THE JOCK

by Tom Weppel
JAGUARS
After an entertaining victory in the Meadowlands against the Jets, the 5-4 Jaguars come back home to host the Buffalo Bills. After two consecutive victories, it seems fans are now starting to become a little more interested in these Jaguars. There is a belief the team might have indeed turned the corner and gotten better. Even head coach Jack Del Rio is enthusiastic, to an extent. In the last two games, the Jaguars have certainly shown us an ability to produce and generate, both on offense and defense.
They are coming along as a unit, which is a good thing at this point of the season.
Then you look at their opponent this weekend. The Bills come in to Jacksonville on a tailspin, having fired their head coach, Dick Jauron, earlier in the week. At 3-6,
they are looking more to survive then contend in any way, shape, or form. Their interim head coach, Perry Fewell, was an assistant here in Jacksonville under Tom Coughlin.
He has never been a head coach anywhere else, so it will be interesting to see how he and the Bills come out playing on Sunday.
With all this said, a lot of people are believing the Jags should win this one fairly easily. But be careful! Just because they are having problems doesn’t mean they will
be a total walkover. This year, they have beaten both the Panthers and the Jets on the road.This weekend starts a stretch where the Jags play four of their next five games
at home. They are certainly in the mix, it seems, to possibly play for a playoff berth. If it keeps up, there’s no question fans will be even that much more interested,
and that’s a good thing! We’ll see what kind of turnout we get come Sunday at the Stadium…

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
The Colts and Saints are each still undefeated at 9-0, which is unique. Both teams have shown their abilities to play, score, and win. Each is considered the favorite to
go far in their respective Conferences.This weekend, both teams play on the road. The Colts go to Baltimore to face the Ravens, while the Saints head over to the Florida
West Coast to play Tampa. Indianapolis comes off a tough, entertaining win over the Patriots last Sunday night. Some are thinking this could be a letdown game for the
Colts, who are actually a one-point underdog to the boys in Vegas.
Meanwhile, the Saints keep rolling along, with Drew Brees and their offense cranking out the points, while the defense does their job of shutting down the opponent. Tampa seems to have woken-up a little the last two weeks, but it doesn’t look like they’ll have enough gas in the tank to match New Orleans…

COLLEGE FOOTBALL
You look at this schedule of games being played this weekend, and it doesn’t give you a lot of reason to get excited. Maybe if you are a Brainiac, you will get excited
about Harvard playing at Yale. Otherwise, the only contest with a history of tradition is Ohio St./Michigan, and of course the Wolverines are still a subpar group, from
what we’ve seen this year…
Now that we are almost at the end of the regular season in college football, we are certainly realizing what teams are at the top, wanting to be involved in the BCS, with
a shot at the National Championship game.
Heading into this weekend, we find six teams who are all still undefeated. The main trio, of course, is Florida, Alabama, and Texas. It seems almost inevitable the
National Champion at the end of the day will end up being one of those three schools. We know the Crimson Tide and Gators will face off in Atlanta for the SEC title, then
go on to Los Angeles for the title game, most likely against Texas. The only stumbling block for the Longhorns would be an upset in the Big 12 title game.
The second trio includes Cincinnati, TCU, and Boise St. All three of those schools are in a sub-standard football conference, and are not being considered in the same
level as the first three we see above. If you ask the BCS boys, they will tell you those schools still have a shot at playing for the ‘National Championship’. The truth is
those schools have no chance whatsoever.
So, its fair we could end up with a couple of teams that ran the table on their schedule, yet will not even be thought about for a championship.And in these times, that’s not a good thing!
All this comes right back to asking the standard question of why a playoff isn’t in place right now to determine the ultimate National Champion? This topic has been
brought up repeatedly, for various reasons. The BCS, which was devised as a stopgap from getting bad PR by the NCAA, is now thought of as a joke by many of those involved
with the college football scene. The system only serves the Bowl folks who are making money, to protect their territory.College football essentially needs an eight-team
playoff, which would serve the NCAA member schools very well. It could and would generate millions of dollars, without question. It might be a long time since that comes
into play. In the meantime, we’ll get fed a system that stays restricted, for all intents. And teams like Cincinnati, Boise, and TCU can only dream…