Links and videos from recent happenings around the sporting world. If you come across good articles, videos, etc. – please pass them along, I’d love to take a look.

College Football:

The 1st week of college football is in the books and here’s your Forde Yard Dash – Michigan, Maryland, & Utah State give us something to talk about.

A new week also means news polls and terrible rankings thanks to idiot voters – AP Top 25 and USA Today Coaches Poll. I don’t understand how anyone can have LSU and Boise State outside of the top two considering both have the most impressive wins of the season. Also, can the coaches that vote please explain how TCU is still ranked ahead of Baylor?

Realignment figures to be a prominent story throughout the season and it appears Oklahoma – not Texas – holds the fate of the Big 12. I imagine rumors will continue to fly all over the place until teams actually start moving conferences.

Here is the latest (from last week) on conference realignment from Jon Wilner regarding discussions between the Pac-12, Texas and Oklahoma.

Andy Staples chimed in on the possible realignment and says A&M to the SEC could happen today and then the dominoes will fall. Unfortunately, it seems inevitable that the “story” this season will be off the field.

College GameDay guest picker and college football fan Mark Cuban weighs in on what the Big 12 schools should do. He says to Say No to Super Conferences and of course his argument makes sense.

College Football writer Bruce Feldman made the jump from ESPN to CBS after being suspended by the world wide leader. I’m just excited to be able to read his content again – thanks CBS for actually freeing Bruce!

Speaking of Feldman, here are his thoughts on the first week of action – At first glance, Pac-12 seems lacking including other random information.

Boise State RB Doug Martin vs Georgia

Photo via ajc.com

Matt Hayes’ 1st and 10 says Boise State could take on the SEC among other items – while we’ll probably never know how the Broncos would fare in the SEC (better than you think) it’s nice to hear some more national pundits giving them the respect they’ve earned.

Boise State senior left tackle Nate Potter anchors the O-line and has big expectations for 2011 but has work left to prepare himself for the NFL.  I’m  happy to see Potter get the preseason recognition he deserves and can’t wait to see how he finishes his senior year.

Of course I’m still basking in the glory of Boise State defeating Georgia from the mighty SEC. I included some Boise State-Georgia links on my College Football Week 1 Recap but found a few more that I just had to share:

- Boise State is (still) who we thought it was. Let the debate begin, again. [Dr. Saturday]
- Forget the score, No. 5 Boise State dominates No. 19 Georgia [CBS Sports]
- Boise State DL comes up big again [ESPN]

I tweeted this last weekend after the game but figured I should mention it on here too - Chris Petersen has wins against Bob Stoops, Mike Riley (2), Mike Bellotti, Chip Kelly, Kyle Whittingham (2), Frank Beamer, Gary Patterson and now Mark Richt. Not too shabby.

Now that the Boise State has beaten Georgia, this Grantland article sums up a popular opinion of the Broncos – Annoying Boise State. Clearly I disagree, but some of you might have similar feelings.l (HT Dave Smith)

This is another piece from Grantland about Nike and the success at Oregon is pretty interesting – the author (Michael Kruse) says the reason Oregon is so good is because of their uniforms. There are definitely some interesting points brought up but I think it’s a bit of a stretch – Oregon’s dirty Pro Combat unis didn’t seem to help against LSU on Saturday night. (HT Ryan Craven)

This one actually pertains to high school football but since I don’t really cover that I put it here. Three Forest Park H.S. (Indiana) linemen flipped a burning pickup truck to save a pregnant woman. As Adam Kramer said, “Get these gentleman scholarships.” (HT Kegs ‘n Eggs)

Soccer:

Arsene Wenger and Arsenal seemingly turned the transfer deadline into Christmas morning signing Chu-Young Park, Andre Santos, Per Mertesacker, Yossi Benayoun, and Mikel Arteta in the last two days of the transfer window. For once, Dreadline day was fun, but questions remain - obviously the new signings wont cure all of Wenger’s problems but surely they should help.

If you’re anything like me, you spend most of your FIFA time playing Career Mode. Fortunately for us, EA has made some improvements for Career Mode for FIFA 12 as noted in this video:

(HT EPL Talk)

Surfing:

I’m not sure if I missed all the surfing links this week or what but this is the only surfing link I have this week – How to hold your breath longer with tips from big wave charger Mark Healey. This is actually something we could ALL use.

Any good articles or videos I missed? Happy Humpday Everyone!