Now we’re REALLY in crunch time. Post all of your fantasy questions here (and let me know if you are in a PPR league or not – it makes life easier).
Author: John Paulsen (Page 614 of 937)
As I was perusing the second part of the Sports Guy’s mailbag column, a few interesting tidbits popped up.
First, there was this commentary on Anquan Boldin’s toughness:
Q: For years, you’ve been asking for certain athletes to be wheeled out on the court or field in a Hannibal Lecter Mask. Well, isn’t Anquan Boldin perfect for that? For all the talk of T.O. and Brandon Marshall, Boldin has to be the strongest receiver in the game. You’ve got a better chance of your defensive coordinator stopping him with an elephant gun than relying on a 185-pound defensive back. Plus, the man BROKE HIS FACE. After hearing Eric Allen describe how they had to lift the skin on his face to insert the plates and he’s playing at such a high level three weeks later, is there any question that he could be one of the toughest men in the NFL?
— William Evans, Columbus, OhioSG: I would say he’s No. 1 on the list. The broken face story absolutely amazed me; I never fully realized how bad it was until the Monday night guys discussed it, and I ended up spending an hour Googling stories about it. First, can you imagine if that happened to Vince Carter? He would never be seen again. He would just sit in a dark room with a towel over his head moaning until 2057. Second, isn’t it weird that Boldin’s new face makes him look like a cross between Shannon Sharpe and Ervin Johnson? Do you think he’s angry at the doctor? Third, how does Boldin continue to run fearlessly over the middle after what happened to him? It’s like he took amnesia pills to forget the whole thing ever happened.
Then there’s this bit about LeBron’s possible 2010 landing spot…
Last time I checked, free agents were fleeing Detroit (Allan Houston, Grant Hill, Ben Wallace) and not signing there. And if you really think Detroit is landing a marquee guy in 2010 when big markets such as New York and L.A. and warm-weather cities such as Miami, Phoenix and Orlando will all be throwing money around — not to mention deep-pocketed Portland, which will have assembled a contender at that point and remains the most logical destination for LeBron if he only cares about winning titles and nothing else (and also, Nike is right there) — then you’re obviously in denial. Chris Bosh loves Toronto. He’s not leaving. Dwyane Wade isn’t leaving South Beach so he can wear a parka and live in Michigan. And LeBron wants to be the next Jordan and/or the most famous athlete on the planet; these things aren’t happening in Detroit just because Worldwide Wes likes the Pistons. Come on.
Wait a second, I started that LeBron to Portland talk! Here’s an excerpt from my 2008 preview for the Blazers.
The Blazers project to have a ton of cap space in the summer of 2010, when a number of stars will hit the free agent market. In fact, aside from the fact that Portland is not Brooklyn, the Blazers might represent LeBron James’ best shot at a championship. (Don’t worry, Nets fans, I don’t think that Portland is a big enough of a market for King James.)
Okay, maybe I’m not the first one to write about it, but as I was typing up that preview and got to the part about LeBron, I was thinking to myself “I have to be the only person in the country talking about LeBron James landing in Portland.”
Then Bill discusses how his picture ended up on the “experts” page of a website for an aviation company.
Q: I work for a help desk and our e-mail box gets a ton of random e-mails. One e-mail we regularly get is from Western Aviation, which sells and buys planes and helicopters. I happen to click the link which brought me to their home page, and was like wait a minute, THAT IS BILL SIMMONS!! Click on their link and check out the photo used for “Experts,” the photo is definitely you, right? I figured, as a fan, it was my duty to let you know about this atrocity.
— Mike G, Franklin SquareSG: I can’t fathom how this happened. Was it an homage? Did they just like the picture and think that I look like someone who should be selling aviation? Were they hoping I would link to them in a mailbag? Do they have an expert who looks exactly like me and imitated my photo? Were they trying to coerce clients into thinking I worked for them or endorsed them? Are laws being broken here? Should I be flattered? It’s completely inexplicable. I don’t know whether I want to sue them or embrace them. Western Aviation, why don’t you donate $10,000 to the Jimmy Fund and we’ll call it even?
I debuted this feature last week, but now that another week’s worth of games are behind us, it’s wise to take another look.
First, my 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.)
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).
Off we go…
#8 Penn State (11-1) @ #1 Alabama (11-0)
#5 USC (9-1) @ #4 Florida (10-1)
#7 Texas Tech (10-1) @ #2 Texas (10-1)
#6 Utah (12-0) @ #3 Oklahoma (10-1)
In this case, since likely conference champions #16 Cincinnati (Big East), #17 Oregon State (Pac-10) and #20 Florida State (ACC) are not in the top 15 of the BCS rankings (and are therefore not one of the “elite” teams in the country), they give up their automatic berths.
Compared to last week, with the institution of the “Top 15 Rule,” Cincinnati would no longer get a berth, but since the Bearcats are at #16 and still have two games to play, they could still finish in the top 15. Right now, Texas Tech would be the first at-large team to lose its spot, and given the drubbing they took this weekend, that makes sense.
With Cincy no longer qualifying, #6 Utah moved into the playoffs. Undefeated Boise State is currently ranked #9 in both human polls and the BCS rankings. Their computer ranking (.630) just doesn’t measure up to Tech’s (.890).
Other than Boise State, the teams that are on the outside looking in — #10 Ohio State, #11 Georgia, #12 Oklahoma State, #13 Missouri and #14 TCU — all have losses to teams that made the playoffs, so the regular season still matters, despite what the pro-BCS crowd says.
So, how does it look?
All times ET…
NFL
Mon, 8:30 PM: Packers @ Saints – ESPN
Thurs, 12:30 PM: Titans @ Lions – CBS
Thurs, 4:15 PM: Seahawks @ Cowboys – FOX
Thurs, 8:15 PM: Cardinals @ Eagles – NFL Network
College Football
Thurs, 8:00 PM: Texas A&M @ #2 Texas – ESPN
College Basketball
Mon, 5:30 PM: Indiana vs. #8 Notre Dame – ESPN2
Mon, 8:30 PM: #2 UConn vs. #19 Wisconsin
NBA
Thurs, 10:30 PM: Hornets (7-5) @ Nuggets (9-5) – TNT
We took a poll last year and 90% of our readers said that the BCS should be trashed in favor of a playoff system. It takes guts (or something) to stand up against that kind of popular opinion, and Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock is the latest to take up the mantle, using President-elect Barack Obama’s pro-playoff stance as a starting point.
Like I did with similar arguments from Tim Cowlishaw and John Walters, let me respond to Whitlock point-by-point…
I realize I’m one of just a handful of American men unpleased by Obama using the weight of the presidency to pressure college presidents to disband the BCS. He knows this, too. It’s probably pretty much all he really knows about big-time college football. Fans — Republican, Democrat and Libertarian — are dissatisfied with the current system. There’s virtually no risk in bashing the BCS.
Why is that? I’m not one to argue that the majority is always right, but when 90% of the populace agrees on something, we should probably go ahead and give it a try.
President-elect Obama doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about, and he diminishes his high office and invites other politicians to join him by foolishly entering a debate that has life only because “Joe the Sports Writer/Broadcaster” can’t wrap his brain around sports issues of substance.
Now Whitlock claims that anyone that is pro-playoff “can’t wrap his brain around sports issues of substance.” Mind you, he hasn’t yet made an actual point, but he is already declaring that anyone who doesn’t agree with him just simply isn’t as smart as he is.
Yeah, by lending his name to this non-issue, Obama has pleased every Bubba in America and pretty much ensured that big-time college football will continue an escalation toward professionalism and exploitation of “amateur” athletes.
Okay, here’s the big windup…
Let me quickly repeat the argument I introduced in the mid-1990s:
Division I-A college football has the greatest regular season in all team sports, and a playoff system would ruin that distinction. For decades, coaches and players focused on winning conference championships and were quite satisfied with a “mythical” national championship decided by poll voters. The advent of ESPN and sports-talk radio created the fallacy that the lack of a playoff system scars athletes, fans, women and children, contributes to global terrorism and delays Santa Claus’ delivery run on Christmas Eve.
There’s nothing wrong with college football on the field. It is America’s healthiest sport in terms of consistent entertainment value. This is not even remotely debatable.
So Whitlock’s argument is that the college football regular season is perfect as is, and that it was sports-talk radio that created a “fallacy” that the sport needs a playoff. Assuming this is correct, sports-talk radio was successful in convincing 90% of college football fans that the current system – the very system they were supposedly “fans” of – was broken. Wow, sports-talk radio must be really powerful. How often do 90% of Americans agree on anything?
He also declares that it is “not remotely debatable” to say that any other sport is as consistently entertaining as college football. I know a few million NFL fans that would beg to differ.
There’s a lot wrong with college athletics. Many football and basketball players are funneled through the system without receiving much of an education. Coaches and administrators are paid salaries that invite questionable ethics. Too many athletes arrive on campus completely unprepared to be educated and solely interested in the development of their bodies. The use of performance-enhancing drugs is out of control within most athletic departments.
These and other issues are worthy of discussion at the presidential level.
Who’s No. 1? How to set up an eight-team playoff format?
Leave that to the idiots.
This is a classic debate tool. Distract from the real issue by making points that almost everyone can agree with and then act like you’ve won the argument. Just because there are other issues to deal with in collegiate athletics, it doesn’t mean that Obama shouldn’t help to facilitate something that 90% of college football fans want to see.
He didn’t say why a playoff would ruin the regular season, he just stated that it would, as if it were a fact.
I guess that’s just one of those “sports issues of substance” that we mere mortals just can’t wrap our brains around. Jason Whitlock says he knows best, and therefore he must.
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