Well the season is upon us... DaGeek's bold predictions.

Last night marked the beginning of the greatest season of the year. The College Football regular season began with the Thursday-night tilts. Two Big East teams played and won big last night against some cup-cakes but won in a dominant fashion. One of the things that happens at the beginning of each season is that the cool aid drinkers like myself make "bold" predictions of the upcoming season. Like UConn and Cincy will win last nights game by large margins. :) I like to think of my homer-picks as being very well researched and thought out, however I know that I am limited by the fact that Bold and Blue oozes from my pours. I really think that this is a season, which will end up in Miami Florida. What must the mighty Mountaineers overcome this year to make it south? Simply they must overcome the best Big East in recent memory, ECU, Colorado away games and an Auburn foe, which likely will be in top 10 when they arrive in Morgantown. It would be no stretch for each of those Out of conference foes to compete for their respective divisions in their own conferences. Well DaGeek believes that the following will come to pass:

1. WVU wins Big East.
2. WVU wins their fourth straight "New Years day" and 3rd BCS Bowl.
3. WVU plays in Miami Florida after January 1st.
4. Pat White takes a trip to New York in December.
5. Noel Devine is top 5 in rushing yards.
6. Noel Devine is top 3 in carries greater than 20 yards.
7. WVU beats Pitt by 3 touchdowns at Mountaineer field north.
8. WVU vs. Auburn breaks ESPN all time record for viewer ship.
9. Jed Drenning does Big East pre-game show on MSN.
10. Coach Stewart is honored in the finalists for Coach of the Year.

I hope to see you at the games.

Let's Go Mountaineers
DaGeek

AP Poll

As you are probably aware, WVU is ranked 8th in the recently released preseason AP football poll. This website has decided not to release a preseason poll and if you compare the two major preseason polls, it becomes evident why. I'm was no statistics major at WVU, but given how similar these polls are, you would have to believe that the AP voters have been tremendously influenced by the coaches' preseason poll. Of the 27 teams ranked in the preseason poll by both organizations, only 2 teams differ by more than two spots between them. (Michigan (24,32) Pitt (32,25)) Da Geek makes a valid argument that coaches manipulate the polls by favorably voting for schools on their schedule (ergo more teams from their own conference), but the AP inexcusably mimics their predictions without doing any individual contemplation of their own.

WVU Mens Hoops to play in Jimmy V Classic

West Virginia's men's basketball team will face Davidson in the Jimmy V Basketball Classic on Dec. 9. This tourney features 4 teams from last years sweet sixteen. WVU's opponent Davidson was in the Elite 8. Pretty exciting start to what could be a very interesting Hoops year. Beginning later this month, tickets for the Jimmy V Men's Basketball Classic can be purchased through ticketmaster.com, by calling Ticketmaster at 212-307-7171, or in person at the Madison Square Garden Box Office.

The rest of the schedule is as follows:
Sat Nov 8 MOUNTAIN STATE, Sat Nov 15 ELON, Thu Nov 20 LONGWOOD, Tue Nov 25 DELAWARE STATE, Fri. Nov. 28 Iowa, Sat. Nov. 29 Kansas St/Kentucky (Las Vegas Invitational), Wed Dec 3 at Mississippi, Sat Dec 6 CLEVELAND ST, 7:00 PM Tue Dec 9 Davidson (Jimmy V. Tourney),
Sat Dec 13 at Duquesne, Sat Dec 20 MIAMI (OH), Tue Dec 23 RADFORD, Sat Dec. 27
at Ohio State, Big East Schedule: PITT, at Pitt, LOUISVILLE, at Louisville, SOUTH FLORIDA,
at South Florida, CONNECTICUT, DEPAUL, NOTRE DAME, PROVIDENCE, ST. JOHN'S, VILLANOVA, at Cincinnati, at Georgetown, at Marquette, at Rutgers, at Seton Hall, at Syracuse, (Jan 13/14, Marshall falls in time of Big East play)


DaGeek

Big News Liebig granted additional season.

Patrick Liebig was granted a 6th season of College football. Phew!!! After leaving the Mountaineers to take care of some family business he will now get to rejoin his Mountaineer family. His father was sick and he went back home to care for him. This is a huge thing for the Defensive line. The 6-2, 295-pound veteran’s petition for special dispensation was granted by the NCAA. The Defensive line just got monumentally better as a result of this. (Photo from Scout.com)

Thank you so much NCAA for getting this right,

DaGeek

ESPN Rankings

ESPN has released their Power Rankings for what they're worth. WVU football is #8 there as well edging out LSU. They also have some interesting rankings when you look ahead to basketball. WVU has the #4 recruiting class for 2008. However, in their BE basketball preview, Jay Bilas has them as #8 in the conference. Beilein never received any preseason respect after a strong finish the year before and it appears Huggins isn't getting the respect he deserves yet either. It will be interesting to see how the BE coaches rank the conference in the preseason.

Coaches Poll Released WVU #8, some observations

Well the USA Today College Football Coaches Preseason Poll is released. Is a national championship in the cards? The Joker may have an answer for us, and likely as is this poll almost as corrupt. WVU is ranked 8th in the nation. Truthfully, that is not a bad place to be. Not at the top but within a reasonable striking distance of the top. WVU will be playing preseason #11 Auburn, #21 South Fla., # 30 Rutgers, #33 sPitt, #37 Cincinnati, #39 UConn, #51 Louisville, and # 53 Colorado. (Admittedly, this means about as much as any opinion regarding strength of schedule.) However, it is harder for WVU to gain a "quality win than it is for a team from the SEC. Only where the SEC helped us did we get to play a top 15 (aka quality opponent)see my rant in 3rd point below for greater explanation.

Some observations about this particular poll as it relates to WVU.

1st WVU Head Coach Bill Stewart is not a voting member. That is right my Mountaineer Brethren we will need to woo the voting members of this poll without any direct influence. Did I say that Michigan has a vote this year.

2nd Bo Pelini is a voting member. How is it that Nebraska gets a first year head Coach with a vote and West Virginia does not?

3rd Once again the SEC gets an inordinate amount of love. Why would this be? It could be that these coaches vote in a block. Georgia, Florida, LSU, Auburn, Mississippi State, Tennessee, South Carolina each have a vote in this poll. Hmm? Well how did those teams fair in the poll you might wonder. Let us see: Georgia #1, Florida #5, LSU #6, Auburn #11, Tennessee #18, South Carolina #27, Mississippi State #41. Other SEC teams receiving votes in the poll were Alabama #26, and Kentucky #42. Several of these teams will compete at the highest level no argument about that but. It is a far cry easier to get love for you team in the SEC than in any other conference. Either theses schools have it right in that they see to it that one loss is aok as far as a national championship is concerned or the rest of the BCS school leagues are idiots for not pressing the issue further.

4th The Big East as was reported above has the #8, #21, #31, #33, #37, #39, and #51 teams. Our voting members are from South Florida, Rutgers, Louisville, and UConn. Let us hope that theses guys would help the Big East in as much as they can.

5th On what basis is Michigan in the top 25 (they were 24th), Rich Rod strikes again?

6th During the season this poll is the least credible of them all. It appears that no conference can have more than half of there members represented at any time. That is suppose to do something to curtail undue influence of any given conference but I think that you can see how that stopgap has some flaws. When do these coaches watch enough games to have an educated opinion to render a vote.

When we release this blogs first poll in October of this year you will see that we are completely transparent in our votes. You will see how each of our voters vote and we will have had the benefit of actually watching college football to educate our admittedly biased votes.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts,

Da Geek