To the winner...

Well ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for. The following is the writing of contest winner Geoff. Before you say it, we know, he's better than us.

Manny Ramirez is a free agent. Manny Ramirez is still a free agent. Let me repeat that again, for good measure: Manny Ramirez is a FREE AGENT. What the hell is going on here? Barry Bonds would blame it on collusion but no one is accusing Manny of using the “cream” or the “clear.” A quick run-down of the situation shows that teams are afraid of “Manny being Manny,” becoming unhappy and, according to the higher-ups, a “clubhouse distraction.” That phrase causes GMs to fall out of their chairs, managers to quake, and players to…well, keep playing. Honestly, the idiom might as well be “bullshit” because that’s what a clubhouse distraction is: bullshit. You know how Manny was creating all kinds of trouble for the Red Sox last year? Trouble to the tune of a .918 OPS in 100 games for the Sauuuux. Sure, that was a bit under his career numbers in Boston but still, few players in the majors had higher OPS’s last year. In the entire American League there were four players who finished the season with a higher number in that category than Ramirez, and if you look at what Manny did in Los Angeles, the man would have finished in first in the AL. In fact, he has third-highest OPS in the majors last year, behind only Albert “I OBP at .500” Pujols and my boy Chipper Jones. Of course, he isn’t credited with finishing first in the NL for what he did in Chavez Ravine because he spent too little time there but damn, he had a godly 1.232 OPS there in 53 games.

So what’s the story morning glory? Why are teams refusing to sign this man who could honestly go down as one of the ten greatest hitters of all time? Apparently, Manny will cause you trouble. Which makes a whole of sense considering how baseball is such a game of chemistry…or not. It’s pitcher vs. batter, not O-Line vs. D-Line. Honestly, team chemistry is a bunch of bunk when you’re talking about baseball. The pitcher and the catcher don’t even have to like each other as long as the catcher can call a good game from behind the plate. Baseball is unique among team sports because it doesn’t require so much “chemistry” among teammates – in football, timing is a huge part of things and developing a rapport with your receivers as a quarterback is vital; in basketball, a point guard needs to have a feel for the tendencies of his teammate, who can jump out of the building, to master his alley-oop pass; in soccer, the quick one-two’s placement and timing is built on knowing your teammates. Baseball, however, has few opportunities for this to be important. About the only one is the double play, but the most celebrated combination ever (rightly or wrongly as research shows it was overrated), Tinkers to Evers to Chance, wasn’t exactly the model of cordiality. The Cubs’ Joe Tinker, shortstop, and Johnny Evers, second baseman (the most important parts of the typical double play-combos 6-4-3 and 4-6-3) had ongoing feuds that strained their relations. Despite this terrible development in their team chemistry, they still managed to turn double plays.

There are many examples to demonstrate how the concepts “clubhouse distraction” and “team chemistry” are crap when you’re talking about baseball. I mean, it can’t hurt to like your teammates, but really, how many Giants really liked Barry Bonds when San Francisco was good back in the early 2000s? He was a recluse from the rest of the players even though he was a massive media distraction, even before steroids. Alex Rodriguez has been a constant source of attention, mostly negative, in New York, and the man is still the best (or second-best…it’s him or Pujols) hitter in the league (and not a choker in big situations, you fuckin’ idiots who perpetuate that myth). Another Yankee in the past was a major media-suck: Reggie Jackson. Mr. October and Steinbrenner, along with team captain Thurman Munson, weren’t exactly all buddy-buddy, but hey, Jackson was such an utter annoyance and disturbance that the Yankees won the World Series that year in his first season in pinstripes. Gosh darn-it all, you clubhouse distractions! We can’t win with you here!

Now that the truth about chemistry in baseball has been exposed, what does this mean for Manny? Well, it means any team with a GM who has half-a-brain should try to sign him. Naturally, with the current economic problems there aren’t that many who can afford to dole out a four year, $90 to $100 million contract. But there are some who can, like the Dodgers, who for some absurdly stupid reason are balking at the idea of keeping Manny and his more than 1.200 OPS around for a few more seasons. The Nationals are looking to spend some dough with their new ballpark improving team revenues and really should try to get him if no one else will. Even the Yankees, who I abhor for their reckless spending this off-season, ought to throw him some bones if they are willing. Really, it is just ridiculous that the man is still unsigned less than a month before spring training. Some numbers: 37 HRs/130 RBIs/.344 BA/.482 OBP/.634 SLG/1.116 OPS vs. 41 HRs/133 RBIs/.314 BA/.411 OBP/.593 SLG/1.004 OPS. These are 162-game averages for two different players. The second set of numbers is Manny Ramirez. The first is the greatest player in Red Sox history, Ted Williams. Now, Teddy Ballgame had a better eye than Manny, as seen by his absurd OBP but the other numbers aren’t too far apart. So yes, Manny Ramirez is frickin’ good. Despite his 36 years of age, the man can still hit and would especially be a good signing by an AL team that can stick him in the designated-hitter slot if his fielding, already the source for some amusing Sportscenter highlights, gets a lot worse.

Hopefully, some non-Steve Phillips-like GM who uses these things called statistics to evaluate players and not moronic standards like “he plays hard so he must be good” will sign the man to hit some baseballs. However, knowing the utter stupidity of many baseball GMs, a number of which can afford to sign a player of Manny’s cost and caliber, Ramirez will likely remain unsigned. Someone should just let Manny be Manny – it’ll probably get whatever team is smart enough to sign him a lot more runs and, thus, a lot more wins.

Thanks Geoff, well done. More posts coming soon, we promise.

The Worst Day of the Year

As I sit here flabbergasted at both Louisville's ability to hand/throw/trip over/kick the basketball to people with "Connecticut" on the front of their jerseys (Colton adds this analysis from on-site: "F*$& UConn.") and how little motivation I have to do any schoolwork at all, I've once again found myself entering the month of what I like to call Sports Hell. The next 35+ days, the ones between the Super Bowl and conference tournaments/Selection Sunday will try any sports fan's soul, trust me. We must band together, shoulder our loads and trudge on like true fans. We'll try to do our part with more posts (read: any posts), and you can do your part by entertaining yourselves by picking apart our lame arguments. Let's move on.

I know you're all wondering about the Super-Mega-Bowl-Pickem-Extravaganza, so I should lead with that. Unfortunately for all you mere mortals, our co-blogger and fellow super-sports-nerd Geoff Skelley bested literally hundreds of challengers to take home the prize. We are currently awaiting his scroll of enlightenment and will post it for you, as long as it is somewhere between 100 and six billion words. Keep the limits in mind, Geoff.

As a few of you might have heard, the National Football Championship Game of the World was last night, and it was quite the donnybrook. Since I hesitated about 20 hours, there's already been about four billion articles about the game, but what the heck, let's give it a shot. Here's four things I think about last night's game:

1. The better team won the football game.
I wanted Kurt Warner and the Cardinals to win as much as anyone, but the formula for Super Bowl success has been established for years: Defense playing great, solid pass protection, decent offense. Pittsburgh had this all year. We knew this and, frankly, I'm impressed the game was as close as it was. Definitely a game for the ages.

WE CAN BUILD ON THIS!!!

2. Larry Fitzgerald is really, really good. And cool.
This got overhyped like crazy for the week leading up to the game and for the first half or so of the game, it looked like he might go quietly into the night. I'll admit, I was concerned. I would pay to see him play any day, and he's one of the most likable NFL players in recent memory. In a league where players do everything short of a striptease after making a play, it's refreshing to see someone that just plays for the fun of it.

I mean, you can count on one finger the number of wideouts that would take money off their contract to keep around a teammate, simply because it's more fun to play with another stud pass-catcher on the other side of the field. I don't have a huge problem with Ocho Cinco, T.O. or anyone else that shows off a little, but it's nice to see the other extreme every once in a while.

3. Holmes' catch was more impressive than Tyree's
It's important to know that I mean "impressive", as in "skillful". Not "more important". That can still be debated. I know it sounds crazy, but watch the plays again. Compare the two of them. Eli Manning scrambled around like a guy getting jumped in a back alley before blindly tossing a pass into the middle of the field. David Tyree then went up against Rodney Harrison, only one of the better safeties in the league, got the ball beaten onto his head, and managed to hang on as he hit the ground. Definitely impressive, but there was a lot of fortunate things that occured to help it along.

Then came Santonio's catch. For anyone who hasn't seen it, go watch it now. Seriously. It starts out with Big Ben slipping through the pocket like he always does, followed by him setting his feet and chucking a ball to the corner of the endzone, through three defenders, where only one person, making a perfect play, could get his hands on it. Holmes made a textbook catch on the biggest stage imaginable. Amazing.

4. Good, not great, year for commercials
I liked the commercials this year. I didn't love them, and a couple were just bad, but there were a few that were genuinely hilarious. I was pumped to see the E-Trade babies back, and Dorito's did well. The beer commercials lacked this year, which kinda sucked. There wasn't a lot of depth, and GoDaddy.com needs to just stop trying. I blame all you people that checked online to see if Danica Patrick actually showed it all off this year. You know who you are.


Frank, it was on the cart path!

Until next time, ladies and gents. Stay strong.

The Winning Picks

Ok boys and girls, thanks to everyone who sent in picks for this year's little contest. Good luck, and I'll be the first to say, sorry you didn't win. Now, as promised, we will all post our picks so you can see what yours should have been. We promise we picked these beforehand, so whatever game is happening now (Wake vs. Navy maybe?) did not influence our picks.

EagleBank Bowl - Wake Forest vs. Navy. I'm not even going to comment on some of these bowl names. These two teams played in the regular season and Navy eeked out a 7 point win, with a lot of help from five Riley Skinner turnovers. I'm going to tak the chance that he won't turn the ball over that many times again.
Prediction: Wake

New Mexico Bowl - Colorado St. vs. Fresno St. Sometimes picking bowl games comes down to stuff like this; I know absolutley nothing about CSU but I know Fresno St. had some early season hype as a BCS buster.
Prediction: Fresno St.

magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl - Memphis vs. USF. If the name doesn't tell you this is a bad bowl maybe this will; This is the only bowl this year that features two teams that lost to Louisville this season. Ouch. Have fun watching this one. USF looked good early but tanked, Memphis actually had a good shot to beat UofL if not for some big plays.
Prediction: Memphis

Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl - BYU vs. Arizona. BYU plays in the vastly overrated Mountain West. We get it, they beat a bunch of Pac 10 teams not called USC one week, and Utah went undefeated to get worked by Alabama in their BCS game. Good for them. Fortunatley, they play one of those bad Pac 10 teams in this game.
Prediction: BYU

R + L Carriers New Orleans Bowl - Southern Miss vs. Troy. Wow. Well. Umm. The thing about these two teams....oh screw it. I don't know anything about these teams.
Prediction - Southern Miss


S.D.C.C.U.P. Bowl - Boise St. vs. TCU. Yeah that name is way too long. If you wanna know what it stands for, by all means look it up yourself. Anyway, Boise St. is undefeated and due to the great system of 1A college football postseason they are playing in a bowl that has a name too long to even type out. Sorry boys.
Prediction: BSU


Sheraton Hawaii Bowl - Hawaii vs. Notre Dame. This is not the same Hawaii team of Colt Brennan or even Timmy Chang. I never thought I would do this......
Prediction: Notre Dame


Motor City Bowl - Florida Atlantic vs. Central Michigan. The only reason to watch this game, and the deciding factor for my pick was Dan LeFevour, who has been called "The Tim Tebow of the north." Lofty comparison. Good luck trying to live up to that one, Dan.
Prediction: Central Michigan


Meineke Car Care Bowl - WVU vs. UNC. If you've read this blog before, you might think this would be the perfect time for me to make fun of Jason and pick UNC out of pure spite. And most of the time, you would be right. Unfortunatley, due to a recent discussion with a friend that goes to UNC I must pick WVU sheerly out of spite for her. You got lucky this time, Jason.
Prediction: WVU
Interesting side note: Any time you can legitimatley work the quote "You play! To win! The game!" into any sports argument, you win. No matter what.


Champs Sports Bowl - Wisconsin vs. Florida St. Neither of these teams are very good, but even in a down year I repsect the ACC more than the Big Ten.
Prediction: FSU


Emerald Bowl - Miami vs. California. I was going to pick The U to win this game but their already shaky starting QB is suspended which means an even shakier backup will be playing. Maybe the D can pull it out for Miami, but I doubt it.
Prediction: California


Independence Bowl - NIU vs. Louisiana Tech. In the running for the award for the bowl that I care least about. All I know is that former Eagles legend Ryan Moats came out of the football factory that is Louisiana Tech.
Prediction: Louisiana Tech


Papajohns.com Bowl - NC St. vs. Rutgers. I still don't know why this game is played in Birmingham, Alabama, and not Papa John's Cardinal Stadium in Louisville. They have the same name and everything! Anyway, Rutgers has been on fire the last half of the season, I don't even want to talk about their last regular season game.
Prediction: Rutgers


Valero Alamo Bowl - Missouri vs. Northwestern. Missouri has a killer offense in Chase Daniel and Jeremy Maclin, and Northwestern plays in the Big Ten. Need I say more?
Prediction: Missouri


Roady's Humanitarian Bowl - Maryland vs. Nevada. The game where we get to see a team that is not Boise St. play on that ridiculous blue and orange field they have. Am I the only one who hates that thing? I know little to nothing about Nevada, but whenever I hear Mel Kiper Jr. talk about MD wide reciever Darius Heyward-Bey I think his head might explode.
Prediction: Maryland


Texas Bowl - Western Michigan vs. Rice. Ladies and gentlemen, your winner of the game that I could not care less about, the Texas Bowl!
Prediction: Rice


Pacific Life Holiday Bowl - OSU vs. Oregon. Another powerful offense out of the Big 12 versus an overrated team from the Pac 10. Dez Bryant is really good.
Prediction: OSU


Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl - Houston vs. Air Force. Air Force still has a team? Really? Are you sure? Even though I hate Kevin Kolb with every fiber of my being....
Prediciton: Houston


Brut Sun Bowl - Oregon St. vs. Pitt. Oregon St. did beat USC this year, and they do have a great running back in Jaquizz Rodgers but I like Shady McCoy and Dave Wannstedt's mustache a little bit better.
Prediction: Pitt


Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl - Boston College vs. Vanderbilt. I refuse to make the joke. Too easy. Vanderbilt is going to their first bowl in like 100 years, I feel like they will have the "happy to be here" mentality. BC is probably pissed that they lost in the ACC championship again to Virginia Tech.
Prediction: BC


Insight Bowl - Kansas vs. Minnesota. Lots of expectations for KU going into this season, and they couldn't quite live up to them. But they do still have a decent team. Again, Minnesota plays in the Big 10 and as such I am required to pick against them.
Prediction: Kansas


Chic-Fil-A Bowl - Georgia Tech vs. LSU. A down year for the defending champs. The defense is still there, sort of, but they have no real offense to speak of. Georgia Tech is probably the best team in the ACC, and they beat Georgia, who worked LSU.
Prediction: GT


Outback Bowl - South Carolina vs. Iowa. Normally I would make a joke about the Big 10, pick USC, and move on. But Iowa does have a good running back in Shonn Greene, and they did beat Penn St., which made everyone in the country outside of Happy Valley grateful that we didn't have to watch another overmatched Big 10 team get smacked around in the National Chamionship. Thanks Iowa. See, I did get my jab at the Big 10 in afterall.
Prediction: Iowa


Capital One Bowl - Georgia vs. Michigan St. How the hell did the Big 10 get so many teams into bowls? I'm running out of jokes. Javon Ringer is good, but thats about it for MSU. Georgia couldn't live up to the hype of a preseason #1 ranking, but they still have a really good team with too much talent for MSU.
Prediction: Georgia


Konica Minolta Gator Bowl - Nebraska vs. Clemson. What the hell is Konica Minolta? A quick Google search revealed that Konica Minolta is actually some sort of technology company. Why they would ever want to sponsor a bowl game is beyond me, especially if it takes a Google search for someone to still be confused as to what your company actually does.
This is how bad this game is, I've had to resort to talking bad about the sponsor.
Prediction: Nebraska


Rose Bowl Game presnted by Citi - Penn St. vs. USC. Finally, we get to the BCS games. Notice I didn't use the phrase "good games" because this one will probably not be a good game. Don't get me wrong, I think PSU has a good team, but not nearly as good as USC. At best, Penn St. can hope to turn this to a defensive struggle, and try and stem the tide that is USC's offense. At worst, USC is up big in the first quarter, and Joe Paterno takes it upon himself to try to actually coach for the first time in a few years. And nobody wants that.
Prediction: USC


FedEx Orange Bowl - Cincinatti vs. Virginia Tech. A down year for both the ACC and the Big East, this is still an interesting game. Cincy is a better team offensively, and Tech is a better team defensively. I think these teams matchup very well. This game really could go either way. To pick this one, I have to go with my instinct, my fandom, and my spite for friends that live near and root for UC.
Prediciton: VT


AT&T Cotton Bowl - Ole Miss vs. Texas Tech. Unfortunately for Texas Tech, they could not get a BCS game, even though a team that they beat, with the same record as them did. Ole Miss has shown some fire this season, and could sneak up on the crestfallen TTU team. I can't go against that offensive juggernaut known as Texas Tech though.
Predicition: TTU


AutoZone Liberty Bowl - UK vs. ECU. There is one reason, and one reason alone for my pick in this game. I hate UK.
Prediction: ECU


All State Sugar Bowl - Utah vs. Alabama. Could you think of worse scenarios for either team? Alabama is #1 pretty much all year until they lose in the SEC championship game, and then they get matched up with the non-BCS school in Utah. Utah tries all year to stay undefeated and get that BCS bid, and when they do, they get matched up with a pissed off former #1 team against which they have no shot.
Prediction: Alabama


International Bowl - Buffalo vs. UConn. As much as I like Turner Gill as a coach (and I do think there is something to what Charles Barkley is saying, but thats another post) I think UConn simply has more talent. Donald Brown pretty much ran through the Big East this year, and I expect him to do the same to Buffalo's D.
Prediction: UConn


Tostitos Fiesta Bowl - Ohio St. vs. Texas. I should preface this post with one thing: I hate Ohio State. Now that that has been said, the rest of this post will be objective, I promise. I think Texas should be in the National Championship. They have the same record as Oklahoma and they beat the Sooners on a neutral field. Due to some terrible fifth tie-breaker in the Big 12, Oklahoma got to go to the Big 12 championship game and as such the National Championship. The BCS sucks. They know it. We all know it.
Prediction: Texas


GMAC Bowl - Ball St. vs. Tulsa. This is actually a good matchup of two mid-major programs. Ball St. almost made it the entire season undefeated, but Tulsa does have a very good offense. I like Ball State's QB Nate Davis a lot, and I think he will be the difference.
Prediction: Ball St.


FedEx BCS National Championship Game - Florida vs. Oklahoma. Warning: Actual football discussion ahead. If you only read the blog for the witty banter, just skip to the prediction.

In all honesty, when its all said and done, I don't think this one will be close. Oklahoma does have a great offense with Heisman winner Sam Bradford at the helm. But they lost a key player in that offense in RB Demarco Murray. Can a one dimensional team put up points on a solid Florida defense? On the other side of the ball Oklahoma has no real defense to speak of. They're good at times (Texas Tech game) but other times are terrible (Texas game).


Florida on the other hand has a great offense that can beat you with the run or the pass. Tim Tebow should be able to do whatever he wants in this game. Florida's defense matches up well with Oklahoma's offense, especially when you don't have to bring another guy into the box to defend against the run. Florida's secondary is super quick, and should be able to keep up with Oklahoma's recievers. The only way I see Oklahoma putting up a lot of points is if they can consistently keep Bradford standing long enough for one of his recievers to get open.


Don't get me wrong, I think OU will score some in this game, just not enough.
Prediction: Florida with 62 total points.


There you go. All of my picks. Now may the best football game picker (me) win. Or at least may Jason finish last.

What Your Heisman Ballot Should Be

Well here we are again, the end of another DI-A regular season. That means that it's time for everyone's favorite award-that-isn't-even-given-by-the-NCAA, the Heisman Trophy. Given annually by the Downtown Athletic Club in NYC to the country's most outstanding college football player, the Heisman is one of three "Player of the Year" awards given out (along with the Walter Camp and the Maxwell awards), but is probably the most recognizable individual award in American sports. Most of the credit obviously has to go to Dem Heizman Boyz and their hit single "Do Da Heisman", but I guess some pretty good players have won the award too.

All that being said, the Heisman race this season probably has the closest vote in the history of the award. All three of the quarterbacks that are in New York for tonight's presentation could probably make a decent argument for themselves, but only one can win. And frankly, only one of them truly deserves it. Here's how your Heisman ballot should look, Mr. Has-A-Heisman-Vote. And yes, I did wait until five hours before the presentation. Accept it, and move on.

3) Tim Tebow, QB, Florida
Yeah, I know, he plays in the SEC with the best defenses in the country, his stats just aren't enough to pass either of the Big 12 guys this year. Last year he earned it with over 4,000 total yards and 55(!) touchdowns, but this year he just didn't do as much. "Only" 2,515 pass yards and 564 rushing yards just aren't going to get it done this year. Tough luck.

"But wait," you might sputter, "he didn't do as much because he didn't have to! He's just as good or better than last year's Heisman campaign in terms of talent!" I know that. Do you think I'm dumb? Don't answer that. If the Heisman was for the best player in terms of talent, it would be a lot less fun, since we'd usually know before the season who would win it. Talent doesn't really get worse over a year, plus we'd just give it to Michael Crabtree, the most physically gifted player in the nation, in a landslide. Stats are what we have to go on, so we're using stats. I know it sounds crazy.

And no, Tebow doesn't deserve the award because he's the leader of what I think is the best team in the country. Sorry, that doesn't fly, Skip Bayless. I mean, Todd Boeckman last year? Really? Why do you get a paycheck?

2) Colt McCoy, QB, Texas
Great quarterback. I'm glad he's coming back next year, because I always support college players staying all four years. That said, he shouldn't win the Heisman this year. Anyone who produces over 4,000 yards of total offense, completely more than three-quarters of his passes and finishes with 42 touchdowns will always at least come close to winning, but he just wasn't quite as good as Bradford this year. And don't give me the "McCoy won the head-to-head matchup this year" crap. I hate that argument. Was McCoy playing defense against Bradford? Or vice-versa? What does this have to do with anything? Texas' team was better than Oklahoma's team that night. That's all that argument means. Period.

1) Sam Bradford, QB, Oklahoma
I don't care that he has better talent around him. Tebow has some of the best skill players in the country on his side. A few weeks ago, I said Graham Harrell (who got jobbed out of a trip to New York) was the best QB in the country, and I'll be the first to admit I was proved wrong. Some of the throws Bradford has made are ridiculous, and, by the way, he's thrown for almost 4,500 yards this year and has 53 total touchdowns. That's pretty darn impressive, seeing as how he's not a "system QB" like Harrell. Bradford has guided Oklahoma's offense to record-setting levels and has shown himself to be the best player in the country this year, so do your job and reward him for that.

So there you go. E-mail this to your local Heisman voter pronto, since we don't have a lot of time before they give someone the trophy. DO IT NOW.

P.S. Don't forget that Friday night is the deadline to enter the bowl pick'em. Hurry up and get those entries in.

Merry Christmas!!

Well everyone, we have good news. In celebration of the holiday season, we've decided to bring you guys a present. We would like to introduce the 1st Annual Blog Bowl Pick'em Extravaganza!!

If any of you guys and girls (hahaha) enjoy doing Bowl Pick'ems (all of you) every college football season, we encourage you to pick a winner for each bowl, from the first one to the "National Championship", as well as the amount of points scored in the National Championship Game for use as a tiebreaker, and e-mail them to spreadthefield@gmail.com by 11:59 PM on Friday, December 19th. It's really quite simple.

Why would you ever want to do this, you ask? Excellent question. The winner of this contest-to-end-all-contests will get the opportunity to do what we know everyone who knows anything about anything wants to.........WRITE FOR OUR BLOG..........once.

That's right, whoever bests the three of us at our own game will get 500 words to post here about whatever they want. We assume most of it will be dedicated to telling everyone how full of crap we all are, but it's really open for any kind of public statement that has to do with sports. We'll probably keep reminding you over the next couple weeks, but try to get on this early. We won't be releasing any of our picks publicly until the deadline, so get to researching and do your thing.

Good luck everyone, and you stay classy.

Agony, the Official UVA Football Undressing

Sometimes, (well, who am I kidding?), ahem, all the time, I find myself standing in Scott Stadium on a pristine autumn day in historically beautiful Charlottesville, VA wondering why I ever did this to myself. I mean, Logan, you lived your entire Middle through High School life waiting on college football to come so you could bask in the glory of the Florida Gators while alienating all your friends with your senseless banter on recruiting classes, forty times, meaningless stats and ungodly body fat readings...

And then you decided to come to the UVA, great school, but with a decided lack of swagger where it matters most, the football field. Heck, I'd take going to almost any other school that I got into based soley on football performance, with the notable exception of Clemson, but let's face it, who didn't see that coming? I could be at USC, South Carolina, Florida(!), or Georgia Tech where they run the flexbone. I'll leave Va Tech off of that list seeing as that was never, ever gonna happen for me, and for the reason that they might be even less spectacular at losing than UVA. I mean at least when we lose, we are getting our money's worth (31-3 meltdown against Duke, loss to Miami in OT)...we lose hard.

This is not all without warning, I tried to be prudent, and even after watching the Cavs go 9-3 last year and basically shut down Texas Tech in our bowl game, it was all a hologram. My RA once told me a few words that have stuck with me ever since, especially when considering various masochistic activities as an alternative. "UVA knows how to make you just begin to believe, then snatch your heart out." So eloquent, so painfully true. So, without further ado, I give you the UVA season rundown:

Preseason:
We end the 2007-2008 campaign on a bittersweet note, losing to a vastly better-than-us Texas Tech team in the Gator Bowl by a field goal at the end of regulation. In all honesty, without a fluke Jameel Sewell injury, we win the game. No worries, we should be ok next year, Sewell comes back along with a healthy Cedrick Peerman, Mikell Simpson, Kevin Ogeltree, and Clint Sintim, right?
Wrong, team gets news that starting QB Sewell has been suspended for 2 academic semesters along with starting CB Chris Cook. Further heaping salt in the wound, we find out that DE Jeffery Fitzgerald (who some scouts said was more explosive than all-world DE, 1st round draft pick Chris Long) is kicked out of school for an honor offense and transfers to K State. Ouch. Furthermore, Sophomore QB Peter Lalich throws approximately 13 interceptions in the spring game, prompting fratboys everywhere to put down their beers for a change and start hucking around the pigskin just in case...

Week 1 vs. USC:
Well, we all know deep down how this one is gonna go. But, overthinking the situation as always, we allow belief to creep in. "It rained this week, field is wet, plays into our hands" Yadda Yadda...I begin to think that we maybe keep it close and don't get completely embarrassed, but I am wrong and every offensive player on USC's roster scores in some fashion. Basically, all our worst fears and repressed thoughts are confirmed as reality and we lose 52-7. UVA only musters 187 total yards. 'Nuff said.

Week 2 vs. Richmond:
We bust out the Orange throwbacks for a riveting matchup with the spiders. This game, like all our games was painful to watch at best. I actually left at halftime (something I make a personal statement not to do...) Anyhow, looking back at it in a realistic light, it went well. Keep in mind Richmond is coached by our exciteable ex-defensive coordinator of a year ago, Mike London, and they basically had us game-planned perfectly. We were also without starting running back Cedrick Peerman who was still attempting to come back from knee surgery, and added to that, Richmond is a pretty darn good 1AA team (yeah 1AA, not FCS, get over it). So, long story short, the defense looks alot better and we shut them out 16-0. Offense looks anemic as ever, and our only touchdown was scored by a Vic Hall pick-six...jury is still out.

Week 3 @ UCONN:
After receiving word that starting QB Peter Lalich has failed to honor his probation, he is removed from the team and we turn to unheralded sophomore Mark Verica against the Huskies. It's UCONN, they have only been 1A for like a year now, and we beat them last year, and they are in the Big Eas(y)t so you would think that we'd have a chance. Nope. Verica is horrific in his debut, we get rained on by a freshman running back to the tune of 206 yards and allow UCONN's QB to filet our defensive backfield. Luckily, the game was not shown on TV (a disturbing yet comforting trend this year for Cav's fans) and we just learn that we got hammered 45-10 by UCONN later that evening. Cedric Peerman does make an appearance and even scores our only touchdown, which is good news, but things are starting to look bad, and I start to take a more serious interest in Florida football.

Week 5 @ Duke:
Absolute rock bottom. Mark V struts out and tosses 4 interceptions to the vaunted Blue Devil's secondary. The defense can't recover from that, and we lose 31-3 after leading 3-0 at one point. I really have nothing more to say about this, we got slaughtered fair and square, and without Perman to give the ball to instead of ever, ever passing, we had nowhere to go.

Week 6 vs. Maryland:
With about 10,000 open seats in Scott Stadium, the Cavialiers welcome a ranked rival for the first night game of the year. I, naturally, have that sinking, mid-physics test feeling in the pit of my stomach before kickoff and then it happened. The defense got an early stop and, just near the end of the first quarter, for the first time in the history of me caring abour UVA football, we completed a bomb. Straight away, 50 yards on a silver platter to Kevin Ogeltree. TD Wahoos. What?!? Before I can take a breath, we are winning 24-0 and I'm up sitting with my parents in the nosebleeds just hamming it up. It was without a doubt the most complete UVA football game I have ever seen, and, not suprisingly, it was aided by the full fledged return of Cedrick Peerman who had 17 carries for 110 huge yards and a score. Interesting, next up, formerly ranked ECU.

Week 7 vs. ECU
UVA shakes off two early Verica interceptions and relies on a huge coming out party of sorts for Peerman, who announces his complete return to the lineup with a thunderous performance cashing in for 173 yards and 2 huge touchdown runs. I don't even recognize the team that I am watching right now. Gritty, tough, efficient. All words I would never dream using to describe the same team that got shellacked by Duke a month earlier...

Week 8 vs UNC:
The South's Oldest rivalry lived up to its billing this year as UVA welcomed #18 UNC to town. Now, UVA has been on a winning streak of sorts, and UNC is without their best player and starting QB, but still ranked 18 in the nation, so I guess, we shall see. So after grinding out 55+ minutes of vintage UVA offensive ineptness the team sparks to life in the two minute drill and "Air" Verica is unleashed finding random receivers I had no clue were on the team (Kerry Koch, anyone?) all culminating with Peerman's plunge into the endzone, catapulting the game into OT. Mad props to the defense for keeping UNC out of the endzone. UVA wins after holding UNC to a field goal in OT on a plunge from sir Peerman.....and the students rush the field. Go 'Hoos

Week 9 @ Ga Tech:
Here it comes, UVA has won 3 in a row over 3 ranked/formerly/to be ranked teams, and the fans are beginning to believe again, which is never good. Thanks to the brilliance that is ESPNU, UVA fans are unable to watch the game in Charlottesville. So, I have no clue what is happening, and I find myself in the mall with a bunch of townies watchin the 4th quarter of the game outside of a radioshack...seriously. Anyhow, shaky game by the offense, as usual, but the D again comes up huge and holy crap, we are one win from bowl eligibility. Interesting side note: rapper TI walked behind me in the mall and I even caught a glimpse of the little guy, so it was a pretty successful evening.

Week 10 vs Miami.
Ok, so here we are. Back at home, favored against Miami, basically the worst possible situation for UVA football. Anyhow, we play tough, squander many, many opportunities on offense, and for the first time this year, the kicking game lets us down. The Yannick Reyering experiment is officially abandoned and after missing 2 field goals from inside 47 yards which would have won us the game, plain and simple. The game gets sent into overtime, and after a circus catch in the endzone from a Miami receiver, UVA gets the ball. On the first play, Peerman bursts into the flat, races toward the 5 yard line and ... fumbles. Game over, heart ripped out. ( Told you it would happen).

Week 11 @ Wake.
Again, we, in Charlottesville were unable to watch this game due to ESPNU having a monopoly on every 2nd tier game in the country. UVA, recently brought back to earth, drops a bad game in Winston-Salem to Wake. completely unspectacular game.

Week 13 vs. Clemson:
This might go down as the worst game I have ever watched live. The game had no big plays, and the only touchdown was scored afer a (suprise!) Mark Verica interception on a short field. Again, UVA loses, but it is not the defense's fault. The worst moment came when UVA receiver Kevin Ogeltree shoved the life out of the Clemson corner he had beaten badly to catch a touchdown, only to be flagged for pass interference. I guess thats what you get when you underthrow a man who is that open...bad game, so cold. Clemson 13-UVA 3.

And that brings us to where we are today. UVA still can clinch a bowl berth (and a trip to the DC bowl game against Navy) with a victory over hated rival Virginia Tech, but don't count on it and definitely don't count them out. You all understand my stomach ulcer now?

The 6 Stages of Losing

So you may have noticed (probably didn't) that in my last post I said that the University of Louisville mysteriously did not field a football team this year. Well...I wasn't exactly being truthful. I'm sorry, I had no other choice but to lie. The reason I had to lie to you is that the UofL football team just isn't that good. We're sitting at a 5-6 record with losses that include both of our big rivals at home (Kentucky and WVU), and a team that is currently 3-8 and hasn't been relevant in years (Syracuse). Every time that I've come up with a good excuse for their poor performance, Kragthorpe and Co. have consistently gone out and made me look like an idiot.

The problem with being a fan (a real fan mind you) is that we get too attached. Especially if there are reasons to believe that the team can be good, the fall is even harder to take. When a team that you put all of your trust and hope into doesn't perform up to expectations, it can really take it's toll on the sports fan. Unexplainable outbursts of excessive cursing, moodiness, hating your friends for liking good teams, and actively rooting for career ending injuries or catastrophes, these are all classic symptoms of the ailing sports fan. So keeping that in mind, I've come up with a scale of sorts to help those of you like me who have the unfortunate displeasure of trying your hardest to root for that struggling team. Also, this doesn't just apply to football fans, it's really for any sports fan (yes you too JMU basketball fans. No, Daniel, they will not be good this year.) Right now I'd say I'm at about stage 5, but we'll get to that in a minute.

Stage 1 - Disbelief/Anger
This is the first and most common stage when rooting for a bad team. Some of you out there might recognize this stage because even if you root for a good team, when they lose one game this is how you feel. Sorry Texas Tech fans. This is the stage where you stand up yelling at the TV like the coaches and players can hear you. You pace around the house trying to think of something to do to cheer yourself up but nothing comes to mind. When that fails you go and find the nearest person who will tolerate you and proceed to rant and rave well passed the point of anyone caring (for the record, this was me a few weeks ago when the Eagles lost to the Giants, see my last post for evidence).

Attention anyone around a person in Stage 1: Watch out for flying objects and please refrain from making any snide remarks, it's way too soon. Also, the number one thing never to do when you're around someone in Stage 1, do not EVER say "well it's just a game." Trust me. Ladies, I'm pretty much looking at you on that one.

Stage 2 - Explaining/Denial
This can also be called the "well, if..." stage because anyone in this stage will often be found to be saying things like "Well, if our QB hadn't thrown 3 picks...," and "Well, if the refs didn't call that holding penalty in the first quarter...," or "Well, if we just spread the field a little more..." Sorry sports fan, but you lost fair and square. Admit it and move on. This is where you have that one annoying fan trying to tell you all about why the team really isn't that bad, when in fact they are that bad. There is just no way in hell that the team you love so much could be that horrendous.

Stage 3 - Delusional Optimism
Similar to Stage 2, this is the stage where you trick yourself into thinking that your team really isn't bad. Think of Detroit Lions fans here. Every year their fans convince themselves that this is the year for them. The team has a lot of "talent" and the division is in a down year, and Jon Kitna is stupidly guaranteeing a 10 win season, there's no way this team isn't good. 10-12 losses later and the fans are just as angry as they've ever been.
The problem with this stage is that it never ceases to pull the fan right back into over-caring for the team. You make up so many excuses that some of them genuinely start to make sense and you begin to believe that the team is actually good, and that that loss was just a fluke. This can cause the entire process to begin anew when the inevitable loss comes again the next week.

Stage 4 - Anger(Again!)
You've moved past all of that "well we can still win" BS and now you're just plain mad. You call for the benching of the QB, even though the backup is a rookie or freshman. You create a website dedicated to the firing of the coach even if he's only 3 games into his first season (www.firekragthorpe.com). You are filled with such irrational hatred that you almost hope the team loses just so the players can feel the pain of losing all over again. This is not a pretty stage to be in. This is the stage where you are most likely to get in a fight with the guy twice your size who happens to root for the other team. Be careful sports fan, this stage can lead you down a dark path. People, remember the suggestions from Stage 1.

Stage 5 - Apathy
This is about where I am at now. This is the stage where you stop going to or watching games, you tell people you've stopped caring (even though you secretly haven't), you lie to all 10 (generous estimation) of your readers on the sports blog you occasionally post on, you've pretty much given up. When you do watch a game you make snide or sarcastic remarks that make it no fun for anyone watching the game with you. This stage is not a pretty sight. The best remedy for this is time. There really is no coming out of this one, that is, until the season is over....

Stage 6 - Optimism
This usually occurs a few months after the season has ended. After the recruitment signing period, or after the draft/free agency. Maybe you're team made a trade or signed a good new guy that brings about some hope for the next season. Against all hope, all of your better instincts, you find yourself talking yourself into Alex Smith being the next franchise guy, or Renaldo Balkman being a great steal. It's an unfortunate cycle you've gotten yourself into, but you know that if you just stick with it, the team will reward you eventually. You can't change teams now, you don't want to be that guy, plus the team you love might just turn it around.

Hang in there sports fan, you're time will come.



Except for you Daniel. You're pretty much screwed.


P.S. Notice the new "sports suck" tag. This will be used a lot in the future, I'm sure.

I Know you Missed Me

Oh…hey there….well this is kind of awkward. Long time no see. I know I was supposed to call you….sorry. I wasn’t really expecting to run into you again like this. We had some fun times right? Talked about sports… made fun of Jason. Listen. I think we should give it another shot. I miss you alright? And you know what? I think you miss me too. Oh you do? Well that’s good.
Now let’s get all of this sappy shit out of here then and talk some sports.

We’re back! And at least slightly better than before. Notice the spiffy new name change. All my idea. Anyway, a lot has happened since my last post, and I’m not going to try and cover it all. I’ll just gloss over a few things:

Tying up some lose ends from baseball season, the Phillies won the World Series. They beat the Tampa Bay Rays, in a series that will always be remembered for the rain delay of game 5. I’m a Yankee fan, a diehard Yankee fan, but it was good to see a city that never wins anything, actually win something.

Taking a look back to my preseason rankings, I had neither World Series teams in the playoffs, and I only got half of the playoff teams correct (not to mention that I had one of the worst teams in baseball as a division winner. Thanks San Diego). I got neither Manager of the Year Award winner right, and neither Cy Young award winner. Just goes to show that I’m a complete idiot.

Speaking of the Cy Young Award, the baseball writers didn’t completely screw it up. There is an argument to be made in the NL but I think Tim Lincecum’s overwhelming lead in Ks gives him the edge, and I’m fine with that. In the American League however, I would have gone with Roy Halladay over Cliff Lee. Halladay has Lee beat in Ks, IP, WHIP, and OPS against to name a few. I think Lee’s slight edge in the overrated ERA stat, and his larger edge in the wildly over-glorified, meaningless category of wins probably got him the award. Oh well, at least they didn’t give it to K-Rod, I might have had an aneurism if he won the award (K-Rod instead finished 3rd, still way too high for a guy that didn’t lead in any reliable category.)

This is the part where I would talk about college football, but considering Jason and Logan took care of that already, and Louisville seemed not to field a team this year I’ll move on.

I’m not sure how I feel about the NFL this season. My Eagles are 5-4 (bottom of the NFC East, that division should just get all its teams in) with all 4 losses coming by six points or less. At times, they look like a great team who just can’t put it all together at once, and at other times they look completely helpless to do anything. Not to mention the travesty of play calling that occurred in the 4th quarter of last week’s game against the Giants. The Eagles have the ball with less than 2 minutes, and they are driving. It gets to be 3rd and 4 in an obvious 4 down situation. Andy Reid decides he wants to run the ball on 3rd down. Fine by me. Brian Westbrook is a great running back and maybe he’ll get the yards to move the chains. As it turns out he get 3 of the 4 and the Eagles are looking at 4th and 1 to decide the game. The Eagles have had trouble for years being a short yardage running team, so you can imagine my surprise when then trot out the 1 wide receiver jumbo formation. You can imagine my greater surprise to see Westbrook get the handoff and I’m sure you can imagine my complete lack of surprise when he gets tackled at the line of scrimmage. Come on Andy Reid, you’ve been living and dying by the pass for almost you’re whole coaching career, and you decide to run it here? Really? What’s more, he didn’t even try to hide it. The Giants knew exactly what was coming. Why not let your franchise quarterback try to pass, or maybe no one is open and he runs for the 1st down. Or maybe if you really want Westbrook to get that yard for you, you spread the field and create some more space for your back to run to get the first down. But no, Andy Reid once again tries to outthink himself and he ends up doing something stupid. I’m not a Reid hater normally, but come on.

Now, about the rest of the league…for some reason this year there has been a rash of quarterback injuries. Tom Brady’s season ending knee injury comes readily to mind. But there are many other, Peyton Manning hasn’t missed a game, but has been visibly worse due to off season knee surgery. Other starting QBs who have missed some time or have had their play visibly affected with significant injuries; Tony Romo, Jeff Garcia, Kyle Orton, Tavaris Jackson, Jon Kitna and Dan Orlovsky, Matt Hasselbeck, Trent Edwards, Vince Young, Matt Schaub, Ben Roethlisberger (by the way the little red line for my spell check doesn’t show up for Roethlisberger but it does for Kitna, Romo, Shaub, and Hassleback? Really?), Carson Palmer, and the Brodie Croyle/Damon Huard combo in Kansas City. There’s no real explanation for this, other than exceptionally bad luck in what can be considered an exceptional year in the NFL. Exceptional not necessarily in terms of good, just unexpected.

The Titans are 9-0 and I’m not sure how I feel about them as a team. They play great D and run the ball well (last week notwithstanding). I don’t trust Kerry Collins, plain and simple. He hasn’t lost them any games, but he hasn’t had to win them any either. Yeah the run game was stuffed last week and Collins had to pass the ball in order to get some offense, but I think the Titans defense was the real reason they won that game. That and Kyle Orton started for the Bears. The Giants are 8-1 and playing in the best division in football. Regardless of my hatred for Eli Manning, and my thoughts that they have looked very beatable, including last week’s game against the Eagles, the wins speak for themselves. This is another team that runs the ball exceptionally well. Brandon Jacobs might be the hardest man to take down in the league.

After the Titans and the Giants though, there really isn’t anyone that has shown the ability to step up and be the next best team. Pittsburgh would be here, but have lost to supposedly shaky teams in the Eagles and the Colts. The Colts might be here were it not for some ugly early season losses. The Cowboys and Redskins have both been both promising and disappointing. The Eagles came into the season with a lot of hype, and started out well, beating that good Pittsburgh team, but they have just lost too many games.

The point I’m trying to make is that this year is wide open in terms of who can win it all. With two exceptions, the playoff spots are wide open. And the two best teams in the league have their flaws. This should make for a good season coming up, or it could make for what is has been already, a fairly boring one.

Ok, on to the NBA. The season has just gotten under way, and a couple of weeks in, to almost no one’s surprise the Lakers are hot and have not lost. Also, to almost everyone’s surprise, the Hawks (that’s the Atlanta Hawks for those of you who forgot) have started on a tear and have only lost one game. A game lost to the Celtics that was won on a buzzer beater from Paul Pierce. Other than that there hasn’t been too much to talk about from the NBA so far this season, other than the disappointing start from Greg Oden. Not only did he not look good in his first game, but he got himself hurt. Now he has to spend the next couple of weeks, coming off the bench and knocking the rust off. Is there a worse way his season could have started? Other than a much worse injury of course.

Well that’s it for now. I’m sure there will be much more to come from the sports world. That’s one of the reasons why sports are great. There is always something new to talk about. If you’ve actually made it all the way through this post congratulations, (and no I won’t give you those minutes of your life back) you have officially been sucked back into our world. Remember when I said I would just “gloss over a few things” and you actually believed me. Ha! But this post isn’t about tricking you into reading a 1500 word post; it’s a promise for better things to come. Expect more posting from one of us soon. Probably.




Don’t quote me on that.


P.S. RIP Fire Joe Morgan. The guys at www.firejoemorgan.com decided to close it down, but they are leaving up the website so people can read all of the archives. I suggest that anyone mildly interested in the sport of baseball go read their blog. I for one will miss wasting hours reading shit from two years ago about how dumb Bill Plaschke is.

We're legit! Except not.

Well everyone, we finally bit the bullet.

In case you hadn't noticed (and I'm almost completely sure you didn't), we're in the process of making a few changes to our blog. Right now, it's just the name and some other little stuff.....and oh yeah, we're an actual website now. Notice the distinct lack of .blogspot in the new address. This, of course, means that we here at Spread the Field are basically famous at this point. But don't worry, we don't expect you to treat us any different then you do now (like garbage).

We'll probably make a few more changes here and there over the next couple weeks. For instance, Colton might even make a post here in the next day or two! Who knows, right?

Sorry for the short post, more in a bit. Also, if anyone has any idea how to properly use this HTML that I've been screwing up for the past hour or so, let me know, eh?

Seriously though. We're back. Probably.

Well everybody, we're back again. This is like the third post in a row I've had assuring everyone that we're going to be writing again, but this time I think I'm serious. We're entering that glorious period in which both college basketball and college football are happening at once, plus we've decided to make some changes to the blog soon that should hold us more accountable. Stay tuned.

Like Logan said, college football is going sort of crazy right now. That being said, the Big 12 and SEC are predictably very good, the ACC is predictably decent, the Big East is unexpectedly somewhere between decent and bad depending on the week, and the Pac-10 and Big 10(11) are bad. As usual.

But since the top ten is as full of turmoil as usual at this point in the season, I decided that, as a welcome-back gift, I would let you know of the real top 10 teams, plus reasons for them all. Just keep in mind that this might not be what the polls show, much less what that ridiculous system they use to pick a national champion shows, but this is what it should be. Keep it in mind:

10.) Boise State (9-0)

-This is really the only team that I arbitrarily put in the top 10. Look at the teams from about 10-15. There isn't really anyone you can definitely say belongs in the top 10. Boise State is a very good team, so I decided to put them here. Bonus points because I feel like Ian Johnson proposed to that chick after the Fiesta Bowl like five years ago. And yet here he is with 525 yards and eight touchdowns. So they have that going for them.

9.) Texas Christian (9-2)

-TCU lost this week to Utah, so you might argue that they don't deserve to be here, but TCU should have won. Twice, actually. The Horned Frogs' kicker missed two kicks in the last five minutes to increase their lead from 13-6 or even 16-6 to seal the game. Their defense is VERY good, giving up 11 points a game, even "holding" Oklahoma's offense to 35, which is pretty impressive considering how many points the Sooners have put up recently. Don't sleep on the Horned Frogs.

8.) Penn State (9-1)

-The Nittany Lions actually did the college football world a huge favor by losing this week for two reasons: First of all, the country doesn't have to watch another drubbing of a Big 10(11) team in the "National Championship" game. That would be awful. Secondly, if the two top teams win out now, there won't be another BCS controversy. Actually I guess that would be a good thing, since the more people that hate the BCS, the more chance there is that the morons in charge of it turn things around.

That being said, they did, in fact, lose this week to the mighty Iowa Hawkeyes, and as such, drop in the rankings. I didn't think they were a top five team, but Penn State is actually pretty decent. They're definitely the best team the Big 10(11) has to offer, but that's not saying much.

7.) Utah (10-0)

-I'm not sure if I like ranking the Utes this high, mostly since they haven't played anyone and they should have lost to TCU, but I can't really find any way to prove that they should be lower. That defense is almost on TCU's level and they have a legit running attack, so they'll be able to hang with most people.

6.) Texas (9-1)

-This isn't as high as a lot of people have them ranked. It's not that I think Texas is worse than everyone gives them credit for. Obviously, Colt McCoy is really good and everything, I just think the other teams are better than everyone gives them credit for. Also, they lose points because they aren't in control of their own destiny. Without a Texas Tech loss, they can't get to the Big 12 Championship, and voters probably won't like putting them in the BCS title game without them winning their conference. At least that’s what they said last year about Georgia, and we all know that voters stay unbiased, right? Right??

5.) Southern Cal (8-1)

-Somehow USC is ridiculously good again. Maybe it's the fact that they have like 38 five-star running backs every year, but regardless of the reason, they're sick this year again. On the other hand, they're just killing people on defense, giving up less than a touchdown per game. Basically, the whole point of this is that the Trojans are really good again.Unfortunately, thanks to the computers that watch every minute of every game and obviously know who the best teams are (as evidenced by the past two National Championship thrillers they've handed us...) they need a few extra losses to get into the title game.

4.) Oklahoma (9-1)

-Let's be honest, even though the Big 12 isn't a big fan of playing defense, there are very few teams in the country that could slow down the Sooners' offense right now. Sam Bradford (who is more talented than Colt McCoy) has this offense hitting its stride at the right time, since Oklahoma more or less controls its own destiny. If they win out, they'll take down Texas Tech (or if the Red Raiders lose, Texas), and then jump the loser of the Alabama-Florida SEC Championship game.

3.) Florida (8-1)

-The Gators might actually be the best team in the country right now, and their offense is as ridiculously fast or faster than any other team. Florida is good enough that, now that teams are keying on Tebow all the time, they haven't even lost a step on offense. In fact, they're putting up three-tenths of a point more this year. The defense is playing well too, giving up less than 12 points a game in the SEC.

2.) Texas Tech (10-0)

-The Red Raider offense is the only one in the country that I would put up against the Sooners right now. They absolutely took apart Oklahoma State last night in every possible way. Now that they have a defense that can at least slow most teams down and a running game, the Red Raiders are going to be tough to stop. There might be 120 points in two weeks between Texas Tech and Oklahoma.

Also this seems like a good time to say this: If Graham Harrell isn't first on your Heisman Ballot right now, you're crazy. Obviously McCoy and Bradford are great, but Harrell is putting up silly numbers right now. And don't get me the crap about him being a system quarterback. Besides being top in touchdowns and passing yards (by 671!), he's third in completion percentage while still completing more passes than either of the other two have attempted. That's amazing consistency, and anyone who watched last night's game could see that he can put pretty much any kind of pass right on the money.

1.) Alabama (10-0)

-Like it or not, the Tide deserve their number one ranking. If you're undefeated in the deepest conference in the country, that's pretty impressive. Say what you want about the close game at LSU last night, but Death Valley is a tough place to play in during a normal game, to say nothing if your coach is Public Enemy No. 1 in Baton Rouge. It was a pretty impressive win no matter what the score showed.

So there you go. The top 10 college football teams in the country right now. It's pretty cool that the top four teams Watch out though, this week's Sagarin Ratings have the James Madison University Dukes at number 41 in the country and gaining.......

Testing...is this thing still on?

Hey there loyal readers. What a ride it has been. I am rested, recharged, restored and basically back in action ready to give you some more slanted sports perspectives. It's been a while, sorry. Seems that when you combine three relatively lazy guys, lots of sports and lots of physics, accounting, and calculus homework, the result isn't a thriving blog...and for that we do apologize. So, without further ado, lets discuss some college football (in a lazy, list styled manner) since when I last reported.

Let's look at what this year has taught us:

1) First of all, the Big 10 (as usual), the Big East, the PAC-10 (as usual), and the ACC have all been laughable at best this year. While each, with the exception of the PAC-10, has been very competitive, I can't imagine how worried the conference officials must be about their conference champ getting dump-trucked in a BCS game (please don't let us have to play Utah, Boise, or TCU!) seriously, it is getting ridiculous. With the exception of USC, Penn State (not convinced after having to grind it out with the Buckeyes) and sometimes WVU, I don't really know if there is a team in any of these BCS conferences that deserves a shot to run with the likes of Utah. Anyhow, yet a nother season clamors for a playoff system, hell, president-elect Barack Obama even calls for one.

2) There is no "D" in "Big 12." Yeah yeah, the offenses are great and the quarterback play from top to bottom is other-worldly, but the absolute lack of any sort of passable defense is the kink in the Big 12's newly-donned armor. Lets look at the scores of some of the biggest Big 12 games this year and see if we notice a trend. OU-Texas, 45-35 Texas. OU-Kansas 58-35 OU, Texas Tech-Texas, 39-33 Texas Tech. Mizzou-Texas, 56-31 Texas. See where I am going with this? It appears the only team that attempts a defensive game-plan is (41 year old, now) Mike Gundy, whose team has only held Texas, Texas A&M, and Mizzou to 28 points a piece in their matchups. A disturbing trend indeed for such proud defensive institutions as Oklahoma and Texas.

3) The SEC is still the beast (and best) in College football and might be deeper than ever this year. Alabama and Florida both have a legitimate shot at lifting the hardware at the end of the season. Both teams are finding their footing more and more each week, and both seem to be on a crash-course for Atlanta and the SEC championship game with the winner in all likelihood ending up in the big game. As for conference depth, six teams are already bowl eligible, and Vandy and Ole Miss both need to win one more game to join the ranks. There has been much parity throughout the middle ranks of the conference, and it appears it is up to Florida/Alabama to keep the dream alive for the SEC, but I believe both teams are capable, and either will win the 'Ship barring late-season injury disaster.

4) Frickin' Virginia football. Sometimes I read the Cav Daily and I think I attend a school in Blacksburg, Coral Gables, or Tallahassee from all the football-related police blotter incidences. It has become absurd that at a school such as this, our football coaching staff has not scared the fear of God into these knuckleaded rascals. Despite this, UVA is proving, again, to be one resilient, slippery team. It really speaks to the afore-mentioned horrificness of the ACC that UVA can still have a legitimate shot at going to Tampa for the ACC championship game. We are playing with our 3rd string QB, who has grown up more on the field this year than Jameel Sewell did in his 3 years in the program. Our defense is still anchored by a walk-on middle linebacker. The team has seen victories over ranked teams (UNC, Ga Tech, Maryland, ECU) and throttlings at the hands of perennial doormats UCONN, and Duke. After watching us squander away a game against a vastly more athletic Miami team last week by fumbling twice in potentially game-deciding situations, I had decided that in my 8 or so games at Scott Stadium, I had seen it all. How we win and compete after the way we started is beyond me, and it really speaks to the caliber coaching we have on-staff. Seriously, Al Groh is getting something right if he can get this bunch of schmucks to compete in a BCS conference. On any given week, we are undermanned and under-talented, but each week we keep it close, and generally we have a shot to win. Props to Al for that, however, it is downright embarrassing that the man cannot exert the same kind of committment from his players off the field. Oh and by the way, UVA looks to put two more players in the 1st round of the draft this year (OG Eugene Monroe, and LB Clint Sintim)...who knew?

4) OK, to conclude, National Champ: Alabama over PSU. PSU won't lose the rest of the year, and the real two best teams will collide a few weeks before this game when Florida and Alabama play in Atlanta. I just think Alabama is really good, and might be a bit too physical for Florida, but I see it being low-scoring because both defenses can really really play, and I think that favors Alabama. If not, Florida over PSU as a back up plan.

Heisman:
1) Sam Bradford - Jumps back in the race when they beat Texas Tech in a week, and continues to put up huge numbers on his way to the trophy
2) Tim Tebow - Last year's winner makes a late push, but the huge numbers put up by Bradford are too much, plus, he would gladly take his own National Championship instead.
3) McCoy/Harrell. Good for them.

Thats all folks, Krech is up next.

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! Colton, Logan and I recently created this "weblog" in order to document our thoughts on sports and the like, while sharing them with the world. We're very glad that you could join.......you know what? Screw it.

We pretty much didn't do anything the entire summer, yet it's been almost two months since our last entry. You have our apologies. There's a few reasons why it happened, but I'm not typing them out. Ask me sometime if it matters that much to you.

Anyways, although the main point of this post was to pretend like the last 50 days never happened, I suppose some recent sports-related events need to be at least mentioned, if not discussed in-depth. So here goes, in pseudo-chronological order, off the top of my head (with some assistance from Wikipedia. Don't judge me).

1) The Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup. Whoo. I'm sure both people that think Hockey is legitimately popular are pumped. Congrats to all involved. Let's move on.


2) Rafael Nadal absolutely waxed everyone, including one Roger Federer, in the French Open. It was even more lopsided than the 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 final showed. It's gotten to the point where the first person to beat Rafa at Roland Garos will run away with Upset of the Year.

3) Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open. Not much can be said that hasn't already been said. Besides the fact that he played like Tiger in a major, which is to say very, very, very great, we also found out later that he had a double stress fracture in his left shin. The tibia, to be exact. You know the tibia, it's the bone onto which most of a right-handed golfer's weight goes every time he swings. And Tiger had two cracks in his. And walked 91 holes. That would be terrible. That's why he's probably the best of all-time.

4) The Celtics beat the Lakers. I was mildly interested in this, just because it was obviously the two best teams in the NBA, plus there were a lot of great stories to go along with it. It was even a pretty good NBA Finals.......right up until that clunker of a Game 6. That was terrible even by NBA standards. Not even remotely fun to watch.

5) Fresno State pulled off what is probably the biggest Cinderella run of all-time by winning the College World Series. The Bulldogs were a 4-seed during pool play, meaning they were ranked somewhere between 49th and 64th in the 64-team tournament. I'll put it this way: If George Mason had won the NCAA Basketball Tournament a couple years ago, this still would have been more unlikely. Merits recognition.

6) Nadal beat Federer 9-7 in the fifth set at Wimbledon. I was in the Dominican Republic on a mission trip and words cannot express how angry I was that I missed this. I'm not sure what to think about the significance of Federer falling at Wimbledon, which he had basically turned into his home court over the past few years. It means something, but I don't think I'm ready to pronounce Federer washed-up yet.

7a) All-Star weekend. Amazing. First it was Josh Hamilton winning over Yankee fans with his performance in the first round of the Home Run Derby. Anyone who tries to downplay this by saying "it was just batting practice" is an idiot. He hit 28 homeruns in 38 swings. At one point he belted 13 straight pelotas over a wall that was 350 feet away. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN. A good batting practice session for a power hitter in a major-league park would be about 20-ish swings, seven or eight of which would be homeruns. Hamilton hit 28 dingers in 38 swings, many of which were absolute, no-doubt-about-it bombs. Combine that with one of the best comeback stories in baseball, and it was truly an amazing night.

7b) Then there was the actual All-Star Game, which actually had me glued to my seat. Considering that the All-Star Game annoys the crap out of me, that's pretty impressive. It wasn't even the fact that it went 15 innings, it was how well-played those 15 innings were. There was some amazing defense and equally impressive pitching taking place during those last six or seven innings. Definitely a great weekend for baseball.

So there you have it. The last 50-ish days, summed up in nice, occasionally sarcastic, lazy form. Hopefully I won't have to do this again, because it was sort of annoying. Make me post more often. I'm blaming you all in the future.

Angst.

Hey guys, remember me? I know it's been a while, Aaron German has probably been crying himself to sleep at the lack of posts, but here goes.

Mom has been telling me lately that I have a lot of 'angst' as she likes to call it. Basically, I'm always right, and I don't mind it staying that way, but we will go with angst. At any rate, the thing that has really been grinding my gears lately is high school sports, and specifically the stupid politics behind it all. DID YOU KNOW THAT: a latino soccer player from Harrisonburg High School has undoubtedly been the best player in the District for the last three years, yet hasn't won the vaunted valley's league Player of the Year. NOW YOU KNOW.

And you know what ( I thought I would never dip into this, but I'm gonna take a page out of the Jemelle Hill book and play the race card), it boils down to plain racism. The valley district, land of peace loving Mennonite influence and good 'ol boy redneckism with a lot of Latino flavor and considerable African-American influence has been reduced to a bunch of racist coaches who aren't ready to face the facts that the demographics are changing, and so with it are the leagues superstars.

Can I back this up? Let's find out. Three years ago, a young man by the name of Fredi Bautista shredded, and I mean shredded the district for around 25 goals and several assists. This all came on a Harrisonburg team that "overpossessed" and "had a hard time scoring goals". Think about this, 25 goals in 19 or so games, that is nearly a goal and a half per game, in soccer. Freddi happened to be noticed by the rest of the state, too, as he garnered 2nd team all state honors and parlayed his success into a spot on EMU's soccer roster. Did the best player in the district win player of the year though? No. Joseph Bucher, TA's rugged defender won the award. Apparently being the sweeper on a good defense and scoring garbage goals on an illegal-at-the-time throw in in a 13-0 win against Broadway High school (come on, I, in one game, talleyed 2 assists and a goal against Broadway...aka they suck hard) makes you the district's best player. Even though you aren't the best player on your own team (see Tate, Josh), you still win the award. Apparently Fredi showing up in the biggest games of the year didn't help either (7 goals in 3 crucial games against arch-rival Waynesboro). Oh and did I mention that Fredi is Hispanic, and Jo Jo is white? interesting...

Next year, Harrisonburg High school forward Eddie Moreno (thats not an American last name!) is 3rd in the district in goals, 1st in assists, (15, and 14 give or take) and by far first in the district in points on a Harrisonburg team that again 'struggled to score goals' yet still made it to regionals on Eddie's back gets overlooked for a sleek midfield player by the name of Shane O'Donnel from Waynesboro. While considerably better at soccer than JoJo, Shane only musted 3 goals and 5 assists on the year, and again, probably wasn't the best player on his own team (see Defaria, Fernando). His miniscule stats on a worse team in the same district that Moreno torched were the obvious choice for POY. Shane is white, though, and was a captain, so I guess that means he was better. Ah well, there goes another one...

Fast forward one more year, the same Eddie Moreno is again in the top 2 in scoring in the District and nearly literally puts Harrisonburg on his frail back for most of the season, until he is injured, and then we see how valuable he really is to the team, as Harrisonburg stumbles down the stretch and nearly misses the regional tournament, until Eddie is on the field to avenge a loss to Spottswood. In both games against Spotswood that week, Eddie didn't score a goal (didn't play in the first one), yet Harrisonburg won the one that he was on the field for 4-0. That, my friends, is the mark of how valuable a player is to a team, that he lifts them up, without touching the score sheet. Seems to be a sho-in for POY, right? Wrong again, loser. Naturally, Phillip Yoder from Spottswood wins the award. Again, a skilled player on an inferior team that cannot come through in the clutch (or ever). A player who largely disappeared in the most important game in the history of Spottswood soccer (a 4-0 loss to H'burg with regionals on the line) wins the award. Yet again, dear Philip is a white captain, Eddie is stylish Latino player.

Sidenote: Chris Hulse from TA had an incredible year, at latest count, he had 26 goals (I claim TA running up the score-ism, but alas, it should be noted that he got screwed as well)

Who votes for these awards? If it is the coaches, then it is an absolute shame that the coaches of the "World's game" cannot come to grips with the fact that a young man from a minority (barely) group is the best the sport has to offer in the are. Should we just go ahead and rename the award
"Most All American Boy" and require the winners to be Captains, white, and have simple, heavily caucasian names? You are probably chuckling at this notion, and that is exactly what the valley district needs to see: The truth, their system is laughable, wrong, and flat out racist. Wake up boys and girls, this is America - lets act like it.

Yes, I went to Harrisonburg, yes, I might be a bit biased, but yes, it is definitely true.

(Follow up: I know both JoJo and Phil Yoder, and I consider both of them friends, but at this stage of the game, the truth must set itself free, ask JoJo or any other player on his team who the better player was...you know he'll spit the proverbial truth)

Because NFL Owners Aren't Rich Enough...

Some big news coming out of the NFL today. The NFL owners unanimously voted to opt out of their Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Players Union. Basically this means that if no new agreement is reached, there would be 2 more seasons of normal play in, a season with no salary cap in 2010, and a possible work stoppage in 2011. So taking that into account you would think that the owners have some really good, valid arguments against the current agreement…..you would think. There are basically 3 main grievances:

The one I agree with – Rookie salaries are getting out of hand. Matt Ryan, the third pick of this year’s draft, just signed a six year $72 million contract with $34.75 million up front. That’s a lot of money for a player who has yet to take a snap in the league. The thing about rookie contracts is that each player wants more money than the person got the year before and, with nothing in place in the CBA, there is no stopping the salary inflation. The NBA has a rookie salary maximum and it has worked well for them, if there is a reason for one not to work in the NFL, I can’t think of it. This is a legitimate gripe. Is it a gripe that is worth stopping play? Not really.

An argument with some weight – The owners are not happy with the fact that players in some instances are allowed to keep bonus money when they have violated terms of their contract. Basically this is in response to the Michael Vick case. My problem here is that the players already get screwed by the owners in their contracts. Many contracts are incentive-based or teams will back-load the contract with a lot of money that isn’t guaranteed. This is why players try to get as much money in their signing bonus as possible. Basically, if a team doesn’t want to live up to their part of the contract, they can cut a player and not lose any money, but if a player doesn’t live up to their part they have to lose money. That just doesn’t seem fair.

I don’t really get this – The owner want to change the current revenue distribution because they fell the players are being paid too much. As of now the revenue is split between the players and owners 60%-40% respectively. The owners want to narrow that gap because of the rising cost of keeping up a team, mostly to do with stadium costs. The last time I checked the players are the ones who make the money for the owners, they are the ones sacrificing their bodies to make other guys rich, so shouldn’t they be paid a little bit more? Also, there are 32 teams with 53 men rosters, that’s 1696 players compared to 32 owners. Shouldn’t the larger group get a little bigger piece of the pie?

I highly doubt that there will be a work stoppage but this is still a very telling sign about the NFL. To me all this shows is that the owners aren’t making as much as they were because of a bad economic market so they want to take money away from the players to supplement their “losses” AKA they are greedy.

College Basketball? What??

Just so you guys know, this weekend made every WVU hoops fan very happy, as Devin Ebanks, the #11 recruit in the class of 2008, committed to West Virginia at halftime of an AAU tournament game. Coach Huggy Bear is already making his impact felt, since he beat out schools such as Texas and Memphis (maybe you've heard of them) to snag Ebanks after he de-committed from Indiana following Kelvin Sampson's phone fundraising efforts.

What does this mean? A lot. Between its recent tournament and recruiting success, West Virginia has proved that it has earned its place in the Big East (and as such, the nation's elite) teams. Say what you want about him and his love for a good Jack and Coke, but Bob Huggins is definitely one of the nation's top coaches. In his first year, he took a bunch of kids that John Beilein (how's the "big time" Big Ten? Have fun.) recruited to run and shoot 3's, and turned them into a physical team, led by scrub-turned-matchup-nightmare, Joe Alexander. That transformation usually takes two or three years. Huggy did it within seven months.

On the player end of things, Ebanks will do a lot to fill the possible void left if Alexander decides to forego his senior year and stay in the NBA draft. Unfortunately, this looks more likely every day, but at least we're sort of covered if he leaves for good. If Joe returns, the 'Eers look to be a preseason top-10 team that might get some Final Four love from the talking heads. Who knows? Regardless, in his first year at WVU, Bob Huggins has brought in a class that Evan Daniels, Scout.com's recruiting analyst, calls "one of the nation's 10 best, for sure". All that combined with a Sweet 16 team that only lost a guard and its prototypical white seven-footer? I'm excited for basketball. And it's May. This isn't good.