If you're a real football fan, the best place to watch a game is from the sidelines. I can not recommend this highly enough. It doesn't even have to be on the NFL (good luck with that, anyway) or college level; I've had the pleasure of watching more than a few games on the sidelines under the lesser brightness of the Friday night lights, and you see and hear things that give you a better insight and appreciation of the action. It's an incredible perspective.
But it does have its drawbacks compared to the normal experience. For one, depending on your locale, it's probably cold. You've got to stand the entire game. There's always the chance that the physicality gets a little close to you, such as the time a tight end got pushed out of bounds, but in to me, which, despite my valiant (yet inevitably hilarious) attempt at a stiff arm, sent me flying backwards. And there are no wings, potato skins, mozzarella sticks, or beverages. Oh, and no bathrooms.
But as I found out last night at a movie theater in Brooklyn, football in 3D is close to merging the best of both these worlds. But it's not quite there yet.
"With us being in Florida and playing against Florida, everybody's going to think Tebow should have won the Heisman," Franks said. "But the right person won the Heisman, and we're going to go out there and show everybody the reason why he won it."
Exhibit B:
"If you look at the three best quarterbacks in the country, they came from the Big 12,"
Exhibit C:
"The three best receivers in the country came from the Big 12. The three best tight ends came from the Big 12. So we've faced some great offenses, and a lot of people don't understand that other conferences don't have what we face."
And with that, ESPN now has more than enough filler for the next few days of idle chatter before the big game. This is nothing new for Oklahoma before a BCS Championship game -- more on that in a moment -- and frankly, Franks wasn't finished talking.
Well there's your bowl shocker! Utah took SEC runner-up Alabama to the woodshed from the word go, running up a 21-0 first quarter lead on the way to a 31-17 Sugar Bowl victory in the belly of the SEC beast, New Orleans. In so doing, Utah finishes its season undefeated, 13-0, unblemished and mighty proud.
Oh, and they've shocked the entire college football world. A heartfelt congratulation. Not many programs can claim to have a pair of BCS bowl victories. Utah can, and has done so against two excellent programs -- Pitt and Alabama.
The 2008-2009 Sugar Bowl has arrived, featuring SEC runner-up Alabama and Mountain West champion Utah. Utah's attempting to win an improbable second BCS game and finish the season undefeated while Alabama hopes to springboard into a potential championship 2009 season with a victory.
The ghost of Bear Bryant is most certainly watching, you should too, particularly is Utah pulls a Boise State and slays one heck of a giant.
Live Blog/chat starts at 8:15 ET, chat application after the jump.
Say this much for the final Cotton Bowl at Cotton Bowl Stadium, it was lively. A boisterous 88,000 fans set an attendance record at the aging facility to witness a resurgent Ole Miss steadily dismantle Graham Harrell, Michael Crabtree and Texas Tech 47 to 34.
Texas Tech had a magnificent season, one of the best in program history but were whipped twice in their final three games inviting the inevitable catcalls and overrated chants. Texas Tech set the tone early with the game's first touchdown and an interception they returned for a score to grab a 14-0 first quarter lead. From there Ole Miss took over, outscoring the Red Raiders 38-7 in the second and third quarters that put them up 38-21.
The game's star was Ole Miss back/receiver Dexter McCluster who ran for 97 yards and a score and had another 83 in the air for an 180-yard afternoon. Meanwhile Crabtree and his gimpy ankle were shut down, recording just four catches and 30 yards.
1-5, with one game to go. One chance left to raise the conference's winning percentage to a mighty .285. And that chance rests on the less-than-broad shoulders of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Expecting the Buckeyes to show up in a big nonconference game is like expecting a bridge made out of meringue to hold up underneath a couple SUVs. It's just not something a sensible person would ever do.
It's not like anybody expected more of the Big Ten in this year's bowl games. Most folk expected the conference would be lucky to win one game and not only were they right, they were right about which game that would be. Iowa's 31-10 slashing of South Carolina is about the only thing the conference can be proud of.
FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.
In writing about Five Things To Get You Ready For The Rose Bowl, I said "Penn State is not your average Big Ten team". Yes ... and no. Having watched USC steamroll various Big Ten opponents under Pete Carroll, this Penn State team seemed superior to most if not all of them. Yet it wasn't enough thanks to a chaotic second quarter that saw USC surge from a 7-all tie to an insurmountable 31-7 lead.
Penn State fought valiantly against a bored USC in the second half, enough so that a late USC punting mistake in the last minute very nearly made it a ballgame again. But it was clear who was superior all afternoon, USC's lead peaking at 38-14 before things got silly on the way to a 38-24 victory.
Fitting for a west coast team, USC surged on the strength of its passing game and a handful of ill-timed Penn State penalties.
FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.
Onyx? Anthracite? Obsidian? Nothingness? Whatever they come up with, Nebraska needs to find a color beyond black and give its defense shirts in that color. After spotting Clemson an 11-point lead, Bo Pelini's Cornhuskers got huge help from their defense in the second half while the offense almost came to life.
Joe Ganz hit on two touchdowns early in the third quarter to pull within four points, but the Huskers couldn't find the end zone again. It didn't matter. The Nebraska defense had things so clogged up in the second half they could have been sponsored by Imodium. Dabo Swinney's crew couldn't even get into field goal range until it was too late to do them any good.
A lot of Blackshirts contributed to the win, but two in particular stood out. Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh's name came up about every other play, with the other half of the plays being made by his linemate Ty Steinkuhler. The real game-ending play, however, came from sophomore cornerback Eric Hagg, who dropped Clemson quarterback Cullen Harper for a 16-yard loss on 2nd and goal with about two minutes left. Wayne Larrivee didn't broadcast this game, but he would've told you that was the dagger.
FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.
Its a college football thing, and we're here to enjoy it. The Rose Bowl, the Granddaddy of them all -- bless Keith Jackson's heart.
You know the story, 11-1 Penn State and 11-1 USC, both a few points away from appearing in a game involving a crystal football. Their loss, but Pasadena will most definitely suffice at least on this January 1 afternoon. Two tough defenses, two mobile quarterbacks, classic brand names and two fabled coaches roaming the sidelines competing for another bowl victory.
Please join us for the Rose Bowl Live Blog starting at 430 PM ET. Chat application after the jump.
FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.
New Year's Day has arrived, and with it the ritualized sloth all across America as college football fans settle in for a long day's worth of bowl games. No game more symbolizes the day, and carries more pageantry and pomp than the Rose Bowl.
This year's game will be a good one, matching two powerful teams that fit the game's tradition. Penn State and USC are both 11-1, champions of the Big Ten and Pac-10. Joe Paterno stars as the youthful and charismatic coach, his curmudgeonly foil Pete Carroll on the opposite sideline. Or maybe we have that crossed up. Yeah, yeah we do.
The game kicks off some time around 430 PM ET. Feel free to join our Rose Bowl Live Blog at that time.
Formalities over, let's get down to those five things that should have you ready for this great game.
1)Penn State is not your average Big Ten team
Mind you, Penn State's happy to play gruntled underdog, its motivation on the cheap. However, national opinion and the wise guys are pointing towards a solid USC victory. Hard to blame them when USC has been crushing every Big 10 foe in its path since Pete Carroll arrived.
FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from 
Say this much for the final Cotton Bowl at Cotton Bowl Stadium, it was lively. A boisterous 88,000 fans set an attendance record at the aging facility to witness a resurgent Ole Miss steadily dismantle 
1-5, with one game to go. One chance left to raise the conference's winning percentage to a mighty .285. And that chance rests on the less-than-broad shoulders of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Expecting the Buckeyes to show up in a big nonconference game is like expecting a bridge made out of meringue to hold up underneath a couple SUVs. It's just not something a sensible person would ever do.
FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from 
FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from 
