With the sudden but not totally unexpected resignation of the University of Michigan athletic director, Dave Brandon, the heat rises another three notches (if that's possible) on football coach Brady Hoke.
Is that possible?
Watching a coach dangle in the wind is such a painful sight, especially for those of us who've lived the life. Unlike most professional jobs requiring a college education, coaches are hired and fired on a whim - no real reason required.
It might be, as it often is in sports jobs, simply a matter of losing more than you win, or at least losing more than the "general expectation". Nine wins a year wasn't enough for Frank Solich at Nebraska (following national championships from his mentor Tom Osbourne), but it's plenty at Ohio University, where he's had good but not spectacular teams for almost a decade now.
Brady Hoke won big at Ball State and at San Diego State, but for some reason it hasn't translated to what Michigan fans expect from Big Blue. Did he forget how to coach? Unlikely. Is it possible that what works for him in smaller-level schools doesn't work (for whatever reason) at the school with more football wins than any university in history? Yes.
Sometimes, you change coaches because their goals are not the same as your goals. Gordon (writing) can testify that sometimes, what administrations and fans see from the outside doesn't always match the reality at ground level. He had a job that had experienced some success through what turned out to be smoke and mirrors, a program that was a hollow shell about to collapse, but the outside world had only the shell to guide by.
Michigan is no longer a destination school for modern athletes. Neither are most of the Rust Belt schools. That doesn't mean a coach can't succeed in the upper midwest (re: Meyer, Urban); it does mean that not every coach can succeed there. Having the name "Michigan" on your polo shirt doesn't get you into every 5-star recruit's home any more. Alabama, yes. USC, yes. Michigan? Nebraska? Not necessarily. Michigan, find the best AD you can find. Then find the best football coach who's willing to come to Ann Arbor.
You're going to need it.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Hal Mumme's still coaching...
He's now at a small NAIA school in Mississippi, Belhaven College, where his team is (unfortunately) on a six-game losing streak. We mention it partly because we enjoyed watching Mumme introduce the spread offense to several FBS schools, most notably the U of Kentucky; but mostly because his team lost by the monumental score of 91-14 to Lindsey Wilson College (KY) last Saturday. It was 63-0 just before half, and...well, the post-mortem is linked. Unfortunately, it's more a story of "how the mighty have fallen" than anything else...
Moral: Just because the clock runs out...
...doesn't mean that the play is over! Watch the ending of this Utah high school game between Spanish Fork and Maple Mountain (greater Salt Lake City area, south of town). MMHS is down three, Spanish Fork has the ball, and with three seconds left, the quarterback just has to run out the clock. And...
Reposting the AFL Comparison page WITH LINKS to each of the individual articles. (You're welcome.)
Over the course of the next week or two, we'll share with you American football lovers each of the eighteen AFL teams, and who the best professional club in American sports is. This will give you a basis of comparison to understand the dynamics of Australian Footy teams, and perhaps how to choose your new favorite Aussie club to root for!
Here's a preview of how the teams line up with their American counterparts...
The ADELAIDE Crows = the New York Knicks (of the NBA) - link here!
The BRISBANE Lions = the Los Angeles Lakers (of the NBA) - link here!
The CARLTON Blues = the Chicago Bears (of the NFL) - link to Carlton here!
The COLLINGWOOD Magpies = the New York Yankees (of MLB) - link here!
The ESSENDON Bombers = the Oakland Athletics (of MLB) - link to Essendon here!
The FREMANTLE Dockers = the New Jersey Devils (of the NHL) - link here!
The GEELONG Cats = the New England Patriots (of the NFL) - link here!
The GOLD COAST Suns = the Cleveland Cavaliers (of the NBA) - link here!
The GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY Giants = the Minnesota Timberwolves (of the NBA) - link to GWS here!
The HAWTHORN Hawks = the San Antonio Spurs (of the NBA) - link here!
The MELBOURNE Demons = the Oakland Raiders (of the NFL) - link here!
The NORTH MELBOURNE Kangaroos = The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (of MLB) - link!
The PORT ADELAIDE Power = the Seattle Seahawks (of the NFL) - link!
The RICHMOND Tigers = the San Diego Chargers (of the NFL) - link to Richmond here!
The ST. KILDA Saints = the New York Jets (of the NFL) - link here!
The SYDNEY Swans = the Boston Red Sox (of MLB) - link to Sydney Swans here!
The WEST COAST Eagles = the Dallas Cowboys (of the NFL) - link here!
The WESTERN Bulldogs = the Sacramento Kings (of the NBA) - link here!
As we progress through each club and its American doppelganger, we hope you'll come to understand more about the particular teams that represent the great sport of footy in Australia and around the world. Before the season starts next March, you'll get a firm background in the sport - and we'll provide content on the AFL page to help novices understand the sport.
Here's a preview of how the teams line up with their American counterparts...
The ADELAIDE Crows = the New York Knicks (of the NBA) - link here!
The BRISBANE Lions = the Los Angeles Lakers (of the NBA) - link here!
The CARLTON Blues = the Chicago Bears (of the NFL) - link to Carlton here!
The COLLINGWOOD Magpies = the New York Yankees (of MLB) - link here!
The ESSENDON Bombers = the Oakland Athletics (of MLB) - link to Essendon here!
The FREMANTLE Dockers = the New Jersey Devils (of the NHL) - link here!
The GEELONG Cats = the New England Patriots (of the NFL) - link here!
The GOLD COAST Suns = the Cleveland Cavaliers (of the NBA) - link here!
The GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY Giants = the Minnesota Timberwolves (of the NBA) - link to GWS here!
The HAWTHORN Hawks = the San Antonio Spurs (of the NBA) - link here!
The MELBOURNE Demons = the Oakland Raiders (of the NFL) - link here!
The NORTH MELBOURNE Kangaroos = The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (of MLB) - link!
The PORT ADELAIDE Power = the Seattle Seahawks (of the NFL) - link!
The RICHMOND Tigers = the San Diego Chargers (of the NFL) - link to Richmond here!
The ST. KILDA Saints = the New York Jets (of the NFL) - link here!
The SYDNEY Swans = the Boston Red Sox (of MLB) - link to Sydney Swans here!
The WEST COAST Eagles = the Dallas Cowboys (of the NFL) - link here!
The WESTERN Bulldogs = the Sacramento Kings (of the NBA) - link here!
As we progress through each club and its American doppelganger, we hope you'll come to understand more about the particular teams that represent the great sport of footy in Australia and around the world. Before the season starts next March, you'll get a firm background in the sport - and we'll provide content on the AFL page to help novices understand the sport.
Rugby World Cup Preview - America's chances!
RWC has posted its official preview for Group B at next fall's Rugby World Cup, which includes the American team as well as one of the tournament favorites, the South Africans.
If you go by who's beaten whom over the years, you'd have to come out with the following order as your starting point before you consider changes within the last season or two:
1. South Africa
2. Scotland
3. Samoa
4. United States
5. Japan
As stated, though, that's only a historical perspective. Japan has risen all the way up to 11th in the world rankings over the last six months, meaning that as of right now, the Americans are in a Group of Death with four of the top eleven teams in the world. Great.... The Springboks of South Africa still have to be considered the favorite in this group until proven otherwise.
If you go by who's beaten whom over the years, you'd have to come out with the following order as your starting point before you consider changes within the last season or two:
1. South Africa
2. Scotland
3. Samoa
4. United States
5. Japan
As stated, though, that's only a historical perspective. Japan has risen all the way up to 11th in the world rankings over the last six months, meaning that as of right now, the Americans are in a Group of Death with four of the top eleven teams in the world. Great.... The Springboks of South Africa still have to be considered the favorite in this group until proven otherwise.
About those NCAA committee rankings...
First of all, here's the big reveal of the NCAA Football Committee's first efforts, released Tuesday evening. No big surprises: Mississippi St, Florida St, Auburn, and Ole Miss are the first four teams in the present rankings.
The top two were a given, and it's hard to argue that either Auburn or Ole Miss is unworthy of the next two spots, although there are a half-dozen teams about whom we could say the same thing: we have TCU, Notre Dame, and Alabama as our next three alongside Ole Miss, but as we've said, any of the one-loss teams in Tiers A or B would be acceptable to us.
A couple of thoughts come to mind for us, though:
Given that the three SEC West teams still play each other, there's going to be a great deal of change in that order. (Auburn plays at Ole Miss this Saturday, so one of them walks away from that with two losses.)
Secondly, the committee has a sense of humor. Look at the way the games would have laid out in their projections (which they KNOW won't be the final order) -
Mississippi St vs Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl
Florida St vs Auburn in the Rose Bowl
As Heather Dinich or whomever points out, that would have been a repeat of last year's BCS championship, in the same stadium in Pasadena, AND a repeat of the season ending Egg Bowl game, in the stadium as close to Mississippi as possible.
Wouldn't THOSE be two sweet matchups?
Finally, for those crying "SEC West FAVORITISM", look at the records, and look at the games. And if that's still not enough, relax by looking at the upcoming schedules: They're going to kill each other off. By definition, no more than two teams in the SEC West can finish the regular season with fewer than two losses now. There will NOT be a trifecta in the championship tournament. (Now, if you add Georgia into the mix...)
CFL playoff simulation
You know how much we love projections and computer simulations here at Following Football, so here's a link to what the CFL computers are projecting as the outcome for the six playoff spots and the results leading up to and of the 102nd GREY CUP championship in late November. The moral of the story? When you're 14-2, you're the favorite for a reason.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
From Easterbrook's column: The Special Teams Gods Chortled
Boise State runs a trick play kickoff return that went like this: First, two returners dropped deep. As the kicking team lined up and was distracted, one of the return men prostrated himself flat on the turf. After the other return man took the kick, the prostrate guy leapt and took a throwback. The key? Boise State runs this play at home, where a guy in a blue uniform horizontal on blue turf isn't noticed.
When the Bills prepared to kick off leading 27-17, Jersey/B had Percy Harvin and Santonio Holmes in the end zone. Holmes dropped prostrate -- a guy in a green uniform horizontal in a home-team end zone that's painted the same shade of green. Boom, the kickoff went all the way to the back line. Harvin should have knelt; instead, he tried to advance to reach a position to throw back to Holmes. The Jets ended up pinned on their 3.
Gregg Easterbrook - the best columnist in football
If you've never read Gregg Easterbrook's "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" column over on ESPN.com every Tuesday (go figure!) during the (American) football season, you are missing out on some of the very best in game analysis, ethics and trends in football, oddities and curiosities, and off-topic dives into economics, television and film, politics, and more. Easterbrook is as well-read and well-reasoned a writer as you'll ever read - today's column addresses one of his pet topics, the need to hold universities accountable for the education of its players. Always worth the time to read his work, no matter what the topic is!
Looking forward to Week 9 in college football with our SCIENTIFIC tools!
There are some great games coming this weekend, the first one on Thursday night when Tier F Louisville hosts Tier A Florida St! By tiering, the best game of the weekend should be Auburn @ Ole Miss, where the polls have the Tigers above the Rebels, but we have Ole Miss in Tier A and Auburn a rung lower in B; hence, we're favoring Ole Miss (and, if we were actually making bets, "taking the points").
Other marquee games include TCU @ West Virginia (tiers A vs. C), Kentucky @ Missouri (tiers D vs. E; unlike the oddsmakers, we like the Wildcats), Arkansas @ Mississippi St (tiers H vs. A), Arizona @ UCLA (again, they're favoring the lower tiered team, so we'll take tier C Arizona and the points over the tier E Bruins), and Stanford @ Oregon.
Going strictly by tiers, and using the old saw about home field being about a three-point advantage, we've noticed that the point spread for this week's games generally matches up very well with our 20-tier system. As a general rule, the expected margin of victory will be somewhere between 1-2.5 points per tier, plus or minus the three points for the home field. The actual average is 1.75 points per tier, with the median at 1.5 points per tier. So, if two teams are four tiers apart on last week's listing, expect the higher team to be favored by 4-10 points, most likely 6-7, + the three points for home field.
Given those parameters, and strictly using our wisened separation tool better known as "guessing" where teams should fall, we took a look at the 54 FBS games scheduled this weekend for "outliers" to see if there were some easy predictions we could make based on this statistical creation:
Predictions based on our tier system and the Vegas odds...
*Iowa should be favored by more than 4 at home against Northwestern.
*Rutgers shouldn't be eleven point underdogs at home against Wisconsin (more like 2).
*Florida International shouldn't be 6 1/2 point dogs at home to Rice (also about 2).
*Why is Duke not favored over Pitt? Tier D over tier I? They should be giving points!
*North Carolina will be closer to the Hurricanes than seventeen points...
*Boston College shouldn't be getting points from Virginia Tech (or, at least not three)!
*Eastern Michigan shouldn't be more than about a touchdown underdog to Central Michigan (not 16 1/2 points, anyway!).
*Louisiana Tech should be a much bigger favorite over Tier R Western Kentucky - six points at home isn't sufficient.
*Virginia at Georgia Tech shouldn't be just the three point home field advantage...the Yellowjackets deserve at least a TD spread in their favor.
*Part of the continued over-valuing of the Cougars after Tayson Hill's injury: Middle Tennessee should NOT be the underdog at home again BYU.
*And Kentucky should be favored over Missouri - or at least, not down six!
*We see both UNLV and Ole Miss as higher tiered teams at home (against New Mexico and Auburn, respectively), and with the three-point home bump should be more than one and two point faves, in turn. More like five each.
*Oklahoma St will be a one TD underdog to Kansas St, not two.
*Arizona will flat out beat UCLA in Los Angeles, not lose by four.
*Fresno St may be favored at home, but Wyoming shouldn't be getting 10 1/2 points!
*See previous comment with Utah not getting five points against Arizona St!
*Finally, it's hard to estimate what the trip to the islands does to a team, but we think Utah St deserves more love than a three point spread when they play at Hawaii late Saturday night!
We'll see how those predictions go this weekend! Eighteen chances to be proven wrong! A prognosticator's dream!
Other marquee games include TCU @ West Virginia (tiers A vs. C), Kentucky @ Missouri (tiers D vs. E; unlike the oddsmakers, we like the Wildcats), Arkansas @ Mississippi St (tiers H vs. A), Arizona @ UCLA (again, they're favoring the lower tiered team, so we'll take tier C Arizona and the points over the tier E Bruins), and Stanford @ Oregon.
Going strictly by tiers, and using the old saw about home field being about a three-point advantage, we've noticed that the point spread for this week's games generally matches up very well with our 20-tier system. As a general rule, the expected margin of victory will be somewhere between 1-2.5 points per tier, plus or minus the three points for the home field. The actual average is 1.75 points per tier, with the median at 1.5 points per tier. So, if two teams are four tiers apart on last week's listing, expect the higher team to be favored by 4-10 points, most likely 6-7, + the three points for home field.
Given those parameters, and strictly using our wisened separation tool better known as "guessing" where teams should fall, we took a look at the 54 FBS games scheduled this weekend for "outliers" to see if there were some easy predictions we could make based on this statistical creation:
Predictions based on our tier system and the Vegas odds...
*Iowa should be favored by more than 4 at home against Northwestern.
*Rutgers shouldn't be eleven point underdogs at home against Wisconsin (more like 2).
*Florida International shouldn't be 6 1/2 point dogs at home to Rice (also about 2).
*Why is Duke not favored over Pitt? Tier D over tier I? They should be giving points!
*North Carolina will be closer to the Hurricanes than seventeen points...
*Boston College shouldn't be getting points from Virginia Tech (or, at least not three)!
*Eastern Michigan shouldn't be more than about a touchdown underdog to Central Michigan (not 16 1/2 points, anyway!).
*Louisiana Tech should be a much bigger favorite over Tier R Western Kentucky - six points at home isn't sufficient.
*Virginia at Georgia Tech shouldn't be just the three point home field advantage...the Yellowjackets deserve at least a TD spread in their favor.
*Part of the continued over-valuing of the Cougars after Tayson Hill's injury: Middle Tennessee should NOT be the underdog at home again BYU.
*And Kentucky should be favored over Missouri - or at least, not down six!
*We see both UNLV and Ole Miss as higher tiered teams at home (against New Mexico and Auburn, respectively), and with the three-point home bump should be more than one and two point faves, in turn. More like five each.
*Oklahoma St will be a one TD underdog to Kansas St, not two.
*Arizona will flat out beat UCLA in Los Angeles, not lose by four.
*Fresno St may be favored at home, but Wyoming shouldn't be getting 10 1/2 points!
*See previous comment with Utah not getting five points against Arizona St!
*Finally, it's hard to estimate what the trip to the islands does to a team, but we think Utah St deserves more love than a three point spread when they play at Hawaii late Saturday night!
We'll see how those predictions go this weekend! Eighteen chances to be proven wrong! A prognosticator's dream!
Bill Barnwell nails it, as usual
We briefly touched upon the football-like substance which we exported to London last weekend, and the horrors that it invoked - the game was so badly played and coached that even the British fans booed! Can't you imagine how a knowledgeable American audience would've reacted?
Anyway, Bill Barnwell of Grantland does an amazing job (as he always does) of diving into the manure pile of a game that was Detroit 22, Atlanta 21. It was tempting, I'm sure, for the NFL to revoke their passports, but then Roger Goodell's long time dream of having a football team in London would die a painful death (because the Brits would never forgive us for this debacle - bad enough we keep sending them the Raiders and Jaguars!
Anyway, Bill Barnwell of Grantland does an amazing job (as he always does) of diving into the manure pile of a game that was Detroit 22, Atlanta 21. It was tempting, I'm sure, for the NFL to revoke their passports, but then Roger Goodell's long time dream of having a football team in London would die a painful death (because the Brits would never forgive us for this debacle - bad enough we keep sending them the Raiders and Jaguars!
We should KNOW better...
..but we do it anyway. Here are our predictions for Week 9 of the NFL season and Week 17 of the CFL season...
CFL: We like Hamilton by a touchdown at Ottawa, who's playing well for a 2-14 team...Calgary will easily handle the sinking Winnipeg Bombers, who started the year 5-1 and have only won once since...As good as British Columbia has looked the last few weeks, the home field and value of the second place seeding will keep the Edmonton Eskimos from losing to the Lions Saturday...And in the game of the weekend, the second of the three-game round-robin pits Toronto at Montreal, and we like the Alouettes to win at home and send Toronto out of playoff contention.
NFL: This is one of those weeks where the oddsmakers have it right (insofar as they agree with US!). The only discrepancy we see is favoring the Saints on the road against a team from their own tier; we think the Carolina Panthers not only cover but win this game outright and definitively.
Beyond that? Vegas has the Browns beating the Bucs by 6 1/2 (it should be more), the Cowboys over the Cardinals (have to, because they're in Dallas, but I'm not betting against Arizona!), the Eagles by just 2 over the Texans (we'd go higher), the Chiefs by ten over the Jets (we'd go higher IF we thought KC could score), the Bengals by twelve over the Jaguars (about right), Dolphins by one over the Chargers (in Miami, so that's how we'd play it, too), Vikings get the three point home field edge over the Skins (they're even teams, so that's right), the 49ers by ten over the Rams (yep), the Broncos by 3 1/2 over the Patriots (who cares? Just enjoy Manning v Brady!), Seahawks by fifteen over Oakland (we have no confidence in Seattle right now; take the points, except DON'T GAMBLE!), Steelers by 1 1/2 over the Ravens, in Pittsburgh (hmm...I don't know about that one...), and the Colts by just 3 1/2 over the Giants on Monday night (no way. Andrew Luck in prime time? At least a TD...)
So, to summarize the NFL "bets" (which we refuse to actually BET on), we'd go with the Panthers, the Browns, the Eagles, the Raiders, and the Colts. And only the Panthers v Saints actually fails to match the quintiles we've set up, so it's the lone prediction we give with confidence.
CFL: We like Hamilton by a touchdown at Ottawa, who's playing well for a 2-14 team...Calgary will easily handle the sinking Winnipeg Bombers, who started the year 5-1 and have only won once since...As good as British Columbia has looked the last few weeks, the home field and value of the second place seeding will keep the Edmonton Eskimos from losing to the Lions Saturday...And in the game of the weekend, the second of the three-game round-robin pits Toronto at Montreal, and we like the Alouettes to win at home and send Toronto out of playoff contention.
NFL: This is one of those weeks where the oddsmakers have it right (insofar as they agree with US!). The only discrepancy we see is favoring the Saints on the road against a team from their own tier; we think the Carolina Panthers not only cover but win this game outright and definitively.
Beyond that? Vegas has the Browns beating the Bucs by 6 1/2 (it should be more), the Cowboys over the Cardinals (have to, because they're in Dallas, but I'm not betting against Arizona!), the Eagles by just 2 over the Texans (we'd go higher), the Chiefs by ten over the Jets (we'd go higher IF we thought KC could score), the Bengals by twelve over the Jaguars (about right), Dolphins by one over the Chargers (in Miami, so that's how we'd play it, too), Vikings get the three point home field edge over the Skins (they're even teams, so that's right), the 49ers by ten over the Rams (yep), the Broncos by 3 1/2 over the Patriots (who cares? Just enjoy Manning v Brady!), Seahawks by fifteen over Oakland (we have no confidence in Seattle right now; take the points, except DON'T GAMBLE!), Steelers by 1 1/2 over the Ravens, in Pittsburgh (hmm...I don't know about that one...), and the Colts by just 3 1/2 over the Giants on Monday night (no way. Andrew Luck in prime time? At least a TD...)
So, to summarize the NFL "bets" (which we refuse to actually BET on), we'd go with the Panthers, the Browns, the Eagles, the Raiders, and the Colts. And only the Panthers v Saints actually fails to match the quintiles we've set up, so it's the lone prediction we give with confidence.
Don't blame US if the pro tiers for Week 8 are imbalanced!
Blame the teams! We literally gave up trying to make the number of teams in each tier balance and went back to our guiding principle: Put teams that would play even games on a neutral field in the same tier. That means the chart looks more like a bell-curve than a flat line, but so be it! By the end of the season, it'll straighten itself out!
So, here we go: Quintile A is comprised of the teams we think are in control of their own Super Bowl destiny - they'd probably be favored over teams from B and C teams without issue; they'd be favored by double digits over Quintile D teams, and the E teams should find a way to call in sick...
Denver Broncos (6-1, firing on all cylinders)
Arizona Cardinals (6-1, sneaky good - finding a way to win every week)
Philadelphia Eagles (5-2, no shame losing 24-20 at Arizona!)
Dallas Cowboys (6-2, and we'll give them a pass for the OT loss last night)
Indianapolis Colts (5-3, but would you want to face Luck in a big game?)
New England Patriots (6-2, we had to move them back up - Brady's too good)
Quintile B has the teams who can still justifiably argue they are championship contenders, although they'd be underdogs playing the above six...
Green Bay Packers (5-3, more for Aaron Rodgers' health than anything else)
Detroit Lions (6-2, but if it takes THAT to beat the Falcons...)
Pittsburgh Steelers (5-3, can't exclude them after Big Ben's performance Sunday!)
Cincinnati Bengals (4-2-1, still as fiery a contender as there is)
Baltimore Ravens (5-3, and in charge of their destiny)
San Diego Chargers (5-3, though they proved against Denver they're not top notch yet)
San Francisco 49ers (4-3, struggling, but it's hard to ignore the teams they've beaten)
Seattle Seahawks (4-3, see previous comment!)
Quintile C is the middle of the pack:
Buffalo Bills (5-3, we think they're above average, but they don't yet...)
Kansas City Chiefs (4-3, and maybe, just maybe...)
Miami Dolphins (4-3, on any given day...)
Carolina Panthers (3-4-1, and like all the others in group C, has the tools...)
New Orleans Saints (3-4, fabulous if they're at home. IF.)
Houston Texans (4-4, give us eleven JJ Watts and we can rule the world)
Cleveland Browns (4-3, beating the Raiders shouldn't count)
Quintile D teams are already giving up hope for this season...
Chicago Bears (3-5, they should be higher if we go on potential)
St. Louis Rams (2-5, but every once in a while, they rise up...)
New Yorkersey Giants (3-4, but really they're not that good)
Atlanta Falcons (2-6, how can a team look that good in the first half...)
Minnesota Vikings (3-5, and if Bridgewater pans out, on their way up...)
Washington Redskins (3-5, promoted after winning in Dallas, even if it's overtime)
Quintile E teams are the bye weeks in disguise:
Tennessee Titans (2-6, but that's deceptively good...)
New Yorkersey Jets (1-7, Geno Smith put up one of the classic terrible stat lines in history)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-7, does the guy in the Bud Light commercial want to change his living room and backyard back to how they were before?)
Jacksonville Jaguars (1-7, how did they ever win a game?)
Oakland Raiders (0-7, but they've at least been competitive!)
So, here we go: Quintile A is comprised of the teams we think are in control of their own Super Bowl destiny - they'd probably be favored over teams from B and C teams without issue; they'd be favored by double digits over Quintile D teams, and the E teams should find a way to call in sick...
Denver Broncos (6-1, firing on all cylinders)
Arizona Cardinals (6-1, sneaky good - finding a way to win every week)
Philadelphia Eagles (5-2, no shame losing 24-20 at Arizona!)
Dallas Cowboys (6-2, and we'll give them a pass for the OT loss last night)
Indianapolis Colts (5-3, but would you want to face Luck in a big game?)
New England Patriots (6-2, we had to move them back up - Brady's too good)
Quintile B has the teams who can still justifiably argue they are championship contenders, although they'd be underdogs playing the above six...
Green Bay Packers (5-3, more for Aaron Rodgers' health than anything else)
Detroit Lions (6-2, but if it takes THAT to beat the Falcons...)
Pittsburgh Steelers (5-3, can't exclude them after Big Ben's performance Sunday!)
Cincinnati Bengals (4-2-1, still as fiery a contender as there is)
Baltimore Ravens (5-3, and in charge of their destiny)
San Diego Chargers (5-3, though they proved against Denver they're not top notch yet)
San Francisco 49ers (4-3, struggling, but it's hard to ignore the teams they've beaten)
Seattle Seahawks (4-3, see previous comment!)
Quintile C is the middle of the pack:
Buffalo Bills (5-3, we think they're above average, but they don't yet...)
Kansas City Chiefs (4-3, and maybe, just maybe...)
Miami Dolphins (4-3, on any given day...)
Carolina Panthers (3-4-1, and like all the others in group C, has the tools...)
New Orleans Saints (3-4, fabulous if they're at home. IF.)
Houston Texans (4-4, give us eleven JJ Watts and we can rule the world)
Cleveland Browns (4-3, beating the Raiders shouldn't count)
Quintile D teams are already giving up hope for this season...
Chicago Bears (3-5, they should be higher if we go on potential)
St. Louis Rams (2-5, but every once in a while, they rise up...)
New Yorkersey Giants (3-4, but really they're not that good)
Atlanta Falcons (2-6, how can a team look that good in the first half...)
Minnesota Vikings (3-5, and if Bridgewater pans out, on their way up...)
Washington Redskins (3-5, promoted after winning in Dallas, even if it's overtime)
Quintile E teams are the bye weeks in disguise:
Tennessee Titans (2-6, but that's deceptively good...)
New Yorkersey Jets (1-7, Geno Smith put up one of the classic terrible stat lines in history)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-7, does the guy in the Bud Light commercial want to change his living room and backyard back to how they were before?)
Jacksonville Jaguars (1-7, how did they ever win a game?)
Oakland Raiders (0-7, but they've at least been competitive!)
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Canadian Football update
With two weeks to go, here's what's going on north of the border...
This weekend's results: Montreal over Ottawa 23-17, Calgary beats Saskatchewan 40-27, the BC Lions edge Winnipeg 28-23, and in the most interesting game, Toronto holds serve at home in the first game of the East Conference round-robin, squeaking by Hamilton 26-24.
Toronto 26, Hamilton 24 - Saturday, October 25th, 2014
With BC's win, clinching a playoff spot for the Lions, there are four guaranteed spots going to Western teams, leaving only two for the three teams battling in the East: Montreal's at 8-8, with Hamilton and Toronto at 7-9.... BUT Montreal has to play both of the other two over the next two weeks, while the seven-win teams get "free" wins against Ottawa in the other weeks.
IF (as happened this week) the home team holds serve in each of the other "round-robin" games (and Ottawa loses twice), then Montreal and Hamilton will end up 9-9, and Toronto will be the odd one out at 8-10. Montreal will have the division record edge (they would have split their games against each other) and should win the bye week, while Hamilton would play either BC or Saskatchewan in the first round.
This weekend's results: Montreal over Ottawa 23-17, Calgary beats Saskatchewan 40-27, the BC Lions edge Winnipeg 28-23, and in the most interesting game, Toronto holds serve at home in the first game of the East Conference round-robin, squeaking by Hamilton 26-24.
Toronto 26, Hamilton 24 - Saturday, October 25th, 2014
With BC's win, clinching a playoff spot for the Lions, there are four guaranteed spots going to Western teams, leaving only two for the three teams battling in the East: Montreal's at 8-8, with Hamilton and Toronto at 7-9.... BUT Montreal has to play both of the other two over the next two weeks, while the seven-win teams get "free" wins against Ottawa in the other weeks.
IF (as happened this week) the home team holds serve in each of the other "round-robin" games (and Ottawa loses twice), then Montreal and Hamilton will end up 9-9, and Toronto will be the odd one out at 8-10. Montreal will have the division record edge (they would have split their games against each other) and should win the bye week, while Hamilton would play either BC or Saskatchewan in the first round.
Loose ends from Week 8...
Savannah St fell to 0-8 yesterday, losing at North Carolina Central 42-21. They have now lost seventeen in a row...
On the flip side, the defending FCS champion North Dakota St Bison won 47-7 over South Dakota to move to 8-0, and consecutive win number 32...
The Arizona Cardinals had two 75+ yard pass plays for touchdowns, the last under two minutes to go, to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-20. What were the odds of the Cards being two full games up on Seattle AND San Francisco after Week 8?...
Have you seen the standings in the AFC North? All four teams are within a half-game of each other: Cincinnati at 4-2-1, Pittsburgh and Baltimore at 5-3, and Cleveland at 4-3!...
Conversely, everyone in the NFC South is below .500 - Carolina leads at 3-4-1, the Saints are at 2-4 pending tonight's game, Atlanta fell to 2-6 after leading 21-0 at halftime, and Jacksonville is...Jacksonville...
TCU scored 82 points on Texas Tech yesterday, a real FBS school. This was the highest point total of the year, surpassing North Texas' defeat of Nicholls St 77-3, which we argue SHOULD NOT COUNT because it was against an FCS team (never mind that it was an 0-9 school who lost by two TDs to a Division II team). So, for that reason, glad TCU set the new season high. (If those games don't count towards your win total for bowl games, they shouldn't count for anything else, either!)...
That wasn't the only high number put up Saturday - Georgia Southern put 69 on Georgia St (69-31), Western Kentucky beat Old Dominion 66-51, and Tier C Arizona took out Washington St 59-37, only after having shifted into low gear for the fourth quarter...
And in the FCS, not only did Alcorn St ruin the last game at Blackshaw Field for Prairie View by scoring 77 on them (winning 77-48), but Murray St laid a woodshed whoop'n on Kentucky Wesleyen 86-29... and it should've been worse, except they hung onto the ball for the last seven minutes, finishing the game by kneeling on the KW seven yard line...
Michigan St scored a last minute TD against Michigan to stretch their winning margin to 35-11. Why? Because the Wolverine players were jerks. Apparently, they decided to 'stake' the center Spartan when they came out onto the field, always a wise move against your cross-state rival when they're 7-1 and you're falling apart at the seams. Our early candidate for stupid jerk move of the year...
In the pros, Geno Smith of the New York Jets posted one of the saddest stat lines ever before being pulled for Michael Vick (who didn't help much, either, as Buffalo creamed them): 2 for 8, for five yards, w 3 interceptions. A rating of 0.0; perfection!
On the flip side, having already lauded Ben Roethlisberger's day for the Steelers, let's check the great Tom Brady's line for the New England Patriots: 30-35 for 354 yards, five TDs and no picks. Pats beat the Bears 51-23.
On the flip side, the defending FCS champion North Dakota St Bison won 47-7 over South Dakota to move to 8-0, and consecutive win number 32...
The Arizona Cardinals had two 75+ yard pass plays for touchdowns, the last under two minutes to go, to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-20. What were the odds of the Cards being two full games up on Seattle AND San Francisco after Week 8?...
Have you seen the standings in the AFC North? All four teams are within a half-game of each other: Cincinnati at 4-2-1, Pittsburgh and Baltimore at 5-3, and Cleveland at 4-3!...
Conversely, everyone in the NFC South is below .500 - Carolina leads at 3-4-1, the Saints are at 2-4 pending tonight's game, Atlanta fell to 2-6 after leading 21-0 at halftime, and Jacksonville is...Jacksonville...
TCU scored 82 points on Texas Tech yesterday, a real FBS school. This was the highest point total of the year, surpassing North Texas' defeat of Nicholls St 77-3, which we argue SHOULD NOT COUNT because it was against an FCS team (never mind that it was an 0-9 school who lost by two TDs to a Division II team). So, for that reason, glad TCU set the new season high. (If those games don't count towards your win total for bowl games, they shouldn't count for anything else, either!)...
That wasn't the only high number put up Saturday - Georgia Southern put 69 on Georgia St (69-31), Western Kentucky beat Old Dominion 66-51, and Tier C Arizona took out Washington St 59-37, only after having shifted into low gear for the fourth quarter...
And in the FCS, not only did Alcorn St ruin the last game at Blackshaw Field for Prairie View by scoring 77 on them (winning 77-48), but Murray St laid a woodshed whoop'n on Kentucky Wesleyen 86-29... and it should've been worse, except they hung onto the ball for the last seven minutes, finishing the game by kneeling on the KW seven yard line...
Michigan St scored a last minute TD against Michigan to stretch their winning margin to 35-11. Why? Because the Wolverine players were jerks. Apparently, they decided to 'stake' the center Spartan when they came out onto the field, always a wise move against your cross-state rival when they're 7-1 and you're falling apart at the seams. Our early candidate for stupid jerk move of the year...
In the pros, Geno Smith of the New York Jets posted one of the saddest stat lines ever before being pulled for Michael Vick (who didn't help much, either, as Buffalo creamed them): 2 for 8, for five yards, w 3 interceptions. A rating of 0.0; perfection!
On the flip side, having already lauded Ben Roethlisberger's day for the Steelers, let's check the great Tom Brady's line for the New England Patriots: 30-35 for 354 yards, five TDs and no picks. Pats beat the Bears 51-23.
Steelers / Colts game reminds us:
...there were TWO great "Big Bens" on display in the NFL today! While the viability of a franchise in London is still in question, the status of Big Ben Roethlisberger as one of the ten best quarterbacks in the league shouldn't be. He became the first QB in history to have two career games of more than 500 yards passing today, throwing six TD passes in an impending victory over the Colts (whose Andrew Luck went over 400 yards himself!).
It seems unlikely he'll throw again, but he could in theory reach one of the coolest records in football: Quick! When was the "passing yardage in a game" record set? Hint: not by a current QB. Okay, then, Favre? Marino? NOPE, it was Norm Van Brocklin back in September of 1951!
It seems unlikely he'll throw again, but he could in theory reach one of the coolest records in football: Quick! When was the "passing yardage in a game" record set? Hint: not by a current QB. Okay, then, Favre? Marino? NOPE, it was Norm Van Brocklin back in September of 1951!
We've reached the Week 8 CFB tiers Penthouse!
That's right, the thirty best teams as decided on the field so far this year, divided into the top five tiers (and no closer, as berated before!), for your amusement!
Tier E:
This is the tier with all different conferences represented...in case anyone cares. Present in Tier E are the Mountain West's highest ranked school, Colorado St (7-1, 3-1), Georgia Tech (6-2, 3-2) from the ACC, the Mid-American's hope for a major bowl bid in Marshall (still unbeaten at 8-0, 4-0), the SEC rep Missouri (6-2, 3-1), UCLA (6-2, 3-2) from the Pac-12, and Wisconsin (5-2, 2-1), representing the Big Ten. [Do you think that's about right for Marshall? Are those five teams ones you can see giving the Thundering Herd an even game on a neutral field? That's our criteria for tiers. Comments, please!]
Tier D:
Arizona St (6-1, 4-1) and USC (5-3, 4-2) had a great game a couple of weeks back, and land together here as reps for the Pac-12. Duke (6-1, 2-1 ACC) is here, as well as Kentucky (5-3, 2-3 SEC) - two incredibly high positions for "basketball schools"! Finally, we find Oklahoma (5-2, 2-2 Big 12) and the highest AAC member, the surprising East Carolina Pirates at 6-1, 3-0 in conference!
Tier C:
From here up, we're looking at schools that could legitimately keep dreaming about making the first four-team playoff! The favorites are yet to come, of course, but these teams still have a chance: Arizona (6-1, 3-1 Pac 12), Kansas St (6-1, 4-0 Big 12), LSU (7-2, 3-2 SEC), Nebraska (7-1, 3-1 Big 10), Utah (6-1, 3-1 Pac 12), and West Virginia (6-2, 4-1 Big 12).
Tier B:
Like last week, every team here can rightfully say they could beat any team, any day, as even their one defeat came in a strongly competitive situation against a top-notch team: Auburn (6-1, 3-1 SEC), Baylor (6-1, 3-1 Big 12), Georgia (6-1, 4-1 SEC), Michigan St (7-1, 4-0 Big 10), Ohio St (6-1, 3-0 Big 10), and Oregon (7-1, 4-1 Pac 12).
As the NCAA committee announces their first rankings Tuesday, expect to see four of these six teams in the four playoff positions...any of whom could be dislodged on a single Saturday!
Tier A:
Alabama (7-1, 4-1 SEC), whose one loss was at a Tier A school by one score; Florida St (7-0, 4-0 ACC), who's still undefeated thanks to the lack of prosecution against Jameis Winston; Mississippi St (7-0, 4-0 SEC), the rightful #1 team in the nation; Notre Dame (6-1 as an independent), whose only loss was a one score game at a Tier A school; TCU(6-1, 3-1 Big 12), whose only loss came to a then Tier A school (still a tier B) in a criminal clock-keeping game that allowed field goals against them at the end of each half on the opponent's field; and yes, we're keeping Ole Miss (7-1, 4-1 SEC) here, having lost a one-score game to a top-notch team in LSU (albeit Tier C) on their field. Comparing losses with the Tier B schools, we'll keep the Rebels over any of them at the moment. Still more to play, though!
[And if we had to pick four teams right now? Um... Mississippi St...Florida St...Alabama...and TCU would be our fourth right now. Notre Dame has a history of poor performances in championship situations, and I like TCU's "good wins versus what kind of loss it had" ratio over Ole Miss.]
Tier E:
This is the tier with all different conferences represented...in case anyone cares. Present in Tier E are the Mountain West's highest ranked school, Colorado St (7-1, 3-1), Georgia Tech (6-2, 3-2) from the ACC, the Mid-American's hope for a major bowl bid in Marshall (still unbeaten at 8-0, 4-0), the SEC rep Missouri (6-2, 3-1), UCLA (6-2, 3-2) from the Pac-12, and Wisconsin (5-2, 2-1), representing the Big Ten. [Do you think that's about right for Marshall? Are those five teams ones you can see giving the Thundering Herd an even game on a neutral field? That's our criteria for tiers. Comments, please!]
Tier D:
Arizona St (6-1, 4-1) and USC (5-3, 4-2) had a great game a couple of weeks back, and land together here as reps for the Pac-12. Duke (6-1, 2-1 ACC) is here, as well as Kentucky (5-3, 2-3 SEC) - two incredibly high positions for "basketball schools"! Finally, we find Oklahoma (5-2, 2-2 Big 12) and the highest AAC member, the surprising East Carolina Pirates at 6-1, 3-0 in conference!
Tier C:
From here up, we're looking at schools that could legitimately keep dreaming about making the first four-team playoff! The favorites are yet to come, of course, but these teams still have a chance: Arizona (6-1, 3-1 Pac 12), Kansas St (6-1, 4-0 Big 12), LSU (7-2, 3-2 SEC), Nebraska (7-1, 3-1 Big 10), Utah (6-1, 3-1 Pac 12), and West Virginia (6-2, 4-1 Big 12).
Tier B:
Like last week, every team here can rightfully say they could beat any team, any day, as even their one defeat came in a strongly competitive situation against a top-notch team: Auburn (6-1, 3-1 SEC), Baylor (6-1, 3-1 Big 12), Georgia (6-1, 4-1 SEC), Michigan St (7-1, 4-0 Big 10), Ohio St (6-1, 3-0 Big 10), and Oregon (7-1, 4-1 Pac 12).
As the NCAA committee announces their first rankings Tuesday, expect to see four of these six teams in the four playoff positions...any of whom could be dislodged on a single Saturday!
Tier A:
Alabama (7-1, 4-1 SEC), whose one loss was at a Tier A school by one score; Florida St (7-0, 4-0 ACC), who's still undefeated thanks to the lack of prosecution against Jameis Winston; Mississippi St (7-0, 4-0 SEC), the rightful #1 team in the nation; Notre Dame (6-1 as an independent), whose only loss was a one score game at a Tier A school; TCU(6-1, 3-1 Big 12), whose only loss came to a then Tier A school (still a tier B) in a criminal clock-keeping game that allowed field goals against them at the end of each half on the opponent's field; and yes, we're keeping Ole Miss (7-1, 4-1 SEC) here, having lost a one-score game to a top-notch team in LSU (albeit Tier C) on their field. Comparing losses with the Tier B schools, we'll keep the Rebels over any of them at the moment. Still more to play, though!
[And if we had to pick four teams right now? Um... Mississippi St...Florida St...Alabama...and TCU would be our fourth right now. Notre Dame has a history of poor performances in championship situations, and I like TCU's "good wins versus what kind of loss it had" ratio over Ole Miss.]
Week 8 CFB tiers continued - the Upper Floors!
We've reached the upper half (slightly above, actually) of the FBS tiering: Tiers F through J, teams #31-61 if we were actually "ranking" (which we're not, at least in October!).
Tier J:
Tier J contains a bunch of good teams whose records don't necessarily show it, including Tennessee, just 3-5 because of being 0-4 in the SEC, and Syracuse, at 3-5 and 1-3 in the ACC. Also present in the J are Houston and Memphis (both 4-3, 2-1 AAC), Northwestern (3-4, 2-2 Big 10), and Virginia Tech (4-4, 1-3 ACC).
Tier I:
The ninth tier from the top is packed with teams from the ACC, a conference loaded with middle-of-the-road teams: North Carolina, Pitt, Virginia (all 4-4, 2-2), and Boston College (5-3, 2-2). Also present for their I-check are Air Force (5-2, 2-2 MW), Northern Illinois (6-2, MAC), and Washington (5-3, 1-3 Pac12).
Tier H:
Arkansas (4-4, 0-4 SEC), California (4-4, 2-4 Pac12), Florida (3-3, 2-3 SEC), Iowa (5-2, 2-1 Big 10), Oregon St (4-3, 2-2 Pac12), and Utah St (5-3, 2-1 MW).
Tier G:
Three Big Ten teams populate the seventh tier - Maryland (5-3, 2-2), Penn St (4-3, 1-3), and Rutgers (5-3, 1-3). Also here are Boise St (having come back to 6-2, 3-1 in the MW), Miami-FL (5-3, 2-2 ACC), and Stanford (5-3, 2-2 Pac12).
Tier F:
Finally for the Uppermost Level of our CFB building, we find two more ACC schools in Clemson (6-2, 5-1) and Louisville (6-2, 4-2); two more SEC schools fighting disappointment mid-season in South Carolina (5-3, 3-3) and Texas A&M (5-3, 2-3); the Big Ten dark horse Minnesota (6-2, 3-1), and the Oklahoma State Cowboys at 5-3, 3-2 in the Big Twelve.
Tier J:
Tier J contains a bunch of good teams whose records don't necessarily show it, including Tennessee, just 3-5 because of being 0-4 in the SEC, and Syracuse, at 3-5 and 1-3 in the ACC. Also present in the J are Houston and Memphis (both 4-3, 2-1 AAC), Northwestern (3-4, 2-2 Big 10), and Virginia Tech (4-4, 1-3 ACC).
Tier I:
The ninth tier from the top is packed with teams from the ACC, a conference loaded with middle-of-the-road teams: North Carolina, Pitt, Virginia (all 4-4, 2-2), and Boston College (5-3, 2-2). Also present for their I-check are Air Force (5-2, 2-2 MW), Northern Illinois (6-2, MAC), and Washington (5-3, 1-3 Pac12).
Tier H:
Arkansas (4-4, 0-4 SEC), California (4-4, 2-4 Pac12), Florida (3-3, 2-3 SEC), Iowa (5-2, 2-1 Big 10), Oregon St (4-3, 2-2 Pac12), and Utah St (5-3, 2-1 MW).
Tier G:
Three Big Ten teams populate the seventh tier - Maryland (5-3, 2-2), Penn St (4-3, 1-3), and Rutgers (5-3, 1-3). Also here are Boise St (having come back to 6-2, 3-1 in the MW), Miami-FL (5-3, 2-2 ACC), and Stanford (5-3, 2-2 Pac12).
Tier F:
Finally for the Uppermost Level of our CFB building, we find two more ACC schools in Clemson (6-2, 5-1) and Louisville (6-2, 4-2); two more SEC schools fighting disappointment mid-season in South Carolina (5-3, 3-3) and Texas A&M (5-3, 2-3); the Big Ten dark horse Minnesota (6-2, 3-1), and the Oklahoma State Cowboys at 5-3, 3-2 in the Big Twelve.
Week 8 tiers continued - the Ground Floor!
Continuing out of the Basement and up to the Ground Floor with Tiers K through P, the "second quartile", if you will - we refuse to rank teams this early in the season, but these are teams #62 through #96 (there are seven teams in each of these five tiers). Onward!
Tier P:
Colorado (2-6, 0-5 and the lowest team in the Pac12), Indiana (3-4, and the lowest team in the Big Ten at 0-3), Ohio (4-5, 2-3 MAC), Purdue (3-5, 1-3 in the Big Ten alongside Indiana), Texas St (4-3, 2-1 Sun), UAB (4-4, 2-2 C-USA), and Wyoming (3-5, 1-3 MW).
Tier N (no Tier O - don't really have a reason...):
The Sun Belt's 2-1 Arkansas St (4-3), the MAC's Central Michigan (5-4, 3-2) and Western Michigan (3-3, 3-1), the Mountain West's Fresno St (3-5, 2-2) and San Jose St (3-4, 2-1), Rice (4-3, 2-1 C-USA), and South Florida (3-5, 2-2 ACC).
Tier M:
Only Conference USA has two representatives in Tier M - Florida Atlantic (3-5, 2-2) and Texas-El Paso (4-3, 2-1). The other five schools are Michigan (3-5, 1-3 Big 10), Navy (4-4 as independent), San Diego St (4-3, 3-1 MW), Temple (4-3, 2-2 AAC), and Washington St (2-6, 1-4 Pac12). [Michigan should find it appropriate that they're in Tier "M"...yet somehow we doubt they're pleased!]
Tier L:
BYU has fallen all the way to here (4-4 as an independent), alongside Illinois (4-4, 1-3 Big 10), Middle Tennessee (5-3, 4-1 C-USA), Texas and Texas Tech (both 3-5, although the Longhorns have one more win in the Big 12), Toledo (5-3, undefeated at 4-0 in the MAC), and Louisiana-Lafayette (4-3, and also undefeated in conference at 3-0 in the Sun Belt).
Tier K:
The first tier without a losing record includes six different conferences (there's only one tier without duplicate teams from the same conference...and we haven't reached it yet!) starts with Bowling Green (5-3, 3-1 in the MAC), Central Florida (5-2, 3-0) and Cincinnati (4-3, 2-1) from the American Athletic Conference, Georgia Southern (the highest ranked team from the Sun Belt conference at 6-2 and 5-0), Louisiana Tech (5-3, 4-0 C-USA), Nevada (5-3, 2-2 MW), and North Carolina St (4-4, 0-4 in the ACC).
Tier P:
Colorado (2-6, 0-5 and the lowest team in the Pac12), Indiana (3-4, and the lowest team in the Big Ten at 0-3), Ohio (4-5, 2-3 MAC), Purdue (3-5, 1-3 in the Big Ten alongside Indiana), Texas St (4-3, 2-1 Sun), UAB (4-4, 2-2 C-USA), and Wyoming (3-5, 1-3 MW).
Tier N (no Tier O - don't really have a reason...):
The Sun Belt's 2-1 Arkansas St (4-3), the MAC's Central Michigan (5-4, 3-2) and Western Michigan (3-3, 3-1), the Mountain West's Fresno St (3-5, 2-2) and San Jose St (3-4, 2-1), Rice (4-3, 2-1 C-USA), and South Florida (3-5, 2-2 ACC).
Tier M:
Only Conference USA has two representatives in Tier M - Florida Atlantic (3-5, 2-2) and Texas-El Paso (4-3, 2-1). The other five schools are Michigan (3-5, 1-3 Big 10), Navy (4-4 as independent), San Diego St (4-3, 3-1 MW), Temple (4-3, 2-2 AAC), and Washington St (2-6, 1-4 Pac12). [Michigan should find it appropriate that they're in Tier "M"...yet somehow we doubt they're pleased!]
Tier L:
BYU has fallen all the way to here (4-4 as an independent), alongside Illinois (4-4, 1-3 Big 10), Middle Tennessee (5-3, 4-1 C-USA), Texas and Texas Tech (both 3-5, although the Longhorns have one more win in the Big 12), Toledo (5-3, undefeated at 4-0 in the MAC), and Louisiana-Lafayette (4-3, and also undefeated in conference at 3-0 in the Sun Belt).
Tier K:
The first tier without a losing record includes six different conferences (there's only one tier without duplicate teams from the same conference...and we haven't reached it yet!) starts with Bowling Green (5-3, 3-1 in the MAC), Central Florida (5-2, 3-0) and Cincinnati (4-3, 2-1) from the American Athletic Conference, Georgia Southern (the highest ranked team from the Sun Belt conference at 6-2 and 5-0), Louisiana Tech (5-3, 4-0 C-USA), Nevada (5-3, 2-2 MW), and North Carolina St (4-4, 0-4 in the ACC).
Week 8 College Tiers - all 128 teams have been leveled!
That's right! Our extensive Following Football tiering system has divided the 128 FBS teams into twenty tiers of six or seven members (as always, we refuse to specifically rank teams until the end of the season), for your viewing and arguing pleasure! We start with the bottom five tiers, in the Basement Levels:
Tier U (aka, the Bottom Six):
No changes here from last week, and we still include four Sun Belt Conference also-rans in Georgia State, Idaho, New Mexico St, and Troy; along with MAC bottom-feeder Kent St and our lone remaining winless team, from the American Athletic Conference (used to be the Big East), the SMU Mustangs.
Tier T (aka the rest of the Bottom 13):
Also very similar to last week, with one-win Tulsa and UConn from the AAC, and two-win teams Appalachian St (Sun Belt), New Mexico (Mountain West), North Texas (Conference USA), and the two MAC entries, Miami-OH and UMass.
Tier S:
Ball St (3-5, 2-2 MAC), Eastern Michigan (2-6, 1-3 MAC), Hawaii (2-6, 1-2 MW), Old Dominion (3-5, 1-4 Sun), UNLV (2-6, 1-3 MW), and UT-San Antonio (2-6, 1-3 C-USA).
Tier R:
The fourth level from the bottom (if you like, call them rankings #104-109) contains Akron (4-4, 2-2 MAC), Army (2-5 as independent), Iowa St (2-5, 0-4 Big 12), Kansas (2-5, 0-4 Big 12), Tulane (2-5, 1-2 AAC), and Western Kentucky (3-4, 1-3 Sun).
Tier Q:
Finally (for this post in the Basement Level), there are seven teams - Buffalo (3-5, 1-3 MAC), Florida International (3-5, 2-2 C-USA), South Alabama (5-2, 4-1 Sun), Southern Miss (3-5, 1-3 C-USA), UL-Monroe (3-4, 2-2 Sun), Vanderbilt (2-6, 0-5 SEC), and Wake Forest (2-6, 0-4 ACC).
[Just a reminder - the most important rule of placing teams in tiers is, If the teams played on a neutral field, would they be close? Or would one team definitely win? If there's a significant difference, they should be in different tiers. But that's why South Alabama (at 5-2) can be in the same tier as 2-6 Vanderbilt, winless in the SEC: Wouldn't SA be winless there, too?]
Tier U (aka, the Bottom Six):
No changes here from last week, and we still include four Sun Belt Conference also-rans in Georgia State, Idaho, New Mexico St, and Troy; along with MAC bottom-feeder Kent St and our lone remaining winless team, from the American Athletic Conference (used to be the Big East), the SMU Mustangs.
Tier T (aka the rest of the Bottom 13):
Also very similar to last week, with one-win Tulsa and UConn from the AAC, and two-win teams Appalachian St (Sun Belt), New Mexico (Mountain West), North Texas (Conference USA), and the two MAC entries, Miami-OH and UMass.
Tier S:
Ball St (3-5, 2-2 MAC), Eastern Michigan (2-6, 1-3 MAC), Hawaii (2-6, 1-2 MW), Old Dominion (3-5, 1-4 Sun), UNLV (2-6, 1-3 MW), and UT-San Antonio (2-6, 1-3 C-USA).
Tier R:
The fourth level from the bottom (if you like, call them rankings #104-109) contains Akron (4-4, 2-2 MAC), Army (2-5 as independent), Iowa St (2-5, 0-4 Big 12), Kansas (2-5, 0-4 Big 12), Tulane (2-5, 1-2 AAC), and Western Kentucky (3-4, 1-3 Sun).
Tier Q:
Finally (for this post in the Basement Level), there are seven teams - Buffalo (3-5, 1-3 MAC), Florida International (3-5, 2-2 C-USA), South Alabama (5-2, 4-1 Sun), Southern Miss (3-5, 1-3 C-USA), UL-Monroe (3-4, 2-2 Sun), Vanderbilt (2-6, 0-5 SEC), and Wake Forest (2-6, 0-4 ACC).
[Just a reminder - the most important rule of placing teams in tiers is, If the teams played on a neutral field, would they be close? Or would one team definitely win? If there's a significant difference, they should be in different tiers. But that's why South Alabama (at 5-2) can be in the same tier as 2-6 Vanderbilt, winless in the SEC: Wouldn't SA be winless there, too?]
We've alienated London fans forever...
..with the ending of that weird, wild, Detroit "victory" over the Atlanta Falcons this morning, won by a Matt Prater field goal after a trial run he missed that was erased by his own team's delay of game. So, NOT a penalty that Atlanta was allowed to refuse, and backing up five yards Prater made the second attempt.
BEFORE that, we had the debacle of the Lions (for some insipid reason) running down the middle for virtually no gain when they had no timeouts, and then spiking the ball. We had the idiots on the Atlanta sideline calling timeouts when the Lions needed them after a running play, the Falcons players committing stupid penalties that gave the Lions necessary yardage, and just the complete collapse of the birds that led 21-0 at halftime, dominating the Lions and then going dormant in the second half.
Add the Lion kicking woes this season and the terrible turf conditions in Wembley Stadium, and you had to wonder why the Lions were playing for a 40+ yard field goal to win in the first place... Just a ridiculous ending to an otherwise interesting game.
Detroit 22 - Atlanta 21
BEFORE that, we had the debacle of the Lions (for some insipid reason) running down the middle for virtually no gain when they had no timeouts, and then spiking the ball. We had the idiots on the Atlanta sideline calling timeouts when the Lions needed them after a running play, the Falcons players committing stupid penalties that gave the Lions necessary yardage, and just the complete collapse of the birds that led 21-0 at halftime, dominating the Lions and then going dormant in the second half.
Add the Lion kicking woes this season and the terrible turf conditions in Wembley Stadium, and you had to wonder why the Lions were playing for a 40+ yard field goal to win in the first place... Just a ridiculous ending to an otherwise interesting game.
Detroit 22 - Atlanta 21
Saturday, October 25, 2014
WHAT is going on in PITTSBURGH?
As of five minutes and fifteen seconds into the game, Pitt has run six plays and fumbled four times! Georgia Tech, as a consequence, has run seven plays and scored four touchdowns. 28-0, thirteen plays in...
Edit: Pitt fumbles the ball AGAIN nine minutes into the quarter, but GT eventually gives up the ball on downs deep in Panther territory. So far, for Pitt, thirteen plays, five lost fumbles.
Edit: Pitt fumbles the ball AGAIN nine minutes into the quarter, but GT eventually gives up the ball on downs deep in Panther territory. So far, for Pitt, thirteen plays, five lost fumbles.
Big man touchdown! (But...as a passer?!?)
Take a look at this wild play from Arkansas on the goal line - looks a lot like the A-11 offense we see in high schools from California and elsewhere! The result is a lineman throwing a touchdown pass in a set-up that looks like the Hogs have two half-teams on the field, and the QB is on the other half! Of course, this is much less risky when you're playing UAB and leading easily...
Big Boy touchdown pass! (And check out that formation!)
Big Boy touchdown pass! (And check out that formation!)
Friday, October 24, 2014
Rugby World Championships schedule announced
And here's the home page for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. There are twenty countries involved in the RWC, which starts on September 18th of next year and runs through Hallow'een, October 31st.
Pool A: Australia, England, Fiji, Uruguay, and Wales.
Pool B: Japan, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, and the United States.
Pool C: Argentina, Georgia, Namibia, New Zealand, and Tonga.
Pool D: Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Romania.
From the World Rankings, the favorites are England and Australia from Group A; South Africa from Group B; the All-Blacks from New Zealand in Group C; and Ireland and France in Group D.
The top two in each pool advance to the KnockOut Rounds, which start October 17th.
Pool A: Australia, England, Fiji, Uruguay, and Wales.
Pool B: Japan, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, and the United States.
Pool C: Argentina, Georgia, Namibia, New Zealand, and Tonga.
Pool D: Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and Romania.
From the World Rankings, the favorites are England and Australia from Group A; South Africa from Group B; the All-Blacks from New Zealand in Group C; and Ireland and France in Group D.
The top two in each pool advance to the KnockOut Rounds, which start October 17th.
Rugby - by request!
Hard to arguer that rugby isn't a form of football... it's just not a form of football that we know very much about! But here's a site that does - the International Rugby Board, with a preview of the 2015 Rugby World Cup's "Group Of Death" (every tournament with prelim round groupings has one!)!
Thursday, October 23, 2014
AFL Comparison #18: the Western Bulldogs
Last one! Your assignment NOW will be to go through all eighteen teams (click the label "comparisons" to weed down to these articles) and choose your new favorite (or several favorites, if that's easier!). Thanks for reading!
The Western Bulldogs are simply "west" of Melbourne, not of the rest of Australia... they're over a thousand miles east of the "West Coast Eagles". The "Western" Bulldogs are only nineteen seasons old, having been formed in 1996 out of the remnants of the Footscray and Fitzroy teams, which date back to the 1920's; officially, their records are inherited from Footscray, and their minor league team is still there.
Western is what most would call an "afterthought" team - ask a footy fan to name the eighteen teams in the league, and only a diehard Doggie fan would think to remember them in the first five names coming from their mouths. But every once in awhile they make noise - champions in 1954 (as Footscray), top four team in 2008-2010 - and they're rarely bad enough to be a laughing stock (in their nineteen years of existence, Western has only one "wooden spoon" for last place, back in '03).
With superstar teenager Tom Boyd coming on board, plus stud rookie Marcus Bontempelli and a host of up and coming talent, Western might be a force to reckon with in the near future. We say "might be" because we've thought this before, with nothing to show in the end.
Their American counterpart: the Sacramento Kings
The Kings had one glory period in their thirty year history in California's capitol city: right about 2001-2 (pictured above), when they were the best team in the NBA and got knocked out of the playoffs in a seven-game Western Conference Finals series that many think was one of the five best playoff series in history, replete with possible ref cheating, massive comebacks, overtimes, drama on and off the court, and of course some of the most spectacular basketball you'll ever see. Otherwise, the Kings loll about in the bottom third of the league, usually earning themselves about the #6 or #7 draft choice, who'll play for them for a couple of years before injuring himself and leaving the game or leaving via free agency or trade to a team that actually knows how to use him.
The Kings have a long and travelled history, leaving Rochester for Cincinnati for Kansas City for Omaha (sort of) for Sacramento for Seattle good, they hope. (Western hasn't travelled that much, but footy clubs don't.) The only other thing that was really significant about the purple jersey of the Sacramento Kings was the way Marisa Miller sort of wore it in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue one year (and that's not ever quite accurate, since there's no fabric involved; it's body paint.)
AFL Comparison #17: West Coast Eagles
Lately, though, they've fallen on comparatively hard times, always (it seems) just out of the playoffs. It seems as if they're always somewhere around .500 at the end of the year. This year, they had a chance to make the final eight on the last Saturday of the season, were it not for Richmond's massive upset of the Swans the night before that knocked them above the Eagles' 11-11 record (the one they reached by beating Gold Coast that Saturday) and into finals.
Who does that remind you of?
Their American counterpart: the Dallas Cowboys
But this is the year! (This is a recorded announcement, as we've said that every year for a decade....)
The Cowboys, long lauded as "America's team", haven't pushed that moniker in a number of years, and it's been sixteen years since they've won a playoff game. But they're still one of the most beloved/most hated teams in the competition. They have a long history of success, even without being one of the original teams (even in the old AMERICAN Football League, the AFL that merged with the NFL after four Super Bowls split 2-2).
The Dallas Cowboys and West Coast Eagles have one other trait in common, one that perfectly encapsulates their importance: Their leagues are more interesting and popular whenever they're competitive. (And it sure does look like this year's one of those for Dallas; let's hope the left coast Eagles have the same success.
Interesting games this weekend...
Here are the college games that will keep us attentive this weekend...
In Blacksburg, a critical ACC matchup looms Thursday between traditional powerhouses Miami-FL and Virginia Tech, both 4-3 and (most crucially) 1-2 in conference. Another loss dooms either of them; 2-2 (and 5-3 overall) gives them life. We agree that the Hurricanes are the slight favorite, but we're excited to watch it!
Similarly, in the American conference, South Florida goes to Cincinnati Friday, each with a conference loss and pretty much out of hope for a title with a second this week. The Bearcats are the deserved favorite, but we don't trust them...
Also on Friday night:
Boise St without their best receiver (and on the blue) > BYU without their QB.
Oregon anytime, anywhere > a much improved California, our fave to watch!
Memphis by 23 over SMU? It would be really nice if the Mustangs stay that close...With the new allegations of fraud at North Carolina, Virginia should win, probably by more than a TD...
Will Kansas St really be ten points better than the fabled Longhorns of Texas? They should be much more than that, but it depends on how the purple shows up in bright light that's in question.
We'd love to see 6-1 Minnesota start to impress the critics more. They're only a TD favorite against a mediocre Illinois team that they shouldn't have any problems with, even on the road.
Akron's only a 2 point favorite over regular Bottom-Feeder Ball St? Hmm...
What would Marshall have to do to make us believe they could be competitive with the Tier A teams? Win by fifty? Learn to fly? (Play somebody with a pulse?) They're favored by four touchdowns over FAU; would it matter if they won by eight? Fourteen? GaTech/Cumberland scores?
How about Sparty over Big Blue? Would Michigan St have to win by thirty to impress, or is any win over the legendary maize and blue of Michigan credit-building?
Two of our favorite SEC teams, Mississippi St and Kentucky, square off in Lexington Saturday as a 2-TD spread in favor of the Bulldogs, and rightly so - but it's going to be a fun game! (Vanderbilt @ Missouri should also be interesting!)
Temple might be less than the 7 point dog the line makes them at UCF, but we can also see them losing by thirty...Hard to picture Wyoming losing to rival Colorado St by the 18 points the line has, too....
The prime time games are worth setting the evening aside for! Ole Miss at LSU? Good luck, Rebels...you're favored by three, and here's hoping you pull it off! (We're hoping for an undefeated Egg Bowl here at FF!) But that's going to be an awfully tough environment, and every break goes the way of the Mad Hatter, Les Miles, when you go into the Bayou!
South Carolina's fallen so far that they're a 17 point dog at Auburn (deservedly so, too).
The most intriguing thing about Alabama's jaunt into Tennessee, of course, is the return of Lane Kiffin to the Volunteers headquarters. We truly hope that it's an uneventful visit - Kiffin's been punished many times over at this stage for his incompetence, and there's no point in revisiting a past you don't really want to think about any more than you have to!
Can Ohio St make a charge towards the playoff? Can it start by handling Penn St, a good team but one the Buckeyes should be able to defeat (the line is 13 1/2 points at the moment).
Is USC for real? What about Utah? One of them will look more real after their game Saturday night in Salt Lake City; that's for sure! Similarly, we'll get a reasonable look at Arizona St, who goes to Seattle to play U-Dub, aka the University of Washington, who should give them a legitimate test.
In Blacksburg, a critical ACC matchup looms Thursday between traditional powerhouses Miami-FL and Virginia Tech, both 4-3 and (most crucially) 1-2 in conference. Another loss dooms either of them; 2-2 (and 5-3 overall) gives them life. We agree that the Hurricanes are the slight favorite, but we're excited to watch it!
Similarly, in the American conference, South Florida goes to Cincinnati Friday, each with a conference loss and pretty much out of hope for a title with a second this week. The Bearcats are the deserved favorite, but we don't trust them...
Also on Friday night:
Boise St without their best receiver (and on the blue) > BYU without their QB.
Oregon anytime, anywhere > a much improved California, our fave to watch!
Memphis by 23 over SMU? It would be really nice if the Mustangs stay that close...With the new allegations of fraud at North Carolina, Virginia should win, probably by more than a TD...
Will Kansas St really be ten points better than the fabled Longhorns of Texas? They should be much more than that, but it depends on how the purple shows up in bright light that's in question.
We'd love to see 6-1 Minnesota start to impress the critics more. They're only a TD favorite against a mediocre Illinois team that they shouldn't have any problems with, even on the road.
Akron's only a 2 point favorite over regular Bottom-Feeder Ball St? Hmm...
What would Marshall have to do to make us believe they could be competitive with the Tier A teams? Win by fifty? Learn to fly? (Play somebody with a pulse?) They're favored by four touchdowns over FAU; would it matter if they won by eight? Fourteen? GaTech/Cumberland scores?
How about Sparty over Big Blue? Would Michigan St have to win by thirty to impress, or is any win over the legendary maize and blue of Michigan credit-building?
Two of our favorite SEC teams, Mississippi St and Kentucky, square off in Lexington Saturday as a 2-TD spread in favor of the Bulldogs, and rightly so - but it's going to be a fun game! (Vanderbilt @ Missouri should also be interesting!)
Temple might be less than the 7 point dog the line makes them at UCF, but we can also see them losing by thirty...Hard to picture Wyoming losing to rival Colorado St by the 18 points the line has, too....
The prime time games are worth setting the evening aside for! Ole Miss at LSU? Good luck, Rebels...you're favored by three, and here's hoping you pull it off! (We're hoping for an undefeated Egg Bowl here at FF!) But that's going to be an awfully tough environment, and every break goes the way of the Mad Hatter, Les Miles, when you go into the Bayou!
South Carolina's fallen so far that they're a 17 point dog at Auburn (deservedly so, too).
The most intriguing thing about Alabama's jaunt into Tennessee, of course, is the return of Lane Kiffin to the Volunteers headquarters. We truly hope that it's an uneventful visit - Kiffin's been punished many times over at this stage for his incompetence, and there's no point in revisiting a past you don't really want to think about any more than you have to!
Can Ohio St make a charge towards the playoff? Can it start by handling Penn St, a good team but one the Buckeyes should be able to defeat (the line is 13 1/2 points at the moment).
Is USC for real? What about Utah? One of them will look more real after their game Saturday night in Salt Lake City; that's for sure! Similarly, we'll get a reasonable look at Arizona St, who goes to Seattle to play U-Dub, aka the University of Washington, who should give them a legitimate test.
Forecasts for Week 8!
Looking through the oddsmakers' choices and spreads (and again, we do not advocate betting on football or any sport! It's just a device we use to estimate probable outcomes of games!), there aren't very many spots where we disagree with Vegas. Here are the most obvious:
In college football, we like Maryland over Wisconsin as an eleven point underdog, since we have them a tier higher to begin with!
We like Georgia Tech to beat Pitt despite their three-point underdog line, as we have them three full tiers higher than the Panthers!
We severely question the idea that Oregon St is a two-TD underdog to Stanford. We have them a tier higher, and since it's on the Farm, we figure it a pretty even game.
Looking at the West Virginia at Oklahoma St game, we see even lines from most Vegas houses, but we see it as a probable Mountaineer victory.
Old Dominion should be able to handle Western Kentucky, despite the Hilltoppers' home field advantage...and we don't see why Arizona is only a 2 1/2 point fave over Washington St. Sure, the Cougs will put up fifty - but they'll allow seventy!
In the NFL, we're always afraid to predict the unpredictable, but the two games where our tiers disagree with the oddsmakers are in the Meadowlands, where unlike Vegas we foresee Buffalo beating the Jets, and in New Orleans. Sure, the Saints are good at home...but the Packers are good everywhere. They're rated as a "pick'em" game, but we're pretty confident in Green Bay defeating New Orleans, even in the Superdome.
Finally, in the CFL, we're most interested in the Hamilton at Toronto matchup, and leaning towards the road team to win the first of the three-game round-robin tournament for the Eastern Conference title.
In college football, we like Maryland over Wisconsin as an eleven point underdog, since we have them a tier higher to begin with!
We like Georgia Tech to beat Pitt despite their three-point underdog line, as we have them three full tiers higher than the Panthers!
We severely question the idea that Oregon St is a two-TD underdog to Stanford. We have them a tier higher, and since it's on the Farm, we figure it a pretty even game.
Looking at the West Virginia at Oklahoma St game, we see even lines from most Vegas houses, but we see it as a probable Mountaineer victory.
Old Dominion should be able to handle Western Kentucky, despite the Hilltoppers' home field advantage...and we don't see why Arizona is only a 2 1/2 point fave over Washington St. Sure, the Cougs will put up fifty - but they'll allow seventy!
In the NFL, we're always afraid to predict the unpredictable, but the two games where our tiers disagree with the oddsmakers are in the Meadowlands, where unlike Vegas we foresee Buffalo beating the Jets, and in New Orleans. Sure, the Saints are good at home...but the Packers are good everywhere. They're rated as a "pick'em" game, but we're pretty confident in Green Bay defeating New Orleans, even in the Superdome.
Finally, in the CFL, we're most interested in the Hamilton at Toronto matchup, and leaning towards the road team to win the first of the three-game round-robin tournament for the Eastern Conference title.
Read this. Please. For the well-being of every potential victim of assault, read this.
Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports has one of the most well-thought-out articles we've yet seen about the Jamies Winston alleged sexual assault on a fellow FSU student.
Read this article. It doesn't tell you whether Winston DID or DIDN'T assault her. But that's not the point.
The point of the article is this: if you knew what the woman went through when she was attacked...and then YOU were assaulted? Would you report the attack, knowing what you were about to put yourself through?
The Tallahassee police department, the FSU administration, and every person in power involved in this case should be completely ashamed of the miscarriage of justice that continues to take place here, just because the alleged perpetrator is a star athlete. It's not the victim who's being victimized a SECOND time that is the major issue here (as completely heinous as that is!). It's the fact that they've now dissuaded every woman in northern Florida (and possibly well beyond that) from reporting sexual assaults against them. They have essentially given rapists in their region complete free rein to terrorize anybody they want, because their victims will be too frightened of the system to come forward afterwards.
Please: the next time someone argues that sports don't have an effect of the way we live our life? Remember Jamies Winston, the FSU athletic department, and the Tallahassee PD.
Read this article. It doesn't tell you whether Winston DID or DIDN'T assault her. But that's not the point.
The point of the article is this: if you knew what the woman went through when she was attacked...and then YOU were assaulted? Would you report the attack, knowing what you were about to put yourself through?
The Tallahassee police department, the FSU administration, and every person in power involved in this case should be completely ashamed of the miscarriage of justice that continues to take place here, just because the alleged perpetrator is a star athlete. It's not the victim who's being victimized a SECOND time that is the major issue here (as completely heinous as that is!). It's the fact that they've now dissuaded every woman in northern Florida (and possibly well beyond that) from reporting sexual assaults against them. They have essentially given rapists in their region complete free rein to terrorize anybody they want, because their victims will be too frightened of the system to come forward afterwards.
Please: the next time someone argues that sports don't have an effect of the way we live our life? Remember Jamies Winston, the FSU athletic department, and the Tallahassee PD.
M...
Campus rivalries abound, of course, and once in a while one of the pranks makes news. Here's a story about the Michigan St / Michigan conflagration coming up this Saturday (the story also includes a few other recent tales, such as Alabama/Tennessee.
It reminds me (this is Gordon speaking) of our pipe dream when I taught high school marching band. We often went to march at our opposing school's field when we played them in football, and quite often I would write the marching drill to include our initial in the field patterns (if our school's name started with K, we'd make a "K" on the field; same with "P" or "J", covering the four schools I spent time at).
Our devious plan (which we never carried out) was to stand in that formation on the enemy's field, and drop a handful of rye seed onto the grass. Ideally, the seed embeds itself, germinates, and in the spring the school is amazed to find a large letter celebrating their rival school growing on their football field! The lawsuits and punishments from our own school always dissuaded me, but man! Talk about a prank to live through the ages!
Dead coach walking...
Under the category of "they take football WAY too seriously down south", Lane Kiffin returns to Tennessee for the first time since his admittedly rude and abrupt departure from Knoxville for subsequent failures at USC...and people who care for him are understandably fearful for his safety while he's there. His children won't be going at all; his mother is pleading for him to be in the upstairs booth rather than his normal position on the Alabama sideline, and arguably half of the folks in orange will be at the game primarily for (or more accurately, against) his return, rather than to root for their seventeen point underdog Volunteers. (Thanks to Graham Watson for the story!)
Hmm. That's something you don't see everyday...
Courtesy of one of our favorite sites, Dr. Saturday, we get to watch North Greenville (NC) quarterback Nelson Hughes throw a 47-yard touchdown pass to his mother's favorite son...himself.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
AFL Comparison #16: the Sydney Swans
Following the 2013 finals, when Hawthorn's star forward Lance "Buddy" Franklin (the biggest name in Aussie Rules, pictured above at right) was about to become a free agent, there was a non-stop. LeBron-like pursuit of the rumor mill as to whether he would stay with the champion Hawks, or jump to the GWS Giants, based outside of Sydney, who while not currently a contended would allow him a free rein as a player to dominate, and perhaps the opportunity to do what Gary Ablett Jr. is trying to do at Gold Coast: build a premier from the ground up. Which choice would Buddy take? The world was watching.
As they watched, on the first day of actual signing, Sydney swooped down and signed Franklin to a nine-year, TEN million dollar (AU) contract, an insane amount of money in the AFL and an even MORE insane length of contract for a 28 year old player. But the amazing-est part, if we can use that non-word, was that they'd worked this deal out over the course of over a YEAR, and absolutely nobody knew that Sydney was a player in the Buddy Franklin sweepstakes.Especially not GWS - Greater Western Sydney - who lost their chance at instant credibility to their cross-region, already established rival, who was now the prohibitive favorite to win the 2014 title. (And they would've won it, too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids! No...wait. Wrong thing. They would have won it if they hadn't met Hawthorn on such a vintage Hawthorn playing day, and if they'd played at least slightly better than a "string of witches hats in a training drill", which is the name for the traffic cones we use in the States for slalom courses. Seriously. They were absolutely terrible in the second quarter in particular.) It's going to be interesting to see what happens next year to the team which is perceived as being SO rich that they had to be BANNED FROM TRADING this fall because the league office (read: the other teams!) thought their "cost of living allowance" (provided to its players because living in Sydney for an Aussie is like living in downtown SF for an American - expensive!) gave them a "competitive advantage".
All of this is ironic because Sydney, in years past (before their 2005 championship), the Sydney club had not won a title since 1933, the longest drought in footy, and generally they RAILED against the advantage all the Melbourne clubs held because their salaries went farther than those paid in the most expensive city in Australia.
The irony is inescapable.
Their American counterpart: the Boston Red Sox
The drought for the Red Sox was even LONGER - back to 1918! But in 2004, the Red Sox did the seemingly impossible: they came back from 3-0 down to the Yankees (and extra innings in game 4!) to win the AL pennant 4 games to 3, and then they swept the Cardinals to win the first World Series title for Boston in 86 years.
The ironic part is that while they complained of the Babe Ruth "curse" (they traded their star young pitcher, Babe Ruth, for a pile of spare parts and some cash), especially with the evil empire Yankees just down the road in New York, they actually became the Yankees/North, spending lots of money on free agents like they could never have done under the old Yawkey family umbrella. They beat the Yankees by becoming the Yankees. And Sydney did some of the same things: by spending, they got the talent that won that almost mythical 2005 title, and then repeated in 2012 (and are once again one of the two betting favorites with Hawthorn for next year's title).
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