So the great college football realignment of 2010 has mostly ended, and, needless to say, it was a bit underwhelming.

The Big-12 stays afloat with ten teams, and the Big-10 now has a conference title game. The Mountain West gets stronger, while the Pac-10 adds a valuable Denver market.

The Texas Longhorns had an opportunity to set the whole NCAA on it’s ear by moving to the Pac-10, taking it’s fellow Texas and Oklahoma buddies with them, and creating the first of numerous “superconferences.”

Instead, the world is spinning (mostly) the same as it was. Why?

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England's Robert Green. Image Via: Yahoo Sports

The US World Cup run began today, and depending on how you look at it, the Americans were either lucky to walk away with a draw or unlucky. Either way, the Americans earned a point with their 1-1 tie with England in both team’s World Cup openers.

England’s Steven Garrard got on the board in the fourth minute, a problem the U.S. has dealt with before. According to the broadcast, it was the seventh time in the Cup’s 19 games the Americans had given up a goal in the opening 15 minutes.

However, in a stunning turn of events just before the half, Clint Dempsey tied the score on a long-shot that went right to keeper Robert Green, only to bounce off his hands and into the net to knot the score at one.

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The Big 10 now has twelve teams. The Big 12 has ten. It’s just another day in college football, as the Nebraska Cornhuskers applied for membership in the Big 10 in the latest move in college football’s widespread realignment and were accepted.

The Cornhuskers bring a rich tradition, solid academic reputation, and a piece of the Midwest media market to the Big 10. The Big 10 expands their reach, and, even if they don’t get anyone else to join, have enough members to create a lucrative conference title game.

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The college football realignment dance continued today, with Boise State University announcing it will join the Mountain West Conference, leaving their former home in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).

This move makes sense on a number of levels. From a purely football standpoint, the Mountain West Conference (MWC) adds a major power in Boise State, which has compiled a 49-4 record over the last four years and has won a pair of Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl games.

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With the addition of two new bowls to college football’s postseason next year, 70 of the 120 bowl subdivision teams will see their seasons extended following the regular season.

There’s an economic principle called the Law of Diminishing Returns, which roughly states that at some point, an increase in input leads to smaller and smaller increases in outputs.

While the NCAA, both in football and basketball, focus solely on the input side of the equation, they give little thought to the output.

Increasing the number of teams in the postseason doesn’t make the postseason more valuable; it simply increases the number of teams who can say they made the postseason.

Here’s a quiz: Without looking it up, what team was the winner of the St. Petersburg Bowl last season?

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Scott Sicko: Image Via New Hampshire Union Leader

The NFL Draft started last week, and for many college football players, it has been a very exciting time. So far, 245 college players have decided to leave behind their college education in pursuit of a professional football career. Scott Sicko is not one of those 245 players.

Sicko was an offensive tight end for New Hampshire who showed some great potential for a professional football career. However, after the seventh round of draft picks, Sicko removed his name from the list of professional hopefuls. His reasoning? He wants to continue his education.

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This year the Super Bowl will be a showdown between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. On February 7, 2010, millions of football fans will spend their Sunday night in front of their TVs, cheering on their favorite team.

If you’re not a huge football fan, there are still two huge positives of watching the Super Bowl: The commercials and the food!

Everyone knows that advertising companies shell out the big bucks to play their best commercials during the Super Bowl, and some people (including yours truly) watch the game just to watch the commercials. Of course, the yummy finger foods are also a major plus for this Super Sunday.

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As a high school student, as many other students, my favorite time of the week is by far the weekend. There are so many possibilities and the nicest thing about weekends, you control your schedule! Unlike at school you can decide what you want to do and when you want to do it! Here are my favorite ways to spend free time (and I am sure many of these work for anyone else out there with free time over the weekend!).

1. Football Games (in the fall)- Whether its Sunday football or my High School football team playing on a Friday night, I always love sitting down and catching a game. This really goes for any sport. During the winter it’s basketball and over the spring, while I’m not playing my own game of softball, I enjoy watching college softball or baseball. Read the rest of this entry »