2007 College Football Blogger Award Nominations

Here are the nominations I intend to submit for the 2007 College Football Blogger Awards. I'm sitting out a few categories as you can tell. I don't read many ACC blogs, so I don't think I'm qualified to nominate someone there. For other categories where it seems pretty obvious who is going to win, like best podcast (cough Orson cough), I decided to not waste my time.

Dr Z Award

FOR: Cogent, interesting analysis.

CRITERIA: Emphasis placed on statistical manipulation, well researched pieces that reveal something new, and/or solid argumentative pieces that function as the authoritative last word on a subject.

2006 Winner: MGoBlog

2006 Runner Up: Sunday Morning Quarterback

BSD Nominates: Sunday Morning Quarterback - SMQ consistently puts out insightful commentary and backs it up with hard statistics. His analytical prowess is only matched by MGoBlog's UFR.

The Trev Alberts Quits To Do Construction Award

FOR: Comic relief; overall hilarity.

CRITERIA: The funniest college football blog.

2006 Winner: Every Day Should Be Saturday

2006 Runner Up: Hey Jenny Slater

BSD Nominates: The M Zone - From hilarious YouTubes of beer bongs and Ohio State fans pissing themselves to amazing photoshops and satire, Benny and Yost put out some of the funniest stuff you'll read on the internet. I've really cut back my daily reading lately, but The M Zone is still a daily read for me.

Black Heart Gold Pants - They are the Chris Rock of the college football blogosphere. Their profanity laced tirades are enough to make a sailor blush, but they're damn funny.

The Job Award

FOR: The blog that has suffered through its chosen team's dismal season with the most dignity.

2006 Winner: Hey Jenny Slater

2006 Runner Up: Orange 44
BSD Nominates: Lake The Posts - Most Northwestern fans are afraid to show their faces from August through December. Lake the Posts actually blogs about them. And he does it well.

Temple Football Forever - The name says it all. Temple football...forever, man. That is dedication for a team that has only won eight games in the last five years.

The Keith Jackson Circa 1995 Award

FOR: The blog with the most consistently expressive and excellent writing.

CRITERIA: Mechanical competency, yes, but the ability to turn a devastatingly funny phrase or write something compelling is probably more important. This isn't an award for copy editing; it's an award for kickin' prose.

2006 Winner: Every Day Should Be Saturday

2006 Runner Up: Dawg Sports

BSD Nominates:  Ronald Bellamy's Underachieving All-Stars - Nobody captures emotion and expresses it in words better than Johnny. It's just a shame he doesn't post more often.

The Brady Quinn Award

FOR: The prettiest blog.

CRITERIA: An aesthetic appeal and usability. The best looking and most functional blog.

2006 Winner: Bevo Sports

2006 Runner up: Men of the Scarlet and Gray

BSD Nominates: Michigan Sports Center - A very sharp and classy banner accompanied with handy links in the sidebar and impeccably formatted posts with interesting and poignant illustrations. Michigan Sports Center is easy on the eyes and well laid out.

Best New Blog

FOR: The best new college football blog.

CRITERIA: Must have launched sometime after last year's national championship game. Transitioning to a new blog or affiliating with a network mid-stream doesn't count.

2006 Winner: Fire Mark May

BSD Nominates: Lake The Posts - Excellent writing you would expect from a smart school like Northwestern.

Tangled Up In White and Blue - Easily the best little known Penn State blog out there.

Best Community

FOR: The blog with the best community interaction.

2006 Winner: Burnt Orange Nation

2006 Runner Up: Every Day Should Be Saturday

BSD Nominates: MGoBlog - Brian could post an inventory of his desk drawer and get 1500 comments. Nobody else can come close to competing with that.

The Tyrone Prothro Award

FOR: The finest individual post of the college football year.

CRITERIA: There aren't any, really. The post that you liked the best for whatever reason.

2006 Winner: YOUR SCHOOL'S PROMOTIONAL AD IS TEH SUX0RZ! GRAND CRU: APPALACHIAN IS HOT HOT HOT! by Every Day Should Be Saturday

BSD Nominates: A Penn State Football Carol Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV by Tangled Up In White and Blue

The Old Faithful Award

FOR: The best recurring feature of the year.

CRITERIA: The feature should be posted weekly and be generally good and stuff.

2006 Winner: Friday Morning Quarterback by Sunday Morning Quarterback

2006 Runner Up: The Fulmer Cup by Every Day Should Be Saturday

BSD Nominates: The Fulmer Cup by Every Day Should Be Saturday

No other offseason activity garners as much interest as the Fulmer Cup.

The Blue White Roundtable by Run Up The Score, There Is No Name On My Jersey, The Nittany Line, The Nittany Notebook, William F. Yurasko, and Black Shoe Diaries

I know I'm not supposed to nominate myself, but since it's really a group effort I figure it's ok. As far as I know BWR was the first collective effort by a group of bloggers to commit to a weekly roundtable. This regular feature went on for over a year as a Penn State fan favorite and was imitated by many other groups of football bloggers.

The Week in Schadenfreude by Brian Cook of AOL Fanhouse - Any time you felt disgusted with your team for needing a last second field goal to beat a clearly inferior opponent you could tune in to The Week in Schadenfreude and feel a lot better about yourself. I'm sorry to admit I was a feature in Brian's column more times than I really wanted to be.

Best Big Ten Blog

FOR: The best blog covering a Big Ten team or the Big Ten in general.

2006 Winner: MGoBlog

2006 Runner Up: The M Zone

BSD Nominates: Black Heart Gold Pants, Michigan Sports Center, The M Zone

Mythical National Champion

FOR: The best blog, overall.

2006 Winner: Every Day Should Be Saturday

2006 Runner Up: Sunday Morning Quarterback

BSD Nominates: MGoBlog - Brian once again hit it out of the park with a combination of sharp tongued wit and unparalleled analysis. But this year he stepped it up by breaking major stories before anyone else. His coverage of Lloyd Carr's impending retirement was scoffed at by many, but soon ESPN was citing his story (also crediting it to an "internet rumor") and he later proved to be correct. His daily and almost hourly coverage of the coaching search was unlike anything I've ever seen. He was putting out information faster than the MSM and he was doing it accurately. Brian is by far the best the college football blogosphere has to offer.