I Tell Ya" Herbie

   On tap for another edition of  I Tell Ya' Herbie, our weekly notes about the world of college football.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            The surprising rise of BYU to the top of the Big 12 after being listed as one of the bottom-dwellers in the pre-season predictions has been one of the better stories in college football this season.

However, the holding call against Utah on a fourth down, which would have ended the game with BYU out of timeouts and Utah up three, was controversial.

A BYU loss would have completely scrambled the Big 12 title picture and made roughly a thousand tiebreaking scenarios for the conference title game very plausible.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             When you watch the BYU-Utah game (every year, not this year in particular) and see just how heated this rivalry is, you wonder why this game isn't mentioned as highly as others are when you discuss the best rivalries in the game.

I would think it hasn't gotten the publicity for two reasons.

First, the two programs were in the WAC/Mountain West for so many years that the "power conference" elite didn't care just how great of a rivalry this was and the other reason?

The schools in the Western time zone often receive the short end of the stick on topics such as this as other great rivalries such as Oregon-Oregon State, Washington-Washington State, and Arizona-Arizona State have only in recent years started to receive credit as elite-level rivalries.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             Another Western rivalry might be the most vicious of them all, even though both schools are more often than not at the lower end of the standings every year.

The Rio Grande Rivalry between New Mexico and New Mexico State has heat on the field but even more off the field, where the Lobos of New Mexico have used their pull inside the defunct WAC and its spinoff, the Mountain West, to keep the rival Aggies out of their league at every turn.

The Lobos have always been in the bigger league and in the state's bigger media market (Albuquerque to State's Las Cruces), so they have been the bigger name of the two and the Aggies have struggled to find a long-term fit in a conference due to their size and location.

New Mexico State's programs have had their share of problems away from the field and court  (the two teams canceled their home and home hoops series last season) and that is a factor in their problems finding a home.

Still, the two teams play each season in football (New Mexico won this year's game 50-40) and home and home in basketball, so they do play each other without conference ramifications at stake.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             The SEC race could be cleared up a little bit on Saturday with Tennessee's visit to Georgia.

The Volunteers, Texas A&M, and Texas are the only schools with one loss in SEC play but there are five teams with two losses (Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, and Missouri) and Texas plays Texas A&M, so there is a guarantee of six teams with two conference losses and there is a scenario (although highly unlikely) of eight teams finishing with two losses.

A Tennessee win over Georgia would clarify things a little but a Georgia win would really throw things into chaos.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            I write a lot in my boxing coverage about some fights being "crossroads fights", which means the winner moves onto bigger things and the loser takes a major step in their career.

I think one game this week could be a crossroads game in the Big 12 as 5-4 Baylor visits 5-4 West Virginia in Morgantown.

This year was looked to be a pivotal year by Neal Brown with West Virginia, who disappointed for most of the season before two road wins over Arizona and Cincinnati pushed them above .500 and perhaps put the Mountaineers into position to salvage their season.

Baylor's Dave Aranda looked to be moving on the hot seat with his Bears at 2-4 before they ripped off three wins in a row over Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and TCU to move them over .500.

The winner will be bowl-eligible and has a chance to finish strong enough to relieve the pressure on their coach for 2025, while the loser will need to perhaps win both of their remaining games to save their season.

I Tell Ya' Herbie

  The conference title games have been completed and the bowls are on their way, so it's time for an interim edition of I Tell Ya' Herbie.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             I believe that Alabama is a better team than Florida State is currently and I also think that Florida State is the more deserving team and should have been the fourth seed no matter their status at the quarterback position.

The games should stand for something and this year they didn't.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

Many have theorized about how Alabama was selected but one possible reason has yet to be mentioned.

Could this be the quiet backlash against Jim Harbaugh's various shenanigans at the University of Michigan? 

Washington could have arguably been placed first, yet Michigan was slated there, and had Florida State made it into the field, the battered Seminoles would have been a strong underdog against the Wolverines.

Instead, Michigan faces Alabama with the legendary Nick Saban and close to a month to prepare for the supposed favorite.

Could it be allowing Alabama in over Florida State be as simple as wanting the best shot at avoiding the humiliation of the scandal-plagued Wolverines and the man that flipped the bird to the NCAA and the Big Ten holding the trophy on the game's highest stage?

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             The hire that I've liked the most in the coaching silly season?

Bronco Mendenhall at New Mexico, a school that usually struggles at football, looks to be a perfect fit.

Mendenhall was very successful at BYU with a record of 99-43 and while his tenure at Virginia could have been more successful (36-38 in six years), he still made three bowl games and turned down a fourth bid.

Mendenhall coached at New Mexico as an assistant for four years, is from the West Coast, and will be coaching at a school where bowl bids are celebrated, so I think the Lobos have done well with the addition of Mendenhall.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             The committee got it right with the selection of unbeaten Liberty over two-loss SMU as the G-5 representative in the New Year's Bowls but both schools got the shaft to certain degrees.

Liberty got an awful draw in the Fiesta Bowl against an athletic team in Oregon, and while the Mustangs and their two losses didn't deserve the G-5 slot as many had stated, they weren't treated fairly as the AAC champions to be relegated to the Fenway Bowl against a mediocre Boston College team that is basically playing a home game.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             I wonder about how many bowls will still be around five or ten years after the twelve-team playoff begins.

I think the smaller bowls that many don't pay attention to will be okay as ESPN owns many of those and they are cheap programming at a time of year when they are searching for them,

However, the middle-range bowls like many of those held in Florida on or around New Year's Day may eventually have problems.

Those bowls won't be prized as much as they are currently and fans aren't as likely to travel to those games. preferring to save for the future when they can go to tournament games.

Should they become money-losing propositions, the bowls could cannibalize themselves, leaving middle-class teams either accepting lower payouts to be in the postseason or bowl games going out of business leaving fewer slots available. 

15 College Football Games that should be happening! 11-15

Today on conference championship
Saturday, I wanted to start our three-part series on games in college football that should be happening, but are not on a consistent basis.

A few parameters:
First, some of these games are actually scheduled or even have happened in the last year or so.
However, our argument is that they should be on schedules every year or at least every other year and either home and home or at a neutral site that would make sense.

Second, there are some schools that either are playing would be rivals already or simply don't have a suitable school in line to play, but some have multiples that would make sense.
For the purposes of this series, a school can be only used twice on the list.

11) Arkansas vs Arkansas State
A rivalry that has the potential to be a great one, but has never happened because of a long-standing policy by the Razorbacks to refuse to play in-state opponents in any sport.
The Red Wolves have become a perennial powerhouse in the Sun Belt with a parade of coaches that move up to the next level with success such as Gus Malzahn, Bryan Harsin, Hugh Freeze, and their current coach Blake Anderson is likely to join that list soon.
Arkansas is a small state that could gain by these two teams playing each other and I get the Razorbacks would have more to lose in the short term, but in the long run, this game could be a huge help to both schools.
Added bonus points, if they play the game in the above pictured (somewhat ) neutral field in Little Rock!

12) Cincinnati vs Louisville
These two schools have played each other often through the years, 53 times in fact, and played for a trophy as well- the Keg of Nails.
These teams moved together through four conferences through the years, building a great rivalry with the cities connected by I-71 and it ended by one thing-conference realignment.
Both the Bearcats and Cardinals tried to get into the ACC after the Big East breakup (the football schools formed the American Athletic with the basketball schools staying in the Big East), but only Louisville managed to get there and the series was last played in 2013 in the last season before the Cardinals joined the ACC.
I know Louisville has one rivalry in non-conference play (Kentucky), but Cincinnati doesn't- this one really needs to return...

13) Akron-Youngstown State
The only all smaller school game on the list, these teams used to be heated rivals from nearby cities and also played for a trophy- the Steel Tire incorporating the two manufacturing items that the cities were known for.
There is, even more reason for heat between the schools dating back to the late '90s (the last game between the two was 1995) when Youngstown State applied for MAC membership and was denied in favor of Marshall ( who left after a few years) and Buffalo.
Perception is that Akron and Kent State were involved to keep 1-AA Youngstown State from moving to D-I for recruiting reasons adds to the discontent and the resulting decision by the MAC to refuse to have their schools play road games at 1-AA schools to keep 1-AA schools from appearing to be at the same level killed the series.
Either with YSU in Division One or not (and there really isn't a lot of difference between the MAC and the better 1-AA schools other than depth), these teams should be playing each other.

14) Arizona-New Mexico
The neighboring Wildcats and the Lobos hooked it up every year for the Kit Carson Rifle from 1920-77 until Arizona joined the then Pac 10.
The two have played just six times (two of the six were bowl games) since then, most recently a 45-37 Arizona win in the 2015 New Mexico Bowl, haven't played in the regular season since 2008 and neither appear on each other's schedule in the future.
This article tells more about the history of the rivalry that was and should be again.
Each though has options for a cool non-conference rivalry if they REALLY don't want to play each other.
Arizona could establish a series against San Diego State (recruiting hotbed) or UNLV (neighboring state), while New Mexico could try Arizona State or go to their state to the east and try Texas Tech or even better- former WAC rival UTEP in what could be a fun series of games.

15) Tennessee-Virginia Tech
The Vols and the Hokies played just last year inside the Bristol Motor Speedway and it was a huge success.
I'm not sure if the speedway would want to make this an annual thing, but it would be a great thing to have these two play a schedule where every three years, each team gets a home game and Bristol gets the third game.
Bristol is halfway between both schools, neither has a non-conference rival (VT had rivals become conference games when they joined the ACC and they do have a game with West Virginia, but I have other plans for the Mountaineers later), it boosts the power rating with a Power five team every year.
This works all the way around...

These games just missed, so here are some honorable mention games in no particular order
Miami vs Florida- They do play each other every few years and it seems possible they could play even more in the future.

Nebraska-Colorado- Former Big 8/12 rivals renew a rivalry that was quite torrid in the Bill McCartney years in Boulder.

Notre Dame-Purdue- The battle for the Shillelagh Trophy was a casualty of the Irish's deal with the ACC to play five ACC opponents a year.

California-San Jose State or Fresno State-  Cal played San Jose all the time from 1962-1996, but the northern California schools haven't played since despite being just 45 minutes away from each other.
Fresno State is under three hours away, but yet have only played the Golden Bears three times and if they played now, it would be quite interesting with former Cal coach Jeff Tedford turning the Bulldog program around.

Houston-TCU- Former SWC rivals and former group of five bullies (TCU formerly, Houston currently) from the two biggest cities in Texas (TCU is in Fort Worth, but I'll still count it!) would make an interesting series and could incorporate their games against SMU into some type of three-game series for a trophy...

I'll have the Big Ten title game coverage later and look for part two of this later this week!

Cleaning out the inbox

Time to clean the inbox and we'll start with Bruce Markusen's Card Corner that he does for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bruce picked the 1969 Topps to discuss former Indians outfielder Ken "the Hawk" Harrelson,but I've always preferred the 1970 (shown) or his 1971 with Hawk seemingly cracking up over the duller 1969 version.
Markusen's article explains why the 1969 cards are so dull and has a comprehensive look at Hawk's career and his announcing career.
I'm a huge fan of Hawk's,but I can certainly understand why some fans cannot stand him-he certainly is a homer and loves the White Sox definitively!


The Comeback writes of the possible end of a torrid rivalry between New Mexico and New Mexico State due to the issues of conferences.
New Mexico State looks headed to 1-AA as the Sun Belt booted them and Idaho,no other conferences appear to want the Aggies (small market) and as an independent,New Mexico State appears unlikely to be able to schedule five home games a year,which is an NCAA D-1 requirement.
The question then becomes,if NMSU goes down to 1-AA,will the Lobos continue to schedule them?
It's too bad and a sad ending to a big rivalry...

Battlin' Bob sends this note from SI.com on the many people that the Rams move from St.Louis affected on game day and otherwise.
It goes to show just how leaving a town can sour a market and this market might be poisoned for good when you consider the Cardinals left as did the Rams and the passing over of St.Louis for expansion for Carolina and Jacksonville.
People never look at the stain on Paul Tagliabue's resume for insisting on Jacksonville as an expansion club.
Picking them over Baltimore likely cost Cleveland the Browns and over St.Louis,might have meant football never left Southern California.....

Joe Plum adds a page on the demise of the Shawshank Redemption tree in Ohio.
I went and saw the tree a few years back with the lovely Cherie,but had been split after being hit by lightning.
Now the tree is down as it succumbed to high winds and is on its side.
No word on the eventual home or use for the wood from the tree...

One of my all time favorite Cavaliers talks with Sam Amico of Amico Hoops as Mark Price chats about his career in Cleveland and a little about the Cavalies NBA title.
Price is currently the head coach at Charlotte,who plays in Conference USA.....

Comstock's writes about the business of minor league baseball and their major league affiliations as the article focuses on the Sacramento RiverCats and their move from the Oakland Athletics to the San Francisco Giants in 2014.
The interesting article talks about the ins and outs of Sacramento's move and how it was done along with how it worked out.

We wrap up with a ESPN short film on Peter Norman.
Norman was the Australian sprinter that was on the medal stand with Tommie Smith and John Carlos during their famous protest in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
It's a take on the incident that I haven't seen before...