http://www.stupidsports.org en-us Nucleus v3.1 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.stupidsports.org/nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://www.stupidsports.org http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=157 Mets - lots of changes, but still a good team.
Braves - how can you so quietly be this good?
Rockies - yes they can do it all again.
Rays - not quite at .500, but improving
AL West - will be a train wreck and the best team with 85

The picks...

NL East - I think I'll take the Braves. Better pen than the Mets, slightly less worrysome lineup.
NL Central - I'll say the Brewers patch together another good run.
NL West - Rockies. Dodgers don't have the hitting, D-Backs slightly better, but Rox need same as 07

NL East - Boston. I think they will find out what losing Torre really meant
NL Central - Cleveland
NL West - Anaheim, with 85 wins.

WC - Mets and Boston.

Playoffs - Mets over Brewers, Braves over Rockies, Yankees over Anaheim, Cleveland over Boston

Braves over Mets, Cleveland over Yankees

Cleveland wins World Series
]]> Sports http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=157 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:24:42 -0400 http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=156
As I and other have said before, using the big 4 bowl games as the quarterfinals and then playing 3 more games and finishing somewhere around January 12 may seem nice, but the debate between 4th and 5th is just as bad or worse than the debates between the 2nd and 3rd teams.

Do the college football crazies think that having 3 teams and deciding which 2 play for the title is easier than picking 5 teams and deciding which 4 play? As with all college football arguments, the bigger conferences and bigger contracts will always take charge and the problem will be... does a 12-0 Hawaii going unbeaten against one of the easiest schedules in history and Ohio State with one loss off one of the easier non-conference schedules in recent history belong in the top 4 -more- than Georgia, West Virginia (who was in the title game hunt until choking at home), Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, LSU with 2 losses but both in overtime?

There are many necessary tools to make a playoff system work.

First, no pre-season polls. No top 25 polls until every team has played at least once.
Second, stop giving more value to losses at the end of the season. Yeah, like that will happen.
Third, no conference title games. These games only serve to televise one more game and give a bad team a chance to advance.
Fourth, accept that the bowl games, especially the high-and-mighty Rose Bowl, will not allow their games to be moved, reschedules, subverted or involved.

The solution? Since the Rose Bowl cares more about it's own conference traditions than it does the actual playoff system, drop them from the mix and use the Sugar, Orange and Fiesta Bowls at a Final Four playoff, rotating who gets the final game and remove the current +1 system.]]> Sports http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=156 Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:29:15 -0500 http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=155 Rose Bowl: Oregon v Ohio State
Sugar Bowl: VT v Georgia.
Orange: Oklahoma v West Virginia.
Title Game: LSU v Kansas.

Well... OU and WV did play, Oregon failed when their QB went down, ASU lost at the end.
Everyone else made a proper bowl appearance. tOSU moved up by virtue of Kansas falling
to Mizzou, who clearly deserved the BCS game more then Hawaii.

Title Prediction? LSU 24, Ohio State 14.
LSU does that Illinois does and they beat the Bucks.

In the Pros? Seattle will beat Washington, Jax in Pittsburgh? Yes, two in a row.
Tampa and the Giants? The Bucs have been shockers all year so they keep going
and the Chargers beat Tennessee by 20.]]> Sports http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=155 Sat, 05 Jan 2008 11:09:22 -0500 http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=154
The In-Crowd
Virginia Tech
LSU
Oregon
Kansas
West Virginia
Ohio State
add
Georgia
Oklahoma
Arizona State
Hawaii

Fiesta Bowl: Arizona State v Hawaii. The Rainbows get to show on a national stage if they belong and the Sun Devils get a home game.

Rose Bowl: Oregon v Ohio State stays with conference familars as two teams with one loss face off.

Sugar Bowl: VT v Georgia. SEC runner-up Bulldogs take on the defense minded Hokies down south

Orange: Oklahoma v West Virginia. Sooners return to the site of a recent title game and the wide-open Mountaineers bring scoring.

Title Game: LSU v Kansas. Yes, it seems it's in the Jayhawks hands if they beat Mizzou and the Big 12 title v Oklahoma. LSU has shown they can win late and win clutch and KU has yet to show they can win the big game; their final two games, if they win, give them the push all the way to the national championship game.]]> Sports http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=154 Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:06:29 -0500 http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=153
To date the Rainbow Warriors (or just Warriors if you are annoying) have play no teams tougher than the Mary Help of Christians Academy field hockey team. They've beaten two sub-division teams and none of their victims have any credible wins either.

Hawaii should be banned from the top 25 polls until they beat a team within the top 100 of the NCAAs.]]> Sports http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=153 Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:00:07 -0400 http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=152 but the team has negative rushing yardage through 3 games.
They still play multiple ranked teams.
If this team mangages a .500 record it will be a modern miracle - 3-9 is more likely and I wouldn't
want to be Weis if the Middies finally break the streak with that triple-option rushing attack. Lucky
for the Irish they get that game at home.

Other news.
Much to my shock Alabama seems like the real deal. Every tough game this year is at home (never mind
that they refuse, with Auburn, to play road games out of conference) so they've got that Roll Tide crowd
on their side. I don't think they are better than Florida or LSU, but that doesn't mean they couldn't beat
them in the right circumstances.

USC looks good, but still has Oregon and Cal to contend with and both of those are road games for the Trojans.
It's hard to emerge completely unscathed through that conference schedule but I think that USC could still
play in a BCS game even if they lose one of those games.

Dreadful teams? Auburn can't hold onto the ball, Ok St can't stop anyone and Hawaii isn't playing anyone.
Side note: Colt Brennan for Hawaii might be the first guy in NCAA history to throw for 6000 passing yards and
not get a sniff of the Heisman voting. Perhaps it's because his schedule is limited to Charleston Southern
and Northen Colorado and Idaho. Dude, you gotta play something tougher then the JVs to get my respect.

Potential for Humor? Michigan runs the table in the Big1T1en and goes to a BCS bowl despite having a 5 TD
loss to Oregon and a Div II loss on their table. That would make me cringe.]]> Sports http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=152 Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:05:00 -0400 http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=151 Both have looked like chaos incarnate.

Notre Dame has negative rushing yards after two games.
Notre Dame has 13 points in 2 games - and 7 of them were on an interception return.

Michigan lost in possibly the greatest upset in CFB history.
Michigan gave up 400 yards of offense in the first half to Oregon and over 600 total.

Notre Dame is alleged to have an offensive genius for a head coach.
Michigan was alleged to have a stud QB, RB and WR returning to lead them to the Big1T1en title.

Right now it's 50-50 that Notre Dame, with multiple ranked teams remaining to play, won't even break .500.
Right now it's 50-50 that Michigan won't win the conference, having to overcome both the Badgers and Nittany Lions.

Is it wrong that my puerile sense of humor is enjoying every minute of this?]]> Sports http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=151 Tue, 11 Sep 2007 12:13:47 -0400 http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=150
New England, Baltimore, San Diego, Indianapolis
Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, New Orleans

Wild Cards: Denver, Pittsburgh, Dallas, St. Louis

Conference Finals: New England over Indianapolis, New Orleans over Chicago

Super Bowl: New Orleans over New England

Bad ideas?
Arizona making the playoffs, Jets on the rise, Giants without Tiki, Atlanta going winless.

Good ideas?
Saints keep going, the Raiders,Browns and Chiefs are already on the clock for the first pick.

NFL MVP - Joseph Addai

]]> Sports http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=150 Wed, 05 Sep 2007 14:24:57 -0400 http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=149
Do we need a playoff? How do we keep regional rivalries intact? How do we guarantee strength of schedule? How do we guarantee that smaller schools that fare well get recognition?


How? By re-ordering all of college football like the Premier and Champions Leagues in the UK.

It's simple. Break the 120-ish college football teams in regions, West, Midwest, North and South.

The top 6 teams in each region are in a Premier Division.

P-West
Boise St, Cal, Hawaii, Oregon, UCLA, USC

P-Midwest
LSU, Nebraska, Oklahoma, TCU, Texas, Wisconsin

P-North
Boston College, Michigan Notre Dame, Ohio State, Va Tach, West Virginia

P-South
Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Tennessee.

Every year each P team plays the other 5 division team and the other 3 teams at their level (like the NFL, the #4 team in a division plays other #4 teams.) The remaining 3 or 4 games are scheduled at the school choice, just in case rivalries may be missed.

Every year the winner of the West hosts the Rose Bowl. The Midwest winner hosts Fiesta, the North winner hosts Orange and the South winner goes to the Sugar Bowl. Their opponents are the 4 2nd place teams. Other bowls can choose from the remaining teams. The winners of the four bowls enter a 4-team playoff for the national title.

Below Premiers is the Champions League.
C-West
Ariz, ASU, BYU, CU, CSU, KAN, KSt, OreSt, WSU

C-Midwest
Ark, Hou, Illini, Iowa, Mizzou, OSU, aTm, TT, Tulsa

C-North
CMU, Cinn, MD, Ohio, Penn St, Pitt, Purdue, Rutgers, UVa

C-South
Bama, Clemson, Louis, Mem, Miami, S.Car, S.Miss, USF, Wake

Every year each team in C-League plays all 8 division foes and 3 or 4 games at their choice. Every year the worst team in each P division is relegated down to the Champions league; the Champion Division winners all move up.

The remaining teams in each division are in League 1 below Champions League, basically the rest of everyone. Those teams play a random conference schedule of 8 games against L1 foes; the rest of the games at their choice.

Of the 9 teams in each C-League division, the bottom two get kicked down to L1 - the top two come up.


Benefits?
We know that one of 24 teams will be in the BCS and no others so there's no confusion.
We know that the teams in P-League will face tough competition thus ensuring the national champ is a quality team.
We know that any team can get a shot at the national title by going unbeaten two years in a row.
We know that teams stay in a region, ensuring local rivalries are intact.
We know that teams can still schedule up to 4 games outside the division, so rivalires won't be lost.
We know that games in November now matter, as the loser of two 3-8 teams will get kicked down.

Easy Peasy.]]> Sports http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=149 Fri, 31 Aug 2007 13:53:00 -0400 http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=148
1. Expand the rosters by 2 spots in each league.

If you're going to force the managers to play to win the game, they shall use as many players as necessary, but at the same time they are trying to get everyone into the game. In a regular season game the starters would play 7 or 8 or 9 innings, not 2 at bats and then find some bench and your camcorder.

MLB added 4 teams within a decade or so, but didn't expand the roster. If you insist that every team have at least one representative (and you should insist upon that) then add 2 spots (one position, one pitcher) to each team.


2. Game-specific jerseys.

Don't let everyone wear their own jersey. If the host city is, for example, San Francisco and their colors are black and orange on the road and gray or cream with black at home, then take every player's normal jersey, keep the fonts and logos and names all the same - except make the jersey in the colors of the host city. Yankee players will still wear black or pinstripes - they'll just do it with orange trim around the numbers. The Detroit Tigers' script D will be black and orange instead of blue, no problem. The players still wear their team insignia but the jerseys are unique to the All-Star Game.


3. Besides the Home Run Derby, add an outfield-to-home-plate-accuracy contest and a fastest-around-the-bases competition as well. More players from more teams means more events and a younger generation of fans will be exposed to quality players they might not otherwise see.
]]> Sports http://www.stupidsports.orgindex.php?itemid=148 Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:24:53 -0400