Updates and Blogging

OK...so this blog is not being updated frequently enough. I can continue to put my picks up here and still hope that its purpose is met, but right now it is not the dialogue of two voices that I wanted it to be.

I did have to post that Sunday was proof that football is still a game played in the elements. The New England - Chicago game was on opposite of the game I wanted to watch of Cardinals-Broncos but I found myself continually drawn back to that game just to see the play in the heavy snow! It was awesome!

And as to why I wanted to watch that other game - I live in Arizona so have to support the local team - the Cardinals...I think this is part of the code of allegiance for being a fan. Now it is not my top team, as my allegiance is still rooted in where I grew up with the Indianapolis Colts, but the significant time I have now lived in Colorado and Arizona make the Broncos and Cardinals two more teams that I follow and heavily root for.

This brings up my personal rankings of the 32 football teams...and while there are many other factors which play into which way I root on a particular game...this is the balance of "liking" certain clubs in my mind. Of course it's biased, and I know that even with the respect I have for the way that the Patriots prepare and play football, the "team" concept employed there, etc. I still have to greatly dislike them from their traditional rivalry with the Colts. Ditto with the Jets and Dolphins...the old AFC East line-up from my upbringing make some of these teams un-rootable for in the big picture (not a particular game).  One other story of why a certain team is near the bottom of the list.

The one Indianapolis Colts game I got to go to as a birthday present growing up was in the midst of the terrible years. Going with my Dad and Grandpa, we watched the Colts vs. Chargers game in October of 1994, I think it was. Natrone Means was the running back for SD, and they killed the Colts. Means ran all over them. It was rough. Because of that, SD sticks out as a team I dislike. While there were a few years that I enjoyed San Diego - it was because of Drew Brees and not the team. Another story for another blog, but you can like a team if the player is your favorite college player and he gets drafted to a team...no? Needless to say, the way the Chargers let Brees go was excellent leverage to return San Diego to the bottom of my rankings!

Without further ado - here are my Personal NFL Franchise Rankings:

1. Indianapolis Colts
2. Denver Broncos
3. Arizona Cardinals (these are near ties...but have to still a slight nod to Denver b/c of Amanda's family)
4. New Orleans Saints
5. Buffalo Bills
6. Chicago Bears
7. Detroit Lions
8. San Francisco 49ers
9. Kansas City Chiefs
10. New York Giants
11. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
12. Green Bay Packers
13. Atlanta Falcons
14. Cleveland Browns
15. Baltimore Ravens
16. Dallas Cowboys
17. St. Louis Rams
18. Seattle Seahawks
19. Tennessee Titans
20. Pittsburgh Steelers
21. Houston Texans
22. Philadelphia Eagles
23. Carolina Panthers
24. Jacksonville Jaguars
25. Cincinnati Bengals
26. Minnesota Vikings
27. Oakland Raiders
28. Miami Dolphins
29. Washington Redskins
30. San Diego Chargers
31. New England Patriots
32. New York Jets

*One note is that each team is not on a continuous like-dislike scale. In other words, there is a big gap in the rankings a certain points, like between New Orleans and Buffalo or between Minnesota and Miami.

Check out ESPN's Tuesday Morning Quaterback!

I'll get to my wrap-ups here shortly...but check out this article - particularly the several paragraphs at the top that talk about Big College Athletics funding and stuff. Truly amazing - for instance, Ohio State has 458 staff in its Athletic Department and only 192 faculty plus 50 admins in its English Department! And then, of course, the point is Athletic Departments do not self-support themselves financially and  actually don't make money despite the idea that they do!

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/101207_tuesday_morning_quarterback&sportCat=nfl

College Championship Weekend Pics (and other college games too)

Well, last nights UA-ASU game was a good one...and ASU pulled it out in a way that they had lost a few games this year; blocked kicks. I picked that one wrong...didn't see ASU stepping up on the road quite like they did. People were in pretty high spirits around Phoenix today, though...saw a lot of Maroon and yellow (it's not gold people - Notre Dame, Army, and Navy - that's gold) swirling around on casual Friday.

I don't think there is going to be much in the way of upsets this weekend...the Big East is the only thing I really think has any doubt about who wins the games. Here are my picks:

Again - tonight's MAC championship - Northern Illinois over Miami (OH) (see - I don't change my picks!)

West Virginia beats Rutgers
Pitt wins at Cincy
UConn gets it done in South Florida

I guess this means UConn get the BCS nod, right? They have the tiebreaker...with 4 losses - a shame meaning a good team gets left out of the BCS. PLAYOFF!!!

C-USA Championship: UCF beats SMU (even though this is Florida vs. Texas, the two states which I disdain the most for college football; I think I only like TCU and UTEP out of these states...and UTEP only because I lived in El Paso twice and what else was there to do but support UTEP and eat Mexican food?)

Boise State wins against Utah State
Nevada beats Louisiana Tech

The Ducks wins the Civil War with the Beavers (guess they fight over all that water up there)
USC beats UCLA in the irrelevant bowl of LA.

SEC Championship: Auburn goes undefeated over South Carolina
Big 12 Championship: Oklahoma beats Nebraska (to keep them from leaving the conference as champions)
ACC Championship: Virginia Tech beats Florida State

Speaking of VT, how fitting that they get a BCS bowl-game and Boise State gets left out? The voters really do have a bias at times to the establishment...I would think that if VT makes it, you would have to still seriously recognize that Boise State is a better fit than some other 2-loss team. Of course, Ohio State will bring more fans that Boise State, so they will get picked. Once again the business and money beat out merit.

Which again brings it to the point of the NCAA - how do they speak out of both sides of their mouths? With basketball...it's expand the playoffs, more teams and games with chances to win - the money is in the tournament. Yet, somehow, this would not be the case in football? Really? It seems to me that it is an old-money issue...of certain schools and teams wanting to "feel" superior to others. See E. Gordon Gee's comments of a couple weeks ago. I will always pull for those schools that maintain academic standards for their athletes - Army, Navy, Air Force, Stanford, Notre Dame (but is on the verge of leaving this list with their internal changes), even Nebraska and Northwestern.Maybe I need to do a bit of research on this - not just with student-athletes, but a look at these schools that are powerful in football and where their academic programs stack up...hmm...that's some work, but maybe over Christmas.

Special Picks - Thursday Edition

A couple of things - I haven't had the time to really look over the matchups yet this weekend, so I'm not going to pick them quite yet. However - there are 2 games tonight that I have to pick, living in AZ and this being Championship Weekend in College Football...I will try to predict every conference championship game!

*side note* not sure what's up with Joe these days...think he is wrapped up in work too much, or maybe he's already gotten bored with this. Either way, I need a dialogue partner to start debating picks and issues with!

College:
Arizona beats ASU
MAC Championship: Northern Illinois beats Miami (OH) Friday night.

NFL:
I think the Eagles win at home against the Texans...but it'll be an offensive, scoring type of game.