Sports Then and Now

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…it was the season of Light…Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Iowa started strong led by Adrian Clayborn and Iowa's front four.

Redemption came at last in the Arizona desert where the first warning bell tolled against a predicted preeminent Iowa football season.

Iowa,who started college football in August as the media darling of the Big Ten, reportedly fielded one of the best defenses in the nation.  Indeed, Iowa’s front four proved to one of the best quartets in college football.

But even they needed help from the linebacker corps and the secondary to contain an assemblage of top-ranked quarterbacks who spread their opposing offenses, often picking apart even Iowa’s well-oiled defense.

Unfortunately for the Iowa D, the Hawkeye’s defensive coordinator, Norm Parker, was sidelined for the season in September after undergoing surgery to amputate his right foot, necessitated by complications of diabetes.

Furthermore mounting injuries practically decimated the Hawkeye linebacker corps as well as limiting or sidelining other key defensive personnel.

The first real chink, however, appeared in Tucson where the No. 24 Arizona Wildcats upset Iowa in an unusual game for the highly vaunted No. 9 Iowa Hawkeyes.

In the first five minutes Iowa endured a blocked punt  and an interception, sending Arizona up 14-0. Iowa scored a touchdown in the second quarter but Arizona returned the subsequent kickoff for 100 yards and another score—plus two field goals.  Arizona was up 27-7 at the half.

Scoring another touchdown in the third quarter, Iowa climbed seven points closer. The Hawkeye’s defense had clamped down hard on the Wildcats, holding them scoreless well into the second half.

In the fourth quarter another Ricky Stanzi pass added another seven, leaving Iowa trailing only 27-21. At that point Broderick Binns intercepted a Nick Foles pass and returned it 20 yards for a score to break things wide open. But Trent Mussbrucker’s PAT was blocked and the score remained tied at 27-27.

Read the rest of this entry →

Despite violations, Terrelle Pryor and four teammates will be able to play in the Sugar Bowl for Ohio State.

So let me get this straight, five members of the Ohio State football team committed actions deemed severe enough to warrant suspension for five games during the 2011 season, but not severe enough to suspend them from their bowl game for this season? I guess it just proves the old adage that the truth is stranger than fiction.

If you haven’t yet come to the realization that college football is a business, maybe this latest action will help you see the light.

Instead of suspending the five junior members of the Ohio State team (including the starting quarterback, leading runner and second leading receiver) from the high profile Sugar Bowl for which Ohio State and the Big Ten is being paid $17 million to participate, the NCAA postponed the suspension until the 2011 season. Of course it is highly likely that most, if not all, of the offending players will never serve even one game as this decision has probably ensured that they will be NFL bound following their bowl game.

I can’t really decide which part of this situation bothers me more: that the NCAA is being so blatant in ensuring the quality of the Sugar Bowl despite acknowledging that some of the participants broke known rules or that in a college football landscape where billions of dollars of revenue is being generated these players are being punished because they collected between $1,000 and $2,500 for choosing to sell items given to them during their college careers.

The NCAA and university leaders are always spouting off about the sanctity of college athletics out of one side of their mouth while seemingly doing everything they can to cash in on the other side. Read the rest of this entry →

The Big Ten Conference is sending 8 teams to Bowl Games after the 2010 season.

The Big Ten has an opportunity to shed their “also-ran” or more appropriately their “barely-ran” mantle compiled in recent bowl game appearances.

This year they could actually make their way into the top tier of bowl-winning conferences like – dare we say it – the SEC?

As Bowl Season gets underway this coming weekend, the Big Ten will send eight teams bowling while the SEC lines up ten.

Last year the Big Ten managed to record a winning record of 4-3 in bowl game appearances as Iowa, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin won their contests – with Iowa and Ohio State in BCS Bowls.

Michigan State, Northwestern and Minnesota came close but no cigars.  All in all, it was a great bowl year for the Big Ten.

Great, when you consider that after the 2008 football season the Big Ten went 1-6 with only Iowa winning that year over SEC opponent South Carolina.

Following the 2007 football campaign, the Big Ten amassed a paltry 3-5 record.  We might also point out that in 2006 and 2007, the Ohio State Buckeyes played for the National Championship, losing both times to SEC opponents, Florida and LSU respectively.

In the past three years the SEC has compiled a 19-8 bowl record while the Big Ten skidded to an 8-14 record.  It cannot be overlooked that the SEC has won the last four BCS Championship games.

Indeed, the SEC is an impressive conference and going forward, the Big Ten hopes to catch and pass them as the newly realigned Big Ten begins a new era in Conference play with great expectations.  Welcome you Corn Huskers!!

With eight teams vying for victory, can the Big Ten score a strike?

Read the rest of this entry →

Cam Newton easily won the Heisman Trophy for 2010.

If this were a perfect world, Cam Newton might have been the first unanimous winner in Heisman Trophy history. Few college players have so overwhelmed a season as Newton has done in 2010. Every time his team the Auburn Tigers needed a big play to keep their undefeated season going, Newton used either his arm or legs to lift the Tigers to victory.

However, we all know that this is not a perfect world and unfortunately while a strange off-the-field situation didn’t cost Newton the Heisman Trophy, it did cost him a chance at the highest point total and largest margin of victory in the 76 year history of the award.

Even with being omitted on 105 of 886 completed ballots, Newton still eclipsed second place Andrew Luck by more than 1,100 points. Of the ballots where he was included, 93% had Newton rated first.

Now, the question becomes whether Newton will be able to keep the Heisman or if at some point he becomes the second winner in the last half dozen years to forfeit the award.

In his defense, Newton has starkly claimed and the NCAA has ruled that he was unaware that his father, Cecil Newton, was shopping around his services with the intent to receive money from the college that signed Cam Newton after he spent the 2009 college football season at Blinn Junior College.

These reports began to surface in late October while Newton and the Tigers were rolling through the Southeastern Conference (SEC) on their way to an undefeated regular season and conference championship. No evidence has ever surfaced showing that Auburn made illegal payments in the situation. Read the rest of this entry →

‘Twas the night before Christmas…

An Iowa Hawkeye Holiday Tale...

George Bailey felt bitterly disappointed at the hand life dealt to him through chronically forgetful Uncle Billy and mean-spirited Mr. Potter.

The proprietor of Bailey’s Savings and Loan ruefully regretted his life, wishing he’d never been born. It took a wayward angel to show George that he’d really had a wonderful life.

Once again it is the holiday season. That means that it is time to watch the overly sentimental film It’s A Wonderful Life directed by Frank Capra, starring Jimmy Stewart and Iowa native Donna Reed––as well as view an explosion of “bowl” games.

As some of us weep over the saccharine holiday tale, we recognize that now is the time for being thankful for family and friends.

For Iowa Hawkeye fans, it means being thankful for an Iowa team that gave us some thrilling moments in 2010, even if the whole season was not everything we had had hoped for.

As coach Kirk Ferentz pointed out once Iowa’s preseason ranking came out in August of 2010––It is not where you start but where you end that is important.

Iowa began the season ranked No. 9 in the 2010 AP Football Poll, and they ended the season unranked––except on the disappointment meter.

What happened?

There are any number of reasons that singularly or in concert contributed to the letdown Iowa suffered at the end of the season. No one will ever answer that question to the complete satisfaction of fans who dreamed of ultimate glory.

But take consolation in this. Iowa, 7-5, is going to play in a very prestigious Insight Bowl against a ranked opponent where the Hawkeyes have the ability to make a statement and regain some dignity lost during the 2010 season.

More importantly, remember, there were five seasons with greater disappointment for Iowa fans…

Read the rest of this entry →

In December the 2010 college football landscape lays wasted after a full season of all-out assault featuring vicious sacks and bone-cracking tackles.

The aerial attacks landed bomb after bomb as receivers somersaulted into opponents’ end zones to light up the scoreboard.

Finally, the victors have risen through the ranks undefeated to lay claim to the No. 1 ranking. This year we are sure––there can be no lingering doubts about who has the best football team in the nation? That indisputable team will be crowned on January 10th. Right?

On then to the anachronistic bowl system which will provide further clarity to the overriding question of who deserves to be playing in the final game of the season. It will all be clear at the end, won’t it, since we have the computer rankings – the infallible BCS?

If you believe this propaganda, you live in Fantasy Land. The All-Seeing Zultan spits in the eye of the BCS and the hordes of college football analysts pocketing millions of dollars who hawk this meaningless bowl system as scientific. Pah-leez.

These network and cable drones know no more than hapless Zultan who––like Chris Fowler–– wishes to see a true play-off system in place.

Crowning a national champion remains largely one huge popularity contest based on tenuous circuitous thought processes. You have major college football conference opponents generally playing a slate of cupcakes during the non-conference season––followed by beating each other up during a hard-fought schedule of conference games.

Because all the meaningful contests during the college football season are held between conference rivals, the only thing we really know for sure is which teams are the best in their respective conferences.

Ranking the conferences against each other is all smoke and mirrors. This year we assume the SEC and the Big Ten are the two best.  Based on what?  Scant statistical evidence if you ask me.

Why not give a berth to each team that has better than a 500 mark in their conference and send them off into a playoff system.  Details could be developed to enhance and complement the current bowl system and money could be made once again for everyone except the players who provide the game.  The irony never escapes the All-Seeing Zultan.

In the current bowl system, Zultan complains vehemently, Michigan State and Boise State, to name two, got royally clipped. Michigan State at 11-1 has every right to play their way into a national championship game––just as does Boise State, Alabama, Stanford, Ohio State, Wisconsin, TCU and on and on.

All teams ranked in the top ten or even the top 25 deserve a chance to go for the Championship. Because, realistically, how excited do you think Oklahoma or Alabama  is going to be playing in the Acme Chipped Beef Bowl after working all season for a shot at the top spot?

Zultan ended his regular season gig spinning in the Toilet Bowl, going down 4-6 in his last forecast where once again he picked against Auburn. Click here to find out all the winners who scored well against the All-Seeing One throughout the 2010 season as well as all other prize winners.

But here it is again – the great Zultan’s Bowl Challenge––a whole new contest and a new chance to win something.

Click here to enter your picks and let us see who is better at selecting winners––you or me, the Mighty Zultan, who promises either to come to your house and sing the theme song for Goldfinger or give you a prize worth something.

Actually anyone who does better than the Big Z will be entered into a drawing for $100 PayPal card and everyone who enters will be entered into a drawing for one of three $15 iTunes cards. These prizes provided by our sponsor Sports Then and Now.

Let the games begin!

Read the rest of this entry →