From the team that brought you “Super Troopers” and “Beerfest” comes yet another raunchy R-rated comedy.

However, the college-aged crowd doesn’t seem to be the focus of comedy troupe Broken Lizard in this case; instead, their newest film, “The Babymakers,” is directed toward post-college age adults who are now dealing with issues such as marriage and children.

Perhaps they’re attempting to follow their fans into adulthood or reach a wider audience, but this market is not a good choice for Broken Lizard. They should stick to what they do best, as proven by the cult-like success of their previous films and leave the romantic comedies alone.

That said, I don’t think this movie deserves quite the amount of negative feedback it has received. The film currently has a nine percent on RottenTomatoes.com, and its box office results were extremely disappointing.

There is some foundation for this unenthusiastic response. In many cases I wasn’t sure whether the movie was taking itself seriously or not, and some scenes are so random and over-the-top they almost made me regret watching.

For example, there is an excruciatingly long scene toward the end of the film in which one of the main cast is repeatedly slipping in a giant pile of semen. There’s also some mildly offensive humor with homosexual stereotypes and an adopted Chinese girl named Jackie Chan.

Overall, though, the actors do a decent job with what they’re given. Paul Schneider (“Parks and Recreation,” “Lars and the Real Girl”) and “Attack of the Show!” veteran Olivia Munn work well with the script, even though they seem aware of its ludicrousness.

The two play a couple who have been married for three years and are discussing having children. Munn’s character, Audrey, brings up the subject during their anniversary dinner, and after initially mistaking the talk for hints toward anal sex, Tommy (Schneider) is on board with the idea.

After pursuing it for months, however, Audrey and Tommy are met with no results, and they’re bored with trying. Everyone in the couple’s life begins to immediately assume the issue is Tommy’s fault. This leads to the beginning of his exaggerated paranoia regarding his manhood that lasts throughout the film.

They finally seek medical help, and Tommy discovers he has an extremely low sperm count. Even though Audrey seems ready to deal with the issue, Tommy insists the doctor must be wrong. In his defense, he confesses to donating sperm for months in order to pay for Audrey’s engagement ring, proving he must have viable goods.

But when the couple arrives at the sperm bank to recover the rest of Tommy’s old sperm they discover there is only one “batch” left, and it’s promised to a couple. Tommy panics, convinced Audrey will divorce him if he can’t provide her with the children she wants so badly.

This is when he and his two friends, Wade (Kevin Heffernan, “Super Troopers”) and Zig-Zag (Nat Faxon, “Ben and Kate”) – probably the two worst characters in the movie – plan to steal the last batch from the sperm bank before it’s used Monday.

The rest of the film involves their quest for the last batch, a team-up with an ex-member of the Indian mafia (played by director Jay Chandrasekhar) and an extremely long scene during which Tommy is carrying the sperm and being chased by the police.

If the entire movie was downplayed about 50 percent, it could be really good. It’s obvious there are creative people on the project, but somehow the delivery failed completely.

If you can look past the oddly juvenile adult humor, this has the potential to be an enjoyable movie, and I’d recommend it to anyone with lowered standards and time to waste.

Just don’t go into it expecting much.

As the year comes to an end and the holidays quickly approach, there is a lingering shadow over the cheer and jolly that has reinstated the political banter of election campaigning. The shadow is the upcoming “fiscal cliff” that will follow the ball dropping in Times Square on New Year’s Day.

Unless both sides of the political aisle can agree on a deficit plan to prevent the federal government from going over the metaphorical cliff, the country will face automatic budget cuts to the defense budget and programs such as Medicare and the Federal Pell Grant Program — an important issue for students to pay attention to. These changes are a direct result of the Budget Control Act of 2011 going into effect — the congressional response to the country nearing the debt ceiling and not coming to a compromise on whether to raise it or not — and the expiration of tax cuts passed during George W. Bush’s time in office.

Just as tempers raged in the months leading up to the election, lawmakers continue to prove that bipartisan antics hindering productivity have just as much of a stronghold on the political landscape afterward — even in the face of economic turmoil.

The primary issue is how the government plans to raise revenue, and definitions of revenue generation differ across the political spectrum. To do this, our lawmakers are faced with a choice. On one side, the tax rates can be raised for those who make more than $250,000, and tax loopholes can be closed to increase revenue, leaving the amount of spending the same. On the other side is the notion that cutting spending on government programs and extending Bush-era tax cuts would be the best solution.

Both of the ideologies make logical sense. The only question is which plan is easier for the U.S. to predict the turnout of after it is implemented. Lawmakers should be working together to find a solution, instead of making “Taxpayer Protection Pledges” to not raise rates, a tactic spearheaded by conservative figure Grover Norquist. This pledge is a childish way for legislators to go about avoiding a compromise.

Regardless, the fate of the country’s economy and the lives of students relies on the ability of Congress and the president to come to a compromise which is literally impossible if the climate of bipartisan arguing continues.

For two consecutive afternoons the national sports scene — including ESPN and Sports Illustrated — held its breath in eager anticipation, focusing absolute attention upon the quaint town of College Station, Texas. They wanted an answer to a simple question.

Who exactly is “Johnny Football?”

It was one of the best and worst kept secrets in college football. As a freshman under Kevin Sumlin’s media policy, the 19-soon-to-be-20-year-old quarterback, Johnny Manziel, could not speak to media — at least not with his voice. What the youthful gunslinger did do was take the college football world by storm with magical, and sometimes unimaginable, on-field performances.

Though in his Tuesday press conference debut, and with utmost humility, Manziel was quick to credit his fellow players.

“The individual success that I’ve had, the records that have been broken — without my teammates none of that would’ve been possible,” Manziel said. “Our team success is us coming to together as a unit and because of that, I get the chance to get up here when there could be five linemen up here.”

Still, the media attention remains upon A&M’s beloved signal caller.

For weeks, comparisons were drawn as sports writers and fans deliberated who Manziel most resembled. Legendary names surfaced of days of yore — the likes of Doug Flutie, Fran Tarkenton and Brett Favre — among others.

Johnny Football became a national sensation. His uniquely endearing style of play and knack for making everything out of nothing piqued the curiosity of football fans everywhere. Whether he ran in circles around the Arkansas defense, raced past defensive backs for game-winning touchdowns or caught his own fumble and — somehow — darted a perfect pass to a receiver in the back of the end zone against the infamous Crimson Tide defense, Manziel mesmerized his audiences.

Then there are the statistics.

Manziel’s 4,600 total yards and 43 touchdowns to only eight interceptions are video game numbers. Gamers would be hard pressed to match those statistics with custom-made NCAA football players complimented with the highest possible attributes. He blows SEC Heisman winners Tim Tebow and Cam Newton out of the water and broke the SEC total season yardage record — previously held by Newton — in two fewer games. He’s the fastest player in college football history to reach 3,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in a single season and the only freshman in college football history to ever do so.

In the words of LSU defensive end Sam Montgomery: “Heisman. Give it to him.”

But what Manziel revealed Monday and Tuesday, granting his first words ever to the press, is that he doesn’t believe he’s the superhero everyone makes him out to be. He indicated that he’s, instead, pretty normal.

“I really don’t see myself as the ‘Johnny Football’ craze that’s kind of swept Aggieland and the nation. I see myself as Johnny Manziel,” he said. “I’m a guy from Kerrville, Texas just trying to be a laid back guy who likes to hang out with friends and be a normal college student just like anybody else.”

In only a matter of days, however, Johnny Football will likely transform to “Johnny Heisman.” Fans and media will be forever endeared.

What might never change, trophy or not, is Manziel’s perspective of himself. Johnny will be — well — Johnny.

About the experience, Manziel wasn’t shy to give his thoughts.

“It’s a dream come true.”

U. Maryland announced their departure from the ACC last Monday, Nov 19 for the Big Ten, and the ACC has already voted in its replacement. Louisville will be joining the ACC in 2014 and become the sixth former Big East team to make the ACC move. Although the Big East requires a 27-month notice prior to a team’s exit, Louisville will probably be able to pay more than the standard $10 million exit fee and be able to leave earlier.

Louisville will be an improvement to the ACC and be a much stronger competitor in many sports than the Terrapins. The Cardinals, if they beat the Rutgers in football on Thursday, will be the Big East champions. Louisville boasts a budget ranked higher than any other ACC team, and has a young football team with only five starters graduating after this season. In basketball, the Cardinals have finished either in the Final Four or the Elite Eight four times since the 2004-2005 basketball season. Currently, Louisville is the fifth-ranked men’s basketball team in the nation and maintains the most profitable basketball program in the country every year. The women’s team is ranked seventh. In 2007, the baseball team made it to the College World Series.

Although Louisville is ranked as the 160^th school in the country academically, the ACC believes that its reputation of high academic standards will not be heavily affected by one institute’s ranking. With the addition of the Cardinals, the ACC will have four new members shortly including Syracuse and Pittsburgh in 2013 and Louisville and Notre Dame in 2014.

In the wake of Rutgers’ departure to the Big 10, the Big East announced the addition of two more teams to the conference Tuesday.

Tulane and East Carolina will join the Big East Conference in 2014, with East Carolina joining as a football-only member.

The addition of East Carolina hits close to home for USF football coach Skip Holtz, who coached East Carolina from 2005 to 2009, going 38-27, 28-12 in conference play and winning two Conference USA East Division championships.

“I’m excited for them,” Holtz said. “I think it’s a good program. They have a great fan base and a great following. There are a lot of good people there. (ECU Athletic Director) Terry Holland is a great leader — he is like a father figure to me. I’m happy for them because I know that is a goal that they have had and is something that they have been working hard for.”

The addition will make 13 total teams in the conference in 2014, enough for two divisions and a potential conference championship game.

“We are in a world of a changing landscape when it comes to conference affiliation,” Holtz said. “It seems like every week there are new announcements and speculations and rumors. I think for me right now, coaches are not really included in those conversations. I am sure the administration is doing what they can to create the strongest Big East Conference they can build.”

Next week, USF President Judy Genshaft and Athletics Director Doug Woolard will travel to New York to set the Big East schedule for next year.

The addition of both teams comes as the Big East is negotiating a new television deal. Conference commissioner Mike Aresco spoke to reporters Sept. 13 when the negotiations were beginning, and said the Big East has had some preliminary conversations with ESPN.

“We’ll get into that in earnest pretty soon,” he said. “We value the ESPN relationship… We have a lot of people interested in us. We’ve got a lot of different options. The thing you have to remember (is) we have an enormous amount of quality product. We have outstanding major markets, we have teams that matter in those markets. I like the position we’re in.”

Since then, the 60-day exclusivity window with ESPN has expired, allowing the Big East free reign to negotiate with other channels, such as the NBC Sports Network and Fox.

The addition of the New Orleans media market, thanks to Tulane, could allow the league to become a more attractive candidate.

Though the Big East has added two teams, general speculation remains that the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) — which lost Maryland to the Big 10 Conference on Nov. 19 — will be looking toward the Big East for a 14th member. Sources told ESPN.com that Connecticut and Louisville are the favorites to move to the ACC.

East Carolina and Tulane are two of nine former Conference USA members to move to the Big East Conference.

“We thank East Carolina and charter member Tulane for all their contributions to the league and wish them well,” Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said in a press release. “These are unprecedented times in higher education.”

BEIJING – Before I came to China for my semester abroad, my mentor, a local business owner in Florida and longtime friend, gave me two pieces of advice. No. 1: Think before you speak. No. 2: Keep an open mind. He conveyed to me that China is a land of stark contrasts: immense wealth and abject poverty, deep-rooted history and the fastest-growing infrastructure of any country in the world, intense racism and the most giving of friendships. I had absolutely no idea what was in store for me.

During orientation for the program, the director of the Council on International Education Exchange Beijing gave us an easy comparison to put things in perspective. If you take your parents’ income and divide it by five; take your house size and put five times as many people in it; take your public transit system and put five times as many people in it; and take the difficulty of getting into college and make it five times harder, then you have China.

The thing that perhaps has gnawed at me most since coming to China is the lack of awareness about making and keeping lines. You could say I was in a state of unconscious incompetence when I arrived in Beijing. I was waiting in line at one of the restaurants on campus one morning to grab some 包子 (baozi, steamed buns) before class. The building was pretty packed and people were struggling to push their way through the door, trying to get closer to the front of the line. To be honest, I was a bit shocked. I passed it off as a busy morning or thought there must have been a massive event or something going on. At this point, I had progressed to conscious incompetence. I refused to form a negative view of Chinese culture.

A few days later, it happened at a bus stop. There was a large group of people trying to get on a packed bus, and people began running from the back and shoving their way onto it. I told myself it was rush hour and people needed to get home, but something felt somewhat off. It wasn’t until people began attempting to push in front of me at the ticket office that I realized that is how things are done here. I did some research and we talked about the event in class. At this point, I reached a level of conscious competence.

It turns out there was a massive pre-Olympic campaign to prevent this from happening in the face of the world’s tourists and the global audience. There were slogans, such as “我排队，我文明。我礼让，我快乐,” (“I wait in line and am cultured, I display courtesy and am happy”) that Beijing used to campaign, along with a national 排队日 (lineup day) held on the 11th of every month leading up to the Olympics. Four years later, the inability to queue still seems pretty prevalent. I am told, however, this is only a fraction of how bad it was in the past.

I have learned a few less rude ways to say, “Please stay in line.” These include: “请排队，好吗？” (Please line up, OK?), “不要插队” (“Don’t butt!”), “后面去” (“Get to the back!”), and my personal favorite “你丫怎么插队啊?” (“Why do you jump the line?”) I feel it is as much a problem of overcrowding as it is a problem of scarcity, despite there being only a slight difference between the two. If there are 250 people attempting to take a 100-person bus, it is inevitable there will be commotion trying to get on board. I have no doubt that this would be true in any society on Earth. I’ve witnessed it during rush hour in New York. I think because much of China needs to do it so often, it has permeated into every location: pools, workout rooms, stores, bars and security lines.

I’ve tried to keep an incredibly open mind and have learned to appreciate how different everything here really is. I feel understanding these cultural differences and learning to embrace them has already begun to benefit me and is something nearly everyone needs to accomplish at some point in his life.

Three minutes into No. 3 Michigan’s 79-72 win over No. 18 North Carolina State in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, it was quiet in the Crisler Center.

The student section was full for the first time this season and had been loud during the pregame ceremony when Michigan raised a banner to honor last season’s co-Big Ten Championship. But now, three minutes into the game, the crowd had quieted down, waiting for the Wolverines to get going.

Play started sloppily — the two teams combined for four turnovers in the first three minutes — and Michigan’s starting shooting guard, Matt Vogrich, had just picked up his second foul. Plus, the senior had started off the game with a turnover that led to an easy Wolfpack dunk for the first points of the contest.

In came freshman guard Nik Stauskas, who kick-started the Michigan offense. After a quick Stauskas bucket, the crowd was back into it. Stauskas, and Michigan, didn’t look back. The Wolverines ultimately overcame the relentless play of N.C. State to hang on to the seven-point lead late.

“I’m still coming off the bench, but at this point that’s something I’m fine with,” Stauskas said. “(Michigan coach John Beilein) likes me coming into the game and he is giving me the green light to shoot and do what I want, so you can’t ask for any more than that.”

After his first bucket of the game, Stauskas went on a stretch where he scored 10 of Michigan’s 12 points. He finished the first half with 13 points on five shots and helped key a 16-4 Wolverine run. The Wolfpack had their biggest run of the first half when Stauskas was on the bench, scoring seven in a row. With Stauskas back in the game, Michigan stopped the run and regained the game’s momentum.

The freshman finished the night with a game-high and career-high 20 points, a total that included four 3-pointers.

The other impressive night belonged to sophomore point guard Trey Burke, who tied his career-high in assists, nine, at the end of the first half. Burke finished the first half with zero points and zero turnovers.

The second half started a little differently for Burke. Less than seven minutes after halftime, he hit a pull-up 3-pointer to score his 10th point of the night — and secure his first career double-double. He finished the contest with 18 points, 11 assists and zero turnovers.

“I was getting deep in the paint and guys were kind of shading the perimeter,” Burke said. “(The second half was) when I could get to the rack … it was just matter of making reads.”

The Wolfpack were trying to push the ball at every available opportunity, and also attempted a full-court press at one point. The pressure caught the Wolverines napping at points during fast breaks but wasn’t as effective as N.C. State hoped.

Michigan finished the game with just six turnovers — two of which were given up in the first two minutes of the game. On top of that, the Wolverines’ first turnover of the second half came with 4:34 left in the game.

N.C. State had four players score in double figures, but couldn’t do enough defensively to slow Michigan down. The lead shrunk to within five points with less than a minute to play, but an offensive foul drawn by freshman Mitch McGary effectively sealed the game.

Coming off a championship in the weak NIT Season Tip-Off field, the Wednesday matchup was Michigan’s first real challenge of the season, a statement win against its first ranked opponent of the year.

“I think we have a lot of good options and I think most good teams do,” Beilein said. “I like coaching these guys … they are just good kids to coach. They buy into what you’re doing, whether they played six minutes, didn’t play or played 39 minutes, they have a similar attitude in the locker room.

“If we can maintain that unity, that’s going to be a big part of determining our success.”

For about 17 minutes Tuesday night, Indiana-North Carolina was every bit the fast-paced, up-and-down battle of college basketball heavyweights it was billed to be before a combination speedy dunks and timely free throws gave the Hoosiers a nine-point halftime lead.

After the break, IU delivered the knockout.

Indiana scored the first 13 points of the second half to claim a double digit lead it never came close to relinquishing as IU defended it’s No. 1 ranking with a 83-59 beatdown of No. 14 UNC.

Sophomore forward Cody Zeller led the Hoosiers with 20 points while juniors forward Will Sheehey and guard Victor Oladipo were close behind with 19 points each.

IU staked an early lead with 7 of its first 11 points supplied by sophomore forward Cody Zeller. The teams essentially traded baskets for several minutes to make the score 18-13 in Indiana’s favor before North Carolina rode a six-point run to its first lead of the game at 19-18.

The Hoosiers quickly responded with a three-point shot from senior guard Jordan Hulls, and never trailed after that, though the Tarheels did tie it at 23, 25, 27 and 31 at various points.

Despite a nifty backdoor move for a basket by Oladipo and a block by Zeller that swatted the ball into the stands, IU could not pull away until a pair of free throws by Oladipo – due to a Dexter Strickland flagrant foul – followed by a Zeller dunk tied what had been their biggest lead of the night at six points.

From there, the Hoosiers began to pile it on to end the half. Oladipo contributed another foul shot and a dunk as IU ran its lead to 44-35. All in all, four straight IU field goals were dunks as the Hoosiers closed the first half on a 15-6 run.

Several scoreless minutes started the second period before Indiana broke the drought with a dunk by Oladipo. From there, the Hoosiers simply made shot after shot, be it a Hulls jumper, Oladipo slam or anything in between.

Meanwhile, UNC made just one of its first 15 shots in the second half.

IU pushed its lead well into double figures and above 30, only dropping below that mark late in the game when the lineup consisted mostly of second-string underclassmen and walk-ons.