bukie

His O-Swing% last year was at the same time the highest he's ever had for his career and lower than any Cub hitter last year that's still a Cub.

Every game last night went fairly close to KP's predictions (although the scores were a bit more lopsided), with NW beating GT the only underdog that won. Surprisingly the Illinois/Maryland game was the only game of the night that ended in single digits, and that just barely. Illinois has a good shot at a high profile win against Gonzaga this Saturday at home, which could just push them into the top 25. Not sure they'd deserve it quite yet, but they're playing decently, and won a game last night they probably would've lost last year.

I assume he said something about at least they could drive up STL's cost for Pujols. Sorry, that's what I meant. Which would still inadvertently drive the price up on Fielder. I still think it's in the Cubs' best interest, if they really want to land one of the two, to be the first team to sign one of them so they can set the market, rather than follow it.

Also, either Northwestern is really good or Georgia Tech is not at all good.

Illinois might actually win this despite the terrible first half.

i was at this game as well...[expletive]' miserable...worst part is that it was my father's first time at wrigley(he's 62 and a lifelong cubs fan, just HATES big cities), after years of trying to get him to go with me...he was very appreciative, but it sucked so much...we'll try again this next season...shooting for sometime in the summer, just hope it's not hot as balls. Did Ricketts come by your section too? He stopped by our section behind home plate with a box full of ponchos and handed them out to everyone and shook everyone's hand, thanking them for coming to the game and apologizing for the weather, saying it could "only get better" from there on out. It made what was otherwise a miserable experience really cool and memorable.

Last year I attended probably the worst game ever at Wrigley, considering both the weather and the actual game action: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN201105140.shtml However, I got to meet Tom Ricketts, and he gave me a poncho for free. So, it was still pretty cool.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Broxton-Royals-agree-to-4-million-1year-deal-43785419 Not a bad deal, but that's a lot for the Royals to pay a setup man.

Royals sign Jonathan Broxton: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Broxton-Royals-agree-to-4-million-1year-deal-43785419

Is Cade McNown some sort of respected alum? Maybe they just sent out an email to all alums and he was the first one to reply, since he wasn't busy with anything.

It wouldn't be if that were the only game each team played, so you have a point there.

@KenPomeroy: Preparing the Big Ten/ACC Challenge bar chart for Tuesday morning viewing. Spoiler: The ACC basically has no chance.

I think you're being overly dismissive of a team that has played as well as any other in the country to this point. What makes you so sure they aren't one of the five best teams in the country right now? As far as being skeptical of the rating, as I said before, Ken has done a lot of work the past couple seasons improving the accuracy of the early ratings by incorporating preseason analysis based on roster retention and prior talent. The result is much more accurate at this point in the season, and as a result I'm inclined to trust the ratings over the human polls easily at this point in the season (Sagarin a bit less, RPI...well, I never trust RPI). Looking at Pomeroy's top 25 right now: 1. Kentucky 2. Wisconsin 3. Ohio St 4. Syracuse 5. North Carolina 6. Duke 7. Louisville 8. Florida 9. Missouri 10. Alabama 11. Marquette 12. Purdue 13. Kansas 14. Michigan St. 15. UNLV 16. St. Louis 17. Belmont 18. Florida St 19. Connecticut 20. Indiana 21. Pittsburgh 22. California 23. Gonzaga 24. Xavier 25. Georgetown The only real outlier in the list is Belmont, and that's because they're 2-2 with losses at Duke (by 1) and at Memphis, and haven't played a home game yet. Teams like IU and Purdue are much higher here than in the human polls, while teams like Creighton, Mississippi State and Baylor are much lower here than in the polls (Misssissippi State is 67 in KP, by far the lowest human ranked team in his system. They're this year's Ball State).

Wisconsin hasn't been tested at all this year to this point, so it's difficult to know what to make of them. I think they're better than their poll ranking, closer to their Pomeroy rating. I don't think they'll get run out of the building, because Wisconsin just doesn't get run out of the building. For the record, Pomeroy has done a lot to improve his rating accuracy early in the season, which is why I trust it a lot more than, say, Sagarin ratings at this point.

The way I see it, there's three levels of matchups: Gimme - Nebraska over Wake Forest Should win - PSU over BC (PSU is bad, but BC is the worst major conference team), IU over NC State, Illinois over Maryland, Purdue over Miami, Clemson over Iowa, Northwestern over Georgia Tech Toss-ups: Virginia Tech-Minnesota, Michigan-Virginia, Florida State-Michigan State, Duke-Ohio State, Wisconsin-North Carolina If the Big Ten teams that should win do win, they'd win the challenge even if they only win one of the toss-up matchups. And 3 of the 5 of those are on the Big Ten team's home floor. EDIT: Pomeroy disagrees. His predictions for game outcomes, from most likely to least likely: 1. Nebraska 73, Wake Forest 62 (86%) 2. Purdue 69, Miami 61 (79%) 3. Ohio State 76, Duke 68 (78%) 4. Michigan State 63, Florida State 59 (68%) 5. Minnesota 68, Virginia Tech 64 (62%) 6. Penn State 62, Boston College 59 (62%) 7. Virginia 56, Michigan 54 (62%) 8. Illinois 69, Maryland 67 (55%) 9. Clemson 66, Iowa 65 (55%) 10. Wisconsin 65, North Carolina 64 (54%) 11. Indiana 75, NC State 74 (53%) 12. Georgia Tech 66, Northwestern 65 (52%) That would still result in the Big Ten winning the challenge 9-3, though.

It's Big Ten-ACC Challenge time again. This time marks the first time every team in both conferences will play, also. Matchups (KP ratings in parentheses): TUESDAY, NOV. 29 Michigan (32) at Virginia (38) (ESPN2, 7 p.m.) Northwestern (42) at Georgia Tech (70) (ESPNU, 7:15 p.m.) Illinois (46) at Maryland (104) (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.) Miami (40) at Purdue (12) (ESPN2, 9 p.m.) Clemson (49) at Iowa (109) (ESPNU, 9:15 p.m.) Duke (6) at Ohio State (3) (ESPN, 9:30 p.m.) WEDNESDAY, NOV. 30 Indiana (20) at North Carolina State (62) (ESPN2, 7:15 p.m.) Penn State (141) at Boston College (248) (ESPNU, 7:15 p.m.) Florida State (18) at Michigan State (14) (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.) Virginia Tech (39) at Minnesota (47) (ESPN2, 9:15 p.m.) Wake Forest (178) at Nebraska (60) (ESPNU, 9:15 p.m.) Wisconsin (2) at North Carolina (5) (ESPN, 9:30 p.m.) No real neutral court games this year, and the Big Ten team is actually higher rated in 10 of the 12 matchups, while the two matchups in which they aren't rated higher are both home games for the Big Ten team. No really terrible mismatches on the docket, with possibly Wake Forest-Nebraska looking the most lopsided by rating and location. There's no reason the Big Ten shouldn't win 8 or 9 games in the challenge, but winning the challenge overall should be easily possible.

Zook was an odd situation. He constantly made bizarre and nonsensical calls in the game, but the program is undoubtedly in much better shape now than it was when he took over, and he ran a clean program, which can't be appreciated enough with the crap going on at PSU and OSU right now. I just hope the next guy can continue building the program while actually being able to coach football.

Silver lining for today is that the meatballs, meatheads, and other meat-based fans will be much less likely to clamor for Hanie starting over Cutler when he's healthy.

Today, we learned that Illinois is significantly better than the worst team in D-1. So, at least they have that going for them.

Meh, this game was the most reasonable loss to chalk up no matter what. Doesn't really hurt the team overall, just would've provided a near insurmountable cushion. Now they don't have that and just need to beat KC, Denver and Seattle.

Not true. Dallas leads the NFC East.

A pick 6 would be fantastic.

Thus...the one drive past the 26 yard line.

Time for a special teams TD to make it interesting.

On the bright side, Hanie is playing terrible, the Raiders have made one single mistake and have almost no penalties, and the game is still winnable at halftime.