WATERCOOLER CHAT: GIANTS PULL OUT MNF WIN, CONFERENCE SHAKE-UP IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL, STOOPS SIGNED TO BIG CONTRACT
FOOTBALL In the NFL, a Monday Night Football match-up between the St. Louis Rams and the New York Giants. This was an anticipated match-up coming into the season, as we’d see if Sam Bradford and the young Rams would actually become a legitimate playoff contender. Unfortunately, the Rams lost Stephen Jackson and their effective slot receiver Danny Amendola in Week 1. So the limping Rams had to try to make due. Sam Bradford actually did play well, throwing for 331 yards and touchdown, but still made some costly mistakes, including throwing an errant pass which resulted in a botched fumble for a Giants touchdown recovery. The Giants won the game quite easily, but didn’t look so great themselves. Eli Manning has to get his act together and quickly if the Giants expect to be competitive this season. NY Giants 28, St. Louis 16.
And in college football, the conference shake-up continues. Nothing official yet, but apparently presidents of major football powerhouses Texas and Oklahoma have OK’d a ‘possible’ move to the Pac-12.  It’s only in the exploratory phases, but clearly the Big 12 is slowly dissolving. The competition in the Big 12 is getting continuously weaker, with star recruits opting to play in the SEC. So this movie is actually indicative of a much larger issue surrounding the college football world: The possibility of super conferences. The Big East (in football) is also diminishing with Syracuse, UCONN, and Pitt all applying to be a part of the ACC. That’s nice, but what happens to the Big East. In basketball, it’s practically its own super conference, but in football they’re definitely not in the Top 4. But… TCU applied to be in the Big East next year, and will join. That is… if it still exists. There’s even rumors that the Big East and Big 12 will merge. We’ll see how all this conference reshuffling works out. Finally, some news out of Oklahoma. The Sooners got through the roughest part of their schedule this past weekend, defeating Florida State AT Florida State. That was the much hyped game going into the season and the Sooners survived. Now, they’re still #1 in the rankings and are on path to make the National Championship Game (assuming they don’t botch any games). On account of this success, Oklahoma has decided to sign their now elite coach Bob Stoops to a long-term contract. It’s a 7-year deal worth $34.5 million. Basically they wanted to officially lock him up, at what is close to $5MM per year. Not bad money, and this will keep him from jumping to another major program. For Oklahoma to make this kind of commitment is a true testament to Stoops’ success with the program, as Oklahoma is a ‘What Have You Done For Us Lately’ type of school. This should put Stoops’ mind at-ease, and there’s a good chance he wouldn’t have gotten this deal had they lost to Florida State. Wow was that an important win. |
