While most Americans who watched Sunday’s Super Bowl XLII were thrilled with a close game that wasn’t decided until the final seconds, Financial Times ($) Simon Kuper examines why American football does not translate well to other cultures:

. . . few foreigners watch American sports. The media agency Initiative tallies audiences for sporting events, counting only the average number of live viewers who watched from home, and not in places like bars. It estimated that of the Super Bowlís 93 million live viewers in 2005, just three million were outside north America, including nearly one million in Mexico.
Meanwhile, game four of baseballís World Series in 2005 attracted about 21 million viewers in north America and Mexico, and fewer than one million elsewhere (all of them possibly American expats). And the last game of the NBA finals in 2005 drew fewer than one million live viewers outside the US, according to Initiative.
American sports suffer partly from having arrived late: the British empire got everywhere first. Kevin Alavy, an analyst at Initiative, says: ìIf people have been following the same sports for 50 or 100 years in a country, itís hard to break into that.î

Continue reading →

Now that the long college football season has finally ended, the more avid fans turn to the annual period of speculation (see previous posts here and here) as to where the top high school football players will end up playing college football. Along those lines, the Sunday Morning Quarterback blog provides this interesting post that attempts to correlate the top big-time college football programs’ performance relative to the rating of their recruiting classes over the past several years.
The entire SMQB blog post is well worth reading and I don’t want to give anything away, but let’s just say that Texas A&M appears to have made the right decision after last season.

As At the beginning of the past two football seasons (here and here), I noted the trend of the blogosphere replacing the mainstream media as the more reliable and insightful source of information on the Houston Texans.
Now, as the Chronicle’s Texans beat reporter writes about odd people who call into radio talk shows, Stephanie Stradley and Outlaw (see also here) size up the Texans’ main personnel and coaching needs as the team enters the off-season.
As these posts reflect, the blogosphere is definitely rapping the knuckles of the Chronicle right now in the competition of providing meaningful information to the public about the Texans.

Following on this earlier post on the most overpaid big-time college football coaches and now that the seemingly unending college football season is mercificully over (and the playoff proponents want to make it longer?), the College Hot Seat posts its final grades (related blog post here) for the big-time college football coaches.
No Texas coaches get an “A.” Texas Tech’s Mike Leach is the highest graded Texas coach at a B+.

Let’s see now. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has had one of the best seasons from a performance standpoint of any QB in NFL history. He led his team to a 16-0 record, which is the best regular season record in NFL history. And someone still actually voted for Brett Favre over Brady as the NFL’s Most Valuable Player?
I think I know who voted for Favre.

A frequent topic on this blog (see earlier post here) is how the NCAA’s hyper-regulation of big-time college football causes all sorts of financial disparities, not the least of which is that a part of the excess rents that should be paid to compensate players is paid to the top head coaches.
Well, not that big money paid to coaches is a hot topic on college campuses or anything, but I bet that the following performance of the five top-paid college football coaches will be the subject of at least a few conversations in faculty lounges around the country:
1. Charlie Weis ($4,000,000) – worst season in Notre Dame history.
2. Bob Stoops ($3,620,000) – fourth Oklahoma BCS bowl loss in a row.
3. Nick Saban ($3,503,000) – ‘Bama avoided a losing record with an Independence Bowl win.
4. Urban Meyer ($3,384,000) – Gators have four losses with a Heisman Trophy winner at QB.
5. Kirk Ferentz ($3,030,000) – After finishing last season 6-7 with a bowl loss, Iowa finished this season 6-6 with a loss to a 5-7 MAC team and no bowl game.
H/T Get the Picture.

(AP photo; previous weekly reviews here)
Texans 42 Jaguars 28

The Texans (8-8) beat the Jaguars (11-5) junior varsity team to achieve their first non-losing season in the team’s six year history. The difference in this one was two kickoff returns for TD’s and a fumble recovery to set up another by Texans’ WR Andre Davis, who the Texans picked up off the scrap heap just before the beginning of the season. Talk about a nice bargain buy.
So, with the final game of the season in the books, now the season of unending media analysis of the Texans’ sixth season opens. The lead-up to the game prompted yet another incoherent outburst from Chronicle sportswriter Richard Justice (compare that to this largely contradictory blog post from less than two weeks ago), whose inept coverage of the Texans over the past several years (see here and here) rivals fellow Chronicle columnist Jose de Jesus Ortiz’s coverage of the Stros for sheer incompetence. For an even-handed and insightful evaluation of the Texans’ season by position, see this Lance Zierlein blog post.
Despite their 8-8 finish, the harsh reality is that the Texans have not made much progress since the end of Year Three, when they finished with a similar 7-9 record and comparable statistics versus the league. Based on the steady progress of the Texans during their first three seasons of existence, former Texans coach Dom Capers made the ill-fated decision to make several fundamental changes on both offense and defense between Year Three and Four in an effort to elevate the Texans to playoff-contention status. As we all know now, those decisions had precisely the opposite effect, leading to a disastrous 2-14 record in Year Four.
That experience prompted Texans owner Bob McNair to clean house, change the management structure of the team and effectively start over with an untested assistant coach as the new head coach. Through Year Two of the Gary Kubiak era, there is still no clear indication whether the Texans will be any more successful under Kubiak than those first Texans teams were under Capers.
On the positive side, the defense has a nucleus of young players with potential, so with proper seasoning, that unit could develop into an above-league average unit over the next couple of seasons. Similarly, Kubiak & Co. have made a number of savvy personnel moves, particularly in improving the wide receiving corps. On the other hand, Kubiak’s supposed area of expertise — i.e., the offense — has been plagued by a couple of really bad personnel decisions, initially the decision to keep QB David Carr, then the decision to go long on over-the-hill running back, Ahman Green.
Is Kubiak the coach to turn the Texans fortunes around? I don’t know, but I am impressed by his willingness to recognize mistakes and make changes, which reflects that he is not burdened with the stubborness that often undermines NFL head coaches. Inasmuch as continuity in coaching staffs and personnel is one of the most common elements of successful NFL teams, my sense is that Kubiak has shown enough that McNair would be prudent to endure the mistakes of this young coach on the hope that such stability will ultimately be rewarded with a winner. Goodness knows McNair deserves it, given the excellent facilities and support that he has always provided to the Texans football operation.
But just don’t count on big improvement next season. The better bet for a Texans playoff drive is the 2009 season.

Texas Longhorns 52 Arizona State 34

The Longhorns (10-3) dominated Arizona State (10-3) in an entertaining Holiday Bowl game that firmly established Longhorn Coach Mack Brown’s son-in-law — Chris Jessie (pictured above) — as one of the most unlikely “almost-scapegoats” in the storied history of Texas football. Despite the satisfying win, the Horns have several big issues to resolve during the off-season, such as shoring up a leaky defensive unit and replacing star RB Jamaal Charles if he elects to turn pro. The Horns are loaded with talent, but it’s unlikely that they can overtake Oklahoma in the Big 12 South without substantial improvement in their defensive unit.

Penn State 24 Texas Aggies 17

Do you think it’s possible that A&M’s Alamo Bowl experience could have gone any worse?
First, an Aggie Yell Leader at a pre-game pep rally exclaimed that legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was “on his death bed” and “needed a casket.” Check it out:

The Yell Leader’s bad judgment prompted embarrassed university officials to fall over themselves apologizing to Paterno, who was gracious in playing down the incident.
Then, after taking a quick 14-0 lead in the game, the Aggies turned the ball over three times in allowing Penn State to dominate the rest of the game. The killer turned out to be a failed fourth-and-less than one yard call midway through the 4th quarter inside the Penn State five yard line. Rather than simply diving for the first down, Aggie QB Stephen McGee fell down for a loss on a busted option play while pile-driving 275 lbs RB Jovorskie Lane sat on the bench. That prompted Lane to break down crying (h/t Jay Christensen).
Thus, the demoralizing Alamo Bowl defeat was a fitting end to the disappointing Coach Fran era at A&M. New Aggie coach Mike Sherman has a number of pressing personnel issues to address, not the least of which is what to do about QB McGee, who returns next season for his senior season. A QB’s performance is often adversely affected by peer effects, so McGee’s poor showing this season may be the product of an obsolescent option offense and below-average WR’s. But my sense is that McGee does not pick up secondary receivers well enough to flourish in the pro-style passing offense that Sherman wants to implement next season. As a result, don’t be surprised to see a new QB under center for the Aggies next season.

TCU 20 Houston Cougars 13

As noted earlier here, it’s far from clear at this point as to whether former University of Houston head football coach Art Briles made the right career decision in leaving UH to take the Baylor head coaching position.
However, one thing is clear. Briles’ decision to bail out on his UH team before its bowl game — along with taking his top two offensive assistants with him — probably cost the Cougars their first win in a bowl game in 27 years. The way Briles abandoned his UH team has hurt his reputation, particularly considering that new A&M coach Mike Sherman and new UH coach Kevin Sumlin both completed their responsibilities with their current teams before assuming responsibility for their new jobs. Briles will need his good reputation if things don’t work out at Baylor, which is not an easy place to improve one’s reputation as a football coach even under the best of circumstances.

(Michael Conroy/AP Photo; previous reviews here)
Colts 38 Texans 15
Call it the dog days of the long and arduous NFL season. The Texans (7-8) are a young and uneven team whose only motivation at this point is attempting to achieve the best record in franchise history (8-8), which isn’t saying much. On the other hand, the Colts (13-2) coming into this game didn’t have much reason to put out much effort given that had already clinched their fifth straight AFC South title, the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the playoffs. So, what was the result?
Peyton Manning carved up the Texans’ defense like it was a holiday turkey in generating a season-high 458 yards and 33 first downs. The performance was a big step backward for the Texans’ defense, which had been showing progress over the past month or so. Meanwhile, after a couple of productive games over the past two weeks, the Texans’ offense reverted to form in generating only 299 yards, even though none of the Colts regular defensive linemen played and the Texans were playing against the Colts’ reserves for much of the second half.
Oh well, the Texans still have a decent chance to achieve the best record in franchise history next Sunday at Reliant Stadium if they beat the Jaguars (11-4), who have also locked up their playoff spot and will be playing reserves liberally throughout the game. Another loss for the Texans would leave them at 7-9 for the season, which is the record I predicted for the Texans before the season. Regardless of the season-ending record, however, it’s hard at this point to project that this team is going to make substantial improvement in its record next season.