D Money's 2011-12 College Football Predictions: Other BCS Conferences

  Well, last time I gave you predictions for SEC and the Big Ten now here are the rest

Big 12         Conf  Overall
Oklahoma     9-0   12-0
Texas A&M  8-1  11-1
Missouri        6-3    8-4
Texas            6-3    8-4
Okla State     5-4    8-4
Texas Tech   4-5    7-5
Kansas St.    4-5   6-6
Baylor          2-7   4-8
Iowa St        1-8   2-10
Kansas         0-9   2-10

ACC              
Atlantic Division      Conf  Overall
Florida State            8-0   12-1
Clemson                  5-3     8-4
NC State                 5-3     8-4
Boston College        3-5     6-6
Maryland                 2-6     4-8
Wake Forest           2-6     4-8

Coastal Division     Conf  Overall
Virginia Tech          6-2    10-3
Miami (Fla)            5-3      8-4
Georgia Tech         5-3      8-4
Virginia                  4-4      8-4
North Carolina       3-5      7-5
Duke                      0-8      3-9

ACC CHAMPS: Florida State

- Here is a bold prediction. The winner of the Oklahoma at Florida State game will be the one going to the National Championship Game. I guarantee it.

Big East         Conf  Overall
West Virginia   6-1    10-2
Pittsburgh        6-1     9-3
Cincinnati        5-2     9-3
South Florida  5-2     8-4
Connecticut    3-4     8-4
Rutgers          2-5     6-6
Louisville       1-6     4-8
Syracuse       0-7     4-8
- Note:  W Virginia will beat Pitt head to head making them having the BCS bid for the Big East.

Pac-12
North Division   Conf  Overall
Stanford            9-1    12-1
Oregon              7-2      9-3
Oregon St          5-4      7-5
Washington        5-4      7-5
California           4-5      7-5
Washington St    0-9     2-10

South Division   Conf  Overall
Arizona State     7-3    10-3
Utah                  6-3      7-5
UCLA               5-4      8-4
USC                  4-5      6-6
Arizona              3-6      5-7
Colorado           1-8      2-11

PAC 12 Champs: Stanford

Mountain West      Conf  Overall
Boise State               7-0     11-1
Air Force                  6-1     10-2
TCU                         5-2      9-3
San Diego State        4-3      7-5
Colorado State         3-4      7-5
Wyoming                  2-5      4-8
New Mexico            1-6      3-9
UNLV                      0-7     1-11

And sense I don't care too much for the rest here is who's going win their conferences

Conference USA: Houston
Western Athletic: Nevada
Mid American:  Ohio
Sun Belt:  Troy

Independents     Overall
Notre Dame         11-1
BYU                    10-3
Navy                      8-4
Army                     5-7


And here whose is going to the Bowls:  Well I don't want to bore you so I'll give you to see whose is going to the BCS Bowl Games

Rose Bowl:  Ohio State vs Stanford
Sugar Bowl: LSU vs Texas A&M
Fiesta Bowl: Notre Dame vs West Virginia
Orange Bowl: Florida State vs Nebraska
BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:  Oklahoma vs Alabama

Well those are my predictions and I'm sticking to them. The Rose Bowl and BCS National Championship games would be correct the rest of the At large teams I put in there could switch but still interesting matchups to say the least.

I can't wait for tomorrow night and this Saturday. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!

I'm D-Money and .......................... GO BUCKEYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
              

More Money More Problems

  I'll post my predictions for the ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, and Big East later on today but I just like to show you this article I read in the Columbus Dispatch this morning. It kind of relates to my State of College Football Blog Post    So Enjoy

http://www.buckeyextra.com/content/stories/2011/08/28/more-money-more-trouble.html

D Money's 2011-12 College Football Predictions: SEC and Big Ten

  Well, I liked my last post on the State of College Football, I'm going to go down and give you all of my college football predictions just for fun. I always bought this magazine, Phil Steele's College Football Preview almost every year in June. I do it just to read up on who is going to be good or bad this year especially with The Ohio State Buckeyes. His magazine and predictions are extremely accurate and he is very close on his predictions more than anything other publication.

   I always like to make my own predictions to see how they would measure up with the season. Now since I've had a blog, I am going to be sharing them with you all.

For this post I'm going to give you my predictions on the 2 biggest conferences in College Football I believe. The Southeastern Conference, which is in everybody's mind the best in NCAA College Football. And of Course, The Big Ten (technically now the Big 10 plus 2 since Nebraska has joined to make it 12 teams). The Big Ten of course is Ohio State's conference and since I'm from the Midwest I play more attention to them.

Here are my predictions for these conferences.

Southeastern Conference 
East Division        Conf   Overall
Georgia                6-2     10-3
South Carolina     5-3       9-3
Florida                 4-4       7-5
Tennessee            3-5       7-5
Kentucky             2-6       6-6
Vanderbilt            0-8       2-10

West Division   Conf   Overall
Alabama           8-0     13-0
LSU                 7-1     11-1
Arkansas          5-3      8-4
Auburn             4-4      7-5
Mississippi St   3-5      7-5
Ole Miss          1-7      4-8

SEC CHAMPION: ALABAMA

BIG TEN CONFERENCE
Leaders Division    Conf  Overall
Ohio State             7-1     12-1
Wisconsin              6-2     10-2
Penn State             5-3       8-4
Illinois                    4-4      7-5
Purdue                   2-6      4-8
Indiana                   1-7      4-8

Legends Division    Conf  Overall
Nebraska               7-1    11-2
Michigan State       5-3      8-4
Iowa                      4-4      8-4
Michigan                4-4      7-5
Northwestern         3-5      7-5
Minnesota              0-8      3-9

BIG TEN CHAMPION: THE OHIO STATE BUCKEYES

Ok, so maybe I showed a little favoritism in my picks, but I think Ohio State will start Braxton Miller as their QB soonner or later and they will march all the way to another Big Ten Title and go to the Rose Bowl.

That's it for today. Tomorrow I'll try to post my predictions for the ACC, Big 12. I might try to squeeze in the other 2 BCS Conferences as well (Pac-12 and Big East.)  Later everybody

The State of College Football

 Well, with what has been happening to these college football programs the last year in seems as if there have been more headlines off the field instead of on the field. It all started last year after the NCAA decided to rule on USC after the whole Reggie Bush receiving benefits that included a house and whatever else from the Southern Cal. The scandals went into the Basketball team of some players receiving monetary benefits that forced the university to fire their coach. Meanwhile, in Football side Pete Carroll instead of stepping down and admitting that there was any wrongdoing, hightailed out of USC and went back into the NFL and took the Seattle Seahawks head coaching job. USC was put on a 2 year bowl ban and they would have 30 scholarships taken away (10 each for next 3 years).

Win a lot then leave the ship when its' sinking! :P

 O, but after last year it doesn't stop there. At North Carolina, at least 12 football players were suspended for the first few games for breaking NCAA rules many of which pertained to them getting help from tutors illegally. 6 of those were most likely heading towards the NFL. It got so bad for the program that after this year and into the summer, coach Butch Davis was fired.

Also Failed as the Cleveland Browns Coach :P

  And, not even my favorite team was subjectable to the NCAA. As I mentioned in my past blogs about the whole Ohio State Tattoo-gate Scandal.

http://dmoneystwocents.blogspot.com/2011/03/were-tattoos-worth-it-buckeyes.html

http://dmoneystwocents.blogspot.com/2011/04/should-tressel-get-fired-resign-or-stay.html

  Well as time passed, Tressel was forced to resign as the Buckeyes Head Coach and Luke Fickel has taken over the duties. They have even dealt with star QB Terrell Pryor, one of the Tattoo Five whose gotten a lot of attention directed to himself in a bad way since he was suspended, leaving Ohio State and heading to the NFL via the Supplemental Draft. How successful Pryor will be remains to be seen. What we do know is that NCAA will not hit Ohio State with a failure to monitor and it seems they cooperated with the NCAA and the hearing 2 weeks ago seemed to go well. It looks like maybe the NCAA will accept Ohio State's self imposed punishment of erasing the 2010 season and probation for 2 years or more, but that remains to be seen in the next few weeks.

  There have other types of scandals and stories involving other teams as well. West Virginia just had a problem with their coaches. Bill Stewart, the recent coach, wanted to dig up some dirt on the new upcoming coach Dana Holgorsen and it caused him to resign and Holgorsen to take over. One of LSU's position coaches was caught up in a recruiting scandal and resigned and LSU put some inposed sanacations on their program but not where they wouldn't be hurt. Two west coast universites are also in the news with Oregon's Chip Kelly being looked into possible recruiting violations that involves a scout.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news;_ylt=AuWXILTEhxqIqoJDbD8HHTY7MuB_?slug=ys-robinson_scout_details_deal_oregon_kelly_070111


Boise State, everyone's media darling, their sport programs have been hit with trouble forcing them to fire their Athletic Director. It seems with all of this craziness that you would have heard enough, well wrong. Last week as we heard the University of Miami's troubles make everyone else's including Ohio State's seem like a slap on the wrist. Here's the link with the coverage.

http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news;_ylt=AjSbGC.qgru9RvZQQS.r_uM7MuB_?slug=dw-wetzel_miami_scandal_scene_081711

http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news;_ylt=ArRtOWUxZz5UoiPDoXXgfGA7MuB_?slug=cr-renegade_miami_booster_details_illicit_benefits_081611

Apparently, in these articles pertains to the investigation brought upon a former Miami booster who is now serving 20 years in for a $930 million dollar Pozzi Scheme, and his role in providing almost everything to star players. These included, VIP parties, cash, entertainment, strippers, prostituties, jewerly, cash bounties for taking out opposing players, fancy restaurants, and travel. It even included how he once payed for an abortion for a stripper who was inpreganted by one of the players!! This all occured during 2002-10 when he was a booster and he said that coaches from the Basketball and Football programs knew about it. Pretty shocking, huh?! It would be shocking if at least over half of this turned out to be true. Now everyone is thinking Miami is going to be given the Death Penalty by the NCAA. This is very rare and it was given to only five universities sport programs. The most famous one being SMU's Football Program which it has now taken them almost 25 years to recover from.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMU_football_scandal

  Now, with all of these scandals and teams moving from one conference to other another I think it's almost time for this season to begin. Many teams are trying to one up each other in order to keep up with the Jones' per say. Even if it means at a cost to bend the rules. Now, the NCAA is out of the woods in this blog. I think with what has been going on the NCAA needs to step up and enforce or intrepret their rules much better. Now, I don't think giving these players a stipend is not going to solve things. It could make things worse. These football players are already getting their education, room, board and what not taking care of. There are many student-athletes, and students going to school and having a part time job that work hard and pay for their education without a schlorship.

  I went to a Division III school, I could have been good enough to run for a Div II school or even a Div I Mid American Conference school but either my grades weren't good enough or I didn't get noticed. Not that I totally regreted my decision, I still made life long friends, got a good education, ran great for a Div III runner, and I was very blessed to have parents that support my education. There are those who do not have that luxury. These schlorship football players don't see what they got. They want the rewards now instead of later.

Anyway, the NCAA I bet is working on something. The best way could be to have schools enforce their complaince offices and have workers that look into their athletics more often and prevent some of these things from happening. Hopefully, this season we can enjoy the games much more without having to hear about more schools getting into possible trouble with the NCAA.

I'm D-Money and that's my Two Cents!!!

Race Summary: Columbus Crew 5k

Me Finishing the Crew 5k

      Well, this race the past Saturday (August 13th) wasn't too pretty since the top 2 guys blew away from me after the first 1.2 mile but I was able to hold on to 3rd place and get the VIP Lounge seats for the September 10th game against Toronto F.C. I can hang my hat on that. Just to briefly describe the conditions for the race weren't bad. A little bit overcast the morning of and it rained a tiny bit beforehand but it still wasn't hot or sunny that morning which made it good. But, the course wasn't mostly flat with an upgrade in the back part of the Ohio Expo Center as you run past the Ohio Historical Society building at the 2 mile mark. Yet, I ran it in 10:20 which was may off in fact I ran 1 mile in 4:45. I felt pretty good but not that good that morning. I learned that the course is off by .1 mile so its actually a 3.2 K race. But, I guess they wanted people to finish inside the stadium so that's a little understandable.
      Overall, I placed in the Top 3 in the last 2 races I have ran since coming back from injury. Yet, I still feel a little banged up, mostly in the right gluttal/hamstring area. Yep, the area that has given me problems over the last 12 years. I've been doing a lot of core strengthen work to make the hamstrings and hips stronger and I'm starting to feel much better. I just think they are a little bit heavy due to the strengthen.
      I admit I don't think I have taken a really comfortable ice bath then afteward hot bath combo for almost 3 years since the tub at my place doesn't pour out fast enough hot water and when I get the cold water to get it ready to dump the ice in the tub it doesn't get really cold water. The drainage is very tricky as well and I was afraid it may take a little water out as it's filling up. Well, now that's the past. I hope that the bathroom tub at my new place I'm moving too this weekend won't have that problems. Maybe, I can take a great ice bath then hot bath combo to make my legs and body feel much more relaxed. After Boston was the best one I took. :)
     Back to the race though. I looked at my performance as a chance to try to get my racing legs back and realize that I need to do some more long intervals. I did one yesterday( 3 mile WU, 5 mile threshold 85-90%, then a 3 mile CD) not a bad one to do. That and get a little more rest. I'll be glad after moving and unpacking this weekend.
    O yeah, I would recommend everyone that lives around C-Bus who hasn't been to a Columbus Crew Soccer Match to go to one!!! They are fun to go to, the fans are really into it, and the tailgates I go to with my CRC Crew are something.
    Next up is the Muskingum College/University Cross Country Alumni Race on August 28th!! Hopefully I'm still fast enough to beat up the College kids!! Crossin my fingers and keeping myself geared up till then. I'm D-Money and that's my race summary in Two Cents!!!

Race Summary: Dublin Irish Festival 5K

  Well, after a 3 1/2 month absence due to hip flexor issues (my psoas muscle) I've been able to run a 5k now. This past Thursday I ran the Dublin Irish Festival 5k in the evening which kicked off the Dublin Irish Festival itself. It was pretty warm that evening. I warmed up with a couple of the C bus Pacers then I was able to stretch and get my flats on and ready to run. I admit I was pretty nervous knowing that it had been awhile I had ran a 5k or over in a race since Boston not knowing how I would feel. I put heat all over my hips before I got to the starting line.
 The bagpipes were playing during the strideouts which was cool. After the national anthem we were off. Some dumb crazy high schoolers sprinted out to begin the race. I took past them and one guy followed. His name was John Kieffer who runs for Centre College and he runs a 9:20 3000M Steeple. The first mile was down hill a little then we turned right and went around a neighborhood block for the first mile which I got in 4:50. I didn't think I would feel this good. After going down the little hill the course ended back up on Dublin Road/High Street where the race began. Another kid who placed 2nd passed me. He goes to Florida Southern.
  We turned right on Rings Road for a slight upgrade then down a 180 turn before we reached Frantz Road heading back where you can see the other racers coming back. I ran 2 miles at 9:50. I still think it was just a little short. After turning on Dublin Road/High Street the race headed all the way back up into downtown Dublin where the race started. The ending sucked cause it was at least .75 or .8 mile long back to the finish. I was able to finish in 15:51 for 3rd. Probably 9-15 seconds short but I'll take that result after how I've been feeling last couple months dealing with hip problems and getting back into the racing mindset. Here is me with my hardware.

And me with the other CRC's/C Bus Pacers

Overall it was a good start to possibly getting back to possibly doing a half marathon this fall. The Irish Festival itself was fun. Went there Friday and Saturday. I recommend going to it next year. Gotta sleep when my body wants to in order to run like I want. The mileage is back up to around 70. :) Next up the Columbus Crew 5k this Saturday.

That's my race summary and my two cents. Cheers or as they say in Ireland,   Slainte!!!