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03/05/2009 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The West Coast Conference Tournament will be held at a neutral site for the first time, as Orleans Arena in Las Vegas will serve host to the 23rd annual event.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs, the only ranked team in the league, earned the top seed once again with a perfect 14-0 ledger. The Bulldogs will begin play in the semifinals, as will the Saint Mary's-CA Gaels, who claimed the second seed with a 10-4 finish. At 9-5, the University of Portland Pilots captured the third seed and 7-7 Santa Clara earned the fourth spot. Both the Pilots and Broncos earned first round byes and will begin play in the quarterfinals. The San Diego Toreros will begin defense of their title as the fifth seed after going 6-8, and they will meet 2-12 and eighth-seeded Loyola Marymount in the first round. The other first round matchup pits the seventh-seeded San Francisco Dons against the sixth-seeded Pepperdine Waves.
The winner of this event earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
The WCC Tournament kicks off on Friday, with eighth-seeded Loyola Marymount tangling with fifth-seeded San Diego. The Lions won just three of 30 total games this season, but one of those victories did come against San Diego. LMU though, went 0-17 away from home and hasn't won this event since 1990. The Toreros on the other hand, upended Gonzaga in the finals last season for their second championship, but they also had the luxury of hosting this event. San Diego was considered a challenger for the WCC title coming into the season, only to struggle for the most part and finish with a losing record within the league.
The first round will concluded with the seventh-seeded Dons hooking up with the sixth-seeded Waves. The Dons went only 3-11 in league play, but they did win two of their last three games, including a 70-62 besting of Pepperdine in their finale. USF is just 12-21 all-time in this tourney and hasn't taken home the hardware since 1998. Pepperdine has gone even longer without a title, claiming its third in 1994. Losers of four straight down the stretch, the Waves ended up with just a 5-9 conference ledger.
On Saturday, the quarterfinal round gets started with fourth-seeded SCU clashing with the winner of the LMU/San Diego matchup. The Broncos fielded a young team that came together in the second half of the season, winning eight of their last 11 bouts. SCU has won this event twice, with the last coming in 1993, and own a 23-20 mark all-time in the tourney.
The second quarterfinals tilt will feature third-seed Portland against the survivor of the USF/Pepperdine battle. The Pilots put together one of their best campaigns in recent memory at 18-11, but losses in their final two outings cost them a potential second seed. Portland could have certainly used the higher seed, as it is just 7-20 all-time in this tournament, winning its only title in 1996.
The top-seeded Bulldogs will make their much anticipated debut in the first game of the semifinals on Sunday. Gonzaga swept the WCC for the third time in history, becoming the first league member to accomplish that feat. The Bulldogs have won nine straight and 11 of the last 12 WCC regular season crowns and are looking to add to their league record nine tourney titles. Gonzaga is 33-13 all-time in this event and has been in the finals 11 straight years and 13 of the last 14. Gonzaga had its run of four straight championships stopped with a loss to San Diego last season.
The second-seeded Gaels will bring the semifinal round to a conclusion on Sunday. SMC was supposed to challenge Gonzaga for the league title, but the loss of star guard Patrick Mills in late January put an end to those hopes. Mills, averaging a team-high 18.7 ppg prior to breaking his right hand, is out for an indefinite period of time. The Gaels though, did show they could win without Mills and enter the postseason riding a five-game winning streak. SMC won its only title in 1997 and it is just 17-21 lifetime in this event.
<< 2009 America East Conference Tournament Preview
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There are nine members of the America East
Conference, and all nine are set to participate in the 30th-annual America
East Conference Tournament. The prize awarded to the winner of this event is a
bid to the
<< 2009 Colonial Athletic Association Tournament Preview
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 2009 Colonial Athletic Association
Tournament will take place in Richmond, Virginia, beginning with the first
round on Friday and wrapping up with Monday's title game.
The top four seeds each receive a
<< 2009 Big Sky Conference Tournament Preview
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 34th-annual Big Sky Conference
Tournament is set to begin this weekend, with quarterfinal action from campus
sites and semifinal and championship games to be played in Ogden, Utah.
The Weber State Wild
<< Creamer among three co-leaders in Singapore
Singapore (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fresh off a disappointing finish in Thailand,
Paula Creamer fired a five-under 67 on Thursday to share the lead with two
other players after the first round of the HSBC Champions tournament.
Creamer, who
Nittany Lions seek upset of 23rd-ranked Fighting Illini >>
University Park, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Penn State Nittany Lions hope to
impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee with a Big Ten Conference
victory over the 23rd-ranked Illinois Fighting Illini.
Illinois carried a modest two-game w
Bruins host Beavers in Pac-10 tussle >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 20th-ranked UCLA Bruins are clearly
favored in tonight's Pac-10 Conference clash with the visiting Oregon State
Beavers.
Oregon State got hot recently, ripping off three consecutive wins.
Unfortunately
Wildats and Friars mix it up in Big East action >>
Villanova, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 11th-ranked Villanova Wildcats welcome
the Providence Friars to town for the second meeting of the season between the
Big East Conference rivals. Villanova squeaked by Providence in a 94-91 final
back on Feb
Stanford visits No. 21 Arizona State >>
Tempe, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 21st-ranked Arizona State Sun Devils and the
Stanford Cardinal, both out of the Pac-10 Conference, are set to do battle in
Tempe this evening.
Stanford had a great deal of success against non-conference oppon
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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