The Victoria Times College Football preview

I'm not going to get too far into detail on this, mostly because I haven't been to Spring Practices, I haven't stayed abreast of recruiting news and I am decidedly not an expert. This is just me talking here. The teams that I will cover are the ones that are of most importance to the Victoria Times. Purdue, Minnesota, North Dakota State, and this year's wild card, Wyoming.

Purdue: The Boilers, I think, are in a lot of trouble. Their first two choices for QB are injured (ACL's, of course) and one of those guys is entangled in the Miami fiasco. Still, Purdue has 15 returning starters, so this will tell us a lot about Danny Hope as a recruiter and coach. I say he sucks, but we will find out on the field, I suppose. If there is any light with this team, it's that they might have a decent ground attack. If Ralph Bolden stays healthy, then that is good news.

Minnesota: I am much higher on the Gophers this year. They won't be good, but I like their future. Jerry Kill seems to be what the team needs, and there are some athletes on the roster, like Marqueis Gray that might be able to surprise some weaker teams in the Big Ten. And then going forward, I think the Gophers will be a Bowl team for a while. Not this year though.

North Dakota State: I can say, with all honesty, that I know nothing about NDSU or their chances. I DO know that there are some outlets picking them to finish 2nd in their conference! They might be the best team listed here

Wyoming: The Cowboys have THREE freshmen competing to be the starting quarterback. Yikes. They are also playing in the one year that the Mountain West might be at it's toughest, with both Boise State AND TCU in conference. Still, they might pull off a win or two, like against, I don't know, UNLV (who they will play while I am there, and lost by almost 40 at Wisconsin today)

NDSU is Minnesota's small school

Did you know that across the country, there are only 6 states with one or fewer Division 1 schools? Alaska and Hawaii, obviously, Wyoming with it's small population, as well as Maine and Vermont, which are small states in general. The sixth state, nonsensically, is Minnesota.
I've been over this a couple of times I think so I won't get into it again, but I think it's about time some school in the state stepped up (St Cloud, Winona, Duluth, SOMEONE) and became the state's second D-1 school. It would keep Minnesota athletes in state at a better rate, and would likely mean more money for those schools.
More importantly for fans, it would give everyone a feel good story whenever the smaller schools earn some sort success. Minnesotans would never cheer for a team from Wisconsin or Iowa, so we needed that school. Since we were incapable of getting that second school to root for, the Dakotas have picked up the slack for us. Now, I urge you all in Minnesota to repay them the favor and cheer for the North Dakota State Bison in the NCAA Tournament. Go NDSU!

The BCS is out, and -- WHAT?!

The BCS polls are out, as was noted yesterday, and Log's Blog had a chance to breakdown the rankings, and it turns out that an old favorite here at the Times is ranked # 18 in one computer poll. That's right, North Warhawks State is the #18 team in all the land according to Jeff Saarin's adjusted rankings. People seemed shocked by this, naturally, but is it more preposterous that the Bison are #18 in a computer poll or that South Florida is #2 in a couple of the human polls?