Just call me "Ironman" from now on. The final updated standings:
Mike: 174
Kevin: 164
Adam: 157
I felt bad before Week 17 that Kevin had to make his picks two weeks in advance, as it was kind of an unfair advantage for me. Then I remembered why he made his picks two weeks in advance, so I stopped feeling bad for him. Besides that, I went 14-2 anyway in Week 17, so it would have been impossible for him to have beaten me even if he got every game right.
Fair is fair though, Adam. You took a title away from me, so I took one from you. Except you have shiny belt to show off....grrr....
Okay, onto the playoff predictions!
Wild Card:
Baltimore over Miami
Minnesota over Philadelphia
Arizona over Atlanta
San Diego over Indianapolis
Divisional:
Tennessee over Baltimore
Pittsburgh over San Diego
New York over Arizona
Carolina over Minnesota
Conference:
Pittsburgh over Tennessee
New York over Carolina
Super Bowl:
New York Giants over Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-16
I had the Steelers vs. Saints in my preseason prediction (oops on one of those), with the Steelers winning it all, so obviously I'm changing my mind on my Super Bowl champ. That means go bet heavily on the Steelers. The sports gods will make me pay for not sticking with my original pick.
Did anyone read about how the Pro Bowl in a couple years will be played before the Super Bowl? There's no way that players preparing for the Super Bowl will be able to play in that...what if, for argument sake, the Cowboys had made it to the Super Bowl with their 13 Pro-Bowlers? That's like a forth of the roster that'll need to be replaced! My personal feeling is make Week 9 reserved for the Pro Bowl, eliminate all bye-weeks, and have it played in the middle of the season like every other major sport. Or just keep it the way it is.
~Mikey D
This is it!
Updated Standings:
Mike: 160
Kevin: 156
Adam: 145
Week 17 Picks
Houston over Chicago
Minnesota over New York
Atlanta over St. Louis
Indianapolis over Tennessee
New Orleans over Carolina
New England over Buffalo
Pittsburgh over Cleveland
Cincinnati over Kansas City
Tampa Bay over Oakland
Green Bay over Detroit
San Francisco over Washington
Arizona over Seattle
Baltimore over Jacksonville
Miami over New York
San Diego over Denver
Philadelphia over Dallas
~Mikey D
Kev, make sure you make picks for Week 17, too!
So the bowl match-ups are out, and these are the games I'll be shooting to watch:
Poinsettia Bowl: TCU/Boise St. (Dec. 23)
Capital One Bowl: Michigan State/Georgia (Jan. 1)
Rose Bowl: Penn State/USC (Jan. 1)
Sugar Bowl: Utah/Alabama (Jan. 2)
BCS Championship: Florida/Oklahoma (Jan. 8)
There really aren't a lot of intriguing match-ups outside the heavyweight BCS bowls. I really wish Texas Tech could have drawn a better opponent, and the same with Texas and BYU. The games just aren't appealing, and its sad because they all have had fantastic seasons and deserve better than the bowls they got. TCU and Boise St. on December 23rd in the fucking Poinsettia Bowl??? Boise St. was a borderline BCS team for Christ's sake! Not to mention it's the #9 against #11 team in the nation. It just deserves a better billing, that's all.
Michigan State basketball is dropping like a rock...#18 and #20 in the polls. I'm not worried though. We have a lot of growing to do, so I haven't hit the panic button yet. If we're playing this badly in January/February with Suton back, then I'll start to freak out. Has anyone else noticed that Michigan has beaten UCLA and Duke so far this season. Uh-oh, they're back...
Good luck to everyone in their fantasy playoffs. Grace in her work league and Knob Hill, Adam in Knob Hill, Kevin in his family league, and me in my three other Yahoo leagues not named Knob Hill. Kev, I hope I beat you by a tenth of a point this week.
Onto the picks.
Updated standings:
Mike: 143
Kevin: 136
Adam: 128
Just trying to hold on...go make those Week 15 picks!
Week 15 Picks
Chicago over New Orleans
Kansas City over San Diego
Miami over San Francisco
Atlanta over Tampa Bay
New York over Buffalo
Washington over Cincinnati
Seattle over St. Louis
Indianapolis over Detroit
Houston over Tennessee
Jacksonville over Green Bay
Arizona over Minnesota
Carolina over Denver
Baltimore over Pittsburgh
New England over Oakland
New York over Dallas
Philadelphia over Cleveland
These picks make me uncomfortable....
~Mikey D
Well, not much to say about the MSU game last night. I liked what I saw, for the most part, in the half of basketball that I watched. Mark my words, we will be a completely different team come February and March. I am excited to see how we grow. But last night was all about Carolina. Holy mother of god they are ridiculous at every position. That is one hell of a basketball team, and it's better than their national championship team of Felton, May, and Williams. To state the obvious, they're really good.
I liked how Izzo summed up the game: "You didn't see our real team tonight, but our real team might have lost by 20," Izzo said. "They're definitely one of the best teams I've seen in my 25 years at Michigan State."
Onto the picks.
Updated Standings:
Mike: 131
Kevin: 123
Adam: 115
Go make those picks!
Week 14 Picks
San Diego over Oakland
Chicago over Jacksonville
Minnesota over Detroit
Green Bay over Houston
Tennessee over Cleveland
Indianapolis over Cincinnati
New Orleans over Atlanta
New York over Philadelphia
Denver over Kansas City
Miami over Buffalo
New York over San Francisco
New England over Seattle
Arizona over St. Louis
Dallas over Pittsburgh
Baltimore over Washington
Carolina over Tampa Bay
~Mikey D
I'm going to play the repeater for the second year in a row. Last year I talked about what a travesty it was that LSU jumped 3 teams in the BCS poll and into the National Championship despite the three teams in front of them not losing. What irked me was that the polls (AP and Coach's) were essentially rendered meaningless in the end. Because the polls play such a large part in the formula of the BCS, the only way that people could have gotten LSU into the title game was if they moved LSU up to #2 in the ranking, which they did, thus pushing them in front of three teams that did nothing to hurt their stock. The integrity of the poll system, the little that it had (biased coaches and the such), was gone. College football used the poll system all season long as a gauge for measuring the "best team", but abandoned their system and rankings at the very end. What's the point of even having rankings? If none, why are they such a large part of the BCS system?
So all morning I hear about this Texas-Oklahoma bullshit. "Well Texas beat Oklahoma head-to-head." "Well Oklahoma destroyed Texas Tech and has scored 60+ the last two weeks over ranked opponents." Irrelevant, I say! Save your arguments and reasoning, because I don't give two shits and a fuck. The only thing that should matter is the polls. Texas was #2, Oklahoma #3. Texas won convincingly over their in-state rival, and Oklahoma did as well. Both teams won. Texas is still #2. Oklahoma is still #3. No more discussion. Respect the polls. You had Oklahoma at #3 a week ago, keep them there dammit! You should not jump a team in the polls that did nothing to hurt its ranking (and did everything to help it) if the polls have any integrity and true meaning.
But they don't. And I hate it.
~Mikey D
