In listing of decade's alpha dog in college football, the four letter network rated us as a tier two program (#29). The reason,

The Aggies finally ended a dubious trifecta of unsightly droughts last season, finishing with a winning record, beating Texas and playing in an upper-tier bowl game for the first time since 1999. But coach Dennis Franchione still hasn't produced the types of campaigns the Aggies enjoyed under former coach R.C. Slocum, who went 42-5-1 from 1991 to 1994. Franchione is 25-22 in four years in College Station and still might not be off the hot seat.

While I don't disagree with that assessment, placing teams like Georgia Tech, TCU, and Notre Dame above us is crap. Also, Texas above OU? Considering the last ten year. No way.

The basketball schedule is out!

There is a good mix of cupcakes and big programs on here. A home game with LSU will be great. We will face Arizona in the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series, which I have never heard of and is not at all a rip of the ACC/Big-Ten Challenge. I am excited to see some east coast games. If our boys can take care of business at home I will be watching them in the Big Apple. That new deal with ESPN is nice, all but one of our conference games will be on TV and we have a Big Monday game. I don't see the game with Emporia State that was going to be on for Nov 1. This schedule must not include the exhibition games. I also need to remember to fly in early on Wed so I can catch the Alabama game.

Here it is, in all of its glory:

Nov 9	Fri	McNeese State	College Station Reed Arena	TBA
Nov 13	Tue	Preseason NIT (Opponent TBD) Reed Arena	College Station Reed Arena	TBA
Nov 14	Wed	Preseason NIT (Opponent TBD) Reed Arena	College Station Reed Arena	TBA
Nov 21	Wed	@ Preseason NIT Semifinals Madison Square Garden/New York	New York, N.Y. Madison Square Garden	TBA
Nov 23	Fri	@ Preseason NIT Championship Madison Square Garden/New York	New York, N.Y. Madison Square Garden	TBA
Nov 28	Wed	Alabama	College Station Reed Arena	TBA
Dec 2	Sun	@ Arizona Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series	Tucson, Ariz. McKale Center	TBA
Dec 8	Sat	Texas State	College Station Reed Arena	TBA
Dec 16	Sun	Arkansas-Pine Bluff	College Station Reed Arena	TBA
Dec 19	Wed	Detroit	College Station Reed Arena	TBA
Dec 22	Sat	UC Irvine	College Station Reed Arena	TBA
Dec 29	Sat	Florida A&M	College Station Reed Arena	TBA
Dec 31	Mon	Rice	College Station Reed Arena	TBA
Jan 5	Sat	LSU	College Station Reed Arena	TBA
Jan 12	Sat	Colorado *	College Station Reed Arena	3:00 PM	ESPN Regional
Jan 16	Wed	@ Texas Tech *	Lubbock, Texas United Spirit Arena	8:30 PM	ESPN2
Jan 19	Sat	@ Kansas State *	Manhattan, Kan. Bramlage Coliseum	3:00 PM	ESPN
Jan 23	Wed	Baylor *	College Station Reed Arena	TBA
Jan 26	Sat	@ Oklahoma State *	Stillwater, Okla. Gallagher-Iba Arena	1:00 PM	ESPN
Jan 30	Wed	Texas * State Farm Lone Star Showdown/	College Station Reed Arena	8:00 PM	ESPN2
Feb 2	Sat	Oklahoma *	College Station Reed Arena	3:00 PM	ESPN Regional
Feb 5	Tue	@ Iowa State *	Ames, Iowa Hilton Coliseum	7:00 PM	ESPN Regional
Feb 9	Sat	@ Missouri *	Columbia, Mo. Mizzou Arena	12:30 PM	ESPN Regional
Feb 16	Sat	Oklahoma State *	College Station Reed Arena	2:30 PM	ABC
Feb 18	Mon	@ Texas * State Farm Lone Star Showdown/	Austin, Texas Erwin Center	8:00 PM	ESPN
Feb 23	Sat	Nebraska *	College Station Reed Arena	3:00 PM	ESPN Regional
Feb 27	Wed	Texas Tech *	College Station Reed Arena	7:00 PM	ESPN Regional
Mar 1	Sat	@ Oklahoma *	Norman, Okla. Lloyd Noble Center	1:00 PM	ESPN
Mar 5	Wed	@ Baylor *	Waco, Texas Ferrell Center	8:00 PM	ESPN2
Mar 8	Sat	Kansas *	College Station Reed Arena	1:00 PM	CBS
Mar 13- Mar 16	Thu- Sun	@ Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship Sprint Center/Kansas City	Kansas City, Mo. Sprint Center	TBA
Mar 20- Mar 23	Thu- Sun	@ NCAA 1st/2nd Rounds	Site, TBA	TBA
Mar 27- Mar 30	Thu- Sun	@ NCAA Regionals	Site, TBA	TBA
Apr 5- Apr 7	Sat- Mon	@ NCAA Final Four Alamodome/San Antonio	San Antonio, Texas Alamodome	TBA

McGuffie picked Big Blue. Here is a clip of his decision. Beware of the ass clown from rivlas.com. He has a flare for the dramatic, mostly when he compares McGuffie to Niel Armstrong. Why not the Aggies? He loves us, but wanted to "experience new things." Maybe ice fishing?

Pulled this on from the Big Lead. Here is a (giant) photo of the KU QB. Can McGee grow a better stache than that? Can anyone?I bet his favorite thing about high school girls is that they stay the same age.

The new uniforms are on full display... be prepared to be underwhelmed. Someone should also tell Cody Wallace that America's Next Top Model does not fidget.

Dickie V (who I personally cannot stand, anyone know if Dick and coach K are friends?) put Joe Jones on his "All-Rolls Royce" 2nd team, saying he should have a "monster year" and "could surprise some teams with his athleticism." Not everyone is buying it what Dick is selling, claiming Joe was "constantly outplayed by less-heralded teammate Antanas Kavliauskas last season." That is hard to argue with. But Dick is looking as what will happen, not what has happened.

Turgeon has commented that Joe will likely stretch his game "15 and 17 feet" while DJ works the blocks. Maybe Dick thinks Joe will dominate at that spot. Joe did well muscling up the bigs, so there is every reason to believe he can do the same to 3s and 4s. It is questionable whether or not he is quick enough to get a jump on the faster players, but maybe he gained a step or two at the NBA camps this summer.

So I am way behind on this one... The new seating chart is out for men's basketball:I have not been to a basketball game at Reed in a long time, so these observations may be years late, but I am liking this set up. 1) They have lined the court with super expensive court side seats. The only people that were court side before were a handful of media-types, which was lame. These seats go a long way to making basketball the fashionable thing to do when you are in College Station. Think Lakers here. You less likely to recognize who is playing next to Kobe than you are who is sitting with Jack court side. 2) No HUGE storage area behind one basket. That was always so Bush league. Putting the band back there on a few levels of risers made it more obvious/obnocsious.

What would I change? Get ride of the $$ seats behind one basket. Make a lottery where 50 students get to stand there the whole game. Call it the Aggie Pit or something. That would be a national icon. Kid would go nuts. There might need to be some sort of cage or plexieglass to prevent a player from plucking one of the hecklers out of the Pit and tearing him in half. Man that would be great. You would get at least a few thousand students to every game, even the ones over Christmas, just for a chance to get into the lottery and stand in the Pit. I am thinking a pre-game "The Price is Right" type of thing where names get called kids come running down from their seats. Someone call $Bill, this idea has legs.

According to the NY times, J-Train has weight issues and his year-old daughter's love of Chuck E. Cheese isn't helping. WTF? Is there a Chuck E. Cheese in College Station? If there is I am going to be mad. All the time I wasted at Gatti Town could have been well spent at Chuck E. Cheese. Stupid Gatti Town and their stupid lack of giant animatronic mice.

[UPDATE] I just looked it up. THERE IS A CHUCK E CHEESE in CS! It is in the mall. I lived across the street from the mall. DOH!

"Uber-athlete"/running back Sam McGuffie of Cypress Cy-Fair will announce his commitment on Friday. His list is down to Michigan and Texas A&M. This kid is FAST (4.32, and has perfected the jump-over-the-tackler move. Check out his highlight reel.

As impressive as that running is, so is the blocking. In half of those runs McGuffie has blockers 10 yards down field. Can we bring some of those guys too?

What are Tech players saying about us?

Defensive back Joe Garcia

They get better every year. They’ve got talent, they recruit talent, they’ll always have talent.

Wide receiver Danny Amendola, on the Red Raiders’ run of five victories in six years over A&M

“They’re a good team, they always are and we expect that this year, but we’ve had our share of success against them.”

Here are some pics (via the 12th ManChild) of the new Adidas uniforms:
And yes, those are silver pants... sigh.
And the new Maroon Out shirts (again, thanks to the 12th ManChild for keeping me informed):
I have NO CLUE what is on the back of the shirt. The text says "Home of the 12th Man" and the graphic appears to be some sort of bird, or wings, with a human head at the point where the tips of the wings meet. Anyone know what that the graphic actually is? or when the class council started dropping acid?

Here is a pic of Acie in a NBA summer league game...If this is a real picture, I cannot imagine how the play went down. The only thing I can think of is that either the dude who is getting a face full of D or 21(Pops of GW) was very confused about where the screen was going to be set. So Pops went hard, and the other dude stopped short. I will ask Acie how it all went down, he has great baseline seats for the game.

I am not sure the pic is real. Unless they are playing without a ball (not pictured) and Pops has had his arm amputated above the wrist.

I just got this email...

The Texas A&M Women's Basketball Team is coming to DC to play George Washington on December 20. The team will be in DC from Dec 18 to Dec 21. In addition, the Traveling Aggies as well as folks for the Association plan on bringing students and fans from outstide the DC area to the game.

How about that! The Aggies will be playing in my backyard. Anyone making this trip?

Here is my (late) contribution to the Aggie Round table, Be sure the check out what the rest of the gang had to say: The 12th Manchild, Off Tackle, and Texas A&M & Baseball.

1. Which game on the schedule scares you the most?

Tech. Always Tech. In CS, in Lubbock, on Mars. It will stay this way until we beat them at every sport every year and drive them back to where they belong, irrelevancy.

2. Coach Fran: Is he really on the hot seat this season?

Normally I would say a DI coach is ALWAYS in the hot seat a year after getting his ass handed to him in a bowl game. But we won in Austin.... Ya, the win saved him last year. This is a new year. His seat is hot. He better win out and home and bring back a bowl win.

3. It's game day in Aggieland and you're on campus tailgating. Where are you? What's in your right hand, and what's in your left hand?

Here is where I admit that I am part of the problem. I don't tail gait. I know, I know, visitors judge our fan-quality by the acreage of drunk BBQ buffets and over-aged/out-of-shape touch football games. But tradition is tradition. So to answer the question: I am at the Dixie Chicken with a cheese burger in the left hand, a cup of beer in the right, and an annoying kid who to is way to young to be playing pool in a bar to my front and center while his father is reliving the glory days via spoken word to a not-so-interested-in-playing-42 wife.

Anyone want to invite me to their tailgate this season (Louisiana-Monroe and Texas)? La-Mo is a 6pm game, so I think I can wake up in time to satisfy the tradition then walk my ass clear across town to a tail gait. I might not make it if there is a Play Station 3 trailer in route. Please send all appearance requests to my assistant at Aggie.Sports at gmail.com

Our 07-08 basketball schedule has not been released, but you can add mighty Emporia State to the list of home games. This will be the "sixth straight year ESU coach David Moe has squared off with Mark Turgeon in exhibition action." How weird is that? It is one thing for Wichita State and Emporia State to play each other every year, they are only 90 miles apart and in Kansas you take what you can get. But to keep that game up when it is a 600 mile trip, that is strange.

The media has voted... Texas is their favorite. Shocking. We did get one first place vote. Here is the break down of the 1st place votes:

North
1. Missouri - 16
2. Nebraska - 8

South
1. Texas - 16
2. Oklahoma - 7
3. Texas A&M - 1

Of the 24 voters, only one of the anonymous voters picked a dark horse. That is terrible. 4 of the 12 teams received all but one vote and two teams received 3/4 of the votes. What happened to making an interesting pick? I would love to see how far these guys had Duke going in last season's NCAA basketball tournament.

As pointed out by jcandy, the athletic department's web site finally posted a story about the Adidas deal. No numbers yet, but it does say it is 7-year deal. Looks like their "compression banding" (wtf?) that really impress $Bill and NOTHING to do with the fact that Nike would not match Adidas's offer.

Good news for those of you without an ESPN Insider subscription. ESPN.com has made the Blue Ribbon fall preview of Texas A&M football viewable free of charge. I have not read it yet, but I did scroll through and found this:

Grading the Aggies
Unit	Grade
Offense	A
Special teams	B+
Defense	B
Intangibles	A-

I get annoyed when I see pre-season gradings that have "+"s and "-"s. Do these guys really need that extra level of granularity when judging the quality of a team has yet to take a snap? Some how the traditional 5 grading letters do not allow the analyst to encode all of his football genius.

The athletic department's move from Nike to Adidas was made official on Monday, the contract details were "not immediately available." I am going try and keep an eye on this one. When Adidas signed Michigan, it was "valued at $60 million in cash and merchandise, plus a $6.5 million signing bonus." It would be nice to know the market value of TAMU.

Anyone know how much our Nike deal was worth?

In other news... Josh Carter is among the 14 finalists for the 2007 USA Pan American Games men’s basketball team. De Andre Jordan, playing with Team USA in the U19 World Championships, put up six in six in a win over Serbia.

SI made a list of the best and worst college football coaches. Fran made the list, can you guess where?

Second worst coach.

Ouch.

While I am not sure he needs to be THAT high on the list, it is hard to argue with their reason "a program like A&M's should never be this mediocre for this long." Prove'em wrong Fran!

Acie singed a deal with Hawks where he is guaranteed $1.605 million as a rookie and $1.726 million his second year.

One of ours is coming home. The Texans inked two-time Super Bowl winner Bethel Johnson to a one-year $650,000 deal after he was released from his lengthy 3 month stint in Philly. That spleen really seems to be holding up nicely.

Yahoo Sports via Rivals.com have a nice summary of what to expect from our boys this fall. Here is the 10 second version:

Offense
QB: B+
RB: A
WR/TE: B-
OL: A

Defense
DL: B-
LB: B-
DB: B

Special Teams
K: C
P: A
KR: A
PR: Incomplete

Coaching
Head coach: C
Offense: C+
Defense: B

Average: B (my calculation)

Fran Fraschilla from the four-letter network gave DJ high praise when breaking down the the US U-19 team. According to Fran DJ will likely give NBA commissioner David Stern "giant hug" as one of the "top five picks" in the draft next year. He isn't there yet though. His hands are "average" and "his defensive skills are ahead of his offense." But as a "very agile big man who is quick off his feet" with a high levels on the "give a damn meter" (wtf?) he can be the "dominant big man in college hoops next season."

I am really looking forward to Joe Jones turning Tim Duncan on us. Let me see that that stutter-step 10 foot bank shot Joe!

The dog days of summer are here...
Donald Sloan, playing for Athletes in Action, dropped 12 in a come-from-behind win over Borat's native Kazakhstan. DJ, playing for Team USA in the Global Games, had 9 points and 10 boards in the 102-51 beat down of Africa.

The Global Games is a strange tournament. How do three soon-to-be Aggies from Houston end up playing in same tournament that includes: Four countries, a territory, a continent, a NBA summer team, a community college team (College Junior Teams is made up of Collin County Community College players), and a collection of what I am guessing is incoming freshman (B.J. Holmes and Nathan Walkup both play for Global Games AA)?

Buzz Williams, former assistant under Billy Gillispie at TAMU, has resigned from his head coaching position at the University of New Orleans to "pursue other career interest." Off-camera Buzz said he intended to take an assistant coaching job at Marquette.

Thank goodness for these round tables. They are the only thing from keeping this blog from complete hibernation. Be sure the check out what the rest of the gang had to say: The 12th Manchild, Off Tackle, and Texas A&M & Baseball.

1. If you could go all crazy diaper-wearing-astronaut and cruise around to Big XII campuses, which players would you kidnap and make Aggies? (Hat tip to Burnt Orange Nation (grr) for coming up with this concept.)

Every Texas Tech wide receiver. Or better yet, the Texas Tech wide receiver coach. I saw something on Gameday a few years ago on how they catch tennis balls and jump through sand. Seems odd, but these guys catch everything. Including fades in to the corner for a road win, or so I hear.

2. Describe your perfect fall Saturday. (Note: if this doesn't include a college football game, a man card will be deducted.)

The perfect fall Saturday goes like this: drag your ass out of bed VERY early in order to get to the Chicken three hours before kick off. Eat a cheese burger and fries. Choke down a pitcher of beer while trying to ignore all of the physiological "THIS IS A BAD IDEA" signals your body is sending. Slowly make the walk across Northside. Point out your dorm room to the people who know exactly where you lived because, well, all of your friends are from the dorm. Stop at A1, no one want to .... at Kyle. Get to your seats before the 60 min clock starts. Talk about how you will stand your ground when those d-bags show up in the second quarter with 6 of their closest friends who have tickets somewhere on the third deck try and squeeze in. Explain to people that you sit on your seat/stand on the seat in front of you. Mock these people. Refuse, loudly, to do the new yells. Get a sun burn. (Here come the corny party) And beat the hell out of a DII team! Talk about going out that night but end up falling asleep in the shower or while waiting for the shower.

3. A&M's road schedule is formidable this season. Which game presents the biggest challenge? Which game is the most winnable?

The away games are Miami, Texas Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Last year we lost to Tech, Nebraska and Oklahoma by a total of six points, at home. We beat Missouri, also at home, by six. Didn't play Miami. They finished 3-5 in the SEC last year.

What is the biggest challenge? I am going to go with Tech. This seems like a game we should win (where as OU is not a game we should win) but we never win. Breaking this pattern going to be a challenge.

What is the most winnable? I am going to be ballsy and say Miami. The fact that they play some tough games before us, and we play nothing but cupcakes before them, may mean they are better prepared. Better prepared does not mean better, and I think we are better.

4. What was the greatest sporting moment you've ever experienced/witnessed? Did you experience it in-person or on the television/radio?

I would first like to offer my condolences to anyone whose greatest sporting moment (assuming it is an Aggie sporting moment) was experienced via radio. For the bottom of my heart, I am sorry this sacred memory was delivered to you by the voice of Aggie Land, Dave South.

My moment has to be when Dominique Kirk sprained my ankle while celebrating the victory over Texas in 2005. After beating Texas, the fans, for what is probably the first time in Reed Arena history, rushed the court. By some miracle I ended up next to my favorite player, Dom-Kirk, who was jumping up and down in celebration. One of his celebratory jumps ended on my ankle. I am just happy he didn't sprain his.

That was a Dave South free memory.

5. Which Aggie football player most resembles a Transformers character and why? ( i.e. Jorvorskie Lane = Unicron the dude who eats planets)

I really tried to answer this question. I googled Transformers. I went to the website. I did not see a single robot that looked like one of our players. Sorry.