Independent Game Thoughts

With the Boise State Broncos playing Virginia Tech this evening, there's been a bunch of talk about the BCS system in what seems to be an annual discussion that never gets a solution.  NCAA Football is horribly broken in its current form.  Consider the following exchange.

Me: Boise State is a good team.  Too bad they don't get the respect they deserve.

BCS Fan: They play a garbage schedule.  What two ranked teams all year?

Me: That's because the Florida's of the world are scared to play them.

BCS Fan: If Florida has to play an SEC schedule, what's in it for them to play Boise State?

Me: My point exactly.  How can Boise State play a worthy "SEC"-like schedule if no SEC team will play Boise State?

We both shrug.  NCAA Football is broken.  Teams play 12 games and the margin of error is so thin that it acts to disincentivize teams from playing other good teams.  What you end up with is week after week of games that are 72 - 0 like this week's Oregon vs New Mexico matchup.  *yawn*  Each week, we get a couple of games that are worth watching and everyone already knows that Boise State has to go undefeated to even have the slim chance of appearing in the BCS title game.  Here's a list of the games played this weekend and the results. (Home team in bold)

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Today, Roger Clemens is getting indicted for perjury that happened during his testimony against Brian McNamee in Feb 2008.  When will Major League Baseball get beyond the Steroid error?  That cloud is what is wrong with Baseball in my mind.  The sport itself has been cleaned up but for the next year or so, we're going to be flooded with Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens trial reports.  Barry Bonds is scheduled to go on trial for the same in March of next year.  Can't we just be over it?  I just want to watch baseball. I long for the days where we discussed these guys positions in the Hall of Fame.  Look, I understand that steroids is wrong.  I understand that athletes using steroids is something we don't want our children seeing for fear of their doing the same.  I get it, parenting responsibilities and all.  Hopefully, the trials will go swiftly and we can get back to watching baseball and enjoying the game.  Simpler times will never come again.

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As we head into the final month of the MLB season, I stumbled across this article from Boston.com and I can’t say that I disagree with its content. As I read the article all I could think about was that I barely blinked when the Yankees overtook the Red Sox. Wildcard or division winner is all that...

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At some point in the morning, I usually look at the Red Sox box score for the previous day's game. Today I happened to also look at the expanded standings on ESPN . What I immediately noticed is just how much better than the rest of the league, the AL East is. The numbers don't lie. No MLB team...

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Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games due to violating MLB's drug policy . Damn it Manny! Why did you have to be so stupid? Now everyone that had to listen to Red Sox fans gloat and cheer over the past five years of Sox success has ammunition to knock us down. We always knew you were dumb...

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You would think that someone somewhere would have produced a web application where one could fill in a bracket and save the thing to a PDF file so that it could be emailed. I was not able to find a single application on the web that would do this so I have to resort to using a pen and a printed bracket...

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Denver might finish the season with 9 wins and 7 losses. Even worse, San Diego might finish an even 8 and 8. They both have a shot at the playoffs. Yet the 11-5 Patriots sit on the sideline looking in no matter what happens in the battle of the average teams this evening. 11 wins should be enough to...

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There's a game seven again. TBS flashed a graphic during last night's game that showed the teams that managed to come back from a 3-0 or 3-1 deficit to win the series. Boston was three of the four shown and we're about to add another one to the list tomorrow night. Go Sox! UPDATE: What a...

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Sox WIN! What a game. When Big Papi came up to the plate in the 7th I said out loud that he was due and sure enough he slammed one into right field. At that point I knew we were going back to Tampa Bay. One thing I need to get straight with the TBS announcers is that this comeback was great but in no...

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Practice days turned out to be more enjoyable than I thought. The first major difference is that the golfers are much more approachable. The US team was happily signing autographs on more than a few flags, hats and other souvenirs. Often times you would see individuals running around with a dozen 18th...

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