College Football's Next Decade - My Predictions

Okay... I've noticed several articles discussing the decade we have just concluded in college football.  The big thing is now is to predict the future of college football for the next 10 years... where will college football be in mid-January 2020.  Well... I've been following college football as long as any of these so-called experts, and I beleive my predictions are just as good as theirs.  So here I go...

My predictions for College Football over the next 10 years...

1.  Notre Dame's continued decline as a football power.  Hey... most teams go through slumps and some even do worse... Minnesota, TCU, etc.  Sometimes really great programs go through decades of program decline.  By the end of the next 10 years, Notre Dame will be wishing they had joined the Big 10 when the offers were there.  Now in the second decade of the 21st centrury, they find themselves happy to be a part of the Big East Conference.

2.  Conference realignments... and I'm not talking about just adding the nearby school with a winning program.  I'm a TCU fan and as "logical" as it sounds for TCU to join the Big 12 once the opportunity arrises, it will never happen.  The Big 12 does not need TCU.  TCU's future will be discussed later in my blog.  Sometime around 2015 conference realignments will be harsh... excluding schools like Baylor, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Wake Forest and Duke... yes, even Duke.  Much like the Big East has different conference members for football and basketball, other conferences will follow with the same pattern.  Duke and Wake Forest will be ACC basketball members, but not included in the football conference with the larger programs.  If a school is going to be included in the big change, they have better bring in big bucks, big alumni groups or a really big TV market.

3.  Programs on the rise in the next decade will include big schools that are getting their programs together like Minnesota, North Texas, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Washington, Illinois, Syracuse and Houston.  Other programs making their mark during this time will be SMU, Michigan State, UConn, UNLV, Virginia and Texas Tech.

 4.  Programs on the decline over the next 10 years will include Notre Dame, Michigan, USC, Tennessee, Florida State and Penn State.

5.  NCAA super powers over the next 10 years will be Texas, Ohio State, Pittsburgh and Alabama.

6.  Boise State, TCU, BYU and Utah will continue to be solid programs during the next decade, but none of these will play in a BCS Championship Game.

7.  With backing from a foreign investor, the Cintra Cotton Bowl, played at Cowboy Stadium will become the most profitable bowl game.  This game will also cause a disruption in the BCS system, claiming the winner the true college football champion.

8.  The State of Texas will become the center of college football with Texas winning three National Championships.  Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, SMU and Houston will also be football powers.

9.  Rice and Temple will drop their football programs.

10.  As the decade nears 2020, a true play-off for college football will be just as far from being a reality as it is now.

Football Uniforms 101

Yesterday my buddy, Robert and I were exchaning emails about football team logos, uniform designs, best settings to watch a game and other off the cuff parts of the game like...
 Best Helmet/uniform designs...
-NY Jets, Indiana Colts, Texas Longhorns, SMU, Miami Hurricanes (yeah... I like white helmets), K-State, U of Washington, Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys, Mizzou, Pitt (Tony Dorsett era), Chicago Bears, old Seattle Seahawks, UCLA and Colorado Buffalos
-some that need tweaking... (simplifying the design to move to the above group)
-TCU (keep the purple helmet and school name but remove the cartoon character Horned Frog), LSU (do the same as TCU), Texas Tech (go back to the old plain double "T" with less detail and get rid of that sparkly finish), Arizona Wildcats (go back to the old white helmets, the current blue and red are not cutting it), Illinois (find a simple logo to put on the helmet!), Iowa (stop copying the Steelers and do the same!)
Best game setting for TV...
-SEC games on CBS or ESPN seem to have great color (LSU, Auburn, Ole Miss, Florida, Tennessee), also Texas, USC (stadium lighting also seems to help... I hate watching night games in where the field looks dark)
Worst helmet/uniform designs...
-North Texas, Southern Miss (cursive writing with the whole school name is dumb), South Florida (that gold and green remind me of diarrhea), Washington State (bad logo design), Minnesota Golden Gophers and Virginia Tech (find new school colors), Vandy, Oregon, Tennessee Titans, Cincinnati Bengals (start all over), and Minnesota Vikings (stop messing with one of the all-time best uniforms... simplify!!!  Looks like a high school team!)

Pack it all up...

Well... the 2009 football season is history.  Pack it all up and take a breather.  Although the end was a bitter pill to swallow, TCU fans need to relish in the acoomplishments our team and fans made.  Hopefully next year will be even better.  We are losing some key players, but GP and staff are doing a great job bringing in more.  I think we can be even better next year.  It's time to sit back and be happy about winning the MWC title, winning 12 games, most likely a top 10 finish.  Things are good for TCU football, especially when we are sad over losing only our bowl game.

The BCS Bowl was pretty much a bust with McCoy getting hurt early.  Sure some of the media says Texas made a valiant effort toward the end, but 'Bama still won by 16.  Somewhere in Heaven, Bear Bryant, Moses and a few other Tide fans probably ran through the streets and created a little mayhem.

Oh well... great year Frogs!  And way to show up and support them Frog Fans!

Now let's go win a MWC baseball title!

Tough Loss for the Frogs

All I can say about the TCU and Boise State game is these are two good teams and they beat us last night.  BSU deserves the credit, so I'm going to stand back and let them enjoy their moment.  It was a tough loss for the Frogs, especially when we gifted them with the first touchdown.  I feel for Andy Dalton.  He didn't have his best game.  But... he does have another year to remove this memory.

What last nights game, last years Poinsetta Bowl and our first meeting back in Fort Worth at the Capital Plains/Armed Services (whatever it is now called) Bowl tells me is that Boise State and TCU are very much on the same track.  They won this last battle, but I'm figuring we will have many more to come with these guys, especially if they join the MWC.

For now, we Horned Frog fans will have to lick our wounds, knowing we could (and should) have done better.  If the BCS has their way, we will probably get another chance at playing these guys next year.

TCU had a great year.  I am very proud of these Frogs and our coaching staff.

Clash of the Titan Egos

In the blue corner we have the champ... at six foot four, 220 lbs, ESPN Color Man, former New England Patriot, SMU Alumni, member of the famed Pony Express, poster child for the Ron Meyer era at SMU, former Texas Blue Chip running back... Craig James (and son).

In the red corner we have the challenger... (former) coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders, Lawyer, BYU Alumni, (ahem...) Pirate (cough, cough), obnoxious, jerk, Mike Leach.

This is a one fall... no holds barred... fight till you loose your job match.  Gerald Myers officiating.

Mr. James is fighting for his son's blossoming entitlement.  Mr. Leach will be fighting for an $800,000 bonus.

Ladies and gentlemen... it's good looks, corporate swagger and country club versus West Texas, quirkiness and a swash-buckling attitude.

There's the bell... the participants come out.  James attacks first with a flurry of words from his lofty ESPN perch... claiming wrong doing on the part of his opponent, his nobility as a dad, sports authority and general all around years of entitlement.  "How dare anyone place his son in any kind of building under 2,500 square feet with limited amenities."

Leach staggers... but comes back with an upper cut of vague comments... not directly throwing one of his players under the bus (not realizing that Gerald Myers is positioning himself on his hands and knees behind Leach's legs).

Before James can attack again the match is interupted by Univeristy Board members entering the ring and attacking Leach with chairs in gang fashion.  Kicking, beating and focused on the $800,000... the board members do their mayhem then exacuate the ring as if nothing had happened. 

James... realizing the benefit of the situation is announced as winner as Gerald Myers raises James arm in victory.  James accepts accolades from the crowd, realizing most likey his son will find better treatment at SMU, where he can major in entitlement.