Things have officially swung too far the other way, and it's kind of depressing. It used to be fisking was fun, but now with so many people quite literally begging for the attention and links, what's the point?

If you're interested you can watch a really long, loud commercial here.

And then see the 15 seconds of desperate attention grabbing afterwards.

If you don't want to watch, it goes like this: The worst non-BCS bowl game is, according to an expert from Rivals, none other than the Penn State-LSU Citrus Bowl.  It's not Southern Methodist vs Nevada, not Iowa State vs Minnesota, but the one with the biggest payout that matches up higher ranked teams than any other available for selection.

Why? Because it's going to have "good defensive, hard-nose football," which is just awful, apparently.

And there are lies of course, things like "all season long both teams have really labored to score," which is apparently what it's called to finish second* in the Big Ten in, uh, scoring, and 19th amongst BCS schools in yards per game.

(*Behind only Wisconsin, who didn't have to play Penn State's defense, and who somehow played an easier set of OOC opponents than Penn State.)

What's probably most outrageous, and ends any believable argument that this guy is serious, is the idea that Joe Paterno, a bowl legend, and Les Miles, who hasn't lost a bowl game at LSU, don't drive a compelling story...or that the brand name of the schools alone isn't enough to make this watchable.

Because no one is even going to notices let alone care about--oh wait:

via nittanywhiteout.com

I think I'm supposed to be outraged by all of this. "WTF IS HE THINKING?!?" ect. But how can anyone even take this guy seriously?

Ridiculously under-thought "expert analysis" used to simply pass as truth, and that's how FJM and its less wide-reaching decedents starting do what they did (to some extent, I consider myself par to this crop).

But now fisking is such a big business, pageviews so clearly the #1 priority, that people are no longer doing this because they are arrogant, but because they really need the attention.

Jason King is an idiot, and the "work" he's doing is actually making people dumber, but there actually seem to be more of the Gregg Doyels around now than before FJM became a staple.

Penn State has apparently sent out some media information:

PSU just sent an email to beat writers saying "in the event psu is selected to the Cap One bowl here's the teleconference info" Its official

Update: Now it's for reals.

The BCS Selection Show is on Fox at 8 p.m., but because there are way too many parties involved to keep a secret, it appears mostly IS a done deal: Penn State is Capital One Bowl bound.

Just to recap a crazy day: there was no reasonable scenario in which the second Big Ten team went anywhere but the Fiesta Bowl. That was yesterday. Then semi-credible people started saying the Fiesta Bowl was "falling on the sword" for the BCS and taking two mid-majors.

If I had to guess (because we need more unsourced rumors here), this was likely a lead by the Fiesta people, and with reaction being universally bad, it looked like they changed their mind. A Big Ten team was going to the Fiesta Bowl after all.

More semi-credible people were saying Penn State was still in the mix.  Then they were almost certainly Iowa, largely based on a source who told David Jones that Penn State had been told to book hotel rooms in Florida for the Capital One Bowl.

But that information is from Jones, who is the same guy who called the TCU-BSU Fiesta Bowl a fake rumor, claiming Iowa was going to Arizona after all. [Note: From the link above, which has been updated.]

Which became significant because several more people chimed back in later, including the New York Times, to say the mid-major championship is in fact happening and Iowa is headed to the Orange Bowl.

So whatever, it should be fun to see the truth at 8.

One last thing, it sounds like LSU is in fact filling the other sideline in Orlando.

The SBN site BCS Revolution asks the question: Is there a reason to stay up all night running the numbers? And of course and answer is no. Not one single vote or computer position matter, mostly because we've had one of the least memorable national races in years.

The Alabama-Florida game was a good one, Cinci toyed with hearts in Pittsburgh in an entertainingly ugly win, Nebraska fell short in their attempt to screw the whole thing up in the most heartbreaking of ways, but in the end it comes down to this: Media and coaching voters simply aren't going to bump a national and historic power from the #2 spot, and we're getting the MNC everyone has expected for months now.

The only real drama today is the football vs. money debate between Penn State and Iowa. One school will play Monday, January 4th against what looks like Boise State, the other on New Year's Day at 1 p.m. against LSU.

The BCS selection show is tonight at 8 p.m. on Fox. May the most lucrative school win.

Update: Interesting sourceless-rumor from Tim Brando:

[3:00 p.m. update -- After a morning of badly sourced rumors indicating that the Fiesta might pair up two small-conference undefeateds, signs now point toward Iowa in the Fiesta and Penn State in the Capital One vs. LSU. -- RUTS]

Let's do this one more time for kicks.  In a sign that there is truly no accurate information out there, from the NYT:

No matter what ends up actually happening in two hours, the one thing we know for sure is that everyone was wrong about everything at one point today.

The main event is at noon, where thousands of Notre Dame fans who had to buy this game as part of a ticket package fill up Heinz Field for a battle between Cinci and Pitt, the winner having the pleasure of being the auto-BSC bid that will be picked last as the kid at the playground nobody wants on their team.

All of the early events:

12:00 PM ET    No. 5 Cincinnati at No. 15 Pittsburgh - ABC
12:00 PM ET    No. 21 Houston at East Carolina - ESPN2
12:00 PM ET    No. 23 West Virginia at Rutgers - ESPN
12:30 PM ET    Fresno State at Illinois - Big 10 Network

More threads at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

I'll take those odds.  We really are looking at a coin flip for the Fiesta.  Rittenberg has some good quotes from those who run things:

"We've got a long and storied history with Penn State," Alba said. "They've been here six times and are 6-0. We kind of grew up together, in a lot of ways. They were very instrumental in our growth and our development. ... On the other hand, you look at Iowa, and we've never had them. We have no history with them, but they have been on our wish list for many, many years. We've always tried to get them, and for whatever reason, it just never was able to work out. "You look at both universities, and there's appeal on both sides for different reasons."

It all seems very interesting but isn't, and the theme is that Alba is totally uncommitted to anything and wants people to know it.  Iowa isn't taking this quietly (TFJ: BHGP):

As far as our football team, I'm not here to pit us against anyone else, but I think a couple things really stand out. If you look at our team, the way they've competed on the field, the head to head results that we've had, we did beat six Bowl eligible teams. Two of them were non conference games. So we're proud of that certainly. And I thought our guys did a great job taking a very challenging road schedule, and they embraced that with four victories and an overtime defeat at a very, very tough opponent's home field.

So they're sticking with the head-to-head thing, although I'm not sure the Fiesta Bowl people actually care about that.  It at least sets up for a nice "we've been robbed" moment if Iowa is passed on.

And of course all of this is a wash if Nebraska can somehow do the impossible this weekend against Texas.  A Husker win puts the Big Ten decision with the Orange Bowl, in which case I really like our chances or maybe it's all a wash in the OB taking Texas.

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Ohio State had the last game on the last day of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge last night. And when they won their favorable matchup, predictability ensued:

Threebler Leads OSU, Big Ten to Challege Victory

After 10 years of heartburn, the Big Ten finally broke through in the ACC/BigTen Challenge thanks largely to Jon Diebler's sniper skills as the Buckeyes defeated Florida State 77-64 tonight in the Schott giving the conference a 6-5 series win.

I understand that, yes, the Buckeyes win meant the Big Ten won the fake challenge. But winning a game at home in which you were seven-point favorites does not make you the hero, even if you are Ohio State.

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There's not much action to watch right now, but to get this long wait off on the right foot I sat down with your friend and mine, Hawkeye State from BHGP, to talk about, well, I'll give you three guesses.  The second half, linked at the bottom, is over at their place:

Hawkeye State: So I'm assuming we're going to be discussing the reasons Ceasar was so successful in his campaign against the Gallic tribes in the First Century B.C., right? I mean, there's nothing going on between our schools right now...

Kevin HD: That's a great place to start. You know the Gallic Wars never would have happened had Ceasar not been in so much gluttonous debt back in Rome. Oh, speaking of glutton and money, the BCS.

Let's do this backwards: Why does Penn State absolutely deserve a bid over Iowa? And remember: Godfather Paterno is watching you.

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