It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Winter is my favorite time for sports. Double doses of football with a dash of wacky baseball trades, free agent signings, etc. While I don't have anything to say about baseball, there's definately a lot to discuss elsewhere ... like my bad predictions.

NCAA Bball

I didn’t do a NCAA preview because it’s pointless. 1. The real season starts in March. 2. With the new(ish) NBA rules, each college season is essentially unpredictable.

There’s an influx of freshman stars who may come and go, struggle early then flourish later on in their careers, or just flame out all together. Regardless, from about 96 until the rule was implemented, most of the Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon types would’ve been on some NBA team’s bench right now.

That said, I think the media has it right with the early favorites of UCLA, UNC, and Memphis.

NBA

LOL at my NBA predictions. I definitely underestimated the surges Dwight Howard and Chris Paul would have this season. They are now in the top 10, as far as players in the league go.

I also underestimated the smarts of Bulls GM John Paxson, and the effects a non-Kobe trade would have on the Bulls.

I overestimated the Hawks young nucleus coming together.

Enough about me. This season has been very exciting so far, the NBA is in great shape. There really isn’t a team in the league without a star, except maybe Charlotte, but they have a good nucleus of young players.

If you’re sleeping on the NBA, wake up. This year has the potential to be one of the best years in recent memory.

NCAA Fball

It’s been hard for me to write about NCAA football since Dennis Dixon is done for the season. I talked him up for the Heisman early in the game, and he was poised to be the best prediction in the almost 1 year history of Sportsology. DAMMIT!

Now it should go to Tim Tebow. I was watching ESPN today and they were hyping up the QB’s from Kansas and Missouri, who are admittedly decent. However, if you were to give it to one of them over Tebow then you might as well give it to Dennis. The biggest benefactor of Kansas and Missouri’s “surprising” runs has been weak scheduling.

Speaking of which, one of those two teams making the national championship game would be a disaster. In the original BCS formula, I’d be surprised if West VA wouldn’t be ahead of them anyway, or maybe even Ohio State. The Big 12 is so suspect, as always, and it would be a shame if LSU didn’t square off with West Virginia or Ohio State at this point.

(Although I still say Michigan would’ve knocked them off with a healthy Hart and Henne. Another one of my predictions bites the dust)

NFL

All of the talk has been about the historic runs of New England and Miami. That’s understandable. However, I think three things are getting lost in the mix.

1. There isn’t really a dominant running back in the league besides Adrian Peterson. By that I mean a traditional power running back. LaDainian is perhaps a victim of poor coaching, a little bit of age, or maybe a combination of the two. Willie Parker is good, but they can’t trust him around the endzone. Brian Westbrook is having a crazy season, but that’s because he’s a combo back. The leader in rushing yards this season may not even crack 1,400 yards.

2. Tom Brady is having one of the greatest seasons in NFL history. This isn’t talked about enough, I don’t think. However, number 2 is only possible because of number 3.

3. Randy Moss is the MVP of the league, and is having one of the greatest seasons any athlete has ever had in any sport. He’s literally unstoppable. He’s making Brady look like a God and making his opponents look second class. When you look at many of his touchdown catches, a lot of them were either bad passes or very questionable decisions that he cashed in on anyway. You can say Brady wouldn’t have thrown those passes to anybody but Moss, but you can also say Brady wouldn’t be this good, this year, if it wasn’t Randy and company at wide out.

I Heart the Spread Offense

Glad to see that Dennis Dixon for Heisman campaign is starting to work. Way back on October 22nd, yours truly said that Dixon should win the Heisman (if he kept up the good work).

At that time he was still behind Tim Tebow and Matt Ryan in most projections and even behind Darren McFadden, Andre Woodson, Pat White, and Colt Brennan in some of those projections.

Now, after beating Arizona State in primetime on ESPN, many of the East Coast folks who are usually sleeping when Oregon is doing their thing got a chance to see what Dixon is all about. Unfortunately, his best pass of the night was dropped, but the perfect over-the-shoulder pass he threw to WR Jaison Williams helped show that Dixon has arm strength and accuracy to go with his athleticism.

Let’s hope the NFL doesn’t try to make him into a wide receiver.

As for the college football world, things are starting to get interesting. BC predictably took an L, and is probably eliminated from title contention.

(The way the polling system works in college football is fairly stupid, btw. You lose a game and go behind most of the teams with one loss, regardless of if you’re better than them or not, and so forth and so on. It’s as if the voters don’t watch football, they just read the box score Sunday morning, look at the records, and try to put the teams together that way. For teams like Kansas, they must look at it like “An 8-0 Kansas team can’t be better than Oklahoma,” without watching either team play. I digress.)

Anyway, my dream match-up is looking more and more feasible. Oregon vs. West Virginia in the title game. Spread-option vs. Spread option. Pat White vs. Dennis Dixon. Steve Slayton vs. Jonathan Stewart. No defense played at all. Well, maybe some defense. It would be a very fun game with the best spread-option passing team squaring off against the best spread-option running team. (Florida is best overall, I think, and is probably second in both categories as long as they keep letting P. Harvin run the rock.)

Ohio State is going to lose to Michigan, and I can’t imagine LSU continuing to remain so lucky. Kansas has at least three games left, including a home match up against Missouri. If they beat Missouri, they’ll likely face Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game. I can’t see them winning out.

Speaking of Oklahoma and Missouri, they are due for at least one more loss a piece, if not two. The Big 12 is very weak this year, but overrated teams shall fall sooner or later. All three of these teams (Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri) are very overrated. Well, I guess Kansas deserves to be #4 since they’re undefeated, so let’s say their record is inflated by their poor strength of schedule.

As for Oregon and West Virginia, all they have to do is keep winning and watch everyone else lose. Oregon is clearly the best team in the Pac-10 right now. If they win out, they should end up at #1.

West Virginia has a much tougher road, considering their poor strength of schedule. For the record, I’m not sure if they can beat LSU, Ohio State, Boston College, or even a team like Kansas or Oklahoma. I just really love to watch them play.

Anyway, beating UConn will be a plus for once, considering the Huskies record. Before UConn, they play Louisville (a rivalry game that will be unpredictable) and a very tough Cincinnati team. If they win out, they’ll get a boost in the computers from Cincy and UConn and will be battle tested to hang tough against BCS team.

Let’s see what happens this Saturday.