This every Saturday after the Saturday Lecture open NCAA thread for those of us watching football and not wanting to soil the respectable threads with cries of ‘Hook ‘em Horns’ or ‘Soooeeeee Piggie!’ and we sure don’t want to run Ralphie through a serious thread! Some of our writers would get really mad. This will be a stickie at the top of the page, its football and open, please see the ‘normal’ yet excellent threads below; get crazy and open two tabs!

These are the BCS standings from ESPN.

And this is where it becomes very evident that this system is broken. Alabama is the best team in the nation and would beat any of these teams in a playoff. Meanwhile, Boise is at #3…it has been stated on ESPN blogs that teams have avoided the Mustangs over the past 3 years. No one in the SEC was willing to schedule them, is it fear? If the season ended today, it would be Oregon versus Oklahoma for the title and that would be ridiculous.

the 1 Okalahoma Sooners have to travel to 11 Missouri today….this has the potential to be a barn burner.

This every Saturday after the Saturday Lecture open NCAA thread for those of us watching football and not wanting to soil the respectable threads with cries of ‘Hook ’em Horns’ or ‘Soooeeeee Piggie!’ and we sure don’t want to run Ralphie through a serious thread! Some of our writers would get really mad. This will be a stickie at the top of the page, its football and open, please see the ‘normal’ yet excellent threads below; get crazy and open two tabs!

The rankings have barely changed because everyone above the #17 rank is 3-0. I don’t see any shake-up happening this week except…(1) Alabama could lose at (10)Arkansas if the stars are in perfect alignment.

Its week 4 already and my beloved Pitt Panthers were embarrassed at home Thursday night by the hated Miami Felons, errrr, Hurricanes.  And as I write this, the Friday night game has (4) TCU at SMU and its tied at 7!  I don’t expect an upset here.

The noon slot doesn’t look too interesting. The ESPN crew is at Boise State home of the (3) Broncos and the blue Smurf Turf, if you have never seen the turf, tune into ESPN or check the game at 2000 eastern.

The 1530 eastern slot features an SEC clash: (1) Alabama at (10) Arkansas, the money is giving Arkansas 7 at home. This game has the potential to be much closer than that. Arkansas CAN win against Alabama, this is the first real test for the Tide this year.  Ryan Mallett, the QB for Arkansas would love some payback after the stomping he took at ‘Bama last year.

The 1900 eastern slot has unranked Georgia at Mississippi State, this game is a pick ’em and a good SEC match up.At 1945 (12) South Carolina Gamecocks are at (17) Auburn this look to a another close SEC street fight.

Then we get to the over-hyped game of the week at 2000, (24) Oregon State is going to (3) Boise State. This game should not even be close. Vegas is giving the (see post 154, i made a HUGE mistake) Beavers 18! I will be looking at this game because i love the Smurf Turf on HD and the Boise State fans are MANIACS!

*oooh! lok, ribs!

and Puti sez hi!

This will be weekly, every Saturday after the lecture is the open NCAA thread for those of us watching football and not wanting to soil the respectable threads with cries of ‘Hook ’em Horns’ or ‘Soooeeeee Piggie!’ and we sure don’t want to run Ralphie through a serious thread! Some of our writers would get really mad. This will be a stickie at the top of the page, its football and open, please see the ‘normal’ yet excellent threads below; get crazy and open two tabs!

Welcome to Week 3 of the 2010 NCAA Football season!

**NOTE to the ‘sports journalists’: that ‘NEW’ offense that yinz call ‘The Pistol’ is the ‘i’ formation from 30 years ago, and oh, and the ‘Wildcat’ is actually ‘the wing’ and its derivatives from the paleolithic era of football.  I guess the next ‘new’ thing on offense is gonna be I M Hipp (Texas A&M) and Tony Dorsett (PITT, his name was pronounced ‘door sit’ before he made $$$)  style backs wearing ‘tear away’ jerseys cut off at the mid riff. Put a full-back in that ‘pistol’ and you have a real i formation.**

Thursday’s Cincinati Bearcats at NC State Wolfpack was a very sloppy game.  Cincinnati is desperately missing their old football coach, Brian Kelly, who took his dream job an Notre Dame.  Cincinnati looked, well, discombobulated.  Coach Kelly has the Irish at 1-1 with a close loss at home to Michigan in the Big House.  Coach Krelly has a chance to get on the winning side when the Irish travel to Michigan State (2-0) to play the Spartans in Prime Time (2000 eastern on ABC) this should be a game to watch on the PiP.  MSU’s secondary will be tested, they have been identified as the weak link.

On Thursday, Reggie Bush gave back the Heisman trophy he won in 2005…he says its not an admission of guilt.  Yeah, OK Reggie…you spin ALMOST as good as James Carville, but not quite.

The most interesting noon game, the (12) Arkansas Razorbacks travel to Athens Georgia, home of REM and the B-52’s to play the Georgia Bulldogs. This classic SEC battle has a little back story: the Razorbacks haven’t won in Athens since 2003 and are riding a 6 game losing streak against the Bulldogs (Vegas is giving the Bulldogs 3.5…).

The Best Team in the Country, (1) Alabama gets their big star running back Mark Igram back from knee surgery; just in time to play the Duke Blue Devils, and too bad for Duke, this isn’t basketball (1530 ABC).

The (6) Texas Longhorns have to travel to Lubbock to play the Texas Tech Red Raiders (2000 ABC).  Tech is an insane place to play, Texas Coach Mack Brown is 3-3 in Lubbock. Tech is a smaller venue (60K+) but it is insane loud and the wind is unpredictable.  Vegas is only giving Tech 3 points against Texas…could be an upset watch!

The 2230 Eastern (9) Iowa Hawkeyes at the (24) Arizona Wildcats should be a battle in the trenches worth watching. The Wildcats have a good offensive line; they get to play against the best defensive line in the country.  The Iowa defensive line will be playing on Sundays, so get an eye-full on ESPN.

So what games are you watching? BBQing anything? Its an open sports thread!