Why Isn't Boeckman Playing?

After throwing two picks in a humiliating loss to USC, Ohio State coach Jim Tressell benched Boeckman in favor of freshman Terelle Pryor. Sure Terelle Pryor is a much more exciting player to watch but Boeckman led this team to the national championship a year ago. Now, a year later Boeckman is sitting on the sidelines as Ohio State suffered its second loss of the season. Boeckman is a 24 year old senior who was projected to be picked anywhere between the third round to the seventh round in the upcoming NFL draft. More on that here.

Terelle Pryor is undoubtedly the future of this Ohio State team but if Ohio State wanted a third straight trip to the national title, they should have let Todd Boeckman continue to play or at the very least, used a two quarterback system.

This is very debatable. Who do you think should be starting?

A Few Things About the First BCS Standings

Here is the first BCS standings this week - http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/poll?poll=BCS

• The Mountain West Conference has 3 teams in the top 25, that's the same amount as the ACC and the Big East have combined! Also, there are 6 non BCS teams in the top 25. This is definitely the year of the BCS busters!

• The only way one of the MWC teams does not get a BCS bid is if they all knock each other out. Heres a scenario. TCU beat BYU which put TCU at #14 and BYU at #21. Utah is sitting pretty at #11 and by beating TCU it will knock TCU out of contention. Then, Utah will probably jump into the top 10 but if they lose their last game of the year to BYU, most likely none of the MWC teams will get a BCS bid. Confusing?

• With Penn State being at #3, if Ohio State finds a way to beat them they will most likely jump into the top 5. This means that if Ohio State can win the rest of their games, they may have a shot at ruining another national championship! Just kidding OSU fans. But seriously.

• The clear winner of the BCS standings was USC, who after slaughtering lowly Washington State 69-0, jumped to #5. I guess people don't remember about the Oregon State game. USC will continue to run up the score in order to move up higher.

• Watch out for Pitt at #21. After losing to Bowling Green to start the season, Pitt has strung together 5 straight wins but a daunting schedule awaits them: At Notre Dame, Louisville, At Cincinnati, West Virginia, and then At Connecticut.

Building Champions

The 4 states with the most college football teams are Ohio, Florida, Texas and California. Ohio has 8 teams, Florida has 7, Texas has 10 and California has 7. Not surprisingly, these four states are home to four of the most dominant teams in College Football. In this article I will quickly go over each teams and why they have been so dominant.

These four states are typically a "hot bed" for recruiting. The best players normally come from these four states. Along with that, 4 of the most dominant teams in college football year in and year out also come from these 4 states. These teams are Ohio State, Florida, USC and Texas.

Last year, according to Athlon Sports, Ohio produced 5 players in the top 100. The Buckeyes were able to grab 3 of these players and ended up signing 10 players from the top 100.

Florida produced a jaw dropping 17 players from the top 100. The Gators were only able to nab two of these players because of a more heated in-state competition for this talent. The Gators ended up signing 6 players from the top 100.

Texas produced an equally outstanding number of players from the top 100 with 16. The Longhorns were able to grab 5 of these players and those were the only players in which they signed from the top 100. The Longhorns rarely have to go out of state to recruit their talent because of how deep their state is.

California produced 9 players from the top 100. USC was able to sign 4 of these players and they also signed another 4 making it a total of 8 players from the top 100.

If you have been paying attention, you would realize that almost half of the players from the Athlon Sports top 100 were from these four states alone. These four teams grabbed 29 of the players from the top 100.

This should come as no shock after reading this but these four teams have each won the National Championship since 2002 and odds are that one of them will win it this year!

To continue to be powerful in College Football you must be able to sign players from your own state and occasionally pick players to pursue after from other states. Now you realize why these teams have been so dominant and will be dominant for years to come.

Photos courtesy of Google

Leo's Crystal Ball: BCS Bowl Projections

With most of Week 1 in the books, I will give you my BCS Bowl Projections.

Rose Bowl

Pac 10 Champ vs. Big 10 Champ

Ohio State vs. Oregon

With USC playing for the national championship, Oregon gets the honors to play in the Rose Bowl. The intriguing part of this matchup would be how Ohio State handles the spread offense that they have had trouble with in the past. No matter how tricky Oregon's spread is, it is not equally as effective as the spread offense that Florida implied on Ohio State in the national championship game 2 years ago. Ohio State wins handily on a solid dose of Chris 'Beanie' Wells.

Projected Score: 34-17 Ohio State

Fiesta Bowl

Big 12 Champ vs. At-Large

Oklahoma vs. BYU

BYU runs the table and completes its "Quest for perfection". Oklahoma wins the Big 12 and is hungry for redemption after losing their last 4 BCS bowls. In another 'David vs. Goliath' BCS matchup, Oklahoma routs BYU.

Projected Score: 41-17 Oklahoma



Orange Bowl

ACC Champ vs. At-Large

Clemson vs. West Virginia


After getting embarrassed by Alabama in the first week, Clemson goes on to win their next 10 out of 11 games and finds themselves in the Orange Bowl facing a scary West Virginia team. West Virginia has no answer for Clemson's James Davis and CJ Spiller as Clemson goes on to win a close game.

Projected Score: 35-28 Clemson



Sugar Bowl

SEC Champ vs. At-Large

Auburn vs. South Florida


Matt Grothe leads the Bulls to their first ever BCS game. They face the SEC runner up, Auburn. Auburn lost to Florida in the SEC championship but is fortunate to play in the Sugar Bowl because Florida plays in the National Championship. In a hard fought game, South Florida prevails and wins their first BCS game.

Projected Score: 20-17 South Florida

National Championship

#1 vs. #2

USC vs. Florida

This is an epic battle between two college football powerhouses. Florida's high octane offense vs. USC's loaded defense. Each team is stacked with future NFL all-stars. The game does not disappoint. In a very high scoring affair, Florida comes away with the win and their second national championship in three years.

Projected Score: 42-34 Florida

Phots courtesy of Flickr