Welcome to a very self-referential edition of The Open Man Weekend Q&A! Not to worry: The self-reference isn't a series of recurring inside jokes. There are other outlets that can cover that. No, this brand of self-reference touches on a variety of columns I have written this summer. What's surprising is how organically this opportunity…
College basketball rosters for the 2017-'18 season are mostly set following last week's NBA draft deadline. With that offseason milestone, we have a more clear picture of what to anticipate come autumn -- certainly more so than in April, when I compiled my initial Top 25 for Athlon Sports. I'll have an updated Top 25…
Politics, religion and conspiracies! No, this isn't a lede about the presidential race, which mercifully ends in three weeks. Let's talk about Big 12 expansion, which lately incites as much ill-will as any election. While voters get in the booth 22 days from today, Big 12 expansion may have another nine years to fuel speculation…
Cincinnati's 40-16 loss Thursday to Houston is not an indictment on the Bearcats -- not in a vacuum, anyway. The 24-point Houston margin of victory does not entirely reflect the nature of the contest, as the host Bearcats led in the early fourth quarter on a Hayden Moore touchdown pass to Kahlil Lewis. Even after…
The Appalachian State-Miami game slated for Sept. 17 sold out its ticket allotment faster than scalpers could scoop up Adele seats last December. Thanks for ruining the Christmas gift I had planned for my wife, jerks. Anyway, the one-hour window in which fans snapped up seats for the Hurricanes' historic visit to Kidd Brewer Stadium…
Big 12 expansion took an unexpected turn for the entertaining Wednesday thanks to Justin Timberlake. Yes, THAT Justin Timberlake. Nevermind the involvement of FedEx or any elaborate Power Point presentations, J-Timb's Twitter endorsement of Memphis for Big 12 inclusion certainly tips the scales in the Tigers' favor from my humble perspective. Memphis to the @Big12Conference...…
CFB Huddle's American Athletic Preview Week turns focus outside the AAC and to the ACC, Big 12, Mountain West, MAC. From these conferences come opponents in some of the AAC's most promising non-league dates. Nonconference play contributed to the positive perception of the American a year ago: Houston's defeats of Louisville and Vanderbilt, Memphis routing…
Tyler Matakevich rose from All AAC Defense to national defensive player of the year last season. The Temple Owls linebacker is NFL-bound, leaving a spot for another American Athletic defensive standout to reach the pinnacle this year. ALL-AAC 2016 DEFENSE Among the great stories of the American's rise a season ago: Temple's emergence. The Owls…
The Preseason All AAC nominees spotlighted as part of the CFB Huddle season preview series may not include many household names -- not yet, anyway. But the emergence of stars like Keenan Reynolds and Paxton Lynch a season ago proved the star power residing in the American Athletic Conference. This year's crop is rife with…
Teams from around the American Athletic Conference last season adopted #AmericanRising, a Twitter hashtag that perfectly described the state of the league's football in 2015. Commissioner Mike Aresco's declaration at AAC Media Days in August that the league was striving to make the Power Five the Power Six essentially called the American's shot. American teams…
Big 12 expansion may not be inevitable -- the University of Texas reportedly has issues, and it's well established that the Longhorns wield more clout than much of the conference. Nevertheless, as the din of conference realignment grows, and nonsensical arguments contingent on seemingly arbitrary percentages gain traction, the possibility of Big 12 expansion has…
Notre Dame announced Friday head coach Brian Kelly signed a contract extension through 2021. Realistically, the university could have issued a press release declaring Cyborg Brian Kelly will coach the 3021 Fighting Irish season opener against Galilean Conference powerhouse Io State, and it would hold the same value. The likelihood Brian Kelly is still Notre…
Alabama added another notch in its championship belt Saturday when WBC Heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder scored a ninth-round knockout victory over Polish challenger, Artur Szpilka. .@BronzeBomber knocks out @szpilka_artur in round 9 and retains his WBC heavyweight title #AndStill #WilderSzpilka https://t.co/aB8J3liY8T— SHOWTIME SPORTS (@SHOsports) January 17, 2016 Tuscaloosa-born Deontay Wilder's third successful title defense came…
Opening weekend for the 2015 bowl season did not disappoint. Kenneth Dixon became college football's new touchdown king in New Orleans. One Mountain West team, San Jose State, rallied in Orlando, while another, New Mexico, fell just short in Albuquerque. Appalachian State's torrid comeback in Montgomery sealed the Mountaineers' first bowl win in program history,…
Memphis may have remained unbeaten Thursday, outlasting American Athletic Conference counterpart Cincinnati in a 53-46 shootout, but the story coming out of the Liberty Bowl was Bearcats quarterback Hayden Moore. The freshman Moore came on in relief for Gunner Kiel for the second time in as many weeks, each time after Kiel sustained a shot…
