Next up in the white helmet craze is Fresno State. In a design move that appears to fall in line with the thinking of Texas Tech and Nevada, Fresno State will be showing off a white helmet as an alternate look in 2013. Have a look…
Fresno Sate is adding a white helmet to their 2013 uniform line-up, it seems.
But wait, there’s more to the potential 2013 Fresno State uniform line-up…
On this day in 1990
It was a day Northern Illinois fans will never forget. Photo: Northern Illinois Athletics
Northern Illinois tailback Stacey Robinson set an NCAA record with 287 first-half rushing yards against No. 24 Fresno State in DeKalb, Ill. In 20 attempts, Robinson gained 114 rushing yards in the first quarter and followed with 173 yards in the second quarter. Robinson finished with 308 yards, a school record at the time that ranks fourth currently.
The Huskies defeated the Bulldogs, 73-18, setting off a rushing of the field and tearing down of the goal post. It is still regarded as the best win in program history.
Robinson’s record was passed twice by running back Garrett Wolfe.
LaDanian Tomlinson currently holds the FBS single-game rushing record, rushing for 406 yards on 43 rushes in a 1999 win against UTEP. The NCAA record is currently owned by Dante Brown of Division III Marietta. Brown rushed for 441 yards against Baldwin-Wallace on October 5, 1996.
Robinson and Tomlinson are tied for most rushing yards in a half at the FBS level.
Source: National Football Foundation
Brett Hein from The Upset Blog
You want a pairing that jumped out of nowhere in the last 24 hours? Try BYU and the Big East on for size.
Deep Shades of Blue, which I am told tends to have a decent level of credibility behind it (honestly this is the first time I have checked the site out), posted a good amount of information about future BYU scheduling, which included news of agreements to play Wisconsin, USC, Nebraska, and possibly even Penn State in the works. With BYU ditching the Mountain West Conference this upcoming season the Cougars are hard at work in securing lucrative match-ups n football in order to successfully venture in the the world of an independent.
Toward the end of the post a reference to the Big East was made, which has caused a stir in the Big East Internet world here, here and here. In it we are informed that the Big East approached BYU with the idea of joining the league as a football-only member but the administration at BYU turned down the idea.
Brett Hein from The Upset Blog was kind enough to join the podcast for his first appearance and run through the news that the Big East made contact with BYU. There really is little to get too excited about as the Big East was just doing their homework in exploring possible candidates to fill the tenth football spot in the conference moving forward, or possibly one of the 12 spots as Big East Coast Bias references.
Once we get through discussing the merits of a BYU-Big East partnership (or lack of), we dive in to the Mountain West Conference and their next phase of change. BYU and Utah are gone and TCU has one foot out the door. Boise State is ready to play and they’ll be bringing old WAC foes Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii next year. So is this conference better off now than they were last year, or two years ago? Does this conference deserve a BCS bid like the Big Ten, SEC, PAC-12 and Big 12 receive? How does this conference compared to the Big East, who is gaining TCU next season?
For everything that is happening in the Mountain West Conference, one thing is certain. They are way ahead of the WAC in terms of being relevant in college football. The WAC will lose four of their biggest members by the start of the 2012 season and the conference is scrambling for members to take their place. When the best options you have are all currently playing at the FCS level, and one of them (Montana) has turned you down, what does that say about the stability of the conference?
We touch on both conferences a bit and talk about some of the teams that should be considered on top of the evolving, or devolving, conferences out west.
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The bowl season is finally here! For the college football nut like me tomorrow will begin what is close to a month of fun even if the teams playing in the games come from the MAC, WAC, Sun Belt Conference and Mountain West Conference. Here is my quick take on each of the three bowl games being played over the weekend. Feel free to share your predictions in the comment field as well.
BYU (6-6) vs. UTEP (6-6)
BYU’s season did not quite go as well as they had planned, and the mediocre season could not have come at a worse time. The Cougars are preparing to leave the Mountain West Conference starting next year and the hope in Provo was that the Cougars would take the Mountain West Conference title with them. The only problem was that they were not as good as they were last year after losing some key players, most notably quarterback Max Hall and tight end Dennis Pitta.
That said, the Cougars should still be the better team when compared to the UTEP Miners. I’ll take BYU in the first bowl game of the season.
Northern Illinois (10-3) vs. Fresno State (8-4)
Just as soon as poeple were starting to hop on the Northern Illinois band wagon this season, the Huskies were upset in the MAC Championship game by Miami of Ohio. Then their head coach Jerry Kill, jumped to Minnesota. Their next head coach, Wisconsin defensive coordinator Dave Doeren, is still with the Badgers hoping to leave the Badgers with a Rose Bowl victory. I still like Northern Illinois here even if they have to fly to Boise to play on the blue turf against a Fresno State team that is looking to wash away a painful memory of lsing 51-0 on the same field earlier this season.
Not sure about you guys, but I am going with Northern Illinois in the second bowl game of the bowl season.
Ohio (8-4) vs. Troy (7-5)
Ohio is looking for their first bowl victory in program history. History will be aginst them when they face Troy in the New Orleans Bowl. Ohio’s offense is too streaky to rely on and Boo Jackson may have the school record for most touchdown passes but having watched him as many times as I have I just don’t see him being a difference maker in favor of Ohio. Look for Phil Bates to get a significant amount of playing time to give the Bobcats a spark, but I think Troy’s passing game will cause problems for Ohio. I’m going with the Troy Trojans in their third New Orleans Bowl appearance.
Share your picks for these games in the comments section!
So much for the immediate dismantling of the WAC. ESPN 1430 in Fresno, California is reporting that the WAC has reached an agreement with the Mountain West Conference regarding the departure of Fresno State and Nevada. Both Fresno state and Nevada had previously announced that they will leave the WAC and joining the MWC and had intended to do so as early as possible. Boise State was already prepared to make their transition and Fresno State and Nevada decided to follow the Broncos, but the WAC said that an agreement was put in place after Boise State made their decision that there would be a penalty fee for leaving the conference early for all remaining members
The WAC previously filed a lawsuit against the Mountain West in order to ensure they held on to Fresno State and Nevada would be forced to uphold their end of the bargain, keeping each in the WAC for the 2011 season. Both schools will pay the WAC a $1 million exit fee, which is lowered from the previously reported $5 million the WAC was requesting.
It should be noted that according to this report the transition only applies to football teams. All other athletic teams may make the switch as early as next year but the football teams will be kept in the WAC until the 2012 season.
As Wyoming blog Cowboy Attitude states, this is bad news for the Mountain West because having Nevada included in their conference would be a boost to their conference’s reputation considering the success of the Wolfpack this season.
