ESPN, like so many institutions, started off with the right idea.

Unions wanted to protect workers...now they protect their bureacracy.

The PGA of America wanted to promote golf professionals at the club level...now they promote the PGA of America.

ESPN used to be the place we went to watch any and all things sports related...now they try to define what sports should be to us.

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Chad Alexander, who played hoops for OSU in the 1990's, works at my bank. When I was in his office recently I saw a basketball with a note from Coach Sutton written on it that read "Dear Chad, Richard* and I still talk about your shot against Missouri. Great job!" When I asked Chad about it he laughed and said that it was in 95 or 96 and was a ridiculous left-handed hook shot game winner. Does anyone know if there is video from this game out there anywhere?

Thanks!!

*Whisperin' Richard from the Varsity! Awesome!

Haven't done a ton of research, but two glaring mistakes in less than a month?

• Justin Blackmon is OSU's leader in career receptions....thanks Kyle at Pistols Firing...he's not even within 40 of Rashaun Woods.
• Remember the graphic....Stanford vs OU?

Come on ESPN. Even amateur stat boys like me know better. This begins to erode what credibility you have.

I struggled finishing this sentence, so tell ya what...you guys finish it for me...

"ESPN, you need to go back to the days of being the place we all go to WATCH sports, and get away from trying to be ___________________________________________________________________________________.

Anthony Slater from the O'Colly tweeted a quote from Coach Ford following the blowout handling escape at home from the worst team in the conference (and I say that with some hesitation).

"I am not afraid to play walk-on Christian Sager."

Really?

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Don't miss this great opportunity to cheer on your favorite Cowboys at the 2011 Fiesta Bowl. 4 Fiesta Bowl tickets for sale - Mezzanine level, 20 yard line. These seats are in a great section (sat there before). Purchase of all 4 at $200 each includes a hotel room for 4 nights (12/30-01/03). Hotel is about 5 miles from the stadium and on main roads. Ticket purchase must be completed by Noon 12/29 to allow for delivery by FedEx. Go Cowboys!!

It breaks my heart when any of these kids that sacrifice their bodies for their college suffers an injury...but when a life is sacrificed it takes it to a whole other level...

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7382106/texas-ol-joseph-villavisencio-killed-car-crash

Loss of life is NEVER a good thing...sometimes necessary...but NEVER a good thing....heart goes out to the A&M family. OSU folks understand your pain.

wait, I thought he was meeting with A&M officials...

Gundy’s agent meets with OSU officials... http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/OSU/article.aspx?subjectid=93&articleid=20111222_93_0_TheMik761545http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/OSU/article.aspx?subjectid=93&articleid=20111222_93_0_TheMik761545

My comments earlier this year about Gundy's contract intimated that time was not a factor for me. I am convinced that Gundy wants to get what he wants, but he wants it to be good for OSU, and that might not be that easy to work out in a legit manner that leaves OSU in a position to maintain the program (ie: not everything will be straight salary). What have media divas tried to do...stir the pot...to no avail.

And my beloved Bill comes around...I hope DS publishes a wonderful "crow eating" article about that fact that he didn't have a CLUE what he was talking about when this deal is done.

...but I AM saying I don't like his coaching.

End of season results aside, look at how his teams play.

Offensive and defensive organization are non-existent. Previous teams with Eaton, Anderson, Moses, etc, featured players who got their feet wet under a troubled, but DISCIPLINE oriented coach, whose background and training was about doing the basic things REALLY REALLY well. Ford obviously benefited from that.

More after the jump...

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Hey, you know what would make a nice gift to myself, I thought? Some sort of oSu Big 12 champions gear. So, off I dutifully went to okstate.com. Shop oSu, I click. T-shirts, I click. What's the first item?

My feelings. They are hurt. Now all I need is some Bama fan to come over and tell me to quit whining.

Oh dear god. The humanity. Oh the humanity. Make it stop.

Trolled

The following is an outstanding FanPost that was written by goingforthecorner. It's as good of a breakdown as I've seen. Enjoy.

If you haven't already, check out the final results to the USA Coaches Poll and Harris Poll. The final results of each year are transparent, so you can view exactly what voter voted which team where.

Link to USA Coaches Poll

Link to Harris Poll (.pdf format)

Every year, you're going to see the "WTF!?" outliers in the voting. Alabama/OSU ended up in a very close margin, but I wanted to see if those outliers made a difference.

Quickly, on how to calculate the final BCS Standings, you average the two polls and computers. There are 59 voters in the coaches poll and 115 voters in the Harris Poll. For both polls, for each voter that ranks a team #1, that team earns 25 points. Then 24 points for the team ranked #2, 23 points for the team ranked #3, and so on. This means that the maximum amount of points you can get in the Coaches and Harris Poll is 1475 and 2875 points respectively (you can see this is exactly what LSU received).

Before we go into the outliers, I think we can first establish that there's no valid argument into ranking OSU behind Stanford, Oregon, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Boise St., and Houston when you look at overall resume and number of quality wins... yet it happened. Specific eye-opening votes in the Coaches Poll:

- Nick Satan ranking #3 Stanford ahead of #4 OSU
- Gary Pinkel ranking #3 Stanford ahead of #4 OSU (I guess his SEC loyalty has already set in)
- Troy Calhoun (Air Force head coach) ranking #3 Stanford and #4 Arkansas ahead of #5 OSU

Specific eye-opening votes in the Harris Poll:
- Scott Johnson ranking #3 Oregon and #4 Boise State ahead of #5 OSU
- Derrick Mayes ranking #3 Stanford, #4 Arkansas, and #5 Boise State ahead of #6 OSU
- Craig Morton ranking #3 Stanford and #4 Oregon ahead of #5 OSU
- Jeff Van Note ranking #3 Wisconsin and #4 Oregon ahead of #5 OSU
- Bob Wagner ranking #3 Stanford, #4 Boise State, and #5 Oregon ahead of #6 OSU
- George Wine ranking #3 Stanford, #4 Boise State, and #5 Houston ahead of #6 OSU (the ultimate WTF!? voter here)

- Jim Walden was the only voter on either poll to vote Alabama lower than #3 (they are #4 on his poll)

Knowing how the final BCS standings are calculated, I was curious to see what would happen if you adjusted the final numbers for these outliers. What if all the outlier votes in both polls were at least changed to OSU being ranked #3 (along with that one voter who slotted Bama at #4? Here are your final standings:

It's a lot closer, but still alas, still no cigar. Just out of curiosity, what if half of these outliers were changed to OSU #3 and the other half to OSU #2?

Even in this completely unreasonable scenario (you still have to respect the outlier votes with regards to Alabama being ahead of OSU), OSU still barely falls short.

So there you have it, Poke fans. If you can take any solace in the final voting turnout, you can say that you weren't screwed over by the outliers. In the end, there were just too many coaches and Harris voters that voted Alabama #2 and wanted to see that rematch (or at least are biased toward the SEC).

Just enough voters to overcome the computer lead OSU had.

Congrats on a great year!

P.S. If you so happen to find anymore 28-year old QBs with college eligibility, please forward those names to Mack Brown. TIA