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Bottoms Up to Louisiana State, Kansas State

U.S. News & World Report has released its 2009 list of "America's Best Colleges." Congratulations to those Division I-A football-playing universities that made the top 25 — Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Virginia, UCLA, California — but let's get to the meat of the post: schools that didn't fare as well.

The associated ranking numbers of Tier I schools end at 130, so let's examine I-A universities in the bottom 25 of the 130. Louisiana State and Kansas State were ranked 130th, followed by Utah (127th).

Colorado State and Arkansas were tied at 125th, then came Arizona State (121st). Ohio, Kentucky and Washington State were grouped at 116, and Brigham Young and Texas Christian were tied at 113.

Rounding out the list were Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and Tennessee, all tied at 108.

Arnold: Never Question My Hawk Loyalty

About that stop Tom Arnold made last week to an Alabama practice. The pride of Ottumwa, Iowa, now says he hasn't turned his back on the homestate Hawkeyes and that his trip to Tuscaloosa was in part because his girlfriend went to Alabama.

Arnold fired off an email to Mike Hlas of the Cedar Rapids Gazette to clear things up after Hlas had fun with Arnold's appearance in T-town, asking if the actor/comedian had become "Benedict Arnold."

Arnold wrote: "Okay, slam my work BUT NEVER question my Hawk Loyalty..my G-Friend went to Bama..she’s got a place there, Nick Saban used to coach in the Big 10..so I took my godson, his mom and sisters to a closed practice with the AD to watch and say hello to Nick. (I did remind him of the Capital One Bowl a few years back and he’s a great guys so.. My godson, who’s the best 8 year old quarterback in Brentwood California, is being forced to go to Alabama (unless he gets into Harvard) by is mother.

"Of course I’ve pitched Iowa City but as you all know, with women, you’ve got to pick your battles and since he’s only 8..well…and while I’m here, where’s the Hawk Loyalty for OUR COACH??? He could’ve dumped us years ago..could’ve been head coach of the NY Giants, World Champs, but no, he’s loyal, so let’s try to stay off the man’s butt…we’re better than that. Tom"

Kansas Tries to Plug Security Leak

Kansas' $31 million upgrade to its football facilities was the source of much excitement in Lawrence, but that quickly subsided earlier this month when Mark Mangino marched his players onto two new practice fields. The big guy apparently realized that anybody could watch what the Jayhawks were doing.

Now the athletic department is going to spend another $90,000 in an attempt to give the team more privacy. Officials plan to plant 100 pine trees — ranging in height from 10 to 20 feet — around the fields beginning this week.

Mangino said Friday night that this has nothing to do with security, but associate athletic director Jim Marchiony told the Lawrence Journal-World otherwise.

“The real reason,” he said, “is just to allow for more privacy during practice with respect to how much can be seen and heard.”

Reporters Notebooks

Bart Wright, Greenville News: The spread offense continues to gain popularity in the college game, but the NFL takes a different view of the offense. Spread quarterbacks are often passed up by NFL teams because pro teams don't want to invest the time in training a player to work under center.

Palm Beach Post: Yes, he said it. Florida Atlantic's Howard Schnellenberger denied he questioned Texas' toughness, but video shows otherwise.

Ryan Finley, Arizona Daily Star: Arizona tight end Rob Gronkowski, who caught six touchdown passes in 2007, has been diagnosed with strep throat and is being tested for mononucleosis. He's questionable for the opener against Idaho and could miss a month or more should he test positive for mono.

Ian R. Rapoport, Birmingham News: An Alabama fan who started going to games when he was 11 has calculated that the Crimson Tide's chances of winning improve by 8% when he is in attendance.

Caulton Tudor, Raleigh News & Observer: The Atlantic Coast Conference can talk a good game, but now it needs to win some, beginning Thursday when North Carolina State travels to South Carolina.

Bob Condotta, Seattle Times: Tripper Johnson, 26, is giving up his dream of being a major leaguer and will walk-on at Washington. Coaches say he has a good chance of playing, either as a reserve safety or on special teams.

Ray Melick, Birmingham News: Taylor Zarzour, the sports director of radio station WPTF in Raleigh, didn't put Auburn in his Associated Press preseason top 25 and has been threatened by Tiger fans. Doug Segrest of the Birmingham News left Wisconsin out of his top 25 and is hearing it from Badger fans. Fans need to remember that this is only a game.

Here is today's mystery link.

Southern Mississippi

The Larry Fedora era at Southern Mississippi kicks off Saturday night when the Golden Eagles play host to Louisiana Lafayette. Fedora replaced Jeff Bower, who was forced out after 17 seasons. Bower's departure was controversial, considering his tenure at Hattiesburg was longer than all but three coaches in Division I-A — Penn State's Joe Paterno (42), Florida State's Bobby Bowden (32) and Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer (21). Bower's only losing seasons came in 1991 and '93. Thanks to Zac at Old Hat Creative.

Barnhouse's Bottom 25: UAB

Legendary sportswriter Wendell Barnhouse recently left the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and is now a correspondent for Big 12 Sports.com. With 30 years experience of observing the college scene, his expertise is unmatched. In the spirit of Steve Harvey's Bottom Ten, Wendell will provide us a capsule look at college football's less fortunate, counting down the Bottom 25 teams in Division I-A football.

No. 7 Alabama Birmingham
Location: Birmingham, Ala.
Nickname: Blazers.
Conference: Conference USA, East Division.
Coach: Neil Callaway, 2-10, one season.
Division I-A history: 91-96-2 in 17 seasons, .486 winning percentage.
Last bowl season: 2004.
Best record in last five years: 7-5 in 2004.
Rank(ed) because: Even when this program started out as a Division III team in 1991 (and lost its first game to Millsaps, 28-0), the Blazers never failed to win at least four games each season. In Watson Brown's final season (2006), UAB won three games. In Neil Callaway's debut season, the Blazers went one worse and won only two games. As CUSA has improved, UAB has slipped.
Negative number: In UAB's 10 losses, the Blazers gave up fewer than 30 points only once — a 25-9 loss to Memphis. In five of the losses, UAB gave up 40 or more.
Possible victory: At Tulane, Nov. 15. Selecting a conference road game is a leap of faith. But the Green Wave also reside in the Bottom 25 (No. 11). If UAB hasn't lost hope by this point of the season, this is a game it should win.
Biggest blowout: At Tennessee, Sept. 13. The Volunteers will be looking to move up in the polls and tune up for their game with Florida the following Saturday. The Blazers have to hope Tennessee is lacking focus.
Is there hope?: A number of players left the team before last season because of raised standards in academics, offseason behavior and workouts. That reduced the roster to 60 scholarship players and contributed to the 2-10 record, but Callaway believes that sent a message and that his staff is recruiting solid citizens who also are good players.

Thanks to the Helmet Project.

Kansas State

Are Kansas State players about to have an afterlife experience? This poster schedule depicts the Wildcats in the tunnel entering Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium. Some fans are questioning if Kansas State is headed in the right direction after the team imploded in the second half of 2007, giving up an average of 49.5 points in the final four games. Nonetheless, Ron Prince was given a new contract.

Why Are You Here?

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Reporters Notebooks

Patrick Reusse, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Minnesota coach Tim Brewster's speech at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul was a good hot-air test for the Republican National Convention that will be held in the building early next month.

Scott Dochterman, Cedar Rapids Gazette: The Big Ten Network has reached an agreement with Mediacom, the largest cable provider in Iowa.

Don Walker, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The dispute between the Big Ten Network and Time Warner continued when the cable operator offered to air two Wisconsin games on a pay-per-view basis, with the proceeds going to the university.

Barry Jackson, Miami Herald: Miami suspended quarterback Robert Marve for the opener against always-tough Charleston Southern. That means freshman Jacory Harris is expected to start Thursday night's game.

Andrea Cohen, Oklahoman: Oklahoma State and Texas Tech officials can't decide where to play their 2009 game in Dallas. Oklahoma State and T. Boone Pickens want to play at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. Tech officials want to use the Cotton Bowl, in part because former Red Raider quarterback John Scovell is on the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association Board.

Pat Harty, Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa has no business being a .500 team, but if it goes 6-6 again, things are going to turn ugly.

Andrew Logue, Des Moines Register: Austen Arnaud will start at quarterback for Iowa State, which opens the season Thursday against South Dakota State.

Joe Ovies, 850 The Blog: Redshirt freshman Russell Wilson will start at quarterback for North Carolina State in the opener Thursday against the South Carolina.

Bob Wieneke, South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame starting tight end Mike Ragone will miss the season after surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

Luke Meredith, Associated Press: If you're looking to find rosters to fill in the blanks for EA Sports' NCAA Football '09, check out Game Rosters.com.

Barnhouse's Bottom 25: Louisiana Lafayette

Legendary sportswriter Wendell Barnhouse recently left the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and is now a correspondent for Big 12 Sports.com. With 30 years experience of observing the college scene, his expertise is unmatched. In the spirit of Steve Harvey's Bottom Ten, Wendell will provide us a capsule look at college football's less fortunate, counting down the Bottom 25 teams in Division I-A football.

No. 8 Louisiana Lafayette
Location: Lafayette, La.
Nickname: Ragin' Cajuns.
Conference: Sun Belt.
Coach: Rickey Bustle, 26-44 in six seasons.
Division I-A history: 460-489-31 in 100 seasons, .485 winning percentage.
Last bowl season: None. (Louisiana Lafayette played in the 1970 Grantland Rice Bowl, which is not recognized as a "major" bowl game.)
Best record in last five years: 6-5 in 2005.
Rank(ed) because: Bustle, a former Virignia Tech assistant, has a program that is built on a solid rushing attack (seventh in the Division I-A last season with 250 yards per game. The Ragin' Cajuns, though, can't do much else. They were 100th or worse in six statistical categories — passing offense, net punting, punt returns, rushing defense, total defense, scoring defense.
Negative number: 21. The scoring margin in last season's 38-17 loss at home to McNeese State, which in case you don't keep track of things is a Division I-AA team. Losing to a I-AA team — bad. Losing to a I-AA team that can use the victory as a bargaining chip for recruits in your home state — worse.
Possible victory: Florida International, Nov. 1. The visitors are one of the few teams that are ranked better (worse?) in the Bottom 25 than La-La. Considering the schedule before this game, the Ragin' Cajuns might be seeking their first victory when the Panthers travel to Louisiana.
Biggest blowout: At Illinois, Sept. 13. Playing a road game against a solid Big Ten team is a two-course menu for a big loss.
Is there hope?: Everywhere but in the win column. Bustle can boast of his team's classroom work that is producing an upward-tracking Academic Progress Rate. Season ticket sales are up, the school has built a new indoor practice facility with a new weight room next for construction. But the Ragin' Cajuns don't appear capable of moving North of the six-win level.

Thanks to the Helmet Project.

More Trouble Brewing at Alabama

Seriously, what have the good people of Alabama done to deserve this?

Tom Arnold, left, the pride of Ottumwa, Iowa, whose erratic behavior has become a source of embarrassment to Hawkeye fans, has apparently turned his back on his former university. He was spotted Thursday in Tuscaloosa, schmoozing with Nick Saban, joking with athletic director Mal Moore and attending an Alabama practice.

Arnold, whose major Hollywood accomplishment was marrying Roseanne Barr, reportedly claimed his son will one day play at Alabama.

One problem with this. Arnold doesn't have a son. At least not yet.

This came shortly after a report that Saban may have complained about his being shorter in a Coca-Cola advertising campaign using a cardboard cut-out of the coach alongside colleagues Tommy Tuberville and Houston Nutt (thanks to EDSBS). The cut-outs were eventually made the same size, much to the surprise of Nutt, reportedly the tallest member of the three Southeastern Conference coaches.

All this followed our earlier report of Alabama bringing in the Pacific Institute to help players with mental conditioning/character development issues. An anonymous reader took note of the affirmations given to Crimson Tide players and came up with one for Saban:

"I am the unquestioned master of my domain. My power frustrates all who live in my world. There is nothing regarding the football program that is not under my micro-management control. My power is important to me! I will out-recruit, out-work, out-earn and out-maneuver any and all of my coaching peers. I am committed to returning Alabama football to its rightful place among college football's elite. I will entertain other job offers if they offer me more money but I will believe my own words when I say that I am not interested in other jobs. My methods are perfect. I close practices unless allowing in certain people benefits myself or my program. I learned by secretive ways from the best but I am even better than my teachers. I control the media! I control the fans! I CONTROL ALABAMA FOOTBALL!"

Ohio State Tops Preseason BCS Standings

Huh? That's right, we have the preseason Bowl Championship Series standings in hand, thanks to Sam Chi, the BCS Guru, and Ohio State — the team everybody loves to hate — is No. 1.

USC is No. 2, making the Sept. 13 meeting between the Buckeyes and Trojans at the L.A. Coliseum of Herculean importance. Georgia is No. 3, Oklahoma sits at No. 4 and Florida resides at No. 5. The rest of the top 10: No. 6 Missouri, No. 7 Louisiana State, No. 8 West Virginia, No. 9 Clemson and No. 10 Texas. Every team that received at least a single vote in the Associated Press or coaches poll is placed in Sam's BCS standings, all the way down to a tie for 57th between Washington and Hawaii.

What is Sam's methodology for his preseason rankings? He writes: "It's the same formula that produces the official BCS standings, with two exceptions: 1) Since the Harris Interactive Poll that accounts for 1/3 of the standings won't be available until late September, the AP poll is used in its place; 2) None of the six BCS computers publish preseason ratings, so ratings from 20 computers that do are used. The highest and lowest ratings for each team are discarded, and the remaining 18 averaged to produce the computer score."

The first set of official standings won't be released until Sunday, Oct. 12, but Wiz readers will once again be ahead of the curve in 2008. Sam will be providing us with updated standings on Saturday nights throughout the season so you'll know about 18 hours in advance of the "official" announcement on Fox of where your team stands each week.

Reporters' Notebooks

Chris Givens, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Arkansas is expected to extend its deal to play games at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock through 2016. Arkansas will not be required to play more than two games a season at War Memorial in the remaining eight years of the contract.

On Campus, Orlando Sentinel: Best theme for a college football special section? It belongs to the Sentinel, which got Barack Obama and John McCain to pose for the cover shot. Plus a link to the section, which carries a political theme throughout.

Tom D'Angelo: Palm Beach Post: Florida State is preparing a written response to the NCAA’s notice of allegations of academic fraud and should release the document on or around Sept. 12.

Stephen Tsai, Honolulu Advertiser: Quarterback Tyler Graunke, the expected starter for Hawaii until he was suspended because of "academic issues," has been reinstated to the team.

Curtis Anderson, Eugene Register-Guard: Quarterback Nate Costa, Oregon's expected starter, suffered an injury of unknown severity to his left knee.

Rusty Simmons, San Francisco Chronicle: Sophomore Kevin Riley was named the starting quarterback for California, edging out senior incumbent Nate Longshore.

Jeremy Fowler, Orlando Sentinel: Florida defensive tackle Torrey Davis has been cited twice since April of driving with knowledge of a suspended license. He has a court date of Sept. 22.

Chip Cosby, Lexington Herald-Leader: Former Kentucky quarterback Curtis Pulley has enrolled at Florida A&M. Thanks to Scott.

Sports By Brooks: Penn State's opener against Coastal Carolina just got easier. Chanticleer receiver William Chandler was suspended after being charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Mercedes Mayer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Texas Christian unveiled a 40,000 square-foot facility that houses a team meeting room, a players-only club, six suites, club-level seating, an academic center and a dining area.

Shannon Shelton, Detroit Free Press: Michigan State held a dedication ceremony for a 25,000-square-foot addition to the Duffy Daugherty Football Building.

College Football Walk On: The new site plans to establish an award to honor the collegiate walk-on player of the year.

To bypass registration, go to Bug Me Not.

Barnhouse's Bottom 25: Eastern Michigan

Legendary sportswriter Wendell Barnhouse recently left the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and is now a correspondent for Big 12 Sports.com. With 30 years experience of observing the college scene, his expertise is unmatched. In the spirit of Steve Harvey's Bottom Ten, Wendell will provide us a capsule look at college football's less fortunate, counting down the Bottom 25 teams in Division I-A football.

No. 9 Eastern Michigan
Location: Ypsilanti, Mich.
Nickname: Eagles.
Conference: Mid-American, East Division.
Coach: Jeff Genyk, 13-33 in five seasons.
Division I-A history: 425-498-47 in 115 seasons, .462 winning percentage.
Last bowl season: 1987.
Best record last five years: 4-7 in 2004 and 2005.
Rank(ed) because: Unfulfilled promises. The Eagles have spent the last few seasons appearing to be a team ready to turn the corner. The corner is still there and Eastern Michigan's turn signal is still blinking. Over the last three seasons, the Eagles have 12 losses decided by eight or fewer points. This is a program that has yet to learn how to win.
Negative number: Since finishing 6-5 in 1995, the program's last winning season, Eastern Michigan is 35-89.
Possible victory: Indiana State, Aug. 28. The Sycamores have lost 31 of their last 32 games. Eastern Michigan should be able to make it 32 out of 33.
Biggest blowout: At Michigan State, Sept. 6. A victory followed by a loss. The Eagles aren't ready to compete in a Big Ten Conference road game.
Is there hope?: For Genyk, there had better be hope — and victories — in this, his fifth season. This season's team is experienced — 16 returning starters and 46 lettermen. That needs to translate into more than three or four victories.

Thanks to the Helmet Project.

Brigham Young

Brigham Young, winner of 22 games the past two seasons, hasn't lost a Mountain West Conference game since 2005. A favorable schedule should enable the Cougars to be in the hunt for a Bowl Championship Series game. Early tests come at Washington and at home against UCLA. A midseason game at Texas Christian could be tricky, and don't forget about the regular-season finale at rival Utah.

Countdown to Kickoff

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Will Leach Set Sail for Jamaica?

Captivated by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt's stunning athleticism? You're not alone. Bolt toyed with the competition in winning the 100- and 200-meter dashes in world-record time at the Beijing Olympics. Now the Pirate himself, Mike Leach, would like to put Jamaica on his recruiting map.

"I got to be honest, I've been thinking about recruiting Jamaica since I saw that stuff," Leach said, presumably joking (you never know with the Texas Tech coach). "I've been to Jamaica and let me tell you something ... here's the extent that I've thought about that subject, there's approximately 2.8 million people in Jamaica, which is approximately the size of the state of Iowa or Kansas, or the city of Houston.

"It's almost like the country of Jamaica is sitting there saying, 'If you would have just told us that this was important we could have won a lot of this stuff a long time ago.' "

Now if you're a Southeastern Conference coach who took note of reports last week that Bigfoot was found running around Northern Georgia, forget about it. As much as we'd enjoy seeing Phil Fulmer bump into Urban Meyer on the Bigfoot recruiting trail, it turned out to be a big hoax.

But wouldn't Bigfoot look good on the defensive line?