Has Pryor set a new standard for top recruits?

Well, according to the latest, the #1 basketball recruit in the nation Brandon Jennings ditched Arizona for Europe.

But considering Zona is now in the "I don't like you until the circumstances change" position right now (because they, a team worse than Syracuse....got to play in the tourney this past March and my beloved Orange didn't), I'm a little relieved.


Normally, I'd be upset at all this though. Why? Because I think players shouldn't rely on their basketball skills to get them places. What if Jennings is a failure in Europe? What if this will start a trend?

And more importantly, what will happen to recruits signed by the likes of Tubby Smith, Jim Calhoun, Bob Huggins, Billy Donovan, Ben Howland, Tom Izzo, Bruce Pearl, and most importantly (in my eyes), Gary Williams and Jim Boeheim? And what about those recruits who promised to help rebuilding programs such as Georgia and Michigan (especially since it seems to be taking forever in both cases)?

As a Syracuse fan, I know what it's like to have people pretty much shit on your school. Both Carmelo Anthony AND Donte Green said they'd stay, but they turned their backs on us.

So I feel a little sympathy for Olson's bunch right now.....until basketball season starts up and I'll be waiting for the next Pac-10 school worse than Cuse to take a spot in the tourney ahead of Cuse.

And to top it all off, why the hell are these top recruits waiting until the very last minute to make these decisions? Terrelle Pryor kept all of us in suspense for a long time when he finally announced he'd be heading for the University of Ohio State (and of course, pissing off Michigan fans in the process). Is this gonna happen every year from now on both in football AND in basketball?

You are....completely screwed!

Dear Penn State:

You used to help keep college football popular here in the Northeast.

You used to bring in great recruits, and you have the legendary Joe Paterno as your coach, who will probably finish his career as the winningest coach of all time (suck it, Bobby Bowden). And after Michigan, you guys are my second favorite Big Ten team (even if Syracuse is your rival, too).

You had your chance to join the Big East Conference with all your traditional rivals, including Pitt (yes, I know we rejected you because of your lack of competitiveness in basketball), but considering all of our football powerhouses left to the ACC (and tanked along with that conference), we need you here today.

You chose the not-so-bright-lights of the rust belt, and were forced to make your chief rival.....lowly Sparty...... NOT Pitt, NOT WVU, NOT Syracuse, but Michigan State.

And as the Big East gained a lot of credibility from its new guys (and Rutgers to boot), you only won the Big Ten title twice (and one of them was a shared title) in a tanking conference that only gets multiple BCS berths nowadays because of the Rose Bowl committee's inability (along with just about every other bowl committee, but particularly the Rose Bowl) to move forward to the next era of college football.

If you joined the Big East, you could add another level of depth to college football's second best overall conference now (after the SEC, and I'm not saying this lightly, and no, the Little creampuff Twelve and USC and the Nine Dwarves don't count). We'd love to have you. We really would. But it's too late. You missed your chance when we got about, 48 more basketball teams than we need.

Nevertheless, I will keep bringing this up. You'll be playing both Syracuse and Michigan this year, so you'll be in this blog's hot seat a lot.

Anyway, we hope you learned your lesson.

Sincerely,

The Big East Conference and East Coast Bias.

The return of the Buckstache!

So, a tUOS (that stands for THE University of Ohio State) defensive back, Eugene Clifford, is charged with assault by punching two bar employees.

Let's take a look at him:

Oh, look! He has a Buckstache!

In case you didn't know what this is, the Buckstache Postulate, formed by former blogger Yost (who shut down his amazing blog a few weeks ago), says that if a tUOS player, fan, student, or alum grows a mustache, his or her chances of committing a crime rise dramatically. Yost illustrated the case in point with many examples.

Apparently this wasn't the first time Clifford got in trouble. Every Day Should Be Saturday (EDSBS) reported that he was suspended from last season's title game for violating team rules.

Sucks to be Eu, Gene. (Oregon fans, I'm sorry for this incredibly horrible joke. Don't worry, I'd like to see you kick both USC AND ASU's asses this year).

The "top ten" "rivalry" games for this year

Okay, so these guys rated the top ten football rivalry games for this upcoming season, or what they are supposedly. This is what they said:

10. Pitt-WVU (Needs to be higher....MUCH higher, especially since I have WVU in the title game right now)
9. Auburn-Georgia
8. Kansas-Missouri
7. Auburn-LSU
6. Notre Dame-USC

Wait...Notre Dame-USC? Where the hell did that come from?

I'll be the first to tell you USC is overrated once again, but as every college football fan knows, Notre Dame is pretty much the dog show of college football. First of all, USC may be overrated, but Notre Dame is the one team more overrated. And ESPN's Schlabach pretty much gave them the benefit of the doubt, ranking them at 25 in his most recent poll and putting them in a New Year's Day bowl (in which they'd easily get an ass-whooping). If the Irish are lucky, they'll go 8-4, the same record Michigan will probably have, and he has them soaking in the Champs Sports Bowl. There's no way in hell the Irish are better than the Wolverines, even with the coaching change (ND will also lose to Sparty and Purdue, and if they're playing Boston College this year they'll go seven wins if they're lucky).

So yeah. This game means nothing. Nothing at all. All the pundits like to claim the Irish are "rebuilding" and bringing in "top recruiting classes." Yeah. Ty Willingham had more success there than Cheeseburger Charlie. Now I have to go read up on the SEC.

And the list rounds out with:

5. Illinois-University of Ohio State (I have the Illini winning the Big Ten)
4. Illinois-Missouri
3. Utah-BYU (Now THIS one I like....BCS buster, anyone?)
2. Texas-Oklahoma
1. Georgia-Florida (I understand this one)