By Cabrone D. Brewer

The debate over which school has the No. 1 team in college football lost two contenders in grand fashion last weekend, and many of us will witness yet another team get brushed to the side next weekend when No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama face each other in Tuscaloosa.

In the mean time, however, some schools are looking to garner a few votes for the No. 1 position, while some are simply looking to put the pieces back together after devastating outcomes to the previous weekend’s contests.

No. 11 Oklahoma, who recently ended a 39-game home winning streak in Norman at the direction of a surprising Texas Tech squad, takes a field trip to the Little Apple to face No. 10 Kansas State.

After taking the field as the preseason No. 1 in the AP Poll, the eleventh-ranked Sooners look to avoid dropping back-to-back conference games for the first time since 1998 against a resurgent Kansas State team that boasts the top-ranked defense in the Big 12 conference.

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By Cabrone Brewer

College football’s kickoff weekend is never without its surprises on the field, but this season most of the opening day mischief came from the clouds above. Michigan and West Virginia had their victories cut short in the rain, while games at Notre Dame, Iowa and Tennessee all had serious delays due to severe weather near the stadiums.

And a media storm has begun to surface over Oklahoma and Texas as rumors place both programs looking at a move to the infant Pac-12.

Two of the weekend’s biggest surprises, however, came from the north Texas region. In a Friday night opening battle, defending Rose Bowl Champ TCU scored 25 points in the fourth quarter, but that wasn’t enough to keep Baylor from their first win over a ranked opponent since 2004, as kicker Aaron Jones booted a 37-yard field goal with 1:04 left to give BU a 50-48 edge over the #14 Horned Frogs. Bears’ quarterback Robert Griffin III threw for a career-high five TD passes.

From the new Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, a game that many thought would go down to the wire, turned into a rout. Turnovers and inexperience at several positions put third-ranked Oregon in the hole as fourth-ranked LSU kept the pressure coming to catch the Ducks’ off-guard 40-27. It was the first season opening game of two top-five teams on a neutral field since 1984 and the 34th consecutive nonconference game won by the Tigers — the longest nonconference-winning streak in the nation.

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I don’t know about you, but I was actually kind of surprised to read this. Forbes announced this week that enrollment in journalism schools is up, a surprising statistic when most everything in this economy is down, including newspapers. I was especially caught by this news when just a week ago CBS Sunday Morning ran a story called “Stop the Presses,” in which they talked about how crippled the newspaper business has become. The story lamented the end of an era for print journalism, citing bankruptcies, layoffs and even closed doors for many large and small newspapers. Print circulations are down, as is ad spending in newspapers.

So it makes sense that the degree program to land you one of these jobs is filling classroom seats… right? Newspaper journalism might be mourning its twilight, but journalism is most certainly not dead. While the Internet can be primarily blamed for the downward turn for print, it can also be heralded for creating an almost romantic resurgence in journalism. Computers and Web publishing don’t come with that hardened, musty newsroom feel, but it does open more doors, allow for more creative approaches to reporting, and reach more of the people we want to have hear our stories anyway.

According to the Forbes report, enrollment in journalism programs at Columbia are up 38%, 20% at Stanford and 6% at NYU. Even state schools are enjoying the surge, with an increased enrollment of 25% at the University of Maryland. They aren’t doing it for the love of the money, just the game, according to Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia School of Journalism. “I’ve never met a single person in 35 years who went into journalism out of pure economic reason,” Lemann says. Read the rest of this entry »

Today marked the first day of class for Youtube EDU. They’ve aggregated all of their video content related to more than 100 universities into a new space at YouTube.com/Edu. You’ll find the expected throwbacks to college life, but more importantly they’ve created a space virtually offering free education to anyone with Internet access. It’s bound to become a go-to source for those planning to attend college, or those already in class, looking for some additional support, as you’ll find college news, campus tours, lecture series and other resources. Read the rest of this entry »