The 2006 College Football Blogger Awards are moving toward their inevitable conclusion and, as my final act of participation in this year's ceremonies before being shuffled offstage to the losers' lounge for my obligatory interview with Dave Foley following the latest of my two losses to Orson Swindle (insert your smart-aleck reference comparing Orson to Steve Spurrier and me to Ray Goff here), I have the honor of presenting the award for the Best Non-B.C.S. Blog, which goes to the best blogger covering a team from what I now know better than to refer to as "mid-major" conferences.
I am proud to say that I was one of those who nominated and voted for the weblog that won in this category, so I am especially pleased to announce that the winner of the award for the Best Non-B.C.S. Blog is . . . Block U.
I'm a fan of Block U, although he likes Kristin Davis for misguided political reasons. (Photograph from Art.com.)
Block U has proven to be a powerful presence in the blogosphere, which led me to write the following when placing the Utah weblog into nomination:
In addition to raging unapologetically against the machine in support of his team and lobbying to get a coach fired, JazzyUte also brings a few laughs to his enterprise, welcoming such guest commentators as John Madden and George W. Bush to his weblog.
It is fitting that Block U would finish first in this category, as the Utes were the first team from outside the six major conferences to make it into a B.C.S. bowl game and there is no weblogger more adamant in his defense of the quality of football being played under the radar and off the beaten path. For what it's worth, JazzyUte, you're making headway . . . and, if that were not reward enough, now you've got a trophy to go with it.
We need not leave the borders of the Beehive State to recognize the second-place finisher in the balloting for this award, as the B.Y.U. blog Provo Pride was the silver medalist in this category. A seemingly random sampling of the divergent strands woven into Mitch's coverage of the Cougars may be found among his thoughts after the fifth viewing of the B.Y.U.-Utah game, which contained salient observations upon a variety of points interspersed with such gems as the description of defensive lineman Soli Lefiti as "a strange lookin dude." That's the kind of trenchant analysis you don't get just anywhere.
Kudos to cross-state rival bloggers Block U and Provo Pride for claiming the top two spots in the standings for the Best Non-B.C.S. Blog award.
Although Rutgers alumna Kristin Davis was disappointed that no Scarlet Knight weblogger won a College Football Blogger Award, still she displayed enough class to applaud the people responsible for the 2006 C.F.B.A.s during a recent late-night talk show appearance. (Photograph from Yahoo! GeoCities.)
Although the awards announcements are not yet over, my participation in them is for this year, so I would like to take this opportunity to praise the efforts of Rocky Top Talk's Joel, who had an excellent idea and executed it effectively. Nice work, Joel.
Next up is the award for the Best National Blog, for which I direct your attention to Every Day Should Be Saturday approximately 60 minutes hence.
Go 'Dawgs!