bukie

New ESPN Top 25 out: 1. North Carolina (31) 11-0 775 2. Connecticut 10-0 737 3. Pittsburgh 12-0 715 4. Oklahoma 11-0 683 5. Duke 10-1 651 6. Wake Forest 10-0 552 7. Gonzaga 8-2 499 8. Texas 9-2 486 9. Georgetown 8-1 476 10. UCLA 8-2 465 11. Notre Dame 8-2 398 12. Xavier 9-1 392 13. Ohio State 8-0 371 14. Syracuse 11-1 368 15. Purdue 9-2 341 16. Villanova 10-1 324 17. Arizona State 9-1 306 18. Michigan State 8-2 254 19. Louisville 7-2 231 20. Clemson 12-0 218 21. Tennessee 8-2 215 22. Baylor 9-1 163 23. Minnesota 10-0 78 24. Memphis 6-3 60 25. Marquette 9-2 58 Others Receiving Votes Brigham Young 44, Davidson 39, Michigan 38, Missouri 28, Dayton 26, Butler 14, Saint Mary's 14, Miami (FL) 10, Kansas 10, Arizona 9, Wisconsin 9, West Virginia 5, Florida 4, Illinois State 3, LSU 3, Stanford 3. AP: 1. North Carolina (71) 11-0 1,775 2. Connecticut 10-0 1,693 3. Pittsburgh 12-0 1,618 4. Oklahoma 11-0 1,580 5. Duke 10-1 1,486 6. Wake Forest 10-0 1,294 7. Gonzaga 8-2 1,154 8. Notre Dame 8-2 1,116 9. Texas 9-2 1,108 10. Purdue 9-2 1,083 11. Michigan State 8-2 907 12. Georgetown 8-1 880 13. UCLA 8-2 873 14. Xavier 9-1 861 15. Ohio State 8-0 766 16. Tennessee 8-2 758 17. Syracuse 11-1 742 18. Villanova 10-1 594 19. Louisville 7-2 521 20. Arizona State 9-1 477 21. Baylor 9-1 466 22. Clemson 12-0 462 23. Minnesota 10-0 198 24. Michigan 8-2 183 25. Missouri 9-1 71 Others Receiving Votes Memphis 70, Marquette 69, Davidson 66, Butler 40, Dayton 25, Saint Mary's 25, Illinois 20, Brigham Young 18, Maryland 16, Texas A&M 11, Kansas 10, Florida 8, Florida State 8, Stanford 8, Miami (FL) 6, Wisconsin 5, UNLV 1, West Virginia 1, Western Kentucky 1, George Mason 1. Wake Forest, IMO, is hugely overrated right now, as their best win is probably Indiana.

Bears need to win out to make the playoffs. If the Vikings lose, the Bears win the NFC North, and are the 3 seed, and would host Dallas, Tampa, Philly, or Minnesota. If the Vikings win, but the Cowboys and Bucs lose, the Bears get the 6 seed and play at Minnesota. It sounds to me like a lot of the media, and probably many fans, are assuming 10 wins, which tells me they are probably going to lose tonight. It would not surprise me to see the Bears lose tonight or win a close one. It would surprise me immensely to see the Bears win in a blowout.

The most annoying thing to me about the game (similar to the Clemson game a few weeks back) is that both teams should already be ranked, but since they aren't, the loser is going to have to work twice as hard to even get back into the ranking discussion.

Bears need to win out to make the playoffs. If the Vikings lose, the Bears win the NFC North, and are the 3 seed, and would host Dallas, Tampa, Philly, or Minnesota. If the Vikings win, but the Cowboys and Bucs lose, the Bears get the 6 seed and play at Minnesota.

Yeah, the only good team they'll have to play twice is Kansas. KSU, Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa State twice each should be able to pad the conference record. Illinois, on the other hand, gets no home game with Northwestern and no road game at Iowa.

Can't wait for this game, I've got second row floor seats. It's my first BR game, and it should be competitive as always. If Mizzou doesn't get us this year, it could be a long long time until they do. According to both Sagarin and Pomeroy, it's actually a battle between two top 20 teams. Both of them doing better than expected at this point.

The Broncos collapse is Mets-like in its hilarity. The only way it could be topped is if the Chargers lose to them in some equally hilarious fashion next week. I wonder what game is going to be flexed to Sunday night. According to ESPN it's the Denver-San Diego game. Miami vs the Jets would be much better. I think the reason they went away from that matchup is that the Jets could very well be eliminated before they even took the field if they played that as the Sunday Night game. The Denver-SD game is a guaranteed both-teams-win-and-they're-in game. I thought the Jets were in a win and in situation with Miami. The winner takes the division and the loser has to hope New England loses to grab the wild card. That's what I thought, at least. If New England wins, the Jets are out no matter what happens. They can no longer get the wildcard, as they lose the tiebreaker to Baltimore, and to win the division, they need to win and have NE lose to force a tie.

NHL Adjusted standings for the week ending 12/21 (spoilered for lots of numbers): Power rankings for those who don't like numbers: 1. Boston 2. San Jose 3. Chicago 4. Detroit 5. New Jersey 6. Philadelphia 7. Vancouver 8. Montreal 9. Minnesota 10. Pittsburgh 11. Washington 12. Anaheim 13. NY Rangers 14. Buffalo 15. Calgary 16. Phoenix 17. Florida 18. Colorado 19. Nashville 20. Toronto 21. Columbus 22. Los Angeles 23. Ottawa 24. Carolina 25. Edmonton 26. St. Louis 27. Atlanta 28. Dallas 29. Tampa Bay 30. NY Islanders

The Broncos collapse is Mets-like in its hilarity. The only way it could be topped is if the Chargers lose to them in some equally hilarious fashion next week. I wonder what game is going to be flexed to Sunday night. According to ESPN it's the Denver-San Diego game. Miami vs the Jets would be much better. I think the reason they went away from that matchup is that the Jets could very well be eliminated before they even took the field if they played that as the Sunday Night game. The Denver-SD game is a guaranteed both-teams-win-and-they're-in game.

I think its the "Common Opponents" tiebreaker. Funny thing, if both teams win out, it ends up being conference record that decides the tiebreaker. If the Bears lose this week and win next while the Vikings lose, it's division record, and if the Bears win this week, and both lose next week it's common opponents.

yeah that was pretty funny. in other news, i wonder how a qb with 10 years in the nfl (mcnabb) still doesn't have that clock in his head to know that he should throw the ball after he's been standing in the pocket for 5 seconds. You're talking about a QB who was surprised that the game ended tied after 15 minutes of OT. I think his clock is broken.

Go tie! Go tie! With ties being such unlikely outcomes, I am not going to assume one can exist in my "perfect scenario". I sure as hell won't root for Atlanta to blow a 17 point lead and sweat through an OT with the Bears division hopes hanging in the mix. Me neither, but if it happens, it happens.

Go tie! Go tie!

Actually, best case scenario for the Bears is a Philly loss and a Minnesota/Atlanta tie. ;)

3 of 4 right, but only 27 points. Should've kept USF up higher. Only lost 2 points on CSU-FSU.

It'll be a lot easier if Minnesota loses to Atlanta this week, though. Bears would have a shot in week 17 with a win and a Vikes loss to the Giants. If Minnesota wins, the chances are probably still too slim to matter anyway. Philly still probably has to lose to the Skins this week and beat Dallas. Tampa has to lose to SD this week. And one of Tampa or Atlanta has to lose next week to the Raiders and Rams respectively. Yeah, if Philly AND Tampa lose this week, then things start getting interesting.

So...then Notre Dame, which then reminds you of hobbits.

That is a pretty cool statistic I should say regulation losses. We have a crapload of OTLs. That makes it less cool. We're only .01 behind the Sharks for No. 1 in the league in GFA, and Kaner is tied for fourth in scoring. Not to mention their Pythagorean shot through the moon after last night.

If there's more runs batted in by the singles... then yes, they are better. There is never a situation where a single will drive in more runs than a home run.

Hey now, keep the thread on topic. The topic includes all caps 4 EVA, Milton Bradley, and black men.

Illinois has been much more efficient in their games defensively, and while Michigan has been more efficient offensively, Illinois has still been efficient on both ends of the court. In terms of predictive value and discussion on how good a team really is, things like offensive and defensive efficiency matter a lot more than who a team has beaten. Also, the team Illinois lost to, Clemson, rates really, really high right now (about as high as Duke, higher than UCLA and much higher than Maryland). Michigan is already in the "also receiving votes" category in both polls, which is right about where they should be. Illinois and Northwestern are just barely starting to get vote consideration in the polls, which is why I think they should be a bit higher. Ohio State and Purdue are really the only top 25 teams right now in the Big Ten, but really, Illinois is right there on the cusp statistically, which is as surprising to me as anything, really. There are maybe 6 Big Ten teams between 26 and 50 right now (Illinois, MSU, Northwestern, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa), although Wisconsin and Iowa are borderline. If the teams all play according to plan, with no upsets, which would match the standings I posted a couple pages back, there'd be a decent argument for 7 teams from the conference in the tourney. Only 4 are really getting consideration right now (MSU, Purdue, Wisconsin, OSU), but Michigan is probably getting the most pub of the rest.

I wish. Among the possibilities of Dunn, Bradley, Hermida, and using what the Cubs already have on the team/in the system, I think that Bradley would provide the highest production to cost ratio, unless Dunn's perceived value is so low that he could be acquired for less than Bradley.

Chit chat? On an internet forum? We wouldn't want that! Yeah, if there's anything this board needs, it's a social forum with the ability to make chit-chat threads.

The Big East now has seven teams in the top 15 in the coaches poll. Now, I'm not going to say that the Big East isn't the best conference in the country this year, but the Big East love in the polls is a little ridiculous. At this point in the season I'd say the Big East is a good deal overrated as a conference, and the Big Ten is a touch underrated as a conference (Purdue, Ohio State, NW, Illinois more so than MSU or Wisconsin). At this point in the season, I don't think Notre Dame, Villanova or Syracuse has any business being in the top 15 (this is before the Syracuse loss last night). Notre Dame is probably better than they've played, but in terms of how they've played they're more of a borderline top 25 team. Marquette also has no business being ranked. West Virginia is underrated, if anything right now. Ohio State has probably looked the best of any Big Ten team at this point of the season, and Purdue is hurt from a horrible matchup (and subsequent drubbing) with Duke. I'd probably agree that these are likely the only top 25 teams from the Big Ten right now, but Illinois and even Northwestern deserve more consideration than they've gotten. Everybody's hung up on how poorly Wisconsin has looked, while at the same time convinced that Wisconsin has to be one of the 4 best teams in the Big Ten. As of right now, though, according to Pomeroy and Sagarin, they're more like the 7th or 8th best team in the conference (Ohio State, Purdue, Illinois, Michigan State, Northwestern, Michigan, even Iowa). Heck, according to both Pomeroy and Sagarin, the ACC has been the best conference, with the Big East, Big Ten and Big Twelve close together for 2nd to 4th.

Technically, if they lose and Minnesota wins, they're still playing for a bye, since Minnesota could still tie them and take the bye with a head-to-head victory. Of course, in that scenario the Bears are already eliminated, so yeah.