The American Athletic Conference champion should compete in the playoffs. Cincinnati entered Thursday’s game as the 6th best team in the American Athletic Conference. They missed their starting quarterback and beat a Miami team that entered as 6th in the ACC. In a fair match of conferences, Cincinnati won 34-23.
The CBS emblem during SEC games includes the words, “The Best Conference.” But the SEC lacks the edge crucial in final decision on college playoff invites. Early last year the SEC ranked a touchdown better than every conference and talk
Unless West Virginia suffers a major upset to Maryland, the Big 12 likely stays in 1st place (+11 above average) until season finales. Few meaningful inter-conference games remain for the Pac-12 and SEC (tied in 2nd at +10). The ACC (+8) and Big Ten (+7) could move up or down from 4th and 5th with many big games, and the American Athletic (+0, 6th) could surge if East Carolina and Central Florida can pull upsets of Power 5 teams.
Perfect days for the Pac-12 and Big 12 hinged on the game between the flagship universities of the two biggest states in the nation, and Cal’s Darius White deflected a Texas extra point for a 45-44 win.
Notre Dame-Georgia Tech and BYU-UCLA highlight this Saturday’s college football action.
USC tries to wrest the Victory Bell from UCLA two months from now. But both teams finding themselves ranked in the top 10 compels fan dreams of a matchup of undefeated squads adding drama to a game already bursting with history and meaning.
Donald Trump promoted the New Jersey Generals 30 years before running for president, Adrian Wojnarowski wrote the New York Times bestseller The Miracle of St. Anthony about the school with two big-time prospects, Hoboken boasts claims to the first baseball game, and New Brunswick hosted the first college football game between the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and Rutgers in 1869.
Band manager Ian Faith informs the members of Spinal Tap, “The Boston gig has been cancelled.” Singer David St. Hubbins asks, “What?” “Yeah,” Faith explains, “I wouldn’t worry about it though, it’s not a big college town.”
This weekend’s “A” grades went to the Mid-American and American Athletic Conferences, while Conference USA and the SEC struggled.
Conference USA surged to just three points below the FBS average (-3, 6th of 10), while the Pac-12 plummeted (+3). If they really rank that good and bad respectively, CUSA could sneak out a 7-6 record this week and the Pac-12’s Oregon could lose at Michigan State.
Devon Johnson (who we ranked the top player in our state-by-state rankings) smashed into the end zone to give Marshall their first victory ever against a Big Ten team and make Conference USA, the Mountain West, and the American Athletic conferences a combined 5-5 against Power Conferences (see scoreboard below).
Texas A&M ran No. 15 Arizona State off a neutral field as the Pac-12 imploded this weekend. The conference was projected to go 10-2, and instead went 7-5 with stunning losses to Hawaii, Northwestern, and non-FBS Portland State to fall to a distant fifth in the conference rankings.
The Charlotte 49ers emerged (1-0 all-time in FBS play) victorious over Georgia State (0-23 all-time) in a battle of perhaps the two worst teams in FBS.
Skai Moore’s late interceptions saved the SEC from a second upset on the opening day of the football season, but the conference still joined the American and Sun Belt as Thursday’s disappointments.
Marquette or Wisconsin has made the Sweet 16 five years in a row. Wisconsin added a huge bowl win over Auburn, but the real news in Wisconsin was UW-Whitewater becoming the first school to ever win the Division 3 national titles in football, basketball, and baseball in the same year.
Is any state more dominant in winter collegiate athletics than Connecticut?
In 2016, Cleveland hosts the GOP Convention and the favorite to win an NBA title. Ohio boasts Anton Grady and Tyree Gaiter, two of the top basketball players in the Horizon League and D2, respectively, and the defending national champion football team.
The Astros 7-5 loss to the Twins on Sunday snapped an 11-game stretch during which they matched a feat last accomplished 41 years ago by the Orioles rotation of Mike Cueller, Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, and Ross Grimsley.
The Los Angeles Dodgers managed zero hits for the second time in their nine days of existence as the first $300 million team in baseball history. At least this time a great pitcher, Jake Arrieta of the Chicago Cubs, held them hitless. Arrieta lowered his ERA to 2.11 to no-hit the Dodgers nine days after Astros journeyman Mike Fiers managed the feat.
Grayson Allen led Duke to the national basketball title and ranks as the top returning player. Megan Buckingham leads the greatest college sports program in history (UNC women’s soccer). The greatest upset unfolded on the Big Ten Network eight years ago when Appalachian State shocked the world.
Sarah Palin won a state basketball title, Mary Kakoona won an Eskimo-Indian Olympics event by skinning a seal in less than 2 ½ minutes, and Reggie Tougue intercepted 11 passes and ran for 932 yards at Lathrop High School before playing for Oregon State and the Oakland Raiders.
Kevin Thomas of the Portland Press Herald reported on the great effort put up by Maine’s Shaun Lawton and Till Gloger to almost pull the upset, but Dre Wills showed why he is the best player in three states by hitting six of eight shots and adding three steals, six rebounds and five assists to rally Vermont 68-54 this past season.
Sure, ESPN lists the Arkansas Razorbacks in the top 10, and Value Add basketball forecast their basketball team in the Final Four until Bobby Portis and Michael Quails declared for the NBA draft.
The SEC remains the deepest conference in the first AP football poll released this weekend, but the Big Ten and Big 12 play stronger at the top after picking up respect, and recruits, after last season.
Baseball’s first $300 million team batted .198, boasted three extra base hits (all doubles, see box score), and played on the wrong end of a no-hitter during their ill-fated series against the Houston Astros, a team with the second lowest payroll ($69 million) in baseball, this weekend.
After skipping the NBA draft for a shot at the Final Four, All-American Kyle Wiltjer remains as the established top player on the top team in the state (Gonzaga). Taelor Ross, the sister of Terrence Ross of the Toronto Raptors, and her Seattle team enter this season as the player and team with the most to prove.
With Diamond Stone choosing to join Melo Trimble and Jack Layman, the Terps hold the best chance for a basketball title in years. When you add D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera from just over the state line in Washington DC, some of the best basketball in the country continues to be played around the nation’s capital just like it has been from the careers of Elgin Baylor to Kevin Durant.
Tatiana Weston-Webb (pictured) of Haiku burst on the surfing scene last year at 17, and at 23 Andrew Agcaoili of Oahu and his friends produce the incredible cliff diving footage covered earlier this month by the Huffington Post.
With a nickname like the Cowboys, Wyoming fittingly offers a rodeo performer as the top student-athlete in the state. The Eastern Wyoming team also produced a couple of rodeo stars that cracked the top 20.
No pressure on Erica Brown of the Delaware women’s basketball. Just play like that last player, Elena Delle Donne.
The Providence Friars boasted two winter superstars: hockey goalie John Gillies earned Most Outstanding Player distinction in delivering the school a surprise national title before signing professionally and Kris Dunn decided to hold off a year on an NBA contract to try to give Friars basketball a Big East title.
The firing of President Obama’s brother-in-law cost Montana what the New York Times called the best basketball family in the country (pictured). The journalists we talked to said Tres Tinkle following his dad Wayne to Oregon State left baskeball center Martin Breunig as clearly the top student-athlete in the country.
In early October, CBS projected a BCS semifinal game of Mississippi vs. Mississippi State, only to have the best athlete in the state, Laquon Treadwell, tackled just short of the goal line against Auburn to create a fumble and injury that knocked him out for the season.
Wichita State’s win over Kansas in March Madness to claim bragging rights in the basketball state featured all the best athletes in the Sunflower State. However, the greatest athletes ever were running star and Congressman Jim Ryun and baseball Hall of Famer George Brett.
ESPN has Missouri back in the Top 25 in football, and the top four student-athletes in the state are in fact Mizzou players getting ready for another SEC season. The state also has a lot of high school talent in big-time volleyball and basketball prospects.
Syracuse plays short-handed due to probation. The best St. John’s player quit because of the strictness of new coach Chris Mullin (pictured), and Donovan McNabb won the last football game between ranked teams when his Syracuse Orange defeated Army in 1996. There are 50 players to watch this season in New York, and they are spread over 18 colleges and several high schools in a state dominated by pro sports.
The South Dakota State University Jackrabbits basketball team came within three points of stunning Arkansas in March Madness. They should be even better with three players in the top 10% of all players at Value Add and a midseason transfer from Wisconsin in George Marshall who went 2nd team all Conference and Deondre Parks led the team in scoring.
When Babe Ruth stood on the mound for the Boston Red Sox from 1915-17, he went 65-33, a mark topped only by a couple of dozen pitchers in the 100 years since. All three pitchers inducted to the Hall of Fame Sunday – along with my favorite player Craig Biggio – enjoyed even better marks.
The year-round climate produces so much high school talent out of Florida that Miami, Florida State, and Florida all consistently put powerhouse football and baseball teams on the field.
Yogi Ferrell’s decision to wait on the NBA gives the Hoosiers a chance for a run, he may not be the best basketball player in the state (Alec Peters, Valparaiso) or best athlete on his campus (Nate Sudfeld, 60% of passes completed all three years and 34 TDs to 13 interceptions). IUPUI’s soccer player Krissy Kirkhoff (pictured) also shines as one of the brightest stars in the state.
