The Blue-White Roundtable: The Impending Excellence Edition

The start of the college football season is but hours away. In preparation, I sit, Gin & Tonic in hand, pounding out this edition of the Blue-White Roundtable. Chris from RUTS gives us the questions for this week. My answers are joined by the rest of the roundtable consisting of Mike at BSD, TNL, and William. My drunken, uninformative ravings can be found below.

1. Our long national nightmare is over -- football season has returned! The Nittany Lions take on the Golden Panthers of Florida International University this Saturday. FIU was 0-12 last season, with losses to such powerhouse programs as Middle Tennessee State, Arkansas State, and Florida Atlantic. There's no question that Penn State will win, but what are you hoping to see PSU accomplish against FIU? Aside from not getting injured, what can the Nittany Lions do that will make you say, "Okay, that's something we can build on for next week against Notre Dame"?

We need to find out which Austin Scott will be showing up. Will it be the explosive back we saw in the Orange Bowl or will it be the inexperienced, lazy, turd whose lack of dedication locked him behind Tony Hunt for 4 years. Like I said before, Austin could be PSU's solution at RB, however, he could also fulfill the role of unrealized potential on the bench. A role Austin has played for several years.
If Austin can't move the chains against FIU PSU needs to change backs right away to make sure they are ready for ND and Michigan in the following three weeks.

2. Not every Big Ten team has a functional bye week. Take a look at this week's schedule. Who is most likely to suffer an upset?

There are only really two options, Illinois and Indiana. Both were terrible last year, and they face Indiana St. and Missouri respectively. I'm going to have to say that Illinois is going to lose in week one. Missouri is a quality opponent and Illinois is talented but young. If Pressed I would say
Mizou: 31
Indiana: 17

3. How are you affected by the squabbles between the Big Ten Network and Comcast? Who is The Bad Guy in this battle? If you're stuck in a situation where you won't be at the game and can't get the broadcast at your house, what are your plans for Saturday at noon?

I, quite fortunately, have Direct TV so I am completely unaffected by the childish squabbling of Comcast and the BTN. I think that Comcast is the bad guy in this situation. BTN has programming that the people want to see and comcast has made the decision that it is more cost-effective to deny people access to the games instead of adding the BTN to their basic cable network. I will actually be visiting the In-Laws this weekend, sadly, they do not have the BTN. Fortunately, I will be Tivoing Saturday's game and will be watching it after I return. I will gladly wear the shame-hate in exchange for preserving my marriage. It has to look like this:

Lightning Round
If things go as planned, everyone on the PSU could see significant playing time on Saturday. Who will be the leading rusher, receiver, and passer for Penn State?

Austin Scott. Derrick Williams, AMMO.

Predict the score of the PSU vs. FIU game.

I previously predicted:
PSU: 48
FIU: 6
I'm gonna stick with that. Or, if you want a prediction more inflammatory: MY PREDICTION IS PAIN!

What non-PSU game are you most looking forward to this weekend?

Ga Tech vs. ND. I am rooting for ND. Are you surprised? You shouldn't be. It can only help PSU for ND to be unbeaten (in one contest) when they arrive in happy valley.

GO STATE! I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE SEASON TO START!

Pre-Season Polls

The USA Today coaches poll was released on Friday and, while I wasn't blogging about it, I did stumble across a copy of USA Today. For the most part, I don't have any gigantic problems with the polls. Below, I'll try to turn a critical (drunkenly-retarded) eye to this most recent poll.

2007 preseason poll
Rank	Team (first-place votes)	2006 Record	Points	Final 2006 rank
1.	Southern California (45)	11-2	1,481	4
2.	LSU (4)	11-2	1,372	3
3.	Florida (9)	13-1	1,278	1
4.	Texas	10-3	1,231	13
5.	Michigan (2)	11-2	1,218	9
6.	West Virginia	11-2	1,205	10
7.	Wisconsin	12-1	1,114	5
8.	Oklahoma	11-3	1,026	11
9.	Virginia Tech	10-3	1,005	18
10.	Ohio State	12-1	919	2
11.	Louisville	12-1	836	7
12.	California	10-3	763	14
13.	Georgia	9-4	604	NR
14.	Auburn	11-2	595	8
15.	Tennessee	9-4	583	23
16.	Rutgers	11-2	466	12
17.	UCLA	7-6	454	NR
18.	Penn State	9-4	440	25
19.	Nebraska	9-5	388	NR
20.	Arkansas	10-4	360	16
21.	Florida State	7-6	301	NR
22.	TCU	11-2	233	21
23.	Boise State	13-0	222	6
24.	Hawaii	11-3	214	24
25.	Texas A&M	9-4	209	NR
Others receiving votes (with 2006 records)
Boston College (10-3) 150; Georgia Tech (9-5) 150; Miami (Fla.) (7-6) 91; Notre Dame (10-3) 90; South Carolina (8-5) 90; Wake Forest (11-3) 71; Missouri (8-5) 58; Oregon State (10-4) 52; Brigham Young (11-2) 47; Clemson (8-5) 30; Oregon (7-6) 30; South Florida (9-4) 26; Texas Tech (8-5) 20; Alabama (6-7) 16; Oklahoma State (7-6) 15; Southern Mississippi (9-5) 14; Iowa (6-7) 12; Kansas State (7-6) 8; Memphis (2-10) 5; Houston (10-4) 4; Arizona (6-6) 1; Duke (0-12) 1; Kentucky (8-5) 1; Washington State (6-6) 1.

I didn't generate this, USA Today gets the credit.

First, there are some interesting trends to note/power rankings to divine from this earliest poll. The Big Ten has 3 teams (Mich., Wisc., & Tosu) in the top ten compare that to 2 SEC teams(LSU & FL), 2 Big 12 (Okl. & Texas) teams, 1 Pac 10 (USC) 1 ACC (Va-Tech), and 1 Big East (W. Va). Seems like a good argument can be made that the Big Ten is the toughest conference in college football. Sorry SEC. Maybe you are saying, "JB, does this hold true throughout the top 25?" And you are partially correct.

Well, lets take a look. The Big Ten only has one more team in the Top 25 (PSU) giving them a total of 4 ranked teams. The average rank of these teams is 10.
The SEC jumps to having 6 teams rank in the top 25 adding (GA, Auburn, Tenn. & Ark.) The average rank of the SEC is 11.16.
The Big 12 puts 4 total teams into the top 25 adding Texas A&M and Nebraska. The average rank of the Big 12 is 14.
The PAC 10 fields 2 additional teams in the top 25 (UCLA & Cal) bringing their total to 3, the least thus far. The average rank of the PAC 10 is 10. This is mainly because everyone is regarding USC as an unbeatable super-power at #1.
The ACC only sneaks in one more team into the mix (FL ST) at #21. The average rank of these two powerhouses is 15. While some might like to make fun of the Big Least it is quite clear that the ACC is the worst conference in football.
The Big East adds Louisville and Rutgers to the land of the Ranked giving them 3 teams in the Top 25 and an average rank of 11.3
The Wac and The Mtn West round out the rest of the teams in the top 25.

Judging from these numbers the Big Ten and the SEC are clearly the best two conferences in college football. Not only does each conference field several powerhouse squads in the top ten but also fill out the top 25 nicely. Nearly half of the top 25 play in the Big Ten or SEC! While the Big Ten holds an edge in average rank the SEC makes up for it in volume fielding an impressive 6 teams. I'm gonna go with the Big Ten as being the best conference in football, however, I'll say that the SEC is the deepest conference in football.
An argument can certainly be made that the Big 12 belongs in this group too. However, Nebraska and TX AM are near the bottom of the Top 25 (19 & 25 respectively). Between these three conferences(Big 10, 12, & SEC), they have 14 teams in the top 25 and gives us more than enough reason to think that the big power conferences are where the best football is played.

Just a note to the billion Notre Dame blogs out there; how does it feel to be blogging about an unranked team? OUCH! "Oooh Jimmy Clausen is awesome!" give me a break.


I just pooped a helmet!

To be specific to Penn State, the Lions are ranked 18th in the poll. I am not frothing at the mouth over this. If i had to vote on a pre-season poll I would put the Lions at 15 (basically i'd just flip PSU and Tenn.) But this isn't a bad spot for the Lions. One must also consider that PSU has games against the #5, 7, and 10th ranked teams in the country this year. Certainly not a cake-walk.

Just to highlight some of the ridiculousness out there, Spurrier always votes for Duke as the 25 ranked team. No Shit. Every year. He also continues to vote them the 25th team until they lose! Even USA Today is concerned about this! An interesting note is that Spurriers current team (Gamecocks) are currently unranked also. Wild. Do you think he voted them #1 or #24?



Click-Clack Bitches!

GO STATE! PRACTICE STARTS TODAY! REJOICE!

The Calm Before the Storm....of AWESOMENESS!

There is not a lot of Penn State news out there right now. The good news is that summer practice is right around the corner, the bad news is that the start of the season is still over a month away. Sigh. To pass the time I am not going to go the dull, boring road of ESPN offering tepid stories of toddlers who get to meet offensive linemen. It is entertaining because the toddlers are small and the linemen are huge!
I want to talk about the drunken ramblings of a Michigan State fan who is a friend of mine. Here is a taste:

"Michigan State football is like an ugly girl. You can put a dress on it, even love her a little, but she will never be pretty."

later....

"JB, come help me kill Woody...he has a Notre Dame ringtone on his phone and it is boring its way into my brain!"

Yeah. Yeah. It was a good night.

To close, I leave you with a moment of tailgating-zen.



GO STATE! TAILGATE HARD!