Northern Illinois (12-1, 8-0 MAC) vs. Florida State (11-2, 7-1 ACC)
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

The History: The Orange Bowl has been played annually since 1935, making it the second-oldest bowl game, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, behind the Rose Bowl. Played in Miami, Fla., the Orange Bowl has been sponsored by Discover since 2010 after FedEx sponsored the game for 21 years before that.

Northern Illinois Scouting Report: The Huskies squeaked their way into the BCS party by finishing in the top 16 of the BCS standings after their 44-37 double overtime win against Kent State in the MAC Championship Game. Quarterback Jordan Lynch has thrown for 2,962 yards and 24 touchdowns this season and rushed for 1,771 yards and 19 touchdowns. To put it mildly, he’s decent.

Florida State Scouting Report: The Seminoles … [Read More]

And now, we know the form of our destructor. Notre Dame has finished the season undefeated, and will play for the National Title, most likely against an SEC team of some semblance.  Who knew that the Holy See was so closely connected with Tikal? We said early on that it would be an amazing accomplishment for the Irish to finish the year undefeated- and yet, here we are. Granted, they faced a down Southern Cal, a “choke-prone” Oklahoma, and struggled against Purdue and Pitt, but they stand atop the polls as our nation’s finest team.  So, let the … [Read More]

This has been identified as the first “Shakedown Saturday” of the season, and we knew early on that this would be a heck of a week for college football. While #1 Alabama sat idle, the rest of the top 10 was involved in contests amongst themselves… where commentators chose to ignore the fact that this was destined to happen when you put all the teams in one conference in the top ten because they’re in that conference.  But I digress..

Let’s start with the state of Florida, which went 1-2 on the weekend, and saw two “they’re back!!!” programs fall by the wayside.  The exception to this, of course, … [Read More]

Safe Bet.  VTU over PITT 31 to 6; Role reversal and WRONG! PITT 35 to 17 (Some other time Fat Urkel)

Points Plus. Mizzou over Arizona St. 43 to 39; wrong on points Mizzou 24 to 20

Defensive Struggle.  Navy over Penn St. 9 to 7; WRONG AGAIN!! PSU 34 to 7

Best Match-up. USC over Stanford 34 to 28; Glad I was WRONG Stanford 21 to 14

Best B1G Game. MSU over Notre Lame 24 to 17; Sparty WRONGED me! ND 20 to 3

Ok… here’s what you’ve got for this week:

Safe Bet.  Maryland @ WVU. I’ll take … [Read More]

It was a great weekend to be an Angry Bird, particularly if you were a Cardinal. Let’s start in Palo Alto.

In what’s become an annual tradition, a highly ranked Southern Cal team derped a game that many expected them to win. While it seemed to have always been the Beavers of Oregon State under the previous administration, the past four years have found a Cardinal thorn in the Trojans’ armor… as unbelievable as it is, September Heisman candidate Matt Barkley has never beaten Stanford in his career. The nice thing, though, is that Chad Henne and Mike Hart have a great support group … [Read More]

As we get closer and closer to kickoff, we’ll be looking across the nation at other (read “inferior”) conferences. This way, you’ll have just enough information to argue with that guy in accounting. Today we take a look at the Atlantic Coast Conference- nope, FSU and Clemson haven’t left yet.

Where does the conference fall in the national rankings. How likely are they to have a team in the Title game?

It’s not that the ACC hasn’t been able to compete on a national stage over the years or the fact that they don’t get ranked teams. They haven’t been able to finish at the end of the season. The only BCS National Champion they’ve produced is Florida State in 2000 as they beat a then Big East Virginia Tech. As a conference, the ACC is 2-13 overall in BCS bowls they have participated in and 1-2 in the Title game. … [Read More]

It’s good to be back… right before the team goes camping as well.  And here… we… go…

Buckeye 411

• Somebody’s watching- The pre-season lists keep
… [Read More]

First, APR Scores are out, and OSU football is number three in the country, behind only Northwestern and Duke/SISU.  The 988 score is better than Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, and Vandy.

As for “The Harvard Of The West”- tied for next to last in the B1G (thank you, Minnesota!) with their “little brother” in East Lansing.

Second, there’s a possibility that the 2013 Spring Game might be played in Cincinnati. From the press release:

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State Department of Athletics officials and those from the Cincinnati Bengals and Hamilton County are in discussions regarding the 2013 Ohio State LiFE Sports Spring Game, presented by Nationwide, being played at 65,535-seat Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati. Ohio Stadium will be under renovation

… [Read More]