The Wiz of Odds

Texas El Paso

Mike Price got off to a roaring start, winning 16 games in his first two seasons as coach of the Miners. But his past three teams have combined to win only 14. The problem is a lack of defense. In 2008, Texas El Paso gave up an average of 37 points a game. That makes it tough to win, even when the offense averages 32.92. The Miners will be challenged early, with six 2008 bowl teams in the first seven games. Survive that and Texas El Paso could return to postseason play. Thanks to Joe!

Reporters Notebooks

Stefan Stevenson, Dallas Morning News: Five Texas Christian players, including running back Ed Wesley, have contracted swine flu, coach Gary Patterson said. The Daily Skiff, the student newspaper, reported 10 cases on campus Monday.

John Maher, Austin American-Statesman: More expert analysis from ESPN. Beano Cook predicts Notre Dame will play Florida for the Bowl Championship Series title this season. He joins Lou Holtz in predicting big things for the Fighting Irish. Cook is also known for his prediction that former Notre Dame quarterback Ron Powlus would win two Heisman trophies.

Mike Thomas, Orlando Sentinel: The death of Central Florida player Ereck Plancher has gone beyond a tragic sports story. It now threatens to taint the entire university. President John Hitt has a responsibility to keep that from happening. And that means he needs to clean house in the athletics department and football team and bring in new leadership.

Josh Langenbacher, Patriot-News: Several Penn State players were asked who they would like to see on the Nittany Lions' nonconference schedule. USC was a popular choice. "Let's bring USC back up north and show them what it's like to play in Happy Valley," linebacker Navorrow Bowman said. "We always want a rematch, revenge, whatever you want to call it."

Susan Miller Degnan, Miami Herald: Miami backup quarterbacks Taylor Cook and Cannon Smith have decided to transfer, leaving the Hurricanes thin at the position. The new No. 2 quarterback behind Jacory Harris is true freshman A.J. Highsmith, son of former Miami great Alonzo Highsmith.

Tim Cowlishaw, Dallas Morning News: Five ways to fix the BCS. No. 1. In with the Mountain West, out with the Big East.

Oklahoma

It's next to impossible to find a preseason poll that doesn't have the Sooners in the top 5, but is this team over-rated? Heisman winner Sam Bradford is back and the defensive line should be among the best in college football. However, Oklahoma returns only 29 career starts in the offensive line and that's a big concern. There are some tricky games along the way. The Sooners open Sept. 5 against Brigham Young in the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington. There is an Oct. 3 game at Miami and the Oct. 17 Red River Showdown against Texas in Dallas. Oklahoma State rolls into Norman on Nov. 28. A reminder to click any poster schedule for an enlarged view. Thanks to Scott!

New High for I-AA Opponents Means New Low for Fans

The season starts a week from today. Or at least that is what college football fans have been led to believe.

The reality is that Week 1 is full of laughable matchups involving Division I-A teams chalking up easy victories against I-AA opponents. How bad is Week 1? According to data provided by Marty Couvillon of cfbstats.com, 38 of the 74 games (51.4%) involve I-A teams playing a I-AA opponent. It's likely the highest number and percentage of such games in a week's schedule since the NCAA adopted the divisional setup in 1978.

We can't say that is absolutely true because Marty's data goes back only to 2004, but any long-time follower of the game knows that the scheduling of such games has skyrocketed in recent seasons.

The Wiz will refrain from another long-winded rant on this topic. Rather, let this serve as a reminder to the sorry state of college football in 2009.

Back to the Heartland

The Wiz will be a guest Friday on KGLO 1300 in Mason City, Iowa. Mark Dorenkamp is the host and the hour-long segment begins at 10 a.m. (Central). Click here to view the daytime coverage map for KGLO.

Don't be shy. If you're looking for a guest for your radio show or podcast, drop me an email: jayzuma (at) gmail.com.

Wiz Podcast: Paul Myerberg of the New York Times

There are college football junkies, then there is Paul Myerberg of the New York Times. For the second consecutive year, Myerberg is counting down all 120 Division I-A teams for the newspaper's college sports blog, The Quad. He started May 4th with a preview of No. 120 Western Kentucky, and each day added another team to the countdown list. Earlier this week he entered the home stretch with the first of his previews of top-10 teams.

Myerberg detailed how he separates contenders from pretenders in his rankings, why Baylor fans let him have it after he ranked the Bears No. 79, and which programs are on the rise (Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina and Illinois). The one thing he wouldn't reveal is the team he has ranked No. 1, but he did give up his final five in alphabetical order: Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and USC.

The podcast runs 11:44 and you can listen by clicking here.

A reminder that if you've been a subscriber in the past through iTunes, you'll need to re-subscribe. The feed URL for iTunes was changed and according to Apple, old subscribers will not be redirected. Click here to go to our link on iTunes or search the iTunes store for "The Wiz of Odds." For a complete list of past podcasts on the site, click here.