Three Things That Are Bugging Me Today

There are a few things that are bugging me about college football this morning.

Every day, as of late, I have been listening to sports talk radio non-stop. I find that it helps me get through the work day and all the crap I spend my time doing. It's either sports radio or YouTube, and you can only spend so much time on YouTube. Trust me on this one.

So there are a few things that I hear over the course of my day, that I don't agree with. There are also things that I read on the internet that I also don't necessarily agree with. With that being said, there are about three things that are driving me nuts this morning.

1. The Big East conference isn't THAT good. It's a bunch of hype.

For years, fans, coaches and players of the Big East have been demanding respect, and rightly so. These teams are good teams people. They just aren't THAT good. Out of the top 25 spots in the country, teams from the Big East (or shall I say Big Easy) take up four of those spots. West Virginia, Rutgers, South Florida and Cincinnati are the teams that are ranked. And it's two of these teams that I have a problem with. Rutgers and Cincinnati.

The first is Rutgers. They are ranked #10 in the country. I am not challenging their ranking here. They are in the top ten largely due to what they accomplished last year. But they started out the year ranked 15th in the land, I believe. But why have they climbed 5 spots? I just don't get it.

Here's who Rutgers have beaten this year: Buffalo, Navy & Norfolk State. Given, they have beaten all their opponents by a combined score of 140-27, but again I say....Norfolk State?!? Are they serious? Look at the pic above, Norfolk State can't even afford putting a decal on their helmets! Can they honestly say "yeah, we beat Norfolk State pretty bad last week" with a straight face? I doubt it. These are hardly victories that warrant climbing the polls, even by a couple spots.

Sure, one might say, "But they haven't struggled with anyone." But dude, I say "But they haven't played anyone." Go and schedule an out-of-conference road game against a team from a legitimate conference, and then I will give more national-title-worthy respect to a team like Rutgers. Or anyone else in the Big East for that matter.

It's the same kind of deal with Cincinnati. Sure, they're 4-0 right now. But how impressive is that 4-0 record? Here's who they've beat so far: Southeast Missouri State, Oregon State, Miami (OH) (not Miami of Florida), and Marshall. And the fact that they beat down Oregon State doesn't help their case, because the Beavers are my team and I am still pissed that they lost that game to Cincinnati. But the interesting part about that game, is that is was in Cincinnati. You play that game in Corvallis, and it's a different outcome. But they played the game in Cincinnati, so I can't make that case.

So in summary, all of the teams from the Big East are soft, except West Virginia, and they are still pretty soft comparatively speaking. Anyway, more on the Big East (Big Easy) a little bit later.

2. Les Miles is an idiot. And USC does NOT have an easier road to the national title game than LSU does.

A little background on Les Miles and why he is an idiot. Back before the season started, at a luncheon or something for the LSU boosters, Miles had this to say.

"I would like nothing better than to play USC for the [national] title...I can tell you this, that they have a much easier road to travel. They're going to play real knockdown drag-outs with UCLA and Washington, Cal-Berkeley, Stanford -- some real juggernauts -- and they're going to end up, it would be my guess, in some position so if they win a game or two, that they'll end up in the title [game].

"I would like that path for us. I think the SEC provides much stiffer competition."

SI.com writer Stewart Mandel followed Miles' comments with this:

"Forget for a moment the numerous, logical flaws in Miles' diatribe (i.e., the fact the team he's bashing beat SEC West champion Arkansas 50-14 last season). Forget for a moment the seemingly arbitrary shots at innocent bystanders Washington and Stanford. (Is Pete Carroll out there dissing Vanderbilt and Mississippi State at his booster functions?)"

I agree with that and would like to add my own proof of how much of an idiot Les Miles is. Maybe he had some oddly skewed viewpoint of his own team's awesome-ness at the beginning of the year, but he can't possibly think that same thing now that the season has actually started.

If you take a look at the rest of the year for both LSU and "overrated" USC, you'll see something much different than Miles was saying. It's really quite simple.

As of right now, USC plays 3 more ranked teams...namely (11) Oregon, (6) Cal-Berkeley and (23) Arizona State. And they play them all on the road. Oh and they have already beaten (14) Nebraska on the road as well.

If you look at LSU, they still have 3 ranked teams to play as well. These are (4) Florida, (14) Kentucky and (22) Alabama. Let's throw in Auburn and Arkansas too, cuz they're pretty good teams that aren't ranked nationally at the moment. Now they play Alabama and Kentucky on the road. They still get to play Auburn, Arkansas, and Florida at home. LSU plays their home games in what is considered the hardest stadium to visit in all of college football, mind you. It's brutal down there.

LSU has already taken down (9) Virginia Tech and (12) South Carolina. Both of those games were at home, if you were wondering.

So I don't mean to bad mouth LSU and say they don't deserve to be #2 in the country. I fully believe they should be #2 in the land. They've earned it. But I've heard a lot of people say that if they played right now, LSU could beat USC. Blah blah blah. I guess this game will be taking place in I-am-smoking-crack-and-living-in-fairy-tale-land and I just haven't heard, because we don't really know what would happen if they both played. Guess why? Because they HAVEN'T played yet.

And as for what Les Miles said about USC having an "easy road", well let's just say I would agree with every little bit of what he said if ONE thing were true. If USC played in the Big East.



3. Get off of Mike Gundy's back already.

So if you haven't heard or seen anything about Mike Gundy, he is the football coach at Oklahoma State University. I had never heard of him either, before he did this. I don't really have a lot to say about this, except that the gal who wrote the article in question did do some hitting below the belt.

Now she is a columnist and has her right to her opinion. But people are saying that this Mike Gundy guy is just another crazy football coach who went off on this poor little reporter, and that's just not how I see it. It was a cheap shot article and the coach had a right to yell at the girl. So leave him alone already, is what I say. Oh and if yelling openly at women is accepted in the midwest, then sign me up. Stillwater, Oklahoma here I come! I'll be in the next wagon coach headin that way...

A lot of people are saying, "well college football players should be open for just as much criticism as the next guy. Even as much as professional athletes." I don't necessarily agree with that, but here's my point. Why can't this columnist who wrote this take a little criticism herself? People are saying that this poor little woman columnist was just "doing her job" or whatever.

Well if the following bits from the article is her just "doing her job", she ain't very good at it. Check these below-the-belt comments out. The bits about him eating chicken seem to be straight up mocking.

"Bobby Reid stood near the team charters last Friday night, using his cell phone, eating his boxed meal...It would've been normal post-game activity but for one thing. His mother was feeding him chicken."

"...Or does he want to be coddled, babied, perhaps even fed chicken? That scene in the parking lot last week had no bearing on the Cowboys changing quarterbacks, and yet, it said so much about Reid. A 21-year-old letting his mother feed him in public? Most college kids, much less college football players, would just as soon be seen running naked across campus."

"Then, there have been the injuries. No doubt some of Reid's ailments have been severe, including an injured shoulder that required surgery and forced him to redshirt. Other times, though, Reid has been nicked in games and sat it out instead of gutting it out...Injuries are tricky, of course. You don't want a guy to put himself in harm's way if he's really hurt, and yet, football is one of those sports in which everyone plays hurt. Aches and pains, bumps and bruises are part of the gig."

First of all, who is she to talk about who is injured and who isn't, and to what extent they are injured. What do any reporters know about "gutting it out" and "part of the gig" unless they have played sports themselves? I love when people assume that someone isn't really hurt, because I guess they can magically transport their body into the injured person's body, and feel how much it hurts.

She's never played football a day in her life, so we can safely assume that she doesn't know what she's talking about. Am I wrong here?

And that's it for today. I know it's long, but hey people, it's informative stuff alright? So read it. You will be much better for it. Oh and I didn't wanna post a picture of this dumb girl who wrote the column I was just talking about, so I posted this pic of this hottie cheerleader cuz she is awesome. And if this cheerleader wrote columns, I would read every one of them...