The Blue Workhorse

Schedule/Results:

* Game 1: Saturday noon EST (ESPNU)
* Game 2: Sunday noon EST (ESPN)
* Game 3: (if necessary) Monday 1 PM or 7 PM EST (ESPN/ESPN2)

Chapel Hill Super Regional

North Carolina (45-16) vs. East Carolina (45-16)

North Carolina Tar Heels -
Road to the Super Regional: The Tar Heels have put together another solid campaign currently owning a 45-16 record, including a split of two games against East Carolina. North Carolina finished 19-10 in the ACC winning the Coastal Division but didn’t fare well at the end of the season or in the ACC tournament finishing just 5-5 over their final 10 games. They didn’t let that deter them in the Chapel Hill Regional as they swept through barely breaking a sweat winning over Dartmouth (5-2), Coastal Carolina (14-5), and Kansas (12-1).

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Greenville Regional

1. East Carolina Pirates (42-17) vs 4. Binghamton Bearcats (29-20)
2. South Carolina Gamecocks (38-21) vs 3. George Mason Patriots (42-12)

Winner to take on champion of Chapel Hill Regional.

The East Carolina Pirates are a team to watch during the regional weekend. They have one of the most balanced combination of pitching and hitting in the country ranking in the Top 20 in both runs and ERA.

Third team All-American Ryan Wood (.387, 13 HR, 52 RBI) leads a potent offense that is hitting .341. He is only one of six sluggers who has batted over .320 and knocked 11+ home runs. Two of those hitters, Stephen Batts and Kyle Roller, have also driven in over 60 runs this season.

Unfortunately, for their opponents, the Pirates aren’t just an offensive juggernaut. ECU features two top-end starters in Chris Heston (7-0, 3.44) and Seth Maness (9-1, 4.15 ERA) and a guy at the back of the bullpen that can close out any game in sophomore Seth Simmons (3-1, 2.65 ERA, 9 SV, 43 K in 34 IP).

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Last week, almost every favorite won. This week…college football became a world of upsets.

The craziest part: besides Georgia’s loss to Alabama, the six other upsets were all by teams outside the Top 25! Who would’ve expected an Oregon State squad that lost to Stanford and was hammered by Penn State to upend USC or Wisconsin to blow a 19-point lead to a Michigan squad that hasn’t had an offense all season?

Another week means another re-evalution, and thus, we give you our new The Blue Workhorse College Football Top 25 after Week 5. Some things to note from this week’s rankings:

* With all of the upsets, there is not a single team that is in the same position as last week.
* After a week hiatus, Oregon and Fresno State return to the Top 25.

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The 7-11 PM (EST) time slot on Saturday had the best collection of games on national television since the midday (3:30-7) slot on September 16, 2006 when #3 Auburn won a 7-3 battle with #6 LSU, #12 Louisville blew out #17 Miami, #11 Michigan put it on Brady Quinn and the #2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and #18 Oregon scored in the last minute to beat #15 Oklahoma.

That September day was a great day to be a college football fan. Along with these four games, there were 3 other games that featured matchups of two teams in the top 25. While there were only two top 25 battles this weekend, both games (LSU/Auburn & Wake Forest/Florida St) were featured in the evening along with a big-time Pac-10/SEC battle between Arizona State and Georgia.

The favorites won in each of those games, but East Carolina and Oregon weren’t as lucky as both were upset.

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Everyone ballyhooed the USC/Ohio State “Collision in the Coliseum” (yea, naming individual games is dumb) as perhaps the biggest and best game of the year.

Whoops! Yea, not so much. Let’s try Georgia/Florida or Oklahoma/Missouri.

Another whoops involving the Pac-10: The conference went 0-4 against the Mountain West in Week 3 including Arizona State losing any title hopes.The Sun Devils must have been looking ahead to their impending game against Georgia this Saturday. How in the world did they lose to UNLV?

Another week means another re-evalution, and thus, we give you our new The Blue Workhorse College Football Top 25 after Week 3. Some things to note from this week’s rankings:

* The last four teams are all joining the Top 25. Utah and Vanderbilt make their first appearances while Clemson and Virginia Tech both rejoin the rankings.
* Biggest gainer: South Florida gained 6 spots after a come from behind victory over Kansas on Friday night.
* Biggest loser: While the Bulls leaped up 6 spots, Ohio State, who is currently tied at #12 with South Florida, fell 6 spots after being thrashed by USC.

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East Carolina shocked the nation. After upsetting Virginia Tech in Week 1 using BeamerBall against coach Frank Beamer’s own squad, the Pirates thoroughly dominated the West Virginia Mountaineers just physically manhandling the preseason Big East front runner.

East Carolina’s quick start makes them the leading candidate to be the BCS buster this season and could potentially make the Conference USA championship game a battle of unbeaten squads between the Pirates and either Tulsa or Rice.

What if Utah or BYU also goes undefeated in the Mountain West Conference? What if Fresno State or Boise State goes undefeated in the Western Athletic Conference? If there were three undefeated BCS busters, what would the BCS do? The system might explode like a time bomb. Well, we’ll have to wait and see.

Another week means another re-evalution, and thus, we give you our new The Blue Workhorse College Football Top 25 after Week 2. Some things to note from this week’s rankings:

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I watched several of the college football games that were televised throughout the day on Saturday. There were some good games, some blowouts, some close calls, and another upset for East Carolina.

I didn’t get to watch much of the late games because I had to go to work, but here are some things I observed about certain players and teams from the games I was able to see:

* East Carolina is no joke. They are a physical squad that wasn’t afraid of West Virginia or their high powered offense. Just like last week against Virginia Tech, they were tougher than their BCS conference foe.

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On Monday, the NCAA announced the 64 collegiate baseball teams to earn the honor to be a part of the Division I national tournament, which will begin Friday at noon when the Missouri Tigers take on the Ole Miss Rebels. In preview of the regional tournaments that will be held this weekend, throughout the week our resident college baseball fanatic Rosenblogger will examine each individual regional:

Conway Regional

1. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (47-12) vs 4. Columbia Lions (22-28)
2. East Carolina Pirates (40-19) vs 3. Alabama Crimson Tide (34-26)