The Wiz of Odds

North Carolina State Rolls Past South Alabama, 31-7

It weather was perfect, the tailgating scene was happening and North Carolina State was ready to play its home opener on Saturday. South Alabama was the opponent, and the Wolfpack responded with a 31-7 victory.

Wiz correspondent Greg Laughlin made his first trip to Carter-Finley Stadium to check out the scene. There are more photos after the jump, and you can check his full gallery by clicking here.

North Carolina State

Check that. The poster schedules continue to trickle in. No. 104 is from North Carolina State. The Wolfpack's schedule is favorable early, and don't be surprised if the team is 7-0 or 6-1 entering an Oct. 29th game at Florida State.

Click the image to enlarge. Thanks to David.

Champs Sports Bowl

The Wiz of Odds is conducting a comprehensive study of bowl game expense reports. All of the data collected — expense reports for 56 teams and bowl surveys for 40 teams — are being posted on the site. Here is the latest installment. For an overview of the project, click here.

The Orlando-based Champs Sports Bowl is operated by the nonprofit Florida Citrus Sports Events, Inc. The first game was played in 1990.

2010 participants: North Carolina State and West Virginia.

North Carolina State expenses: The Wolfpack reported only 247 absorbed tickets at a cost of $4,014. Total reported expenses were $1.09 million. Under other expenses, the school listed items such as open practice ($4,524), staff overtime ($11,473), bonuses ($319,096), booster allowance ($15,000) and comp tickets ($126,674) for a total of $476,767. Download North Carolina State Expenses

North Carolina State did not fill out a bowl survey.

West Virginia expenses: The Mountaineers reported selling only 4,700 of their 12,500-ticket allotment. That resulted in absorbed ticket costs of $507,000, which was 37.9 percent of total reported expenses of $1.33 million. Download West Virginia Expenses

West Virginia did not complete a bowl survey.

Just Like They Drew It Up

A crazy play from Thursday night's Cincinnati-North Carolina State game.

North Carolina State

The Wolfpack spent much of 2009 losing the football and, as a result, lost a lot of games. North Carolina State ranked 114th in turnover margin in a disappointing 5-7 campaign. This for a team that was darkhorse choice to challenge for the ACC's Atlantic Division title. Tom O'Brien, a consistent winner at Boston College, enters his fourth season at North Carolina State with a 16-21 record. Is he on the hot seat? Not yet, but another tumble will turn up the pressure. The team will need to be at its best during a three-game stretch that begins Sept. 16 with a home game against Cincinnati. A road game follows at Georgia Tech, then a return to Carter-Finley Stadium to play Virginia Tech.

As a run-up to the start of the season, the Wiz will display one poster each day until our supply is exhausted.

Then we turn it over to readers, who will vote on the poster of the year. In the meantime, send your team's poster schedule to jayzuma (at) gmail.com.

Last year, the site displayed 69 posters. This is poster No. 43 for 2010. Thanks to Chris!

Blown Call in Clemson-North Carolina State Game

North Carolina State trailed Clemson, 24-14, when the Tigers' C.J. Spiller fumbled on this run in the third quarter. The officials ruled that Spiller was down before he lost the ball, but replays showed otherwise.

The replay official upholds the call and two plays afterward, Spiller runs 16 yards for a touchdown to give Clemson a 30-14 lead. The Tigers cruised from that point, winning 43-23.