NCAA Football '12-13

[Ed Anger]

Anything would be better than those unis Ohio state wore Saturday. Yuk.

[CountDeMoney]

I dunno, sorta liked what they did with Nebraska and Wisconsin's. 

[OttoVonBismarck]

The service academies have strong academics, but AAU kind of necessitates you being a traditional university and typically a large one. Membership is based on research spending, faculty membership in National Academies, faculty awards and published works. AAU membership largely corresponds to very good academic schools, but it's really more of a research-oriented membership and thus research criteria govern who gets in or not.

Very small liberal arts schools out there that I could name, with basically core undergraduate education on par with anyone in the country for example would never get in, because they lack major graduate level education and research and are simply too small to conduct research on a level required for membership. The service academies would fit into that mold as well.

Schools in Virginia like Washington & Lee and William & Mary are both pretty much as good an undergraduate education you could want if you're in the liberal arts, but would never be considered for a major research organization. Also think schools like Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin etc that are great undergraduate educations but wouldn't be AAU type schools either.

[CountDeMoney]

As the Navy football team returned to the practice field Monday in preparation for its Dec. 8 game against rival Army, Coach Ken Niumatalolo and his players were thinking about one of their own fighting for his life in a Miami hospital after being seriously injured in a Thanksgiving night car accident.

Ralph Montalvo, a freshman who recently had made it from the scout team to the travel roster as the third-string quarterback, is listed in critical condition after being placed in a medically-induced coma at the Kendall Regional Medical Center, according to a spokesman for the hospital. Niumatalolo, who visited with Montalvo's family Saturday, said the player had a setback Monday.

"We just don't know ...we just pray for him, there's nothing we can do, the doctors there are doing the best they can. When I went on Saturday he was doing well, he took a slight turn [for the worse] today, didn't do as well today, we continue to wait for updates," Niumatalolo said.

Said offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Ivin Jasper, "We're struggling here. He's just a great kid and you hate to see something like that happen to good people. We're keeping him in our prayers. All of this happened for a reason, the good Lord has plans for him, he's going to pull through."

Dr. Jeff Fair, Navy's director of sports medicine, said doctors at the academy who have been in touch with the medical staff attending to Montalvo were told that an infection had caused an increase in the player's blood pressure.

"I think they're still pretty guarded, I think they just have to wait to see how he does, I don't know if they know how long they're going to have to keep this induced coma up, " Fair said. "He's going to be in the hospital quite awhile, I know that."

A spokesman for the Pinewood, Fla., police department said Monday that the investigation into the accident was ongoing and could not comment about it. According to Florida law, a police report is not made public for the first 60 days after an incident occurs.

Niumatalolo said he has been told by family members that Montalvo and a friend went to get something to eat after his flight home Thursday was delayed. The friend, who was driving, turned one street too soon, thinking he was on a main thoroughfare. Instead, he drove his car into a house at the end of a dark, fog-shrouded street. Niumatalolo said he heard Montalvo's friend was also in the hospital in a coma.

Junior nose guard Travis Bridges, who played against Montalvo in high school, learned of the accident in a text from one of Navy's assistant coaches and went to the hospital from his home in Hollywood, Fla., on Friday.

"It was kind of like a flashback, because I had a friend who passed away from a car accident," said Bridges, one of a handful of Navy players in the area who went to the hospital. "Just seeing him in the bed, it was pretty hard seeing him like that."

Sophomore slotback Ryan Williams-Jenkins, who was in Fort Lauderdale for the break visiting his father, said that several members of the team held a prayer vigil for Montalvo when they returned to the academy Sunday.

"His mom and dad said, 'Just pray.' They're real spiritual," Williams-Jenkins said Monday. "They said we should keep him in our prayers and stay positive. They said they don't want this to be a distraction because Rafi wanted to be out here more than anything. They said 'Win for Rafi, do this for Rafi.' "

The uniform Montalvo would have worn for the Army game in Philadelphia has been sent to the player's family.

[Scipio]

Ellis Johnson gets a $2.1 million buyout for setting epic loss record at USM.  0-12, for $750,000 this year, plus the buyout.

That man is a genius.  He will never have to work again.  Which is good, because he will never work again.

[jimmy olsen]

Tulane and ECU to the Big East!

[dps]

Tulane and ECU to the Big East!

ECU is a move the league should have made ages ago.  Tulane is a joke.

[derspiess]

Tulane and ECU to the Big East!

ECU is a move the league should have made ages ago.  Tulane is a joke.

Yep.  Meanwhile Cincinnati is clawing at the ACC's front door, begging to be let in.

[PDH]

The Big East is now C-USA.

[derspiess]

The Big East is now C-USA.

And the ACC is becoming the Big East.  My Virginia Tech buddy is about to have a stroke over the whole thing.

[Ed Anger]

I hope Pitt eventually gets screwed over somehow. Fuck you Mark May.

[PDH]

The Big East is now C-USA.

And the ACC is becoming the Big East.  My Virginia Tech buddy is about to have a stroke over the whole thing.

And Boise is left holding a small Big-10 banner and crying out "But we joined an AQ conference!"

[jimmy olsen]

The Big East is now C-USA.

And the ACC is becoming the Big East.  My Virginia Tech buddy is about to have a stroke over the whole thing.

VT is probably gonna end up in the SEC.

[Valmy]

The Big 12 better get those ACC refugees.  Everybody seems to be going to 16 why not join the club?

[PDH]

The Big 12 better get those ACC refugees.  Everybody seems to be going to 16 why not join the club?

Big 12s last joinee will be the Might Pokes from Wyoming.