NCAA12 Online Dynasty for XBOX360

We’ve got 5 spots in the dynasty going into Season 2.

If you are interested please sign up on the forum at the following LINK and comment under NCAA 12 Online Dynasty – Season 2:Teams. Please let us know the following:

     Your Xbox Live gamertag:
     What 2 star team you’d be interested in, we will let you know if they are available.

Our commish online is mancavehawkeye on xbox live. My tag is hawkeyemkn7. Feel free to add us as friends on live.

We advance 2 times a week.

You need to sign on with a 2 star or less team, play 1-2 human games a year.

With the coaches contracts we obviously can’t control the length you sign for when you select a school…so this is set up.

     If they have a 1 year deal and are looking to move on, then you can only move up 1 star in prestige.
     If they stay 2-3 years, they can move up 2 stars in prestige.
     If they stay 4-5 years they can move up 3 Stars in prestige.
     If you stay 6 years, you can go to any school that offers you.

2011 NFL Predictions

Well the lockout is over, and its time to throw my picks up on here again.  Last year I had the Packers in the Super Bowl, losing to the Colts....got 1/2 of the Big Game right.  Let's see if this year I can get them both.

AFC East - New England Patriots

AFC North - Pittsburgh Steelers

AFC South - Houston Texans

AFC West - San Diego Chargers
AFC WC - New York Jets

AFC WC - Baltimore Ravens

 

NFC East - Philadelphia Eagles

NFC North - Green Bay Packers

NFC South - New Orleans Saints

NFC West - St. Louis Rams

NFC WC - Atlanta Falcons

NFC WC - Detroit Lions

 

AFC Championship

New York Jets over New England Patriots

NFC Championship

Green Bay Packers over Philadelphia Eagles

SUPER BOWL

New York Jets over Green Bay Packers

Big Ten Awards - Week 1

The big news of the week in the Big Ten was that mother nature suspended games in Iowa City and even called the game in Michigan.  Other teams had some scares.  Purdue barely escaped Middle Tennessee State while Indiana fell to Ball State, and Minnesota put a scare in to USC at the Coliseum.  The rest of the conference rolled to a wins they were expected too.

Team of the Week: Northwestern - The Wildcats went on the road to Boston College without their Heisman Candidate QB Dan Persa and came out with a 24-17 win.  The Cats rolled up 227 yards rushing against the top team against the run in 2010.  Northwestern gets to come home next week 1-0 and host Eastern Illinois.

Game of the Week: USC 19 - Minnesota 17 - The Gophers went in to LA and even after starting QB Marquis Gray got hurt, they still managed to hang with mighty Trojans.  Jerry Kill had his Gophers ready to play, they might be a competitive out in the Big Ten this coming year.

Helmet Stickers:  Brandon Herron from Michigan became the first Wolverine to score 2 defensive touchdowns in one game.  He nabbed a interception return as the Broncos were going into score and then a fumble recovery for 6.  


Russell Wilson opened his Badger season with a nice performance in a dominating game over the visiting UNLV Rebels.  Passed for 255 yards and 2 TDs and scampered for a long 46 yard touchdown. 

Highlight of the Week:  Brandon Herron's 98 yard interception return for a touchdown at the 1 minute mark.




Russell Wilson TD run…go to about the 2 minute mark.

Big Ten Weekly Picks

Matt (10-2)   -   Chad (11-1)   -   Kyle (10-2)

Aggies instead of Utes?

What if Texas A&M would be Pac-12 bound instead of Utah?  Would this rumble in the landscape of college sports be going on?  Maybe with Texas and going independent, but would there be the dramatic effects going on?

If Utah was still in the Mountain West and Boise State coming in, that conference would have for sure received a BCS bowl bid, and kept BYU around, would TCU have bolted for the Big East or stayed a lot closer to home.

The Cotton Bowl wants in the BCS and with the JerryDome it has a home that it most likely will get one sooner rather than later.  So as I look at it, what would the college conference scene look like?  How about this?

Big Ten	SEC	ACC	Pac-12
Illinois	Alabama	Boston College	Arizona
Indiana	Auburn	NC State	Arizona State
Ohio State	Arkansas	North Carolina	Oregon
Penn State	LSU	Duke	Oregon State
Purdue	Mississippi	Virginia	USC
Wisconsin	Mississippi State	Virginia Tech	UCLA
Iowa	Florida	Wake Forest	Stanford
Michigan	Vanderbilt	Clemson	Cal
Michigan State	South Carolina	Florida State	Washington
Minnesota	Georgia	Miami	Wash State
Nebraska	Tennessee	Georgia Tech	Colorado
Northwestern	Kentucky	Maryland	Texas A&M
Mt West	Big 8	Big East	IND
BYU	Oklahoma	Syracuse	Texas
Utah	Oklahoma St	South Florida	ND
Fresno State	Kansas	Cinciannati	Army
San Diego St	Kansas State	Connecticut	Navy
Wyoming	Missouri	West Virginia
New Mexico	Iowa State	Louisville
TCU	Texas Tech	Rutgers
Boise State	Baylor	Pittsburgh
Air Force		Villanova-move up
Colorado State
Nevada
UNLV

The Big Bowls would then look like this?

Rose – Pac12 vs Big Ten

Cotton – Big 8 vs AtLarge

Orange – ACC vs Big East

Sugar – SEC vs AtLarge

Fiesta – Mt West vs AtLarge

BCS Championship – 1 vs 2

So basically its 5 spots up for grabs along with the conference championships, the Mt West would have its bid.  Texas is independent and A&M is separated from the Horns.

Would there be more stability?  Most likely.  All teams would be happy.  The Big 8 may have not gotten a lot of money without Texas, but its college athletics and they could go for equality and get more than what they are getting now. 

Thankfully NCAA 12 we can adjust conferences and see how it would play out.

Thoughts?

Iowa High School Picks - Week 2

Had a great week last week going 18-2.  Went 8-0 in the top two classes alone.

This week your still getting a lot of interclass matchups.  A few to point out are the West Marshall vs Aplington Parkersburg, Solon vs Iowa City-Regina, and then SE Polk vs Waukee.. 

West Marshall put a smack down on Madrid last week…looks to put another perinial state power down this week.

Solon is the new darling to the high school powers…they are dominating in every sport.  Almost like Harlan did.  Iowa City Regina has been decent as of late with Marv Cook as head coach.  I expect Solon to win but curious to see what Regina will be able to do.

Finally SouthEast Polk vs Waukee.  Opposite sides of Des Moines face off.  Waukee still needs to get some wins to get up there with the big boys of Valley, Dowling, Ankeny and SE Polk…maybe a chance right here this week to do so.

Week 2 Picks

SE Polk over Waukee

Ames over Ottumwa

Bettendorf over Davenport-North

CR Xavier over CR Prairie

ADM over Ballard Huxley

Clear Lake over Forrest City

Webster City over Iowa Falls/Alden

Harlan over CB Lincoln

Solon over Iowa City Regina

Pella Christian over Van Meter

West Marshall over Aplington-Parkersburg

Ogden over CMB-Baxter

Emmettsburg over Spencer

Dike-New Hartford over Hudson

Gladbrook-Reinbeck over Grundy Center

BCLUW over GMG

West Hancock over Lake Mills

North Tama over HLV

Martensdale St Mary's over Corydon

West Bend Mallard over Cal-Latimer

Week (0-0)

Season (23-6)

What's the magic number?

When is too big too big?  With A&M SECeding from the Big XII and most likely going to be the 13th SEC team, expansion is all the talk as the college football season kicks off.

With the SEC having 13 teams they are going to be looking to go to an even number of 14.  The Big XII is on shaky ground with 9 and all the fate in Texas and Oklahoma's hands.  Do they expand or will the Pac-12 offer an invitation to some schools and go to the Super Conference.

I this week predicted it happening and that's because college sports is all about business and money and tv contracts in football right now.  Bigger footprints in bigger markets equal a bigger pay day!

Even though I think that is coming, I don't want that.  I think 12 is the magic number for conferences.  It works for 2 divisions of 6.  Scheduling among 6 teams from another division you see teams more often than you would with 8 teams in the other division.  Unless there are no non-conference games, your going to take time to build rivalries in your own conference.  

Then look at the history of conferences.  They were built with like universities in a certain region, hence the names.  Atlantic Coast Conference.  Big East.  Pac-10.  Southeastern Conference.  Southwest conference.  The Big Ten has its footprint in the mid-west and so did the Big 8.  The teams didn't have to travel to far to go to compete.  Yes the big pay day is football and it costs money to send baseball and other olympic sports on the road.  

Now a day or so of thinking about it, what would be best for the landscape?  I think 16 is too big.  I think that it would work for a few years because of the novelty of the thought, but its just too big.  Look at the Big East with the huge conference it has for basketball, or the old WAC when it was spread across 3 time zones and eventually split to the Mountain West and WAC.

Here is where I hope that the Big Ten stays at 12 for the time being and has some history with the way it is set up now.  I'm excited about it and don't want to see it change.

Big Ten Football - Week 1 Predictions

The Big Ten Slate is pretty much chalk this week, as you would expect in week 1.  2 teams have ventured out to play quality opponents, Minnesota will travel to Los Angeles to take a whooping and receive a check from USC and then there is the Game of the Week. 

NORTHWESTERN vs BOSTON COLLEGE

11AM CST – ESPNU

Northwestern travels east to take on Boston College.  The Fighting Fitzgerald’s and Dan Persa should put up a really good fight here and I expect the game to be close.  If Persa is back 100% from the injury they’ll fight to the end.  My prediction though is Boston College pulls it out in the end at home.

Boston College – 27 : Northwestern – 23

Last year my buddy Chad and I had a Jimmy John’s Big Ten Challenge on picking conference games only…Chad won by +3.  This year we are going to do the same but on the whole season along with Kyle.  If we differ on our picks I’ll have them split with a “/” and put (m) or (c) or (k)  and then a weekly running total.

Week 1 BIG TEN PICKS

UNLV @ Wisconsin – Wisconsin

Youngstown State @ Michigan State – Michigan State

Northwestern @ Boston College – Boston College (M) (K) / Northwestern (C)

Akron @ Ohio State – Ohio State

Indiana State @ Penn State – Penn State

Tennessee Tech @ Iowa – IOWA

Middle Tennessee @ Purdue – Purdue

Minnesota @ USC – USC

Western Michigan @ Michigan – Michigan

Chattanooga @ Nebraska – Nebraska

Arkansas State @ Illinois – Illinois

Ball State vs Indiana at Lucas Oil Stadium – Indiana

Matt (0-0)

Chad (0-0)
Kyle (0-0)

 

National Game of the Week

OREGON VS LSU

COWBOY STADIUM

LSU looked like a BIG TIME contender for the 2011 Championship (I had them picked originally to play for the title) but now with suspensions of Jordan Jefferson there are a bunch of questions in the Bayou.  Oregon isn’t without its issues either.  Recruiting scandals have haunted the Ducks and Chip Kelly this summer too.  But both schools open up in the preseason top 5 and visit in Dallas at the JerryDome in a made for TV matchup. 

Oregon should still be able to produce some big points with LaMichael James and their offense…LSU with the suspensions still has a heck of a defense.  I think with that Oregon will somehow figure out to score some more points with the suspensions and wins CLOSE.  OREGON 24 – LSU 21