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Auburn 22, Oregon 19.

Winning field goal with :02 to go.  Goal line stands.  Incredible defense from both teams. What an excellent game!

Sweetening it up is a double W for us.  The field goal makes it a cover, and we pumped in a late UNDER 74 bet.

More later.  Bedtime.  War eagle!

* * * *

Last team to beat the new national champions?  None other than...sorry, he missed the field goal last New Year's Day in Tampa. 

Yeah, I know...gotta let go of those things.

* * * *

Championship game bonus : another new Mayhem.  Can't find a video clip yet. 

* * * *

I just read a Washington Post article slamming the BCS as unfair and anticompetitive.  While I agree with some of the points raised in the article to support that position, there is a quote in the article, attributed to Allen Fishel, an attorney representing the Mountain West Conference in its assault on the BCS, that makes the whole argument an exercise in hypocrisy. The quote, about the BCS system: "It's illegal, indefensible, unconscionable, and completely at odds with the values that higher education seeks to promote."

I don't see an alignment of the values of higher education and the world of big time college football.  We will adjourn this case until counsel bases his argument on the real issue here.

Money!

Championship Monday

Yesterday, it was Nevada 20, Boston College 13.  We went UNDER 55 and that's a winner.  The 7 1/2 spread from which we cowered was about as good as it gets (it ended up 8 1/2).

As for tonight's long awaited match between Auburn and Oregon, weeks ago we took Auburn -2.  This one is pretty tough to predict.  Three months ago I told Petey that I liked Auburn this year.  Obviously, they've done well.  On the other hand, we've become Ducks fans over the years.

I hope the game is as good as the anticipation.

The Penultimate Bowl

Yesterday, Pitt won handily, taking us to 2 over .500 with 2 games to go.

As for the Penultimate Bowl, I had you for a second there, didn't I?  You've lost track of what they call these games, too, haven't you?  The game tonight is the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, and it will be staged in San Francisco.  It features the #15 University of Nevada Wolfpack (12-1) and the Boston College Eagles (7-5).  Nevada opened as a 9 point favorite.  That has been knocked down to 7 1/2. 

It's an intriguing match up.  Nevada's only loss this year was at Hawaii, and they can boast of having beaten Boise State.  Nevada features the #3 rushing offense in college football, and they're average over 42 points per game while surrendering about 20.

BC averages a little under 19 points per game and has held its opponents, on average to six-tenths fewer than it scores, quite a contrast to NV's propensity to blowouts. 

The seduction of this match up is BC's defense, ranked #1 against the run.  We have the #3 Nevada rushing offense teeing it up against the #1 BC rushing defense.  The teams that rush better than NV are option offenses, so we may infer that these guys can bring it.  BC compiled its #1 ranking against pretty decent competition, so we further infer that these guys can stop it.  The big question is can they keep within 7 1/2?

I think there's a better approach.  UNDER 55.

Go Visit Grandma

Grandma didn't like our idea.

Last night's Cotton Bowl didn't follow the script that I expected, but we won anyway as LSU whacked Texas A&M pretty well.  Today, it's game #33 of 35, the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama.

The combatants: Kentucky (6-6) v Pitt (7-5).  You're probably familiar with all the backstories on this game, save one.  Kentucky's QB is suspended from this game for getting drunk and disorderly in public a month ago.  Seems to me that killed KY's chance in this game.  Continuing with the theme of teams winning after their coaches have gone, Pitt dumped Wanny and his successor, Haywood, so Karma is heavy in Pitt's corner.

I don't have much interest in this game, and I don't expect you will, either.  Go visit Grandma, instead.

Pitt -4.

The Cotton Bowl

Last night, it was MiamiO 35, MTS 21, and we're back to where we began. Fun and frustrating.

Tonight, ladies and gents, we go to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.   Sort of.   The game is the Cotton Bowl, but it will be contested in Cowboys Stadium.  The Cotton Bowl is the site of the Ticket City Bowl.  The stadium, that is, the Cotton Bowl Stadium.   I misremembered, to quote a politician, for just a sec, that Cotton Bowl Stadium was the site of the Texas Bowl, but the Texas Bowl is in Houston, and that's Reliant Stadium, and the Cotton Bowl hosts the Ticket City Bowl, and Cowboys Stadium is the site of the Cotton Bowl.  By the way, it's not in Dallas, it's in Arlington.  The Cotton Bowl.  The game, not the stadium.

Clear?

Anyhoo...tonight it's #11 LSU against #17 Texas A&M.  Interesting (to me, anyway) factoids about these teams: LSU is coached by Les Miles, and Miles is an anagram for Slime, and...the Texas A&M logo reads "ATM".  FASCINATING!!!

Football factoids:

A&M comes in with a 9-3 record.  Their 3 losses came all in a row in weeks 4/5/6, and that was three months ago.  If we're looking ATS, A&M has 6 straight covers.  
LSU arrives at this game at 11-2.  The two teams that beat them were Auburn, 24-17, and Alabama, 24-21.  ATS, LSU is 3-3 in the last six of the season.
O/U for this game is 49.

Where these teams rank in various categories  is intriguing:
Total yards- LSU #89, A&M #20
Passing     - LSU #107, A&M #18
Rushing    - LSU #32, A&M #43
Points       - LSU #54, A&M #34
Pretty compelling, if you accept raw data.  Then we add one more category:
Points Against - LSU #11,  A&M #27
In my analysis, this defensive statistic evens the scales.  Then we factor in the competition.  LSU accumulated its stats playing through a rough SEC schedule.  A&M's numbers are pretty sharp, but the Big 12, across the breadth of A&M's schedule, doesn't measure up to the SEC.

Slime Miles has been money in bowls, too.

So, at the outset, I was ready to take the points and start cheering for A&M to hand the Tigers a comeuppance (cool word, isn't it?).  No more.

LSU -2.  I think it will be close.  24-20.

Danica is the Luncheon Guest

Tonight's entertainment, the current GoDaddy.com Bowl that used to be referred to as the GMAC Bowl back in the day, features the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee State and the Miami O Redhawks, champs of the MAC.

MTS comes in at a very average 6-6.  Miami O had a 9-4 season, won the MAC, and lost their coach to Pitt.  Karma is a sometimes a bitch, as Miami's coach, Mike Hayword, learned when he deserted his troops for a bigger job in Pittsburgh, only to be subsequently put on permanent furlough by Pitt due to his pending felony charges, but I am digressing, tsk, tsk.

The setting for tonight's clash of Less Than Titans is Mobile, Alabama, a seemingly pleasant southern city of around 200,000, located on the Gulf of Mexico.  I read the city's vitae and looked at the photos, and I am reminded that I did the same last year, and reached the same obviously forgettable conclusion, evidence by the fact that I have nothing substantial to share with you about Mobile.

Danica, the one-name raced driver (like Cher uses only one name for instant recognition, so can Danica)  is there, in Mobile, as she is GoDaddy's frontperson, guest speaker at the big bowl game luncheon.  I don't care much for Danica, or Cher, but I like her GoDaddy commercials (Danica's, not Cher's), and there surely will be a mittful of them this evening.  My pal Scotty, he of the keen eye for the absurd, had dubbed Danica the reincarnation of Marvin the Martian. There is some merit in his argument, though I demur at his suggestion that Marvin has a better body, though Danica's hottie pictures don't really work for me. 

Maybe Scotty's right.

Each team arrives on a streak: Middle Tennessee has a 3 game winning streak, Miami O is riding a 5 win wave.  It's been a few weeks since either of them played, so the streaks aren't all that compelling.  Their respective ATS records are, and Miami O's record prevails.  So does their strength of schedule.  I keep on looking for evidence of a trap play here and if there is one, I'm not seeing it.  Miami O started as a 2 point favorite and has moved way around to a 2 1/2 point dog to Middle Tennessee.  It appears to be the result of Haywood's defection plus news about the Miami QB being replaced by a freshman.  The QB news isn't so critical, as the freshman has been at the helm for the last two games, including the MAC championship win.  Northern Illinois posted a big bowl victory after their coach hitched up the U-haul and drove off, so Miami O should do the same.

Miami O +2 1/2.

And a New Mayhem, Too!

Last night's Sugar Bowl was one terrific football game, with the Bucks prevailing by 5 to cover.

Ohio State won the first half rather handily.

Arkansas played incredibly inspired football and won the second half.

Arkansas scored twice on safeties--twice!  That helped them stay in the game despite scads of dropped balls by what was last night an inferior Arkansas receiving corps, including a dropped ball on the first offensive play of the game that might have gone for 6.  The Hogs QB, Ryan Mallet is definetly going to be a Sunday player.

One of OSU's DB's left in the first half with a broken arm, and QB Terrell Pryor, who won the game MVP, couldn't walk by the time the game ended.  It was a brutal, cruel game.

Arkansas blocked a OSU punt in the last minute.  OSU turned it around and came up with a game ending interception.  Great football game, simply a great football game.

And we got a new Mayhem, too.  Off day today, back tomorrow.

These Things Come in Threes

Arkansas is the home of WalMart and Sam's Club, and the Ozarks, and Bill Clinton and a lot of other good things.  It was also the home of some more notorious persons, e.g. Roseanna from Texarkana, my former daughter-in-law, who after she became former ended up as a guest of the government in beautiful Leavenworth, Kansas, but that is another story.  While it is an incredible story, and I am likely the only person you know who can claim a former daughter-in-law who was a resident of Leavenworth, it is an extreme digression from today's topic and as such will be left to another time. I must focus on Arkansas. 

Arkansas, home of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, has been in the news for some unusual occurrences.  On New Year's Day, residents of the town of Beebe, AR woke to find their streets filled with thousands of dead red-winged blackbirds, 5,000 being the published number.  This was very unpleasant, especially if you happen to be a red-winged blackbird-phile, or a red-winged blackbird. 

Two days earlier, in the Arkansas River, people found 83,000 dead fish, freshwater drum they were.  Who counted the dead fish to arrive at the 83,000 figure was not immediately clear, but there are many jobs out there that we don't generally hear about, and Dead Freshwater Drum in the River Counter Person may be one of them. 

Now it has occurred to me that tragedies of this type, involving mortality, seem to come in groups of three.  It is with a heavy heart that I predict that the Arkansas Razorback Hog will meet its demise this evening in NOLA, thereby becoming the final casualty of this wildlife death trilogy.

Here's the short form numbers for tonight's Sugar Bowl:
#6 Ohio State, 11-2 v #8 Arkansas, 11-1

OSU is 0-9 all time v SEC in bowl games
UA is 0-3 v Big 10 all time in bowl games

OSU's lone loss was to Wisconsin
UA's two losses: to Alabama, 24-20, and to Auburn, 65-43

OSU's offense is ranked #20 nationally
UA's offense is ranked #8 nationally

OSU's defense is ranked #3 nationally
UA's defense is ranked #33 nationally

OSU's offense is lead by QB Terrelle Pryor, who says's he returning next year
UA's offense is lead by QB Ryan Mallet, who already returned

I was ready to pick the Hogs, when the 3's came to the surface. 

• OSU's #3 defense
• UA's #33 defense
• OSU 3x3 losses to SEC bowlers
• UA 3 losses to Big Ten bowlers

Ohio State -3

Arkansas Razorbacks, loss #3 tonight.

_____________________________
Meanwhile, yesterday, on January 3, Stanford was a big winner, good for us.

A Hokie is...

What's in a name?

Tonight in Miami, the #11 Viriginia Tech Hokies meet the #5 Stanford Cardinal in the Orange Bowl, a game that is not played in the Orange Bowl.  The game will be played in Sun Life Stadium,  an edifice formerly known as

• Joe Robbie Stadium (1987–1996)
• Pro Player Park (1996)
• Pro Player Stadium (1996–2005)
• Dolphins Stadium (2005–2006)
• Dolphin Stadium (2006–2009)
• Land Shark Stadium (2009–2010) and (take a breath)
  Sun Life Stadium (this week, at least) 

Orange Bowl Stadium, the real thing, was demolished in 2008. 

Now, on with the show.

VaTech comes in to this game at 11-2.  They lost their first two game of the year and haven't been headed since, 11 in a row.  It's the Hokies' 18th consecutive bowl appearance. 

Curious stat: VaTech is 1-26 all time against top 5 teams.

Stanford is 11-1, with 7 consecutive wins. QB Andrew Luck, a junior, is going first round in the NFL.  Coach Jim Harbaugh could be heading back east to take over at his alma mater in Ann Arbor, though the thought of leaving northern California for the upper midwest makes me question his sanity.  There is a pro coaching job open that is very close to home, succeeding Mike Singletary with the 49ers.

Curious stat #2: Stanford hasn't won a bowl game since 1996.

There's a boatload of numbers to crunch for this one, and I have done so, resulting in the dreaded "paralysis by analysis".  Both teams were 4-1 ATS at the end of the season.  The difference was that Stanford tended to beat the spread by a lot.

Stanford -3 1/2.

Oh, yeah, what's a Hokie?  In 1896 the school renamed itself Virgina Polytechnic Institute and sponsored a contest to come up with a new cheer.  Since this was in the days before Sports Center, HD and 3D, Youtube...gawd, this was before radio, I guess that coming up with a new cheer was a big deal, worthy of a contest.  The winning cheer incorporated the word Hokie. The writer said it was a word that he made up, just for his dandy little winning cheer, and the rest is history. 

I wonder what they came up with for the cheers that didn't win.

Bad Day for Mike Haywood, Too

Because I had the opportunity to play golf with Mike Haywood  at a USB event a few years ago, I have taken a more than usual interest in his career.  Haywood was the O-coordinator for Charlie Tuna at the time.  Haywood made it clear in conversation that he wanted to be a head coach.  He got that opportunity at Miami O and made the best of it, parlaying that success into his big break: the head coach position at Pitt, succeeding Dave Wannstedt.  Then, on New Year's Eve, Haywood smacked around his baby mama in South Bend and got arrested.  Pitt fired him on  New Year's Day.  Another guy who gets canned before he ever coaches one game.

1/1/11 wasn't much of a day for The Big Ten, either.  Big stage, Big life, Big 10, Big suck job on New Year's Day.

Northwestern beat the point spread but lost the game, 45-38.  No pass rush, period.  Stupid penalties (7 of them). Gave up 552 yards of offense, including a couple of BIG running plays.  Big Evan Watkin, the replacement QB, processes game situations painfully slowly.  I am so tired of this team; this must be what it feels like to be a Cub fan.

Joe Paterno and Urban Meyer squared off yesterday, spotlighting two men at different stages of their respective careers.  The 46 year old Meyer is riding off into the sunset, while Paterno, 84. is looking forward to another season. Gotta love Joe!  Florida got a pick 6 back door cover with :55 left to take away our +7 winner; final 37-24.

Mark Dantonio probably had 3 or 4 new heart attacks yesterday, because Nick Saban was standing on his chest all afternoon.  I took MSU plus 10 "cause that's a lotta points".  Alabama had a different idea of how much is "a lot of points". AL 49 MSU 7.

Mississippi State bitch-slapped Michigan, 52-14, so we got something right.



This is
(A) a Bridesmaids Convention,
(B)a hostage situation, or
(C) the Rose Court.

 Rose Bowl.  Granddaddy of 'em all. Great matchup, great game.  Poor little kicker boy from the Badgers missed a 3 pointer early, at the end TCU blocks a pass to deny a 2 point conversion.  TCU prevails by 2, we got 3 points, so we win. IMHO, Bret Bielema was outcoached. TCU ran away from WI's strength all day, while WI didn't exploit its power and had no answer to multiple d-stunts.  Props to TCU: Mean Looking Guys. 

Other bowl, the one with Oklahoma, the Fiesta Bowl, the one by which time my eyes were crossing but I was still cursing Northwestern's crappy game because TCU is the same size school and has the same colors but won their game, yeah, that one, we won.  OK won 48-20 in a game that wasn't very close nor very interesting--even to Oklahoma.  They appeared to be having a hard time concentrating on Connecticut, until CT would do something to annoy OK (score, for example), forcing OK to get back to the game for a few minutes until they would lose interest again. 

See you Monday.

1-1-11

Yesterday:
The carnage continued. USF and Clemson scored a bunch to give us our 5th consecutive loss in yesterday's early game.  These are a couple of schizophrenic teams, so I wasn't stunned.  Displeased, yes, stunned, not so much. Then USB won us some money; what a crazy year!  In Memphis, UCF vindicated their conference with a controlling victory of Georgia; too bad we were non-believers. In the finale, FSU was too much for Spurrier and the Gamecocks, and the finale of 2010 is as the season was.  Ugh.

Today:
Northwestern faces Texas Tech in the Ticket City Bowl in Dallas.  TT is a 9 1/2 point favorite. I'm picking NU straight up +320.  Big stage, big game, Big Ten.  Big risk, big reward, too!

Next is Penn Shhhhhtate +7 and Florida in the Outback Bowl.  Florida lost its QB and a CB and some linemen and their coach, now they should lose the game.  Penn State can become the first team to win 4 Outback Bowls.  Go, Joe!

Game 3 features Michigan State and Alabama.  Spartans +10,  'cause that's a lotta points.

Michigan vs Mississippi State -3 1/2.  Rich Rod's job is on the line, so what.  Miss State's coach just signed a lucrative contract extension.  Two programs in different places. Michigan isn't very good, here's hoping that they don't get revved up now.

Next, it's TCU against Wisconsin.  I love to hear it:  "The Granddaddy of 'em all, the Rose Bowl!!!".  Wisconsin has improved steadily through the year.  TCU hasn't faltered.  This one should be fun.  WI +3

Connecticut and Oklahoma are the last combatants of the day.  OK is a 16 1/2 point favorite.  So, is it a blowout or is it not, that is the question.  Yeah, it is.  OK -16 1/2