Sports Then and Now

Zultan predicts college football fortunes in Week Two.

Zultan should be very humble after week one of his vaunted football predictions.

He was tempted to supersede his All-Seeing Powers and was punished for his arrogance. He became human, sad to say…

The NCAA football gods, therefore, struck him down.

Hordes of you outguessed Zultan who quivers in shame and humiliation with a mere 10-4 record in week one.

The mighty one has learned two valuable lessons in predicting the outcome of football contests.

(1) When in doubt in projected close contests, always pick the home team. For example do not pick Connecticut to overcome Michigan in Big Blue’s house or Purdue to get the best of the Irish in South Bend no matter how much the crystal ball tempts you.

(2) Also always make sure that the team you select is going to be playing––Zultan did not realize that half of the North Carolina team would be sitting on the sidelines when he made his ill-fated prediction that NC would win this contest.

Besides that, the Gophers have always been a thorn in the side of the all-seeing one.

So now you think Zultan is an easy mark. If so, try him again this week and learn your lesson as Zultan did––the hard way!

Zultan senses redemption coming his way this week big time. Click here to pit your puny powers of prognostication against the mighty Zultan for a chance to win a prize.

See the end of this prediction for a comprehensive list of all of you who smote the Zultan, scorched his crystal ball in week one.  Do the hokey-pokey one time around the room and come back for week two!

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This is the last year for the Big 12 Conference as we know it.

2010 will be a death knell for the current Big 12 Conference as the Nebraska Cornhuskers bolt from the dominance of the Texas-led South to head into new and decidedly different waters in the Big Ten Conference.

Colorado also makes a bow, heading meekly west into the Pac Ten conference.  That will leave the Big 12 with ten teams and the Big Ten with 12.  Anomalies anyway you look at it.

Nebraska looks to head out on a high note, leading the underdog Northern Division of the Big 12.  The Cornhuskers might exit, winning the Conference Championship outright for the first time since 1999 when Nebraska defeated Texas 11-6.  Last year Nebraska fell to Texas 13-12 on a controversial call.

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Jimmy Clausen has thrown 12 touchdown passes in 2009 with just two interceptions.

It was another interesting weekend of college football as several ranked teams received unexpected challenges while a couple teams solidified their place in the rankings.

Putting the Fight Back in the Fighting Irish
I’m not ready to call the 2009 Notre Dame Fighting Irish a good team, but they are definitely entertaining.

Now 4-1 following a 37-30 overtime victory over the University of Washington, the last four games for the Irish have been decided by a total of 17 points with all of them going down to the wire.

Except for in the 38-34 loss to Michigan when the Wolverines scored in the final seconds to pull out the win, Notre Dame has been able to make big plays when it counts.

That is a far cry from a year ago when Notre Dame finished 7-6 and seemed to always fall just short in crunch time.

I’m sure that the legions of Notre Dame faithful across the country are ready to claim the return of the “Golden Dome Aura”, and I suspect the Irish will probably inch back into the top 25 this week.

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The injury to Sam Bradford in the first half proved to be one that Oklahoma could not overcome in suffering a season opening loss to BYU.

Each Sunday during college football season we will look at some of the big games, stories, and events from the action of that week.

Why You Start With Cupcakes
While the Florida Gators, Texas Longhorns and Penn State Nittany Lions were opening the season with huge victories over cupcake opponents, some of the other high ranked teams opened with much tougher opponents and in at least one case may have ended any hopes at a national title before the season is barely a week old.

It was anticipated that the BYU Cougars would give the #3 Oklahoma Sooners a tough game, but very few actually thought they could beat one of the teams on the short list of national championship contenders.

However, the high-flying Sooners’ offense of a year ago was nowhere to be found in Dallas.

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Sam Bradford could become the second player in college football history to win back-to-back Heisman Trophies.

Overview: Recognized as a league of great offenses, the Big 12 was exposed a bit during the bowl season a year ago as none of the high powered offenses in the league scored close to their season averages when facing defenses from other conferences. Lack of strong defenses could hurt the conference again this season when playing non-conference opponents. Despite the weakness on defense, last season the Big 12 finished with five teams ranked in the final Top 25 poll, including two teams (Texas and Oklahoma) in the top five. Those two teams are again in the preseason top five and seem to be heads and shoulders above the rest of the conference this time around.
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