Create-a-Conference

With so much flux happening in the past 15 years or so with college conferences, I think we need some even better solutions. Some conferences have gotten way out of hand - St. Louis in the Atlantic-10? Marquette in the Big East? Just crazy to me. I think it's time to restore order in the world. I think it's time to create-a-conference.

Here are some I came up with...

• All Saints Conference (St. Louis, St. Mary's, St. Francis(Pa), St. Francis (Ny), Mount St. Mary's, St. Joe's, St. Bonaventure, St. Peter's)

• Wildcats Conference (Villanova, Kansas State, Arizona, Northwestern, Kentucky, Weber State, Davidson, New Hampshire)

• The Bulldog 10 (Butler, Citadel, Mississippi St., Georgia, Fresno St., Drake, Gonzaga, Yale, Samford, UNC-Asheville)

• The People's Conference (Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin, Oral Roberts, Lamar, George Mason, William & Mary)

Give it a try yourself. Could be a funny conference (e.g., the "Four Letter School Conference"...Duke, Iowa, Rice, Iona....) or a more common sensical regional conference (e.g., the "Really Big North"...Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, Idaho, Canada....). Whatever floats your boat...

Yankees New 3rd Baseman

Introducing Alex Rodrez. Thanks ESPN.















I mean, it's one thing to misspell his name as "Rodrigeuz" or "Rodregez" or something along those lines, but this??? How does that even happen? Here, let me try typing this out a few times...

Rodriguez
Rodrigues (oops! oh no, better edit this!)
Rodriguez
Rodriguez

Wasn't too hard. Did someone take a phone call mid-type?

"Doo, doo, doo...'Alex....Rodr'....oop, phone call...Hey mom, how are you?...I'm good...just typing out this graphic for Outside the Lines real quick....aaaaand....'ez'....there. Done...so, what's for dinner tonight, ma? I should be able to make it home in time. Hold on, let me type out something else real quick...'Derek.... Je'....what, mom? Yeah, I didn't have time to clean up my room and the rest of the basement. Thanks for doing that....'r'....ok, done that one....see you when I get home mom. I should probably get back to work or something. I'm running double duty today with graphic data entry AND editing...and I really don't know where to start with editing. Ok, bye!"

Can't wait to see the story coming up on Roger Clens.

Best State in College Basketball

The question was posed on Around the Horn yesterday which state was the best in college basketball right now. I was curious myself, so I went back to ol' Ken Pomeroy's site (www.kenpom.com) to check the current RPI and did a little math action myself. I decided to take the top 4 teams from each state that made sense to me and average their RPIs. Here's my top 6 based on this calculation (State, RPI Avg, Teams):

1. Indiana, 22.25 (Indiana, Butler, Notre Dame, Purdue)
2. California, 22.50 (UCLA, Stanford, St. Mary's, USC)
3. Tennessee, 28.50 (Tennessee, Memphis, Vandy, Belmont)
4. Ohio, 29.50 (Xavier, Dayton, Kent St., Ohio St.)
5. North Carolina, 31.00 (Duke, UNC, Davidson, Wake)
6. Texas, 33.50 (Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Houston)

On ATH, they were big on Tennessee and Texas, but there is a drop off after those top teams. And one would think North Carolina would be in the mix, and one would be right, but once again there is a drop off after Duke and UNC.

I'm still working on the calculation for Alaska and Hawaii. Check back for updates.

Bracket Stab - February 18

I wanted to post my first stab at the brackets today. I didn't go so far as to place teams in their proper pods, but I did seed by region.

I decided to project out the rest of the season, and this bracket reflects that. I used Ken Pomeroy's site (www.kenpom.com) and his projections for the remainder of each team's schedule. Sometimes I disagreed, but for the most part, I followed his individual game projections. So, instead of saying "this is how the brackets would look if the season ended today", it's more of a "this is how I think the brackets will look on Selection Sunday". For the one-bid conferences, I simply put in the current leader of the conference, and went with my gut for any current ties.

Last teams in:
Arizona St.
Florida
Miami (Fla)
Baylor

First teams out:
UMass
UNLV
Oregon
Mississippi

South Region
(1) Memphis vs. (16) CSU-Northridge
(8) BYU vs. (9) Dayton
(4) Notre Dame vs. (13) Oral Roberts
(5) Indiana vs. (12) Miami (Fla)
(2) Texas vs. (15) American
(7) Clemson vs. (10) Syracuse
(3) Stanford vs. (14) UMBC
(6) Pitt vs. (11) St. Joe's

West Region
(1) Tennessee vs. (16) Morgan St./Alabama St.
(8) Wake Forest vs. (9) Ohio St.
(4) UConn vs. (13) Boise St.
(5) Kansas St. vs. (12) Davidson
(2) UCLA vs. (15) Belmont
(7) Maryland vs. (10) West. Va.
(3) Xavier vs. (14) Cornell
(6) Gonzaga vs. (11) Florida

East Region
(1) UNC vs. (16) Robert Morris
(8) Marquette vs. (9) Arkansas
(4) Michigan St. vs. (13) Western Ky.
(5) Butler vs. (12) Baylor
(2) Georgetown vs. (15) Rider
(7) St. Mary's vs. (10) Oklahoma
(3) Wisconsin vs. (14) Austin Peay
(6) Washington St. vs. (11) Mississippi St.

Midwest Region
(1) Kansas vs. (16) Portland St.
(8) Rhode Island vs. (9) Arizona
(4) Vanderbilt vs. (13) Kent St.
(5) Purdue vs. (12) VCU
(2) Duke vs. (15) Winthrop
(7) Texas A&M vs. (10) USC
(3) Louisville vs. (14) Stephen F. Austin
(6) Drake vs. (11) Arizona St.

Weirdness...

I just noticed that Penn and Princeton both played their FIRST conference games last night. Last night was February 1!!!! Has that ever happened before when a team (let alone two teams) plays its first conference game in February? Just plain weird to me. I know, I know...there are only 8 teams in that conference and, well, it IS the Ivy League. But still!!!!

My Super Bowl Predictions

I'll post my predictions for a bunch of things now and then see how I faired on Monday.

Outcome
NE 38, NYG 16

First to Score
Randy Moss

Halftime Score
NE 24, NYG 6

MVP
Randy Moss

Brady's Stats
23-32, 274 yds, 3 TDs, 0 INTs

Manning's Stats
26-43, 297 yds, 1 TD, 2 INTs