No. 17 Texas A&M beat Texas 24-17 Thanksgiving night with a 223-yards-rushing effort by junior running back Cyrus Gray. Texas fifth home loss at home this season prevents the Longhorns from becoming bowl-eligible for the first time since 1997.
Archive for the ‘NCAA’ Category
Aggies put nail in coffin of Longhorns’ lowly season
Friday, November 26th, 2010BCS controversy
Thursday, November 25th, 2010Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee created quite a fuzz when he expressed his thoughts on whether or not programs like TCU and Boise State are deserving of a shot at a national title should they run the table from here on out.
Here is what he said according to espn.com:
“Well, I don’t know enough about the Xs and Os of college football,” said Gee, formerly the president at West Virginia, Colorado, Brown and Vanderbilt universities. “I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it’s like murderer’s row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day.
“So I think until a university runs through that gauntlet that there’s some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to [be] in the big ballgame.”
Making Sense of the Madness
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010Ahead of us lie two and half weeks of pure and unadulterated fun and drama.
That’s 19 days of Cinderella stories, Stepmother stories (That should be the opposite of a Cinderella story, right?), major upsets, minor upsets, perennial power houses blowing out opponents, colleges you didn’t even know existed hanging with the big boys for way too long, announcers going bonkers, coaches jumping around like little kids (either because they’re angry like a little kid who didn’t get any candy when shopping with mum or because they’re happy like a little kid on Christmas morning), buzzer beaters, overtimes, double overtimes, triple overtimes (if we’re lucky) and…uhm … did I forget something? .. Oh, yeah and I think they’ll play some basketball in between.
Sounds like a blast, right?
Wrong.
Well, it would be if there wasn’t one little gimmick that annually spoils the festivities for sports fans around the country.
Usually this might be a dreaded sheet of paper, but not if you follow the Average Fan's impeccable strategies.
That’s right, I am talking about the bracket.
Sure it sounds dandy and sweet at first, but at the end of the tournament, yours, mine and probably 95% percent of all the brackets look like the bottom scratch paper in your office’s scratch paper box. (You know which one I mean.) Every other team is crossed out and there might even be profanity written on there.
And I would be ok with that. I mean after all if everybody is wrong then it’s no big deal, right!?
Wrong again.
Because not everybody is wrong. There is a specific group of people out there who always do well on the bracket. You know who I am talking about: It’s always the one guy who doesn’t care about sports (and often times doesn’t even know what sport is being played) who wins the office pool. It’s always your mum/sister who picks teams by who cute their names sound who win the family pool. It’s always your buddy who asks stuff like “Why do they only play two quarters?” and “Why are they cutting down the nets?” who wins your friends’ pools.
The point is it’s never the guys who actually watch the games, spend hours on trying to figure out who has the best team and who prepare like it’s the SATs all over again.
It’s never you.
But fear not loyal fan and reader of the Fan’s Perspective, because you will win this time.
I have thrown myself into the ambiguous world of sports apathy. (No easy task, I can tell you that much!) I have put myself into the mindsets of all those “A bracket? And you can win 20 bucks? Cool, I’m in. It’s about football, right?” – people (aka. the one’s who always, always, always win). I have abjured all the pleasures of sports enthusiasm. (Don’t worry, it’s just for now.) In short I have sacrificed everything so you can win. (You’re welcome. I don’t ask for anything in return otherr than maybe that you tell everybody you know about this site. Humble, huh?)
So here are some strategies you can use to make your bracket spotless. In the words of the immortal Fiddy cent: Let’s get it poppin’ shorty!
- The color strategy: Always a strong choice. Why waste hours and hours figuring out who will beat who based on strength of schedule and stats, when you can fill out a bracket in a matter of seconds by just going with your favorite team colors! You like orange? BOMM! Welcome to the second round, Syracuse! Who likes grey? Nobody. Bye-bye, Georgetown! Piece of cake, huh!? This strategy is endorsed by mums, little sisters and of course painters across the nation.
The Average Fan would pick the mighty Mean Green to win it all if it wasn't for the fierce Catamounts.
- The mascot strategy: Let’s be real for a moment: Who the heck thinks a Mountaineer (West Virginia) could beat a bear (Morgan State)? I mean read a book, geez! Everbody knows Mountaineers were killed left and right by bears once upon a time. I don’t even care that West Virginia is the 2 seed and Morgan State the 15 seed. Bear beats Mountaineer. Done! And don’t even get me started on those Buckeyes. I mean a nut!? C’mon. This startegy is endorsed by Biologists and Historians from … wait for it … wait for it … that’s right colleges all around the country. (By the way: If you choose to go with this strategy then feel free to pencil in the University of North Texas for the championship game. Mean Green? It’s all over if they can just get by the Catamounts (Vermont). I’m not even sure what a catamount is, but it sure sounds bad-ass.)
- The “I know someone who knows someone who’s cousin went to this school” strategy: Think of it as a version of “Six degress of Kevin Bacon”. We all know people who went to all kinds of colleges. So the more distant and obscure the person who went to the college of Team A, the more likely Team A is to lose. Say you know somebody who went to Wofford (First go ahead and give him a “Sorry, dude.” from me. Wofford? I am sure it’s a fine school and all, but that’s just brutal.), let’s say it’s your uncle. Then let’s say your best friend’s ex-girlfriend used to always buy groceries at this store where there was this janitor whose stepmother went to Wisconsin. They play each other. Wisconsin has to battle about a gazillion degrees while Wofford is basically one degree around the corner. Therefore Wofford wins. You have to admit that’s infinitely more convenient and accurate than all the tape watching you always used to do. This strategy is endorsed by savants and other people who remember EVERYTHING.
- The name strategy: Some colleges just have better names than others. It’s just a fact. Take Minnesota for instance, sounds boring, right!? But now take Xavier. Strong name. There is no way the X-men loose to pedestrian-sounding Minnesota. Besides the coolness of certain names (Baylor for instance sounds like a can-of-whupp-ass crossed with Shaft) you also have to consider exotic team names. Robert Morris University? If I didn’t know that they were playing Villanova in the first round I would say that it could be anything from a fine steak house in Manhatten to a cigarette brand from the south. First-round upset. Lock it up.
Ok, so there you go. Four awesome and scientifically proven (duh!) strategies to make this your year. You can do this. You can be the one everybody will hate. You can be the guy/girl with a perfect bracket.
Now go out there and make me proud!