Before delving into today's #content, a PSA for all you college hoop heads reading this: Be sure to check out CBBToday.com. Publisher Joseph Nardone is one of the most knowledgeable college basketball journos out there -- some of his work's appeared here at The Open Man, including this feature on Cal coach Wyking Jones --…
The Final Four returns to San Antonio this week, 10 years after an epic edition of college basketball’s final weekend also hit the Alamo City. That 2008 Final Four may well have been the last truly great one, something I say only minimally because my alma mater, Kansas, came out on top. No, whether or…
What the Memphis Tigers, Pittsburgh Panthers and UConn Huskies mean to people from a national perspective is almost always starkly different from those within each of those schools' collective bubbles. Not homerism, either. We're talking about the distinction between nationally relevant programs, which there are very few, and how important a basketball program can be…
With news breaking Tuesday that Memphis may get rid of Tubby Smith and replace him with Tigers legend and Memphis AAU kingpin Penny Hardaway, the former Orlando Magic star could join an eclectic club: College basketball head coaches who “acted” in the 1994 film Blue Chips. Blue Chips, for all the hype that surrounded its…
There are a lot of bowl games, and the proliferation of them the past decade or so has elicited plenty of complaints. People say it’s watered down the product to have so many 6-6 power conference teams or mediocre Group of Five programs facing off in postseason games. But really, all it means is there…
Pour one out for the 2017 college football season, which nears its conclusion with the arrival of Championship Weekend. Since this is the last dance of the campaign, the Six-Pack is splitting into a pair of special edition Championship Packs. Up first: the Pac-12 kicking things off Friday, leading into a Group of Five triple-header…
What a fun, unpredictable college football season it's been. College football autumns fly by in a flash, but the chaos unfolding from week to week in 2017 has made this particular campaign go plaid. Just two weeks remain in the regular season, and the College Football Playoff landscape is as uncertain as when we kicked…
Someone wake up Billie Joe Armstrong, the final September slate of the college football season is upon us. With a full month nearly in the books, I'm reminded of a comment the late, great Beano Cook made on the original ESPN College Football Podcast: "We wait [for college football season], then it flies by. It's…
College football isn't and will never be the NFL -- and thank the Gridiron Gods for that. Amateurs -- even if they're the best fraction-of-a-percent of amateurs -- still are not professionals. College football is played, primarily, by 18-to-23-year-olds who are more prone to mistakes than their professional counterparts. It's for this reason a Saturday…
Week 3 is the last of this college football that falls before...well, fall. Autumn equinox is next Friday, which means we're just about fully settled into football season. The beginning of autumn coincides with the start of conference play, and for many teams around the nation, Week 3 is either the final or penultimate weekend…
The one Group of Five conference that received the most attention since the inception of the College Football Playoff was the American Athletic Conference (AAC). In 2015, the AAC had a surprising season that resulted in Houston making it to the Peach Bowl on the Group of Five auto-bid. The Cougars stunned Florida State. Because…
The inception of the College Football Playoff gave programs from non-power conferences new incentive with the introduction of an automatic bid into one of the prestigious New Year's Six bowl games. The Group of Five conferences have several worthy challengers for a New Year's Six bid, but it's likely only one will land in one…
If you have ever heard one of my radio appearances or follow me on Twitter (@kensing45!), you might know my affinity for a specific Ric Flair quote: "To be The Man, you gotta beat The Man." Well, two months into his new job as head coach at Virginia Tech, Justin Fuente feels very much like…
Thursday nights take on a much different vibe in adulthood than in those four(-plus) magical years of college. It's really no surprise, then, that Thursday night football takes on a much more fun aura when played by college kids, and the version involving pros is often a joyless slog. On college campuses nationwide, Thursday marks…
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...…
