InGameNow

Alabama and LSU Go Into Overtime!

November 8th, 2008 | By Dan Winter Posted in NCAA FB

In a day that has already seen Penn State upset by Iowa, LSU has taken #1 ranked Alabama into overtime. John Parker Wilson marched his Crimson Tide down on the final drive of regulation. It was a low kick by Leigh Tiffin being blocked that brought us to overtime.

In overtime, Jarrett Lee threw his fourth interception of the game setting up an easy victory by Alabama. John Parker Wilson threw a 24 yard pass and then followed it up 2 plays later with a quarterback sneak for the TD and the win. Alabama remains unbeaten at 10-0 and will see if they remain the #1 ranked team in the Nation. Follow all the news at InGameNow.

BCS Bowls Report Week 3

November 4th, 2008 | By David Chu Posted in NCAA FB

A lot changed after this week in the BCS.  As always, we will assume the conference leaders at the time will be the conference champions.  Also, even though, Texas Tech and Alabama would have to play a conference championship game, we will assume that they are their respective conference champions due to their standings in the BCS.

Conference Leaders to Date:

Big XII:         Texas Tech

SEC:             Alabama

Big Ten:       Penn State

ACC:            Maryland or Georgia Tech

Pac-10:       USC

Big East:      West Virginia

Therefore, with that said here is what the BCS Bowls probably would look like as of this week:

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#1 Alabama vs. #2 Texas Tech

Florida (At-Large) vs. Utah (Automatic At-Large)

Alabama is the #1 team, thus the Sugar Bowl will get the first replacement pick.  They will look to stay in the SEC and thus that will be Florida.  Since no BCS conference can have more than two teams per conference (and the non-BCS conference can’t get  more than one automatic bid collectively), thus that reduces the options for the Sugar Bowl.  Since they will pick after the Fiesta Bowl for at-large bids, they will have the option for the Big East Champion or Utah, thus they will probably choose Utah.

Texas (Automatic At-Large) vs. Ohio St. (At-Large)

Since Texas Tech is #2 and in the national title game, the Fiesta Bowl gets second replacement pick.  They will stay with their  host conference (Big XII) and choose automatic at-large team Texas.  Texas gets an automatic bid because they are #4 in the BCS and not a conference champion.   Ohio St. wil get the next selection, because they are BCS eligible and the best team available of the BCS teams.

ACC Champion vs. West Virginia (Big East Champion)

The Orange Bowl is tied to the ACC Champion and will select them.  They will get the final selection and will be forece to take BCS automatic bid that goes to the Big East Champion, which is West Virginia.

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USC (Pac-10 Champion) vs. Penn State (Big Ten Champion)

The Rose Bowl is tied to both the Big Ten and Pac-10, and currently since both those conferences aren’t going to the national championship game, the Rose Bowl gets no at large pick.

Back next week for a look at where teams may go BCS Bowling.

Upsets Ruining College Football

September 29th, 2008 | By Ryan Hogan Posted in NCAA FB

Upsets in college football are very exciting. Unfortunately, in the long run, they are detrimental to the sport. They are akin to winning a large sum of money and using the windfall to buy a plasma television instead of saving it for the future. Number one ranked USC losing to Oregon State or number four ranked Florida losing to Ole Miss may have been enjoyable to watch but the experience will quickly be forgotten. However, USC or Florida finishing the season undefeated and achieving historical significance will be an experience to last a lifetime.

In 2007, seven teams ranked number one or number two lost. This trend is already continuing in 2008, where this past week alone seven teams ranked in the top 25 lost. The days of once-in-a-lifetime teams like Barry Switzer’s Oklahoma, Bear Bryant’s Alabama or Tom Osborne’s Nebraska are over. That’s a shame because instead of watching history, you’re watching mediocrity. Every college football season should have a dominate team that can stand up to the test of time. Not a slew of teams limping through conference play losing to inferior and irrelevant opponents.

Now, you should never complain about a problem unless you have a solution. The solution to fix this problem is: 1) regulate scholarships for non-BCS schools; 2) limit the amount of televised games for non-BCS conferences; and 3), this is the most important, prohibit the use of the spread formation which is ruining college football. The spread formation is the great equalizer but college football doesn’t need equalization. It’s needs domination.

Rules need to change to eliminate the rash of upsets that blight college football. What is best for college football is not the underdog, but a traditional powerhouse going undefeated, preferably with an average margin of victory around 20 points and a Heisman trophy candidate in the backfield. A team for the ages is always better than an upset right now.

NCAA Upset Saturday: Seven Top 25 Teams Lose; Duke Wins

September 28th, 2008 | By InGameNow Posted in NCAA FB

Yesterday was a debacle for top 25 teams - and it’s even more surprising considering that *everyone* should have been:

1. revved up after USC’s loss; after all, #1 was wide open!
2. aware of the upset. You saw Oregon State dismantle them on national TV, right?!

Well seven top 25 teams lost and there were some dominating performances like Alabama and Oregon State. Today’s top 10 will look almost entirely different in positions and we will analyze when published. Here are yesterday’s upsets according to our venerable friends at TheBigLead:

1. USC. Lost to unranked Oregon State, 27-21
3. Georgia. Lost to No. 9 Alabama, 41-30.
4. Florida. Lost to unranked Ole Miss, 31-30.
9. Wisconsin. Lost to unranked Michigan, 27-25.
16. Wake Forest. Lost to unranked Navy, 24-17.
20. Clemson. Lost to unranked Maryland, 20-17.
23. East Carolina. Lost to unranked Houston, 41-24.

USC is the new #1, but Who is leading in Picks?

September 3rd, 2008 | By InGameNow Posted in InGameNow, NCAA FB

The NCAA football season began this weekend and so did the InGameNow NCAA Football Pick’em Game. The contest kicked off Thursday with 6 members facing off and continued with the Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday games all being one contest and increased to a total of 11 members. We want more, so read below on how to join! Oflarity has had an easy time of it, picking Miami (FL) over Charleston Southern and Oklahoma over Chattanooga- someone beat him to the gimmes, or at least chastise the guy into making some risky picks!

So through 2 possible games, here are the standings by winning percentage, along with the players latest pick:

1. steelydaniel (2-0) - Alabama over Clemson

1. milehighsalute (2-0) - Colorado over Colorado State

1. amanda31 (1-0) - South Carolina over North Carolina State

1. phillyphanatic (1-0) - LSU over Appalachian State

1. GatorGod15 (1-0) - Florida over Hawaii

1. derekfitness (1-0) - Kansas over Florida International

1. LakerRaider (1-0) - UCLA over Tennessee

1. KanyeWest (1-0) - Northwestern over Syracuse

1. oflarity (2-0) - Oklahoma over Chattanooga

10. athletics68 (1-1) - Cal over Michigan State

11. chudaddio (0-1) - Middle Tennessee over Troy (lost)

Note: The #1 teams are in no particular order, besides oflarity is put last for choosing 2 boring picks!

So, due to the accuracy of the pick, the fact that the underdog team won on the road, and the fact that he accurately picked the poll impact before the game even started, steelydaniel gets a chance to speak his mind:

“As usual, Clemson turned out to be an overrated joke! Tulane will score more points on ‘Bama after a week of Gustav than Clemson did with a summer of training!”

Any response LakerRaider, “I gotta go on record as saying I claimed Clemson would be GREAT this year…BOY WAS I WRONG! But I would also like to go on record as saying I called UCLA and Fresno State victories…West Coast, Baby!”

Good thing he logged that UCLA pick in, and not the Clemson one!

So, all users of InGameNow have until 3:30 pm Pacific Time to post their picks for the week - and hopefully in week 2, people are warmed up, and the trash-talking will begin!

If you want to join in on the NCAA Football Pick’em, join the site and post your pick for Week 2, here’s how:

1. Log onto InGameNow, and set up a user name, if you don’t have one already.

2. Go to the page of the team you want to pick, and find the next week’s game. Post your pick on the game page. Remember only your first pick and the first pick on that game will be recorded in this game.

3. The winner at the end of the season will receive an InGameNowt-shirt and be measured by winning percentage (eligibility is based upon 60% of the user with the most picks). We might also add other divisions, such as a “PeeWee Division” and stick oflarity and his boring picks there!

4. Talk a little trash with your opponents or talk other sports with the fans of InGameNow.

Opening Saturday NCAA Football Picks from Fans

August 30th, 2008 | By InGameNow Posted in InGameNow, NCAA FB

It’s the first Saturday, and we’ve added to our user NCAA Pick’em game. We have holdovers from Thursday like milehighsalute, oflarity, and steelydaniel. And new users have stepped up to challenge them.

This week should be interesting, it has already started with the Appalachian State Mountaineers, not only battling the Tigers of LSU, but also racing the incoming Hurricane Gustav, which is currently over Cuba.

So, in honor of the Tigers moving up their game, I won’t delay any longer. Here are the picks:

milehighsalute (1-0) - Colorado State at Colorado (Sunday) - “I’ll take the Rocky Mountain Showdown. I feel kind of at risk picking a team with 73 out of 107 players being Frosh and Sophs, but I do like Ralphie! So I am getting behind the big buffalo, no matter which Ralphie it is, CU will win it!”

phillyphanatic (0-0) - Appalachian State at LSU - “LSU to Appalachian State: Ain’t going to happen. LSU won’t get caught with their pants down like the Wolverines last year & covers the spread 42-17.”

GatorGod15 (0-0) - Hawaii at Florida - “Florida beats Hawaii 49-13.”

derekfitness (0-0) - Florida International at Kansas - “KANSAS 51 - FIU 13… Todd Reesing warms up and throws for 3 TD’s. Jake Sharp runs for 100 yards and a score, as doe Jocques Crawford.”

oflarity (1-0) - Chattanooga at Oklahoma - “I’ll take Oklahoma over Chattanooga. Playing it safe, while the rest of you suckers try to over-compensate.”

LakerRaider (0-0) - Tennessee at UCLA (Monday) - “I think it’s UCLA because that’s how they’ll begin the Neuheisel Era: They will play tough against all the better teams.

KanyeWest (0-0) - Syracuse at Northwestern - “Northwestern 38, Syracuse 24″

steelydaniel (1-0) - Alabama at Clemson - Alabama over Clemson by at least 2 touchdowns. Their rankings will be reversed by next week.

athletics68 (0-1) - Michigan State at California - “Michigan State’s lack of WR and horrible O line will be too much for them to overcome versus Cal’s D!”

So, as you can see there are different styles: Some users pick the safe bets with the extreme being oflarity, which should be specifically barraded. Not only is picking Oklahoma over a Southern Conference team safe, it is down-right boring! Com’on, man, you can do better than that! Then milehighsalute picks Colorado, seemingly because he doesn’t want to be opposite a 2,000 pound animal, which is a fair sentiment. And last we have the reacher in steelydaniel, who picks the underdog on the road, and this will be honored if it happens! So, be sure to look for the Results Blog Tuesday morning, where we will see how it turns out, and one of the winners will get to gloat!

So come to InGameNow and watch the winners gloat and the losers try to explain their decisions. And, if you have the personality to rub it someone’s face when you win, join the site and post your pick for Week 2, here’s how:

1. Log onto InGameNow, and set up a user name, if you don’t have one already.

2. Go to the page of the team you want to pick, and find the next week’s game. Post your pick on the game page. Remember only your first pick and the first pick on that game will be recorded in this game.

3. The winner at the end of the season will receive an InGameNow t-shirt and be measured by winning percentage (eligibility is based upon 60% of the user with the most picks). We might also add other divisions, such as a “PeeWee Division” and stick oflarity and his boring picks there!

4. Talk a little trash with your opponents or talk other sports with the fans of InGameNow.