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First Celebration Rule Victim: Washington

In case you missed it, there was a tremendous football game played this afternoon between Washington and BYU. Washington started the final drive down a touchdown (28-21) and pulled off several impressive third and fourth down conversions to keep their hopes alive.

Facing third and goal from their own two with under 10 seconds left, Washington made a gutsy move and called a quarterback run for Jake Locker who stumbled but kept his balance just long enough to sneak into the end zone to bring the Huskies within an extra point of overtime with two seconds left. In his elation, Locker threw the ball over his head and jumped into the body of a teammate.

A nearby official then threw a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct, part of the new celebration rule. Count on that rule requiring some kind of amendment during the offseason because Locker's celebration was mild, to put it mildly.

Washington then faced a long extra point, which was blocked, ending the game with defeat instead of what should have been a gimme extra point and overtime.

Swing Shift Saturday College Football Live Blog Chat



We'll be taking over for the early shift of the live blog of college football here at 3pm. We'll finish out the early games and get started on the mid day games like Penn St. vs. Oregon St., Oklahoma vs. Cincinnati, and East Carolina against West Virginia.

Start the chat after the jump.

Early Shift Saturday College Football Live Blog


It's week two, headlined by ESPN College GameDay's visit to Gainesville for the Florida/Miami battle. As usual we'll be here all day keeping tabs on the games starting with this early shift. Be sure to join the discussion after the jump.

Festivities begin at noon, Eastern.

And You Don't Even Have to Feel Dirty About It: Rent the USC Song Girls for $150


College athletes generate a ton of money for their respective universities. Most of the time, it's football and basketball players that bring in the majority of cash for schools. Now, it may be time for cheerleaders to contribute, at least for USC.

That's right. The USC Song Girls, called the "Crown Jewel of USC Spirit" and the "most photographed spirit group in the country", are now for rent. And they only cost $150.00. Ah, no -- scratch that. They cost a buck-fitty per lady that you want to attend.

Super Sexy Fun Time Conference Calls With George O'Leary

George O'Leary is a man that lives on the edge. Clearly. So it should come as no real surprise that when Iliana Limon, a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, tried to call into a conference call, she was greeted with a phone sex line introduction.

Wait. That should be a surprise. Ah. Turns out the PR guy, whose job security is likely through the roof right now, handed out the wrong number to reporters.
When I dialed in, the voice on the other line said, "Hi sexy, you've reached the one-on-one fantasy line." I gasped, hung up and figured I must have dialed the wrong number. So, I checked the UCF news release and dialed again, but I got the same phone sex hotline complete with offers I can't really post on this blog.

It turns out Leigh Torbin, UCF's new director of athletic communications, accidentally listed one digit incorrectly when he released the teleconference information and sent the media on an amusing detour. Torbin said he feels terrible about the error and set up another teleconference with O'Leary at noon Wednesday. "Today's scheduled call was not able to occur due to my own technical mistakes for which I deeply apologize," Torbin wrote at the end of the latest news release announcing the Wednesday teleconference.
Rowwwwwr. I'm not sure whether my reaction would be "GOOD ONE, GUYS!" and then pull a Farva on someone, or whether I would just quietly hang up the phone and never speak of that again. Probably the latter.

Or as Ryan Wilson pointed out, it could simply have been O'Leary breathing heavily on the other end of the line. And I can kind of picture him as a Paul-type anyway, so that kind of works.

That Number One Overall Thing Was Fun for Georgia While It Lasted

The Georgia Bulldogs opened the college football season as number one overall for the first time in the history of their school. It didn't last very long. Like, until this afternoon. Blame USC. Blame the pollsters. Or blame the athletic department for scheduling Georgia Southern.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

The voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
That's not to over-qualify Virginia as a team that deserves that much respect (sorry; no real offense intended but the ACC will take it from everyone all week long and like it whether they want to or not) but the truth of the matter, which Mandel also pointed out, is that pollsters no longer want to reward teams heavily for playing cream puffs early on in their schedule.

So, lesson: play a tougher pastry with some name value like Virginia, and you'll end up better. Oh, and do yourself a favor: don't lose to someone like App.

Misdirected Skydiver Crashes Duke Football Opener Instead of Landing in Chapel Hill

If you were wondering why the North Carolina Tar Heels came out so flat yesterday, it's because their pregame festivities got all screwed up. They were supposed to have a skydiver come out of nowhere (well, the sky actually) and deliver the game ball in the middle of Kenan Stadium. Problem is, he never showed up. Where was he? Kicking it at Duke's Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham.



Well, in fairness, it's hard to distinguish, especially with the cloud cover, between Durham and Chapel Hill. Or the football they play.

Via 850 the Buzz

Sunday Hangover: ACC Football, Point, Laugh, Repeat as Needed

Miss any of Saturday's action? Get the storylines and implications every Sunday morning with a shot of humor, two of vermouth and a pot full of whatever kind of coffee gets brewed 10 hours later.

Take a number, Hurricane Gustav, no one does disaster like the ACC.

How awful was the weekend for whatever small amount of credibility ACC football may have owned?

New Coke is laughing at the ACC while wearing parachute pants and drinking with Captain Hazelwood in Mike Dukakis' tank.

Memo to the league: Maybe you should've just spent your Labor Day weekend with your fuzzy slippers on while parked in front of the "Crossing Jordan" marathon. Football may, in fact, not be your thing.

If you weren't too drunk, sadistic or lazy to find the remote this weekend, you might've missed what was a nationally televised debacle so embarrassing Miss Teen South Carolina felt bad for the ACC.


Will ABC Give Musberger the 'Billy Packer Treatment'? Doesn't Seem Likely

With about 10 seconds remaining in the third quarter of the Alabama - Clemson "game" (if you can call it that) Brent Musberger said that, to paraphrase, the "good thing about this loss" is that the can still win the ACC Championship, which was their ultimate goal.

He and Kirk Herbstreit went on to debate whether or not that was a legitimate possibility, given the fact that Clemson has, up to this point, been getting freaking pummeled. And I'm sure that's a reasonable question, along with the the debate as to whether the ACC deserves to play football this year.

But the bigger issue I have is that Burger just pulled a Billy Packer and said that the game was over ... in the third quarter. And Clemson only down three scores. Personally, Packer's "over" statement in the Carolina - Kansas game didn't bother me outside the jinx possibilities of having the Tarheels come back, but it bothered a lot of sponsors.

So I'd at least like to see Brent, who is, like Billy, a ranting old school homer in the announcing booth each week, get some short of chastising for what equates to the exact same thing. I have to imagine that Chik-Fil-A, who coughed up a ton of money for this game, probably took notice. So, Brent, if you wake up and there's a giant tomahawk chopping cow staring in your Atlanta hotel room, you'll know why.

Rich Rodriguez Says* 'I Have Made Made a Huge, Tiny Mistake' as Michigan Loses Opener


*Actually, RichRod said no such thing. In fact, what he said was "Not all is lost." Which, unfortunately, is not entirely accurate now that Michigan has fallen to Utah in the home season opener 25-23.

But I would venture to guess that he's immediately reconsidering his decision to jump from BCS-wheelhouse friendly West Virginia to Michigan, where his every move and each loss will be heavily criticized.

Of course, he knew that, because he watched Lloyd Carr get destroyed when he fell to Appalachian State in the opener last year. Which means that he also knew a loss to a non-BCS conference team in his home opener would be, um, not good.

Oddly though, watching him in the post game presser, he's talking like he's an NFL coach and not a college coach. He's mentioning "positive things" and gaining "experience" and frankly, that's not how it works in college football.
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