This is one sick episode this week. Eric is sick with strep. Randy is sick in the head. Yet somehow, it all seems to come together. In this episode, Randy handles things solo, which he has done ever since he hit puberty. You can, of course count on a brief recap of last weeks contests, and our insight and analysis for this weeks matchups, incuding:

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Hello everyone and thanks for checking in with us at the NBL. It really has seemed like a long offseason in college football. Not that things have been boring up here in Big Ten country. There’s always something to look forward to behind the cheddar curtain: brats on the grill, cold beer, the state capital erupting over political protests, whiney Chicago Bear fans and other F.I.B.’s (you can look in up on urbandictionary.com)…and that’s just in the spring and summer. With fall upon us, a nearly catastrophic labor dispute in the NFL, and a recently realigned Big Ten conference, the Badger flags are quickly being hung out on front porches all over southeastern Wisconsin.  Maybe not at my house, but certainly my neighbor’s house. So what if the proud Yellow Jackets banner hangs from mine? So what if I won’t put a Green Bay Packers bumper sticker on my truck? So what if I didn’t mow my lawn last week? My back was hurting, damnit! Why don’t you pick up the dog crap out of my yard that your mutt left for us to find? How about painting your eyesore of a garage? Uhhmmm…oh yeah, this was supposed to be about college football! So, on to question 2

Randy, I much appreciate the softball question you handed me as well. It’s been a long day on my location shoot today, and quite frankly the stress and the amount of beer I’m now working on calls for a good simple answer to a pretty straightforward question…and your question was:

“With the change to divisional formats in the Big Ten and Pac-12, will it affect a teams strategy in conference play, and does it hurt a conferences chances to play for the National Championship or pick up a second BCS berth?”

I’ll start with the second part of that question first. The assumption is that now that the Big Ten and Pac-12 get to host a true conference championship game, meaning an extra chance to taint a perfect season record prior to your bowl appearance, there may a correlation on a team’s ability to play for a National championship. So, I think a brief history lesson is in order. I think going back to Y2K is probably far enough. So, here is your list of National Champions:

Auburn

Alabama

Florida 2x

LSU 2x

Texas

USC 2x

Ohio State

Miami

Oklahoma

Of those 12 years, 8 of those years had champions from SEC and Big 12 conferences…hello divisions! And yes, I know that USC’s wins were vacated, throwing off the ratio of wins by conferences with divisions verses those without, but as far as I am concerned, I remember seeing USC win those championships, so damnit, they get the win in my book.

So, for the idiots out there still talking about how unfair it is that the SEC has such powerful programs that national championships are tough since the big boys end up killing each other off…you can blow me. Your argument will now and forevermore fall on my deaf ears. Disagree with me if you will, but facts are facts, and they are damn stubborn. So my answer is that I truly don’t believe it will impact a team’s ability to play for the national championship now that we have a couple more conferences throwing a final gauntlet down for potential BCS champions. I’m not prepared to make the argument that it will help their chances by adding the extra game, but history alone tells me, it obviously hasn’t hurt them.

As to the 1^st part of your question…is there a strategy change for conference play? My short answer to that is NO! If by some miracle, we abandoned the bowl system and went to a playoff format, where all you have to do is “qualify” to get your shot at a national title, then I think things get tricky. Right now, whether you play in a conference with or without divisions and conference championship games, that spot in the BCS national championship still pretty much requires that you run the table or better have only 1 loss. Tell me how that will impact your strategy in conference play.  As is, your non-conference wins are just as important as your conference wins. It really comes down to strength of schedule, doesn’t it? If there is any impact on your conference strategy at all, I think it is in acknowledging that there is now an extra game in the season that you have to win…which in simple terms, also means you better be healthy and conditioned for. Maybe “style points” become a lot less important. Do you really need to risk injury to some of your impact players just to put that extra nail in the coffin? Sure, your fans love it when you pound an extra one in on a rival, but it sure would suck if you lost your quarterback because people, like me, kinda like the style points. Let’s face it, the law of averages will catch up to you, and if you start adding games to your schedule (one of them being a de-facto “gateway” game to a national championship spot), you are certainly increasing the odds for injury. And even a UGA graduate knows that injuries heading into bowl season will gunk up your plans.

So that’s my thinkin’…now back to drinkin’. Happy Friday, everyone!