Hats off to the Penn State University!

With two-time champion Boston College dropping out of the rankings this year, Penn State’s Nittany Lions moved up from sharing the number two spot in last year’s ranking to take over the top spot. The Stanford Cardinal, which is making its Academic BCS debut thanks to an 8-4 season, takes the second spot as the only other squad to receive more than 100 points under Higher Ed Watch’s calculation. These two teams are followed by Cincinnati (number four last year) and Boise State (eighth).

Meanwhile, this year’s top football contenders wouldn’t even come close to competing. In fact, the University of Texas, which is scheduled to face the University of Alabama in the title game, again comes in dead last in the rankings. The Longhorns have occupied the bottom rung now for the past two years, and only an appearance by the University of Hawaii in 2007 has kept them from the three-peat. Other poor performers are the University of Arizona, the University of Oregon, and Oregon State University.

As for the current defending champion University of Florida Gators, they will not be competing for the BCS title this year, but they can take some solace from the fact that their score increased 10 points in the rankings, moving them from 21st to 20th in the poll.

via Third Annual Academic Bowl Championship Series Rankings | NewAmerica.net.

Philadelphia Phillies cap logo (1970-1991) ™ Philadelphia Phillies

Only one team is happy at the end of every season and unfortunately the New York Yankees are that team after defeating an often out of sorts 2009 NL Champion Philadelphia Phillies team in game six to take the World Series 4-2. Hats off to them. Today you will see snide comments about the Yankees buying the championship, none of those sour grapes here. The Phillies are consistently have one of the top 10 baseball payrolls and are one of these big market teams that supports the salary cap-less MLB system and from what I can remember are fine with the status quo. I think the real turning point was Alicia Keys’ hips. I know I couldn’t concentrate.

Our 2008 World Series MVP Cole Hamels and our perfect 2008 closer Brad Lidge were shadows of their championship selves in 2009, and our prolific lineup and scrappy bullpen weren’t able to compensate for that on MLB’s biggest stage.

We couldn’t do it for Harry Kalas. If you turn on WIP 610 AM or ESPN 950 AM, I am sure you will hear Phillies fans who are ready to hate both of them forever. Not Me. As a fan of the Phillies, Eagles, Sixers and to a lesser extent the Flyers, I refuse to forget any of the guys that brought us that drought ending championship parade down Broad Street on Halloween 2008. At 32, it was the only championship I actually remember.

Thanks to the Philadelphia Phillies for an exciting 2009 season. When do pitchers and catchers report?

“Getting a hit is great,” Rollins said. “You know, getting a win for driving in that winning run is even better. The pileup and the beatdown that happens afterwards, that can be pretty dangerous, especially when Ryan Howard is the first guy out there. But then I guess he’s kind of like a shell at the same time, a little bit of protection.

“Only thing I didn’t want to do was get crushed, so I just kind of went in fetal position and started throwing punches, and whoever got hit, got hit. Ben Francisco did a pretty good job of throwing his arm around my neck and restraining me, so I think I caught the worst of it. So it’s a lot of fun, but that’s what we do.

“Baseball has changed, you probably didn’t have celebrations like that in the past, but today guys show emotion, I guess, a lot differently,” Rollins added. “That’s a good way to go into an off-day, but we understand we still have a job to do, and that’s over. The celebration, that part is done. We look forward to the off-day and getting back to Wednesday, trying to close it out.”

via Rollins’ walk-off has Phils win from Series | MLB.com: News.