Off Season Catching Up

Alright, back to it on the blog.

 It's been a nice break from the eventful and eye-opening 2010 football season

Oregon vs Auburn

Delaware vs Eastern Washington

Those games plus the Green Bay/Pittsburgh Superbowl meant that I had a genuine rooting interest in each of the top 3 football championship games

- and it also meant that my teams went 0 for 3 in those title games.


The Fightin Blue Hens did their best to let me down giving up a late TD and missing yet another chance to add one more national title to Delaware's trophy case.

The Big East has been searching far and wide for additions to the league and found one in Dallas. New member TCU gives the league a foothold in Texas which is logical in almost every sense except geography. The Big East adding TCU came as a surprise to me, but the reality of the situation is that the Big East has short term needs to address and at this point holding onto the league's BCS auto-bid comes before taking the time to seek out an eastern football playing school that can add just a market. TCU opens up Texas to Big East TV and bolster the league's average ranking for the league's BCS status review. 

Regarding Villanova making the jump to Div 1-A and joining the football Big East - there seems to be some second-guessing that move as Vilanova's game day facilities are being brought into question. The problem here isn't with Villanova's stadium, their 18,000 seat stadium is the right size for Nova's fanbase - the problem is with Villanova.
Dan Levy at the Press Coverage blog cites Villanova's recent attendance figures as the main reason why Villanova isn't ready. 

So the Big East has new markets in Dallas and with Villanova... Philly. But doesn't Philly offer that market to the Big East anyway? I'm pretty sure the Big East football game of the week can be seen on Fox Sports Philadelphia, what is the point of letting Villanova's football team risk that foothold by playing Philadelphia out of that league once more, Temple.

I get that Big East expansion is necessary, the league needs 9 teams and they would rather not upset the balance that the basketball league has -had-. TCU and Villanova have had great runs recently, but what happens when these teams actually join the conference? Will 'Nova be one season removed from another 1-AA national title? Will TCU be continuing its recent success? Probably not.

Meanwhile in Delaware it's business as usual, the Fightin' Blue Hens Blue/White spring game takes place tonight.


Bowls are changing around as well...

Effective immediately, the Texas Bowl will be assuming the identity of the Meineke Car Care Bowl (or did I get that backward?)

The original Meineke Car Care Bowl, which has pitted an ACC team

against a Big East foe in Charlotte, N.C., every year since 2004, will

henceforth be known as the Belk Bowl, after the Charlotte-based chain

of department stores. The new Meineke Car Care Bowl assumes the

history and records of the former Texas Bowl, a Houston institution

since 2006

Other notables from the early offseason include ongoing NCAA sanctions, coaching changes and legal issues that I'm sure we will hear about in more detail in the future.

Army fans who want to look ahead to the end of the 2011 season can note that Army's bowl tie-in remains the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. San Diego State travels to West Point this year so a Fight Hunger Bowl appearance would be Army's first game in California since a trip to Stanford in 1979.

So why wait until next year to play a game in California? Those 2 weeks after an Army Bowl appearance offer the coaching staff a nice lengthy west coast recruiting trip. 

I may as well repost the whole schedule if we're going to look ahead in the season.

2011 Army Football Schedule

Sept. 3 at Northern Illinois

Sept. 10 San Diego State

Sept. 17 Northwestern

Sept. 24 at Ball State

Oct.  01 Tulane

Oct.  08 at Miami (Ohio)

Oct.  22 at Vanderbilt

Oct.  29 Fordham

Oct.  5  at Air Force

Oct.  12 Rutgers (Bronx, NY)

Oct.  19 at Temple

Oct.  10 Navy (Washington, D.C.)

I don't have much on the year to year posts, if you're aching to see what you're waiting on in 1877 check out page 6 of the March IFRA Newsletter.

I'm always trying to come up with more ideas for offseason posts and I'll try to keep it going with the most noteworthy links and posts.