In the upcoming days I will do a series on who has the biggest shoes to fill for the upcoming football season. The criteria I used was that both coaches and players were eligible for this list but once someone from a school was listed, no one else from that school would be eligible. So without further delay here is #5 in the list of biggest shoes to fill for 2006.

With Robinson gone it is Morelli’s turn to lead the Lions

In Michael Robinson’s first three years at Penn State he had started games at quarterback, running back, and wide receiver. Coming into his senior year he was appointed the starter at QB and hoped to bring a once proud Nittany Lion program back to prominence. The early part of decade was not a kind one for Penn State fans as they only went to one bowl game and even the legend Joe Paterno was coming under question if he should hang it up or not, but one thing Paterno always did was stuck by Robinson. Robinson didn’t let his coach down as he amassed 3156 yards of total offense and 28 touchdowns in the Nittany Lions’ 11-1 season of 2005. Robinson also finished fifth in the Heisman Voting to go along with the team’s Big Ten title and Orange Bowl victory, but what can’t be measure in statistics is the leadership Robinson possessed.

With Robinson graduated the highly touted player from the QB hot bed of Western Pennsylvania, Anthony Morelli takes over. He style is the opposite of Robinson’s as Morelli is less mobile QB with a rocket arm, but has only attempted 33 passes in his two years. Not only will Morelli have the pressures of one of the most intense fan bases, he will also play two national title contenders in his first four games…away. The Nittany Lions travel South Bend the second week of the year and two weeks later open their Big Ten title defense against Ohio State in Columbus.

Morelli will have the entire receiving core back and Tony Hunt at running back, but does that take the pressure off him enough to ease into the position. Or will his play and the Nittany Lions’ season take a huge step back from 2005 causing the fans to shoulder the blame on him? Only time will tell, but with the early schedule it will tell early and often.

The news continues to flow out of the Big East Media Days. The Tampa Tribune reported today that Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese is interested in potentially locating a Big East bowl in Florida during the next round of Bowl Agreements.

With the Big East looking to expand its bowl lineup, Commissioner Mike Tranghese said the league “would have to look strongly” at having a Big East bowl in Florida, perhaps even in the Tampa Bay area, when its current bowl cycle expires in 2009.

If a new bowl was added this would be the 33rd, yes the 33rd bowl to be approved. Remember when Bowls used to be a reward at the end of a successful season? This year with 32 Bowls in play, 54% (more then half) of all NCAA Division 1A teams will reach the postseason. Can you say overkill? Contrast that Men’s Basketball where only 34% of all NCAA Division 1 teams will reach either the main tournament field or the NIT. Couldn’t we maybe cut back on some of these bowls? The Houston Bowl couldn’t make its payments last year, the Las Vegas and New Orleans Bowls have had serious attendence issues. Two years ago there was only one bowl eligible team that didn’t go to the postseason (for the curious that was Akron, South Carolina and Clemson suspended their football teams from bowl competition that season).

Four new bowls were added this year. The Big East has bowl tie-ins for up to 6 of its 8 members (7 in the extraordinarily unlikely event that the league placed 2 teams in the BCS and Notre Dame wasn’t bowl eligible). To say the bowl system has gotten bloated would be a bit of an understatement, its time for the NCAA to “trim the fat” and stop certifying new games. I’m waiting for that first season (maybe it will be this year) when there aren’t enough bowl eligible teams to fill out the 64 bowl berths.

(Duke)

Duke University tonight suspended Sophomore QB Zack Asack for violating school policy. Asack admitted to plagiarism in a statement released today.

“I made a mistake and am remorseful,” Asack said. “I take full responsibility for my actions. I wish the team well and look forward to returning next summer. I love it here at Duke.”

Asack became the starter in the second half of last season, starting six out of Duke’s last seven games, becoming the first freshman to start for the Blue Devils since 1984. He led the team with 966 yards in the air, but struggled with five touchdowns and eight interceptions.

He will be reinstated before the start of the 2007 season.

Three other players were dismissed from the program for unspecified violations of team rules. WR Deon Adams, S Andreas Platt, and OL Joe Suder were let go. Adams, a senior, had the most accomplished career, having 12 career catches in 27 games. Platt and Suder were freshman last year with Platter seeing limited playing time.

The third episode of In the Bleachers is ready for your listening pleasure. In this episode Dr. Sak, Swaggs, and Ron preview the Pac 10 conference. To download the podcast click here. Remember to subscribe to the ITB podcast so you don’t miss an episode by using the feed burner or any other of the subscription service links on the left side of the blog.

You do not need an iPod to enjoy the In The Bleachers Podcast. Just download the mp3 file linked above and use your favorite media player to listen to it. Enjoy the first preview episode of In The Bleachers and if you have any questions or comments to the show please email them to inthebleachers@gmail.com.

Pittsburgh Panthers’ head coach Dave Wannstedt is trying a new approach for his practices this fall, he will split the freshman and 3rd teamers from the starters as far as practice schedules. He wants to run a practice in the morning for the starters and backups, and in the afternoon have another practice just for the incoming freshman and the rest of the roster who did not practice in the morning.

Why the heck would he do this? Coach Wannstedt says by using this technique it will help him better evaluate the incoming freshman and get them more reps at the same time. He has visions of using a lot of his first recruiting class (ranked in the top 20 nationally) this season. If he is doing this for evaulation reasons, it is a good method and it is legal by NCAA standards. But what Panther fans should worry about is how does this effect the chemistry.

Two players pushing for a lot of time are WR Dorin Dickerson and TE Nate Byham. How is Tyler Palko suppose to get his timing down with the receivers if they do not practice together for the first 5 days? Football is a team sport and this also does not promote team chemistry. There is already some very limited time between the beginning of camp and the first game. Not to mention all of the restrictions the NCAA places on teams as far as the amount of practices they can hold, so I think Wannstedt’s method could backfire on him.

ESPN Radio has reached a four year deal with FOX Sports to broadcast the networks Bowl Championship Series package.

Under the deal ESPN Radio gets the Orange, Sugar, and Fiesta Bowls and the three BCS Title games it did not have before. ESPN Radio had the Rose Bowl rights and that year’s title game as the Rose Bowl has their own deal with corporate sibling ABC.

I’m putting on my Editor-In-Chief hat on to remind you that our podcasts are always available.

Since In The Bleachers went from a podcast only to a podcast/blog, sometimes our podcasts fall off the page or your rss feeds, so if you missed our preview shows the last two weeks, now is the chance to grab them again.

Week 1- Mountain West/WAC/Independent(non-ND)
Week 2- C-USA/MAC

On behalf of Brian and the rest of the staff of ITB, I want to thank you very much for your support and readership.

Ron Juckett
Editor-In-Chief
Smart Guys Sports Network

The Mountain West Conference held its football media event Monday & Tuesday. During the meeting the league’s media held its annual poll to pick the pre-season all conference team as well as annual preseason conference poll.

2006 Mountain West Pre-Season Poll (first place votes in parenthesis)
1. TCU (16)
2. BYU (5)
3. Utah (3)
4. Colorado State (1)
5. New Mexico
6. San Diego State
7. Air Force
8. UNLV
9. Wyoming
TCU won the Mountain West in their inaugural season in the league last year. They also tied for the lead with 5 players selected to pre-season all-conference squad. BYU and Utah also tied with TCU placing 5 players a piece on the pre-season team. BYU Senior QB John Beck was picked as the MWC pre-season Offensive Player of the year, while Utah DB Eric Weddle was selected as the pre-season Defensive Player of the year.

Back in May, I threw out an idea to help the Big East with its scheduling problem. I suggested that Army and Navy could partner up with the Big East to help solve their problems of only having seven conference games in a twelve game schedule. The other option, that seems to be very popular on Big East messageboards, is to add a ninth team to the Big East.  The candidates usually thrown around are, in an ideal world: Notre Dame, Penn State, Boston College, or Maryland OR, in a realistic scenario, Memphis, East Carolina, or Central Florida.

Well, all of that talk can now come to an end. At today’s Big East Media Day event, commissioner Mike Tranghese advised that adding a ninth team is not likely right now.  Tranghese went on to say that, “There just isn’t any school out there that makes sense and fits academically, geographically, athletically — I just don’t see any schools out there that fit what we are looking for. We are not just going to add someone to solve our football scheduling problem.”

I agree with Tranghese.  At the present time, the Big East has little incentive, beyond the scheduling problem, to add a new team.  No available team would bring in a large enough television market, fan following, or a prestigious bowl to justify splitting up the league’s current revenues.  In addition, giving another team BCS conference status (which carries a considerable amount of weight for high school recruits) could retard the progress of developing programs like South Florida, UConn, and Cincinnati. The Big East, with only eight football-playing schools, is the smallest of the six BCS conferences and many, including me, think that the size of the conference is a great selling point for the league. Tranghese holding tight with the Big East’s current roster of teams is a smart move as the conference re-establishes itself. Now, if he would just look into my Army/Navy scheduling proposal….

As most college football fans are aware this season will be the first season played under the new BCS Agreement.  This agreement changes several things, including giving more access to the “mid-major” conferences, and adding a 5th BCS bowl.  (More details on the new agreement can be found at BCSFootball.org)

Buried in the official selection rules for the new BCS Agreement is rule #3.  The rule states:

3. The Division I-A conferences have developed standards for annual automatic qualification for conference champions after the 2008 and 2009 regular seasons. The standards are based on performance during the 2004-2007 college football regular seasons. Such standards, however, will not prohibit the champion of any conference that has contracted with a Bowl to play in any particular game from playing in one of the participating BCS bowls. For example, the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions will, by contract, play in the Rose Bowl every year unless one or both of those teams qualifies for the National Championship Game.

The champions of selected conferences are contractually committed to host selected games, unless those champions qualify for the BCS National Championship Game, as follows:
Atlantic Coast Conference — Orange Bowl
Big Ten Conference — Rose Bowl
Big 12 Conference — Fiesta Bowl
Pac-10 Conference — Rose Bowl
Southeastern Conference — Sugar Bowl 

(Source: Big East Media Guide Section 1: BCS Automatic Qualifications, page 3)

So if you read the rule in its entirity, what it boils down to is this:
  After the January 2008 Bowls, the Big East and only the Big East can lose its status as an automatic qualifying conference.  Rule 3 is just a long way of stating the way the 5 Main Players of the BCS agreement will kick the Big East out of the BCS.  Because of their contractual ties to the BCS games, the other 5 conferences can never be removed from the BCS.  

  So what’s the big deal?  If the Big East performs, they won’t get the boot, no problem, right?  Well its all about the equity  in the deal.  First the BCS has yet to release those standards they will use to measure the conferences right to be in the BCS, however, you can bet that it won’t be anything that would give any of the currently excluded conferences a shot at automatic qualification.  But secondly, the Big East (and all currently excluded conferences) are the only conferences that will be measured by this criterion.  Ironically if you looked at the standings for the last four seasons and followed the old “Big East Rule” of the former BCS agreement.  It is the ACC and not the Big East whose conference champion ranks last.  It doesn’t even matter if the Big East counts Pittsburgh (and not Louisville as the rules allow) for the 2004 season, the Big East conference champion over the last four years still has a higher average BCS rating then the ACC.  Yet the Big East, which has proven through that current measure to not even be the “weakest” BCS conference is the only conference that must prove itself year in and year out to maintain its current status.  That is what I have a problem with.

 So why would the BCS conferences want to get rid of one of their founding members.  The answer is simple: MONEY.  For all the talk about the inclusiveness of the new agreement, its actually all about keeping the “mid-majors” involvement as little as possible while trying to avoid a lawsuit.  They can point to the current rules that say you can “earn” your conference or teams way into the BCS, but in truth the way the rules are set up are to maintain the status quo.  In fact, the 5 Main BCS Players would like nothing more then for the Big East to lose its automatic qualification status and be dumped into the pool wtih the rest of the “mid-majors”.  That would guarentee at least one extra at large berth into the BCS bowls for one of the 5 Main Players. 

  For all the hot air that has been spent about the inclusiveness of the new BCS agreement, Rule 3 makes it pretty clear its all about one thing, restricting guarenteed access to the 5 main players of the BCS, as soon as possible.  By the 2008 season its possible, perhaps even likely that the staff here at inthebleachers.net will have to make a change and move our Big East Category down to join the “Non-BCS Conferences” group, regardless of whether or not the Big East is the weakest of the automatic qualifer conferences or not.  That my friends, is wrong.