Football has long been America’s most popular sport.

While baseball is the American pastime and holds a special place in the hearts of sports fans, it has yet to surpass football in terms of either broad appeal or revenues especially now with the 2010 NCAA college football season just around the corner.

Nor is the National Football League the only beneficiary of football’s enduring popularity. Indeed, in parts of the country with unsuccessful NFL teams (or no NFL teams), college football is just as popular – and just as lucrative. Likewise, an accomplished head coach at a prestigious college program can easily command several million dollars per year in salary, and the football teams themselves figure prominently in the entire cost structure of their universities.

So what are these teams you ask?

Let’s start with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Valued at $108 million and boasting profits of $38 million – the Fighting Irish have long been one of the most widely followed teams in NCAA football. Seven Heisman Trophy winners have played for Notre Dame, as well as 95 consensus All-Americans.

Furthermore, Notre Dame Stadium (where the team plays its home games) seats more people than some NFL stadiums do – 80,795 at last count. The team has also won eight national championships, and owes much of its current value to consistently being a contender year in and year out.

Another highly valued NCAA football team with a rich history is…

It’s Week 11 and we have Florida trying to extend a nation-best 18-game winning streak.

Yep, it has been that crazy for the Florida Gators this 2009 NCAA college football season. Can they remain on top of the BCS after this weekend? They have the South Carolina Gamecocks next and I have a feeling the Gators will continue pounding on the rest of the field.

The South Carolina Gamecocks will be led by quarterback Stephen Garcia, who has thrown for 2,094 yards, including three 300-yard games. The 6-2, 219-pound sophomore has thrown 12 touchdowns and five interceptions. Garcia ranks 10th in the SEC in passing efficiency and yet he squandered chances for signature moments, such as the final offensive snap at Georgia.

Don’t expect these guys to stop the Florida Gators from winning their 19th straight game.

We also have some other games that should prove to be profitable for ya’ll, like this one between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Hawkeyes are looking to improve their current BCS standing, a win over Ohio State will do just that.

The 4th seeded Iowa Hawkeyes will continue to rely on the services of quarterback Ricky Stanzi, despite throwing five interceptions in their last win against Indiana.

Iowa remains fourth in the BCS for the second straight week, their highest ranking in school history. The Hawkeyes are also the highest-rated Big Ten team in the BCS. Iowa is 78-43 in this decade (.644), one of the best winning percentages in school history. The Hawkeyes were 77-40-4 (.652) during the 1980s.

But will you pick them over Ohio State..?

How about that, we’re already in the halfway point of the college football calendar.

That’s right, the 2009 NCAA college football season continues with Week 10 and we have quite a few rivalries that will be revisited this weekend.

First off is this rivalry game between the Navy Midshipmen and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Notre Dame is coming off a 23-0 shutout win against Washington State. Yes, they never stood a chance and since Washington State is one of the worst teams this year both offensively and defensively, Notre Dame took advantage.

The 6-2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish are chasing a berth for a BCS bowl game this season. They will close out this month with a game at home against the Navy Midshipmen before taking on the Pittsburgh Pirates. They’ll be home for Connecticut and finish at Stanford.

Our pick? Since Navy quarterback Ricky Dobbs is questionable for this Saturday’s game, we’re picking Notre Dame to win it. Irish by seven.

The Ohio State Buckeyes and Penn State Nittany Lions collide at Beaver Stadium as Week 10 continues. Penn State (8-1, 4-1) had three touchdowns in less than 4 minutes to turn a squeaker into a rout in a 34-13 victory at Northwestern while Ohio State dispatched New Mexico State…

There sure have been a couple of HUGE surprises last week.

Admit it, the way Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford came back to the field last weekend caught most of you off guard. Hopefully, they didn’t make you lose that much dough. Coming to Week 7 of the 2009 NCAA college football season, we’ll get you ready and hyped up for this weekend’s games so you won’t make the same mistakes twice.

Coming from their first win over a Football Bowl Subdivision team in nearly a year, the Louisville Cardinals gun for back to back victories over another when they play the Connecticut Huskies Saturday night.

Ryan Payne kicked a 32-yard field goal with 30 seconds left to play to give Louisville its first FBS win, 25-23, over Southern Mississippi. Wide receiver Scott Long had a career day for the Cardinals, with 146 yards receiving on five catches, plus a touchdown.

The Connecticut Huskies, meanwhile, look to bounce back from a disheartening loss they suffered against Pittsburgh. Connecticut (3-2, 0-1 in Big East) led 21-6 after Andre Dixon scored on a 2-yard run to end a 61-yard drive with 3:56 remaining in the third quarter. But Pitt quarterback Bill Stull, who made several major mistakes in the first half, found Jonathan Baldwin on a 26-yard scoring pass play set up by Dion Lewis’ 32-yard run to cut it to 21-13 before eventually stealing the game from…

In case you missed last Monday’s game between Miami and Florida State, you just know you can’t miss what we have for you this weekend.

Oh yes, the 2009 NCAA college football season continues this weekend with a couple of huge games that just might eclipse what most college football fans saw on Monday night.

First, the 6th-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes get another shot at redemption Saturday when they tumble against the 4th-ranked USC Trojans in the Horseshoe of Ohio Stadium. If the Buckeyes want to finally lose the label of being big-game chokers, they need to play much better than they did in their narrow 31-27 season-opening victory over the Navy Midshipmen.

The way Ohio State opened up the season is a concern considering that the USC Trojans team they are facing this weekend just overwhelmed a San Jose State team that were simply outplayed in their opener last weekend, pounding the Spartans into submission, 56-3.

I don’t like Ohio State’s chances.

Next we have the Boise State Broncos looking for another inspiring defensive showing when they host the Miami RedHawks in the very first meeting between the two programs. In one of the most highly anticipated home games in Boise State history, the Broncos defeated then no.16 Oregon 19-8 last Thursday night. Boise State looked impressive in the opener, controlling the line of scrimmage and pushing around the Ducks, the first ranked team to visit Bronco Stadium for a regular-season game.

On the other hand, scoring points is something that eluded…

2009 BCS Bowl Games
ROSE BOWL
The anticipation of the proverbial face-off between the USC Trojans and the Texas Longhorns began even before the 2005
season’s gridiron battles on the NCAA football field started.
The USC Trojans and the Texas Longhorns both took the same road going into NCAA football’s grandest stage.
The Trojans and the Longhorns both stood as [...]

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Since we are merely DAYS away from the biggest tournament in college hoops, the Wildcats better bounce back alright.

Yes, the 10th-ranked Villanova Wildcats will try to bounce back from their ugliest offensive performance of the season Monday night when they visit the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, that is if they want to stay focused until the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament gets here.

The Villanova Wildcats (23-6, 11-5) have won nine of ten games from January 24 to February 25 to give itself a striking shot of cracking the Big East’s top four, a feat that would give it a double bye into the quarterfinals of the conference tournament at Madison Square Garden.

But the Wildcats’ chances of trading places with Marquette or Pittsburgh among the league’s elite took a blow Saturday. The Wildcats shot just 33.3 percent, 18.8 percent (3-for-16) from 3-point range, in a 56-54 home loss to Georgetown, which had lost nine of its previous 11.

The Wildcats can still catch Pittsburgh if they win their last two games and the Panthers drop their last two, but the more realistic chance looks to be tracking down Marquette. A loss by the Golden Eagles plus two Villanova victories will leave the fourth seed to a complicated tiebreaker.

On the other hand, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, aside from having another chance in three days to knock off a league heavyweight…

Yes, they’re still winning even without the reigning national player of the year.

One week into the 2008-09 NCAA college basketball season and the North Carolina Tar Heels are still reigning supreme. The Heels passed their first big test without Tyler Hansbrough as their front line stepped up big with Tyler Zeller scoring a team-high 18 points while fellow freshman Ed Davis came up with a double-double Saturday to help North Carolina beat Pennsylvania 86-71.

This is definitely an impressive season-opening performance that indicates that the North Carolina Tar Heels can weather the uncertainty of playing without the national player of the year.

Deon Thompson added 17 points for the Tar Heels, who led by double figures much of the day yet had some trouble putting together a game-sealing run. North Carolina was also without fellow senior Marcus Ginyard, injuries that forced North Carolina to thrust Zeller and Davis into the lineup.

Taking the second spot after week 1 are the Connecticut Huskies, led by Hasheem Thabeet, the 7-foot-3 junior from Tanzania, who scored 23 points and had a career-high 17 rebounds to lead No.2 Connecticut to a season-opening 81-55 win Friday over…

It’s here! Finally! Football season baby! You gotta’ love it!

You can just imagine how sick we were watching all those horses run around a track or all those cyclists fuck themselves up with dope. Now that the 2008 NCAA college football season has arrived, ”real” sports return and boy, are we glad to have it back.

Coming into the brand new season, what are the things football fans (like most of us…) can look forward to? And what are those things that you (if you’re betting on these games, which you obviously are…) should stay the fuck away from? Well, the Michigan Wolverines are the obvious choice for one thing, with Mike Hart, Chad Henne, Jake Long, Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington all gone, who in the right frame of mind will bet on these guys?

As for the season’s hot prospects, the Ohio State Buckeyes should still be an obvious choice to make some dough.

I mean, this team has been making an appearance in the BCS national championship game for two years now and I won’t be surprised if they make a third straight one.

Like Columbus, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish should also be a solid bet. After all, those guys are probably still agitated with the way their 2007 campaign went. Now that this…