I want to go hunting with this guy.

Great read from the FW Weekly

There's a fantastic article in the newest Fort Worth Weekly, written by Caroline Collier and Dan McGraw, about the current state of the TCU football program. It's pretty lengthy, but well worth it...especially since they interviewed me for it. It will be interesting to see if killerfrogs allows it to be posted, since it includes a mention of Spit Blood. Anywho, here it is:

Playing for First: TCU is storming the BCS bastions again

College Football Pick 'em Update -- Week 12

This week was oddly compelling in the confidence pool. The highest average winning confidence pick was Missouri at 7.9 points out of 10. The Finch maintains his stranglehold on first since he took it over in week 9. Those behind him seem to have a bad week once they get close to the top.

Week 13 is it for a full slate of games. I don't expect there to be many games on December 5th.

There is a Thursday game, Aggie will try to make my dreams come true and keep Texas out of a bowl game. As we know, Aggie could fuck up a wet dream, so I'm expecting them to fail, tremendously.

Go make your picks, now.

Your Week 12 Standings:

Standings for Week 12
Rank	Selection	W-L	Pts	Tie Breaker OSU - IA 20 - 17
1	Cotcufrog07	9-1	54	35-31
2	Big Pussy	9-1	51	24-17
2	creeperfrog's picks	8-2	51	21-24
4	crtipton's picks	8-2	50	21-17
5	D's picks	9-1	49	32-27
5	smredd's picks	7-3	49	24-28
7	gtgossett's picks	9-1	48	17-14
7	jack burton's picks	8-2	48	28-21
9	Hornedfrog1982's picks	7-3	46	21-17
9	THE FINCH	7-3	46	27-20
9	olboyroy14's picks	7-3	46	17-20

Overall Standings, our Dear Leader hasn't let a good shelling of an island in the yellow sea deter his ability to predict games:

Overall Standings Through Week 12
Rank	Selection	W-L	Pts
1	THE FINCH	93-38	622
2	Rise Again	93-38	603
3	Hornedfrog1982's picks	95-36	598
3	jack burton's picks	93-38	598
5	Trcapps's picks	90-41	597
6	FrogFan1986's picks	97-34	596
7	gtgossett's picks	95-36	595
8	Eddd Wesley's picks	97-34	594
9	sir wesley willis's picks	93-38	584
10	geezerfrog's picks	90-41	578

More BCS despair...but then some hope

Yesterday I hit you with a harsh dose of pessimism, delving into the thought that TCU could somehow be left out of the BCS all together. Well, I hate to break it to you, but that may not even be the worst of it.

A quick glance at the Pac 10 standings and you start to realize that, with all of the mediocre football being played out on the west coast and the fact that USC is banned from the postseason this year, they might not have enough bowl-eligible teams to send one to play the Frogs in Vegas. How does 12-0 TCU, ranked #3 or #4 in the country, playing a 6-6 Western Michigan three days before Christmas sound to you? If you think that's impossible, you only have to look back to 2006, when a 10-2 TCU squad was matched up against Northern Illinois in the Poinsettia Bowl.

Before you down that entire bottle of sleeping pills, let's look at the alternatives. The soft middle of the Pac 10 could actually work in favor of TCU, should the Frogs be left out of the BCS. If that were to happen, it would likely be because Stanford took one of the last at-large BCS spots, which would cause a further shortage of Pac 10 teams to fill Pac 10-affiliated bowls.

With the scenario where both the Ducks and Cardinal are in the BCS, the next-best option for the Alamo Bowl (which beginning this year, has the 1st choice of Pac 10 teams outside of the BCS) would be a 4-loss Arizona team (because they would've, in this hypothetical, have lost to Oregon). Would they spurn the Wildcats to bring in a highly-ranked and undefeated TCU team that would SURELY travel better to San Antonio than U of A and present a tasty regional match up with a Big 12 opponent? I can't say I know the inner-workings of the contract between the Alamo Bowl and the conference, but you'd have to think they'd entertain the thought. The same goes for the Holiday (also vs. Big 12) and Sun (vs. ACC) Bowls. The re-arranging of teams to fit into bowls they have no affiliation with is tricky and uncommon, but it is not unprecedented- you certainly all remember the jockeying done by the MWC, WAC and Poinsettia Bowl to set up the TCU-Boise State match up in 2008.

There is also the thought, put out there by Stewart Mandel of CBS Sports, that Notre Dame could fill the Pac 10's slot in the Las Vegas Bowl. Would playing a 6-6 (or 7-5) Notre Dame in Vegas make up for missing out on the BCS? Of course not. But would beating them, especially after they "exposed" Utah and sullied TCU's image, be fun? Yes, and it would be far better than the worst-case scenario.

Of course, all of this speculation could be (and hopefully is) for naught. There is a lot of football left to be played, and this is definitely the time of year when upsets happen. And in my heart of hearts, I feel like a TCU win against New Mexico on Saturday will put the Frogs in a BCS Bowl, no matter what happens in the other games. Also, as ESPN's Andrea Adelson points out, TCU is still ahead of Boise State and the Broncos passing the Frogs is not set in stone.

It's crazy to think that TCU's bowl options range from playing for the national title all the way down to essentially playing Arlington Heights at Farrington Field, but I guess that is what makes college football so exciting/completely frustrating.

Morning Dump

Football:
Q and A with TCU coach Gary Patterson Rivals

Gary Patterson: "We just want the same respect we feel we've earned" Dallas Morning News

Dalton tabbed a Johnny Unitas Award finalist GoFrogs.com

Johnson named a finalist for Thorpe Award GoFrogs.com
Basketball:
Horned Frogs men give ugly effort in loss to UMass Star-Telegram
Conference shuffle:
WAC tries to woo UNT, eyes on TCU non-football sports Star-Telegram

WAC makes offers to retain Hawaii, return TCU Denver Post