Author: John Paulsen (Page 610 of 937)

      What would a college football playoff look like this year? (Part 3)

      December 1, 2008 /

      (Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.)

      With Oklahoma vaulting ahead of Texas in the BCS standings, it is a clear reminder that the BCS system is horribly flawed. Each team has one loss and Texas beat Oklahoma on a neutral field. Texas’ only loss was to a good Texas Tech team on the road, and it shouldn’t outweigh the Longhorns’ win over the Sooners. Oklahoma did have two great non-conference wins (Cincinnati and TCU), while Texas didn’t really play anyone out of conference. Still, should a strong non-conference schedule outweigh Texas head-to-head win over Oklahoma? Apparently, USA Today and the computer rankings think so. (For their part, Harris Poll voters had Texas #3 and Oklahoma #4.)

      This brings me back to my proposed eight-team playoff that I introduced a couple of weeks ago. Here are the assumptions.

      1. There will be an eight-team playoff, with the six BCS-conference champs getting an automatic bid.

      2. If a conference champ is ranked lower than #15 in the rankings, they give up their automatic bid and it becomes an at-large bid. (This rule is to ensure that the regular season keeps its meaning and only the elite teams make the playoffs.)

      3. Seeds and at-large bids are distributed based on the current BCS standings. Certainly, these rankings can be tweaked, but they are fine for now. If an at-large team has a better BCS ranking than a conference champion, they will get a higher seed.

      4. There will be three rounds of playoffs. The first round will be held at the home stadium of the higher-seeded team. The semifinals and the final will rotate amongst the four BCS cities (Miami, Pasadena, Tempe and New Orleans).

      So how does this weekend’s action affect the playoff field?

      8-seed Cincinnati @ 1-seed Alabama
      A 30-10 win over Syracuse puts the Bearcats at #13. Cincy still has to beat Hawaii to stay playoff-eligible. Meanwhile, Alabama has a date with #4 Florida in the SEC Championship Game this Saturday.

      5-seed USC @ 4-seed Florida
      Since the Gators still have to play Alabama, this matchup probably won’t happen since Florida will likely move up or down in the BCS rankings depending on how they fare against the Crimson Tide. A bad loss to Alabama might knock the Gators out of the playoffs since the #7 and #8 seeds are conference champions, and Boston College might very well move into the playoffs with a win over Virginia Tech. If that were to happen, and USC were to leapfrog Florida, the Gators could very well miss the playoffs.

      6-seed Utah @ 3-seed Texas
      Utah remains the only non-BCS conference representative. With wins over #11 TCU and #18 BYU, they have the best resume of the three non-BCS schools in contention. (Boise St. and Ball St. are the other two.) The Utes need to root for a Virginia Tech win over Boston College.

      7-seed Penn St. @ 2-seed Oklahoma
      OU still has to beat Missouri in the Big 12 Championship Game to remain the 2-seed. If Alabama loses to Florida and the Sooners are convincing in their win over the Tigers, they could move up. They could also fall completely out of the playoffs with a loss to Missouri.

      Since Cincy moved into the BCS Top 15, they earned a berth in the playoffs. The lowest ranked at-large team – Texas Tech – were pushed out of the playoffs. #17 Boston College could conceivably move into the Top 15 with a win over #25 Virginia Tech in the ACC Championship Game, and in that case, Utah would likely be the team to be knocked out of the playoffs. (And that would be a shame.)

      Of the teams that are on the outside looking in, only #9 Boise St. and #12 Ball St. don’t have losses to teams that made the playoffs. #10 Ohio St. lost to USC and Penn St., #11 TCU lost to Oklahoma, and #14 Oklahoma St. lost to Texas and Oklahoma. So, despite what the anti-playoff crowd says, the regular season still matters with this playoff system.

      Since it looks like Boise St. and Ball St. will miss the playoffs, and a Boston College win might push Utah out, it might be interesting to have a four-team playoff amongst the best non-BCS teams to see who has the right to make the playoffs. Of course, this would add two games to the schedule and it might just be easier just to go to a 12-team field (though most of those extra slots could easily go to BCS schools like Texas Tech and Ohio St.)

      Check out Part 4 now.

      College Football, Television

      Fantasy Fallout: Week 13

      November 30, 2008 /

      Fantasy-wise, here’s everything you need to know (and a lot that you don’t) from NFL’s Week 13 action…

      QUARTERBACKS

      Joe Flacco (280 yards, 2 TD) had another nice day. He has 11 TD in his last seven games…Peyton Manning (125 yards, 2 INT) and the rest of the Colts offense had a miserable day, but Indy still got the win…Matt Ryan (207 yards, 2 TD) threw for a TD for the first time in three games…Phillip Rivers (149 yards) surprisingly struggled against the Falcons, who were 24th against the pass heading into the game…He got off to a sketchy start, but Ben Roethlisberger (179 yards, 2 TD, INT) bounced back with a solid game…Clearly, Matt Cassel (169 yards, 2 INT) isn’t playing well enough to overcome a matchup with the best defense in the league…

      RUNNING BACKS

      LeRon McClain (25 carries, 86 yards) out-touched Ray Rice (15 touches, 55 yards). Willis McGahee didn’t play…DeAngelo Williams (24 touches, 86 yards, 4 TD) continues his late season push. Over the last five games, he has averaged 118 total yards and 1.8 TD per game…Steven Jackson (22 touches, 110 yards) returned and looked pretty good…With Reggie Bush (8 touches, 32 yards) back, it was Pierre Thomas (12 touches, 54 yards, TD) not Deuce McAllister (4 touches, 16 yards) that was the Saints’ change of pace back. Thomas is much more explosive and is the better fantasy play down the stretch…Peyton Hillis (22 carries, 129 yards, TD) continues to produce as the Denver RB1…Thomas Jones (18 touches, 159 yards, 2 TD) is rolling and is virtually a must-start in most leagues…Sammy Morris (11 touches, 57 yards, TD) was the one who scored, but Kevin Faulk (13 touches, 121 yards) had more touches and yards…

      WIDE RECEIVERS

      After five straight games without a TD, Isaac Bruce (5-67-1) is suddenly a legitimate threat at WR again. He has posted 13-192-2 over the last two weeks…With Plaxico Burress in trouble with the po-po, Amani Toomer (5-85-1) and Domenik Hixon (5-71) picked up the slack. It looks like those two will be Eli Manning’s top targets with Burress out…Chris Chambers (1-2) and Vincent Jackson (0-0) struggled mightily against Atlanta and can’t be trusted heading down the stretch…Denver has struggled against the pass this season, so it is surprising that Jerricho Cotchery (4-40) and Laveranues Coles (2-2) struggled so mightily on Sunday…Eddie Royal was supposed to be highly questionable against the Jets, but still posted better numbers (5-84-1) than did Brandon Marshall (5-55)…Wes Welker (4-30) got rocked in the second half and didn’t return to the game. Keep an eye on his status this week…Top wide receivers like Dwayne Bowe (2-27) continue to struggle against the Raiders secondary. This is a matchup to avoid down the stretch…After three straight subpar games, Bernard Berrian (4-122-1) got back on track with a very nice line, which included the rare 99-yard TD reception early on…Devin Hester (3-67-1) continues to progress as a fantasy receiver. He has caught at least three passes in four of the last five games and has gained at least 42 yards in each of those games.

      TIGHT ENDS

      Kellen Winslow (3-15) was knocked out of the game with an ankle injury…Jeremy Shockey (4-52) has reestablished himself as a legitimate fantasy TE. He has 15 catches in the last three games…In the Jets/Broncos game, the two tight ends – Tony Scheffler (7-90) and Dustin Keller (7-77) – both had nice games…Heath Miller has posted 8-104-1 in the last two games and is once again a viable starting fantasy tight end…Zach Miller (5-79) has caught at least three passes in the last four games…

      FREE AGENTS

      Now for a few guys that are probably sitting on your league’s waiver wire…

      Mark Clayton (5-164-1, pass TD) is making a late-season push towards fantasy respectability. He posted 2-76-1 last week against the Eagles…Todd Heap (4-39-1) had a nice game against the Bengals. He has posted 14-139-3 over the last four weeks….Brandon Jackson (12 touches, 86 yards) was more impressive than Ryan Grant (12 carries, 39 yards), who sat out most of the second half. Jackson has more wiggle, while Grant showed better speed last year. But with Grant struggling to break runs this season, Jackson seems to be the better back at this point….After 5-87 last week, Davone Bess posted 6-84 this week and has taken over the role of Greg Camarillo in Miami’s offense.

      Fantasy Football, NFL

      The NBA’s Top 20 expiring contracts

      November 29, 2008 /

      ESPN’s Marc Stein lists the top expiring contracts (by dollar value) and discusses the chances of each player being traded before the trade deadline. Things will be especially interesting this season because teams are trying to clear cap space for the next couple of summers (due to the economy and the free agent bonanza of 2010).

      1. Jason Kidd (Dallas Mavericks)
      Expiring Salary: $21,372,000
      Soon to be traded? HIGHLY UNLIKELY

      All the regret the Mavericks are supposed to feel about parting with Devin Harris in February’s megatrade for Kidd fails to account for a few key developments in Dallas. 1. Kidd’s arrival, if nothing else, rejuvenated Dirk Nowitzki to the point that Nowitzki carried the Mavs into the playoffs late last season, which might have been the only way Dallas was going to get there. 2. Kidd is quietly playing quite well this season under Rick Carlisle, leading the Mavs to believe that one successful trade addition to fortify their woeful bench — which they presently are pursuing hard by offering up Jerry Stackhouse’s cap-friendly contract — could keep their Nowitzki-Kidd-Josh Howard-Jason Terry core in the West elite. 3. Sources say Dallas has been rejecting all Kidd inquiries because it would prefer to A) put off any drastic alterations until after giving this group an entire season with its new coach and B) play out the season without taking back any salary that extends past the 2009-10 season and into the free-agent bonanza that will follow.

      4. Shawn Marion (Miami Heat)
      Expiring Salary: $17,810,000
      Soon to be traded? SOMEWHAT LIKELY

      Marion’s fate is one of the hardest for folks around the league to forecast. Some teams remain convinced Miami is determined to keep Marion on its books through the end of the season and then let him walk so the Heat can use the resulting salary-cap space to make a run at Utah’s Carlos Boozer seven months from now. Others believe the Heat are willing to trade Marion between now and February if they can get back “star quality” or at least players they like whose contracts don’t extend beyond 2009-10, when Dwyane Wade hits free agency. The strongest thing we can say is that Marion does have trade suitors (like Toronto) and is the most likely to be moved of the players in our top five. Which might or might not be saying much.

      5. Mike Bibby (Atlanta Hawks)
      Expiring Salary: $14,983,603
      Soon to be traded? UNLIKELY

      Bibby is a good fit with the Hawks fiscally and on the floor, as an accomplished shooter who plays well off star guard Joe Johnson … without taxing Atlanta’s well-documented financial restrictions. It remains to be seen whether the Hawks will defy the skeptics and try to re-sign Bibby at season’s end, but things have gone so well since Bibby arrived — with Atlanta halting its long playoff drought and taking Boston to seven games in the first round, then starting well this season in spite of multiple injuries — that you’d expect them to knock back any trade interest. One scenario floated this week suggested that Portland is putting Bibby proposals together.

      I sure hope that the rumors about Portland trying to acquire Mike Bibby aren’t true. He’s shooting well through 15 games this season (46%), but it’s the first time that his accuracy has risen above the 44% mark since the 2004-05 season and it is largely dependent on his current 44% accuracy from long range. He hasn’t shot above 40% from three-point range since the 2002-03 season, so I expect that number to fall back to Earth sometime before the All-Star break.

      The Blazers would be wise to avoid that 30 year-old landmine.

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA

      Plaxico Burress accidentally shoots himself?

      November 29, 2008 /

      FoxSports.com is reporting that Plaxico Burress was a victim of an accidental gunshot wound on Friday.

      Not only was he the victim, he was the shooter too.

      The New York Giants wide receiver accidentally shot himself in the leg on Friday night, FOXSports.com has learned, not long after being ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Redskins with a hamstring injury.

      He spent the night in the hospital and the injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. The team is still trying to gather further information on the incident.

      I’ve heard of some unconventional treatment for leg injuries, but this is ridiculous.

      Ba-dum-bump.

      Related Content:

      Plaxico Burress turns himself in to authorities

      Fantasy Football, NFL

      The bottom line to the BCS/playoff debate

      November 28, 2008 /

      I’m not afraid to say that I am a casual college football fan.

      During the regular season, I will watch a handful of games, usually those that feature matchups between two top 10 schools. I don’t get too invested in the college football regular season because I know that it’s probably going to come to a disappointing conclusion. There will be a BCS Championship Game that will pit the top two teams in the country against each other, but there is always a debate about who truly belongs in that game.

      That’s the only postseason game I’ll watch. At that point in the season, I only really care about teams that still have a shot to win the national championship, and that late in the game, it’s down to two teams. I couldn’t care less about the other BCS bowls because they have absolutely no impact on who will be the national champion.

      College football purists probably look down their nose at guys like me, but I don’t really care. Fans like me are the ones that could take the sport of college football to the next level.

      If there were an eight-team playoff, I would sit down and watch every single one of those seven games. If the BCS-playoff debate is about money, then I don’t see how doubling the number of games that the casual fan watches can do anything but increase ratings (and ad revenue).

      Also, knowing that the college football season would come to a solid, undisputed conclusion, I would find these late season play-in games a lot more interesting. Under the current system, I’m not going to watch #12 Oklahoma State try to knock off #3 Oklahoma. But if the Cowboys were to have a shot to make it the playoffs (and to knock the Sooners out), then I might tune in. The same goes for the Florida/Florida St. matchup.

      Suddenly, a casual fan that used to watch 5-10 games a year is now watching 20 or more. How is this bad for college football?

      College Football, Television

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