NCAA

Well, a heart-breaker in Miami tonight. However, it wasn't a total shitfest. Miami actually showed up to play for the 2nd half, which was a nice thing to see. I'm not sure what the problem is with Miami, but it's there. Maybe it's recruiting, maybe it's the new conference, maybe it's just the talent pool in the Southeast isn't as hot recently. Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure it's not Larry Coker.

I actually got to see a live game today in the Citrus Bowl. UCF lost to Eastern Carolina. It was a lot of fun seeing a game live even with the loss. Shout-out to the guy who kept up a non-stop string of profanity throughout the first half. He really hammered home the difference between TV and live.

So, the big thing I want to mention is the last few seconds of the first half of the Wisconsin-Penn State game. Wisconsin scored a TD to make it 10-7 with a bit of time left on the clock. The Wisonsin coach found a loophole in the new game clock rules, though. See, now the clock starts when the football is kicked as opposed to touched by the receiving team. So Wisconsin comes out and deliberately goes offsides on the kick. A few seconds tick off the clock, the ball is backed up 5 yards, and they set up to rekick. Wisconsin again goes deliberately offsides on the kick, a few seconds tick off, the ball is backed up, and Joe Paterno goes apeshit. Wisconsin kicked a third time for real and there was a minimal gain on the return.

So how fucking clever is that? Kick the ball a few times and run time off the clock. Sure, eventually you'd be kicking from your own goal line, but if you just needed to run 20 seconds off, you could do that.

Anyway, I think the NCAA is going to look at this in the off-season and you'll see one of two outcomes: One, the clock rules go back to how they were last season. Two, any team that's offsides on more than, say, one kick is charged for unsportsmanlike conduct and the ball is placed on the other team's 35 or 40 or something.