I put up a similar post just about a month ago when Wake beat #1 Duke, and I said then that being number one in the nation, was a bad place to be. Five teams have occupied the spot this season, with Pittsburgh doing o twice after moving to number one in the latest set of polls. Too bad they won't be staying there long. Providence took out the Panthers tonight, and here's your video proof....

Great win for Providence, who up until now, wasn't even on the bubble. Given the fact they play in the Big East, and wins over Syracuse, Cincinnati twice and Pittsburgh, they actually have a case now. Well them, and about 25 other bubble teams.

What an ending to the early games today! The UNC-Miami game had an awesome ending and now the Rebels took out Florida with a bomb, blocked extra point and a stop of Superman on fourth down. Here's the vid if you missed it (please ignore the annoying ESPN Gameplan message at the bottom if you can)....

The defender did leap over someone to block that kick, but I thought you just couldn't use a player on your own team for leverage. Amazing win by Ole Miss either way though. Pretty shocking week five we've had so far.

There's nothing better than celebrating with your entire student body after beating a #1 team. Especially when that student body is littered with signs in "support" for Erin Andrews. Here's the end of the game and pay extra attention at the 1:15 mark....

I seriously thought that sign read "Erin Andrews Ky Time?" at first, but thanks to Deadspin, we now know it reads "Sexy". Either way, I'm surprised that ESPN put it on camera right before her postgame interview. In fact they just showed it on Sports Center, so I'm not sure they've even noticed it.

As far as the game goes, it's about time that the College Football season got interesting. So thanks for that you silly Beavers. We now need Minnesota and Mississippi to pull off upsets to complete the triumvirate.


Oregon State Fans Know How To Celebrate (Deadspin)

In my Cinderella post the other day I failed to even bring up the team that everyone was already naming the Cinderella of the tournament in Davidson. Of course if everyone is calling you a sleeper and/or potential Cinderella it kind of diminishes the title, but I think after coming back from down 17 to knock off Georgetown....we've finally found our Cinderella.

Oh and if you didn't know it by now....this Stephen Curry kid is pretty good.....

I did a quick piece over at Sporting News about Cinderella being dead, and I wanted to share part of it in this space. I'm praying Friday's games will be better today and obviously that the announcing will in turn, but I don't see that happening unfortunately (on both accounts)....

Quick name me last year's Cinderella! Too late, there wasn't one. The lowest seed to make it to the Sweet Sixteen was 7-seeded UNLV and there was really only two upsets in the first round (Winthrop and VCU).

Yesterday, there were none (K-State over USC was not an upset, I'm sorry). The "magic" that Laranaga referred to in the above speech appears to be gone for the moment, and that's really a shame. I like the magic, I like the mysticism, and that's probably the reason I got only 10 picks correct out of a possible 16 yesterday.

Blockquoting yourself is so Meta, but seriously what happened to Cinderella? Ever since Butler and Gonzaga made the move to CBB's elite their replacements just haven't been able to keep up. It's a shame really. Check out the rest of that piece (there's a video!) and I'll see you at noon for another day of "Non-Madness"!

The Tournament Has Seriously Been Lacking Magic (The Sporting Blog)

Now that Sunday's Selection show is past us and we're in the midst of the guessing and Bracketology of the Tournament, I wanted to take the time to bring up something that's been bothering me. No one really cares what the "experts" say in the grand scheme of things, but this years collection of talking heads is just annoying the crap out of me. No not because Bobby Knight is inexplicably picking Pittsburgh to win it all (I guess they could), but because none of them have any idea what an "Upset" is or what defines a "Sleeper Team".

Let's start with sleeper teams. The first "expert" that brought up his sleepers was Clark Kellogg on Selection Sunday when he picked Notre Dame, Clemson, Michigan State, and WVU. I'm sorry, but those are not sleepers. If you're scoring at home that's three 5 seeds and a 7 seed. If Indiana is an 8 seed don't you think you would have to pick someone lower than them. They're not really sneaking up on anyone this year are they? Since 1979, out of the 116 teams that made the Final Four....nineteen of them were a 5 seed or lower. That's 16%!

We need a number and I submit that the number is 10 or lower.

Okay now onto upsets. A 9 seed beating an 8 seed is NOT an upset! Hell I'm sure most people are picking Davison (10 Seed) to knock off Gonzaga (7 seed) in the Midwest. That's not an upset either. If you go out to the 11 Seeds would you really be shocked if Kentucky beat Marquette or St. Joes beat Oklahoma? Of course you wouldn't. That's why a win can only be considered an upset if it comes from a 12 Seed or lower.

I guess all of this is debatable, but there are two things I know......A 5 seed is not a sleeper (*ahem* Clark) and Gonzaga beating Davidson is NOT an upset (*AHEM* Skip Bayless!)....

Come on! Arkansas beating Indiana is NOT an upset either. Is it really that hard to get people to talk about Sports that they actually watch?

P.S.- Anyone know when Skip Bayless' contract is up???

P.P.S.- I'm thinking about Live-Blogging/Open Threading the Play-in game tonight. Anyone with me???

There's going to be a party in South Beach tonight! Go Dolphins!!! As Troy Aikman said after the clip was shown on FOX, "The first one's always the toughest." Go for 3!!!

Perfect timing leading up to the Patriots game next week. You know what that means....more Mercury Morris!

God this game felt like it was going to go on forever, but in the end Arkansas ended up knocking off LSU in three overtimes. Just a great game, and this sends the BCS into a complete tailspin.

How crazy is it that Kansas is the #1 Football team in America? Well that's if they take care of business tomorrow. West Virginia looks to be in if they can win out, and pesky Ohio State finally lucks out by ending their schedule early. They can just sit and wait out the carnage. Bastards.

Had this video in my inbox this morning and I almost didn't watch it. I'm glad I made it though the whole thing though because it's homerism at its finest. This is the Oregon feed of the Ducks' loss to Arizona last week and for a good 4 minutes Oregon portrays the Arizona Fans as heathens and classless for being on the field.

It takes awhile to pick up and the audio to kick in, but take a listen/view....

I can't really judge because I wasn't there, but it really seemed like the Wildcat fans were just happy to have the game locked up, and an upset on the books. I seriously doubt if they were taunting Dixon and if that's the case the OSN commentators just like sore losers and homers.

Also, hasn't the student body at Oregon rushed the field like 14 times this year. I know they did against USC and ASU. This is DIVISION ONE FOOTBALL!!! Someone is going to be taunted, but to trash a whole fan base is just nonsense.

Update: Cameron who originally sent us this video had a letter published in the Oregon paper. Kudos to him.

OSN commentator Giansante showed unprofessionalism in Arizona game (Daily Emerald)

(Thanks to Cameron for sending the vid)

Look at that organization. The fact that they stood on the sidelines for a good 3-4 minutes and didn't "prematurely rush" on the play before the one that ended the game is impressive. I have to say this is the most remarkable crowd celebration I've seen in quite awhile. I think I'd rank it somewhere between one that I took place in when Walt Williams single handedly beat #7 UNC and when UCSB threw the Soccer Goal in the Ocean.

Also another #2 loses, Bye Bye Ducks.....I really wanted to see you make it. Now it'll be LSU versus Oklahoma (when they beat Kansas) and the BCS will live on. Bastards.

Looking ahead perhaps? I guess so. The #1 Buckeyes got basically worked by Juice Williams and Ron Zook's offense, and more than likely cost themselves a spot in the National Title Game....

Hey, at least they were good sports about it!

You stay classy Columbus.