I found these pictures while surfing some message boards.  I thought they were pretty cool.  They are custom made covers for EA Sports NCAA Football 09, which comes out in July.  Some guy is a Photoshop pro, he makes them all.

Alright...as alluded to in the morning links, Mizzou opens NCAA Regional play this afternoon down in Athens, GA.  They are ranked 16th in the field of 21...and will need to come in 8th or better to move on this season.  They are facing a pretty darn tough bracket, considering they are ranked 45th in the nation.  Let's see how they are doing....

After examining the Nouveau Riche of Illinois and Kansas, it seemed inevitable that SMQ would work its way around to Mizzou's newfound fortune.

I can only assume this is in the works for tomorrow's Mizzou Links, but I haven't seen it linked anywhere else and thought it was an interesting enough read to open up a diary for comment before the morning calls.

While most people will roll their eyes in reaction to the fact that the NCAA certified two more bowl games for 2008, I roll my eyes that the Rocky Mountain Bowl was not certified!  What...is the NCAA prejudiced against Mormons or something??

Seriously, this could have been the best of both worlds for me--more bowl games and a Plus One game.  But alas, I only got one wish instead of two...and it was the infinitely less significant wish.

Now as far as football teams in Ohio go, doesn't this photo scream more "Cincinnati" than "Cleveland?"

Please note that this diary has been tagged in the never-before-used category "General Badassery."

To complete the full American experience of this post, include this soundtrack. (Warning: Soundtrack definitely contains language NSFW)

Demarre Carroll and Kurtis Gregory acted as the welcoming committee.

On April 29, 2008, Max Scherzer entered the Astros/Diamondbacks game and only threw 4.1 innings of no-run, no-hit, no-walk ball while striking out seven. Ho-hum. I'm only going to start making comparisons to Atlanta's famed rotation now...

ESPN's Jeremy Mills checks in with his projections for the College World Series, with Missouri traveling to Ann Arbor, Mich. in a regional with Arizona, Michigan and Kent State. Mizzou is one of six Big 12 teams Mills has making the tournament.

The entire post can be found here.

ESPN's Todd McShay has Willy Mo and the ex-Florida star teaming up in the Jacksonville secondary circa September 2009, according to this 2009 mock draft (Overkill? You be the judge.)

One of my favorite reasons for being associated with SportsBlog Nation, the lovely MinorLeagueBall.com takes a look at Mizzou's own Max Scherzer and, not too surprisingly, has good things to report from a relatively small sample size.

Scherzer has been a monster this year. Through four starts for Triple-A Tucson, he has a 1.17 ERA and a superb 38/3 K/BB ratio in 23 innings. He's holding hitters to a .146 average. The Diamondbacks promoted him to the major league roster yesterday. Current word is that he will be pitching relief, but an opportunity to start soon could arise, particularly if Micah Owing's ankle is still bugging him later this week.

What can we expect from Scherzer? When everything is right with him, he features a blistering fastball that sinks. His slider is also very strong, and his command has been terrific this year. There's still some question about his changeup, and it remains to be seen if Scherzer will fit best as a starter or reliever in the long run.

Scherzer's statistical track record isn't long enough to draw any massively broad conclusions based on the numbers, other than saying his K/IP confirms his dominance.

That's right loyal and faithful Rock M Nation readers....I am going to keep you posted throughout the day with the progress of the Men's and Women's Golf Teams as they compete in the Big XII Championships.  The women come into play evidently ranked 50th in the country, which is good enough for 7th in conference (though OU, Tech, Nebraska and Iowa State are within 9 spots of them).

For the men...well...they are not ranked, but only 4 men's teams are.

A little on the scoring...5 will compete for the day, but the high score is thrown out.

Anyway, the men are off already and the women teed off at 9:00 a.m., so I will keep you posted through the morning as best I can.

Well, it's finaly here! I've been waiting for these two games to come to town so I don't have to drive all the way to COMO to watch a sport in the cold...