Speaking of rugby...the Penn Mutual Collegiate Sevens Championships are on!

With the pool play completed today for the men, the twenty college teams are being divided into the four cutlery divisions (shield, bowl, plate, and cup...and who decided which of those was the most presitigious? It almost seems exactly backwards to me!). Here are the results from the men's pool play:

Pool A: Cal-Berkeley (3-0), Virginia Tech (1-1-1), Notre Dame (1-2), Boston College (0-2-1).

Pool B: Navy (3-0), Kutztown State (2-1), Air Force (1-2), Temple (0-3).
Pool C: Indiana (3-0), Life University (2-1), Alabama (1-2), Clemson (0-3).

Pool D: Arkansas St (3-0), Michigan (2-1), UCLA (1-2), Texas (0-3).
Pool E:  Arizona (2-1), Dartmouth (2-1), St. Joe's (1-2), Penn State (1-2).

So, the groupings for the single-elimination finals tomorrow: 
CUP Quarterfinals - Navy v Life University; Indiana v Kutztown State; Arkansas St v Arizona; Cal-Berkeley v Michigan.

PLATE - Dartmouth v Air Force; Virginia Tech v UCLA.

BOWL - St. Joe's v Alabama; Penn St v Notre Dame.

SHIELD  - Boston College. v Texas; Clemson v Temple.

In the women's field, three teams went 3-0 in their pool play, setting up the finals tonight: Penn State (two-time defending champs), Notre Dame College (from Ohio), and Lindenwood College (from Belleville, IL). They'll be joined by wild card second place finisher American International College in the semi-finals (AIC plays Penn St).

Meanwhile, the other eight schools play a three-game bracket tournament for places five through twelve, and Life University, Michigan, James Madison, and Kutztown State won the first round to set up two games tomorrow for places 5-8, while Delaware, Arizona, Boston College, and Notre Dame University will compete for places 9-12.

Following today's Football...

As the final game of 774 regular season FBS contests gets underway, we'll follow today's Army/Navy game as well as the lower division playoff games...

Last night, New Hampshire managed to oust Chattanooga 35-30 despite being outgained by two hundred yards and outplayed for the first 2 1/2 quarters - but that's what a number one team does. Today, defenders North Dakota St overcame Coastal Carolina 39-32, in a surprisingly competitive game, and currently Sam Houston St and Villanova are waging a back and forth war - SHSU kicks a field goal,  Villanova scores a TD,  and now the Bearcats take the lead BACK with a TD drive of their own to lead, 34-31. UPDATE: The Wildcats were forced into trying and missing a tying 51 yard field goal; the Bearkats held on to win, 34-31.

Meanwhile, Army leads Navy 7-0, after a jailbreak blocked punt converted for a touchdown, with the Black Knights controlling the line of scrimmage on both offense and defense...until a fourth down conversion of theirs is negated by a LATE time out from the sideline, followed by a Navy stop and turnover, closely followed by a TD pass to tie the game at seven. Controversial time out changes the whole game!

UPDATE: As expected, the two Division III powerhouses are cruising to what we believe is their NINTH consecutive championship meeting! Mount Union routed previously 12-0 Wellesley 70-0 after three quarters, before the fourth string allowed three garbage time TDs. Currently, Wisconsin-Whitewater leads 14-0 early in the second quarter against 11-1 west coast power Linfield.

UPDATE: Linfield has come back to tie UW Whitewater at 14 going into the fourth quarter, and after the Naval Academy pushed out to a dominating 17-7 lead, Army's Daniel Grochkowski skimmed through a field goal from 52 to close within a TD with 1:51 to go!

UPDATE: Illinois St leads Eastern Washington 31-20, and in twelve possessions the two teams have scored on NINE of them, with EWU's initial punt, their subsequent fumble, and ISU's kneel to end the first half being the only non-scoring drives of the game so far as of the mid third quarter.

Meanwhile, Navy beat Army 17-10 for their 13th consecutive win. CBS's Allie LaForge interviewed Navy coach Ken Niumatololo after the game, and asked the coach about the key time out he called in the second quarter. Coach said, "If  you asked me who told me to call that time out, you wouldn't believe me." She asked anyway, and his answer was, "The Man Upstairs."  GOOD for YOU, Coach!

UPDATE: Illinois St can't be stopped! In their ten possessions AT Eastern Washington, on the freaky red field, they've gone as follows so far: FG, TD, TD, TD, TD, end of half, TD, TD,TD, TD... (To be continued.) They lead 52-27 early in the fourth. ...and at game's end, they won by the score of 59-46. In all, there were 24 possessions: 17 ended in scores (14 TDs and 3FGs), 3 EWU turnovers (fumble & 2 interceptions), two end of half kneel downs by ISU, a failed 4th down late by the winners they didn't need, and one lonely punt, just two minutes into the game. Division III update: UW-Whitewater went on to win, 20-14, over Linfield, so we get rematch number nine or so for the D3 title next weekend in Salem, VA: Mount Union v. UW-Whitewater. In D2, Minnesota St is waiting for the winner of tonight's Colorado St-Pueblo/West Georgia game to set up next Saturday's Division II title tilt. 

(SO, as far as our prognostication battle goes with the professionals, Illinois St kept us from winning all four games up to this point: in fact, we hit Sam Houston by 3 and North Dakota St by 7 on the nose, and Arizona by 6 was extremely close to perfect. And...well, we really had irrational faith in the Big Sky, I guess. Three turnovers to none will do it, though. Anyway, it's 3-1 Following Football, with three NFL games left to decide the weekly winner...and we just need to be right once to win the weekend!)

There was NO government interference...was there?

Navy leads South Alabama, 42-40, after a twelve play drive ending with a ten yard TD pass to draw them within two with less than a minute to go...

The two point conversion is good! Oh, wait... A holding call? Ok, take two.
The two point conversion is good! Oh, wait... Illegal receiver downfield? Really? All right, take three.
The two point conversion is... NO GOOD! Intercepted! So, of course, THIS one stays. Game, Navy, 42-40. 

So, the US Naval Academy is now bowl-eligible (and remember, they don't play Army until AFTER the bowl invites go out next weekend)...how convenient! (Hmmm...)

Odd thoughts on a Monday morning...

The Pittsburgh Steelers have only had three head coaches in the last forty-five years: Chuck Knoll (won four championships), Bill Cowher (one title), and Mike Tomlin (one title so far). How many coaches has YOUR team had since 1969?...

College kids are dumb sometimes. Especially overly macho football players.

Remember the Michigan players who threw down a stake into the MSU logo - on their field - when they were favored to lose by three touchdowns - and then lost by four touchdowns? 

Well, Maryland's captains, in a fit of arrogance, chose not to shake hands with their Penn State counterparts Saturday - for no apparent reason except rivalry - given the fact that they were 1-34 for their last 35 meetings with the Nittany Lions, that word "rivalry" sounds a bit strong to us, regardless of the Terrapins victory this weekend (a 20-19 "rout").

On the other end of the sportsmanship spectrum, we watched Army and Air Force stand at attention for each other's hymns after the game Saturday morning. Cool, but expected. What was even cooler was when Notre Dame did the same thing for Navy after their game Saturday evening. The connection between the two teams goes all the way back to WW2, when the Fighting Irish helped keep Navy's team "afloat" while all of their eligible players were doing more important things in Europe and the Pacific theater. Very cool, Notre Dame.

The heartbreaking way that Ole Miss lost to Auburn Saturday night - with Daquon Treadwell's broken leg literally adding injury to insult - makes you rethink the importance of the "game" that we follow so seriously. Next week, Ole Miss will be an afterthought - playing Presbyterian College, in a classic SEC semi-bye week game - but Treadwell will be undergoing surgery and beginning a long, long rehab assignment for the use of his leg, whether he plays any more silly games with the football again or not. 

Week 9 - the "Water Tiers" (H-to-O... get it?)

Tier H: Air Force (6-2), Arkansas (4-5 in the toughest division in history), Boston College (6-3), Penn St (4-4), Stanford (5-4), and Utah St (6-3). 

Tier I: Two divisions have to have seven teams to total 128 FBS teams, and right now this is one of those: Cincinnati (5-3), Northern Illinois (6-2), Oregon St (4-4). Pitt (4-5), Rutgers (5-4), Tennessee (4-5), and Chris Petersen's Washington Huskies, at 6-3 in his first season in purple.

Tier J: Houston and Memphis (both 5-3 from the AAC), Nevada (6-3), and three ACC schools: Virginia, North Carolina, and North Carolina St (the Pack is 5-4; the others are 4-5).

Tier K: Two conference leaders from the Sun Belt and Conference USA headline Tier K: Georgia Southern (7-2) and Louisiana Tech (6-3). They're joined by 5-3 Bowling Green and Temple, and 4-5 former champions Texas and Virginia Tech.

Tier L: BYU (5-4), Navy (4-5 after a great game against Notre Dame), Northwestern (freefalling at 3-5), Syracuse (3-6), and 4-5 Toledo and Louisiana-Lafayette.

Tier M: Three 5-3 teams (Central Florida, UTEP, Rice), and three Michigan teams - Central Michigan, Western Michigan, and Big Blue themselves, the Michigan Wolverines, who are NOT happy to be classified with their little brothers...

Tier N: Arkansas St (5-4), Illinois (4-5), Middle Tennessee (5-4), San Diego St (4-4), Texas Tech (3-6), and Wyoming (4-5).

AND finally, our brand new Tier O!: With seven teams in all the tiers from K-P, it was easy to separate out one more tier - we'd said we didn't know why we left out this tier last week; this must have been why! Florida Atlantic (3-6), both Fresno St (3-6) and San Jose St (3-5) from the Mountain West; Texas St (5-3) and Louisiana-Monroe (4-4) from the Sun Belt; and the Pac-12's wild guns from Washington St (2-7).

Navy looks awfully good all of a sudden!

Since late in the second quarter, the Midshipman have run off 24 points in a row against the Tier A Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and lead 31-28. Remember, Navy lost forty-three in a row against the Irish over four and a half decades - this would make the plebes pee their government issued pants!