A tale of two brackets

This year I allowed my 5-year old son to fill out his first bracket for March Madness. He went with SMU, he has a thing for Larry Brown.

While I went with the Big Blue Nation capping a perfect season. 

Professional Tailgating: Lax Gameday

   

After weeks of promising my son I would take him to a lacrosse, I finally did. On Saturday we made our way to Princeton for their game against Rutgers. 

 

Long Strange Trip for Tom Savage

I remember sitting in Rutgers Stadium Sept. 12, 2009 waiting for Tom Savage to make his debut for the Scarlet Knights.

Fast forward a couple of years and a couple of different colleges, Savage is now considered a potential first rounder in the NFL Draft. This story ran on NFL.com: Tom Savage: The best QB prospect you've never heard of.  While I'm happy for Savage, I just wish he would have done all of this while at Rutgers. He was the highest rated quarterback ever to come to Rutgers.

I just wish it would have all worked out better on the Banks. Blame for it not working out has to be shared between Savage and then head coach Greg Schiano.

Rutgers could care less about the American Athletic Conference

Lets just say Rutgers wants nothing to do with the American Athletic Conference. Its not like they have a relationship with it. Rutgers just wants to see the league, made up like Conference USA, in its rear view mirror as quick as possible. 

Next year the Rutgers Nation will embark into its journey into the Big Ten and that is not lost on anyone . All the fan base talks about is next year and the future games against big time opponents like Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska and Penn State. 

While the fan base is talking about it, the school is selling it. On Saturday, while I was walking around the one of the stadium shops I was able to purchase a Rutgers Football hat complete with Big Ten logo on the side of it. Yes It has a the Big Ten logo on the side. 

There is nothing like selling a future league, while you are in still in a league. By doing this Rutgers has show that this year and the American Atheltic Conference means nothing. 

The Land of Terrible Football Players

The Canadian Football League is a lot of fun to watch, but just looking down the rosters its like a list of players that had trouble playing in college or had their own personal troubles. Players like Jonathan Crompton, yes the same player that could not lead the Tennessee Volunteers are collecting paychecks. 

Here is a list of some of the terrible players in the league to our north:

• Brian Brohm, QB, Hamilton Tiger-Cats: Once watched him get chewed out by his brother when he was at Louisville.
• Noel Devine, RB, Montreal: yes the same West Virginia running back that used to a huge weapon in Morgantown.
• Pat Watkins, CB, Toranto: the former Florida State cornerback has found a home in Canada. I wonder why he was not a player in the NFL.
• Bo Levi Mitchell, QB, Calgary: The former 1-AA National Championship QB has found a home in Canada. I love looking at these rosters it like a trip down memory lane. 
• Jonathan Crompton, QB, Edmonton: need a I say more. 
• Tino Sunseri, QB, Saskatchewan: Wow just when you thought that it could not be worst in CFL, the name Tino Sunseri pops up. You can make the argument that Tino was a terrible QB at Pitt and to see him getting paid to play, is just unthinkable.

Cover Story: In the Cards

 Last night Louisville beat Michigan to claim the national title here are a couple of front pages covering the story

Thank you Tim

First of all I'm not a huge Rutgers basketball fan, but am I a season Rutgers football ticket holder for the last seven years. So today has been hard for me. The president of the school decided to fire Tim Pernetti as athletic director in wake the Mike Rice mess.

Three years ago, a friend of mine, who's son was a corner back on the team, made the six hour trip up to Syracuse to see the game. Before the game we stopped at the Varsity for lunch, while we where eating lunch Pernetti stopped by and sat down to talk. Sure a lot of the talk focus on family and thing likes that. Pernetti did not have to stop and talk he could have just walked by and continued on his way, but that is not who he is. I know that former AD Bob Mulcahy would have never done that. 

Every game day, Pernetti would greets the team getting off the bus right before the Scarlet Walk. He was part of the family. Not an outsider and that is why people loved him on that campus. And lets not forget, Tim helped lead the school from what potential could be an athletic abyss and joining the Big 10. 

Since coming back to Rutgers, Pernetti has transformed Athletics making several key coaching hires in various sports. He has further helped Rutgers to generate new sources of revenue in venue naming rights concessions, Nike merchandise and corporate hospitality and tailgating Rutgers Block Party. 

Sure he did not handle the Mike Rice situation that well but one mistake does not shape a career. As a fan of Rutgers football, I will always be thankful for what Tim did for us and in 2014 when we first host our Big 10 game I will as they say pour some out for Tim. Thanks again Tim. 

Mike Rice is not the only one

So Mike Rice is now out at Rutgers but is he really the only coach in America that has done this. I think not.  Just look around college sports and you will see more of the same. The outstanding blog, Outkick the Coverage, breaks down Coaches Gone Wild and the point is very simple, this happens all over the place and Rice is not the only one.

Really people

So Louisville is going to Final Four after being Duke. But the bigger story is Cards Guard Kevin Ware breaking his leg in a horrific accident. People took to twitter to show support for him but other took to twitter to make fun of the situation. Those people should be banned from social media for life.

It will never be the same

For all of the talk last week of Big East Tournament ending as we know it. The grand daddy of them all, The ACC Tournament, is set to go through changes that will change it forever. With all of the talk of the possibly moving the ACC tournament to NYC, Greensboro and ACC are at a crossroads. As a fan of the ACC, the last place that I want to see the tournament its home is in Greensboro. Yes Greensboro.

My Bracket

The Front Page: Selection Sunday

The teams have been selected, the brackets have been now all we are waiting for is the games. Here is how newspapers all over this great country covered Selection Sunday.

   

National Signing Day: An Ode to the Fax Machine

Over the last couple of years as the use of email has become more and acceptable, the fax machine has been rendered useless. Sure most offices still have them, but the constant hum of them has been replaced for the most part by the bing of email in a person inbox. 

But on the National Signing Day, the fax machine takes its spot at the top of the technological chart. Recruits from all over the country will be sending their National Letters of Intent by fax to their schools. Without the fax machine recruits would have to FedEx their letters of intent and that would not be good for television. 

While the concept of fax machine has been around for nearly 70 years, it really gained in popularity during the 60's. A landmark year for fax machines was 1964, in which the Xerox Corporation introduced (and patented) what many consider to be the first commercialized version of the modern fax machine, under the name (LDX) or Long Distance Xerography. This model was superseded two years later with a unit that would truly set the standard for fax machines for years to come. Up until this point facsimile machines were very expensive and hard to operate. In 1966, Xerox released the Magnafax Telecopier, a smaller, 46-pound facsimile machine. This unit was far easier to operate and could be connected to any standard telephone line.

The use of fax machines is not without its negatives, early on National Signing Day FSU officials told ESPN that they were having issues with the fax machines. Lets hope that they got that fixed, so they can get their letter of in intent.

So as we get excited for the classes that our schools get, just remember that the real star of the day is the fax machines. This is one of the few days in the sun that this machines has, so lets respect it.

National Signing Day Giveaway

A National Signing Day giveaway at a liquor store, yes its happening. @birds60 send me this photo of a local liquor store that was offering car magnets to people who stopped by on National Signing Day. Now that is something new.

What is next for Rutgers?

Any Rutgers fan will tell you that Thursday night was tough. At the half I texted my wife and said "half way there'', little did I know that the second half would be full of heart break. Sure walking out of Rutgers Stadium was incredibly difficult on Thursday night and it took a couple of days to get over. Rather than rant about how terrible Gary Nova is or how limited the offensive plan was or how the defense was not good, I decided to take a couple a days and think about what happened and where they go from here.

First of all, Rutgers fans, like myself, have to realize what our pedigree is. Just a decade ago Rutgers went 1-11 and 0-7 in the Big East. During that season, the Scarlet Knights lost their opener to Villanova. If you would have told fans that a decade a later they would be dissappointed by sharing the Big East title, they would think that you had been on drugs. People have to understand that this program has little pedigree, and that it has has been developed since 2005, when they went 7-5. Let's face it we are not Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, Michigan, or even Georgia. We're Mississippi State, a nice program that in the right year can win a conference title but traditionally will go 7-5 and go to a mid-tier bowl.

People are going to scream about Nova, I thought he was good on Thursday night. Sure the last pass is something that will be talked about for years to come, but who knows who fault that was. Next year, Nova should have the best offense he has ever had. Two good running backs, a good group of receivers and solid offensive line.

Let's look at it like this, the Knights are heading into the best bowl game in the history of the program. They have a share of their first conference title.

The future looks bright and I mean that. On Thursday night, 44 recruits made their officials visit and most of them had Rutgers near the top of their list and that is the very important. The next couple of classes will know the Rutgers program as a winning program and have no idea how bad things where.

While it hurts, all Rutgers fans should know the best (and the Big Ten) is yet to come.

The time has finally come

After more than two years of talk and worry about the conference affiliation of Rutgers, the end its here and its does have a happy ending. Rutgers is heading to the Big Ten in 2014.

It has been a long winding road for Rutgers. Talk that they might be left on the outside looking in is now over. The program has stability and the chance to stand side by side with some of the best programs in America.

Professional Tailgating: No More Unbeaten Season

Rutgers dream undefeated season ended yesterday with a loss to Kent State. Despite the lack of fireworks from the offense, there were fireworks after the game. Despite the loss Rutgers can still win the Big East, which is goal one. Here are the sites from the game.

Professional Tailgating: The dream is live

Rutgers is 6-0 and sent the Cuse packing on the their final trip to Rutgers on Saturday. Here are some of the fun from the game.

Professional Tailgating: 5-0 is not bad

So Rutgers is 5-0 and might be on the verge of something special. The OTWT tailgating crew was there Saturday for RU win over UConn. Here are some of the sights from the Blackout.

Professional Tailgating: The Little Monster

The OTWT Tailgating crew decided to take the youngest member of the group (pictured above looking out over Rutgers Stadium) to his first college football game. The gang took in the Rutgers vs. Howard game. Here are some of the sites from the game.