Andy Staples ranks Aggies number two

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Travis Normand

by Travis Normand

Last week I posted about Dennis Dodd ranking the Aggies number one in his very early 2013 pre-season poll. As it turns out, Dodd is not the only one with high-praise for Texas A&M. Andy Staples, of SI.com, produced his very early 2013 pre-season poll and has the Aggies at number two (behind Alabama at number one).

See Andy Staples’ early top 25 for 2013

While I am sure the Aggies will enjoy all the pre-season attention, Staples goes out of his way to demonstrate the point I made in my post about Dodd’s top 25. My point was that while these polls are somewhat accurate/credible, they primarily serve as a means to drive internet readership/traffic during the off-season. What better way to drive up your website’s hits than to put a team, with a large and excited fan base, in the number one or two spot.

Regardless, as of January 23, 2013, the Aggies have one first-place vote, and one second place vote. Not bad.

One year later

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Travis Normand

by Travis Normand

I was caught completely off-guard when I saw this story concerning the one year anniversary of Joe Paterno’s death. I can’t believe it has been a year since his passing.

Texas Aggies are the early preseason No. 1

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Travis Normand

by Travis Normand

You read the headline correctly, the Texas Aggies are considered the No. 1 overall team — in a very early preseason poll — for the 2013 season.

While I personally couldn’t be more excited and flattered by the ranking, I take it with a grain of salt. Why? Because there are a lot of reasons for ranking the Aggies number one, however, none of these reasons really matter as it is currently January 16, 2013.

On the other hand, the person that gave A&M the top spot in this early poll is none other than Dennis Dodd (senior college football columnist for CBSSports.com). In other words, the number one spot was not given by some “hack” with a blog by the name of OnePointSafety.com. It was given by one of the most well-respected national college football writers.

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Oops! Apparently Chip Kelly is heading to Philly after all

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Travis Normand

by Travis Normand

Last week I wrote how happy I was that Oregon head coach Chip Kelly had decided not to go to the NFL and stay at Oregon. You can read that here.

I bring this up again because I just read that Kelly has apparently accepted the job as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles (NFL). What a shocking turn of events, as I can honestly say I haven’t seen a move like this before. I have never seen a coach decline an NFL offer, stay at his current school, then take the very same offer a week and a half later.

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Keith Arnold interview on SolidVerbal.com

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Travis Normand

by Travis Normand

If you love college football and you are not listening to the SolidVerbal.com podcast, you are missing out.

As readers of this blog know, I post random items and thoughts as I find them. This means I post a lot of stuff that is anything but “timely.” As it works out, I tend to find things later than most, which means I post about them later as well. However, this isn’t always a bad thing.

For example, Ty and Dan (co-hosts of SolidVerbal.com) interviewed Keith Arnold of the NBCSports.com blog “Inside the Irish” on January 4, 2013. Had I listened to the interview that very same day, I may not have found it as interesting as I did. Instead, I listened to the interview today (Jan. 14), a week after the national title game.

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Increase in Bowl Attendance; Viewership Increases and Ratings

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Travis Normand

Jan. 10, 2013
For Immediate Release
Football Bowl Association (FBA)

More Than Half of All Bowls Show Increase in Attendance

ORLANDO (FBA) – Eighteen of the 35 Football Bowl Association member bowls had increased attendance during this year’s bowl season. Overall, attendance at bowl games fell 2.4 percent this year compared to the same games last year, the Football Bowl Association announced today.

‘We had some great crowds at many bowls across the country, ‘ said Wright Waters, Executive Director of the Football Bowl Association. ‘Historically, the bowls have averaged close to 50,000 fans in attendance, and this year held true to form.’

The largest crowd of the bowl season belonged to the Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO with 93,359 fans in attendance to watch Stanford play Wisconsin. Finishing second in attendance, the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic had the second-largest crowd in the game’s 77-year history, with 87,025 on hand to watch Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M knock off Oklahoma.

Fourteen bowl games had crowds in excess of 50,000 and overall, 1,722,833 college football fans attended bowls this season.

‘If you compare bowl game attendance to other sports, including regular season college football, the stats this year measure up to what we are seeing across the country,’ said Waters. ‘There are lots of factors that affect attendance whether it is the state of the economy, weather or the matchups … many things bowls have control over, and many they don’t.’

For more information about the Football Bowl Association, visit footballbowlassociation.org.

Click here for a printable .pdf version of this release.

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Perspective on Bowls vs Playoff

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Travis Normand

by Travis Normand

If you have been following my blog for any period of time, you know that I am anti-playoff (for college football). I have many reasons for this, but that is for another post. In fact, now that I think of it, I have mentioned that I am anti-playoff before but I don’t believe I have ever made a comprehensive post that details my reasoning behind it. I should do that soon.

With the 2012 season officially over, we are one step closer to the first college football playoff. While the playoff discussion/debate has changed a little (it is now more about “what is the best playoff format,” instead of “whether or not we should have a playoff at all”), I still think the debate over whether or not to have a playoff is one worth having. After all, we don’t have it yet and anything can change.

Anyway, whenever I find an article containing an interesting perspective or thought process to the “playoff debate,” I try to share it here. So, when I found this article on OffTackleEmpire.com, I couldn’t wait to share it.

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BCS National Title: The morning after …

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Travis Normand

by Travis Normand

Okay, so today is not really the morning after, as the BCS title game was the night before last. However, I was going to write this yesterday (on the actual morning after the title game) but I didn’t feel up to it. Why? Because the morning after the title game is always a bad one for me. It’s like a bad hang over multiplied by 10.

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OPS reaches 100 followers!

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Travis Normand

by Travis Normand

I am pleased to announce that OPS has registered its 100th follower today (Jan. 9, 2013)! Again, small potatoes to some of you, but a big deal to me. I am humbled, even if the followers are just being nice.

Thanks to everyone who follows, reads, checks-in, comments, visits, etc. I really do appreciate it. Hopefully this site will continue to grow and I will continue to get better (as I can’t possibly get any worse…haha).

Travis

Alabama wins 2013 BCS Championship

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Travis Normand

by Travis Normand

I would like to re-cap Alabama’s BCS Championship win. However, words cannot describe what I witnessed on Monday night in Miami. Therefore, if a picture is worth a thousand words, the following picture says it all!