The Rest of College Football

[Jamie H]

I've never heard anything about officiating being any different during the bowls. Those are the same refs out there that have been out there all year.

[Mackenzie]

I'm sure you're correct. However, either the refs are missing quite a few of these this bowl season or they just are not calling them. In the one example I mentioned (acting like an airplane), the celebration was very visible and done at about the 40 yard line.

[whodean]

I was hoping Bama would win the title this year and have a mass team exodus to the NFL - giving Mich a chance in the '12 opener.

Bama is going to be elite as long as Saban is wearing Crimson, it will take a helluva effort to beat them next year.

[WM Wolverine]

If all their NFL in talent juniors return, Bama is a likely challenger for NT. If 4-5 leave, they are just a top 10 team that M is capable of beating on a neutral field.

[Paul L]

Richardson should be gone, right?

[WM Wolverine]

You'd think so, Hightower seems likely too. Thought Barret Jones was likely too though...

Kirkpatrick is a possibility too. Damion Square could leave but I think he's a middle round pick...

Alabama does lose a lot of quality seniors.

[*JD*]

Best bowl venue I've been to... Alamo bowl. Game is up next and it reminded me of the greatness that is the river walk.

Really? Not the Riverwalk but the Alamodome seemed pretty sterile to me when I went to the Alamo Bowl. However, I did see Hakeem tear David up in '95, which was pretty great.

[entropy]

River walk is the best location for a bowl game.

[Ghengis Jon]

Filed under Totally Useless Information:

Michigan's 23-20 win over Virginia Tech was the eighth bowl game this season decided by three points or fewer. Only once before has there been more bowl games decided by three points or fewer, when there were 11 in 2006.

[hack]

Not useless! It's good to have close games and excitement to compensate for the overall crappy system. The powers that be at least got some matchups right this year.

[entropy]

Dejuan Miller's dad ripping Jay Norvell on twitter :

Also tweeting top WR prospects DGB and Durron Neal to stay away from OU.

@CoachJayNorvell love how other players can have 5 drops & get a 2nd chance (re: jaz/txtech) and D can't get any breaks. PONIES u.
10:26pm - 30 Dec 11

Folks wonder why kids are leaving: coaches like @CoachJayNorvell trying to serve their own purpose. "my recruits are all playing".
10:30pm - 30 Dec 11

@CoachJayNorvell go ahead and play kids that disrespect u and fail drug tests instead of working hard. They deserve it.
11:19pm - 30 Dec 11

My son went to OU loving football. After OU---not quite the same. Seems like hard work = NOTHING. Thanks @CoachJayNorvell
3:27am - 31 Dec 11

@CoachJayNorvell Funny, after 4 years, you can't even say hello to a players mom at the banquet. You're a joke. Great gameplan vs Iowa.
3:32am - 31 Dec 11

And Now Tweeting OU Recruits:
@DorialGB5 and @5Live_DaShowOut good luck with that flakey ass coach at OU. @CoachJayNorvell can't be trusted.
3:35am - 31 Dec 11

[entropy]

College football bowl game attendance takes a dip
By Steve Berkowitz, USA TODAY

Attendance at this season's college football bowl games is down from last season and might end up at the lowest per-game average in more than 30 years.

Tuesday night's Sugar Bowl was the 30th of this season's 35 games, each of which also was played last season. The total attendance for those games is more than 2.5% lower this season than it was last season. If this trend holds for the remaining five games, the average bowl attendance for the season would fall to 50,542. That would be the lowest since 1978-79, when the number of games expanded to 15 from 13 and the average was 48,404. (In 2002-03, when the number of games expanded to 28 from 25, the average was 50,575.)

This season's attendance also is nearly 3% lower when compared against the previous five-season average for the 25 games played in each of those seasons.

PHOTOS: Images from all the bowl games
MORE: Complete bowl lineup

"It's a little bit of everything," said Tina Kunzer-Murphy, chairwoman of the Football Bowl Association and executive director of the Maaco Bowl Las Vegas. She cited the number of bowls and public discontent with various elements of the college football landscape, such as conference realignment activity and the Bowl Championship Series, for the drop.

"People love college football, but there's somewhat of a disconnect with the general public," Kunzer-Murphy said. "The public has been speaking out for the last year that they want to see changes."

She wasn't specific but said with many conference realignments pending, Bowl Championship Series executive director "Bill Hancock and the BCS and all of us as bowl directors … have to look at what's going on — can you tweak it, can you make some changes. … The onus is on each of us as bowl directors. We're only a part of college football, but we need to do what's best for our conference partners, our TV partners and our sponsorship partners.

"A lot of things have led up to this," she added. "We need to do our due diligence and look at what's in the best interest of our business and make changes appropriately."

While Kunzer-Murphy says there no set way for bowls to report attendance, the figures generally represent actual game attendance, including news media and other non-paying attendees.
Game
(Last season's name)
2010-11
Attendance
2011-12
Attendance
Difference
from 2010

New Mexico
BYU-UTEP
32,424
Wyoming-Temple
25,762
-6,662

Famous Idaho Potato (Humanitarian)
Northern Illinois-Fresno State
25,449
Utah State-Ohio
28,076
2,627

New Orleans
Troy-Ohio
29,159
La.-Lafayette-San Diego State
42,841
13,682

Beef 'O' Brady's
Louisville-Southern Miss
20,017
Fla. International-Marshall
20,072
55

Poinsettia
San Diego State-Navy
48,049
TCU-Louisiana Tech
24,607
-23,442

MAACO
Utah-Boise State
41,923
Boise State-Arizona State
35,720
-6,203

Hawaii
Hawaii-Tulsa
43,673
Southern Miss-Nevada
32,630
-11,043

Independence
Georgia Tech-Air Force
39,362
North Carolina-Missouri
41,728
2,366

Little Caesars
Toledo-Florida International
32,431
Western Michigan-Purdue
46,177
13,746

Belk (Meineke Car Care)
Clemson-South Florida
41,122
NC State-Louisville
58,427
17,305

Military
Maryland-East Carolina
38,062
Air Force-Toledo
25,042
-13,020

Holiday
Nebraska-Washington
57,921
California-Texas
56,313
-1,608

Champs Sports
N.C. State-West Virginia
48,962
Florida State-Notre Dame
68,305
19,343

Alamo
Oklahoma State-Arizona
57,593
Baylor-Washington
65,256
7,663

Armed Forces
SMU-Army
36,742
Tulsa-BYU
30,258
-6,484

Pinstripe
Syracuse-Kansas State
38,274
Rutgers-Iowa State
38,328
54

Music City
Tennessee-North Carolina
69,143
Miss State-Wake Forest
55,208
-13,935

Insight
Missouri-Iowa
53,453
Oklahoma-Iowa
54,247
794

Meineke Car Care (Texas)
Baylor-Illinois
68,211
Texas A&M-Northwestern
68,395
184

Sun
Notre Dame-Miami (Fla.)
54,021
Utah-Georgia Tech
48,123
-5,898

Liberty
Central Florida-Georgia
51,231
Vanderbilt-Cincinnati
57,103
5,872

Fight Hunger
Nevada-Boston College
41,063
UCLA-Illinois
29,878
-11,185

Chick-Fil-A
Florida State-South Carolina
72,217
Auburn-Virginia
72,919
702

TicketCity
Texas Tech-Northwestern
40,121
Houston-Penn State
46,817
6,696

Outback
Penn State-Florida
60,574
Georgia-Michigan State
49,429
-11,145

Capital One
Michigan State-Alabama
61,519
South Carolina-Nebraska
61,351
-168

Gator
Mississippi State-Michigan
68,325
Florida-Ohio State
61,312
-7,013

Rose
TCU-Wisconsin
94,118
Oregon-Wisconsin
91,245
-2,873

Fiesta
Oklahoma-Connecticut
67,232
Stanford-Oklahoma State
69,927
2,695

Sugar
Ohio State-Arkansas
73,879
Michigan-Virginia Tech
64,512
-9,367

Orange
Virginia Tech-Stanford
65,453
Clemson-West Virginia

Cotton
Texas A&M-LSU
83,514
Arkansas-Kansas State

BBVA Compass
Pittsburgh-Kentucky
41,207
SMU-Pittsburgh

GoDaddy.com
Middle Tennessee-Miami (Ohio)
38,168
Arkansas State-Northern Ill.

BCS Championship
Auburn-Oregon
78,603
LSU-Alabama

[entropy]

Report: OU Network programming will air on Fox Sports Southwest and Fox Sports Oklahoma

Sports Business Daily reports more than 1,000 hours of programming would air annually



BY MEL BRACHT, Staff Writer, mbracht@opubco.com Leave a comment
Published: January 3, 2012
In the battle between Oklahoma and Texas for superiority in athletic TV programming, the Sooners apparently will have the edge in distribution and the Longhorns the edge in rights fees.

According to a report Monday in Sports Business Daily, OU is close to announcing a deal with Fox Sports Oklahoma and Fox Sports Southwest that will place more than 1,000 hours of OU Network-branded programming in a combined 8.6 million homes of the two networks.

That's a huge advantage over the Longhorn Network, which has barely gotten off the ground in Texas, and reportedly has about 4 million subscribers nationally, most of which are on Verizon FiOS.

While Texas' deal with ESPN for the Longhorn Network is valued at $300 million over 20 years, OU's deal with Fox is believed to be worth much less, both in terms of value and length, Sports Business Daily reported.

OU athletic spokesman Kenny Mossman declined to comment Tuesday on the trade publication's report.

“We have continued an aggressive approach in launching expanded content distribution through a sustainable network,” Mossman said in a statement. “Our progress has been significant, but as we have said since we began this process, we won't address specifics until an agreement has been finalized.”

Fox Sports Southwest spokesman Ramon Alvarez also declined to comment.

Between the FSOK and Fox Sports Southwest, the OU programming would be carried to cable and satellite homes in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and a small portion of New Mexico.

Texas subscribers apparently would get more OU programming than any of the Texas schools, unless they are among the small segment that subscribe to the Longhorn Network.

According to the report, one of the primary objectives of OU officials in striking a deal with Fox was to launch their branded content on a partner that offered complete distribution from the start, unlike the struggling Longhorn Network, which has yet to be picked up by Texas' two biggest cable operators (Time Warner Cable and Comcast) or its two biggest satellite operators (DirecTV and Dish Network).

The programming will be branded either the Sooner Network or Oklahoma Network and will feature third-tier TV rights, including at least one live football game, several men's and women's basketball games and Olympic sports. Third-tier TV rights include live games that are not picked up by the Big 12's primary network partners, ESPN and Fox.

In the Big 12, schools do not share third-tier rights with the rest of the conference unlike some other conferences, including the Big Ten and Pac 12.

A broadband component also is expected to be part of the deal. The OU-branded broadband site would feature live streaming and other on-demand content, according to the report.

In addition to sports, the OU-branded programming block would include university events, such as commencements and guest speakers, and programming from other academic departments.


Read more: http://newsok.com/report-ou-network-programming-will-air-on-fox-sports-southwest-and-fox-sports-oklahoma/article/3637319#ixzz1iWxeZNst

[entropy]

What a crazy orange bowl

[paul daugherity]

Yeah. Don't teams coach or play defense anymore? I hate this style of football.