This and That

-Yeah Vanderbilt!! For the first time in almost a generation, the Commodores are going bowling, by virtue of their win over Kentucky. In this season of ultimate suffering for Michigan fans, something like Vandy's win helps to put things in perspective. Yes no bowl sucks, but can you imagine no bowl for the next 25 years?
-Mark Dantonio would do a lot better as a coach if he could just stop sticking his foot in his mouth at press conferences. Last year, of course, he got into a war of words with Michigan RB Mike Hart after losing to Michigan. Now this week, when asked about Saturday's Michigan / Ohio State clash responded that with a "Go Bucks" Now normally an MSU rooting against Michigan would be no big story. But in this case, State needs a Michigan win along with an MSU win over Penn State to win the Big Ten title outright and go to the Rose Bowl. So Dantonio would be willing to trade State's first Rose Bowl in two decades, and only their second in forty years to see Michigan lose its final game of the year in a season that long ago lost any meaning for Wolverine fans. In other words, he essentially told spartan fans that hating Michigan is more important than rooting for Michigan State. The fact that some many State fans agree with that sentiment tells you a lot about why they have been a second rate program for the last 40 years.
-I think the Rodriguez "Get a Life" comment was overplayed and taken out of context, but I do wish that he would just put his head down, quit trying to explain anything, and work on making next year and the year after that better. We had a bad year, people are going to kick us when we are down, nothing we can do about that. We just have to work our way through it.
-This coming weekend is the last weekend for most of the FCS teams. I'm going to try and forecast the playoff pairings after I get done with this week's rankings. A good explanation of the specifics of the playoffs can be found here.
-I think the ACC should forgo all their bowl games, and just play other ACC teams, those will be far more entertaining, since all the teams are evenly matched. Other than Duke and NC State, the entire league is between 3-3 and 4-2 in conference.
-If the Big Ten gets two teams in the BCS they could be an underdog in all, or almost all of their bowl games. Penn State vs USC in the Rose, OSU vs the SEC CG loser in the Sugar, MSU vs either Georgia or LSU in the Cap One, Northwestern against the other in the Outback, Wisconsin vs Oklahoma State in the Alamo, Iowa vs Kansas in the Insight, Illinois vs some random ACC team in the Micron PC, and Minnesota vs Ball State or CMU in the Motor City. I know a lot can change in a few weeks, but that doesn't look like a good bowl season for the Big Ten.