NCAA Football Tcu Football

The Texas Bowl has aspirations. They want to see the Cotton Bowl move into the BCS rotation and then the Houston-based bowl can grab the Cotton Bowl's prestige. They want the not even 3-year old bowl to be a New Years Day game. Heck, they've moved the 2008 bowl game to December 30.

Of course to get that spot takes more than just throwing money -- well, that helps a lot -- they have to make sure they fill the stands for the bowl games. That's the problem.

For all their dreams, the Texas Bowl is a regional draw. It isn't a destination location like the bowls in Florida and California. To get people to attend, they need to feature teams that are geographically relevant (read: have strong alumni affiliations in the Houston area and/or local). Last year they featured TCU and Houston and drew over 62,000. The year before with K-State and Rutgers, they got a bit over 52,000.

Now the Big 12 has that, and that's why they are happy to take the 8th team from that conference. The problem was they also had affiliated with the Big East -- which just seemed ill-fitting for a bowl that proclaims itself as "a celebration of the culture, heritage and football tradition of the Lone Star State." Yes, UConn and Cinci would be perfect representatives

The Big East also recognized the problem and decided to disengage from the Texas Bowl. Instead Conference USA will be the contributing conference this year along with the Big 12. The Mountain West and occasionally Navy will be in the rotation. Between the MWC and C-USA they have shots at getting schools in Texas: TCU, Houston, Rice (okay, a longshot), UTEP and SMU. Not to mention a lot more schools within the region.

Interesting find in Olin Buchanan's Mailbag this week at Rivals.com: a trend has emerged in college football whereby teams winning a title ending in any year ending in an 8 experience a long, painful championship drought.

Recent victims: Notre Dame has not won a title since 1988. USC waited until 2003 after claiming the 1978 crown. Ohio State endured a more than 30-year wait between their 1968 and 2002 crowns. Scary stuff here.

Everyone wants a championship, but maybe it's a devil's bargain in reaching for this year's title?

Other victims of years ending in "8":

TCU was named the Associated Press national champion in 1938 – the third year of the poll – and even though players such as Bob Lilly and LaDainian Tomlinson have since come through Fort Worth, the Horned Frogs have not won another crown.

Michigan won in 1948 and did not win another national title until 1997, and that one was split with Nebraska. The '58 champion was LSU, which waited 45 years before celebrating another national championship.

Ok so maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing for TCU to win a championship this year. They've waited long enough, maybe another drought is worth the price of ending the current agony.

Last year at this time, there were threats of Congressional hearings, and all sorts of complaints over the NFL Network airing the Texas Bowl. Freezing out the fans of Rutgers and Kansas State lacking the channel (read: most cable subscribers), leading to last minute deals to show the game.

This year, nothing. No noise. No national outrage.

That of course may have had something to do with the retro-Southwest Conference feel of a Houston-TCU match-up. It probably helped ticket sales at Reliant Stadium in Houston, but outside of Texas very little interest.

The NFL Network, however, couldn't have been too happy. The lack of any broader appeal outside of Texas and teams from Conference USA and the Mountain West combined with the limited reach of the NFL Network; made this the bowl game of little consequence and completely forgotten.

TCU won the game 20-13. Houston hasn't won a bowl game since the unlamented Garden State Bowl victory over Navy in 1980. All of which, was little more than a footnote in this bowl season.

TCU came into this season with visions of being this year's Boise State. They had non-conference games with three BCS conference schools (sure that includes Stanford and Baylor, but they still count, sort of) to bolster their resume. They were ranked in the preseason top-25.

Unfortunately for the Horned Frogs, the dream died this past Saturday when the Longhorns took them apart in the second half. The hangover apparently didn't dissipate in time for a Thursday night road game.

TCU lost on the road at Air Force 20-17 in Overtime. A sloppy and painful in-conference loss as TCU blew a 17-3 lead in the 4th quarter. TCU found itslef unable to kill time with an ineffective running game that couldn't even crack 100 yards on 34 attempts. It marks the first time TCU has lost to Air Force or any of the service academies under head coach Gary Patterson.

Sure Michigan and Notre Dame each starting out 0-2 has been the big story. A huge dosage of schadenfreude to start the college football season as the respected fanbases are humbled. TCU, by contrast, will be largely overlooked and at most dismissed as another non-BCS team that couldn't live up to their hype.

It's the year of the Houdini act for college football stars. Our most recent "now you see him, now you don't" star is TCU's defensive terror, Tommy Blake. We're happy to report Blake is back in camp.

"This was a lot of different things," [TCU coach Gary] Patterson said. "I gave him a little time to work things out and now we'll have to play it by ear. He had good practices up to the point he left, and we'll go from here."

It sounds like Blake is still a flight threat as TCU plays it by ear. He joins Oregon State receiver Sammie Stroughter and Nebraska tailback Marlon Lucky (hospitalized in the summer) as mysterious departures from their teams. All appear to be returning to form. I appear to be returning to scratching my head.

Previously at FanHouse:
Tommy Blake Goes MIA at TCU

Just ... weird. If the odd disappearance of Sammi "Where's Sammie?" Stroughter at Oregon State wasn't enough, pay attention to this one.

Preseason All America defensive end Tommy Blake has left TCU.

Officially, preseason All-American Blake was absent from the Frogs' two practices Thursday because of "personal reasons." He also missed the afternoon workout Tuesday and a single practice Wednesday.

"Is he still on the team?"" [TCU coach Gary] Patterson asked Thursday, repeating the rumor of the day. "Yes, he is."

Instead of being on the practice field, however, as the Frogs prepare for their Sept. 1 season opener against Baylor, Blake was back in his hometown of Aransas Pass, reportedly trying to sort things out.

"Up to practice No. 11, he was perfect," Patterson said. "Unbelievable."

And the next day, it seems, an NFL scout from the Jets showed up to watch Blake practice. And a scout from the Titans. And from the Saints, the Broncos, the Giants and the Bills.

The attention, witnesses say, appeared to bother Tommy.

Apparently! Hopefully Blake can work through all of this, but yikes. NFL millions await him, although this has to send a major red flag to higher-ups in the pressure-packed league.

(H/T: Burnt Orange Nation)

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has issued subpoenas for 39 collegiate athletic departments in a probe of their relationships with student loan providers. At its most basic, this investigation is asking whether or not cash, kickbacks, gifts and other bribes or misleading measures were communicated between various student loan providers and the cited athletic departments.

Cuomo is investigating whether athletic departments at these universities agreed to promote SFS loans to students in exchange for kickbacks.

"Students trust their University's athletic departments because so much of campus life at Division I schools centers around supporting the home team," said Cuomo. "To betray this trust by promoting loans in exchange for money is a serious issue, especially when Division I schools already generate tremendous revenue from their student athletes. Today's action is an important new step as we continue to examine the unethical conflicts that pervade the student loan industry.

"The Attorney General's office is specifically investigating whether athletic departments evaluated UFS interest rates before recommending their federal loans, or if their endorsement of UFS was based purely on payments from the lender. Such an arrangement would constitute revenue sharing, which is a violation New York state consumer protection laws, as well as a violation of federal law.

D-IA football schools named (prominent schools in bold): Arkansas State, Auburn, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Colorado State, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Georgia Tech, Ohio, Oregon State, Rutgers, TCU, Tulane, Alabama-Birmingham, UCLA, UCF, Houston, Kansas, Louisville, Oregon, Pittsburgh, USF, UTEP. See link for complete list.

Of note: USC and Texas have also been scrutinized in a similar probe, but to my knowledge it has not been linked to their athletic departments but rather the university-wide financial aid offices of the schools.

It's good that athletic departments have an awareness of and working relationship with loan providers, but obviously there's a problem when that relationship gets too cozy and bad loan options are pressed upon students and student-athletes.

(Via: Yahoo!)

Previous: First Quarter II Second Quarter II Third Quarter

TCU is firmly in control of this game with a 30-0 lead so we'll just add anecdotes and observations from here on out instead of noting the various possessions.

Six the hard way... NIU just blocked a TCU punt and returned it for a touchdown to make this game 30-7 early in the fourth quarter. Methinks TCU misses their snapper who got himself ejected just a few minutes ago. That punt snap was poor and the punter had to chase it to his right.

Touchdown TCU, pass to tight end Brett Hecht to put them up 37-7.

Again, this seven win rule is silly. Any of a handful of six win teams could have made this a more compelling game than NIU.

They're stitching up the back of Lonta Hobbs' uniform. You don't see that everyday.

If you're looking for an early star to this bowl season, it's TCU defensive end Tommy Blake who has been all over the TCU backfield today. He has two sacks and half a million TFL's.

Three rushing touchdowns and now... a punt downed inside the five yard line. Not a bad evening for TCU senior quarterback Jeff Ballard.

And there's the Gatorade bath. This one's all but official now.

I think NIU finished with less than 100 total yards. What a sad effort tonight. TCU wins this one 37-7.

Previous: First Quarter II Second Quarter

TCU leads NIU 16-0 after the first half. This game is a dud so far but I'm hoping and praying for a more interesting second half.

Observation: TCU coach Gary Patterson sounds like (in voice) fired North Carolina State coach Chuck Amato.

ESPN's already filled some gaps with the required bowl sponsor interview and sideline interview with San Diego Charger tailbacks LaDainian Tomlinson and Michael Turner, alums of TCU and NIU.

Heh. My brother is at tonight's game and just sent me this message: "It's official: the 2006 Boredom Bowl". He was all excited about being there, too. Humbug.

Previous: First Quarter

TCU leads NIU 6-0 at the end of the first quarter thanks to a four yard touchdown run by tailback Lonta Hobbs.

Boring game so far as these teams trade quarterback sacks and punts. But TCU's threatening to score again as we start the second quarter.