been so disgusted by a double digit win. Bleck.

Aright, I'm out.