The SportFellas

With the regular season playing out exactly as expected - which in itself is completely unexpected, we have the dream scenario of Alabama vs. Florida playing for the right to battle the Longhorns in the BCS National Championship game.  But where does that leave Cincinnati, TCU, and Boise? 

We include the latest Sportfellas BCS bowl projections below.

Last updated: Sunday, November 29th, 7:12am

The recent speculation and subsequent signing of Michael Dwayne Vick reminds me of an old bit by the late George Carlin.  In the bit, Carlin talks about how everybody thinks we need more and better prisons, but not in their towns.  As the bit goes on and on, Carlin often repeats the phrase “Not in my back yard.”

Vick, as we all know (and if you don’t, I’m surprised that you even own a computer) served 18 months for orchestrating and funding a dog fighting ring on his property in Virginia.  On this property, dogs were trained to fight to the death and weaker dogs were tortured, drowned, beaten, and electrocuted.  Vick was behind all of it.

Now, I’m not here to talk about if Vick should have been reinstated, if his jail sentence was too harsh, or if it was too easy.  I’m here to talk about the blatant hypocrisy of the American media and public.

Now that the Mountain West Conference has made its deal with the devil, the power conferences can sit back and comfortably dominate the college football landscape for at least another four seasons.  In theory, 120 teams kick off the football season in search of a national title. But in reality, that opportunity is far more limited. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting a Little League-like mentality of letting everyone get into the game and ice cream afterwards, but perhaps at least the illusion of parity would sate college football fans.

The power conferences in football - not-so-ironically called the BCS conferences - constitute 66 teams with the greatest chance of reaching a national championship at the onset of the year.  Undeniably, the numbers tell us that just over one-third of those will fail to win half their games, and just over half will win as many as eight games.  To have a legitimate shot at playing for the crystal ball, you have to be in the double digit win column, something accomplished by only one in five BCS schools last season. 

Let's take that a step further. Realistically, no non-BCS school will play for a national championship under the current configuration. That alone eliminates 50% of the competing pool. Face it, Utah did all they could do last year, including waxing an Alabama team that held the #1 spot in the country longer than anyone, and still barely sniffed the top-4 in the Coaches Poll.  The argument most use is "well, Utah didn't play anyone."

And therein lies the problem. The BCS conferences have the deck stacked. Utah will never draw pocket aces when it comes to scheduling, and are shut out of national title talk by a technicality. By having power conferences play large majorities of their games in conference (which makes sense), they're both killing the chances of some 80% of their own members, and all 100% of non-BCS teams. That leaves a mere 10% of the pool eligible to win the title.  Imagine an NFL where just three teams had a shot at the Lombardi Trophy.  Three NHL teams with a chance at the Stanley Cup. Three Major League Baseball clubs with an opportunity to win the Commissioner's Trophy. That's on par with telling the NL Central they don't "play anyone" and banning them from the chance to win the World Series.

Since our original bracket tanked, we felt it was only proper to attempt to right this ship before it completely sinks.  We've rerun all of our numbers and have taken the tournament action thus far into account.  With a chalktastic field left, this may be one of the most highly competitive championship tournaments ever.  They're no George Mason, but don't leave Arizona unchecked or they may become the highest seed to advance to the Final Four.

Naturally there are going to be a couple games on the docket that don't live up to the CBS airtime they'll receive.  Naturally, we at the Sportfellas have you covered.  The East bracket will undoubtedly be the toughest. Pitt has let weaker opponents linger enough to give an under the radar Xavier team reason to believe.  And everyone knows you're always going to get your best shot when facing Nova or Duke.

I expect the West Bracket to be the snoozer of the bunch. Despite our prediction of a hotly contested regional final between UConn and Memphis, our guess is that the Sweet 16 matchups will be double digit games.  We're also looking at Kansas as a team who could become a steamroller with a nasty inside outside game that could legitimately win convincingly against both Michigan State and Louisville.

The South region is Carolina's to lose, regardless of Oklahoma's strength inside. Blake Griffin would be my pick for the nation's best player, even over Tyler Hansbrough, but #50 also has Ed Davis and Deon Thompson to help give Griffin fits.  We still project Carolina's closest game of the tournament to come against Gonzaga. Can you say sleepwalking?

After two rounds of play, it's already become virtually impossible to keep up with the good, bad, and ugly theme, as the mix of opponents isn't nearly what we envisioned. Ergo, the whole thing is ugly. That being said, we roll into this weekend's games with 12 of our Sweet 16 intact, and all four clubs we have making it to the Final Four in Detroit.

Sadly, the secretary in your office pool who picked straight chalk has 14 of the Sweet 16 correct. And the guy who took Arizona to the Elite Eight in your pool, just to be an ass, is looking pretty damn gifted right now.  And there's always the guy who overexaggerates, saying all 12 seeds beat 5 seeds, and then picks accordingly. Yep, he got 3 teams into the 2nd round and came within a whisker of advancing two to the Sweet 16.

Based on two rounds of play, the team who most looks like they want to win the championship is Connecticut.  Others have let opponents linger too long for our liking, either in the first round (Kansas, Memphis, Villanova), the second round (North Carolina, Louisville, Gonzaga, Oklahoma, Missouri, Michigan State, Duke), or both (eyes squarely on you, Pittsburgh, with respect to Purdue).

The other three teams to breeze with relative ease have been Xavier, Arizona, and Syracuse.  We're not entirely discounting them (editor's note: Yes, we are), but I don't see the champion coming from the 4 line or beyond this season. 

After opening our bracket with a 12-4 first day, the second part of Round 1 fared no better.  I would like to take this time formally tell the Mountain West to go to hell. Go to hell and die. After the completion of day 2, our record sits at 22-10, and we've lost a couple key late rounders.  Ten losses when there have been exactly 10 "upsets". Coincidence? Yeah, most likely.

The Good: Our picks were solid in the Oklahoma State and Arizona State wins.  We also came within shouting distance of Louisville and Kansas' wins, and despite missing the total, we were in the ballpark on the Syracuse point spread. Missouri and Xavier came through for us, and we also cashed in with USC. Lastly, the two barnburners between Ohio State/Siena, and Wisconsin/Florida State, we're chalking those up as good regardless of who won. I mean, seriously, we nailed those games.

The Bad: Pittsburgh is the only game we're putting in the 'bad' column. Despite keeping the 1 seeds unblemished in history, Pitt must have soiled their briefs hanging on to this one.

The Ugly: UtahtwecouldbeatArizona? And regardless of thinking Utah State stood a chance against Marquette, our score was hella wrong. Cleveland State and Dayton also screwed our pooch, meaning our bracket went in the can thanks to two 11-seeds, a 12 and a 13. Fan-effing-tastic.

March Madness is in full swing, and we're still wiping the sweat off our brow from the Memphis scare.  But that's what this great tournament is all about. There's almost a sense of relief when you can crumble that piece of paper up and throw it in the trash can.  Several of our picks did just that yesterday.  We'll keep our bracket updated throughout the tournament on our daily recaps.

The Good: We came out solid in the LSU/Butler contest, as well as the Purdue/Northern Iowa tilt. Our spread was solid in Carolina, UConn and Washington's wins. We were virtually spot on with Oklahoma, and we at least got in the ballpark with Villanova and Duke.

The Bad: As previously mentioned, Memphis scared our underpants brown. And while we envisioned the UCLA/VCU game would be close, um, we didn't think it would be that close. We also didn't exactly come out roses in the Texas and Gonzaga wins.

The Ugly: This one begins and ends at BYU. Our system picked them to make an Elite Eight run. Interestingly enough, we weren't far off on the score - we just had the wrong winner. Ditto the Maryland/Cal game. And we completely disregarded our gut feel and ate the chalk against Michigan and Western Kentucky.  Again, as I told a buddy of mine repeatedly going into last week: "I would want NO part of a John Beilein coached team come tournament time."

...of Shut the Hell Up.  You look like an ignorant baby who is going to pout simply because you perceive yourself as being slighted by the organization. Well here's a hot tip, you don't run the team. You play for the coach who was hired by the owner. Now that you've decided to piss and whine about being the jilted lover, why don't you just leave in peace.  After all, you're doing yourself no favors with this media circus that you and Bus Cook have kept up.

See, Jay, the problem is, you've done nothing to warrant this chest thumping, as if you're God's gift to Denver. As a Broncos fan, I never expected a Second Coming of #7 like many have. I was simply hoping for a guy who could win some ballgames, and get the Broncs to the playoffs and win some games there.  Instead, we've been blessed with a guy who thinks he's Elway, but has turned himself into a spectacle of a wannabe quarterback.

The numbers don't lie. This guy is ripe for the trading. If Detroit wants to dump the #1 pick for this clown, take it to the bank and rebuild the franchise with a coachable quarterback like Matthew Stafford or Mark Sanchez.  Cutler's job is to not turn the ball over, make plays, and win football games. I questioned if he was the right move two years ago and was scoffed at. Am I still wrong?

It's that time of year again. Today, as I explained to my wife, is an unspoken national holiday, where countless men and women forego work to take in what seems like an unending barrage of hoops games, mostly of teams they have never seen before.  Last season, we brought you a bracket that ultimately busted when Xavier forgot to get off the bus the night they were slated to play UCLA.  Another year, another method to our picks. After entering all the data into our system, needless to say even we were stunned by the results.

To say that Pittsburgh has the hardest road to travel, regardless of what the pundits say, is an understatement.  A bracket where your second round opponent are the high flying likes of Oklahoma State or Tennessee is not a comfortable feeling. Win there, and you're blessed with a likely matchup against ACC runners up Florida State, under-the-radar Wisconsin, or the previously mentioned Xavier Musketeers. Win there, and congratulations, you've just earned a right to attempt to reach the Final Four against Villanova, UCLA, or Duke. No thanks.

All in all, the collective RPI of the top 10 seeds in the East regional is a full 7 points better than the next toughest region.  But the craziest of results comes out of our West bracket. With a mixture of unexpected blowouts and a couple major upsets, the West could be like trying to dodge a minefield.  And when filling out that South bracket, be certain that the toughest game Carolina will play will be against the Zags, and not the Sooners. Oh, and the Midwest? Uh, yeah, hope you wrote Cardinals in pencil on your bracket.

On Saturday, April 18th, Mountaineer Nation will welcome a new face to its ranks, and one that is sure to be discussed at water coolers statewide and beyond. The folks tasked with putting this Mountaineer in uniform poured over all the available information - written marks, face time with the prospect, and finally, a workout to see the prospect in action.

No, we aren't talking about any number of the highly recruited athletes who will be donning the Gold and Blue for Coach Stewart this coming football season. We are, of course, referring to Rebecca Durst, the sophomore pre-nursing student who will officially start her tenure as the Mountaineer mascot at the Gold-Blue game this spring.

Rebecca has an extremely full slate, both with her studies and in the community as a volunteer, but she took a break to sit down with us for a few questions, and to let us know what it is like to become the first female to take on the role of West Virginia University's mascot since Natalie Tennant broke that ground in 1990.