Normally each week I just make my picks, but there is way too much to talk about in the world of football in the Republic of Texas. The Dallas Cowboys were hyped to become the first team to play in a Super Bowl in their own stadium. Guess someone forgot to tell the players. The Cowpokes have struggled mightily all year long, with the last straw being the loss of starting Quarterback Tony Romo for the year. Now John Kitna gets the privilege of facing the Giants who are known to sack qb’s about 15 times a game. Good Luck this week Cowboys.

The Longhorns are in total disarray. Now I will give all the UT fans the “scoreboard” call as my beloved Huskers got smoked at home where they played their worst game of the year. Nebraska looked inept in that game, especially in the first quarter, and the Longhorns did just enough to win that game. Problem is they have not looked like a football team since that moment in time. Horrible home losses this year to UCLA, Iowa State, and Baylor must be causing a horrible uprising in Austin. Blogs are calling for Mack Brown’s firing. Offensive Coordinator Greg Davis has a variety of “Fire Greg Davis” Blogs up and running. Even the beloved Will Muschamp would be wise to look into taking a head coaching job somewhere else as I would think he would not want any part of this hot seat … maybe back to his native state of Georgia? Perhaps to LSU where he was also an assistant coach as the natives there appear to be restless with Les Miles?

Big XII Commissioner Dan Beebe must be hating his job about now. The Commish starts the pre-season by setting an ultimatum to all the universities and in particular Missouri who was rumored to be leaving the Big XII and Nebraska … “We need to come to terms with that. We’re going to head into our meetings in Kansas City and I think we need to have a very frank conversation about where we’re going and who’s going to be on the plane when we take off.” Mr. Beebe said. “I will be very direct and talk about that with our membership and want to find out. It would be a shame, given that all boats have risen with this tide that’s been created in the Big 12, for anybody to think they’re going to have a better future somewhere else.” .

Well the Big 10 said “No Thanks” to Missouri, said “Hello” to Nebraska, and Colorado bolted to the Pac 10 Conference, which frankly is a better fit for the laissez faire attitude Buffs fans.

Nebraska took their ball and went home, effectively leaving the weaker North schools scrambling hoping the Texas … errrrrrr Big 12 conference would keep it together. So far so good, but one has to wonder with the problems of the quote “centerpiece “ football program and the “all controlling university that wears burnt orange, where does the future of the conference lie?

I think that BYU going independent may be part of the future of the Big XII. BYU has a strong following much like their counterparts of the Catholic background in South Bend. I still suspect that BYU is not a large enough of a power to pull off their own TV deals and such on their own. Getting out of their current affiliation lines them up well for a future North division team in the old Big XII. The problem is finding one more team. Wyoming? Nope, Colorado State perhaps? Maybe. Quite frankly there is not a lot to choose from.

The biggest issue might be that phone conversation taking place between two folks already mentioned in this article. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Big 12 Commish, Dan Beebe. Since the Big 12 will no longer have 12 teams, they will no longer be able to host a conference championship game. Jones had recently inked a 3 year deal to have the game at the Jerry Dome in Dallas. I would love to be a fly on the wall for this phone conversation:

Jerry: Beebster, you have GOT to get two more teams in, you signed the contract for three years, I don’t give a damn if Nebraska and Colorado left the conference, get someone else in here.

Dan: The NCCA has told us we can’t have the game unless we have twelve teams in the conference.

Jerry: I don’t care! I was going to sell 100,000 seats for each of those games and think of all the booze sales! Plus those eager fans will come through and do the tour ahead of time and we charge $20 bucks a head for that as well. You are costing me a lot of money!

Dan: Have you looked at the division one football programs in the upper Midwest? Who am I going to get? South Dakota State?

Thursday

Georgia Tech @ Virginia Tech(15.5) – Do the Hokey Pokey. Va Tech 28- GT- 14

Saturday

Maryland @ Miami (-4.5) – Is Harris out? Won’t matter. Hurrigangsters 28- Freiders Fighting Turtles – 14

Illinois @ Michigan (-1.5) – Michigan has to cover sometime. MEEEEEECHIGAN – 28- Ill 21

Baylor @ Oklahoma State (-6.5) – This could be for all the marbles in the South. OSU – 35- Baylor – 31

Washington @ Oregon (-28.5) – Oregon is good every week. Ore 56- Washington – 21

TCU (-4.5) @ Utah – Frogs defense just too much…..TCU 35- Utah 17

Nebraska (-17.5) @ Iowa State – Corn wins but Cy covers. NEB 35- Clones 21

Northwestern @ Penn State (-6.5) – JoPa gets 400. Penn St – 28- NW 21

Oklahoma (-6.5) @ Texas A&M – One week wonder for A&M last week, back to reality this week. OU – 35- A&M 14

Arkansas @ South Carolina (-3.5) – one of the better games of the week. Ark – 21- SC – 17

Oregon State (-7.5) @ UCLA – which UCLA team shows up? The one that loses…..Ore St 28- UCLA – 14

Missouri (-7.5) @ Texas Tech – Mizzou stinging after beatdown at hands of huskers. Tigers – 35- TT – 21

Alabama (-6.5) @ LSU – Roll Tide, LSU is way over-rated. Tide – 28 LSU – 13

Texas (-6.5) @ Kansas State – Why would I stop piling on the longhorns now? Mack Brown circled the wagons last week and THAT went well didn’t it. Goalposts come down in the little apple. KSU – 28- Hook em – 24