• Clemson hosts 10-1 Western Carolina tonight at 7:30 PM. The CBS Sports preview notes that Clemson is 9-0 all time against the Catamounts. It should be a good game.
• Collegiate Baseball Newspaper released its preseason Top40. Clemson checks in at #16. Other notables include Virginia (#3), Georgia Tech (#6), Florida State (#7), Miami (#12) and North Carolina (#13). Such is life in the ACC baseball world: being a top-20 team means being a mediocre conference team.
• Kyle Parker’s future as a football player remains up in the air. As I’ve said before, I’d take the money and run if I were him. Fortunately for Clemson football fans, I’m sure most college athletes don’t think like me.

Outside the lines…

• Clemson is escalating it’s war on the squirrels. I’m not exactly sure what university the squirrels belong to, or even what sport they play, but I support this just war.

  Honestly though, they’re talking about trapping and euthanizing about 200 squirrels, and I’m wondering why they’re going to let anyone eat the goddamn things?

• Clemson’s Mayor Abernathy trots out his standard defense for everything he proposes, “If we only save one life, we’ve done our job.” No you haven’t, you dumb fuck! You’re job is not to intrude in everyone’s life to immeasurable levels to “save one life.” You don’t understand how much I hate this guy. I’d rather the mayorship be run by Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier.

  In this case the mayor is defending a proposed text messaging ban. Frankly, the fines for these things tend to be so miniscule, and the chances of being caught so small, that the bans are pretty much symbolic. But let me be very clear about one thing: STAY OFF YOUR GODDAMN PHONE IN ALL CAPACITIES WHEN YOU’RE DRIVING YOU FUCKING DIPSHITS!

  And stay off my lawn, too!

The weekly ESPN Power Rankings have emerged and as if the hype machine was not cranking hard enough already on Clemson’s program it been turned up yet another notch by the “experts”. If a preseason coach’s poll of 9th wasn’t doing it for you, an ESPN #7 Power Ranking might just put you over that edge. Currently there is a Clemson sandwich between the Missouri (#6) and West Virginia (#8) Teams. I would say all of this hype is really getting to me, but I have still been able to resist the cool aid. Only a few weeks left until we all discover if the hype is well deserved, ESPN seems to think so…

3 point loss to a team that enters the polls this week, also undefeated, neutral floor, out of the SEC (though no conference games yet played), and we get hit with the biggest tumble of any team staying in the polls. Just our first loss too. Not like we just got it handed to us at home against a mid major school that most people couldn’t find on a map if you paid them. Further proof how fickle the AP voters are, in all sports. If someone can tell me why, please enlighten this gnome. Be sure to use little words if you do.

Or the year of the underdogs. What a year in college football. #’s 1 and 2 have never been so unstable that in the end, who knows who could be at the championship game. All year long no one wanted to be #2 as they lost weekly. App State took down Michigan, Stanford took down USC, underdogs ruled the year and egos trampled those who came into the games with them. Clemson’s arch rival walked its way to #6 then couldn’t remember how to win. Kansas and the Big12 really didn’t have much competition outside their own ranks and made it up into the top 5 and even had Mizzou at #1. Hawaii, the lone unbeaten team, is sitting in a corner crying about their shot at the neational championship chances, but you have no point when you play cupcake seasons. I believe that this season, beyond all seasons emphasizes the need for not only a playoff system but also a greater effort for teams to only take a few cupcake games a year instead of packing the OOC’s with them to buffer the W’s.

In the end it looks like Ohio State (my bloodline school) will back it’s way into the championship while the other slot looks destined for LSU as it had the best season of the teams that remained from the losses that found Mizzou and WVU shaking their heads. I had a great weekend rooting for teams to lose, and each did to get my teams where they needed to be. I personally will get some satisfaction in watching a certain WVU fan that left some USC/Clemson stuff on my desk before that game occurred. I will not say anything but will have fun watching the ribbing that he will receive from the others.

With BC’s loss to Virginia Tech, Clemson looks to be Chick-Fil-A bound and it may be a Tiger Bowl as they may face Auburn. That should be a great crowd and a great payoff for Clemson this season.

That was a great season. College football, what a great sport.

Roaming the pay boards I have found some interesting tidbits that I thought I would pass along.

Seems that Clemson has finally made it into the Princeton Review’s top 20 schools. OK so it may not be THAT top 20 but it’s a top 20 none the less.

And for everyone who runs around the week before asking “What channel is the game on!!” check out THIS SITE for listings of every game over the opening weekend and the channel that they will be on. I, for one, am thanking Time Warner daily for now carrying ESPN U. Hopefully, the host will keep these updated weekly.

Like last year, I have done my best to roundup all the competing post-spring/pre-season rankings.

Read the rest of this entry »

This year, Fanblogs was nice enough to collect all the preseason top-25s and put them into a table for comparison.

Clemson shows up in only 1 of the 5 polls, the Rival poll, where the Tigers are 25th. There just isn’t much preseason love this season. Kevin has dubbed the Tigers “Best unranked team,” for whatever good that is.

If you’ll recall, Clemson showed up mostly in the mid-teens last season.

These just don’t even pass the sniff test. Various online “sources” of dubious quality and reputation are reporting that Clemson’s basketball team is not only ranked, but undefeated at 17-0 (3-0) after beating NC State in Raleigh 87-76.

The only reason why I might believe this is true is that Clemson reportedly shot only 5-13 (38%) from the freebie line.

Next up another road trip, this time to Maryland on Saturday. Game time is set for 2:00. The Terps are 14-2 (0-1) and appear in the top 25 of the ESPN/USA Today poll, Sportsline RPI*, and Sagarin ratings.

* The official NCAA RPI will start to be published sometime next week (or so I’ve read).