Texas Bowl Today!

Watch the Rice Owls beat the Western Michigan Broncos tonight at 7 p.m. Central!

Yay!

Rice to Play . . . Western Michigan??

Rice is officially in the Texas Bowl versus Western Michigan, December 30.

The Texas Bowl wanted to get Notre Dame, but they went to the Hawaii Bowl. Bah. Now Rice has to play a MAC team.

(I can imagine WMU alumni saying something very similar about this match-up: "WMU to play . . . Rice?? Why do we have to play some small-school C-USA team??")

Owls Win Again!

For the first time this season, the Rice Owls have defeated a team with a winning record, their cross-town rivals, the Houston Cougars.



But Tulsa held off Marshall, so Tulsa gets to go to the C-USA championship game versus East Carolina. The winner of that game will go to the Liberty Bowl against a middling-ranked SEC team. The loser of that game will probably go to the GMAC Bowl against #2 from the MAC or an upper WAC team.

Which leaves Rice playing in the Texas Bowl (I think) against the eighth-best Big-12 team. . . except that the Big-12 only has seven bowl-eligible teams this year.

The Texas Bowl also has an agreement with TCU (but no other Mountain West Conference teams), but TCU is #2 in the MWC, which would put them in the Poinsettia Bowl.

Well, I guess I'll let the bowl officials figure that all out and just sit back content that my alma mater's team will be playing football in late December.

Go Owls!

Rice Wins Again!

Yay! The Rice Owls football team is now 8-3!

In conference play, Rice is 6-1, and so are Tulsa (who Rice already lost to) and Houston (who Rice plays next week). One of those three will go to the C-USA championship game representing the western division.

Could Rice beat Houston? Could Marshall beat Tulsa? I'll go with "maybe" and "no" for my answers, which leaves Rice out of the championship game, but in a bowl.

The Texas Bowl, perhaps? Against Colorado??



And where is your alma mater playing this winter? Hm?

We're Number 58!

The Rice Owls football team is now 7-3, which, by my calculations based on the number of Conference USA bowl tie-ins and the relative records of the C-USA teams, means they're almost guaranteed a bowl this winter. Yay!

Let's hope they do better than the New Orleans Bowl two years ago.

Idaho versus Montana

Who do you think would win in a football game between the Idaho Vandals and the Carroll Saints (of Helena, Montana)?

Idaho (1-7) is Division I-A (now known as Football Bowl Subdivision) and Carroll (8-0) is in the NAIA. Massey Ratings has them ranked 199 and 184 in the country, respectively. That's the worst FBS team and the best NAIA, supposedly.

Am I allowed to ask why Idaho is in the FBS??


Update: Whoops. As soon as I posted this, I spotted North Texas (also in the FBS) way down at 207. They lost to Rice 77-20! (Which is, by the way, the best Rice's defense has done all season.)

Congratulations, Vandals, you're not the worst in the FBS. . .

Rice Lost Again

6-5 to LSU. Boo!

I guess now I'll just have to root for . . . nobody. Who cares, anyway? It's just college baseball.

One More Chance

Rice lost yesterday (17-5 to Fresno -- yikes!), so they have one more chance in the losers' bracket, against LSU tomorrow.

C'mon, Rice! Go Owls!

Rice Baseball Doing It Again!

The Rice University baseball team is in the College World Series! Again! For the third year in a row! For the fifth time in seven years! For the seventh time in twelve years! Maybe they'll win it again like in 2003!

Their first game is Sunday!

Go Rice!

Beat dem Bulldogs!

Boo, Bulldogs!

Rice lost.

Boo!

College World Series

Rice is playing North Carolina this afternoon. Go Owls!!

Three days ago, Rice easily handled the Tar Heels, 14-4, so they should have no problem today.

In today's late game, Oregon State is playing the California-Irvine Anteaters. Go Beavers!

The Anteaters are the only team from OSU's bracket of four that they haven't played yet, but they seem evenly matched with Arizona State, who the Beavers beat 12-6 on Monday.

Let's go, Rice! Yay! Go team! Yee-ha! Woo-hoo!

Rice Advances Again!

Yesterday's news, I know, but I was too busy having a Fathers Day dinner with my family to check the scores online. Well, actually, my father heard the news on the radio, so I guess we just had it on the wrong station on the drive to Red Robin. . .

The Owls beat North Carolina 14 to 4. Ha!

Tomorrow, UNC will play Louisville for the chance to play Rice again on Wednesday. Rice gets to rest till then. Since the Owls already beat the Cardinals and the Tar Heels, we can hope that they'll be able to do it again, either way.

Go Owls!!

... Over in the west bracket, Arizona State and Oregon State advanced, beating Cal State Fullerton and Cal Irvine. That bracket is a day behind in the schedule, so those teams are playing today. Go Beavers!

Rice Wins!

It's only the first round, I know, but yay!

They were down 10-4 in the fifth against Louisville, but a six-run eighth put them way over the top, 15-10, final score. Singles and doubles and errors and the flood doesn't stop, mwa ha ha!

Next opponent: North Carolina on Sunday.

Go Rice!

On Friday, the Rice University baseball team will play their first game of the 2007 College World Series. Their opponent is upstart Louisville, who likely wouldn't be in the tournament if they had stayed in the C-USA and had to play Rice during the regular season.

And so, without further ado:

There's always next year

So tell me, how did the Rice football team ever win a single game?

Oh, I know. The C-USA is full of medocrity.

The defense needs to retake tackling class. . .

Watch the New Orleans Bowl!!

You'd better be watching the New Orleans Bowl today! It starts at 7 p.m. Central Time, which is also 5 p.m. Pacific Time. But since it's in New Orleans, which is in Central Time Zone, . . . you get the idea.

GO RICE!!

I had scheduled today as vacation/"personal time", but I had to go in to work to finish off a few things due this year. I'm taking all of next week off. Yay!

Christmas, here we come!

But first, a football game. Watch it! GO RICE!!

New Orleans, here comes Rice

So Rice is in a bowl game, the New Orleans Bowl, on December 22, playing against Troy State University. I wish they were picked for the Armed Forces Bowl (in Fort Worth), playing against Utah. But that's just because I know about the Utah Utes and don't even know what state Troy is in. Alabama? And what's their mascot, anyway? It better not be Trojans. Or maybe it should be.

In any case, Rice isn't going to gain anything by playing a SunBelt Conference team, even if they are the champions. I wish they had the opportunity to play an SEC team or some such, and show how much better they are than early in the season (when Rice lost by 50 points to Texas and then another 50 points to Florida State).

Well, at least this way, the Rice Owls will be the favorite. And New Orleans is a nicer town to visit than Fort Worth.

But I'm not going. That's too close to the crazy Christmas travel days. I'll just find a television at 5 p.m. PST on Friday, December 22, to plant myself in front of. Hmmm. . . I just might stay at the office. We've got ESPN2 in HD!

My alma mater is better than your alma mater!

The Rice Owls are bowl eligible! They started the season 0-4 (and 1-5) by playing puff teams like Texas, Florida State, and UCLA. Once they got to the heart of their conference schedule, though, they've won five straight. That loss to Tulane is looking more embarrassing each week.

The last time Rice was bowl eligible (8-4 in 2001), they weren't invited to any bowls. The WAC at that time only had two bowl tie-ins, and Rice was third place in the conference.

This year, Rice is third in the C-USA with one game left to play. Even if they lose, I'd still count them as fourth. At least fifth. And the C-USA has five bowl games.

I hope the bowls don't look at the overall record and pick a team Rice beat (eg Tulsa) because they played teams like North Texas and Stephen F Austin at the beginning of the season. It's not like Tulsa has any more alumni than Rice, either. It's an even smaller school than Rice!

But Houston and Southern Miss are #1 and #2. If SMU beats Rice, they're #3. Even though Rice just beat Eastern Carolina, a bowl might pick ECU over Rice as #4. So then it's Rice, Tulsa, and Marshall (who isn't even bowl eligible yet).

So I'm thinking Rice will play in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas, on December 23 versus TCU. Rice's first bowl game since 1961!

NCAA Football Reformation

Lest you think I cared more for basketball than football, here are the six top-tier college football conferences, taking the top nine of each region from the rankings as of last weekend:

West:
California
Southern California
Boise State
Oregon
Oregon State
Washington State
Arizona State
Brigham Young
Washington

Central:
Arkansas
Louisiana State
Texas
Oklahoma
Texas A&M
Nebraska
Missouri
Tulsa
Texas Christian

Midwest:
Michigan
Ohio State
Notre Dame
Wisconsin
Iowa
Purdue
Minnesota
Cincinnati
Central Michigan

Southeast:
Louisville
Florida
Auburn
Tennessee
Georgia Tech
Kentucky
Georgia
Alabama
Florida State

East:
West Virginia
Wake Forest
Maryland
Virginia Tech
Clemson
Navy
South Carolina
East Carolina
North Carolina State

Northeast:
Rutgers
Boston College
Pennsylvania State
Pittsburgh
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Syracuse
Harvard
Yale

(I know, I know. Ivy League teams? The Northeast is just weak, that's all. Weak!)

And because I care, here are the second-tier conferences for the important regions:

Pacific:
California-Los Angeles
Arizona
Montana
Hawaii
San Jose State
North Dakota
Nevada
North Dakota State
Air Force

Great Plains:
Houston
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
Northwest Missouri
Texas Tech
Nebraska-Omaha
Louisiana-Lafayette
Rice
Baylor

Great Lakes:
Ohio
Indiana
Western Michigan
Michigan State
Youngstown
Illinois State
Northern Illinois
Illinois
Northwestern

And, just for fun, here are the two third-tier conferences from the West Region:

Northwest:
Wyoming
Portland State
Idaho
South Dakota
South Dakota State
Montana State
Colorado State
Central Washington
Colorado

Southwest:
Utah
New Mexico
California Polytechnic-San Luis Obispo
San Diego
Stanford
Fresno State
California-Davis
San Diego State
Northern Arizona

If things ended as they now stand, Utah and Wyoming would go up to the second-tier Pacific Conference and Colorado and Northern Arizona would drop to the fourth tier. Taking their places would be North Dakota State from the second-tier Pacific Conference and Augustana (South Dakota) from the fourth tier, both going into the Northwest Conference; and Air Force from the second-tier Pacific Conference and Sacramento State from the fourth tier, both going into the Southwest Conference.

The state of Colorado would thus have two colleges in the third tier (Air Force and Colorado State), but in different conferences. But that sounds better than putting Portland State in the Southwest with California colleges and New Mexico.

Oh, and Washington would drop down the second-tier Pacific Conference, to be replaced by UCLA. But there's still a chance to stay in the top tier for the Huskies. Win some games! Go Dawgs!

Go, Owls!

I sure hope that Rice University athletics didn't pass over some really good African-American coach just because of the color of his skin. Because the current coach's win-loss record isn't any better than a sack of rocks'. 0 and 4.

Their last two games, they lost by a combined score of 107-14. But that was against Texas and Florida State. I sure hope the college got plenty of money for those butt-kickings.

Maybe Rice will be able to beat Army next week. Or at least Tulane the week after. When comparing Rice and Tulane's only opponent in common so far this year, U of Houston, Rice should be able to beat Tulane 42-7 or so.

Actually, Rice's problem is that, unlike the other bottom-barrel C-USA teams, Rice isn't playing Division I-AA opponents to get a win under their belt. No Hofstra or Chattanooga to smack around.

. . . The money from the big schools had better be worth it, really.