Carl’s suspension is warranted from past dangerous run ins, as well as Sunday’s incident. In 2006 at Pocono after being involved in a wreck caused by Tony Stewart, Carl spun Tony out on pit road during yellow flag pit stops. A move that could’ve injured someone had Stewart’s spinning car hit a defenseless pit crew. He followed that up later on in 2006 after a Nationwide Series race at Michigan. After on track contact sent Edwards spinning and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to victory lane, Edwards decided after Junior had taken the win under yellow to come back on track and slam into the side of Earnhardt’s car. The move could’ve ended Earnhardt’s career, because he had his hand out the window not knowing about Carl coming back to slam into him. That very well could’ve crushed Earnhardt’s hand. In 2007 Carl was at it again, almost punching teammate Matt Kenseth following a discussion after a race in Martinsville. In 2008 at Talladega, Edwards excessively bumped drafted teammate Greg Biffle setting off a 14-car crash that left many, including Kevin Harvick, fuming at Edwards. The following week the two got into a heated discussion and subsequent fight in the garage over the incident at Talladega. That brings us to Sunday’s incident at Atlanta. Without a doubt retaliation, but the fact of the matter is Keselowski could’ve been seriously hurt or killed, as could’ve spectator’s. Carl’s track record about dangerous situations speaks for itself. And it’s not the kind of attitude I would expect out of a new dad. Next time he should think about not only his family, but the other driver’s and spectator’s family too. It’s time to put a stop to Edwards raging before it ends up with someone on a stretcher in an ambulance.

That’s right, no National Titles, no Heisman, no major awards, yet I still think he is the greatest of all-time. Stats and game highlights speak for themselves. Central Michigan won 3 MAC titles in the 4 years he was there. Tim Tebow had only 1 conference title while being the starter in Florida, Colt McCoy as well only 1 conference title. Yet they recieve the attention due to the present nature of media and fans into “Big-Conference Bias”. LeFevour in 2007, the same year that Tim Tebow did it and won the Heisman, threw for 20 TD’s and ran for 20 TD’s, joining Tebow as the only 2 to ever do that. The same year, he also became the 2nd player in FBS history to throw for 3,000 yards in a season and rush for 1,000 yards joining Vince Young, another Texas legend. The 3 MAC titles that were won by Central Michigan was one more than the program had in the previous 25 years combined. The three bowl games he led them to is one more than the program had seen previous in it’s entire history.

I know what your saying, well he played for Central Michigan. Yes, but if that was such an advantage, how come no one did that in the MAC or Sun Belt or elsewhere in the lower levels of college football before him?

You don’t need just stats either, look at some of the career games of LeFevour. He had them in games and winning games that the Chippewas had no business being in, or winning. He made everyone around him better. Put a linebacker to spy him, and he beat you with his arm, play great coverage on his receivers and he’ll beat you with his legs. And through it all he has remained the humblest player in FBS. He’ll end up as a better pro than Bradford, McCoy, and Tebow.

I know I’m in the very minority, but it’s time to give LeFevour his accolades, and recognize him as the greatest in college history.

The American public loves to see their top celebrities and athletes in scandals. For what reason? We have turned into a he said-she said culture that is driven with rumors. There used to be a time when the general public waited until all the facts were given before the majority made their feelings known. Now once someone does something unusual everyone jumps to conclusion. Here’s an idea how about waiting to see all the facts before judging what a person is doing, rather than go off of rumors. For one your credibility will stay intact, and two you could save yourself from saying something that’s not true and regretting it later, and being an embarrassed pompous enter expletive here.

I read elsewhere that Woods built an aura of publicity and of public relations himself with the endorsements that he has made. The equation that writer wrote about is only half the equation that it takes to make the kind of aura few athletes have. The other half is us the fans. We have to buy the products of endorsement by that certain athlete in order for Woods and the company whether it be Gatorade, Wheaties, Nike…etc., to benefit from the endorsement deal. However that comes from what he does on the course, not behind closed doors. Tiger owes the public great golf, and nothing else.

I know, I know, teams have to earn their money too. Well, then one of two things can happen, 1: The front office decides it can’t afford to tank so it goes out and gets some role players on one year contracts to at least put a decent product on the floor, or 2: They can cut the ticket prices, and hope that a big name superstar is signed that way they can get that money back by selling out the arena everynight. Problem is there’s only one guarantee in this situation, if you stink the fans won’t show and you lose money either way.

#1 Florida -12-0 heading into the SEC Title Game

#2 Texas -Beware of Texas A&M

#3 Boise State -The BCS should pit them versus TCU

#4 Alabama -Can they take down the Gators this season?

#5 Georgia Tech -Paul Johnson has done a great job in a tough place to win

#6 Pittsburgh -Give Dave some credit!

#7 TCU -Stuck in the mud

#8 Cincinnati -Tony Pike is the better QB

#9 Ohio State -Oregon-Ohio State Rose Bowl? I like it

#10 LSU -Probably the best 2-loss team in the country

#11 Oklahoma State -A Holiday visit to USC?

#12 BYU -I still say Vegas for the Cougars

#13 Virginia Tech -No ACC title game? Ouch!

#14 Houston -Wow, the luck ran out

#15 Penn State -Hello Capital One Bowl

#16 Oregon -Smell the Roses

#17 Temple -What a year for the Owls

#18 Central Michigan -It’ll be a great MAC Title game against Temple

#19 Navy -They could get 10 wins this year again

#20 Utah -2-losses to great teams, the Utes shouldn’t be too disappointed

#21 Wisconsin -Hello Outback

#22 Stanford -Mr. Harbaugh, Ann Arbor is on line 2

#23 Iowa -They deserve a BCS bid

#24 USC -They don’t deserve to be ranked

#25 West Virginia -A tad of a rebuilding year

Right Outside

#26 Nebraska -Do they have something for Texas?

#27 California -How is Jahvid Best’s NFL stock now?

#28 Rutgers -Greg Schiano, South Bend is on line 3

#29 Clemson -C.J. Spiller will be the #1 pick next draft

#30 Boston College -A decent season will end with a decent bowl bid

The best running back in the FBS just might belong to the Temple Owls. Bernard Pierce is unreal, he has 1,211 yards this season, and 14 TD’s. In the last three games he has 657 yards and 8 TD’s, including 178 yards and 3 TD’s against Miami of Ohio. Pierce’s running has the Owls at 7-2 and poised to play Central Michigan for the MAC title. Who would’ve thought that, Temple playing for a conference title in football? Not me I can tell you that much.

This weekend one team was both hurt and then helped by their win. For non-BCS teams, they have to win big and impressively for the voters to even have an inkling of swaying votes in their direction. Something Boise State was unable to do on Friday versus Louisiana Tech. After Friday’s win, one would’ve thought Boise State’s shot was over by having to stave off a come back, but low and behold early Saturday the Iowa Hawkeyes delivered the Broncos a Christmas gift with their 17-10 loss to Northwestern. In the card was the message to Boise State: Win impressively.

Speaking of Iowa, let’s look at the Big 10 from Saturday. Nice to see that Daryll Clark can be an emotional leader in Penn State. Hello?! Daryll? Senior season, and Iowa lost, here’s another shot to go to the Rose Bowl. Obviously the Nittany Lions thought they were still at practice. Michigan lost to Purdue in the Big House, and once again Rich Rodriguez has delivered a Big Flop of a team. Hey Michigan fans Lloyd Carr just called, oh yeah he says he finished 9-4 his last season even with the loss to Appalachian State. Who’s embarrsed now?

Everyone hear that noise? That’s Charlie Weis sizzling on his hot seat after the 23-21 loss to Navy in South Bend. Under Weis the Irish have lost two of the last three to the Midshipmen, both losses being in South Bend. So much for the Jimmy Clausen Heisman hype. Especially when you throw the ball and hit the receiver right in the numbers, oh wait, it hit his back number, oh throwing passes to guys who aren’t looking gets my Heisman vote.

Hangover’s really can last a whole week. Case in point the Oregon Ducks. After taking soul possesion of the Pac 10 race, the Ducks decided to put it on cruise control. Then Jim Harbaugh and his Cardinal crashed the party. Stanford fans write your letters now for Harbaugh to stay, he’s going to receive alot of offers, especially from Ann Arbor.

Landry Jones might have some competition next season for the starting quarterback job. Especially when you don’t secure it with a 5-interception night, and can’t muster your team a touchdown. Congrats to the Baylor Bears for winning at Missouri, even without Robert Griffin.

The most impressive win of the weekend goes to Valdosta State, with their 70-6 win over Edward Waters. It doesn’t get any better than that for the Blazers.

Pressure on the drivers varied on Sunday, but the number one pressure on most drivers was the chance of winning that no other track besides Talladega offers. Which is why the racing at Talladega is great. Now, that pressure was on most drivers, guys that normally struggle at intermediate tracks can find themselves upfront, boosting that ego, as well as getting much deserved TV time for the sponsors, or getting that unsponsored machine TV time to pick up a sponsor. I’m talking about these guys: Michael Waltrip finished 7th, Brad Keselowski finished 8th, Elliott Sadler finished 9th, Bobby Labonte finished 10th, Reed Sorenson finished 16th, and Robert Richardson, Jr. finished 18th. Not to mention John Andretti and David Stremme ran up front for quite sometime during the 500-mile event.

Another pressure is expectation of winning. Let’s face it when your last name is Earnhardt, you’re expected to run well at Talladega. Add five W’s into the win column, and welcome more pressure from your fans to win, as well as your sponsor since it was their race. When one sees six-time Talladega winner in the stat line, one would think Jeff Gordon could be a contender.

Then add on the pressure of a “must win” for guys like Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, and Greg Biffle, and what do you get? A big pressure cooker that tends to overflow at the end of races.

Does it need to be changed? Yes, by whom though? Well drivers say NASCAR, but honestly can we say sponsors? Not really it’s their dollar they can do with it what they please. Let’s go back to NASCAR, can the sanctioning body change it? Not really. You put all rules in that you want and this will still happen due to our beloved pressure. So who can really change it? Drivers. Yes I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, drivers are the problem with Talladega. If every driver went into Sunday’s race with the feeling of no pressure, as Jamie McMurray did, the race would go alot smoother, and be better, and have less wrecks. Everyone would be having fun instead of feeling the need to get to the front right away. Why do you think the truck races turn out well at Talladega? No pressure for guys like Kyle Busch, Aric Almirola, and other drivers are having fun like Todd Bodine, Ron Hornaday, Mike Skinner, and Johnny Sauter. They’re having fun because that Sprint Cup pressure isn’t there.

There will always be pressure to perform in NASCAR, as long as the dollars continue to flow in, but the way a driver feels it is up to himself. Since he’s leaving Roush-Fenway Racing at the end of the year, Jamie McMurray was just out having fun, and with a clear, pressure-less mind, was able to make the right moves to win. Something other drivers should look at.

This season was supposed to be the season for the ACC powers to come back of age. Four teams were ranked inside the AP Top 25 to start the season. Miami-FL was not part of those, but got into the Top 25 quickly after beating fellow ACC team Florida State. Since the opening weekend until today, only Georgia Tech and Miami-FL have lost less than two games. Virginia Tech once as high as #4 has lost three times. North Carolina was ranked inside the Top 20, and have slid into the basement of the ACC, and are still there despite they’re 20-17 win over Virginia Tech last night. Florida State has been real unpredictable this season, and are off to their worst start since Bobby Bowden’s first season.

Inside conference play, it has been the teams with the worse records beating the teams with the best records. Clemson lost earlier this season to Maryland, which is the Terps only conference win. Clemson then turned around and knocked off Miami-FL last week when the ‘Canes were #10. Last night it was North Carolina beating Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, the Heels first ACC win of the year. N.C. State was 3-1 in out of conference play, but once in ACC play have been beat by Wake Forest, Duke, and Boston College. If you want to be a great team, you have to prove it by at least winning the conference games that you expect to win.

The out of conference losses have humored the college football fan’s opinion on the ACC even further. TCU beat Clemson and Virginia, both on the road. Not to mention Virginia’s opening week 26-14 loss to FCS William & Mary. While Florida State ended BYU’s BCS hopes early, they also got knocked off by Big East foe South Florida, and the Bulls were starting a freshman at quarterback. Maryland lost to Middle Tennessee State, Duke lost to Richmond, Wake Forest got knocked off by Navy, embarrasing losses by a conference that is trying to prove it belongs with the nations elite.

Virginia Tech’s loss to North Carolina has proven that maybe just one team is deserved this season of some accolades. But, even then with the way the ACC has played this season, it would not surprise me if the Yellow Jackets fell once again. And if that day comes, once again the ACC would have proven the college football world that they’ll never return to the top of the nation’s conferences.