You survived

Congratulations.

The long, grueling summer without any big college sports is now over. We are back!

I'll be at the Louisville-Kentucky game as part of the College GameDay team across the street from Papa John's Cardinal Stadium on Floyd Street next to the new Cardinal Ticket Office.

Come out and say hi.

So far, my Saturday has consisted of a group meeting going over my new diet/workout regime that I've been going through for the last two weeks (tough, but rewarding), along with grocery shopping, going to Subway (6" turkey), working out, showering off, and watching all the college football I possible can.

So far, Pitt looks like the old Pitt, I'm guessing Carolina Steve will call in to our next show thanks to East Carolina's win over Virginia Tech, and the Hoosiers look solid in their opener.

Tomorrow, I've got Louisville beating Kentucky in a great game, 26-21.

Have fun, and feel free to post below!

Another reason why ratings/rankings are meaningless early

In my humble opinion, some of the best computer ratings out there are Jeff Sagarin's (fellow Indiana University grad) ratings.

But even Jeff Sagarin can have some skewed ratings sometimes. Especially when a game hasn't been played.

His preseason college football ratings have Louisville at 15th IN THE COUNTRY.

That makes them the second-highest rated Big East team going into the season, behind West Virginia (7th).

Compare that to:
23 - Texas Tech
26 - Arkansas
29 - Kansas
37 - South Florida
46 - Kentucky
49 - Pittsburgh
79 - Indiana

Why Notre Dame bugs me

Everyone wonders why I am so uptight about Notre Dame's football program.

I'll tell you why.

Because the NCAA puts their little paws in everything else, but somehow can't keep Notre Dame from their quest to not EVER PLAY A TRUE ROAD GAME!

The Post-Standard in Syracuse is reporting that Notre Dame and Syracuse are close to an agreement on a 10-game football series. One catch: Notre Dame will not play one of those 10 games at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.

Come on Syracuse. Why are you stupid enough to do this? Is the money really that great? If it is, find another team to do this. Jeez. Notre Dame is not good enough anymore to be playing them 10 TIMES in a row away from your field.

Big East Conference, get a grip. Help out or something. Don't let Notre Dame do this. It's ridiculous.

Erin Andrews is not only hot, but she's super-classy!

This is why I love her.

Erin was working a Cubs-Brewers game when the you-know-what evidently hit the fan.

GateHouse News Service columnist Mike Nadel went after Erin Andrews and her behavior towards players.

Erin Andrews took the high road for the most part. What a classy girl. This is about as opinionated as she got (from StarTribune.com):

“I think my overall reaction is that it’s really sad that in 2008 … I have
people watching every single move I make,” Andrews said. “When there’s a big
game between the Cubs and Brewers going on, it’s sad that that’s what their
focus is on. … And the last thing I had heard is that when you want to do a
story on someone, you contact them.”

You can read her interview with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's Michael Rand responding to Nadel's column by clicking here.

Erin, I will rip everything off your bed with you. Please call me!

Off tomorrow...

Just a couple things I was thinking about tonight as I take the day off from the air.

I'm sorry, but I can't picture Pudge Rodriguez in a Yanks uniform.  I've always liked him, but will I be able to like him as a fixture in Yankee Stadium?

That's about all the baseball I can talk about since I'm finally ready to nail in the last hammer on the Reds and their wild card hopes (my hopes lasted longer than all other Reds fans, for better or worse).  But if you want to read about the Reds, the Red Reporter is always a good place.

So now onto college football.  I'm getting super-excited.  Even though UK and U of L are two teams that will have to fight tooth and nail to get to a bowl, I'm still excited to see both of them play each other.  Here's some more season previews (from CollegeFootballNews.com) on UK, U of L, and IU. And even a little Ohio State for you Big Ten fans.

Can't leave without a little Brian Brohm, who was successfully taught by my man Rocco Gasparro (U of L Media Relations Director for Football) how to avoid any tough questions.  That guy won't crack to the NFL media either.  He's going to represent Louisville great.

Louisville Football picked to finish 7th in the Big East

WOW!

According to the media, Louisville is only going to be better than bottom-feeder Syracuse in the big East Conference this year in football.

That hurts.

What I think is a bit surprising is that it's really not even close.

Louisville got 69 points in the poll. Sixth-place UConn received 97 points.

That tells me that LOTS of Big East media had Louisville this low.

The sliver lining is that no media member picked the Cards to finish last, as Syracuse got the lowest amount of point possible by the media.

If Tom Jurich's statement to the Athletic Association Board wasn't enough, now the expectations are even lower.


2008 PRESEASON BIG EAST MEDIA POLL
1. West Virginia (22) 189
2. South Florida (1) 149
3. Pittsburgh (1) 128
4. Rutgers 110
5. Cincinnati 98
6. Connecticut 97
7. Louisville 69
8. Syracuse 24

Which is football conference is better? Big Ten or SEC?

If you think the Big Ten is better, welcome to the lonely world.

I'll argue SEC is better, however I will agree with my colleague Rick
Bozich and Detroit Free Press columnist Michael Rosenberg (our guest
on The Front Row Ticket today on ESPN 93.9 The Ticket) that the gap is
not that wide.

The SEC wins championships. And the league is more competitive.

I think that competitiveness is what blues the line in favor of the
SEC more than it should be.

"Everyone beats up on everybody in the SEC." Thats all I hear.

That doesn't mean the SEC is the Tiger Woods of football conferences.
It just means there's parity.

You got to take a look at out-of-conference games. And the SEC has
been less than perfect.

Mississippi State got drilled by West Virginia. South Florida won at
Auburn. Hell, Alabama lost to Louisiana-Monroe.

But they do win bowl games.

And they win championships lately.

The Big Ten is behind the SEC, but the gap is smaller than you think.

New things--they are a-coming

Well besides the All-Star game, more Derrick Caracter news, and still
laughing at what was an embarrassing display from Dave Ragone and
Scott Padgett in the Celebrity Home Run Derby, I decided to stop by to
tease the faithful Big EZ Show followers.

Keep your ears peeled to 93.9 The Ticket!

And we're back...

I don't know why I went away from Google for my blog (I love everything Google). But I did for about nine months. I went over to Wordpress and it just wasn't for me.

Now I'm back. Sadly, it doesn't look like any of my posts over the last nine months will make it over here except for a couple that I am going to manually copy and paste over here.

But it doesn't matter. The bottom line is we have the old bigezshow.com BACK! Welcome.

Of UK or U of L, which football program is more relevant right now?

I know I've been bouncing around as a guest host or guest co-host on different shows and it's tough to find me sometimes I know (just like I know all you listeners are desperately searing for me if you haven't found me yet). But, one of the topics we've been throwing out there as of late is which fooall program is more relevant nationally right now, Louisville or Kentucky?

I'm going with Louisville. They're more nationally relevant in college football.

Look, I know Louisville had a sub-par season last year. But, as a program, they've been talked about for the last 6-8 years in a much brighter light. Yes, I know Kentucky is on the uptick, and they defeated Louisville last year (not to mention # 1 LSU). That's a lot of good stuff to chew on as far as relevance is concerned.

But that's one year.

Louisville has been more relevant for longer. They've had good stuff to chew on for years. Kentucky hasn't. Sure, Louisville lost to the Wildcats last year.

But that's one year.

When you've been talked about seriously as a national championship contender in the last two seasons... guess what, you're more relevant than the third place finisher in the almighty SEC East.

Don't let your love for Rich Brooks cloud your judgment. Don't let the power of the respect-demanding SEC put you in a trance.

The Big East, while less powerful as a conference, is easier to climb up, although it may take awhile for U of L to reascend up that mountain. But in the SEC East traditionally, it's Georgia and Tennessee and Florida. Maybe if Urban Meyer and Mike Richt keel over, Kentucky has a chance to be relevant.

Fat chance.

And save the hate mail Kentucky fans. I don't hate UK. In fact, you may very well win your second straight game in the series in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium on August 31st.

You're just not more relevant nationally... yet.

(Thanks to Mike Rutherford at Card Chronicle for the pic)

A good piece on Louisville Cardinal football (for once)

It's funny. If I see a picture of a Louisville football player on a blog or on an online newspaper in the summertime anymore, I think it's going to be another story on a suspended arrested dismissed football player.

So I thought I'd turn the tide a little bit. Amobi Okoye is the centerpiece of an ultra-cool column in ESPN The Magazine documenting what the kid was up to on his 21st birthday. A must-read for any Louisville fan.

Some good news for a change.