Your 2015 Final Four Preview

Can lovable goofball Frank Kaminsky and his Badgers knock off undefeated Kentucky?

By Andy Dougherty (@AndyDougherty10)

No. 1 Duke faces No. 7 Michigan State. No. 1 Kentucky takes on No. 1 Wisconsin.

Saturday’s Final Four should be one of the best in years. For only the fifth time in history, 3 of the Final Four teams are No. 1 seeds. Combined, the four teams have won 15 national championships and made 46 Final Fours, so they are all accustomed to the big stage. The Michigan State Spartans are the only surprise team remaining, but honestly, it’s more surprising to see them as a No. 7 seed than it is to see them in the Final Four, where they’ve been in 7 of the last 17 seasons.

Let's break down both of the national semifinals.

Is the Big Ten "Back?"

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

As someone who attended a Big Ten university, I can tell you that most Big Ten fans have an almost mythic reverence for what the conference "used to be."

There is this collective thought that, once upon a time, the Big Ten was by far the best conference in college football. That Ohio State and Michigan played each other ranked in the Top-5 every year, that every other school in the conference filled out the Top-25, and that the national champion surely came from America's Holy Land on an annual basis.

Basically, Big Ten fans remember a time when the Big Ten was the SEC of 2006-2012. It's similar to the way Fox News viewers remember the America of their childhood.

NCAA Football Week 11 Primer (With Picks)

LSU's Les Miles has his young team playing excellent football right now, but Nick Saban and Alabama come to Baton Rouge this week for what could be a College Football Playoff elimination game.

By Andy Dougherty (@AndyDougherty10) with a cameo by Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Ed. Note- This week we are adding a "picks against the spread" feature to our college football preview. New correspondent Andy Dougherty will still handle the previews, but will now pick games against editor Joe Parello. We'll see how they do.

The slate of games in Week 11 of the college football season offers a number of savory matchups. Six games contested between top-20 teams will carry significant playoff implications. But before previewing those matchups, here is a snapshot of last week’s most notable events.

Week 10 Recap

Week 10 of the college football season had no shortage of excitement. No. 11 Georgia, No. 12 Arizona, and No. 23 East Carolina all suffered upset losses.

No. 20 West Virginia almost pulled off an upset over No. 7 TCU, but the Mountaineers fell by a point in the end. No. 25 Louisville had No. 2 Florida State on the ropes before the Seminoles stormed back from 21 points down to claim an 11-point victory. No. 17 Utah suffered a heartbreak overtime loss to No. 14 Arizona State.

But the biggest story of the week unfolded in Oxford, Mississippi. Late in the fourth quarter, Ole Miss receiver Laquon Treadwell burst through a hole in the Auburn defense and appeared to score the go-ahead touchdown. Unfortunately, an awkward tackle at the goal line left Treadwell with a broken leg and dislocated ankle, ending his season. Adding insult to injury, officials determined upon review that Treadwell let go of the ball prior to crossing the plane, and Auburn recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchback.

Long and Suite Preview: The Big Ten

Sophomore defensive end Joey Bosa may be the most complete member of Ohio State's potentially dominant front-7.

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe) with a cameo from Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

The Big Ten may have actually played the biggest football game in its history in the last decade, though it seems like an eternity ago now.

But since then-No. 1 Ohio State topped then-No. 2 Michigan 42-39 in 2006's "Game of the Century" the conference has gone just 5-10 in BCS Bowl games, including two losses to SEC teams in the title game.

While The Big Ten fancies itself a football power, the results simply haven't been there. In fact, it would be fairer to compare The Big Ten to the Mountain West and now-defunct WAC, who went a combined 4-1 in BCS bowl games over the same span, than to the SEC, who won more national championships (7) than The Big Ten did BCS bowl games (5).

What the conference has done well, however, is brand itself and make money hand over fist. With The Big Ten Network thriving and delivering $44.5 million a year to senior conference members (schools in The Big Ten for six years or more. Sorry Rutgers and Maryland, wait your turn!) beginning in 2017, every football team will have the resources to contend.

But will they?

Midweek #HotSportsTakes: The Ultimate Goodbye

Thanks to the death of the Ultimate Warrior, we again include wrestling in our #HotSportsTakes.

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Midweek #HotSportsTakes is a new weekly segment here on SuiteSports, where we will offer shallow and somewhat incendiary analysis on random hot-button sports topics of the day.


Let's get right to it.

NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 Friday Preview

The battle for Kentucky could come down to coaches Rick Pitino (left) and John Calipari (right).

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

During last night's Sweet 16 games, Dayton officially became the tournament's Cinderella, as the 11th seeded Flyers knocked off Stanford.

It will be Dayton's first trip to the Elite 8 in over 30 years, and for all their hard work, they'll get to face a Florida Gators team that looks darn near unbeatable right now.

Wisconsin and Arizona each took care of business as well, but who will join these four teams in the national quarterfinals? That's what we'll find out tonight, and this evening's slate of games is a doozy.

Football 2013-14 Wrap Up: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Offenses got the headlines in 2013, but No. 1 defenses in Seattle and Tallahassee brought home the hardware.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Well, we've reached the end. Here is our final installment Good, Bad and Ugly, recapping the entirety of the 2013-2014 pro/college football season. Enjoy!

The Good

Offensive Innovators Excite

Three supposed "offensive gurus" lived up to their titles this year, as Chip Kelly and Andy Reid turned conference bottom dwellers into NFL playoff teams, while Gus Malzahn took Auburn from three wins to within three points of a national championship.

Most will point to Malzahn's no-huddle with spread option and inverted veer principles, or Chip Kelly's similarly up-tempo zone read, bubble screen extravaganza as the true innovations of this season, but I think that's selling Reid a little short.

Hangovers and Football: Your New Year's Day Bowl Watching Guide

UCF comes in as a decided underdog, but star QB Blake Bortles will try to give the program its first BCS bowl win.

By Joe Parello  @HerewegoJoe

New Year's Day and I have an odd relationship.

In my younger days, I would spend the morning fighting the urge to sleep until the following year, and eventually end up gorging on a greasy breakfast at Denny's.

I don't think anyone can argue that was the best way to spend New Year's morning, but football and a comfy couch are most certainly the best way to spend the rest of your day.

Well, if you like Big Ten football that is, because these days that's what you're getting New Year's Day. Thanks to some fancy negotiating by Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney, the conference has gone from three long-time bowl tie-ins (The Rose, Capital One and Outback) to five the last two years, adding the Gator Bowl and relatively new Heart of Dallas Bowl.

Last year, we had to watch Purdue lose by a bajillion in the Dallas Bowl, so thankfully the Big Ten didn't have enough bowl eligible teams to fill that slot (Since it sent two teams to the BCS). Un-thankfully (Not a word), their spot and the Big 12's spot in that game went to somewhat crappy mid-majors.

Oh hell, who cares, it's New Year's Day. Here's what to watch during the games.

Your Bowl Season Primer

Can Auburn make it eight in a row for the SEC?

By Joe Parello  @HerewegoJoe

The college bowl season opens Saturday, beginning a bonanza of college football that will give us a game to watch nearly every night until the BCS Championship Game on January 6th (Minus Christmas and December 22nd/29th, so as not to compete with Jesus or the NFL).

If you're just a football fan, the bowl season is amazing. Finally, college football gives us some intriguing inter-conference match ups that will no doubt feature contrasting styles and unfamiliar foes battling after plenty of preparation.

If you're a rich booster for a team that had a successful season, you've probably already booked your flight to Florida/California/Arizona/Texas/Louisiana/Georgia and scored your "alumni section" tickets from the school for twice as much as you would pay on StubHub a week before the game.

But, if your team came up short of expectations, it's a depressing potential trip to Detroit or Birmingham that you probably decided wasn't worth the time or money. Or heck, if you're a Purdue fan like me, or a Gator fan like my wife, this entire month is a reminder that your team wasn't even good enough to face Arkansas State in Mobile, Alabama.

That's depressing, but bowl season is still an amazing all you can eat buffet of football, so I'm going to put my own personal disappointments aside and bring you everything to watch for in every 2013-2014 bowl game.

All times Eastern, by the way.

Long and Suite Preview: The Big Ten/Notre Dame

Few quarterbacks will have more on their plate in 2013 than Nebraska's Taylor Martinez.

By Joe Parello  @HerewegoJoe

The Big Ten is done expanding for now, but everyone knows the conference has always coveted Notre Dame.

And why not. The Irish are a bona-fide national brand situated squarely in the conference's geographic footprint, and they already have rivalries with Big Ten schools Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue, along with several historic encounters with Penn State and Ohio State under their belt.

The Irish almost make too much sense in the Big Ten.