God I can’t believe it’s week 9 (8 for WVU) already. Here are our picks.

Couchburner:

I was 7-7 last week with straight up picks. Not too bad, but room for
improvement. I could’ve been like MountaineerBob…hahaha. I thought I’d
try ATS this week…Black Beatty will be so proud.

Top 10
Ohio State -3½ @ PENN STATE - PSU
VT -3½ vs Boston College - VT
OREGON -2½ vs Usc - Oregon
West Virginia -6 @ RUTGERS - WVU
ARIZONA STATE -3 vs California - CAL
FLORIDA -7 vs Georgia - Georgia

Big East
South Florida -4½ @ CONNECTICUT - UConn
LOUISVILLE -11 vs Pittsburgh - Pitt

Shits and Giggles
FLORIDA STATE -17½ vs Duke - Duke
AUBURN -17 vs Mississippi - Ole Miss
#12 Kansas -2 @ TEXAS A&M - Aggies
#17 TEXAS -20½ vs Nebraska - Texas

JWilson:

Top 10
#1 OSU over #25 Penn State
#21 California over #4 Arizona State
#12 USC over #5 Oregon
#7 WVU over Rutgers
#9 Kansas over Texas A&M
#10 South Florida over #23 Uconn

Big East:
Louisville over Pitt

MountaineerBob:

Since Couchburner is talking shit about my horrible picks last week, I’ll pick the same games WTS.

Top 10

• Ohio State -3½ @ PENN STATE - PSU - I’m picking them too, I hate both teams but hate OSU more and I think they are overrated.. big time.
• T -3½ vs Boston College - VT - missed the pick on this one but would have picked VT, and they should have won that game.. classic Beamer moment.. ahahahahahahahah.
• OREGON -2½ vs Usc - USC - They have something to prove still.
• West Virginia -6 @ RUTGERS - WVU - we win this one and cover easily but it will be close for 3 periods.
• ARIZONA STATE -3 vs California - CAL -another overrated team goes down this weekend
• FLORIDA -7 vs Georgia - Florida - trying to get back in the mix

Big East

• South Florida -4½ @ CONNECTICUT - UConn - Cold bad weather and a team looking to prove something, UCONN ROLLS!
• LOUISVILLE -11 vs Pittsburgh - Louisville - just makes pitt look like wann-stache needs to watch more TV.

Shits and Giggles

• FLORIDA STATE -17½ vs Duke - Duke - With USF stealing all of the talent in FL, Fl State just won’t be able to put up enough to cover.
• AUBURN -17 vs Mississippi - Auburn - wild guess, just trying to be different than CB’ner
• #12 Kansas -2 @ TEXAS A&M - Aggies - That fat ass needs to lose, now.
• #17 TEXAS -20½ vs Nebraska - Nebraska - 20.5 no way, Texas wins but doesn’t cover.

“Ever since we lost to USF, our name hasn’t been mentioned that much,” Reynaud said. “I think a lot of people forgot about us. After this week, they won’t forget about us.”

On that note, WV takes on The Scarlet Knights, in what is turning out to be a much much bigger game that it was just 8 days ago. I don’t know what to think. This game makes me nervous for some reason. I have the “i don’t believe” feeling going on. What’s wrong with me? Does anyone else have that feeling?

I need to get some positive thinking for this game. I’m usually very optimistic. Maybe I should just remind myself:

The Mountaineers lead 28-4-2 and have won the past 12 meetings, including last year’s 41-39, triple-overtime thriller that robbed Rutgers of the Big East title and sent the Knights to the Texas Bowl instead of, perhaps, the Rose Bowl.

and

Schiano is well aware that West Virginia is the only Big East team he hasn’t beaten since he arrived in Piscataway six years ago.

ahhahahahahaha …

Thank god this didn’t happen:

Slaton easily could have wound up at Rutgers. Schiano recruited him out of Conwell-Egan (Pa.) High School, so it had to hurt when, in his first career start, Slaton torched the Scarlet Knights for 139 yards on 25 carries two years ago in Piscataway.

“We had discussed [having] a visit at his home, and then he committed to West Virginia that weekend,” Schiano said. “So I did such a great job of swaying him that he went right down to West Virginia and committed.”

Slaton = quality:

Steve Slaton doesn’t think the West Virginia-Rutgers showdown on Saturday at Piscataway, N.J., is between him and Ray Rice.

We’re friendly, but it’s not a rivalry between us,” the consensus All-America Mountaineer tailback said. “I think it’s between the two teams. “What he does and what I do are just part of the teams’ efforts to win this game. All that matters is if you have that ‘W’ when the game is over.”

I want to see this continue:

This will be Slaton’s third appearance against Rutgers. He rushed 25 times for 139 yards and one touchdown in 2005 and 23 times for 112 yards and two scores in 2006.

A rowdy crowd… I think we can handle it:

It’s rare for the West Virginia football team to play in front of a capacity crowd at Rutgers, but that will be the case Saturday when the 7th ranked Mountaineers tackle the 25th ranked Scarlet Knights.

WVU senior linebacker Mark Magro says he believes it will actually help his team that the stands are full and the fans are on their feet.

“Like Coach Rod says, we always hope the crowd is going to be into it, we are going to be excited,” he said.

Ok, feeling better, the team is confident it seems and they look better prepared than they did against the USFags. It will be a great game, especially when we come out throwing the ball and shock the Knights with an air attack!

My Prediction (after this therapy session) WVU 54 - Rutgers 32

I think we get off to a crazy 1st quarter,  like we did last week, and then hold them off with our constantly improving defense. We can stop them.

Hopefully this upcoming game against the Scarlet Knights follows tradition.

WVU has dominated Rutgers over the years, holding a commanding 28-4-2 advantage in the all-time series. As a matter of fact, the Mountaineers have won 12 consecutive meetings with the Knights dating back to 1994. Last season, Rutgers had a chance to earn a share of the Big East title, but WVU put an end to those hopes by outlasting the Knights, 41-39, in triple-overtime in Morgantown.

I want to see pics like this one. Givin’ them the shocker!

Also, for anyone going to the game this weekend beware of the Rutgers Student section. Apparently they got a little rowdy during the Navy game last month and the students are yet again keepin’ it classy in Jersey…

(CSTV U-WIRE) NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - Rutgers beat Navy 41-24 on Friday, but the excitement of the win was cut short Tuesday as reports surfaced concerning mistreatment of Navy players by Rutgers fans in the student section.

A column in Tuesday’s Star-Ledger detailed a slew of obscenities directed toward the Midshipmen by Rutgers students.

The crowd yelled derogatory comments such as “F– you Navy,” “You got f–ed up” and “You suck,” according to the newspaper, which resulted in discomfort for Navy players and fans. (more about classy Rutgers fans here)

So Louisville is out there crying about a bad call, and the Big East is apologizing like crazy. If you didn’t hear about this or see it Friday night, check out the video below. I think it was a bad call and a very bizarre situation.

Week 2 of my computer ratings, week 8 of the season. I still don’t have Excel installed, so it is still 100% objective. Once I get a more complex spreadsheet tool, I can make this more complex. I still think this ranking creates some serious talking points around media bias, strength of schedule, etc.

Remember: to be eligible for the power rankings, you must be in the top 16 of the BCS rankings (this will help inject some subjectivity in my rankings, and I’m too lazy to do the math for all the D1 teams). The formula takes in to account strength of schedule, quality of wins and quality of your win’s wins.

An email conversation by some friends of the Mountaineers….

Matt Stewy sends this article:

DAVID JONES: writer for the Harryburg Patriot Times… ya’ll favorite newspaper

Why do the ESPN analysts insist every year on using their considerable influence to cross off party-crashers such as South Florida as soon as they get a single loss? While, at the same time, propping up fat cats like Louisiana State, Southern California and Oklahoma?

It makes you wonder whether more sinister forces are at work behind the anchor suits, pushing for the schools with massive national alumni bases who provide consistently higher ratings and buzz for the Worldwide Leader.

Prior to Thursday’s 30-27 South Florida loss before a wild snake pit at Rutgers, Kirk Herbstreit appeared on one of ESPN’s insipid and incessant advertiser-linked features: Good Call, Bad Call, named after the slogan of a watery beer. On it, he insisted that a one-loss LSU or Oklahoma should be rated ahead of an undefeated South Florida at season’s end, should the Bulls run the table!

Then, the instant USF’s loss was sealed in the final seconds, Chris Fowler proclaimed the Bulls’ BCS title dreams dead.

If this isn’t blind bias, what is?

Let’s see: USF goes into Auburn and wins. It loses a league game by three points in front of one of the rowdiest crowds in America, basically thanks to two fake kicks and three other USF special-teams gaffes by the same halfwit.

Meanwhile, LSU loses on the road to a Kentucky team that’s very comparable to Rutgers and barely squeaks by Auburn in Baton Rouge, on the last play of the game, and LSU is now clearly a better team? I’m stumped.

This example is even worse. Actually much worse. Oklahoma loses at 4-4 Colorado, the nation’s 50th-ranked team, hyperventilates to beat back a truly wretched Iowa State side 17-7 on Saturday, and this is clearly a more worthy team? Please explain.

And pollsters, please pay attention to the facts and not stuffed shirts on TV. The computers are actually better judges. They have USF at No. 5 and Oklahoma at No. 14. Unfortunately, the hype-infected poll voters, who account for two-thirds of the BCS formula, are inexplicably voting the Sooners at No. 4 and the Bulls at No. 12.

The net BCS ranking? Oklahoma at No. 6 and still in the hunt. South Florida at No. 10 and very likely just what Fowler said — out of it.

That’s what you call a self- fulfilling prophecy.

Matt Stewy: USF getting the shaft lil bit, but maybe it’ll work its way out…. I would also like to add WVU to this as well since they have one loss as does USF and with USF beating WVU and yet they are ranked a few spots ahead of USF. Giv’em the heater Ricky!

Couchburner: couldn’t agree more…Pete Carroll loses to a 41 pt dog AT HOME and they fall from #2 to #10 in human polls…USF falls from #2 to #12 at a close loss to Rutgers… i guess it comes down to WHEN the loss occurred rather than where…

Matt Stewy: yea its always been WHEN more than anything. but oh well, the endless debate could go on and on and on…. i want BC, ASU, Hawaii, Kansas to go undefeated and all get the shaft. that would be great.

MountaineerBob: Continue this conversation in the comments. I think this season is really going to show the bias of the media. This has been going on for years, in the 90’s it was Notre Dame and Ohio State and Florida State, the bias is always there it just fluctuates with the TV $$$.

Couchburner sent me this tune that sums up Penn State football.

 

 The Joe Pa Song: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (12876)

Let me count the ways, the many ways that Rutgers suck.

First, there mascot sucks, just look at him.

Second, they are from Jersey.. nuff said.

Third, they beat USF and that screwed us in the BCS this week. Although, this could end up being a good thing, I felt we needed them to win for a couple more weeks to help our strength of schedule. It already effected us with the BCS week 2 rankings. We did move up a bit, but not as far as we should have. #7 isn’t bad, #5 would have been better. If USF could have taken care of business Thursday, there’s no doubt it would have helped us with the damn computers.

Fourth, and most importantly, they pose a real threat this weekend and they weren’t supposed too. They are coming off of a great win over a #2 team. Now a #6 team is coming to town. They are going to be pumped 2 straight weeks in a row. Their Big East Champ dreams are still alive, so beating us will really make that possible. We need to be careful with this game. Rice is a bad ass and we need to figure out how to stop him and stop their passing game.

Fifth, that stupid 3rd down fight song/Metallica/Bill and Ted air guitar thing they do is fucking annoying.

Sixth, just 2 years ago, they were a joke, and now they get more props that teams in the Big East that have actually done something. The ESPN pundits will call for Rutgers to upset again this weekend, just watch.

Now I ask you all, what do you hate about Rutgers. Add to the list.

The first play of the game. Sick!