He is America’s favorite abbreviating, computating pigskin pundit. College football analyst extraordinaire Phil Steele checks in for “Five Burning Questions” on the upcoming season, including the next Auburn and his most anticipated match-ups of the year. 1. Last year, you were pretty high on Auburn from the jump. If there’s another team out there that […]

(Editor’s note: Yesterday, we kicked off “Favorites” week with Tom Perry talking about his favorite player of all time, Major Harris. Today, Michael Felder lets us in on the bro he’s rooting for in 2011.) We’re running “Favorites” week here at The Crystal Ball Run, so I felt it only right to break out something […]

Simply put, there is no better variable to indicate future success or failure for a college football team than their schedule. You can have all the talent in the world, the best coaching staff money can buy, and an All-American quarterback, and yet, all it takes is some crotchety old guy in your conference office […]

Rumors swirled all weekend that supposedly damning information about the Longhorn Network contract between Texas and ESPN were coming, and the revelations from Texas A&M blog Midnight Yell certainly generated some breathless commentary. In an unusual twist of events, it would seem the knee-jerk reaction in this case actually might be the right one. Let […]

(Editor’s note: Welcome to “Favorites” week at Crystal Ball Run. For the next few days, CBR writers will weigh in with some of the things – a person, a place, a game – that makes college football the best sport ever invented. First up, Tom Perry discusses the guy who made the Mountaineers so much […]

The Air Force Falcons are perennially one of the best-coached teams in the country and have a chance to make some noise in the Mountain West Conference in 2011. Frank Schwab covers the cadets for The Gazette in Colorado Springs, and he gives his take on the state of the program heading into the fall. […]

Want the secret to finding the soft spot of one of college football’s hardest coaches? Apparently all you’ve got to do is be able to hit 500 foot home runs and gun a runner out at home off one hop from deep centerfield. So is the curious case at Nebraska, where notorious hot-head/big-scary-mean-guy Bo Pelini is […]

Throughout its opening week, Crystal Ball Run has looked at the clubs that we consider to be the favorites in college football entering the 2011 season. Finally we’ve reached No. 1. And you shouldn’t be surprised who it is… Crystal Ball Run Preseason Top 10 No. 1 – Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma in a Word: Scary […]

After asking the toughest questions earlier in the week about Auburn, Ohio State, Florida and Georgia, it’s time to take a look at the newest team in the Big Ten, the Nebraska Cornhuskers. We can’t tell you if Nebraska is a Leader or a Legend, but what we can tell you is that Nebraska is […]

Every year at baseball’s trading deadline, a handful of contending teams usually take the opportunity to make one last big pick-up for the stretch run. Maybe you need a Carlos Beltran to give your lineup a little pop. Perhaps another arm for your bullpen, like, say, Mike Adams? Obviously, college football programs don’t have that […]

Crystal Ball Run Preseason Top 10 No. 2 – Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama in a Word: Reloading Alabama may be without its top playmakers (Julio Jones, Mark Ingram and Greg McElroy) from last season, but Nick Saban has stockpiled talent in Tuscaloosa. It’s like old-school Bama football. Legendary Crimson Tide coach Bear Bryant would be […]

Our countdown of the Top 10 teams on the Crystal Ball Run takes a trip to Baton Rouge to visit the grass-eating, riverboat gambling, hat wearing son of a gun Les Miles and his LSU Tigers.  Can LSU make its third trip to the national championship game in New Orleans in the last decade? Crystal […]