40 Acres Sports

Not exactly the biggest game of the season this week for the Longhorns, but it’s the first week of the year of college football so there’s plenty to keep Longhorn fans glued to the TV all day. The Longhorns take on [tag]Arkansas State[/tag] tonight at 6pm on FSN pay-per-view, here’s the rest of the games you should be watching:

Colorado State vs. Colorado – Noon on FSN. Always a good rivalry game to watch. Can Dan Hawkins team realize this is intramural football and rebound from an abysmal 2006 season.

Georgia Tech at Notre Dame – 2:30 pm on NBC. A rough season could be getting underway today for the Irish. No idea how good GT is but Notre Dame lost a lot on offense and will be breaking in a new QB against a tough early season schedule.

Baylor at (22) TCU – 5 pm on CSTV. I don’t know how many people get CSTV but if you do this game is of special interest to Texas fans. Can Baylor continue to improve? Just how good is TCU? Interesting match-up.

Oklahoma State at (13) Georgia – 5:45 pm on ESPN2. A big chance for Bobby Reid and OSU to prove what they’re made of right off the bat. If the Cowboys can play like the team I think they are, they’ve got a good chance to show the nation something. Big game for Big 12 respectability.

North Texas at (8) Oklahoma – 6 pm on FSN. The Todd Dodge era begins with a trip to Norman where even just a good showing against Oklahoma would mean UNT is headed in the right direction. I definitely want to see how Dodge’s offense works against OU’s defense. Also our first chance to see OU quarterback Sam Bradford lead the Sooners.

(15) Tennessee at (12) California – 7 pm on ABC. Best game of the day. If Cal rolls over again to Tennessee like they did last season it’ll be a while before the Pac 10 can convince people it’s not just USC and a bunch of scrubs.

ESPN to air 25-hour college football pregame show, which will allow them to air 18+ hours of Notre Dame and USC coverage.

ESPN is again running their ESPNU Championship Series where their “experts” go week by week predicting who will win all the big games and ranking the teams. Check out the video below of Rece Davis, Lou Holtz, and Mark May discussing week six, including the Red River Rivalry:

I’m not sure why Holtz and May think Texas winning would be an upset. If Texas and [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] both reach October undefeated as they expect, since Texas is ranked higher in both the preseason AP and Coaches poll Texas would likely be favored to win this game. The idea that it would be an upset bothers me more than May and Davis picking the Sooners. Of course earlier this week Davis predicted Texas would win the Big 12 and appear in the BCS title game. I’m not sure how that would work. Stuff like this is why I have to put “experts” in quotes.

The main reason I posted this is to point out ESPN’s new video site. It’s a surprisingly nice, YouTube-y embeddable flash site that is still in beta. They’re putting a ton of quality videos up there featuring highlights from SportsCenter and obviously their features as well. You can even comment on and rate videos. Looks like a nice start from their new editor-in-chief.

(via)

Listen carefully during the technical difficutlies for some NSFW fun:

I’m not sure exactly why but I found that incredibly funny. I used to kind of like Lee Corso but his act has really beat me down the last few years and his incident on The Ticket made him look like a gigantic jerk.

The expletive just comes out of nowhere with no warning. I can’t stop watching and laughing, and laughing and watching. The apology at the end from Karl Ravech Chris Fowler is a nice touch, it totally makes up for the the way they violated my virgin ears.

I did actually like Desmond Howard Rocket Ismail better that way. He seemed more intelligent than when you can actually hear what he’s saying. Maybe this year I’ll watch all of College GameDay on mute.

(via FanHouse)

The Big 12 is going to televise games nationally on VERSUS. I believe they’ll still be available on FSN in local areas. (via)

CBS and the NCAA will be providing live streaming video of the NCAA Tournament for free online again this year. March Madness on Demand allows you to watch (relatively) high quality live video of the first three rounds of the tourney from your computer.

There’s a limited amount of free “VIP Passes” available that ensure you’ll be able to watch games no matter how busy the site gets. Everyone gets put into a waiting room before the video starts and VIP status makes that process move a little faster.

The service is subject to blackouts, which means this is likely not an option for catching Longhorn games in the Texas area. If your local CBS affiliate is airing the game you want to watch, you won’t be able to watch that game online. I’m not sure how they determine your location, but it asks you for your zip code when you log in so if you want a shot at watching the Texas games you might want to fib a little during registration.

Sign up now to be a lot less productive at work next month.

Mavs & Rockets games means no Horns basketball against Mizzou for fans in DFW & Houston areas.

Just a reminder that the US Army All-American Bowl will be on NBC today at noon. The game takes place in San Antonio at the Alamodome and features some of the best high school football players in the country.

This will be most Longhorn fans first opportunity to watch any of the 2007 football commits in action. Bevo Sports will have some thoughts on the game and possibly some video later this weekend. There will be 13 Texans on the West squad and the Longhorns have six commits and a few targets playing in the game. Here’s the guys to keep an eye on during the game:

Texas Commits

• Tray Allen, West #56
• Curtis Brown, West #3
• John Chiles, West #5
• Michael Huey, West #70
• Blaine Irby, West #19
• Andre Jones, West #89

Texas Targets

• Ron Brooks, West #81
• Joe McKnight, West #4
• Christian Scott, West #23

Others to Watch

• John Brantley, East #12
• Matt Simms, East #2

8.8 million people tuned in to see Texas beat Iowa.

The match-up in the Holiday Bowl against California should be a tough one for the Horns. DeSean Jackson is a badass and the Texas secondary has been…

Wait… isn’t Texas playing in the Alamo Bowl versus Iowa? Texas A&M is in the Holiday Bowl, right? Well someone might want to inform Desmond Howard of that:

It actually sounds like Howard did his research on this mythical game between Texas and Cal. He even knew the (relatively) breaking news that Jevan Snead had decided to transfer to Ole Miss. He had all week to prepare for his 30-second segment and he botched it big time. Doh. Brad from the 12th Manchild said that Desmond actually made the same mistake both before the game and then again at halftime, though they might just have reaired the same segment.

Just another in the long list of colossal mistakes by ESPN/ABC in their coverage of sports and college football specifically. I never thought I’d be saying this, but I miss Trev Alberts.