N.C. State (7-5, 4-4 ACC) vs. Vanderbilt (8-4, 5-3 SEC)

Monday December 31st, Noon EST ESPN

Bowl History:  The Franklin American Mortgage Company Music City Bowl began in 1998.  The bowl was created to stimulate the economy in Nashville and also so that Nashville could show off it’s beauty to tourists.  ESPN has shown the bowl annually ever since its inception and more 760,000 fans have attened the bowl in person.  While the bowl has played host to many conferences, it is exclusively an ACC-SEC matchup though 2014.  The game has featured many big players such as Jason Campbell, Marion Barber, and C.J. Spiller.

N.C. State Scouting Report:  Offensively, the Wolfpack rely on QB Mike Glennon and WR Tobias Palmer.  Glennon threw for 30 touchdowns and averaged 304 yards/game.  Palmer may not have led the team in yards and TD’s (670 yards this season and 6 touchdowns), he has been Glennon’s favorite target in big games.  … [Read More]

In this year’s edition of the Battle For Los Angeles, the upstart UCLA Bruins jumped out to a quick lead and held on to “upset” the Trojans by ten points on a gray day in Pasadena.  While the Bruins obviously have been playing much better football this year, you’ve also got to wonder if the trajectories of the programs have now crossed, particularly given some of the issues that continue to swirl at Southern Cal.… [Read More]

Week one saw me going 2 and 3 as I grade things- here are the results for my picks. Keep in mind that I expect my picks to be spot on with regards to score, competitive level and who won!

• MSU defeated Boise State 17 to 13 – Prediction right: MSU 21 to 7
• Alabama defeated TTUN 41 to 14 – Prediction Wrong: Alabama 21 to 10
• Virginia Tech defeated Georgia Tech in OT 20 to 17 – Prediction Wrong: VT 34
… [Read More]

Make sure you join the BBN’s Bracket Challenge this year!  Bragging rights abound!

Favorites: The East region is graced with a few powerful teams that could be poised to make a deep run. The … [Read More]

The story this week was big upsets, both with teams falling from the ranks of the undefeated and teams rising to the occasion against expectations.  So let’s start in that vein, and with a little “howdy do” to our newest BFFs from the Iowa State contingency, who turned the tables on a Texas Tech team coming off a huge upset on their own. And it wasn’t just a “win” against the #20 Red Raiders, but a 41-7 demolition of Tommy Tuberville’s squadron… must have been a bit presumptuous to start the “Mike … [Read More]

This week is the annual Ohio State Board of Trustee meetings, and we’ve known their schedule for a while now.

However, given the “story” that is Ohio State Sports, and given whispers that members of the Board were influential in helping Jim Tressel choose to resign, all eyes and ears have been tuned to these usually dry proceedings to find any hints as to the state of OSU Athletics (including current staffing stability).

And, when you look for a story, you often find or create one to justify your perspective.  On Wednesday, it was reported by 10TV that yet another scandal was brewing, this one at the highest levels. Seems that Wednesday’s “closed door meetings”, was such that folks were concerned that their very nature was a potential violation of Ohio’s Open Meetings Laws ; surely there must … [Read More]

Although I usually don’t take requests, I almost made an exception for Coach Rodriguez.

What a great week of football- three days worth of collegiate goodness, interspersed with some NFL stuff, lots of food, and the occasional neighborhood game. Although, this year things ended up being a little messy.

I guess you could say that the mess all started on Thursday, when our friends in burnt orange managed to lose their rivalry game against the Aggies.  As you can imagine, the good folks at Shaggy Bevo are taking this well, particularly given that most of the losses happened in Austin.

The Longhorn’s collapse is the first time in recent memory that a team has gone from the BCS championship game to not … [Read More]

This weekend looked to be the best thus far in terms of quality matchups, but only a few actually lived up to those expectations. Let’s start in the SEC, shall we?

Alabama, man… Another “can’t they both lose?” as the Crimson Tide invited the Gators to their place. As we were reminded over and over and over again by unbiased network analysts, when these two team play, the winner usually heads on to a national championship. As much as  I hated to see Urban’s squadron be held without a touchdown (sarcasm alert), it was interesting that Alabama seems to be perfecting the tenets of Tresselball- No mistakes … [Read More]