A wild week 11 in the NFL causes the Pine Rider to reflect on a weekend that gave us the first tie in 6 years, the most underachieving team in the league, and angry thoughts on why the greed of the NFL can really irritate a man...

The official start to the ACC basketball season is less than 24 hours away, tipping off at 7:00 pm tomorrow with a game pitting Delaware against Duke. While that game may not entice you to watch ACC basketball this year, there are many other reasons to keep tuned to the best basketball conference in the nation.

Several sources are now reporting that Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer will be let go at the end of the year. A press conference will be held at 5:00 pm today confirming the announcement. Not sure right now if he was fired or stepped down, but you have to think it was coming all along. Right now the Vols are 3-6 after an embarassing 27-6 loss to South Carolina on Saturday. They have 3 winnable games left, with hoem games against Wyoming and Kentucky and a road game against Vanderbilt. Fulmer will be allowed to coach out the rest of the season. This season may end up worse than Fulmer's 2005 season in which the Vols finished 5-6 despite having several talented players remaining from a 2004 team that throttled Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl. Last year, UT went to the SEC championship game and lost to eventual national champ LSU by a mere 7 points. However, many still felt the team wasn't as good as it should be, getting drilled by rivals Alabama and Florida by a combined 63 points. This year, those same two teams beat UT by a combined 44 points.

It will be interesting to see who UT goes after, and also how Fulmer goes out.

Happy Halloween from the Pine Rider to all college football enthusiasts. This weekend boasts two matchups of teams in the top ten as well as some other interesting games to look at. One top 25 team not playing this week is Ball State (remember, the school David Letterman is from?). In honor of the Cardinals, we'll pick this weekend's games using one famous alum from each school playing. Enjoy!

The list of potential star running backs could probably be longer, but alas we rarely see those backs listed so far down the depth chart that no one ever notices them. So here's my list of guys that need more love from somebody, because they could be starters anywhere.

Ah yes...another exciting weekend of football is upon us. The Pine Rider once again showed his prognosticating prowess last week, despite the Buckeyes taking their "Paris Hilton" frustration out on Michigan State. Upset picks of BC over VT and TCU over BYU helped my cause in a week where only 4 picks went astray (thanks a lot Wahoos, for showing up to a football game).

The reality of this year so far for Herm Edwards and his Kansas City Chiefs' squad is an ugly one. The team is dead last in the AFC in passing, mostly due to the musical chairs at quarterback. Forget the childhood game, it's been more like Russian Roulette, but every turn finds a bullet piercing deeper into the bare fact that KC doesn't have a quarterback.

The top 25 finds a new king upon it's throne this week. After a huge upset win over Oklahoma, Texas received more votes than anyone, despite how Lou Holtz feels about Colt McCoy. On top of that, we learn that while OU isn't the best team in the nation, they may not even be the best team in their own state! Their bitter rivals from Stillwater went into Missouri and stunned the Tigers, and that capped the first weekend in a long time that we haven't been buried with SEC talk. But, the Gators are lurking...

A slow weekend in the ACC was rocked by a "fired" coach, an Irish defeat, and an uprising in Charlottesville.

All season we've been told by various media outlets and football analysts that the NFC East is hands down the best division in the NFL. This weekend may have changed all that, with 3 of the 4 teams getting handed embarrassing losses.

Tommy Bowden and the University of Clemson ended their 10 year relationship together Monday morning according to various media outlets, the first reporting of the move coming from tigerillustrated.com.

I have to admit in recent years I haven't been much of a NBA fan. Ever since my favorite player of all time (Shawn Kemp) became irrelevant, my favorite team left town (Charlotte Hornets), and the strike in the late 90's, the NBA has become like the ex-girlfriend that every now and then when you're bored you think about calling her up, but then remember the reason you left her in the first place, and you put the phone back down.

In a move that makes one think of the term "reactive, not proactive", Clemson Tigers football coach Tommy Bowden benched ACC preseason POY Cullen Harper on Friday, the day after another anemic performance from the senior QB. On Thursday night, Clemson managed a meager 198 yards of total offense against Wake Forest, coming away with only 7 points in the contest.

A brilliant week for the Pine Rider last week, nailing 17 of the 19 games. My two misses were USF's loss to Pitt and Fresno's debacle against Hawaii. This weekend there is a whole bucket load of great games, and unless your gonna be dragged out into the beautiful fall weather to do some outdoor activity by your wonderful spouse as I may be, your football lovin' arse should be planted firmly on your couch because every time slot has some great matchups to watch.

Week 6 gave us 2 shutouts in conference, one being a complete surprise. There was also a nail-biter in Raleigh, and (gasp!) a good game between the Canes and Noles that flew completely under the radar. Did the Hokies keep their #1 ranking? And is Virginia still dwelling in the cellar despite a big win over Maryland? All this and more in this week's ACC rankings!