10. Ray Bourque won the Stanley Cup.........In Colorado. This was a media thing to promote hockey wasn’t it? Maybe I am biased because I am in Hockeytown. Although I was happy for Joe Sakic. But for Bourque to win a cup anywhere but Boston was very empty in feeling.

9. Army vs. Navy every year. Maybe if someone put a highlight or three together before the week of the game the rest of the nation would know a little bit about the actual game. If it is going to be a national TV game how about a little lead in on it.

8. The Pro Bowl from Hawaii is the most anticlimactic sporting events of the year. Most players that played in the Super Bowl get sudden injuries and don’t play in it. Every player on the field just wants to enjoy the off-season with out being injured. Let them do it by not even playing the game and just name the Pro Bowlers like they do in college as the All-Americans.

7. Any Mike Tyson fight ever. He made millions per minute with some of the "joke-of-the-day" type fights with nobodies like Peter McNeely and 90 second fights against Leon Spinx. For the money per pay-per-view Tyson should have had to fight at least four fighters in a row with a minimum of 3 full rounds fought. That wasn’t a problem late in his career. Going to jail was very detrimental to his career.

6. Billy Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in a battle of the sexes match in 1973 in tennis. The match was held in front of a record audience at the Houston Astrodome. Had Bobby Riggs been a top ranked player in at least the top 10,000 in the world the match would have been ok. Billy Jean King was the best woman tennis player in the world. Bobby Riggs was just the hype machine used to promote tennis. Tennis just happens to be one of the few sports and really the only womens sport that compete with the male counterpart in revenue.

5. Roger Bannister breaking the four minute mile in 1954 is a moment ranked in the top ten as a great sports moment. If this happened in 2008 this would be the next doping scandal of the next 3-4 years. Guilty or innocent, too many athletes have lied and been caught to get treated fairly and individually in media today. Regarding Bannister it is just running really fast, lets not make this more than it was.

4. BCS Title Game every year just feels hollow. Letting people who don’t play football decide who will, is just wrong. Let the teams play it out in a small playoff of 8 teams. Let them settle it on the field. Divisions 2 and 3 NCAA football have playoffs. Have they ever looked at the money the college basketball March Madness tournament rakes in each year? It is Billions with a capital B! What do you think that would be in football? That’s right Kajillions with a capital K!

3. The Indianapolis 500 race is the only open wheel race most sports fans even hear about during the racing season. With all the hype the race gets ever year, can you name last years winner? What about 2006?

2. The Heisman Trophy Award and ceremony. It is getting out of hand. Way too much is being made of the award. How many of these great college football players have ever done anything after winning the award. They are very few and far between. Besides, almost half of the time many think that the wrong player won. Why not put all the awards on one show from college football.

1.The Daytona 500 is called the Super Bowl of Nascar, only it is at the beginning of the season? Not even close! They have more than one race at the track every year as well. The night race at mid-season is better esthetically. The cars look way better at night. Does the Daytona 500 get you more points for the Nextel Cup Series? Does it win the Championship in the first week of the season? How many teams are in it again? Well it seams it is nothing at all and actually the opposite of the Super Bowl! It may be the most exciting race of the year because it is opening weekend. It is my favorite track and the only one I have ever been on and in the pit area. However it is not the Super Bowl of anything.

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  USC fans get ready to take down some banners.  Pete Carroll you might want to call the Cowboys and see if they are still looking for a coach.  I know they just hired Jason Garrett but they haven't given him the head gig yet, just the offense so far.  That must be nice having Jerry Jones dangle that over him.  It must feel like Jones is saying You may have the job Jason if I can't find anyone better!

According to a Yahoo.com story there are  taped conversations that could confirm Bush took cash and gifts while he was playing football for USC.

Its all about the cash and special "rent" his parents were paying and gifts recieved by the Bush family.  The money is said to be near $280,000.  That is a lot of  cheese for a college student.  That is pro football if you ask me. If they come out and say he was rollin and Benz around campus too, I wouldn't be surprised.  That would just be way to much for me.  I went through all this with the Fab Five and Michigan had to take down banners of achievements, remove all records, and remove scholarships.  Look what it has done to Michigan basketball since.  Although the alternative is Ohio State and all the issues they had with Maurice Clarrett.  Maybe since it is football USC can survive this.

Here is the consequences from the NCAA according to Yahoo.com- If the NCAA rules that Bush received extra benefits during his playing career at USC, he could be ruled retroactively ineligible. Since some of the benefits date to the 2004 season, the Trojans' national championship that season could be rescinded. USC could face further NCAA sanctions and Bush's 2005 Heisman Trophy could be in jeopardy. The Heisman ballot indicates that an athlete must meet NCAA eligibility requirements to be considered for college football's most prestigious award.

  The debates can be intense.  You read them all them time here and in sports forums around the net.  Who is better, which conference is weak, and who will win.  It can be pretty amusing how matter-of-factly many sports fans make predictions and then see the complete opposite result.  I have even done it myself.  I think I personally jinxed the Ohio State Buckeyes when I predicted they would win the National Championship soley because they have Jim Tressell and Troy Smith and Florida uses two quarterbacks.  We all know what happened there now don't we, the exact opposite.  So how can we figure out who actually knows what they are talking about when it comes to sports and predicting games?

  Here is how.  There is a website that is still in its inagural year called FanIQ.  FanIQ was started in March of '06 by a guy simply known as "Ty".  It may be one of the best sites on the internet.  If you are a fan of ESPN.com's "sportsnation" you will love FanIQ.com.  It has taken Sportsnation and actually made it a democracy in a sense.  ESPN's version is the typical polls about the biggest stories and may just be used as one of their marketing tools as to what stories to talk about and what angle to take on them.  FanIQ.com is a site of sports polls that are made up by you the fan and you can see the live results and comments at any time!  You can compete head to head against your friends and it also keeps an actual "IQ" of results from predictions you make on actual games.  You can make subjective or outcome polls that have FanIQ points that push you up the ranks if they are correct.  They have every single sport available too.  You also get a link to send to your friends and others to track "head to head" stats.  These are kept when you and any of your friends enter the same polls.  This is one of the best features of the many great ones they have with a lot more cool stuff coming soon.  Just think how many people you can see results from the NCAA basketball tournament in March this year.

  I have seen many from Fox Sports join this site and i think you should too.  It is free, no pop ups, no advertisement, you make your own polls (sports or whatever subject you want), you can see just how much you do know about predictions, it is nation wide, you can have all your fiends involved, you can get a sense of what is going on with all teams fans, and most of all it is a lot of fun and very interesting.

  Here is a link to join as one of my friends so I can prove that I know more about sports than you or vice versa.  I know I have learned a few other things from this site as well.  I have learned that when I go to Vegas NOT to bet on baseball, EVER!  I think I have learned how to bet on Football when I am there as well, take the points!!!!  Some of my favorites are the subjective polls as well that won't have an outcome but are simply opinions, and we all know that sports fans have opinions.  Plus it is fun to talk smack to fans of rival teams as well.  To me FanIQ is the ultimate sports forum and I hope you join me.  I even make polls on there about my blogs I post on here to get even more feedback on the subject matter. So I will see you there and look forward to going "head to head" against you to see who has the higher sports FanIQ!



 

Florida won the National Championship Monday night for the second time in its school's history.  Former Michigan coach Bo Schembechler used to call it the "mythical National Championship" because you had to rely on people to vote on who the best was instead of it getting settled on the field.  Florida was lucky to even be in the game in the first place.  Florida was sitting in fourth place in the BCS standings with two weeks to go.  USC had jumped in front of Michigan and then lost to rival UCLA.  This leap frogged Florida from four to number two.  But how?  If they were better than Michigan before USC lost, then why weren't they already number 3?

Here is why, they beat Arkansas in the SEC title game giving them the SEC Championship and an automatic BCS bid.  In order to play for the National Championship you need to be a conference champion, unless you are Nebraska.  Why not Boise State?  They won their conference (WAC does not get an automatic BCS bid) Championship and went undefeated.

Here are some serious arguments:

1.  Florida deserved to be there because they won the SEC Championship and went 12-1.  But wait.  They lost to Auburn, a two loss team (11-2) which is still not a bad loss, but they did barely get by an eight loss Vanderbilt team on the road.  In fact they only played four road games the entire year!  They struggled in all four road games.  In the SEC Championship they needed a boneheaded punt return fumble into the endzone for a touchdown to take over in that game.  The game was a great match up for the SEC Championship right?  Well Arkansas got HAMMERED by USC 50-14 and lost to Wisconsin in the Capitol One Bowl, which Wisconsin got hammered by Michigan, which barely lost at nuimber Ohio State, which got hammered by who? Florida.  We learn nothing.  The Big Ten was 2-1 against the SEC in Bowl games.

2.  College Football is the worst set up ever.  How about this March we take the top 64 teams and they all just get one basketball game to play and we vote on who the best two teams are and they will play for the basketball championship, but make them wait almost two months to play it.  This is how NCAAFB is.  What would college sports be without great tournaments?  You would not have the College Baseball World Series, the NCAA hockey tournament, MARCH MADNESS, and what ever they do for soccer and LaCrosse.

3.  Boise State didn't even get a chance.    BSU got jobbed much like Oklahoma did at Oregon this year.  Had Oklahoma not been screwed so bad in Oregon they would have been 11-1 going into that bowl game and maybe not even playing BSU.  They may have been in the Rose Bowl playin Michigan because Oklahoma with one loss will get a higher ranking every time over BSU based onb who they play.  Boise has to fix something within first.  They need to get teams like Sacremento State off the schedule and if they are going to play Hawaii that is an AUTOMATIC road game.  If you play Hawaii, you go there.  You live in Idaho, go to Hawaii.  Everyone knows that is a bonus bowl game anyway.  Plus a road win looks better anyway.  To their credit they did hammer Oregon State (#22 in BCS) 42-14.  If there was a short playoff, just like the rest of the NFL playoffs have from the 2nd round on, they may have won it all.

4.  If all the voters who set the big game up knew so much about these teams, football, and predictions, then Ohio State would have won easily according to what everyone had said.  But they didn't did they?  So are you going to say BSU would not have beaten one of these teams?  We will never actually know.

So who really is the best team?  It doesn't matter.  Florida is the National Champions so congradulations on a great season.  You did everything you had to do and when you had your chance you didn't blow it.  Florida didn't listen to all the na sayers.  They used it for motivation.

The game Monday night will be much closer than most think it will be.  For this blog I have mailed it in so to speak to keep it short and sweet, unless you are a Gators fan.

This is why Ohio State will win, Jim Tressel and Troy Smith, simple-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is why Florida will lose -

2 quarterbacks.  maybe that is why they have one loss and didn't beat more teams by bigger margains.

  It really pains me to do this but I am holding up my end of the bet made with Ohio State fan "the sports intellectual" in which I would write an ode to Ohio State or at least a respectful piece about the program.  So here it is.

  Jim Tressel may be shaping up to be the greatest coach in Ohio State history with another win over Michigan and another shot at the National Championship.  Tressel has taken the Buckeyes to the promise land twice already in his short term as coach.  He has been everything the program wanted in a coach.  He said right in the begining that the fans would be proud of his boys went they played the team from up north, and they have been. Troy Smith should win the Heisman and probably will.  The No. 1 Buckeyes (12-0, 8-0) have their first outright Big Ten title since 1984.

  Apparrently their are signs of class in Columbus as well.  This time I am not talking about the sign that says Ann Arbor 187 miles either.  A video tribute to Schembechler, an Ohio State alum, was shown on the scoreboard before kickoff and the crowd of 105,708 responded with a respectful and loud ovation. "Michigan has lost a coach and patriarch," the public-address announcer read. "The Big Ten has lost a legend and icon. Ohio State has lost an alumnus and friend."  

special thanks to the associated press

  Former Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler died at 11:42 Friday morning on the eve of one of the most-anticipated Michigan-Ohio State showdowns. Having a history of heart ailments, Schembechler died a month after a device was implanted to regulate his heartbeat. Ironically with Bo he will always be remembered for his heart.  He showed his heart on Saturdays for many years, the seven-time Big Ten coach of the year compiled a 194-48-5 record at Michigan from 1969-89. Schembechler's record in 26 years of coaching was 234-65-8.  He is also one of the great names in college football history as well as one of the greatest coaches.

  He was a college football icon as well as an icon of the University of Michigan.  He always showed passion towards the football program and for the entire University of Michigan.  Thirteen of Schembechler's Michigan teams either won or shared the Big Ten Championship.  Fifteen of them finished in The Associated Press Top 10, with the 1985 team finishing No. 2.

Bo will always be remembered as a coach who got the most out of his players.  He was the Athletic Director and Schembechler's signature moment as athletic director probably came in March 1989, when basketball coach Bill Frieder accepted a job at Arizona State on the eve of the NCAA tournament.

An angry Schembechler declared, "A Michigan man will coach Michigan, not an Arizona State man." He refused to accept Frieder's 21-day notice and named assistant Steve Fisher as interim coach.

The Wolverines went on to win the national championship by beating Seton Hall 80-79 in overtime.

Bo left his imprint on so much on the university and will be missed.  He always had something to say and loved to talk Michigan football.  He brought back Michigan football and it has never left.  He was an assistant for Woody Hayes at Ohio State before coming to coach the Wolverines and that only fueled the rivalry between the two schools.  Now he rejoins Woody for the biggest game of them all.

Thank you Bo for all you have done for so many.

Bo Schembechler
1929-2006

special thanks to the associated press

  Is it just me, or...........Did Red Soxnation just get dumber in one day.  Over $51 Million just to talk to a Japanese player.  Do they even speak Japenese?  This will be taxed I am sure to the fans tickets and consessions next year.  So next year hot dogs will only be $4.00 and tickets will keep anyone under the upper middle class out of the park.  Red Sox you have now joined the evil empire.  There will be multiple teams with a smaller total team payroll next year, so I will now officially start rooting for the all to have a better record than the Sox.  On Daisuke Matsuzaka, Fox Sports writer Michael Rosenberg said "I hate to slap any limits on free speech, but from now on, there are two words I never again want to hear out of the city of Boston." "Evil Empire."  And he is right, what an absolute joke.  Ichiro should get a cut of this since he is the original on this type of transaction.


  Is it just me, or...........is the Michigan/Ohio State game a game that should be played at 8pm EST instead of 3:30pm EST?  With all the hype and the breakdowns of the game on ESPN it is being played only slightly later than usual.  This game usually gets played at noon.  It still has all the makings to be a classic and should be the game of the year.  We will see how that works out though.  

Is it just me, or...........is the NFL the worst sport to watch with all the commercials and TV timeouts?  The game has been getting cut short by the advertising at every single opportunity.  I never want to EVER hear money excuses from NFL owners anywhere.  They split a whopping $7 Billion in advertising and TV revenue every year.  Shouldn't tickets be getting cheaper?  They should but it turns out what gets cheaper is the owners.


   Is it just me, or...........is it a complete joke that Joe Girardi wins manager of the year just six weeks after being fired in Florida.  Normally this gets a guy a raise, but after having a fallout with team owner Jeff Loria, and having the Marlins in the playoff hunt even into late September, he isn't even going to coach anywhere this season.  He is going to be an announcer for the Yankees.  He should have been hired to a long term deal.  The other thing is that the Marlins TOTAL team salary in 2006 was $14,998,500........over $20 Million less than the next team the Tampa Bay Devil Rays who had a payroll of $35,417,967.  A-Rod made moore than this by the All-Star break.  There were actually 13 players that made more than the Marlins entire team last year.  The Yankees actually had 5 players in the top 13 all making more money than the Marlins and 3 of the top 4 are Yankees..  The Red Sox just bid  more than three times that amount just to talk to a player who has never even pitched in MLB.

  I was a little suprised but not too suprised that I read a blog from a WVU (West Virginia) that said his team should have been ranked #2 ahead of an overrated Michigan team.  Even with the BCS rankings out now with WVU coming in at #3 it does not mean that WVU can even play in the BCS title game.  OSU and Michigan are both rated so high and closely that the loser of the Nov. 18th showdown may not even drop past #2 anyway.

  Don't get me wrong West Virginia has a terrific team this year.  Their toughest opponent though is their schedule.  They have one of the most pathetic schedules with only Louisville as a threat to beat them the entire year.  When was the last time WVU went into a top ranked teams stadium and smacked them around like Michigan did to then #2 ranked Notre Dame and Ohio State did to Texas?  Well they never have and certainly haven't this year. 

   Respect is earned and not given.  Also Michigan is 9-0, WVU is 7-0.  Michigan beat Wisconsin (8-1) Notre Dame (7-1) and Penn State and 2 of 3 were on the road.  Penn States two losses came from who else?  Michigan and Ohio State.  Michigan also boasts the number one defense as well.  Besides WVU fans, all you have to do is win out and your team has a shot at the National Title, until they play Michigan or Ohio State in the title game.  Then it may get embarrassing.

  

 

  I have just a couple of changes I would like to see in sports for the near future.  With the ever changing world around us, sports needs to catch up and make a couple of tweaks.  Here are a few that should be done in my opinion.

1.  Trade deadline in the NFL should be moved back to week ten instead of week six.  The trade deadline in the NFL is basically non exsistent.  It would definatly help teams that need to get better in the future move some players for more draft picks and would also help teams who have injuries pick up the one or two players they need to push for the Super Bowl.  I think it would be good for the NFL game.

2.  More points to winning drivers in NASCAR.  This would put much more emphasis on winning.  Right now you get 180 points for a win, 5 points for leading a lap, and 5 more bonus points for leading the most laps.  It used to be 175 points to the winner but the change just isn't enough.  What if a driver won the race but did not lead the most laps.  You will get 5 bonus points for leading a lap, you can't win if you don't lead at least one lap, like the last lap, you would earn 185 points.  But if the second place winner led the most laps that driver would earn 175 points.  A decrease in points for drivers behind 3rd place and down should help widen the gap between being in the top 3 and just finishing a race.

3.  College football, can you not see how much more revenue you would get for having a playoff?  Even a short one.  Here is my idea for a playoff in college football.  Top 6 make it, top 2 get a bye in round 1.  This would do 2 things for CFB.  One is that there would not be over a month to a month and a half between games at the end of the season to the bowl game.  Number two is that it would wash out all those #### bowl games that we don't want to watch but do anyway because it is "Bowl Week" on ESPN.  This would also reward teams that had great seasons and help the teams with cupcake schedules get a shot possibly if they can beat the big boys too.

Fans are voting on this right now here

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