Miami kicks it off in the "Poulan WeedEater" Stadium (Shreveport) against La. Tech so let the games and talk begin......

paitence rewarded with NIU's upset of Maryland. In the first 3 years under Joe Novak, NIU went 3-30 ... since 1999, they've gone 26-20

The "upset" by Northern Illinois over Maryland isn't that big of an upset actually. In fact, a lot of people don't consider it an upset at all, especially with the game in DeKalb.

Maryland's loss is precisely why the perennial powers rarely -- if ever -- travel to play the top teams from the MAC, WAC, C-USA or Mountain West. The non-BCS teams usually have to play all the BCS teams on the road, but it was nice to see Maryland follow through with its contract to play at Northern Illinois instead of backing out.

Last season alone, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech backed out of signed contracts to play at Fresno State, and Texas backed out of its contract to play at Hawaii.

Onto this weekend's games, I think the University of New Mexico has reached a new low for Division I-A schools with its opening opponent ... Texas State-San Marcos. Ugh. If anyone here can name the mascot of TS-SM without a google search, you definitely know your college football.

[ August 29, 2003, 12:04 PM: Message edited by: TheOtherFSU ]

How bout them OHio State Buckeyes ?

28 to 9 over Washington without Maurice.

All yooze that thought OSU can't win without Maurice wuz wrong ! Maybe yooze were the same ones that thought we couldn't beat Miami

oooh! oooh! umm... Is it the Screaming Margaritas ??!!??

Greetings to you all. First post for the first real weekend of football....Hurricanes looked good but still questions on Berlin. Defense shut down a great QB in LaTech's MCcown (second leading in D1A for career yards) Everybody else pretty much took care of business as expected. USC looks solid but still needs to go up against a multi-dimensional team. I think Cal might just sneak up on them...at Berkley, justa hunch.

OSU Buckeyes impressive. I like Krenzel; where he lacks in talent he makes up for in heart. The Huskies had a lot of distractions in the off season so lets see OSU play NCState. I thnk it will be a good one!!

Maryland returned alot of their starters fromlast year so there was NO excuse for what happend in Dekalb. ACC is off to a rocky start unfortunately but kudos to Wake Forest for going up to Beantown to knock off the Eagles. Still alot of football left to play. Looking forward to it!! :cool:

Today (Sept. 1) is the day that Southwest Texas State University officially changes its name to Texas State University at San Marcos. So technically they were still STSU when they played at New Mexico. The Bobcats are Div I-AA.

Which is worse, being a "directional" school (doubly so in their case) or a "state-city" school?

Jim

[ September 01, 2003, 01:32 PM: Message edited by: BikeJocks ]

Bucks DID look good - should make for a great Michigan game come November. And how about those Buffs? Thunder, lightnin' and a Bloomin' downpour!

Hey BikeJocks ... this is true ... UCF's first name was Florida University at Cape Kennedy to take advantage of the space and high tech industries nearby back in 1960's. Also, they wanted the school to have a metropolitan sounding acronomyn like UCLA. When the brains at the Florida's Board of Control (i.e. Regents) light went on, they realized what the initials would have stand for .... so they renamed it to Florida Technology University.

If you can find me a source on that, I would love to see it! I do know that at one time the Regents were going to go to the "State-City" naming system that Tennessee and North Carolina are known for - all except Florida State would be affected. So Florida Tech was going to be University of Florida at Orlando - aka UFO. There was a semi-serious campaign to change the mascot to "Aliens" if that went through. I'm glad it didn't, but it definitely would have been funny.

Jim

[ September 01, 2003, 05:14 PM: Message edited by: BikeJocks ]

I heard it from some good political sources who served in the Legislature and state government back in the 60's. The Board of Control only had five members back then so it was mainly controlled by the "porkchoppers" aka uf alumni. These guys did not know what they were doing because they never did it with their wives (that was the joke going around at that time).

I do remember the city and state naming thing back in the early 90's. I was working at Univ of Miami and Tad Foote had a cow over this proposal. The presidents at FIU and UNF wanted to rename their schools. Also, John Lombardi contributed his "two cents" to this proposal. They wanted to rename the following schools.

FIU to University of Florida at Miami (UFM)
FAU to Florida State University at Boca Raton (FSUBR)
UNF to University of Florida at Jacksonville (UFJ)
UCF to University of Florida at Orlando (UF0)
UWF to Florida State University at Pensacola (FSUP)
FGCU to Florida State University at Naples (FSUN)

It got killed every quick by UF, UM, and FSU. It was the only time that all three school administrations agreed on the same subject.

And the University of Florida would have become University of Florida at Gainesville - UFAG! I'd forgotten about that until you provided that list. (And USF in Tampa would have become UFAT.)

Did you know that UNC-Charlotte Athletic Department now refers to themselves simply as the "Charlotte 49er's"?

Jim

[ September 01, 2003, 11:33 PM: Message edited by: BikeJocks ]

Bike Jocks ... Thanks for the laugh of the day! I am laughing out aloud after reading those two. Thank you for reminding us!! This is why Lombardi was the best president that uf ever had because he killed this proposal.

To read my views on this week-end's games, check out David's Week 1 thoughts. The weekly previews will begin this week, probably posted on Wednesday or Thursday.

David
Exfballplayer

At least we here at OutSports would have enjoyed that!

They could use the same name for FSU especially with frat row ... LOL. Somebody must have been in the stationery and business card business on the BOR back then. GJ ... Think of the printing contract if this renaming contract were adopted. $$$$$$$$$$$