The only certainty in the NCAA now days is uncertainty, and the new look ACC (for now!) is starting to take shape.

In football, the Syracuse Orange…..really, the Orange, we can’t say Orangemen anymore?  Isn’t it a complement to have a team named after you?  Oh well, that isn’t for this post.  So the Orange will be joining the Atlantic Division in Football, while the Pitt Panthers (no disrespect to large black jungle cats intended) join the Coastal.  This means year in and year out the Terps (no offense to aquatic turtles) will face Clemson, FSU, NC State, Syracuse, Boston College, and Wake Forest.

As for getting Syracuse in Football, I’m fine with that.  I’m not all that familiar with how their program has been recently, but the fact that I don’t know probably means they haven’t been taking the world by storm.  Not that our team has  played all that great recently, but I still view this for the foreseeable future as a winnable game  year in and year out.  Then again, there is probably some blogger in Upstate New York saying the same thing about us right now.

On the round ball side of things, Maryland will no longer be playing Duke twice a year, which is fine with me.  Rivalry be damned, give me some wins, and let’s get the focus away from the only one game a year matters at Comcast mentality.  They all do!  Pairing up with the Terps is going to be Pitt which, isn’t exactly Towson.  So we will still have our work cut out for us (why couldn’t we play BC twice?!?!).

The other twice a year match ups will be Duke-UNC (a no brainer), Clemson-GT, FSU-Miami, BC-Syracuse, NC State-Wake, and UVA-VT.  In addition to the rivalry, each team will face 4 other opponents twice a year. So the idea is to play each team, other than Pitt, 4 times in 3 years.

Of course this is all great, and it is nice to know what is going to happen, but the BIG QUESTION (I use caps for emphasis here) is WHEN is this going to happen, as of now, we still do not have a date for Pitt and Syracuse to join the ACC.  That will be the next step, but at least when they do, we now know what the Conference will look like.

Oh and on a final note, all teams will be in the ACC Tournament, that format still needs to be worked out, but with no date for Pitt and Syracuse to join, I guess that hasn’t been that high of a priority.

Every now and then, according to Darwin, mother nature makes what we refer to as a mistake…or mutation if you will.  Sometimes these mutations are harmful to the species and those affected with this mutation quickly die out.  Sometimes the mutation is beneficial and the animals blessed with it out compete those lacking the new feature.

In my case I was blessed with the mutation of picking college bowl games.  And fortunately for me, this change to my DNA has allowed me to thrive and win the 2011 TD.com Bowl Pick’em Contest!  Yeah me.  Of course since this is my site (well 50% of it anyway) I don’t get a prize, but just the satisfaction of winning is more than enough.

Seriously though, thanks for all who played.  As Chris mentioned we will be doing another free contest for March Madness. So spread the word, I mean it is FREE, why not participate.

In the meantime it’s time to shift focus back on to Terps Basketball, but before I do, one final bitter message for the BCS, why is it that Alabama didn’t have to win their division, didn’t have to win their Conference, and didn’t have to beat LSU in Tuscaloosa?  Yet LSU had to do all of that to win the National Championship?

I can’t remember what class at Maryland I learned this at, but there should NEVER be a negative incentive if you want a completely honest system and the fact that Alabama had an easier road by losing to LSU at home just makes me sick.  But what are you going to do?  Just had to get that off my chest.

Sorry we didn’t get around to this prior to tonights National Championship game.  But here you go.  Robjd3 is the only person who is giving Alabama a chance tonight.  Unfortunately for Rob, he only has 5 points to wager, and if Bama does win, his 5 points will only move him into a tie for 3rd.  So, with that news here are the standings:

As you can see, our nearly wire to wire leader has fallen 2 points behind my brilliant co-author!  (That potential money savings for TD there!).  So looking at the numbers quickly, I see 4 people that could potentially win.  Looking at the numbers more closely, J. has no chance.  His 35 points would not be enough to leapfrog Bob with his 8 point wager.  AK has only 1 point on LSU, so he is also not an option.  That leaves one remaining competitor, and Kristin has done very well for herself this year.  And if LSU wins, her 18 point wager would jump Bob.  So this game is for all the bragging rights in their house.  Bob wins if Bama wins, and if LSU wins, Kristin is the winner.  So good luck to both of you, and thanks to everyone who participated.  Be sure to check back in the spring for some form of a Free March Madness contest, with the chance to win a an itunes card, unless we get sponsored between now and then, in which case the prize will be something from a sponsor.

If you are looking for a reason to look forward to the NFL playoffs, well I don’t know what to tell you.  You might want to get your soul checked out because there is a chance it could be missing.  The NFL has taken sports to an all new level and is, without a doubt, the most successful league in the United States (MLB are you listening?).

But before I get into that, does anyone else when they hear “NFL” think back to that Sports Illustrated commercial where the coaches are mike’d and Jerry Glanville tells a ref “NFL stands for Not For Long when you keep making bad calls like that!”.  Or is this just me.

But say you were dead in the soul and DID need a reason to watch the NFL this weekend, and the weekends leading up to the Super Bowl, well then this post is for you.  I want to take a quick look at what Former Terps are still alive in their quest to add a Super Bowl ring next to their Maryland Diploma (OK, they might not all have diploma’s, but who’s counting?).

First, those that will NOT be playing this weekend:  Kevin Barnes, Bruce Campbel, Nolan Carroll, Jon Condo, Moise Fokou, Jared Gaither, both Henderson brothers, Stephon Heyer (Boy do we have a lot of Raiders!), Darrius Heyward-Bey, D’Qwell Jackson, Shawne Merriman, Adrian Moten, Nick Novak, Adam Podlesh, Randy Starks, Jaimie Thomas, Edwin Williams, Isaiah Williams, Josh Wilson, and Will Yeatman.  The idea of this paragraph to show how many guys we have put into “The League” over the last 10 years.

Those who will be suiting up are Lance Ball, not since the disciples has someone been so close to Jesus, but that is exactly who Lance finds himself next to in the huddle this weekend, when the Bronco’s host the Steelers.  For those Raven’s fans reading, if you need reason for the Steelers to loss, you could always hold the fact that they don’t have any Terps on their team as a major strike against them.  Personally I think Baltimore needs Pittsburgh to win and go to New England and beat the Pats, but this is a college blog so we’ll save that conversation for someone else.

Next up is my favorite Terp of All Time (well one of them at any rate) Vernon Davis!  Davis and his 49′ers clinched a bye in week 17 all but assuring there will be Terps playing two weeks from now.

Now the Raven’s, well technically Domonique Foxworth is a Raven, but he has been on the injured reserve all season, so he’ll have as much say about the Raven’s going to the Super Bowl as I will.  HOWEVER, the Raven’s have other Terps are contributing, and in a big way.  Torrey Smith has been a huge addition to the Baltimore WR corp allowing the Raven’s to stretch the field for the first time since Jermaine Lewis…okay maybe not, but I had to get a Jermaine Lewis shout out in here.  Smith will be hosting the lower seed of the remaining AFC teams from this wild card weekend.

Joining Smith on the Raven’s Sideline is LaQuan Williams, so as far as Terps go, the team you want to back is the Ravens.

But let’s not forget about the Detroit Lions and Shaun Hill, though Matt Stafford has taken over the starting role, Hill will still be suiting up and calling in plays.  Though Detroit has quite a task ahead of them as they head to New Orleans to try to slow down the red hot Saints.

Also suiting up in a limited role in New York is Da’Rel Scott.  Though Scott has seen limited amount of playing time this year, he has gotten a few touches.  He and his Giants will be hosting the Falcons this week in New York.

And finally we also have Madieu Williams of the 49′ers.  I guess I was wrong, there are as many active 49′ers are there are Raven’s, so if you don’t like the Raven’s you can still support the 49′ers. Williams has also had a limited role, but did manage to start in 3 games this season.

So there is where you will find former Terps in the NFL post season.  I wish them all the best of luck.  Go out there and make us proud.

Extra Droppings:

Just curious, on the list of former Terps on NFL rosters, why isn’t Phil Costa listed, every Sunday night he says “Maryland” on the TV as they do the Cowboy introductions, so why no love from the umterps.com site?  Also are there any other Phil Costa guys I’ve missed?  If they omitted Costa, who knows who else is out there.  If you know of any, please speak up.

With Bowl Season in full force now, some contestants are separating themselves from the rest of the field.  Of course if Mary H continues to pick at her astounding rate, or if she had simply rated them 35-1 instead of 1-35 we may be singing a different tune.  Mary has picked 16 of 18 correctly so far and is on a 9 game winning streak.  Unfortunately, she is going to have to stay just as hot on the bottom half of her sheet to be a true threat.

Our leader is still Kristin and she herself is on an 8 game winning streak.  To her credit, she has only missed 4 games so far.  Yesterday was a day for people to put up points as we move into another busy day today.  Robjd3 saw an 11 game streak come to an end after Rutgers took down Iowa State yesterday.  To his credit, he started a another streak though, and appears to be a serious threat.

We see 5 more bowl games today.  Starting with the Car Care Bowl of Texas, we get a very underachieving Texas A&M team up against Northwestern.  Looking quickly it appears we all have A&M with post people giving them between 13 and 20 points.

Next up we get the Sun Bowl which features Georgia Tech and Utah.  The consensus here is Georgia Tech, however our leader Kristin does have 15 points on the Utes.

The third game today is the Liberty Bowl with James Franklin’s Vanderbilt squad taking on Cincinnati.  I find this interesting.  Apparently 6 others of you disrespect the Big East as much as I do.  7 of us have Vandy with me putting 30 points on them!  Kristin on the other hand has 29 on the Bear Cats.  I think my fate is riding on this game.  A loss here and those 30 points will be tough to make up.

Our fourth game is the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.  I suppose they will be fighting it one box of Mac and Cheese at a time.   Anyway, enough of one of my child hood fave’s, this game is a Bowl Game (you know when you think you are rewarded for a successful season) that has two teams that are firing their coaches!  That’s right, Illinois is 6-6 and UCLA is 6-7.  Wow, I think it is time to eliminate some of these.  Anyway, Illinois is the favorite in our challenge with Forrest putting 27 of his much needed points on this one.

And finally we get our final game of the night:  The Chik-Fil-a Bowl.  UVA gets Auburn in this ACC vs SEC matchup.  Auburn is the popular pick.  However, red hot Mary H. has UVA, as does LeAnne who has 32 points on the Hoos. If she is going to try and make a push for the win, she needs UVA tonight.

So there is a quick look at where we stand with todays games.  The standings are below.  Go Vandy!

There is no denying it now.  We are in the heart of Bowl Season.  Starting today and running up until January 2^nd, there will be 15 games played.  That is more than the total 14 we have already put in the books, so look for things to start shaking out.  In fact, if you aren’t near the top by January 2^nd, it may be panic time as 6 games follow that.  The time to be successful is now.

Leading up to this pivotal stretch, Kristin has just been on fire.  Her 10-14 success rate, isn’t all that impressive (in comparison to the rest of us) but she has really picked her spots with awarding her points.  The good news is that she is making hay while the sun is shining, but the bad news is that she doesn’t have a ton of points left out there to grab.  But as my grandfather always said, one point in the hand is better than two in the bush.  Whether you grab points now or later, they all count the same in the end.

On Kristin’s heels is Robjd3.  To say Robjd3 is hot is to sell him short.  Granted we aren’t exactly picking against the lines, but still in theory these bowls are supposed to be evenly matched, but Robjd3 is in the middle of a 10 game win streak.  If he doesn’t cool off soon, the rest of this contest is going to be academic.

Just outside the top two we have myself.  Though no Robjd3, I do have a modest 6 game streak I’m working on, and have hit on 8 of my last 9, so I’m feeling pretty good about myself at the moment.

Next is Lee, she has picked 10 of 14 correct, but more importantly won 9 out of her last 11.  She is right there in the thick of it.  Behind her is Chris.  Chris has won 8 of his last 10 to remain in the hunt.

J is currently riding in 7^th, he has also won 9 of his last 10 and has only blown 23 potential points so far.  Not a bad spot to be in.

Now the Grand Canyon like drop off.

Forrest is at 116, he has suffered two tough losses with ND costing him 32 points and Wyoming costing him 29.  Normally I’d say there is plenty of time to bounce back from those, but the way some people are picking this year, it may already be too late.  We shall see.

Alex is the last of our players who are in the “Century Club”.  Has a ton of work to do, but other than betting 5 on Oregon, won’t see a game worth less than 14 points here on out.

And the climb has begun, our player who ranked games, not by the degree of confidence, but in the order they will be played on the calendar is starting to get some results.  She is picking games at 86% success rate, and now the points are starting to add up.  This could get interesting, Mary H is much like a long distance runner who sits in the back of the pack and then gradually picks off racers as they fall off the pace.

Justin is tied for last with 88, but in all honesty, hasn’t lost that many potential points.  I don’t think he has as much gas left in the tank as Mary H, but when you get 14 games in without a crippling loss, good things can still happen.

Laura brings up her share of the rear.  It has been a tough go for Laura up to this point, but like Justin, you can’t really look at her picks and see a killer loss.  There is still time, though I wouldn’t want to linger in last much longer.  So there you have it, the latest standings and break down.  Today we will see:

BYU-Tulsa in the Armed Forces Bowl:  9 of us have BYU (Or the “Y” as they called in Bob W’s TV Hall of Fame Show “Big Love”), Bob and Kristin both have 31 riding on the Mormons.

Rutgers-Iowa State in the Pinstripe Bowl (I swear that is a real Bowl, I’m not just throwing random words out there and calling it a bowl): 8 of us have Rutgers including Kristin for 25 and Lee has 24, while on the other side Robjd3 has 22 riding on ISU

Miss State-Wake Forest play in the Music City Bowl: 9 of us have Miss State with Lee putting up 23 on the Bulldogs while J is also throwing in 20.

Iowa-Oklahoma in the Insight Bowl: EVERYONE has Oklahoma but some more so than others, Rodjd3 has 34, Ak has 32, Justin has 32, Bob has 30, Kristin has 30, Forrest has 28, Chris has 25, Lee has 25, and J has 21.  The rest all have under 20 riding on OU.

Kristin                   271

Robjd3                  249

Bob                        232

Lee                         214

AK                          199

Chris                      196

J                              181

Forrest                 116

Alex                       104

Mary H                 92

Justin                    88

Laura                     88

It is really hard to tell at this point who is in a good spot and who isn’t.  For example, Mary H only has 42 points, but she has a ton of points left to win, so being in last place could be a little misleading.  And those at the top, well they got to the top by betting a lot of points early, so falling back to earth is a distinct possibility.  But I will say this, as one of those near the top, I’m quite comfortable here and will do my damnedest to remain where I am.

The big move over the past few days was made by Robjd3.  He has been perfect since the TCU win and not only that, has been perfect with high value games.  His slow start is a thing of the past and recent success has vaulted him into third.  Kristin remains on top and will be facing a crucial few stretch as her next 6 games are all 20 points or higher.  Take out the Texas game and they are all 24 points or higher.  This could very well make or break her run at the top.

On her heels is LeAnne who is just one point off the lead.  Lee has picked 5 of the last 6 games correctly.  I currently hold down third place but suffered a 21 point blow when UNC decided to roll over against Missouri.  Still like my chances and still have a lot of value left on the board.

Dropping off a level is AK, his 126 points is good enough for 5^th, but AK went 6 for his last 6 so plenty of points are still there for the taking.  Chris is next, he took it on the chin when Louisville cost him 24 points, but no need to panic yet as he remains in the thick of it.

Now the bottom half.  J checks in with 117, off the cuff doesn’t look so hot, but dig into the numbers and you will see that J has only missed two games, and those combined for 17 points.  So look for J to rise up the ranks in the coming days.

After J, things really drop off, Alex has 61 but only 21 points have been lost.  If he can keep his success rate for his high value games, he should be fine.  Laura is in 9^th, not bad, but still reeling from that 30 point loss in New Mexico Bowl (who would have guessed an Owl could beat a Cowboy?).  Tenth place is reserved for Forrest.  But don’t give up on him yet as each game from here until the BCS games is a double digit wager.  Plenty of time to move on up.

In 11^th place we find Justin.  Justin has been wrong 5 times.  That is the bad news, the good news is each loss has cost him very little in potential points.  And bringing up the rear, for now anyway is Mary H.  I can’t even begin to guess where this is going to go.  Mary wagered each game in order, so the New Mexico Bowl was worth 1 point, and the BCS Championship is worth 35.  So she really hasn’t even begun to play.  I could see her anywhere from 1^st to 12^th, but we’ll have to wait to find out.

So there is the latest update.  Things are about to get hot and heavy as we have 13 games between now and Saturday.  Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up.

Kristin- 168

LeAnne- 167

Rodjd3- 156

Bob-151

AK-126

Chris-122

J- 112

Alex- 61

Laura- 55

Forrest-55

Justin-45

Mary H- 42

Bowl Season is upon us.  If you tuned in for it, you saw a couple of games come down to the wire.  Temple rolled over Wyoming.  Extremely bad news for the Forrest entry, as he had 29 points riding on the Cowboys.  You could say quite the opposite for LeAnne’s entry as she jumps to the lead with 22 points thanks to the Owls.  It was her only win of the day, but her two losses cost her a combined 31 points.  The other two games were the exciting ones.  Ohio, and Mickey Tettleton’s son (QB) pulled out a late win over Utah State.  In the nightcap, Louisiana Lafayette coughed up a sizeable lead, only to nail a long FG for the win as time expired.  It was pretty neat to watch.  I was happy for the Cajun’s.

We do still have one perfect pool out there.  Mary H has picked all three winners.  She was the one of two people with faith in Louisiana Lafayette.  The bad news for Mary is she didn’t take the time to rank her teams based on who she though would be worth more, and simply listed them in order of 1 to 35.  So she is a perfect 3 for 3 but only totaled 6 points on the day.  Had she only started with 35 instead of 1,  she would have jumped out to a huge lead and ensured she got all of her points out of the 35, 34, and 33 slot.  Now she has to hope she really knows how those BCS games are going to come out if she wants to remain in contention.

So there you have the first update.  Below is the overall scoreboard.  There is still a long way to go, so if you are one of the people with few points, don’t worry.  The more important thing at this point is that you don’t miss on some of your big point chances out there.

Up next is the St. Petersburg Bowl on Tuesday.  Marshall and FIU are facing off in that one.  Robjd3 has 25 points riding on  FIU which will be important since he missed on 26 points when Louisiana Lafayette hit that late FG.  AK also has 26 points riding on FIU, and of course Mary has 4 points on them.  Most of the other picks are all pretty low key, so it isn’t do or die for the rest of us.  Check back in for updates as the games continue.

Looking for some good Maryland Football news, wait, why am I even asking that?  Of course you are, we all are.  Well here is some, the Baltimore Sun is reporting that WR Tyrek Cheeseboro, DB Matt Robinson, DL Isaiah Ross, and LB Kenny Tate were all approved for medical redshirts.  I was certainly worried about Kenny Tate, glad 2011 will not count towards his eligibility.  

The sad thing was as I was reading the text I automatically assumed they were all transferring.  It was a pretty sad 3 seconds.  Guess I’ve forgotten good things can happen to this program every now and then.   Anyway, glad these guys will get an extra year, now you just have to wonder if it will be with the Terps…..actually, let’s not even go in that direction, this is a positive post, and I’m going to leave it that way. 

Extra Droppings:

Don’t forget your chance to enter the FREE Turtledroppings.com Bowl Pick’em Contest is coming to a close.  For your chance to win a FREE Itunes card, please visit the December 11^th post for details.  Those of you already in, thanks for participating and look for updates coming soon.

Reports are Gary Crowton is to be replaced by former New Mexico Head Coach Mike Locksley.  Crowton leaving isn’t really a shock as he was openly offering himself as a candidate for the Colorado State HC job.  A clear sign that either he wanted out, or someone else wanted him out.  The real story here will be whether or not Crowton violated his contract in seeking the Colorado State job.  If so, the Terps could be off the hook for the rest of his contract.  That would certainly be good news for our Athletic Department that is strapped for cash.

So now we have Locksley.  In all honestly I don’t know what to think.  First of all, where is this Athletic Department headed?  Are we so concerned about our “Prestige” that we can’t risk hiring a successful let slightly controversial head coach in Mike Leach, but we can hire an extremely controversial Offensive Coordinator who was anything but successful (2-26 at UNM).  Where are we going?  At least before I thought there was a plan, or maybe “theme” should be a better word.  Discipline and character, but now this? 

Now Locksley is not stranger to Maryland and when he left, many of us, myself included thought he was on the verge of a rise through the ranks college football to establish himself as a successful head coach who would make us rue the day he left College Park.  That did not happen.  In fact, I can’t tell you how many times in the past few years did we joke about how we dodged a bullet with Locksley.

But this isn’t all bad.  Locksley was responsible for helping recruit the teams that brought Ralph Friedgen the Conference Championship.  Those who were biggest critics of Friedgen would say “He never had the kind of success he had with his own recruits as he did with Vanderlinden’s kids”.  Well Locksley helped with building those classes, so this is certainly a silver lining. 

When our 2011 Coaching Staff was put together, one of the biggest questions was who is going to have the local ties to keep our talent in state?  This hire WILL address that concern, so I am happy a local connection has been re-established.  And who knows, maybe Locksley just needs to come home.  Maybe he isn’t cut out for the Head Coaching role, but will thrive as a Lieutenant.  That all is yet to be seen.

Overall, what do I think about this hire?  I honestly don’t know.  But we are in a desperate situation and I can’t think off the top of my head of an OC out there with a realistic chance of coming to Maryland that I would want.  So I’m leaning towards being for it.  Let Locksley loose and see what kind of haul he can bring in for recruiting.  We are unfortunately in a mess of a situation and though this hire has a risk of blowing up in our face, at this stage of the game, I think it was gamble that needs to be taken. 

Unfortunately luck hasn’t been on our side much lately, but I am a strong believer in that standing still isn’t going to get this program moving in the right direction, so any move, even possibly a bad one, is a step in the right direction.  I guess time will tell. 

Extra Droppings:

Don’t forget about the FREE Turtledroppings.com Bowl Pick’em Contest.  For details see the post from this weekend.