I tell ya' Herbie

Our weekly notebook on college football starts with a complaint and an excellent group of five game this week in the AAC.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco suggests there is a double standard against his league on two levels.
The first is his league is underrated against the power five and the other is that his league is held to a higher standard than the other group of five schools.
Aresco might have a mild case in the former, but still, the AAC's small disrespect isn't enough to make a difference in the big picture as even if they were as respected as possible, it wouldn't make enough of a difference to reach the final four.
Aresco's complaint in the group of five rankings is that his teams sometimes are underrated vs the other four conferences weaker schools as he doesn't feel that his third-place SMU Mustangs with one loss deserve to be behind one-loss teams such as the Mountain West's Boise State and especially the Sun Belt's Appalachian State.
Aresco points to his conference's tougher schedule as why his teams are better and he may have a point, but it's always going to be tough in the G-5 for one conference to have the top three teams.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          Aresco's other complaint could come with his league with the deepest amount of quality schools out of the group of five, looking out at another conference earning the group of five bid to the New Years Bowls.
How so?
His two division leaders (Cincinnati and Memphis) playing each other this Saturday and could play each other again in the AAC title game.
Cincinnati holds a two-game lead in their division, but Memphis is tied with SMU and Navy in their division (SMU and Navy play each other Saturday) and should Cincinnati win along with the SMU-Navy winner winning their final game, it would be a bit different, but should Memphis win this game and then Cincinnati win the rematch, the AAC champion would have two losses and likely not receive the bid as the rules stipulate the G-5 bid go to a conference champion.
On this, I can understand Aresco's problem.
Cincinnati vs Memphis could be the game of the day on a day that will see Ohio State host Penn State and several rivalry games.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          I'm torn on Tom Herman's Texas Longhorns.
On one hand, Herman's Horns are just 6-4 after a season with big expectations.
On the other, Texas has three of those losses to ranked teams (LSU, Oklahoma, and Iowa State) by 7,7, and 2 points and a ten-point loss at occasionally explosive TCU.
Junior QB Sam Ehrlinger has thrown for almost three thousand yards, 27 TD"s and only eight interceptions, but his offensive line has already allowed 26 sacks with two games to go.
After a Sugar Bowl year, Texas has to be considered a disappointment, but in 2020 Texas has to be all-in as the team will be completely Herman recruited and if Ehrlinger returns, Texas will not have any excuse for anything less than a double-digit amount of victories.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          I don't understand how anyone other than the most fervent Alabama homer can boost the Crimson Tide for the playoff after their loss to LSU and the following week's injury to Tua Tagovailoa in their game against Mississippi State.
Bama's best wins would be over Texas A&M (currently 7-3, but the Aggies final games are road games against 4th ranked Georgia and top-ranked LSU, so likely to finish 7-5) and assuming they defeat currently 15th rated Auburn, an 8-4 Tigers team.
Add the weak schedule to the season-ending injury to Heisman contender Tagovailoa and unless several things occur such as Baylor defeating Oklahoma in their Big 12 title game, either Oregon or Utah losing a game before the end of the season and then the other wins their Pac 12 title matchup, Clemson losing a game before the end of the season and perhaps even a non-Ohio State Big Ten champion, Alabama would deserve to be on the outside of the final four.
I give teams breaks on non-conference schedules if they try to play at least one tough team when the contract was signed as often times teams that are strong when you schedule them but aren't but the time in between scheduling and the actual games, but Bama doesn't even have that luxury as no one can defend Duke being the best team on a non-conference schedule.
Had Bama scheduled someone such as Florida State, which would have been a power when scheduled, but aren't currently, I would give them far more leeway than I am willing to do now.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          Remember last week when I wrote that Minnesota was sitting on a loss against Iowa coming off a program-defining win over Penn State?
Well, now it's the Hawkeyes with the target on them as suddenly surging Illinois arrives on a four-game winning streak that not only has made the Illini bowl-eligible but may have saved Lovie Smith's job.
This has possible upset all over it and the only thing that keeps me from picking Illinois as the winner with certainty is that the Hawkeyes will be at home at Kinnick Stadium.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          I've been asked two questions about this column, so I'll answer briefly.
One is why I don't mention Ohio State often here.
I figure I write about the Buckeyes enough in other posts, so I try to keep OSU out of "Herbie" unless something is really interesting and yet doesn't fit in game recaps.
The other is why does the top five for the power five, group of five and the Heisman only appear on occasion?
Answer; I'm an idiot and forget them sometimes!
Still, these will change from week to week, such as Tua Tagovailoa rated fourth in the Heisman rating now, but will fall as the season moves on and Alabama rated fourth currently, but will likely be passed as other teams win bigger games and conference championships.

Top Five's

Power Five
1) LSU
2) Ohio State
3) Clemson
4) Alabama
5) Oklahoma

Group of Five
1) Cincinnati
2) Memphis
3) Boise State
4) SMU
5) Appalachian State

Heisman
1) Joe Burrow QB LSU
2) Chase Young DE Ohio State
3) Jalen Hurts QB Oklahoma
4) Tua Tagovailoa QB Alabama
5) Jonathan Taylor RB Wisconsin

I Tell Ya' Herbie

Another day and another edition of
I tell ya' Herbie where I give my takes on various news in college football.


I tell ya' Herbie:
                          The game of the week is down in Memphis, home of Elvis Presley, Keith Lee and Jerry "the King" Lawler- none of which are football players, although two did attend the then-Memphis State, now University of Memphis.
The AAC West lead is the prize as 8-0 SMU travels to 7-1 Memphis with the winner taking a step forward to winning the division.
SMU has been the surprise story of the season behind former Texas quarterback Shane Buechele, while Memphis keeps rolling along with their offense and head coach Mike Norvell, who seems destined for a Power Five job whenever he finds the right fit.
SMU still has to play one-loss Navy, while Memphis has the 6-1 and undefeated in the AAC Cincinnati Bearcats waiting in their final game, so the winner hasn't locked up a championship berth yet.
What could be the most important part of all about this game?
With a lighter schedule as far as impact games this Saturday, SMU-Memphis will be the Saturday night game on ABC and give the AAC a rare chance to show their product on a national stage.
Considering that both teams score plenty of points and have been in exciting games all season, this game is the game that I am most excited about this weekend.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          I'm writing this early Friday morning from the road office and watched the Georgia Southern upset of undefeated Appalachian State 24-21 as the Eagles held off a late rally from the Mountaineers in beautiful Boone, North Carolina.
The loss not only kicks Appalachian out of the hunt for the Group of Five spot in the New Year's Day bowl games but also dropped them into a tie in the loss column for the division lead in the Sun Belt East division with Georgia State and Georgia Southern.
The defeat snapped the thirteen game winning streak for Appalachian State dating back to 2017 where they lost to... Georgia Southern.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          Let's give some credit for a coaching hire that I wasn't crazy about, but has turned out well thus far in Les Miles at Kansas.
Now, to be fair, it wasn't that I dislike Miles as a coach, it was that at Miles' age (Soon to be 66) Kansas was such a disaster that he would be better suited to spend his borrowed time elsewhere.
Miles has won three games in Lawrence, beat Texas Tech last Saturday on a wacky play at the end of the game and lost at the gun to Texas on the previous Saturday. which wouldn't be a big deal at most places, but in Kansas it's noteworthy.
I'm not sure that the Jayhawks can win three of their final four to qualify for a bowl, but this is still better than things have been in years.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          I know it's a cute story with the Minnesota Golden Gophers at 8-0, but looking closer at the schedule shows that record is tissue paper soft with no one near the top 25, two close wins in non-conference over Fresno State and Georgia Southern and drawing what might be the best five teams to play in conference for a fast start with three teams with losing records (Purdue, Maryland, and Rutgers), disappointing Nebraska at 4-4 and catching 4-4 Illinois before they seemed to turn their season around.
P.J. Fleck's campaigning to bring ESPN GameDay to campus before next Saturday's game against fellow undefeated Penn State could backfire if the Gophers get rolled as I think they will.
The Gophers hold a two-game lead over Wisconsin and Iowa, but I don't think that they can hold it with games against Penn State and the two teams trying to catch them in their final four games.
Still, if Minnesota does manage to pull off their first divisional title, I think they'll be toast against any of the still eligible teams from the eastern division- Ohio State, Penn State or Michigan.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          There might not be a worse conference at the bottom of their league than Conference USA, which has three teams with a combined two wins with Old Dominion, UTEP, and Rice.
Sadly, Old Dominion doesn't play UTEP or Rice, but in the final week of the season UTEP, which has one win (a two-point win over Houston Baptist) will battle winless Rice in the type of game that makes you think of last week's awful game of the week (Hmm, perhaps an addition to the PPM out tomorrow?) between Connecticut and Massachusetts that was part of "Herbie" last week.
Connecticut defeated Massachusetts 56-35 in just the sort of game that I imagined it to be!
Please, football gods, televise UTEP-Rice somewhere and not against a team that I need to watch!

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          One thing about Group of Five football that gives it a minor league look is the lack of attendance.
I understand why this happens when you have a bad team and are getting killed every week with facilities that are often less than great.
I wonder why some of these teams that don't have long traditions (MAC and Mountain West, which has almost all the heritage of the old WAC) even try and could be better suited to drop to a 1-AA football level.
Conference USA and the Sun Belt would be better off combining the best of each league for football only, allow the weaker sisters to play in their own league for football only in 1-AA, and then return to their normal leagues for the other sports.
This would result in a stronger league for the Group of Five and give schools that don't invest as much money into their football programs (at the G-5 level) a chance to compete for a national title in 1-AA.
I'll expand on this in another "Herbie" down the road, but here is an example of the struggles for some teams.

Want to attend a Conference USA game between 1-7 Old Dominion and 4-4 Florida International in Miami-Dade County?
According to this ad on ESPN as I looked up the records for C-USA, you could attend this game for three dollars.
Tough to make money like that.

Cleaning out the inbox

The inbox is still full and I'm still under the weather.
I see improvement, but everything that I do seems to take twice as long (Imagine Joe Namath running the option!)

We start with the oldest piece in the inbox with a phenomenal story by Brin-Jonathan Butler and Kurt Emhoff from SB Nation on the late light heavyweight contender James Scott and his story on fighting on national television in the late 70's and early 80's while being an inmate at Rahway State Prison in New Jersey.
Scott's story is well known to boxing fans, but I think even boxing haters would find this story very interesting.
Look for Scott down the road in a Forgotten Superstars piece...


As we continue to clean from the bottom of the inbox. Deadspin writes of the two-year history of the NHL's Cleveland Barons and the failures that contributed to the only two years of NHL hockey in Cleveland.
I often think back to how things would have been different had the NHL allowed the Barons to enter the league in the 1950's or if the Barons had answered the NHL's request to enter the league in the 1940's.

ProWrestlingStories.com scores with this look back at the career of the late Ray Traylor, better known as Big Bossman to WWF fans or as I prefer to remember him, Big Bubba Rogers in his NWA tenure.
The article discusses the career of Traylor and the "Chair shot heard round the world" thrown by Dusty Rhodes and taken without emotion by Big Bubba!

ESPN writes of a new documentary on Cuban boxing on the Olympic Channel (I didn't even know this channel existed) that is based on the great Cuban heavyweight Teofilo Stevenson, but also talks to and covers some of the other great Cuban amateurs as well.
Stevenson, who grabbed gold medals in the 1972, 76 and 80 Olympics (and might have added 1984 if not for the Soviet boycott of those games, which Cuba honored) and knocked out future WBA champion John Tate (in 76) along with Duane Bobick, who was thought to be a future champion at that time (Bobick was actually the favorite entering their fight) was often thought about for a dream fight against Muhammad Ali in that era.
What would have happened had Stevenson been part of the heavyweight division then?
I think Stevenson at 6'3 used his size and reach to his best advantage against smaller heavyweights and I think he would have struggled against the similar sized Larry Holmes and the Holmes jab.
Stevenson would have had his share of success, but this fantasy that Stevenson would have swept through the division at a time when it was as deep in talent as in any time in boxing history, is just fallacy.

The Athletic finishes this off with an article on Penny Hardaway's return to Memphis as head coach to revitalize the Tiger basketball program.
The article looks at the city of Memphis, Hardaway's background and recruiting the city vs expanding the base for the program.
The issue that I think stands largest for Hardaway and success is that he has never coached above middle school and trying to lead a tradition-deep program like Memphis with zero experience, isn't just a leap, it's a jump of miles.
I'd like to see Hardaway succeed, but the odds are stacked heavily against him.

Cleaning out the inbox-Sports version

Photo credit: Unknown

It isn't often that women's basketball leads off the inbox.
It also isn't often that a women's basketball team wins 71 games in a row with a national championship and is on their way to the Final Four in Sioux Falls, South Dakota as the number one team in the country.
Now, imagine how rare that it is to have that team come from my hometown and you have the Division II dominating Ashland Eagles.
Head coach Robyn Fralick has a career record of 103-2 (of this writing) and has a unique assistant coach in her husband Tim, the former head coach of Ashland High School.
Barry Fortune of the Ashland Times-Gazette writes of the unique working relationship and how coaches function with a home life built around basketball.
When I grew up, Ashland was more of a hoops school than a football school, so men or women, it's nice to see the hoops programs doing so well there.

More on Ashland basketball as Eric Musselman, the son of Ashland University (then college) legend Bill Musselman, has led Nevada to the Sweet 16 after a huge comeback to upset second seed Cincinnati.
Nevada will play Loyola-Chicago for a trip to the Elite Eight.
If I was Louisville or Pittsburgh (Especially Pittsburgh) -ACC schools with a massive rebuilding project ahead, I would be looking into Eric Musselman as an excellent choice to be their person to attempt to bring back their program to tournament status.

Surprised to see Penny Hardaway as the head coach at Memphis.
I understand that Memphis missed the tournament in both years under Tubby Smith, but in the past flashy hires of former great players without college coaching experience hasn't turned out well (Houston with Clyde Drexler and currently Georgetown with Patrick Ewing and St.John's with Chris Mullin to name just a few), but the one thing that makes me think that Hardaway has a better chance than the others is that he is a Memphis icon coaching Memphis with a built-in recruiting hotbed waiting for him.
I'm not saying Hardaway will succeed, but I like his chances better than others that attempted this in the past.

Eleven Warriors uses the tournament (and adds football) to explain just why entering the Big 10 may be a great idea for dollars, but not such a great idea for success as it looks at the adventures of Penn State, Nebraska, Maryland and of course Rutgers and their struggles with their occasional successes.
When you consider that the Big 10 likely has one more expansion left in them, future contestants may want to measure winning against the bank account...

One passing of note as Ed "the Glider" Charles passed away at the age of 84.
Charles spent most of his career with the Kansas City Athletics, but best remembered by many for his 1969 postseason heroics with many key hits for the Miracle Mets against the Braves and Orioles.
Charles saved the best for last in his career as he never played in the big leagues after the World Series victory.

We wrap with the O.J. Simpson interview,
No, not THAT O.J. Simpson interview- Simpson did one last week that he hasn't done even well before that night in Brentwood as he talked football, his career with the Buffalo Bills, USC, his potential to possibly contend with CTE and even some about his time in prison in Las Vegas.
The Buffalo News managed to get Simpson to talk about these and other things in what I thought was a very interesting piece if only to get Simpson's thoughts on topics other than the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.

Cleaning out the inbox-Sports Edition

The usual cleaning out the inbox begins with whatever this is to the right.
I've written before about my go-to site for Buckeye news and analysis being Eleven Warriors (located in the links section) and they did a great look back at the history of our favorite mascot-Brutus Buckeye.
Well,rather how we got to the current lovable Brutus from the beginning in 1965 with what looks like a lump of crap,to a friendly apple to a frowning apple,back to the friendly apple until 1975 when someone thought whatever the hell this hybrid of Popeye the Sailor and the Maryland Terrapin was a good idea.
Thank the lord that this was a one year experiment before the apple returned for a year and was followed by the eventual Brutus that we know and love today with gradual refinements.
Just looking at that thing makes me shake my head!

The New York Times writes about Jim Bouton,who disclosed at a recent SABR convention that he has cerebral amyloid angiopathy,a brain disease that has been connected to people that have dementia.
Bouton did the convention to discuss Ball Four,but the article talks about the book,his post baseball career,what he battles with the disease and much of the article is done through Bouton's wife,Paula.
I bet Jim Bouton has made more appearances in the inbox than any other person or topic...

We've been a booster of the Hall of Fame chances of Dick Allen-particularly with the continuing use of advanced stats that show Allen is a better choice than many already in Cooperstown's claim to fame.
Baseball Prospectus,one of the more progressive statistical groups,writes about their take on the career of Allen and his case for the Hall in an excerpt for the new book by Jay Jaffe-Cooperstown Casebook.
The book looks really interesting and one I might be buying soon!

FanRagSports (which this is my first time reading) gives a lot of facts that I wasn't aware of on why there isn't a hockey presence in Houston (NHL or AHL).
Apparently the Rockets owner,Leslie Alexander,has a massive grudge against the NHL and the article discusses all of these factors that have kept hockey out of Houston.
Since Alexander has placed the Rockets for sale,perhaps the door has been cracked for a return to the largest city in Texas..

The Big 10 network is giving Lisa Byington,a long time sideline reporter on the network,a shot on play by play this season with the Bowling Green-Northwestern game.
Byington will be the first woman to do the play by play on the network and follows in the steps of ESPN,who has used Pam Ward in the past and currently uses Beth Mowins for college games.
I'm fine with giving Byington a chance as I've never minded Mowins,although I thought Pam Ward was really bad when she did her games.

We wrap up with a quick look back at the 20 year anniversary of the Tennessee Titans spending a year in Memphis before their move to Nashville.
It's from the Memphis perspective since it's from a Memphis based newspaper,but I understood why Memphis was so bitter at the time.
It was Memphis that sold out NFL exhibition game and was mentioned as an expansion candidate and it was Memphis,not Nashville that supported both the Southmen (WFL) and Showboats (USFL),when Nashville couldn't even rate getting teams in new leagues.
However,Memphis made a huge mistake in not making the best of the temporary arrangement like Oklahoma City did with the NBA in supporting the New Orleans (then) Hornets in their pit stop in Oklahoma after Hurricane Katrina.
Oklahoma City earned massive league goodwill for the help and proved their market value and the NBA returned the favor when the owners of the Seattle Super Sonics wanted to move there.
Memphis may have done the principled thing,but not the prudent thing and the NFL will never forget that-Memphis was one of the first cities mentioned for the NFL for years and now they are highly unlikely to get a team ever....