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Leigh Ann’s Curse on the Illini is Broken

When I moved to Illinois in the fall 2001, the Illini, led by QB Kurt Kittner (who evidently retired from football after winning the World Bowl MVP and is doing real estate and color commentary for Illini radio), when 10-1 before losing to LSU in a BCS bowl.
Then, Leigh Ann moved to Champaign.
June 2002, while [...]

The Unbearable Joy of Taxes

Ah, the opportunity to reflect on how craptacular our tax system is. Because of my stipend in grad school, there was no withholding, so we had to send in quarterly estimated taxes. Our Illinois state tax was always pretty close (last year it was only a $37 refund…that’s about as good as you [...]

This and That

Will there be a rematch after #1 Ohio State beat #2 Michigan last weekend? I don’t think it will happen provided either USC or Florida (and possibly Arkansas) wins out. The result eliminates Notre Dame’s title hopes because there’s no way they can let a team that lost by 21 to Michigan at [...]

What Happened to the Buckeyes?

That’s what we were wondering after going to see the Buckeyes and Illini play. In case you missed it, the Buckeyes made it out of Champaign with a 17-10 victory. The only answer we could come up with was that Ohio State was trying to avoid injury and limiting their play calling to [...]

Thoughts on College Football

An eclectic mix of thoughts as Leigh Ann and I get ready to head to Memorial Stadium to watch the number one Buckeyes take on the non-so-number-one Illini this Saturday with my mom and some friends. Last time we saw the Buckeyes play here, they won the National Championship (2002)…hopefully history repeats this year [...]

Pigskin Pick’Em

OK, after a few busy weekends, let’s try to pick some college football games again and see how I do.

Illinois at Penn St.: (Line is Penn St. by 18.5) The Illini seem to have done better on the road. But, the Illini are just in shambles. Do I give them the line or [...]

Illini Madness

Last night, we went to Illini Madness, Illinois basketball’s annual kick-off event. It was kind of sad not to see Dee Brown there since he’s been around pretty much my whole time at UIUC (he’s with the Utah Jazz now). Unfortunately, there were no surprise appearances by Dee or Deron Williams or Luther [...]

The Illini Get Screwed

Well, Midnight Madness was bittersweet tonight (photos to come shortly). There was definitely a lot more spirit than the football homecoming pep rally last week and we got to see Jeremy Piven (a.k.a. Ari Gold from Entourage) judge the Illini’s slam dunk contest. But the biggest news of the day is undoubtedly that [...]

Five Thoughts on the Weekend in College Football

I’m Slightly Better than Random in Picking Games: How’d my picks do? I went 6-4…slightly better than the 5-5 you would expect if you just picked a winner at random.

OSU did about as I predicted against Cincy even if they were a little sluggish (and, surprisingly, they did when by exactly 30). [...]

Weekend Pickoff

So, tomorrow’s college football brings us seven games between Top 25 teams, which is the most in one day since like 1993. I’m going to try my hand at picking the games so everyone can tell me how dumb my picks were after the fact. I’ll do those seven games along with Ohio [...]

Your Moment of Illini Zen

The Illini never even crossed midfield in their loss to Rutgers and their only highlight was a punt by their backup punter.
It’s time to come to grips with the fact that they’re going to lose to my mother and brother’s alma mater, Ohio University (note the conspicuous lack of the word “State” in between “Ohio” [...]

Six Thoughts from This Week in College Football

Ohio State is clearly number one: Their defense is still suspect, but the national champ now seems poised to be one of these five: OSU, USC, Notre Dame (though, I still think they’re over-hyped), West Virginia, and Auburn. There’s definitely no team as strong as 2004 USC or 2002 Miami in the bunch. [...]

2005 College Football Awards

Feel free to add your own awards in the comments!

Irrational Exuberance Award: After the Illini started 2-0 by beating Rutgers and San Jose State, one of the local news stations led a segment with the title, “Feels Like 2001″. 2001, of course being the year that the Kurt Kittner-led Illini went 10-2 and earned [...]

College Football Lines

Here’s the lines for some of my teams this weekend:

Ohio St. at Michigan: OSU by 3. I’d definitely take the Buckeyes with that spread.
Clemson at USC: Clemson by 2.5. It’s close…Tommy has kind of pwned the Gamecocks…but I have a feeling Spurrier wins this one.
Northwestern at UIUC: Northwestern by 14.5. Heck, I’d [...]

Guess I’m Still Living in a Hostile and Abusive Environment

According to the NCAA, that is, who ruled that Chief Illiniwek continues to be “hostile and abusive”. In their ever nebulous case against Native American mascots, the NCAA comes up with this gem for their argument du jour:

“By continuing to use Native American nicknames, mascots and imagery, institutions assume responsibility over an environment which [...]

And You Thought Illini Football Was Bad

After losing to the Buckeyes “only” by a score of 40-2. How about Hanna High School’s basketball team in Oklahoma, who was beat 112-2 on Friday? I don’t understand how a team can be that bad and still decide to field a team.
On another college football note, when I predicted UCLA’s undefeated bubble [...]

College Football Thoughts

The Buckeyes’ offense has actually looked pretty good the past couple of games (of course, as soon as I say this…). Ted Ginn is actually started to make some big plays…man, if he gets an opening on a kick, he can fly.
Props to myself for calling Georgia’s imminent loss! I think I’ll apply [...]

UIUC’s Recruiting Violation Woes

If the Illini are going to have recruiting violations, shouldn’t they at least be able to field bowl-eligible teams?

The NCAA placed Illinois on probation for one year Thursday because a booster improperly provided payments and other benefits to a football prospect.
The offenses were a major violation of NCAA rules and occurred between April 2003 and [...]

Random College Football Thoughts

I never got around to writing something last week, so I guess that I’ll try to give thoughts on the previous two weeks.

The Michigan State-Ohio State game seemed to be more a case of the Spartans snatching defeat from the jaws of victory rather than the Buckeyes playing well. Though, ironically, the Spartans weren’t [...]

UIUC to NCAA: “Yo Mamma’s Hostile and Abusive”

Well, maybe those weren’t the university’s exact words, but they did file an appeal with the NCAA late Thursday challenging their ruling that the Illini mascot is “hostile and abusive”. From the News-Gazette article:

The appeal, signed by UI Board of Trustees Chairman Larry Eppley, states the policy on American Indian imagery conflicts with NCAA [...]