>Boston College – The Eagles are coming off an 8-5 season under first-year coach Frank Spaziani. The team lost an Emerald Bowl battle with USC 24-13.

Offense – The offense returns eight starters from a team that averaged nearly 25 points. The team scored on 89 percent of its red-zone attempts, including 27 touchdowns.

For the first time since Matt Ryan was quarterback, the Eagles have their starting quarterback returning for the next season. Dave Shinskie comes off a freshman season in which he threw for 2,049 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Luckily for the Eagles, two of the top three rushing leaders from last year , including top rusher Montel Harris. Harris led the team with 1,457 yards and 14 touchdowns. He averaged 112 yards per game and nearly five yards per carry.

Back to help Shinskie out are his second and third favorite receivers from last year. Second leading receiver Colin Larmond Jr. returns after catching 29 balls for 596 yards and five touchdowns. His 29 catches for 596 yards comes out to a 20.6 yards per catch average. The next highest receiver is Chris Pantale, who had 25 catches for 223 yards. The team is bringing in three wide receivers in their recruiting class, some of whom may be looked upon to help right away.

Defense – The Eagle defense returns six starters from last year’s squad which gave up only 19.8 points per game. It returns seven of the top 10 tacklers from last year’s squad.

The linebacker corps comes back as possibly the strongest unit on the team. Luke Kuechly comes back for his sophomore year after putting up monster stats in his first year of college football. He was named ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year after posting a stat line of 158 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, and one interception, sack and fumble recovery each. A second starter, Mike Morrissey also returns after being in on 37 tackles last season.

Three of last year’s top six tacklers are defensive backs and each returns for another season with the Eagles. Donnie Fletcher returns at one cornerback spot after being in on 51 tackles and one interception. DeLeon Glause will be looking to lock up the other corner position after he had 49 tackles last year. Free safety Wes Davis returns after leading the team in interceptions with three and tackling 46 opponents.

The defensive line returns two starters from last season. Alex Albright and Brad Newman both saw time starting at the left end spot and the thought is that Newman will either slide over to the tackle position or take over the right end spot. Newman led all defensive line players in tackles with 45. Tackle Damik Scafe added 35 tackles, six and a half tackles for loss and two sacks, wile Albright had 32 tackles and eight and a half tackles for loss.

Recruiting – The Eagles bring in two Gatorade Players of the Year, as well as the No.21 pro-style quarterback. CJ Jones was named Delaware’s Gatorade Player of the Year after starring as both a QB and CB. He was more known for his feet than his arm after rushing for more than 1,000 yards and averaging 13.7 yards per carry. Kevin Pierre-Louis comes to Boston College as Connecticut’s reigning Gatorade Player of the Year. He had 88 tackles and averaged 17.3 tackles on his way to being rated the tenth-best outside linebacker by rivals.com. Chase Rettig comes to the Eagles after being ranked the No.21 pro-style QB by rivals.com. He threw for 1,740 yards and 18 touchdowns as a senior.

Schedule – The Eagles start with two winnable games, Weber State and Kent State, both at home. Their next two games, also at home, will be a little more challenging as they welcome Virginia Tech and Notre Dame to Chestnut Hill. The Irish will be re-tooling after firing Charlie Weis. After the four non-con games, they start their road conference schedule with two ACC away games against N.C. State and Florida State, both of which are winnable. FSU is bringing in a new coach, Jimbo Fisher, who although has been at the school for what seems forever, is in his first season as a head coach. After hosting their next two opponents, Maryland and Clemson, which could be a tough match up, the Eagles go on the road for three of their final four games of the year. They finish at Wake Forest, Duke and Syracuse on the road, with a home game with Virginia in between the Duke and Syracuse games.

Bowling Green -Bowling Green is coming off of what has to be one of the craziest endings to a bowl game seen in a long time. The Falcons scored a touchdown with 32 seconds remaining to take a 42-35 lead and thought they had won the game. The Idaho Vandals, however, had other thoughts as they went 66 yards in three plays before converting a two-point conversion to take the 43-42 Humanitarian Bowl victory.

Offense – This year’s offense will look very very different from last year’s as only four offensive starters return. Unfortunately, wide receiver Freddie Barnes, who set an NCAA record with 155 catches in a season, graduated and has gone on to the NFL. They’ll also have to replace the starting quarterback. Aaron Pankratz returns as the only quarterback who has seen any college football action and has only played in one game in his career, throwing for 52 yards on five completions.

One bright spot for the offense is that it returns starting running back Willie Geter who had 705 yards and none touchdowns last year, both career highs. He had 92 yards and two TD’s in the bowl loss. John Pettigrew, Erique Geiger and Mark Mays return to back Geter up. Of the three only Pettigrew has collegiate experience after he rushed for 24 yards in 11 games as a freshman last season.

Losing a record-setting player can be an extremely tough task to overcome, but when that player had 109 more catches and 17 more touchdowns than the leading returning receiver, it will be harder than most people expect. Adrian Hodges returns after catching 46 passes for 417 yards and two touchdowns. In fact, other than Barnes who had 19 touchdowns, no other receiver had more than two. Ray Hutson, Justus Jones and Tyrone Pronty all return after seeing significant time, while the Falcons will look to four redshirt freshman to provide depth.

Defense – The defense also has four starters returning, but that may be a blessing in disguise for the young squad, as last year it could rely on the offense to keep them in a shootout, but with a young offense with many new starters, much is unknown.

The strength of the defense will be the defensive line, where the Falcons return three starters. The line will rely heavily on two seniors, Angelo Magnone and Darius Smith, while two sophomores and juniors return as well. Magnone collected 43 tackles, four tackles for loss and two and a half sacks, while Smith added 36 tackles.

The linebacker corps will be all new, as all three starters graduated from last year’s squad. Eugene Fells is the top returning tackler amongst the linebackers, after totaling 44 tackles and three and a half sacks. Dwayne Woods also returns after coming up with 24 tackles.

The defensive backfield will also be replacing three starters and Adrien Spencer is the lone returning starter. Spencer made 42 stops and had one interception last season. Coming back to fight for a chance to start is Keith Morgan who led the DB returnees with 68 tackles and five passes broken up last year. He also had an interception.

Recruiting – The Falcons hit it big with replacements at defensive back and wide receiver in this year’s 25-man class. Devon McKoy comes to Bowling Green as a safety from in-state Reynoldsburg High and had quite an impressive senior season. His 2009 season consisted of 75 tackles, three interceptions and eight pass breakups. Ryland Ward, another safety recruit, had seven interceptions in 2009. Marcus Beaurem comes to the Falcons from Michigan. Beaurem comes in after catching 74 balls for 1,100 yards and 11 touchdowns as a senior.

Schedule – Bowling Green starts the season with five of their first seven games on the road, including the first two at Troy and Tulsa. Marshall comes to Perry Stadium before the Falcons go to Michigan to play their biggest non-conference game of the year, against the Wolverines. After a home game against Buffalo and road games at Ohio and Temple, the Falcons finish with three of their last five at home. Kent State, Miami (Ohio) and Western Michigan come to Bowling Green, while the team travels to Central Michigan and Toledo.

>Arizona State – The Sun Devils will be looking to get back to contending for bowl games after struggling to a 4-8 record last season. Despite the record, the team did come close in many of their games, losing five of their eight games by a combined 23 points, including a two-point loss to Cal and a three-point loss to Georgia. Needless to say, the talent is there for a quick turnaround.

Offense – If the offense is going to be successful, it is going to be under the guidance of a new quarterback. The Sun Devils will turn to either Brock Osweiler or Michigan transfer Steven Threet, who have combined for one start at Arizona State. After spring practice they go for a fall practice battle to earn the starting nod. Osweiler passed for 249 yards and two touchdowns in the six games he appeared in. Threet comes to ASU after starting eight games for Michigan in 2008 where he completed 102-of-200 passes for 1,105 yards and nine touchdowns, as well as rushing for 201 yards and two touchdowns.

Second-leading rusher Cameron Marshall returns for his sophomore season after rushing for 280 yards and two touchdowns. Outside of Marshall, the stable of running backs will be inexperienced. The Sun Devils will have to look to one of five newcomers to help Marshall with the workload.

ASU will go to more of a spread-type of offense this year, which will need receivers to step up in the short, mid-range and long passing routes. Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, the wide receivers will be much like the rest of their offense: inexperienced. The team loses its top four receivers from last year. Senior Kerry Taylor brings the most experience of any receiver, having started 14 games in his career, grabbing 58 balls for 734 yards in that time. He returns after catching 23 passes for 276 yards. Gerrell Robinson is the leading returning pass catcher from last year, having caught 26 passes for 261 yards. The WR’s will also look to numerous newcomers to help them out.

Defense – ASU’s defense lead the Pac-10 in virtually every defensive category last year and was in the top 30 nationally for many categories. They were 13th in total defense (297.58 ypg), 19th in rushing defense (108.6 ypg) and 26th in scoring defense (21.1 ppg), amongst other categories. Twelve players that started at least one game last season return.

It would be fair to say that the strong part of the defense would have to be the defensive line, where the Sun Devils lose only one player from its three-deep roster and 14 of 16 linemen return. Lawrence Guy led the team with 4.5 sacks and added 37 tackles and one fumble recovery. James Brooks looks to be the strong-side defensive end, a year after coming up with 3.5 sacks, 17 tackles, seven tackles for loss and one interception.

Despite losing two All-Pac 10 linebackers, ASU welcomes back Pac-10 Defensive Freshman of the Year and Freshman All-American Vontaze Burfict. Burfict had quite the debut as he ranked second in tackles (leading returnee) with 69, had seven tackles for loss, and two sacks, fumble recoveries and forced fumbles each. Brandon Magee looks to take over an outside linebacker spot as he comes off of a campaign that saw him put up 34 tackles, seven tackles for loss, two sacks and an interception, all as a reserve. Shelly Lyons comes into the season atop the strong side linebacker depth chart after posting 17 tackles last year.

The cornerback position is full of experienced players. They may not have the gaudy stats some others have, but their steady play has been a good asset for the younger players. Omar Bolden and Deveron Carr come back after starting at least three games each last year. Carr had 10 tackles and three passes broken up before he got injured towards the end of the year. Clint Floyd and Keelan Johnson are poised to take over the safety spots. The depth behind the two is full of youngsters who will be looking to prove their worth.

Recruiting – The Sun Devils signed 26 players in this year’s signing class, including 15 offensive players, nine defensive players and two all-purpose athletes. One of those athletes, Ramon Abreu, comes in after putting up some crazy numbers as a senior. His stats included 141 tackles, six pass deflections, four interceptions, three sacks, 898 rushing yards, 16 touchdowns, 500 receiving yards and two touchdown catches. George Bell comes as a junior college transfer after picking up a four-star rating and 805 receiving yards and five touchdowns last year. Deantre Lewis comes to ASU as a four-star running back prospect who is coming off of a senior season where he rushed for 2,383 yards and 31 touchdowns.

Schedule – Arizona State starts off the season at home with two easy games against Portland State and Northern Arizona. They get their first test when they travel to Wisconsin on Sept. 18 for a game with the Badgers. After starting the conference season with a home game against Oregon, the Sun Devils travel to OSU, Washington and Cal in consecutive weeks. They next get four consecutive home games against WSU, USC, Stanford and USC before ending the season with rival Arizona.

Arkansas – The Razorbacks return 18 starters from an 8-5 team that defeated East Carolina 20-17 in the Liberty Bowl last season. They return nine starters from offense, including three wide receivers and quarterback Ryan Mallett. The defense returns seven players including two linebackers, two defensive linemen and three defensive backs.

Offense – Ryan Mallett returns after putting up numbers most players would love to have. He threw for 3,624 yards and 30 touchdowns, while throwing only seven interceptions. He suffered a knee injury in February but should be ready for fall practice. His backup is Tyler Wilson, who appeared in five games, throwing for 218 yards.

Four of last year’s top five rushers return this year. Broderick Green returns as the leading rusher after starting three games and rushing for 442 yards and 11 touchdowns. The team saw freshmen Ronnie Wingo Jr. and Knile Davis contribute right away. Wingo rushed for 319 yards and three touchdowns while Davis added 163 yards and four touchdowns.

Each of the top five receivers returns for Mallett’s disposal. Greg Childs had 894 yards receiving and seven touchdowns despite only catching 48 passes. Jarius Wright added 681 yards and five touchdowns while Joe Adams caught seven touchdowns and had 568 yards receiving.

Defense – The defense returns five of its top seven tacklers, including Jerry Franklin who ahs led the team in tackles the last two seasons, including 97 last season.

Jake Bequette and Zach Stadther return after starting on the defensive line last season. Bequette led the team in sacks with 5.5 sacks, adding 39 tackles and two fumble recoveries and forced fumbles each. Stadther returns after posting 42 tackles. Tenarius Wright returns at one defensive end spot after posting 34 tackles, seven tackles for loss, a sack and a half and three forced fumbles.

To say the linebacker returnees would be the strength of the defense would be an understatement. Along with Franklin, the team returns Jerico Nelson who is second-leading returning tackler after having 74 tackles, one interception, two and a half sacks and one forced fumble and fumble recovery each. In addition to his 97 tackles, Franklin also had three interceptions and two fumble recoveries.

The team returns three starters in the defensive backfield. Cornerback Ramon Broadway returns after posting 55 tackles. Rudell Crim had 43 tackles, two tackles for loss and four pass break-ups. Elton Ford leads the secondary returnees with 65 tackles, one tackle for loss, two pass break-ups and one fumble recovery.

Recruiting – The Hogs bring in a class of 25 talented players. Eric Bennett comes in as an athlete after playing quarterback, running back, receiver and cornerback. In seven games as a senior he threw for 873 yards and nine touchdowns while rushing for 581 yards and five touchdowns. Safety Daunte Carr had 104 tackles, three interceptions and two forced fumbles as a senior. Braylon Mitchell comes in as a RB/LB after rushing for 1,691 yards and 26 touchdowns, as well as collecting 91 tackles, two sacks, three forced fumbles and one recovered fumble. Defensive end Chris Smith accounted for 98 tackles, 16.5 sacks and three forced fumbles.

Schedule – The Hogs start off with two winnable games against Tennessee Tech and Louisiana-Monroe before getting into a horrid five game stretch which could end up determining their season. In five consecutive games, Arkansas travels to Georgia, hosts Alabama, travels to Texas A&M and Auburn, before hosting Ole Miss.

Arkansas State – Despite a disappointing 4-8 season, the Red Wolves will be looking to build on a season-ending two-game winning streak as they come into the 2010-2011 season.

Offense – If Arkansas State is to improve on its 22.6 ppg last season, it will have to happen under some new leadership. Ryan Aplin returns at quarterback after completing 65 percent of his passes for 889 yards and three touchdowns. However, he will have to cut down on his interceptions as he threw a total of six.

Aplin also returns as the Red Wolves’ leading rusher after rushing for 253 yards and four touchdowns. Derek Lawson also returns, a year after running for 244 yards.

Unless some freshmen and newcomers step up right away, ASU will be hard-pressed to duplicate last year’s 2,323 yards. The team loses its top five receivers from last year’s squad, as redshirt sophomore Taylor Stockemer returns w/ a team leading 16 catches and 347 yards. The good thing is that altho they might not be as experienced as they would like, there is plenty of depth, youth and athleticism to provide for some excitement.

Defense – Although the team gave up over 23 points per game, the defense could turn their fortunes around, as they bring back half of their top ten tackles last year, including the top four. The secondary and linebackers will be this season’s strongest positions.

Demario Davis returns after putting up some impressive numbers during the 2009 season. Davis led the team with 80 tackles, eight tackles for loss, three forced fumbles and adding three sacks and an interception as well. But Davis isn’t alone. Javon McKinnon returns for his senior season at another LB spot. McKinnon added 53 tackles last season, finishing fourth on the team.

The secondary will be just as good and after giving up over 218 yards per game, they will have to be. M.D. Jennings returns as the second-leading tackler with 64. He also one interception and three fumble recoveries. Third-leading tackler Kelcie McCray returns after having 58 tackles and four and a half tackles for loss. He also led the team with four interceptions and three fumble recoveries.

Recruiting – The Red Wolves bring in 26 players to comprise this year’s recruiting class. Of the 26, 11 are of the offensive side of the ball and 13 on the defensive. The team brings in four wide receivers, a position of need, as well as two running backs and two quarterbacks. Five players are expected to play either cornerback or safety. Two of the top recruits are JC WR Dwayne Frampton and freshman running back Frankie Jackson. Frampton led his team with 77 catches, 1,230 yards and seven touchdowns in his last year of junior college ball. To say Jackson had a phenomenal senior season would be quite an understatement. He rushed for 2,545 yards and 34 touchdowns, on his way to three-star status by rivals.com.

Schedule – The Red Wolves start off w/ a road game at Auburn before jumping right into conference play. The home schedule is highlighted by visits from Louisville, Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic, Louisiana-Monroe and Middle Tennessee State. Road games, besides Auburn, are at Indiana, North Texas, Louisiana-Lafayette, Florida International, Navy and Troy.

Army – The Black Knights were one point away from finishing 6-6 and qualifying for a bowl in Rich Ellerson’s first year. Essentially a 17-16 loss to Tulane at the beginning of October was the difference between a 5-7 season and a 6-6 year. Luckily for Army, they return eight starters on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

Offense – Ellerson brought the triple option offense with him when he arrived last year and the Black Knights caught on and ran with it (pun intended). The team brings back their top six rushers from last year.

Quarterback Trent Steelman returns for the Black Knights after having quite the collegiate debut in 2009. Not only did he start all 12 games he led the team in passing AND rushing. Steelman rushed for 706 yards and five touchdowns. In the triple option he was not needed to pass much but he still threw for 637 yards and three touchdowns.

Army employs two slotbacks in their offense and luckily for them, they have both starters returning. Patrick Mealy finished second on the team in rushing with 673 yards and three touchdowns. Mealy led the team with 6.1 yards per carry. Jameson Carter returns for his senior year after rushing for 238 yards and two touchdowns.

The Black Knights lose their top receiver, Ali Villanueva, from last year whose 522 yards receiving were over three times as many as the second receiver (162). Villanueva also had all five of the receiving touchdowns.

Defense – The defense also returns eight starters including their top six tacklers and eight of the top 10. Army gave up 304.67 yards per game last year, which was good enough for 16th in the nation and gave up fewer than 22 points per game, which ranked 35th.

Two important pieces of the defensive line return, including record-setting end Josh McNary. McNary returns after finishing fifth on the team with 65 tackles. His 22.5 tackles for loss led the team and 12 sacks is an Army record. He also added one fumble recovery and two forced fumbles. The other important piece is Mike Gann. Gann returns after coming up with 34 tackles and seven tackles for loss.

The Black Knights return their entire linebacker corps. The most important piece is “whip” linebacker Andrew Rodriguez who led the team in tackles with 85 and added two interceptions, fumble recoveries and forced fumbles each. The second leading tackler, middle linebacker Stephen Anderson, also returns after coming up with 83 tackles, nine tackles for loss and two and a half sacks all in nine games. The third linebacker Steve Erzinger also returns after finishing tied for third in tackles with 71. Erzinger added seven and a half tackles for loss. Anderson’s season-ending surgery caused him to miss spring practice, therefore causing last year’s starting fullback and third-leading rusher Kingsley Ehie to move to middle linebacker.

Three starting defensive backs return from a squad that was third-best in the country in pass defense after allowing only 152.83 yards per game. Free safety Donovan Travis tied with Erzinger with 71 tackles and also led the team in interceptions with four, one of which was brought back for a touchdown. Starting strong safety Donnie Dixon also returns after tackling 29 opponents. Antuan Aaron returns at one cornerback spot after finishing with 52 tackles and an interception.

Schedule – Being an independent allows Army to have their pick of who they would like to play and this years’ schedule is mixed with big-time programs and some “mid-major” ones as well. The Black Knights welcome Hawaii, North Texas, Temple, VMI and Air Force to Michie Stadium while traveling to Eastern Michigan, Duke, Tulane, Rutgers and Kent State. They will also play in two neutral site games, against Navy in Philadelphia and Notre Dame in the first-ever college football game at the new Yankee Stadium. The team went 3-6 last season against teams on this year’s schedule.

>In the past two days, the Big 12 has lost Nebraska and Colorado and was on the verge of losing Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. That left Missouri, Kansas, Iowa State, Kansas State and Baylor left on the outside. Now in my last blog, I spoke about how everything revolved around Texas. Well it kind of turns out that it may have all revolved around Nebraska. It has been reported that if it had only been Missouri and/or Colorado that left the conference and Nebraska stayed, Texas would stay as well. Well, Nebraska said good-bye to the Big 12 and their interesting way of handling the conference and is now headed over to the Big Ten in 2011.

So now the Pac 10 will have 16 teams, the Big Ten will have 12 and the Big 12 will have 10. But what happens to the rest of the country? One would have to think that the SEC would not be content with having the Pac 10 and Big 10 become stronger. Wouldn’t the SEC, arguably the strongest conference in America, want to become stronger as well? Throughout all of this, it had always been speculated that if the SEC wanted to expand, it would try to go after Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech and Clemson. Well according to ESPN sources, the SEC will not be extending any invitations to those schools, thereby keeping the ACC in tact. For the time being at least.

If this is all about $, and let’s be honest we know it is, then adding those schools will not really add any potentially extra TV revenue because all of those areas/states are already represented in the SEC. The state of Florida is taken care of by the University of Florida, Georgia by UGA, and South Carolina by the Gamecocks. So if they aren’t going to add any of those teams, who do they go to, if anybody?

The dust seems to have settled now and that’s a good thing. The craziness of a conference realignment didn’t happen how everybody thought it would. Somehow Dan Bebee convinced UT, OU and Texas A&M to stay. Probably was the insane amount of money. We’ll see. Who knows what is going to happen.

>Besides the USC sanctions, all the talk about the NCAA has been about the conference realignment that is going to shake up the college landscape. The more I read about it, the more I get confused. Everything seems to always come down to one hing tho: WWTD (What will Texas do?).

Now as many of the readers of this blog know, I am a graduate of the University of Missouri, which is one of those realignment schools but has gone from ‘as good as gone’ to a level of uncertainty that scares us all. There is now talk that the Big Ten does not have any interest in adding Missouri, which has been very outspoken about its desire to leave the Big 12.

That outspokenness has been something that might have hurt the Tigers because it could be coming off as desperation or whining. As an alum, I may be a bit biased here, but if you lok at it, Missouri does actually have reasons to want to leave. There are millions of reasons and by that I’m sure we all know I mean millions and millions of dollars. Missouri made $8.4 million, which was $1.8 million less than the top Big 12 school Texas.

The Big 12 schools divvy up all money equally except that which is generated from television.

Half of the TV money is divided evenly. The other half goes into an appearance pool. The schools that earn the most money are the ones who appear for football TV games and basketball non-conference games. Credits also are issued for NCAA tournament appearances.

The Big Ten on the other hand divides its revenue equally amongst the 11 schools in the conference. The last fiscal year, each school made $22 million. That $22 is $10 million more than what Texas made as the leading school in the Big 12.

Back before there was a Big 12, there was a Big Eight and before that a Big Six. All of the Texas schools joined the conference to make it the Big 12 in 1994. Soon after that, it seems as if all of the sudden there was a time where the University of Texas just took over. They became very good at pretty much all sports and replaced Nebraska as the flagship school for the conference.

One of the reasons some of the schools, like Missouri and Nebraska, have been envious or perturbed with the amount of money that the University of Texas brings in is the fact that the Longhorns are on TV so much. Unlike conferences like the Big Ten, as I said before, half of the TV money is divided evenly. The other half goes into an appearance pool. The schools that earn the most money are the ones who appear for football TV games and basketball non-conference games. Since 1994, the first year of the Big 12, the Longhorns have been on National TV 102 times. Nebraska has 83 National TV appearances.

There are so many more reasons but you have read them all already from every news outlet and columnist out there. This was more of just a rant then I guess. But it is still leaving everyone’s head spinning. A reaction to Friday’s developments will be up later.

>It’s that time of the year again. The time for the College World Series. First up is the one for women’s softball. As I’ve been doing for the entire tournament so far, I’ll preview the WVWS. In the WCWS, eight teams play a double-elimination mini-tournament, which features winners and loser brackets, as well as a best two-of-three series to decide the championship. Washington is the defending champion and is also the highest remaining seed, at No.3.

Hawaii – The Rainbows face the No.9 Missouri Tigers in the first game of the tournament. The trip to Oklahoma City is the first in the history of the Hawaii program.

The Rainbows upset the top seed, Alabama in Tuscaloosa last weekend, using a two-run walk-off homer in the bottom of the seventh by Jenna Rodriguez to win in the third and deciding game 5-4. Rodriguez accounted for all five runs on two home runs. The Rainbows win in the second game of the Super Regional broke the Crimson Tide’s 28-game winning streak and their eight runs also marked the most ever scored against the top seed since the Super Regionals Era began.

Stephanie Ricketts went 1-1 last weekend, raising her record to 29-8. The 29 wins are tied for the second most in Hawaii history. She now has an ERA of 2.54 ERA and 153 strikeouts. Her teammate Kaia Parnaby leads the team with 185 strikeouts.

Missouri – Missouri’s 7-2 victory against Oregon on Sunday sent the Tigers to the Women’s College World Series for the second consecutive season. The Tigers have now made five trips to the WCWS in school history (1983, 1991, 1994, 2009, 2010). The back-to-back trips to the World Series is a program first. Missouri has now set a school record for wins this season at 51. The previous mark of 50 wins was set in 2009.

Missouri’s potent offense exploded for the first time in the NCAA Tournament last weekend, when it defeated Oregon 7-2 to clinch the WCWS berth. The team had not scored more than four runs in an NCAA Tournament game. Nicole Hudson unloaded a solo home run, her 10th of the year. She is the first true freshman with double figure home runs in a season since Jen Bruck in 2005.

Kristin Nottlemann pitched another complete game en route to her fifth win of NCAA action. She is now 24-7 this season. Her 24 wins are eighth in school single-season history. The complete game was her 15th of the year and four of her five NCAA wins have been of the complete-game variety, including four consecutive complete-game triumphs. In NCAA play, Nottelmann has thrown 31.0 innings, allowed just 25 hits and three earned runs and is an unblemished 5-0. Her NCAA ERA is 0.87.

UCLA – The fifth-seeded Bruins breezed through their Super Regional, defeating Louisiana-Lafayette by scores of 10-1 and 10-2. The Bruins improve to 45-11 on the season, advancing to their 24th Women’s College World Series.

Megan Langenfield and Aleah Macon picked up wins last weekend in the two SR games. Gionna DiSalvatore, Samantha Camuso 2, Dani Yudin, Kaila Shull and B.B. Bates each had home runs for the Bruins last week. Camuso, who is leading the team with a .571 postseason BA, drove in seven of UCLA’s 20 runs last weekend. Her 14 NCAA Rbi more than double the total of Yudin, who is second on the team with six.

Florida – The fourth-seed University of Florida softball team defeated 13th-seed Arizona State, 5-2, on Sunday afternoon to move on to the program’s third straight Women’s College World Series appearance.

The Gators moved on after defeating the Sun Devils in two games, 5-2 and 8-0. Stephanie Brombacher picked up both wins last weekend, improving her total to five in the postseason. The righty (34-6) has registered a 0.90 ERA in the postseason while moving into second on UF’s career wins list with 76 victories and third on the career strikeout list with 541.

Kelsey Bruder led the team with six RBI and two home runs last weekend.

Washington – Well, what do we have here? The top-ranked Washington softball team earned a chance to defend its NCAA championship Friday as the Huskies won a pair of games vs. Oklahoma Friday at Husky Softball Stadium to earn a berth in the Women’s College World Series next week in Oklahoma City.

Washington, ranked No. 1 in the nation and seeded third in the tournament, won 3-0 in game two of the best-of-three NCAA Super Regionals and then wrapped up the Series berth with a 4-0 victory in the nightcap thanks in large part to a three-run homer from freshman Shawna Wright in the first inning.

On Thursday, the Huskies (50-7) suffered their first-EVER home loss in NCAA play, falling 6-1 to Oklahoma. In that game, back-to-back National Player of the Year Danielle Lawrie gave up five home runs, the most in her Husky career. Friday though, had Lawrie back to her old tricks. In the second game of the series, she threw a two-hit shutout, striking out 10, while she fanned 17 in the five-hit shutout that decided who went to the WCWS.

Lawrie picked up both wins Friday to notch the second 40-win season in UW history. Last season, she won 42. She also moved into a tie for sixth in NCAA history with 136 career victories.

Georgia – Georgia will be making its second trip to the WCWS having made the program’s initial appearance in 2009, when the Bulldogs advanced to be one of the final four teams remaining. Georgia opened last year’s series against Washington, falling 3-1. The Bulldogs then advanced through the loser’s bracket with a 5-2 win over Missouri and a 7-5 defeat of Michigan to set up a second contest with the Huskies. Georgia then defeated Washington, 9-8, in nine innings before the Huskies turned around and won a third-game between the schools, 9-3.

Georgia advanced after sweeping Cal 7-0, 10-1. In addition to earning a spot in the WCWS, Saturday’s victory also marked the 500th win at Georgia for head coach Lu Harris-Champer, who’s overall collegiate coaching career record now stands at 709-243-1 over 14 seasons including a 500-179 record in 10 seasons at UGA.

Sarah McCloud picked up both wins last weekend, giving up a combined seven hits in the two games. She improved her 2010 record to 13-1.

Megan Wiggins smacked six RBI in the Super Regional and along with Alisa Goler and Kristyn Sandberg, is one of three Bulldogs that smacked one homer last weekend.

Arizona –The Wildcats return to OKC for its 22nd WCWS appearance and sixth consecutive. Outside of 2004, Arizona has been to every WCWS since 1988.

Arizona swept through its Super Regional against BYU, winning 2-1 and 10-2. Sarah Akamine and Kenzie Fowler each had a win in last week’s Super Regional. Fowler struck out 10 in her start, as she improved to 34-6, while Akamine pitched five innings in her win, improving her record to 14-5.

The Wildcats have six hitters who have one home run each and Lini Koria leads the team with eight NCAA RBI.

Tennessee – The Volunteers are going to their fourth WCWS after upsetting the second seed Michigan in two games, 5-0, 4-3. The last time they made the World Series, 2007, they finished second to Arizona, their first round opponent. Prior to last weekend, the Wolverines had won 36 consecutive games at home.

The Vols used both their stud pitchers this weekend, as Ivy Renfroe improved to 29-4 and Cat Hosfield to 17-8. Renfroe’s win was a two-hitter against one of the best offenses in the nation.

Tennessee used three home runs to build its 4-0 lead – including two by senior Erinn Webb in the deciding game.

The WCWS features numerous All-Americans, named by the NFCA. First Team All-Americans include Kenzie Fowler (Arizona), Danielle Lawrie (Washington), Melissa Gonzalez (Hawaii), Brittany Lastrapes (Arizona), Megan Langenfield (UCLA), Niki Williams (Washington), Giona DiSalvatore (UCLA) and Jenn Salling (Washington). Second Team All-Americans include Stacie Chambers (Arizona), K’Lee Arrendondo (Arizona), Kelly Majam (Hawaii), Taylor Schlopy (Georgia), Charlotte Morgan (Alabama), Kayla Braud Alabama), Alisa Goler (Georgia) and Francesca Enea (Florida). Third Team All-Americans include Raven Chavanne (Tennessee), Rhea Taylor (Missouri), Stephanie Brombacher (Florida), Kelsi Dunne (Alabama) and Kat Dotson (Tennessee).

>Thanks for reading my blog everybody!  I’m going to be out of town in Amish country for four or five days, so no blog posts until next week.  Thanks again!

>So the basketball playoffs in Illinois’ top two classes start tomorrow. In the next couple blogs, I will preview them…sectional by sectional…

Class 4A

First is the Hinsdale Central SuperSectional which will have the winners of the Lyons and Neuqua Valley Sectionals face off for the right to go downstate.

Hinsdale (Central) Super-Sectional

Lyons Sectional

This Sectional is made up of four Regionals: Marist, Argo, Mt. Carmel and Oak Lawn. In the Sectional semis, the winners of the Marist and Argo Regionals would face off, followed by the winners of the Mt. Carmel and Oak Lawn Regionals.

Top 8 seeds: Lyons, Mount Carmel, Bogan, Simeon, Vocational, Morgan Park, Hyde Park, Brother Rice

This is the Sectional of all Sectionals, as it features three highly ranked teams, Morgan Park, Lyons and Mount Carmel. Now with those three teams, you would think that they make up a tough Sectional, but wait until you see the rest of the top teams…Simeon, Vocational, Hyde Park, Bogan have ALL been ranked this year. Even the ninth-seeded team in the Sectional, Julian, is one to fear. But when all is said and done, I think Mount Carmel, behind Tracy Abrams and Adonis Filer, moves on.

What makes this Sectional crazy is the possibility of some amazing Regional Finals. We could see Bogan vs. Morgan Park, Vocational vs. Simeon, Lyons vs. Brother Rice/Julian and Mount Carmel vs. Hyde Park.

Lyons: Up until a couple weeks ago, Lyons was the lone unbeaten team. Could that late-season loss to Oak Park might have been exactly what the Lions needed? Dan Lalonde is finally healthy and that might be scary for future Lyons opponents. Even without their superstar, the Lions continued to roll behind the outstanding play of Nick Zeisloft and Nick Burt.

Mount Carmel: The Caravan started out kinda rough without their star Abrams, who was out with an ankle injury, this year. But if anything the time without him made the team stronger as a whole because it gave players such as Filer and Billy Clark and Jon Gac a chance to grow as players. Now Abrams is fully healthy and ready to lead his team downstate. He has been dominant as of late and with that the Caravan might be tough to stop. Competing in the tough Catholic League, where two other teams from the conference are also in the top 5 teams in the areas, making it three total.

Bogan: This has to be probably the biggest surprise in the Sectional, if not one of the biggest surprises in the entire area. It could be said that the Bengals overachieved this year, but they also are very talented. They are led by Rico Richardson and Darius Golston. The Bengals played in one of the toughest conferences this year, as they have already faced teams like Morgan Park, Simeon and Vocational, all teams that happen to be a part of the Lyons Sectional as well. A Regional final vs. Morgan Park looms should Bogan win its first game.

Simeon: Compared to recent years, one could say that this year is a “down year” for the Wolverines. One thing that all Simeon fans can look forward to is the emergence and future of freshman star Jabari Parker. But Simeon isn’t all about Parker. They have some excellent depth and that is led by Dayton-bound Brandon Spearman, who has not lived up to the high expectations placed upon him after a breakthrough summer. A potential Regional final against Vocational, who has beaten the Wolverines twice so far, is on the horizon.

Vocational: Despite having two of the top players in the Public League (guard Hollis Hill and forward Aaron Johnson), the 2009-2010 season has been an up-and-down one for the Cavaliers. Vocational will have had the longest layoff of any of the teams in the Sectional, as their last game was at the beginning of February. Vocational will be looking to pick up their third victory over Simeon if both teams advance to the Regional final.

Morgan Park: Wayne Blackshear. What else is there to say? Blackshear has been a BEAST this year. But it isn’t just Wayne that has been huge for the Mustangs. A freshman, Markee Williams, has shown that he has some amazing talent and Morgan Park is not a one man team. The team is coming off of a Public League tournament championship, so to see whether they can continue their hot streak will be fun to see. Billy Garrett Jr. is also a major contributor for a team that may face off against Bogan in a Regional final.

Hyde Park: Hyde Park is led by star guard Fabyon Harris. They rode him to a spot late into the Public League playoffs and will look to get back on track. A tough potential match-up with Mount Carmel looms in the Regional final, hosted by the Caravan.

>This post was actually brought upon after watching my friend Lisa put up some hilarious video blogs on Facebook. But it is not only Lisa who has become a big fan of blogging. Blogging has become a big hit with athletes as well. Athletes like Donovan McNabb, Curtis Granderson and Greg Oden amongst others. Do a Google search for ‘athlete blogs’ and 6.42 MILLION results come up. That’s MILLION! Now granted alot of those results are probably the same people as posted before, but that is still alot of results.

What makes the blogging world even more interesting is that blogs could be about anything and everything. Some people post about their lives, while others post their thoughts on certain issues. This is the same for athletes as well. From what I saw, some players only post during the season and don’t do anything with their blog in the offseason. Then there are athletes like Etan Thomas, a basketball player, who blogs about politics for the Huffington Post.

The creation of things like blogs, Twitter and Facebook have in a sense made people who we thought so highly of, more human. The ‘big, bad athlete’ is really no more. He is just like you, me or any other joe–shmo.

>Today in class, we talked about how some people may feel there is a double standard in regards to people like Bob Knight working at ESPN. Well couldn’t that, in a way, be said about many of the people that ESPN hires?

Now let me say right away that I am not the biggest of fans when it comes to former athletes/coaches transitioning to the broadcast/media world once they are done with their time involved in the game. Just because you were a coach or player, successful or not, does not qualify you to be someone who can sit there and spew information you think is relevant to others. Now yes, in some cases, these people may have better insights than the normal fan because they were a vital part of the game in the past. But with all of the people that ESPN or CBS or who have you trots out in front of me, it begs me to ask whether I could do a better job.

To me Lee Corso is a man who is just a puppet for the ‘Gameday’ show. He sits there and talks alot, sometimes it being worthwhile and sometimes not. I would rather listen to Kirk Herbstreit b/c I have more respect in his analyzing abilities. I also cannot stand someone like Dick Vitale. He is another puppet, in a way where he just yells and creates worthless phrases. At times, what he says is valuable but often times it makes u wonder…He also is ACC biased to no extent. I would rather listen to someone like Stephen Bardo or Steve Lavin, two underrated (in my opinion) analysts. So essentially, I feel that the stations that broadcast sports should allow more people are are either fans or people that played when they were younger. Just because you played/coached professionally doesn’t make you a better analyst.

>I must say I am quite impressed with news sources like ESPN right now. ESPN, for the past day (right now included), still has something about soccer on its front page. In the news section on the right hand side, the story about Clint Dempsey’s injury has been up for an entire day. Could the times be changing?..