Sure, they may be suffering from a bad case of sunspots but to a team they believe, sooner than later, a member of the Sun Belt Conference will someday be playing in a BCS bowl game. By rule, if it can, the SBC champion will earn an automatic berth in a BCS bowl game if that team is ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS standings, or if that team is ranked in the top 16 of the final BCS standings and its ranking is higher... Read more

By Marc Lawrence “They ought to just rename the system, BC SEC.” Those are the prophetic words from Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com. After all, “the SEC is now 7-0 in BCS title games. The conference has won more than half of the 13 BCS championships games,” said Dodd. We couldn’t agree more. Winning five national titles in a row and six of the last eight, the SEC might have padded the numbers even more had Auburn... Read more

By Marc Lawrence With a $3-billion TV contract freshly inked, the original PAC 8 moves into a third phase of expansion when Colorado and Utah join the newly minted conference this season. The self-proclaimed ‘Conference of Champions’, the PAC 10 has won more NCAA National Team Championships (400) than any other conference in history. In fact, the top three schools with the most NCAA team championships on that list... Read more

By Marc Lawrence Like an aging Hollywood actor, the Mountain West adds a wrinkle or two this football season. Checking out this year are BYU (Independent) and Utah (PAC 12). Checking in is Boise State. Next year's juxtaposition will find Hawaii entering the loop, while TCU heads to the BIG EAST. If you're scratching your head trying to rationalize the moves, don't. What matters is that the MWC is trying to position... Read more

By Marc Lawrence • Entering its 65th year of gridiron competition, the MID AMERICAN CONFERENCE will once again play a balanced schedule, meaning each team will play eight conference games in 2011. Let’s hope the ledger is more balanced than its been the last two years when only two teams in the MAC West Division managed to finish the season with a winning record. This on the heels of the 2008 campaign when only... Read more

By Marc Lawrence The world of college INDEPENDENTS expanded a whopping 25% when BYU declared its independence and joined Army, Navy and Notre Dame to form the FBS fighting four in 2011. Once again, like last year, expect the fearsome foursome to have a say on the participants involved in the 2011 National Championship BCS game when these Indy’s take on no less than 27 combined opponents that landed bowl bids last... Read more

By Marc Lawrence When Tulsa and UCF each finished in the AP Top 25 season-ending poll last year it marked the first time in 15 years that two teams from the up-and-coming CUSA managed to land in elite company. A closer examination finds this loop has sent six teams to post-season games in five of the past six seasons, while managing to go 11-7 SU and 13-5 ATS against .666 or greater opposition in those games, including... Read more

By Marc Lawrence Firecrackers and the MLB All-Star game signal the month of July. It also signifies the start of the 2nd half of the MLB campaign. The key to each and every team's fortune lies on the pitching staff. Can they sustain or will they fold like a deck of cards? Stay tuned. What we do know is certain pitchers love hurling this time of the season while others tend to get lit up like a roman candle. Listed... Read more

By Marc Lawrence Much like the shrink-wrap used by food packagers these days, the BIG 12 shrank to 10 teams for the 2011 season with the defections of Colorado (PAC 10) and Nebraska (BIG 10) to new conferences. And with it the new BIG 10/12 takes on a whole new persona. No more of the South beating the North like a drum (156-113, 58% win percentage). Instead the redesigned loop with play a round-robin of games against... Read more

By Marc Lawrence It used to be that when you talked Big 10 Football you were talking Ohio State. After all, the Buckeyes won at least a share of the last six Big Ten Championships while compiling a 43-5 mark in conference play in that span. They’ve gone 106-22 in games over the last 10 years, winning a national championship and playing in eight BCS bowl games, including six straight the last six years. Ah, those were... Read more