We’ve got some solid football items to digest today.
- Heather Dinich has ranked the ACC Bowl games in order of most entertaining. The Wolfpack vs the Scarlet Knights is a strong second on the list. It’s interesting a bowl that is not an official ACC Bowl and includes the ACC’s 10th team is ranked so highly. It says a lot for how well the Wolfpack is playing. (Click here)
NC State vs. Rutgers: Football fans should be more excited about this game than they probably are. It’s going to feature two interesting quarterbacks in Mike Teel and Russell Wilson, who have both been the difference for their respective teams down the stretch. For ACC fans who have spent the whole season watching standout defenses, this should be a refreshing game.
- Speaking of bowl lists, you really have to give J.P. Giglio at the ACCNow a lot of credit for the way that he covered the evolving bowl landscape. Giglio was clearly a step ahead of everyone all week. Last Tuesday Giglio nailed the key domino in the ACC by reporting the Champs Bowl’s preference to take FSU, thereby opening the path to send UNC-CH to Charlotte; he was right almost a week early. It was funny to watch other news outlets like WRAL follow Giglio’s reports and piggyback his analysis with stories that referred to “reports†of UNC-CH going to the Meineke Bowl but never citing the sourceof the ‘reports’. If you read Giglio’s projections closely you would note that he did not report that UNC-CH was going to the Meineke Bowl; what he did was (accurately) analyze the ACC’s Bowl situation based on his sources. In the end, Giglio correctly projected 31 of 34 bowls for a fantastic success rate. (Click here)
- Somehow Dr. Saturday’s fantastic piece about Russell Wilson “Resurrecting NC State†flew under the radar on the internet. The following chart and quote are from the article. (Click here)
Most of college football took one look at the debacle at South Carolina and wrote off the Pack as lame ducks for the year. I’m pretty sure I wondered at some point if they would score an offensive touchdown all season.
- NJ.com has a very interesting expose about Rutgers football. It’s long and it’s detailed and it’s good. It also reminds me of the enhanced of attention that is applied to burgeoning programs by local media looking to make a name for themselves with ‘investigative journalism’’ (Click here)
For a decade now, Rutgers University has pushed hard to become a college football powerhouse. But in trying to play with the big boys, New Jersey’s state university picked up some of their bad habits.
Two weeks ago a special university commission concluded the athletics department had been allowed to operate like a rogue agent, making secret deals and spending recklessly with little oversight. An internal audit concluded much the same.
After months of revelations of hidden spending, no-bid contracts and growing funding problems with a costly stadium expansion project, Rutgers now is at a crossroad. Later this week, the university’s governing board is to meet over what to do about the stadium, and discuss how to rein in its athletics department.
Meanwhile, a six-month Star-Ledger investigation of Rutgers athletics — including a new review of public records the university fought to keep confidential — shows big-time college football has come at a greater price than the school has yet disclosed and still refuses to fully document.
