Is college football serious right now?

The whole reason anyone was going to tune into the Northwestern-Illinois game this weekend wasn't because we have two competitive football teams, nor because the game was being played at Wrigley Field. People were going to watch to see if anyone would get concussed running into the wall in the East endzone.

Now, according to ESPN, the NCAA/Big 10/school officials have decided that only one end zone will be used on offense throughout the entire game. Are you kidding me? What is this, one long overtime period? What baffles me is the idea to hold the game at Wrigley was obviously not a decision made overnight. It was most likely a long, drawn out process that factored in a lot of discussion and debate before being finalized. The dimensions of the field should have come at no surprise. What does come as a surprise is the ineptitude of the officials at hand who did not originally forecast any danger nor backlash from hosting a game where the fence and padding would be so close to the back of the end zone on the East side. These folks are being paid a lot of money to hold the positions they do, we should hope they'd be educated enough to recognize this type of concern early on in the process. However, what clouded their judgement was the novelty to hold a game at an historic monument of baseball history, much like Notre Dame and Army will do this weekend at Yankee Stadium. The difference is they have constructed a field which does not put the players in harms way like Wrigley Field's layout does.

Unfortunately, these officials were so caught up in making a meaningless game meaningful by adding in a novelty for a location, and thus ended making the entire event a joke. Well done. You managed to make people care even less about watching this game.

-Bess

Conference Confusion

Ok so let's try and get this straight. Colorado is leaving the Big 12 for the Pac-10, and Nebraska is jumping from the Big 12 to the Big 10, which really was already the Big 11. The 10 remaining teams in the Big "12" have decisions to make, specifically the Big 1 of Texas, which could leave for the Pac-"10" along with up to 4 other schools. Make sense? And independent Notre Dame could join the Big 10 as well? Conference names and numbers will likely have to change. This is what we have as of now...



The Big 10 = 12 Teams: Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue, Northwestern, Penn State, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Nebraska



The PAC-10 = 11 Teams: UCLA, USC, Cal, Stanford, Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado.


The Big 12 = 10 Teams (for now): Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri.


If the Big 12 survives do they or any of these conference keep their names intact? Who knows the Big 10 has had 11 teams for years. And don't forget in basketball the A-10.

The Atlantic-10 = 14 Teams!

In all seriousness though the idea of 4 -16 Team Mega-Conferences is pretty intriguing. If the Big 12 wants to survive though, and it clearly is all up to Texas, they should try and rob 2 of my favorite conferences the Mountain West and WAC get after TCU, Utah, Boise State, etc. But with those money markets it could be tough.

Where did they come from?

With the NBA Draft now just a few weeks away, I wanted to take a closer look at where these guys are coming from. It shows where the best NBA players were before getting drafted. Obviously now you can't jump from high school to the pros (that list is far and away the best), but check out the best 12 man rosters from the 6 major conferences, a mid-major squad, high school, and foreign. I would ask which team would win, but it's clearly the high school team. Some conferences, on the other hand, barely put out 12 quality players. Will these trends continue this year?

Results are below: (I based it off of what conference the schools are in now, maybe not when these players were there, example; Marquette in Big East not Conf. USA, etc.)

ACC

Chris Paul, Wake Forest

Vince Carter, North Carolina

Antawn Jamison, North Carolina

Tim Duncan, Wake Forest

Chris Bosh, Georgia Tech

Carlos Boozer, Duke

Al Thornton, Florida State

John Salmons, Miami

Grant Hill, Duke

Mike Dunleavy, Duke

Raymond Felton, North Carolina

Rasheed Wallace, North Carolina

Note: Good mix of veterans and young players. I'd put the ACC against any other conference, no surprise.

Big 10

Deron Williams, Illinois

Jason Richardson, Michigan State

Michael Redd, Ohio State

Zach Randolph, Michigan State

Joel Przybilla, Minnesota

Devin Harris, Wisconsin

Brad Miller, Purdue

Jamal Crawford, Michigan

Eric Gordon, Indiana

Greg Oden, Ohio State

Mike Conley, Ohio State

Carl Landry, Purdue

Note: Not that impressive. Deron Williams, Michael Redd, and Devis Harris far and away the best players here. Randolph can fill up a box score, but he may tare the All- Big 10 team apart.

Big 12

Chauncey Billups, Colorado

Paul Pierce, Kansas

Kevin Durant, Texas

Michael Beasley, Kansas State

LaMarcus Aldridge, Texas

Mario Chalmers, Kansas

T.J. Ford, Texas

D.J. Augustin, Texas

Kirk Hinrich, Kansas

Nick Collison, Kansas

Antoine Wright, Texas A&M

Linas Kleiza, Missouri

Note: Very solid starting 5, but then the talent completely falls off. A lot of young guys on there, might as well put Blake Griffin on the list too.

Big East

Allen Iverson, Georgetown

Dwyane Wade, Marquette

Carmelo Anthony, Syracuse

Caron Butler, UConn

Emeka Okafor, UConn

Ron Artest, St. John’s

Ben Gordon, UConn

Rudy Gay, UConn

Richard Hamilton, UConn

Ray Allen, UConn

Troy Murphy, Notre Dame

Kyle Lowry, Villanova

Note: Not as good as I expected. Plus I gave them a gift in D-Wade who actually played in Conference USA, Marquette joined the Big East in 2005, 2 years post Wade. Their 2 best players (Wade and Carmelo) played a combined 1 year in the Big East... I'm still going to count it. (Side note: a team like Pitt makes the Big East look good in college, but does not pump out pros like UConn. Will DeJuan Blair and Sam Young be different?)

Pac-10

Jason Kidd, California

Gilbert Arenas, Arizona

Brandon Roy, Washington

Richard Jefferson, Arizona

Brook Lopez, Stanford

Jason Terry, Arizona

Mike Bibby, Arizona

Andre Iguodala, Arizona

O.J. Mayo, USC

Kevin Love, UCLA

Aaron Brooks, Oregon

Baron Davis, UCLA

Note: Anyone need a point guard? If this team was coached by Don Nelson or Mike D'Antoni they'd be a lot of fun to watch. Zona keeps turning out the pros. And Arizona States James Harden could crack this tough list before long.

SEC

Rajon Rondo, Kentucky

Joe Johnson, Arkansas

Gerald Wallace, Alabama

David Lee, Florida

Shaquille O’Neal, LSU

Mike Miller, Florida

Mo Williams, Alabama

Al Horford, Florida

Tyrus Thomas, LSU

Udonis Haslem, Florida

Tayshaun Prince, Kentucky

Ronnie Brewer, Arkansas

Note: A conference that really struggled last year, really much more of a football conference then hoops. I left Jo Noah off, he could be there. Coach Cal will help the SEC's NBA Alumni in the near future. He could have 4 lottery picks in 2010, if Jodie Meeks comes back, Patrick Patterson, John Wall, and DeMarcus Cousins. Look out!

Mid-Major

Steve Nash, Santa Clara

Danny Granger, New Mexico

Lamar Odom, Rhode Island

David West, Xavier

Marcus Camby, UMass

Derrick Rose, Memphis

Shawn Marion, UNLV

Andre Miller, Utah

Paul Millsap, Louisiana Tech

Kevin Martin, Western Carolina

Rafer Alston, Fresno State

Andrew Bogut, Utah

Note: No Adam Morrison? Way more schools to choose from, but of the smaller variety. Pretty good group here that includes a lot of big men.

High School

Kobe Bryant

Tracy McGrady

LeBron James

Kevin Garnett

Dwight Howard

Amare Stoudemire

Al Jefferson

Josh Smith

Rashard Lewis

J.R. Smith

Al Harrington

Monta Ellis

Note: Some of the high school point guards, (Sebastian Telfair and Shaun Livingston) have not panned out, so I'll throw out a bigger lineup with Kobe and T-Mac handling the ball. Just an insane team. Why 18 year old's can fight wars for America but not play in the NBA is beyond me, but not the point of this article.

International

Tony Parker, France

Manu Ginobili, Argentina

Dirk Nowitzki, Germany

Pau Gasol, Spain

Yao Ming, China

Mehmet Okur, Turkey

Hedo Turkoglu, Turkey

Nene, Brazil

Rudy Fernandez, Spain

Boris Diaw, France

Andrei Kirilenko, Russia

Jose Calderon, Spain

Note: The best from around the world should make up a good 12 man roster, and they do. If the NBA ever went to a USA vs. the World All-Star game gimmick like the NHL did (North America vs. the World), then this is what you'd be looking at. Really only half or so of those guys would be deserving, making it even more important they never use that idea. Don't think they would borrow ideas from the NHL anyway.

If I forgot anyone, and I'm sure I did, feel free to leave a comment.

-Keefe